Location: Scandinavia
Lost Depth: B+++
Phantasy Tree Prismatic Fortress: Breidablik
Major Factions: Chaldea Security Organization, Kingdom of Ithavoll
The legends of Scandinavia tell of a restoration of the world after the completion of Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods. A glorious epoch led by a brilliant king, who, though once dead, now shines from his throne forevermore. Most modern scholars downplay this part of the mythos as a past historical occurrence, or even dismiss it outright. But on the surface of the bleach-white planet, there exists a fertile ground for this seed of the new creation to grow...
SETTING
The story begins, not with Ragnarok, but at the aftermath of another world-shaking war. Thousands of years after Sefar's rampage, an enterprising youth named Odin discovered the White Titan's remnants strewn all across his domain of Scandinavia. Harvesting what he could, Odin forged the foundations of his power and that of his brethren and children out of the fragments of Sefar's body. Nothing must go to waste, and there remains so much to do before the coming of the doom of the world.
Despite all the preparations of the Norse gods, the grand cataclysm, Ragnarok, caught them off guard with its intensity. Odin fell, as did a great number of his kin, leaving behind only the half-giant Skadi. Thus begins the events of the Ragnarok Lostbelt.
After the felling of the Scandinavian fantasy tree and Scathach-Skadi's defeat, Ragnarok was considered to have been completed. Instead of the gradual deletion of the Lostbelt's information, a new land, no, a new world anchored by a flower-like castle took its place instead.
CONCEPTS
Einherjar
A term for the mortal souls gathered by the great god Odin to fight on Ragnarok. Those who survived the first cataclysm are now counted as citizens of Ithavoll and receive the protection granted by Balder's Mystic Body. They act as the main grunt force in this Lostbelt.
Grimhild Frame
Also known as "Divine Legacy Frames", these gigantic machines are possessed only by the gods of Ithavoll, and are seen as expressions of their power and majesty. They display a terrifying range of offensive and defensive capabilities, many of which are unique to the gods themselves. Holmes theorizes that their manifestation may be a function of the K particles prominent in the Lostbelt, a suspicion that is later confirmed by Ganglari.
Ithavoll
Balder's Reality Marble, and the main setting of the Lostbelt. The "plain of splendor" that appears at the end of Ragnarok as described in the Nordic sagas, it can be viewed as "a texture on a texture" that slowly covers the surface of the frozen Scandinavia. It bestows the protection granted by Balder's Mystic Body to all its inhabitants, making them essentially impervious to all attacks.
K particles
A new type of particle invented by Ganglari, repurposed from scavenged portions of the White Titan's body. Functioning similarly to the Klironomia dispensed by the Olympian gods of a different world, they have a variety of purposes, such as healing wounds, enhancing biological and material structural integrity, etc. Although they are very powerful, usage is restricted to Balder's inner circle, as it is a novel concept introduced after the establishment of Ithavoll, meaning that it is one of the few things currently in the Lostbelt that can harm the King.
CHARACTERS
1. Balder (Ruler)
"You want to talk 'manipulation'? I've been a plaything of the other gods since I was born!"
The sovereign of the Ithavoll Lostbelt. Although originally a pleasant girl who works to please everyone, it seems that her first death and the subsequent events have broken her greatly, rendering her bitter and paralyzed from the waist down. Her resentment at being used by the other gods like a plaything has taken center stage, and her conflicting feelings toward both Hod and Nanna often cloud her judgment.
Ruling Ithavoll with an unrelenting iron grip, she initially dismissive of Chaldea's attempts to enter her territory. However, she becomes increasingly more erratic as Chaldea's continues to prevail against her forces. This desperation reaches fever pitch after Chaldea's takeover of the K particle factory: not only did they steal her Noble Phantasm, Hringhorni, but Ganglari also reports that Hod personally slew Nanna. Outraged, she sends the entire bulk of Ithavoll's forces to chase down Hringhorni in the Scandinavian tundra. When Chaldea reaches her throne room after a grueling series of battles, she immediately accosts them, and blames Hod for Nanna's death. As negotiations between the two break down, Balder uses the K particles she acquired (despite her deathly fear of them) to mount her Grimhild Frame Hlidskjalf.
