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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Alectai said:
Actually, I suspect that the Horse is actually a distraction intentionally delivered to stir this shit up. I suspect Hasvir had a kenning that was "Stronghoof", and he literally named the horse after his father's kenning in order to create a distraction.

Wait, hang on, what does Horra and Hasvir mean, translated to english? Steinarr's name was done as a kenning as well! And we know the feud started because Hallr butchered Horra's father because he was harassing the Seeress.
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Hasvi means 'laughter', I think, while Horra I'm having a harder time finding but might have to do with snow, or just mean prostitute (or maybe just promiscuous?). Neither have anything to do with horses, at least not that I can find.
 
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Alectai said:
I still want to be Sure, get me those translations people! If we can eliminate any variables, all the better! "This Horse" feels too easy as something to slot inside.
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Why? Its clearly allegorical to represent the farmland itself. Chances are it does double duty as a precision targeted strike against the initial targets children as well. Raising a line of horses specifically to make this tie happen is a great deal of investment as is.
 
TehChron said:
Why? Its clearly allegorical to represent the farmland itself. Chances are it does double duty as a precision targeted strike against the initial targets children as well. Raising a line of horses specifically to make this tie happen is a great deal of investment as is.
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Doesn't have to be a whole line, he might have just sacrificed the worst (or best) of a line he already had. But yeah, I don't think there's a trap there, we got to figure that one out easily only because we brought Aki and he'd seen Stronghoof fight.
 
TehChron said:
Why? Its clearly allegorical to represent the farmland itself. Chances are it does double duty as a precision targeted strike against the initial targets children as well.
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Paranoia mostly, and wanting to be absolutely sure instead of mostly sure.

Okay, review after our decoding.

'Let all the Little-Watchers [Land Spirits] bear witness to Stronghoof's Sireling [A rotting, dead horse]. Let them know no rest till ESONTRIARWOR[Stone-Warrior, a kenning for Steinarr] is driven from the land in mind, body, and soul. May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse than the downy-cheeks of RJUNNTABLS[Burnt Njal--a lawyer and sage who was killed in a fire by a vengeful mob]. Let all who continue learn the pain of Thorthur Skarfr meeting Helgi Droplaugarson. Throd Cormorant, who met Helgi Droplaugrson and promptly got his scrotum pierced by a spear, a horrible way to go]'
 
Alectai said:
Someone want to run translations of Horra and Hasvir, just to be sure? I suspect that's the play, since he's been planning this for a long ass time. Long enough that he could easily muddy the waters by using the horse's name as a decoy or a red herring.
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hóra (Old Norse)
From Proto-Germanic *hōrǭ‎, from Proto-Indo-European *kāro-, *keh₂ro-‎ ("dear, loved").

Noun

hóra (fem.) (genitive singular hóru, nominative plural hórur)
 
Hora is just old norse for whore. Which is kinda funny in retrospect as the big bad of the valley is just named The Whore, and his sons would be Whoresons. Proto-Germanic means before the collapse of The Roman Empire and Proto-Indo-European means before the bronze age collapse. OTL in the viking age it definately meant Whore around this time as both the Proto-Germanic language branch and the Proto-Indo-European language branch would be atleast a mellenia old.
 
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Alectai said:
Someone want to run translations of Horra and Hasvir, just to be sure? I suspect that's the play, since he's been planning this for a long ass time. Long enough that he could easily muddy the waters by using the horse's name as a decoy or a red herring.
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Can't seem to find much for Horra, but Herra basically means Lord according to an online Norse dictionary I found. No luck on Hasvir either (unless we're going Hindi), but the same dictionary gave me Hösvir, which had this to say.

m. a gray wolf, Edda (Gl.): name of a slave, from his dress, Rm.
 
Alectai said:
May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse than the downy-cheeks of RJUNNTABLS[Burnt Njal--a lawyer and sage who was killed in a fire by a vengeful mob].
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I think fire actually is wrong here. It specifies that we suffer as his beardless face did, not as he did, and using fire would be dumb of Horra here, so it likely means something else. Either frostbite or shame or just something other than fire.
 
Alectai said:
Someone want to run translations of Horra and Hasvir, just to be sure? I suspect that's the play, since he's been planning this for a long ass time. Long enough that he could easily muddy the waters by using the horse's name as a decoy or a red herring.
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I can't find any translations for either of those as Norse names, spelled strictly. I did find the nearby Hasvik, which is named for a cleat (the angular piece of metal or hardwood on a dock, which one ties ropes to). Several people have mentioned the nearby Hora, which seems like a coincidence to me.

DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Hasvi means 'laughter', I think, while Horra I'm having a harder time finding but might have to do with snow, or just mean prostitute (or maybe just promiscuous?). Neither have anything to do with horses, at least not that I can find.
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I think you're reading someone who used the separately-derived Hindu-origin Hasvi.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I think fire actually is wrong here. It specifies that we suffer as his beardless face did, not as he did, and using fire would be dumb here, so it means something else. Either frostbite or shame or something.
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Downy still implies having something there. It's be smooth if it was straight up doing a beardless reference.
 
