Forums » Looking for RP » Niu Heimar - A Viking Saga (closed)

Niu Heimar - A Viking Saga

Click the link above to join.

Niu Heimar is the Old Norse term for the "Nine Worlds" of viking cosmology. The main RP takes place in Midgard, the Old Norse word for "Middle Earth" corresponding to the world of humans. This story is based on historical events but also with a hint of surrealism and mythology. It takes place between 500ce and 1100ce during the Viking Age.

This story is well-organized with a storyline, timeline, many helpful guides and resources, but also with enough openness and freeplay to allow originality and creativity during the game. Paragraph structure is encouraged along with character sheets and descriptive profiles. This is a group membership RP, so you'll have to join in order to see all the options and forums.

Currently on the job, but I'll take part if you'll have me, I will look in to creating a character sheet once I have a good look over the forums

Of course!!

You and the team are more than welcome to join if you want. The RP hasn't started yet. I'm waiting until we have a good sized group. But this RP is less magic-oriented than the Mythardian role-play, but with a similar layout which I'm sure you will find familiar. This one is more based on historical people, places and events. But still an original fiction, plus most of the info has already been provided beforehand so you don't have to be a history scholar to join. I think it will be fun as long as we get the right kind of people involved.

For sure I'm all for making a new character, I have been meaning to join on a few more rps, I'm settling in on the idea of Ireland, managed to go with a Gaelic first name, is the idea to make characters who are descendants?

If you click on the link in my original post above, and then go to the Characters section, it should be public. If not let me know.

Deirdre O'Aedan is Gaelic, her name means to be sorrowful, afraid, broken, or enraged. Deirdre comes from the House of Aedan, and hails from a long line of vikings descended from the House of Ingvar, who are themselves descendants of Wodan.

Character approved. 😎☺

thats helpful, I was getting a bit stumped on how to start off my background for the character, I am by no means history scholar though I know slight irish/celtic culture

Mind if I join?

Niu Heimar - A Viking Saga

Click on the link above to join.

Interesting

Might join with a warrior

All are welcomed. It doesn't matter if your character is a male, female, straight, gay, or whatever. Some previous knowledge and education about Old Norse culture may help considerably. But not to fret, as I happen to be an expert on the subject. If you have any questions or concerns, just ask me. I will try my best to help you. Again though let me stress that this is a semi-historical RPG so it is very Norse-oriented. I will not sugarcoat the significance and strictness of Norse culture. Contrary to popular belief, the Vikings were not lawless savages. Vikings did practice law, and there was a very strict social structure within Viking society. This sort of "thing" may become part of the overall storyline for this game.

To elaborate on the law of viking culture and society, first let me say that dueling always trumps the law in any situation. Fights to the death are not uncommon in viking society, and in fact there are even rules for dueling. Dueling is called holmgang. Combatants must agree to a time and place for the holmgang. It must be one-vs-one. Both combatants are allowed two shields. After both shields are broken, there can be no more shields. They may choose any weapon from the rack. After all the weapons are gone, there can be no more weapons. The loser must decide to go to Valhalla and face death with honor, or be marked as a coward and banished to the gates of Niflheim. The victor wins his or her case by default. Although it is not law, it is common courtesy among vikings to recompensate money to the victim's family to prevent any vendetta or revenge killings after the holmgang.

Any number of names and insults or accusations could be cause for justification and could lead to a holmgang. Insulting someone's manliness is punishable by death, unless you can bring witnesses to the Althing, a sort of law-rock where vikings gather once a summer to settle cases and disputes. Physical evidence is always encouraged, but eye-witness testimony will also work. The accused is automatically expected to call his accuser a liar and to defend his honor, even if he is guilty. If found innocent, the accuser may be required to pay a heavy price for lying, and will be expected to pay the accused with money. If found guilty, the accused will most certainly either be banished and exiled, or put to death. The one who is to be executed may choose in which manner he wishes to be executed. There can be no more revenge killings after this, for at least three days.

Cowardice is shunned in viking society. Unmanliness will get you killed very quickly. Even viking women are expected to be strong. Although it was not very common in the Viking Age, there have been some women who became shield-maidens and Earls in rare instances. Homosexuality is not shunned as much as in other cultures, but viking law demands courage and dominance. Any submissive behavior in viking society is reason for anyone, especially male characters, to be put to death. There are three, maybe four basic social classes in the viking heirarchy. Konungs (kings) or Godi (cheiftains), Jarls (earls or princes), Karls (free-people, lords), and Thralls (slaves). Slaves have no rights and the law actually gives more rights to animals and livestock. To kill someone's livestock, you must pay the price. But to kill a slave is not punishable and most viking villagers wouldn't care as much. Raping and pillaging is okay in viking society. However, it is forbidden to rape a free-woman or the wife of another man. To do so is punishable by death. Women have more rights and freedoms in viking culture. If a woman divorced a man, she could seize all his property legally if she wanted to. Divorce was shunned in viking society, and a man who can not please his wife was often considered less of a man. Shame is not something you want in this game. Honor, pride and courage are good signs that your character will survive and progress. It may even be the difference between playing a minor role or a major character who has a great destiny.

