NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

[fearsome hill]

Amazing story thus far. Cant wait for more. Inspired me to write a spell.

Finnish version:


älä rauta verta vuodata
älä minulta sitä tiputa
takoi sinut ilmarinen
sepitteli kaunihisti
miekaksi ja kirveeksi
eikä verta vuodattamaan
vaan miestä auttamahan
miekka oli johtajille
kirves työmiehille
mutta hiisi vei meden eestä
laitto sankoon kalkkivettä
siitäpä sie vihastuit
viilsit paloiksi valasi
miehen verta vuodatit
emäsi ompi ilman impi
raudan äiti ukon lapsi
älä emoasi suututa
suututa ja suruta
älä vuoata ihmisen verta
vaan auta häntä


The English translation:


iron take not my blood
do not make it drip from my body
you were shaped by ilmarinen
smithed and made beautifull by his hands
into sword and axe
not to take mans blood
but to help him
the sword was for the leader
the axe for the craftsman
but the troll stole away the sweet nectar
put the chalk water in the bucket
from that you became angry
and tore up your oaths
mans blood you spilled
your mother is a lady of the sky
the daughter of ukko and the mother of iron
dont make your mother mad
mad and sad
dont spill the blood of man
help him instead

The spell essentially reminds iron that it swore an oath to not draw blood and that its mother would be sad if it drew blood again

 

[Shard]

To be clear, I'm not wildly invested in telling him, I just also don't think it's a problem if we do.

Like, if he decides to go back to Wessex before we do a disclosure we're sure not hunting him down...but if he's around I'd at least like him standing guard outside while we tell people stuff, and if he wants to know about it along with everyone else, I don't think it's that big a deal as long as we get his word to keep it a secret.

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...

Let me just continue the respective Gabriel Quests.

Gabriel Quest Discussion Continuation

So I guess we can shelve the plans to go back to Wessex, lol.

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On one hand, maybe we shouldn't have beelined 4th Decade, on the other hand, we'd have died to that Elephant if we hadn't done so, so well you know. You win some, you lose some.

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Funny story about that.

If you hadn't like, gone berserk and then gotten yourself into a debt to Halla, she would have brought up a planned trading trip to Wessex with her new boat. As it was, it was kind of like. Socially awkward to bring it up. Given you know, the whole debt thing and all.

On the upside, you get to learn about Norse Debts!

They're a big deal.

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Well, at least it's a debt to someone who still considers us a Friend thus isn't likely to Fuck Us Over, like Michael and Thomas 100% would have.

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Halla has to be the chilliest Norsewoman alive to try and talk us down while we were literally trying to kill her.

Like, hell, even Robert would probably have like, lopped our limbs off something.

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Norsemen don't fear death. Or maiming. Can always just stick their limbs back on, or have their body regrown (as you saw with Stigandr and Stigmar).

Social situations though. Man. That's a whole different ballgame.

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Man, that Stigr scene still gets me.

Making a desperate stand against the trollmen to keep the babies alive.

Sword breaks, just stabs it into his arm to keep fighting on anyway.

Then he dies, still killing Trollmen as he goes down.

And then he just gets his entire fucking body regrown like nothing happened.

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I guess when even death is just a slap on the wrist you just care about other things a lot more huh?

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You haven't really seen it come up, but where in Christendom a Dishonor attack would 'just' lower your standing and embarrass you..

..For the Norse an equivalent Dishonor attempt would actually cause your cultivation to regress. Like, no kidding, if someone insulted you, you could actually bring them to court and get them fined or even outlawed depending on how bad the insult was.

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@Republican Clubber

Do we know which gods Halla sacrifices to at her Blot?
And what she sacrifices during those Blots?

When Halla says 'neither of us can afford that price' it makes me wonder if she's, like, making enough sacrifices over time to pay off whatever the metaphysical cost of sharing her secret knowledge with us and her friends/family? Like she needs to make installments to pay for a copyright license of True Norse Cultivation something before Odin will let her share the details or something without being smited.

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Sigurd Fafnirsbane is descended from Odin, so probably not?

Though we don't know how the Norse treat with their gods.

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You don't know to whom she sacrifices her stuff (or what she sacrifices for that matter) to at the Blots, on account of, well, not attending them.

There was that time when the sky was booming madly with thunder and Steinarr screamed at Thor to quieten down so he could sleep and Sterki would stop crying. The weather cleared up after.

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Man, what the fuck, lmao.

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---

The culture clash between Christian Cultivation and Norse Cultivation is pretty funny.

Oh, uhh, if I overflow my reward dice cap, just, idk, put the excess into improving the Runework interpretation/outcome for Aki's horn I guess?

 

[Toboe]

Aki, Sightbeyond

bright cursebreaking battle bird
gone through great ginnungagap
Sight beyond, scrutinized soul
greenwoods riddle, guarded gift

A short poem on Akis travel through ginnungagap.