A fierce battle ensues between the two, but Hod eventually gains the upper hand and mortally wounds Balder. Before she dies, some of Balder's old personality resurfaces, thanking Hod for being the one she didn't need to hide her emotions from. She confesses her feelings to him just before she fades away.
2. "Black-Wing" (Lancer)
"Love doesn't mean you stop hurting the other person. It means owning up to the hurt you give, and becoming better because of it."
In the days before the Ragnarok, there existed among Odin's daughters, the Valkyries, a shadowed entity who would eliminate any war-maiden who strayed from her charge. This entity was called "Svafa". She served her office faithfully at first, even going so far as imprisoning Brynhildr, greatest of the Valkyries. There was just one problem: she fell in love with a human, Prince Helgi of Norway. Odin allowed this random error, and then promptly rebooted the unit when the Helgi died. Now designated "Sigrun", she would again fulfill her duty, until she fell in love again, this time with Helgi, slayer of the Saxon king Hunding. Odin rebooted the unit once more, and "Kara", as the unit was now known, fell in love a third time, this time with Helgi, the lord of the Haddingjar. Realizing this to be a systemic error in the of the unit, Odin shelved the maiden, hoping to one day eliminate the change the system's fate
perceived error in the system
She and the other Valkyries (who Balder thought were unnecessary in Ithavoll) were awakened as a result of Ganglari's machinations. Unlike Uathach-Skadi, Black-Wing readily sympathizes with Chaldea's plight, and agrees to help them halt Ithavoll's advance. While most of Balder's Einherjar are chasing the stolen Hringhorni off in the Scandinavian tundra, she leads the Valkyries in activating her Noble Phantasm, the technique she once used to seal away Brynhildr, restricting entry and egress from the Reality Marble.
3. "Ganglari"
"None can stand between me and the wisdom I seek."
A mysterious figure addressing himself with a title reserved for the great god Odin, who is absent in this Lostbelt. He becomes Chaldea's ally early on, lending his realm-crossing magic to allow them to enter Ithavoll initially, as well as providing them with his store of K particles to help them dodge Ithavoll's security systems during their subsequent visit. He activates the Valkryies stored away in Ithavoll's arsenal and masterminds the plot to cripple Ithavoll's defenses by stealing Hringhorni, the K particle factory's central unit. He flies Hringhorni out of Ithavoll and into the Scandinavian tundra, prompting the kingdom's forces to brave the elements and get it back.
However, the truth is that he was playing both sides of the conflict. He was Balder's prime minister, and at the inauguration of Ithavoll infused her with lethal levels of K particles that warped her personality and left her paralyzed from the waist down. He was the one who murdered Nanna and framed Hod, prompting the King's insanity. He also slaughtered the entirety of the Einherjar force sent to recover the Hringhorni, and sent his assassins Vali and Vidarr to finish off whoever between Hod and Balder was left standing by their duel.
At the end of the story, he arrives at Breidablik to fetch Vali and Vidarr after their mission. They depart for an unknown location on the repurposed Hringhorni, but not before revealing to Chaldea that he is the servant of an Alien God, who permitted the use of Ithavoll as a testing ground for his newly-developed K particles.
4. Hod (Archer)
"I knew she wouldn't choose me, so why did I keep waiting for her?"
The main protagonist of the Lostbelt. Although he is part of the gods who reside in Ithavoll, he chose to leave the Reality Marble for the Scandinavian tundra. Although he and Balder developed feelings for each other due to being mutually isolated by the gods, those feelings couldn't fully blossom because she chose to be with Nanna. Compounded by his role in Balder's first death, it's easy to see why he would rather leave her kingdom.
