Smote - An Epic Conflict of Little White Blocks

Creation

In the beginning, there was Yin, the spirit of creation, and in that moment, there was also Yang, spirit of destruction. From their union sprang the ten thousand things. Yin created the heavens, and Yang created the earth. Yin created the black of night, and Yang created the stars. Yin created the seas, and Yang answered with dry land. Yin created the winds, and Yang created fire. Together, they created trees and plants and animals of all types. And when they had created many great and wonderful things, they began to populate the nine worlds with beings. Yin created a great intelligence, and Yang gave him physical shape, transforming him into the first elf, eldest of the Vanir, the lords of elven kind. They gave him the power to control the winds and seas. His name was Nord. They gave him a mate, but even the old books do not remember her name, and from them sprang the rest of the Vanir. Chief among them was Freyr, master of fertility, from whom springs the great gift of life possessed by all elves. Where any elf lives, the land is blessed with many plants and animals - a testament to Freyr's powers.

Freyr had a sister whose name was Freyja. Blond, blue eyed, slender and tall, Freyja is said to be the most beautiful of all the Vanir. She presides over the great hall of the Vanir, where she selects half of the fallen in preparation for Ragnarok - the great battle at the end of the worlds. It is said that all who gaze upon Freyr are stricken with her beauty, and will do anything she asks of them without question.

Yin and Yang looked upon the Vanir, and saw they had created children of great beauty. A peaceful people who populated the heavens and the forests of the earth, but it was clear that these were the children of Yin; shepherds of life and creation, but without any mastery of inanimate things. Yang had buried many great treasures in the hills and stones to be found and used by his children, and seeing that the Vanir would never find them, he created a great golem from clay. Yin breathed life into him, and called him Odin - Lord of the Aesir, ruler of Valhalla. The Aesir command the rocks and the earth, and from the earth, they shaped Midgard, the world of men. Odin collects half of all the fallen into a great army of the dead in Valhalla.

The Aesir gave birth to the dwarves, and for a long time, the elves and dwarves worked together to shape Midgard. The dwarves mined many great treasures from the earth, and shared their jewels and metals with the elves, but soon, the dwarves were shaping great fortresses of stone, and felling forests to build cities of lifeless rock and dead wood. The elves worshiped the trees as a source of life and creation, and saw the stone dwellings as an attack. Thus began the great war between the Aesir and the Vanir, the children of Yang vs the children of Yin.

The Jotnar

In the early stages of creation, in the time before time, there was primordial chaos in the void of Yin.  Worlds of living mist began to form and coalesce until there were great mountains of living clay. It is from these mountains of living clay that Yang formed the earth and first living creatures, but somehow, without the conscious direction of either Yin or Yang, the clay began to organize itself into intelligent things. Great elemental giants made from earth, air, wind, fire, smoke, and even wood. In the common speech, the Vanir and Aesir are often called "ancient ones," and frequently possess great powers of creation and destruction, but the Jotnar are known as "the primordial ones," and are sometimes feared even more. The great hill giants of Midgard who sometimes sleep centuries and wake up to find bustling towns built unwittingly on their heads and shoulders are tiny insignificant things next to the power and magnitude of the oldest Jotnar. Most of the jotnar live in their own primordial worlds, but many of the more handsome or lovely jotnar came to Midgard and the heaven realms to intermarry with the Vanir and Aesir. Most of the Jotnar living in Midgard are their half-breed offspring, but it is said that some of the Jotnar in midgard came into the world in the very beginning: they were living in the primordial clay used to form the world before time began, and still, living in the oldest halls at the deepest roots of the ancient mountains, or deep in the hearts of the ancient forests, they can be found.

Prophesy foretells that the flame giants who inhabit the world from which the first spark of life sprang will one day rise up and overthrow the ancients at Ragnarok.

Ancient Treasures

When the Vanir were angered by the Aesir, Loki (a master of mischief) became the subject of great scrutiny. It was suspected that Loki was fueling the fire of anger between the Vanir and the Aesir. At one point, Loki cut the hair of Thor's wife, Sif. She was a queen of great beauty, and loved for her golden hair. It is said that the golden light from her hair shining down from the heavens helped the wheat fields grow and brought abundance to Midgard. As Loki began to feel pressure from the ancient ones, he set out to make amends.

Two great dwarf smiths, Brok and Eitri tried to console the ancient ones with gifts of great value at the request of Loki. The dwarves crafted a beautiful golden headpiece for Sif, along with the flying ship Skith, for Frayr, which could be folded up and tucked into his pocket. The dwarves also made for Freyr a great elemental boar named Gullinburst. The boar has a golden mane that can light the way in the dark. They also made the Hammer of Thor, and the Spear of Odin. Rather than appease the anceint lords, the great gifts became powerful weapons in the escalating conflict. When Odin realized how powerful the gifts had made Freyr, he was determined to build an army that could match the power of Freyr's violent storms and the fury of the great boar, Gullinburst.

The Monsters of Midgard

Odin went to Brok and Eitri and commanded them to make a beast more mighty and fierce than Freyr's boar. The dwarves were unable to complete the task, having put all their power into the creation of the great boar. Odin threatened to strike them down, but he relented when they promised they could bring great monsters into being if Odin could convince Loki to marry the jotnar witch, Angberth. The dwarves promised Odin that their union would unleash beasts more terrible than even the gods could imagine.

Loki did not need much persuasion. He loved to create mischief, and the witch Angberth was a skin-changing Jotnar with the power to take on very beautiful forms. She was eager to bear his children, and she bore him many. Among them, Hel, the mistress of the underworld, Fenrir, father of the wolves, whom prophesy foretells will kill Odin at Ragnarok, and the legendary wyrm, Jormugand.

