Raiders of Lom

The most powerful group of raiders plaguing the Ymir world. What can a post-apocalyptic (or in our case post-Ragnarotik) world be without bands of criminals commonly referred to as raiders wandering around and hurting people who have the misfortune of still being alive after a terrible calamity.

The Raiders of Lom are from the southern most portion of the land but hold several different ‘chapter houses’ across the Ginnungagap. Loosely tied together by a Creed and the charisma of their now aged leader, Erik “The Lode” Bjor.

The Creed is an ingenious piece of despotic diplomacy that advocates the safety and survival of the common people while brutalizing them to a point of terrified complacency. The more alive the ‘cattle’ are the more the raiders can take from them.

The Creed is not spoken outside of the raiders dens and the common folk are unaware that their lives are precious to their tormentors, and that only adds to the fear and the desperation to work harder and resist less. Many a story is spread about the Raiders of Lom descending upon a town and stealing everything, burning the houses and having their way with the women, but each time a sigh of relief is raised afterwords that ‘miraculously’ no one was killed and the community pitches in and rebuilds in record time.

No one has yet drawn together the corollary of these stories.

As for Erik “The Lode” Bjor, whether he has a deep rooted caring for the people or is simply a tyrannical man with a clever mind, is unknown.

There are seven known chapters of the Raiders of Lom, each comprised of roughly 20 men and women. Their numbers come from external recruitment of bastard children and occasionally bribes and coercion to self styled city protectors.

A curse and a blessing of the Creed leaves many wounded protectors and mercenaries across the land. An undercurrent of law and order may one day bring these people a new hope for confronting the Raiders of Lom, but for the time being it offers a talent pool of warriors to draw upon when numbers sag.

And in a land such as this, everyone has a price, and most of those prices are woefully low.

The Norns

The elusive trio of Norse Fates, commonly referred to as the Norns, are the most difficult faction to understand. Comprised of the three archetypes of past, present, and future that also occur in the Greek Fates, they are represented in this world not as individual beings but as archetypal patterns that repeat through history.

Urd (present), Verdandy (past), and Skuld (future, and  leader of the Skalds) pop up throughout history. Whether they came on the original ship that brought  the Aesir or were always a part of the Earth is a difficult question. Aesir legend from the home world contains mention of three distinct archetypes of this nature, but whether they are in fact the same cannot be proved.

The last reported appearance of the Urd archetype occurred just after Ymir landed. She gave warnings to Odin that his empire would crumble and set off a chain of events in which Odin sought the keys to genetic manipulation to prevent the foretold apocalypse of Ragnarok.

Verdandy later appeared at the height of Aesir power to issue advice to Freyja about certain projects being conducted by Loki that bore a significant threat to human and Aesir life.

Skuld would appear as Ragnarok was coming to a close and was killed before uttering a single word. No witnesses remain of her appearance, but if her words do not exist to be heard, then perhaps the place, manner, and form of her appearance could be clue enough to her intent.

Followers of Loki (Name Pending)

The FL are a group of humans that have been scavenging in Midgaard for the last 50 years looking for scraps of technology from the golden days of the Aesir before Ragnarok.

The harbor the tech they find and utilize it to modify themselves and their dwellings. Dangerous zealots, the FL are high strung technophiles that serve at the altar of chaos. Change and the future are their only goals, its not a question of who gets hurt or how adversely their actions affect the world, it’s only a matter of speed.

The world is going to burn again, and it needs to happen sooner than later.

The FL’s main citadel located near the G.A.R.M. guarded ruins at the base of Yggdrasil were crafted out of one of the largest remaining chunks of Jormangand. The left-over radiation, even 2000 years later, taints and corrupts the land for a mile all around the FL citadel.

Member of FL must serve for a year in the citadel learning the ways of their lost god. As a result they are often hairless and their skin is loose and scaly. Though their bodies rot from the radiation poisoning they are a surprisingly hearty people. It would seem their blind allegiance has given them some internal protection from the poisoning while their outward shells rapidly decay.

Often in patchwork robes of red and black, the FL tend to travel in search groups of three. They kill whoever gets in their way, destroy anything that stands between them and technology and are proud to die for their cause.

A tiered group of priests oversees the FL, assigning duties to the faithful and hording and studying technology as it rolls in.

An unknown figure is at the head of the organization. Rumors abound that he is the true return of Loki himself. But surely, they are merely rumors…