Spoiler: Notes

cursebreaking	refering to the work he did during the nidthing pole incident
battle bird	raven
Sight beyond -> Sightbeyond	tentative Kenning for Aki, based on the fact that his Seersight allows him to see beyond what normal people can
greenwood	Halla (who was compared to a greenwood Einherjar by the bridge guard)
Hallas riddle	the hint we gave him about true cultivation,

The facts that Aki was dead and Halla did the work, that his soul being scrutinized was Halla looking at it, and the facts of Halla giving him hints to true cultivation are intentionally left vague, so that people who weren't there think of it like a a quest for power, leading through ginnungagap, ending with him being judged worthy and gaining secret knowledge in the form of a riddle.

 

[fearsome hill]

a poem for the reforging of sagaseeker. no clue if it follows skaldic metre:
"
fire hair* works the bellows
cat souled life taker** glows in forge fire
smith limb*** rises as iron drinks ash
glory seeker now sharpens
freyjas tears**** fall upon lighting blade*****
"
* halla
** sagaseeler
*** hammer
**** gold
*****sagaseeker

 

[fearsome hill]

poem about the spar with abjorn



(the attempted) breaking of the bearbreaker

Spoiler: Finnish version

turn 1
tuhkan tytär, karhun poika
taistelevat tantereilla
ilmaan nousee noita neito
maassa seisoo jätti suuri
tulta tulee neidon suusta
sen eessä maan lapsi
palanut mut ei pahastunut
järkyttynyt ompi tuhon tuoja
syöksyessään taivaan tuli
kun jätti ottaa kiinni siitä
asettomana ilmaan nousee
tuhon oma, tulen tytär

turn 2
tuhoa syöksee tulitukka
käveleepi karhun poika

turn 3
tuulena tulee, ukkosena iskee
jätti yrittää ottaa jälleen
keskeytyksen käsiin saa
tulta syöksee taivastuli
eipä poika enää kävele

turn 4
herjaa heittää koukon kuolo
akasta kauniiksi kutsuu
tuulta tulee neidon kädest
tulta sitä seuraapi
kilpi kohtaa tuhon
taistelu lopun

turn 1
daughter of ash, breaker of bear
battle upon ground of war
into air rises witch wife
on earth stands giant's son
fire spews from maidens mouth
blaze claims son of earth
burned yet wounded not
shock takes the mother of destruction
as skyfire rides down
taken she is by giants hands
into the air she goes
without weapon or will

turn 2
death springs from fire hair
movement from giants limb
death takes neither

turn 3
as wind she comes, as lighting she strikes
giant tries taking
gets to stand instead
blaze comes from skyfire
and giant walks no more

turn 4
compliments come from bearbreaker
his maiden the fairest of all
gale comes, strikes as death
bear falls and bear rises
fire soon follows
death takes the giants shield and the fight as well

 

[Shard]

SteinarrQuest: Post-Halla Spar

"Flame-Tending Blade!" Halla screams her voice raw as she pours everything into her final attack — the Finale of this fight.

"The Golden Horn!" you undercut her scream. Miklagard's Golden Chain leaps from your hands stretching from one side of the battle-scarred battleground to the other — far smaller than the real chain, but still quite enough.

Hardened fire meets imperial gold as two cultures clash. White light blankets the field.

You watch, alarmed, as Halla loses consciousness, still in the air and now falling. Instinctively you move, snatching her from the sky before she can meet the ground. Halla is fine. She's fine.

0~0~0

"You did very well, Halla," You say, handing her a water skin of freshly boiled water, "I haven't seen someone else use the Flame-Tending Blade quite as well since..." You trail off. She's so much like father, even the way she wielded the Flame-Tending Blade..

"You know the Flame-Tending Blade?" Halla asked in surprise. What?

You blink. "Well, of course I do! I taught it to you... right?" You frown, running thumb and forefinger across chin and jaw. "I mean, how else would you have learned it?"

"I, uh, I learned it on my own..." Halla trailed away. You. You can't possibly be that bad a teacher, right?

"You... Don't happen to know what the Stoker State is, do you?" You ask with hope in your voice.

"Should I?" Oh gods. By Odin's beard, If Blackhand was here, what would he say? Wait.. does Eric know the Stoker State? What else has he managed to forget to teach? By the gods. You can only hope they were only laughing at you. For Halla to have figured out the Flame-Tending Blade all by herself..

"Honestly," You say, "I'm mortified that you don't know what that is. I'm also deeply impressed with you, even more so than before."

"Uh, thank you?" Halla smiles, though it's more than strained, "but you were talking about the 'Stoker State'?"

You take a deep breath before explaining, all the way from the beginning.

