Ævihregg

=Introduction= Ævihregg is the domain of an absent storm goddess and her many children, who prepare the world for her prophetic battle with the World Devourer. The children of Ævihregg are divided into three strongholds, locked in ideological conflict over the favor of their goddess.

Mechanically, cards from Ævihregg care about playing equipment.

Lore

An ancient prophecy foretold of a great battle between the goddess and Ginnungormr, the World Devourer. In preparation for her bout with the serpent, the Valmodir retreated from the world to rest for millennia, leaving her children to prepare for the final battle. However, disputes broke out over specific details of the prophecy, splintering her children into three strongholds: Askelm, Jotunn, and Draug.

Each stronghold believes in a specific version of the prophecy:

- The Askelm believe that the Valmodir will pierce Ginnungormr's heart with a bolt of lightning. In preparation for the final battle, they raise and cultivate living storms.

- The Jotunn believe that the Valmodir will break Ginnungormr over the Oxfjall Spires. In preparation for the final battle, they sculpt the mountains into auspicious bladed shapes.

- The Draug believe that the Valmodir will lay Ginnungormr low with the Ormsbani, a titanic, legendary weapon. In preparation for the final battle, they forge enormous arms beneath the earth.

- The Forge Heretics believe that the Valmodir will sleep through the final battle, and are therefore despised and denied access to all strongholds.

Prophecy and the Volva

The Volva are the witch-prophets of Ævihregg. In the sagas of the stronghold-dwellers, they were the Valmodir’s first creations, the unloved enforcers of her flippant decrees, with the heads of ravens and the hearts of toads. They dwell in the mountains and the deep swamps, guarding Her Storminess’ most beautiful temples and sucking the marrow from elk bones. They spy on the strongholds through the eyes of their feathered familiars, and can see a man's dying moments in their wintry breath.

Most tales told of the Volva are lies, perhaps fabricated by the Volva themselves, but some are true. They have acquired the power of prophecy from proximity to the Valmodir’s fevered dreamspeech. Despite their ambitions, they remain loyal to Her Storminess out of fear of the Drapvel Prophecy, which describes the strongholds uniting to slay the Valmodir and her coven-born servitors.

The people of Ævihregg are very close to the concepts of destiny and prophecy, and trust the Volva to deliver accurate depictions of the future. These are very rarely disputed, but philosophers find plenty of work investigating the minutiae of these auguries. A “philosopher” can therefore be thought of as more of a lawyer, questioning the Volva and picking through their ramblings for details about the future. There exist philosophers who disbelieve the Volva’s prophecies, but few will espouse similar views under the open sky.

Locations

Issgard: Mountaintop home of the Jotunn (horned giants). A frigid realm of cyclopean construction, ringed in carved menhirs. In ancient times, these served as an alarm system against approaching Ormspawn, alerting warriors to the presence of a titanic foe. Now, these wards warn of Askelmi scouts and Draugi underminers. When intruders approach the fortress wall, avalanche-shamans position themselves at enormous murderholes to cast them back down the mountainside.

Oxfjall Spires: The Jotunn believe this mountain range to be the fated resting place of the Ginnungormr, where the Valmodir will sever the beast’s neck against the jagged rock. As a rite of passage, each Jotunn buries a well-worn weapon in the mountainside blade-side-up, symbolically lending their strength to the Valmodir’s final blow. The mountains are holy, attended to by a sect of cleric-masons who carve massive gravestones and chant burial hymns for the Orm.

Askheim: The capital of the Askelm (storm elf)’s ancestral forest kingdom. At the center of their palatial capital stands the Great Ash, an enormous tree eternally shrouded in dense, dark clouds. The Askelm “farm” these fledgling storms, cultivating them with their weather magicks into powerful breeds of elementals, a practice known as storm husbandry. They are the only people to successfully ride the lightning.