Most other laws and penalties are pretty simple, and can be settled monetarily using gold or silver. Vikings were actually a lot more civil in later times and more willing to be lawful and law-biding than Western Christian scholars originally believed. But again, dueling always trumps the law in any case so fighting occurred regularly throughout most of the Viking Age.

so Deidre is free to avoid marrying the men

If she is a free woman, then yes. Interestingly, this same law does not generally apply to free men, but it can lol. A man may be required at some point in his life to sleep with a woman, and to produce at least one offspring. This usually happens at the moment of manhood, but it can happen any time. In general, it is not a regular custom for men or women to be single. In those days, being single was undesirable. They were hard times, so people wanted offspring to carry on their legacies. It's a very superstitious time period, when people could be seen to be ghosts or witches. Turning down marriage proposals or sexual affairs with someone was sometimes a quite regular occurrence in viking society. A woman might demand that her suitor have a certain quality, or do some heroic and otherwise stupid deed before she will marry him. A man might say that he is not ready yet, though this is less common. But it is very rare for vikings to remain single for all their lives. At one point it may have even been mandatory law for all men and women to provide at least one offspring at some point and time in the distant past. Slaves have no rights so I already mentioned that. Interestingly, vikings could be either monogamous or polygamous. They sometimes had many wives, or many concubines. Women could only have one husband, but many lovers. Consensual sex between open partners was not uncommon in some places. This sometimes included having sexual orgies, either with the couple's slaves, or with the couple's home guest. So, yeah, the Vikings had some pretty strange laws lol. Unrelated but also a strange law they had was around Christmas time, when it was mandatory for everyone to be a certain level of drunk.

Vikings didn't really distinguish between humans and God's as well as one might hope. Nordic folks never knew if the guest to their doors was either Odin or Loki in disguise.

idealy its not forever just more so still young and thinking the moment she says yes thats it all freedom gone her life is now owned by this man an her days will be cooking sewing and carrying snot nosed babies. I know particularly with Celtic culture for the time period that was a thing, though that might be more along the christian or pagan style then viking

That's more Christianity than Norse paganism. A free-woman enters womanhood when she has her first menstral cycle. Single women often would let their hair down and decorate it with elaborate braid-work. Married women normally cover their hair or keep it in a bun. Men are often judged by the length and cleanliness of their beards. Women are likewise judged by the beauty of their hairstyle. A woman who can not braid is no woman at all, so to speak. A shield-maiden is a woman who presents herself as more dominant, taking a more manly role as a warrior and thus she had the same rights as all men, and the same behavior. Young girls were not free to marry, and actually could be handed over by their fathers like in other cultures. But it was also the man's job to please his wife, and if he could not please her, she could divorce him and take his estate. In fact she could legally kill him under the right circumstances. If she has a habit of divorcing or killing her husbands, she could be brought to court at the Althing, and if found guilty they normally would drowned her in the river.

Strangely it is not uncommon for viking families to live together for a long time, even in adulthood. Norse families lived in longhouses which accommodated their whole family, their slaves and their pets. There was little difference in where they lived, ate and slept. Kings and slaves both ate the same meats and potatoes, and slept on similar bedding, although the King might have better quality bedding. But fashion was different in viking cultures. They were very plain and simple, kings looking not much different from normal people apart from their crowns or rings. They were more social structured and family oriented, self-governed with cultural taboos rather than strict law systems. But women in general had more freedom and power in Norse cultures than in Christian culture. The woman often chose her husband rather than the other way around.

Family-wise, the Vikings were farmers. All men and women were expected to work the farm. Women would have to take over the farm, raise the children AND protect their house from raiders while their husbands were 'viking,' meaning they were on a sea-faring raid. With no men around, Norse women were tough chicks. Shield maidens were even tougher, for they would go viking with the men.

A little more helpful info:


Winningas or cloth-wrap socks, wrapping soft leather boots to linen trousers with long linen shirt and wool cloak. Belt with pouch. Hip sheath for small seax. Rear sheath for longseax and bearded throwing axe. Wool hat.

First put on padded leather quilted gambeson. Then put on riveted ring-mail tunic. Then put on lamellar vest, shoulders and hip armour. Then leather vambraces on forearms. Mail-mits or chainmail gloves. Upper armbands. Then put on Vendel-style full nasal-guard helmet with its attached chainmail face cover. Then grab round shield and sword, or winged hewing spear. Don't forget the necklace charm of the war god Thor's hammer Mjollnir.