When Odin realized the terrible power he unleashed upon the world, he vowed to control them. Fenrir he cast far to the east, to the opposite end of the world. He sent Hel to preside over the underworld beneath Yadrasil, the world tree, and he cast the great worm Jormugand into the world sea, where it fed on great whales and grew so large that it now wraps around the world and strikes fear even into the hearts of the ancients.

Jormugand quickly became the torment of Thor, who vowed to kill the great beast. Thor went fishing with the giant Hymir and used the head of his great ox as bait. He cast a great hook into the sea and pulled up Jormugand's massive head, dribbling blood and poison. Before Thor could strike the beast with his hammer, the giant Hymir cut the line, fearing that the beast would be the victor and drag them both down to a watery grave.

Odin banished Angberth to the far east to a forest called Ironwood. The witch is greatly feared and seldom spoken of. When she is spoken of, she is simply called "the old one" or "

". Her children are mostly wolves, but once in a while she sneaks into Valhalla in disguise and seduces the ancients. When she does, she gives birth to great and terrible beasts. Spiders, fire spitting dragons, and jotnar with the bodies of man and the heads of beasts.

In the early days of the Aesir / Vanir war, the dwarves came up with a brilliant plan to weaken the power of the high elves. They created many wonderful and magical things, and gave them as gifts of peace and reconciliation. What the elves didn't know is that they had been tricked. The items were enchanted with dark magic, and the more they were used and loved, the more the hearts of the elves were corrupted with greed and desire for more beautiful trinkets, until nothing was left of their spirits but a deep lust for power and wealth. Because the chief source of material wealth in the old days were the dwarven holds in Orden, the dark elves, as they became known, found themselves allied with them, and frequently (though not always) subjugated to them. What the dwarves didn't count on was that some of the elves that fell under their spell of greed and powerlust were too mighty to be subjugated. Rather than align themselves with the dwarves, they took many dwarven holds by force, and enslaved the dwarves who worked there. Originally the home of the great dwarves who served the ancients and built many beautiful things, parts of Orden are now overtaken by corruption and black magic, teaming with black dwarf and black elf slaves and masters, along with armies of beasts created by the elves (orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and the like), and the dwarves (golems, dragons, elemental beasts, etc...). Still masters of life and procreation, the holds of the dark elves are over-run by brambles, black forests, and all manner of forest-dwelling beasts, including great wolves, panthers, and were creatures of every imagining.

Never satisfied with what they have, the dark elves are always trying to gain a strong foot hold in Midgard, knowing that if they manage to overtake it, they have a shot at gaining control of the treasures of Asgard, stronhold of the Aesir, whom they still regard as enemies.

The great dwarves have crafted all manner of golems, resembling wolves, men, trolls, even dragons. These great stone beasts were given life to defend against the forest beasts unleashed by dark elves, but many were made ferocious and set to guard cities and treasures long ago lost. Now, with nothing to guard, they wander the world searching for their lost treasures, killing anything that gets in their way.

There are ancient forests that primordial beings call home, and few dwarves dare set foot in. In such forests, the trees can grab hold and tear a dwarf to pieces. Plants are living, thinking beings, worshiped and protected by sprites, brownies and elves.

Berthlamoth is a primordial jotnar spider, ancient ancestor of the giant cave spiders that inhabit many of the hills and mountains of Midgard. Berthlamoth was before the world began. She was living in the primordial clay in the time before time when it was scooped up to form the mountains of the middle world.

Berthlamoth's Jewel is a glittery blood red stone the shape of an hourglass, named after the legendary spider. Berthlamoth's jewel is actually a marking made of ground precious stones on the belly of the great beast's abdomen.

Many much smaller, and much less deadly cave spiders eat precious red rubies (when they can find them), or garnets (more commonly) in order to grow a similar marking to protect the softest part of their underbellies. Such beasts are uncommon, and often named after the hulking goliath Berthlamoth. Often the people who name the smaller spiders after Berthlamoth think their Berthlamoth to be The Berthlamoth - unable to imagine a spider larger and more deadly than the beast which plauges them. The real Berthlamoth could swallow an entire town, assuming she could ever crawl out of her cavernous home - but she is much too large to fit out of any cave opening. If she ever escapes into the wide world to reak havok, it will be from a volcanic explosion, and on that day, Midgard will quake in a hailstorm of fire and brimstone to rival the destruction of Ragnarok.

The stones are quite beautiful (though sinister), and rather uncommon in the civilized world, and often attract heroes to search for them anywhere they hear rumor of a brood of large spiders. Often, where there are many such beasts, there is a great hulking mother spider, constantly birthing more demon spawn arachnids while feeding on the kills of her young. It is uncommon to see a Berthlamoth spider unprotected by dozens of her hulking babies, and most consider it a fool's errand to attempt a treasure hunt with her as the target.

The Nine Worlds

is the home of the light elves, and some of the Vanir, including the palace of Freyr.

is the home of the Vanir - the Yin lords who created elven kind.

where the Aesir dwell lies hidden within Midgard. Valhalla is located here. Valhalla is the hall of fallen warriors, selected by the Valkyries to fight for Odin at Ragnarok.

is the wold of mortal beings. It stands between the heavens and the underworld.

is the icy underworld that the frost giants call home.

  is the home of the great dwarves and black elves.

is the realm of the dead, the home of all who die of sickness and old age. It is presided over by Hel, daughter of Loki and ruler of the underworld with dominion over the nine worlds

is the primordial realm of fire, from which the spark of life first sprang before time began. It is the home of the fire giants, ruled by the flame giant, Surt, and his wife, Sinmore.

is the primordial mist realm, from which sprang the ice of first creation before time began. Hel is located within Nifl, surrounded by a great river which even the ancients cannot cross.