Exmorri said:
I think you're reading someone who used the separately-derived Hindu-origin Hasvi.
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That's possible, yeah.

Alectai said:
Downy still implies having something there. It's be smooth if it was straight up doing a beardless reference.
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He was notably beardless, though. That was a major trait of his. And 'downy cheeked' is often used for people who can't grow a proper beard but are trying anyway, like an adolescent boy.
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
He was notably beardless, though. That was a major trait of his. And 'downy cheeked' is often used for people who can't grow a proper beard but are trying anyway, like an adolescent boy.
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Okay, fair enough. That seems logical, it's an attack on your pride as a man in both angles of the attack. Though the latter angle is bad even for a woman if only because attacks down there are painful no matter who you are, even if it's not literally being 'Unmanned'.

It's kind of funny because this angle of attack is almost inherently countered by just bringing a woman up here to help out with it, though of course, that woman would have to be willing to walk through Troll Country to do it.
 
Based on what Im getting off how this systems been described, then it sounds like the retaliation of the downy-cheeked stuff isn't some kind of elemental attack.

Its more a straight forward curse upon the metaphysical "Face" of what you guys can bring to bear. Whatever that fuel is, to mess up your reputation, as there seems to be ways to impact that through debuffs or whatever.

The actual impalement comes after for those who would continue to fuck around with it.

So its a two stage security system - a warning, and then going full lethal. Or its a description of how the caster's dad got fucked up by the target.
 
Imperial Fister said:
"He didn't give his father's name, but he had a lot of money so Runar let him join. A mistake, turns out, as Stronghoof demolished the competition. Killed three horses before the day was out."
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Could also be about Stronghoof being an accomplished warrior (as far as horses go).

Alectai said:
'Let all the Little-Watchers [Land Spirits] bear witness to Stronghoof's Sireling [A rotting, dead horse]. Let them know no rest till ESONTRIARWOR[Stone-Warrior, a kenning for Steinarr] is driven from the land in mind, body, and soul. May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse than the downy-cheeks of RJUNNTABLS[Burnt Njal--a lawyer and sage who was killed in a fire by a vengeful mob]. Let all who continue learn the pain of Thorthur Skarfr meeting Helgi Droplaugarson. Throd Cormorant, who met Helgi Droplaugrson and promptly got his scrotum pierced by a spear, a horrible way to go]'
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alternative interpretation of symbols said:
'Let all the Little-Watchers [Land Spirits] bear witness to Stronghoof's Sireling [the child of an accomplished warrior (Hallr -> accomplished warrior, Steinarr his child)]. Let them know no rest till ESONTRIARWOR[Stone-Warrior, a kenning for Steinarr] is driven from the land in mind, body, and soul. May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse than the downy-cheeks of RJUNNTABLS[Burnt Njal--a lawyer and sage who was killed in a fire by a vengeful mob][the downy-cheeks of Burnt Njal -> Beardless cheeks -> Shame]. Let all who continue learn the pain of Thorthur Skarfr meeting Helgi Droplaugarson. Throd Cormorant, who met Helgi Droplaugrson and promptly got his scrotum pierced by a spear, a horrible way to go, a demeaning way to go aimed at ... male parts of the body]'
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alternative interpretation said:
'Let all the Land Spirits bear witness to the child of an accomplished warrior (->Steinarr). Let them know no rest till Steinarr is driven from the land in mind, body, and soul. May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse shame than the downy-cheeks of Burnt Njal. Let all who continue learn the pain of being (killed by being) emasculated'
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By the way, when comparing old norse to modern scandinavian languages always trust the icelandic source the most as their language is the closest to old norse.
 
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if we're really stretching, the sire of a really good horse could be Sleipnir, said to be the best of horses, and sleipnir sounds kind of like Gleipnir, the mythological bindings on Fenrir designed to hold until ragnarok, so if this big stretch is true, then we would get something like

'Let all the Little-Watchers [Land Spirits] bear witness to Stronghoof's Sireling [This Binding]. Let them know no rest till ESONTRIARWOR[Stone-Warrior, a kenning for Steinarr] is driven from the land in mind, body, and soul. May any who dare disrupt this righteous act have their face suffer worse than the downy-cheeks of RJUNNTABLS[Burnt Njal--a lawyer and sage who was killed in a fire by a vengeful mob]. Let all who continue learn the pain of Thorthur Skarfr meeting Helgi Droplaugarson. Throd Cormorant, who met Helgi Droplaugrson and promptly got his scrotum pierced by a spear, a horrible way to go]'

which sounds neat, but it is a big stretch to get there
 
People from iceland are also quite proud of their Viking heritage and if asked will talk endlessly about it (seriosly dont ask them) so they keep quite good and reliable records.

Alectai said:
Alright, one spending one reward point for a Hint hurt our reward here?
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No, im saving up mine for the birth.

Also @Imperial Fister I should have three reward dice: 1 for a potential location for asveig and 2 for poetry.

Anyways im going to sleep as im sure Alectai and all the other eggheads has got this one in the bag, im super excited to read the battle it in the morning.
 
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