Sturmskar: A deep, lightning-scarred gorge, brimming with fulgurite formations. The Askelm claim this was the sheath wherein the Valmodir laid her favorite weapon, a broadsword of pure lightning. Then, over many centuries of neglect, the sword grew restless and emerged from its sheath to wreak havoc, becoming Wolvaldr the Stormborn Beast. Home to chittering squirrels and ponderous elementals.

Undanborg: A vast, subterranean fortress, home to the Draug (molten dwarves). The City of Dwarves is a stone-hewn, lava-dotted maze built around the tomb of Underlord Draug, the same Draug who founded the City and conceived the dwarven interpretation of the Prophecy. Draug is only sleeping (dwarves are immortal), but any administrative decisions must go through him in the order that they were submitted. On rare occasions, he mumbles “veto” or “approved” in a moment of fitful dreaming, a cause for great celebration among Draugi lawmakers.

Smidasfell: An inauspicious volcanic mountain, within which lies the Ormforge. Here the Draug forge the Ormsbani, the legendary weapon that the Valmodir will wield against Ginnungormr in their final confrontation. The blade is being forged in the central vent, and the hilt emerges from the crater. Construction around the central vent is extremely volatile, and on irregular occasions, lava demons spill forth from the Ormforge.

Tivardys: The sky-bound citadel of the Valmodir. After her departure from the known world, many assumed that she came to rest here. In reality, Tivardys is the tomb of the gods who came before AEvihregg’s reformation. The valkyries live here, training to fight alongside the Valmodir in the final confrontation and defending her empty chamber from those foolish enough to approach.

Dramholt: The misty woods surrounding the Valmodir’s actual resting place. An incessant, ghostly whispering in the wind signals the goddess’s proximity; it is her dream-speech seeping into the realm of the living. The Volva live here, harvesting the Valmodir’s murmurings from the deep fog to distill into prophecy and liquid magick. Animals who live in this forest grow wise drinking from the clear water of the forest, or grow strong devouring its tumescent fruit.

The Icefields: A barren wasteland, inhabited by the Ginnungormr’s cold-blooded offspring. Elementals and giant reptiles live here, sustained only by what strongholders believe to be the Void Serpent’s aspect of emptiness. Despite the inhospitable clime, wild elk and mammoth find their home here, making a tempting meal for hunting parties who would brave the cold, wind, and wurms. According to strongholders, the wastes continue North until the ice gives way to deep chasms, floating bergs, and eventually, the nothingness of infinite space, the un-storied realm where the Ginnungormr was born.

Additional Lore

The Askelm observe Olms, a holiday punctuated by a visit from the Stormborn Beast, who rides the wind and hails lightning upon the stronghold. Locals erect effigies of their hated enemies as targets for the storm and feast alongside their neighbors, making this a holiday of open grudges and new beginnings. There is a wildly disparate time difference between each occurrence of Olms, but the Askelm still set their calendars by it. Sometimes the year is longer than anyone expected; sometimes the year is over in a single lunar cycle.

Beware the Crawling Bear, with its railspike teeth and fishhook claws. It devours the giants of Kalagard and picks its fangs with the elves of Lornlief. In the days before her slumber, the Valmodir plucked its bones from its body until it was little more than an empty skin. She bestowed the fur to Gradion Stoneknuckle, the legendary berserker-king of the age before strongholds, who wore the beast as a cloak. However, even with its strength ripped away, the Crawling Bear’s hatred persisted, and it strangled Gradion on his throne of wolf bone. Beware the Crawling Bear, which feigns lifelessness in the treasure troves of long dead underlords, only to strike down any adventurer unfortunate enough to tread on it.

=Age 1=

Age 1 Cards (7/8): Legendary: Rare: Uncommon: Common:
 * Twinforge
 * Boltaxe Jotunn
 * Tectonic Platemail
 * Teeth of Askelm
 * Siegebreaker Jotunn
 * Weissclaw
 * Ormspawn

=List of all Ævihregg cards=