0~0~0

Spoiler: Halla's Character Sheet Summary

[Halla Skyfire]
Endurance: (12/12) | Frenzy: (5/5) (+5 to all Combat Rolls) | Armor Health: (15/17) (+4 to Defense)
Hugr Capacity: 36/36
Orthstirr: (543/543) | Odr: (26)
( ) Frami: 181 | ( ) Virthing: 181 | ( ) Saemd: 181

Hamingja: (17) (0 temporary)
Hamr: (7)
Hugr: (7)
Fylgja: (5)

70 Combat Dice

Martial Styles:
*New* Stoker State (Mastery 1)

Hugareida

Standstill (Rank 4)
Ignition (Rank 5)
Gale (Rank 1)
Sword (Rank 1)
Atgeir (Rank 1)
Campfire (Rank 2)

(Alloys)
Forgefire (Rank 4)
Emberwind (Rank 3)

Twists

Punching Up
Hidden in Rags
Puncture

Muna

First Kiss Under A Falling Tree
Lesson of Fire
The Fight of Your Life... So Far
Vows of Love
Fighting Father Gerrit
The Return of Stigr
Failing Vortex
A Mother's Fear
Determination From Defeat
Whistling Wind
Fire in the Sky
Steinarr's Sword
Meeting Your Grandfather

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First Sten, now Halla too? What's with them having almost triple our Hugr Capacity?

Are we doing something wrong with improving our Hugr Capacity or something?

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Well, we know Halla has an Owl Fylgja, but we also know that 'only' DOUBLES Hugr Capacity, definitely not triples.

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Fylgja 4 evolution for Owl might triple instead of double? It's not the greatest, but she's learning Seidr which we know uses up Hugr capacity fast, so it might be worthwhile for her?

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Halla loves Abjorn so much she has multiple Muna about it, it's adorable.. I wonder what it's like on Abjorn's side of things?

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You should spar with Abjorn if you want to find out!

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Guys, are we just that bad at teaching or something? Halla at least knows about Aspect Stoking to heal, right?

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I just checked the updates with Halla inside them and I don't think we told her, no.

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Oh my gods. We actually left it out. What the fuck. How did we not notice this.

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Honestly it's doubly impressive Halla lasted so long against us with the quality of teaching. T_T

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At least it wasn't like that time when we voted to not tell Halla about Fylgjur. That RNG roll was scary as shit.

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Hey, wait. 'Meeting Your Grandfather'? Just what the hell happened in Halla's Ginnunagagap trip that she's not telling us? What secrets are you hiding, our daughter?

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Oh, did Hallr become an Einheri? That would make a lot of sense, given, Blackhand's, well, everything.

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Maybe she's worried you would charge into Ginnunagagap or something if she told you?

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'Keeping secrets from your loved ones so it doesn't hurt them' is becoming a real annoying theme..

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AN: We love you dad, but by gods are you bad at this teaching thing.

 

[fearsome hill]

small poem about the knight that steinarr killed(top tip: dont write while fighting off a fever. the first version of this got trashed because of that mistake)
christ's iron:

christ's iron, blazes doom
protects his land and squire all
far away, from roughest sea
came a great blaze to the lands of christ
maimed and burned many a peasant
the knight came to stop the blaze
to kill the fire of the norsemans heart
in the blaze was a fire freed
cursed blade meets knights arms
both sides bleed yet knight falters
christs iron, claimed by fire
failed to protect his land
carries on
guards his squire all he can
demands the fire to protect him best he can

 

[Shard]

The Sun Rises*

"Moonless Night I am named,
Mani's great devourer."

"The setting sun you fear,
The night's many terrors."

"Behold then rising sun,
Burning the night with light."

"Skyfire I am called,
The sunlit dawn my herald!"

AN: Anyway somewhat hubristic but might as well get in some writing in to hopefully inspire some of the conversations in the next update. It's in conversational form, of course.

@Imperial Fister

*In reference to the song by the same name from Okami, which features a.. Sun-Wolf.

 

[fearsome hill]

a dare for the dayless dog:

do you dare you dayless dog
dare you eat the light bringer?
the daughter of the freedfire

will your maw ever devour
these heroes of great fortidtude
can your fangs even graze
the iron skin of the bearbreaker
or the fair hide of skylighter

run oh mutt of fenris
run and live a second longer
or stay and die where you stand
your day has come you mutt of fenris
choose your death and do it wisely

(btw are there any good kennings for steinarr other than freedfire)

 

[Toboe]

Steinarr, Hearthfire

valorous varangian
reaped battlefields bounty
reaps botanical bounty
Hearthfires hospitality

Steinarr really deserves a kenning that celebrates the live he lived after he settled.
He has Greenthumb for his farming, he deserves something for being a great father/family man.
Hearthfire keeps the fire theme of Wildfire from his time as a warrior, and fits his domestic side perfectly.