Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Norse Realm: Vættir
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7851851" data-attributes="member: 58172"><p>The image of the drekar coheres depictions in Viking Period runestones. The runestones under consideration date to the 1000s.</p><p></p><p>The monster stats conflate various Norse sources, including Níðhǫggr, Fafnir, Jǫrmungandr, the agony of Loki, and the icy venom of Élivágar. Unlike the cultures of other lands who compare snake venom to burning fire, the Norse of the Viking Period compare snake venom to stinging ice-cold water. The drekar ‘dragon’ is an ormr ‘snake’, and is specifically a naðr ‘adder’, albeit a monstrous specimen of this species. Another name for the ‘dragon’ drekar, is a ‘supple snake’ linn·ormr, namely a constrictor snake that wraps around its prey.</p><p></p><p>The snake mostly has watery imagery, being either in water or near water. It moves like water. It wakes from hibernation as the winter ice thaws, and supercooled waters flow from the mountains. There is also some earthy imagery, such as burrows, caves, graves, fields, heather flowers, and ‘grinding’ the roots and the fallen branches of trees. But even these earthier specimens are arguably near water. The drekar here focuses on the watery imagery, especially in light of the venom resembling ice water, and the notable drekar ‘dragonships’ that can ‘slither’ across the ocean.</p><p></p><p>The family of the hero Sigurðr is described as resistant to snake venom, and while nonexplicit in the battle scene, this resistance seems to help Sigurðr survive the venom from Fafnir. For purposes of D&D mechanics, the venom is already complex, with cold, psychic pain, and an incapacitation mechanic. For the sake of simplicity, poison as an additional damage type is ignored, and the mechanics emphasize the vivid aspects of the monstrous venom. Likewise, other D&D dragon breath weapons are versions of snake venom, but also lack reference to actual poison damage.</p><p></p><p>There are various Old Norse texts that describe vættir mysteriously appearing and disappearing. An alfr suddenly physicalizes in the midst of a crowded longhouse and vanishes again, becoming incorporeal. Jǫtnar manifest mysteriously from within heavy mists. A vættir takes the form of a goat that often wanders in, apparently from out of nowhere. An individual jǫtnar who is the sentience of a specific mountain in Norway manifests its mind into the form of a human, then marries a human and has children, travels to Iceland, abandons human life, and instead becomes the mind of a specific glacial capped volcano in Iceland. When called on, the mind of this mountain is able to visit the caller even from a great distance a way. Elsewhere, a shaman communicates with an alfr who is mentally present but that no one can see it except her.</p><p></p><p>A vættir is always the sentience of a specific natural phenomenon. A natural phenomenon can project its mind out of this natural phenomenon, even travel far away from it, to be mentally present elsewhere. Its mind can also manifest physically, and by having taken a form, truly becomes this creature physically. It can revert back into incorporeal mind, even as the sentience of a different natural phenomenon than its original source.</p><p></p><p>The vættir divide into ‘clans’ ættir, large families. Each clan groups together related phenomena. Humans too comprise a clan of vættir, where living human bodies are the natural phenomenon that has sentience. However the minds of dead ancestors have become corpses, and are no longer living human bodies, thus as the sentience of a different kind of natural phenomenon, change from the human clan to a different clan of vættir.</p><p></p><p>Note, grammatically, the names of groups are here in the Norse plural form, but treated in English as if singular or plural, such as one jǫtnar or many jǫtnar.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 7851851, member: 58172"] The image of the drekar coheres depictions in Viking Period runestones. The runestones under consideration date to the 1000s. The monster stats conflate various Norse sources, including Níðhǫggr, Fafnir, Jǫrmungandr, the agony of Loki, and the icy venom of Élivágar. Unlike the cultures of other lands who compare snake venom to burning fire, the Norse of the Viking Period compare snake venom to stinging ice-cold water. The drekar ‘dragon’ is an ormr ‘snake’, and is specifically a naðr ‘adder’, albeit a monstrous specimen of this species. Another name for the ‘dragon’ drekar, is a ‘supple snake’ linn·ormr, namely a constrictor snake that wraps around its prey. The snake mostly has watery imagery, being either in water or near water. It moves like water. It wakes from hibernation as the winter ice thaws, and supercooled waters flow from the mountains. There is also some earthy imagery, such as burrows, caves, graves, fields, heather flowers, and ‘grinding’ the roots and the fallen branches of trees. But even these earthier specimens are arguably near water. The drekar here focuses on the watery imagery, especially in light of the venom resembling ice water, and the notable drekar ‘dragonships’ that can ‘slither’ across the ocean. The family of the hero Sigurðr is described as resistant to snake venom, and while nonexplicit in the battle scene, this resistance seems to help Sigurðr survive the venom from Fafnir. For purposes of D&D mechanics, the venom is already complex, with cold, psychic pain, and an incapacitation mechanic. For the sake of simplicity, poison as an additional damage type is ignored, and the mechanics emphasize the vivid aspects of the monstrous venom. Likewise, other D&D dragon breath weapons are versions of snake venom, but also lack reference to actual poison damage. There are various Old Norse texts that describe vættir mysteriously appearing and disappearing. An alfr suddenly physicalizes in the midst of a crowded longhouse and vanishes again, becoming incorporeal. Jǫtnar manifest mysteriously from within heavy mists. A vættir takes the form of a goat that often wanders in, apparently from out of nowhere. An individual jǫtnar who is the sentience of a specific mountain in Norway manifests its mind into the form of a human, then marries a human and has children, travels to Iceland, abandons human life, and instead becomes the mind of a specific glacial capped volcano in Iceland. When called on, the mind of this mountain is able to visit the caller even from a great distance a way. Elsewhere, a shaman communicates with an alfr who is mentally present but that no one can see it except her. A vættir is always the sentience of a specific natural phenomenon. A natural phenomenon can project its mind out of this natural phenomenon, even travel far away from it, to be mentally present elsewhere. Its mind can also manifest physically, and by having taken a form, truly becomes this creature physically. It can revert back into incorporeal mind, even as the sentience of a different natural phenomenon than its original source. The vættir divide into ‘clans’ ættir, large families. Each clan groups together related phenomena. Humans too comprise a clan of vættir, where living human bodies are the natural phenomenon that has sentience. However the minds of dead ancestors have become corpses, and are no longer living human bodies, thus as the sentience of a different kind of natural phenomenon, change from the human clan to a different clan of vættir. Note, grammatically, the names of groups are here in the Norse plural form, but treated in English as if singular or plural, such as one jǫtnar or many jǫtnar. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Norse Realm: Vættir
Top