It is in the desolate wasteland that Chaldea stumbles across him, right after their initial expulsion from Ithavoll. He is initially hesitant to join Chaldea's party, but they are eventually able to win him over. In particular, he forms a strong bond with Chaldea's master, to whom he tells his side of the story of Balder's murder. He participates in the liberation of the newly-activated Valkyries as well as the capture of the K particle factory. He meets Nanna, Balder's husband, in the latter expedition; the latter pleads with Hod to go to Breidablik to confront his wife, who has become increasingly erratic thanks to the influence of her council. This renews Hod's resolve to meet with Balder, and he also unlocks his Grimhild Frame Vigrid using the K particles in the factory. Although he initially goes to Breidablik hoping to calm Balder down, the accusations she levels at him (i.e., killing Nanna) erode this sentiment. They battle in their respective Grimhild Frames, which results in Balder's death. This fully breaks Hod, who has now killed the woman he loves twice. His suffering is cut short by Vali and Vidarr.
5. Magni (Berserker)
"My dad would've wiped the floor with a squirt like you!"
The half-giant son of Thor who survived Ragnarok. Seeking even more to prove himself worthy of his father's name, he kills his brother Modi in a duel over Mjolnir. He later becomes Balder's chief enforcer and Breidablik's castellan, and merges his body with the Bilskirnir Grimhild Frame created from the Klironomia meant for him and his brother. Although he is classed as a Berserker, the madness brought on by Mad Enhancement is curtailed by the use of K particles. He first appears to force Chaldea out of Ithavoll during their initial incursion. At the climax of the story, he fights Uathach-Skadi to stop the Chaldean advance on the Prismatic Fortress, but the duel ends in both their deaths.
6. Nanna (Rider)
"Is this really the path you want to take?"
Balder's mild-mannered husband, he often acts as the voice of reason in the Lostbelt King's court. He is also the chief overseer of the K particle production factory, whose central unit is Hringhorni, Balder's original Noble Phantasm. When Hod and Chaldea take over Hringhorni, they initially allow Nanna to leave in peace, but he is later secretly killed by Ganglari, who uses the incident to persuade Balder to perform an all-out assault against the Chaldeans.
7. Uathach-Skadi (Archer)
"Be thou not mistaken: beneath its shine and glamour, Ithavoll remains a graveyard."
The "other half" of the former King of the Scandinavian Lostbelt. In the early years after the first Ragnarok, Skadi thought it best to store away some of the Authorities she held in order to focus her energies on the arbitration of Scandinavia. She transferred her Authorities of skiing and hunting to Scathach's clone body, Uathach, then promptly kept this new being in cryosleep, only to be woken when Scathach-Skadi could no longer properly administer the Lostbelt.
She was woken some days after Balder killed Scathach-Skadi and established Ithavoll, being a fugitive in the Scandinavian tundra ever since. Although initially hostile to Chaldea during their first encounter (thanks to Scathach-Skadi's defeat at their hands), she grows to accept that defeat, as well as Chaldea's resolve to restore their own world. Using her skills in stealth and mastery of the terrain, she leads the assault on the K particle production factory. There, she uses the K particles to obtains the Grimhild Frame Noatun, which she later uses to duel Magni and allow Chaldea to access Breidablik.
8. Vali and Vidarr (Assassin)
"The target..."
"... Has been neutralized. Fufu!"
Twins who act as Odin's assassins, dealing with threats he finds either too strong or too tedious to contend with, such as Hod during the debacle following Balder's death, and Fenrir, who is said to have devoured the original Odin during Ragnarok. Although they view themselves as "Odin's children", they are actually closer to the mass-produced Valkyries than any of Odin's real progeny.
At the beginning of the events of the Lostbelt, Ganglari reprograms them into becoming his assistants. They infiltrate Balder's court, guiding the King towards the path that Ganglari wants her to take. During the climax of the story, they mount their shared Grimhild Frame Valaskjalf and kill Hod, who is heavily exhausted from fighting Balder. They then depart for an unknown location with Ganglari once he acquires Hringhorni.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Yo. I had this thing brewing in my head for 3-ish years now, and only now had the inspiration/bravery/gall/etc to post it now. I've tried to create as cohesive a story as possible using just these character profiles, but please message me if something is not quite in line with the lore/doesn't make sense/is plain terrible. Thanks for reading!
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Originally Posted by Lambda-Nu