Viking men were 5'5-6'0ft on average. Viking women were 5'0-5'5ft on average. Some had vinework and treework tattoos or body dyes made of woad. Ruddy skintone. Each man has a sword, an axe and a knife. Muscular strong robust bodies. Men and women had similar facial features with masculine brow-ridges and feminine cheeks. Northern Scandinavia had blonde hair blue eyes. Southern Scandinavia had red hair green eyes. Brown and black hair was less common but did exist. Often had long braided hair and beards. Often had a reversed mullet hairstyle with man-braids. Vikings had many hair colors, hair styles, beards and no beards. Both men and women sometimes wore makeup. Had combs, scissors, tweezers, soap and hygiene kits. Were mostly plague-free and did not have diseases. Would bathe every Saturday ritually. Men in the Viking Age lived average 50-years, women an average of 30-years due to the risk of childbirth. Clothing colors were typically red, blue, brown, yellow and grayish-green or winter-grey. Children had high mortality rates and were not sheltered from farmlife. Vikings often wore thick furs, snow caps and winter coats. Some smoked pipes. Almost all vikings drank mead. Some played music. Some were poets or rune-makers. Some were craftsmen. Most were farmers and warriors.

Women had more freedoms and were often responsible for the household. Women were still considered inferior to men though and were not entitled to an inheritance of property. Most possessions were handed over from father to eldest son. However the women were an absolute asset to vikings society. Women were expected to know medicine, sewing, braiding, weaving, and tending the harvest, raising children and caring for elderly. Women live with their families until they are married. A strong woman could cast a shadow over her husband which effects his status but not her own. Some women went on viking raids and became earls or queens in viking society. Sometimes women had freedom of speech, though never at the althing for they could not participate in law. But they could refuse to marry someone. It wasn't always up to their fathers. Boys and girls generally reach adulthood at 15-years-old. Most are after 50-years considered too old to fight. But not always.

The favorite weapon was the combined sword and shield, but these were expensive weapons for richer vikings. The most famous weapon is the long two-handed poleaxe and the spear or javelin, or also the bow and arrow. Silver shillings were 25-cent pieces and vikings sometimes valued silver more than gold. Seidr magic was usually practiced by elders, especially women priestesses and fortune tellers who used bones and runes. Horses, boars, wolves, bears and ravens are all sacred animals to the Norsemen and their gods. In fact they had different pens and stables where horses and pigs were kept to distinguish sacrificial blot animals with animals they rode or kept as pets. Sometimes animals would be given elaborate burials with gravegoods.

Viking pasttimes include war games, board games like chess, wrestling, fishing, horse fighting, dog hunts, bee keeping and wood carving or tool making and stringed instruments, bells or chimes and poetry or dance, storytelling and singing. Homosexuality and anything unmasculine was typically shunned by viking society as taboo. But slaves had no legal rights so a freeman could technically rape a male slave and as long as he stays dominant, his honor will be intact.

takes notes

Vikings had a personal religion with a loose pantheon of male and female deities. Most important of these are the Aesir war-gods associated with agriculture and the Vanir hunting-gods associated with fertility. The oldest Norse deities are probably the god Freyr and his twin sister Freyja, who represent an older cult. Later on they adopted a Trinity involving the brothers Odin, Vili and Ve, and later they would adopt Odin (aka Wodan) as their primary Alfather or King of the gods. Later on they would readopt the notion of a Trinity but this time with Odin as the god of gods flanked by Thor and Frey (aka Ingvi-Freyr), in this case with Odin adopting Freyr as his son. Frigg was another important goddess, who was Odin's queen, and mother of Frey and Freyja after the Aesir-Vanir war. Their other sons included Tyr, Baldr, and in this particular story, the 21 sons of Odin who founded the settlements (look on the Group page in the Locations section).

Norse pagan people's would often have household wooden idols or figurines, totems or necklace charms depicting they're personal or preferred deity. All vikings worshipped Odin and Frigg, but most vikings also had their own secondary or ancestral deity like Thor, Baldr, Freyr, Tyr, Freyja, etc. Not many people worshipped Loki, the trickster or deceiver who was actually only half a god, being also half-giant and the main enemy of the gods. Loki was often associated as the husband or son of Hel, the goddess of death.

Vikings had two kinds of viking funerals. Brave lords and warriors would be buried in raised earth mounds with all their treasures. This includes gold and treasure, bowls of food, jugs of mead, their weapons, their slaves, even their pets. It was not uncommon for women to choose to be sacrificed and buried with their husbands by choice. The more wealthy lords and cheiftains would often be given a longship funeral, where the Vikings placed them on a pyre which they set aflame and pushed the burning longship out to sea. Such longship funeral ceremonies were often more elaborate, and were followed not by tears and mourning, but by dance, ritual, partying and celebration.

This is because the Vikings believed in many different halls which one could go to in the afterlife. Women often looked forward to Freyja's hall in Asgard, where all the shield-maidens went. Freyja herself was queen of the Valkyries and it was said that she claimed half of those who had been slain in battle. The other half went to Odin's hall called Valhalla, where there would be no shortage of pleasure. Here the Vikings would join the ranks of the Einherjar or heroic dead. They would feast on never-ending food and drink from never-ending wine. The Einherjar could still have sexual relationships with the Valkyries even in the afterlife. Every morning the Vikings in Valhalla would eat, drink, dance and be merry. Every night they would go to battle and kill one another. But the next morning they would rise and do it all over again, for they were now immortal. The gods do this to prepare for Ragnarok, the end of days in Old Norse mythology when they must battle Loki and the children of Hel.