So You Say You Wanna Norse God Incarnate...

So I was pondering which gods would best fit which characters of mine as Incarnates and, as it so often does, my mind began to wander.

When it came back, having run up my credit card again with lunch in Rio, I was hit with the idea of making a list of the gods and my take on how they would be as an Incarnate focus in City of Heroes. Since there are so many pantheons out there, I decided to start with one of my favorites... The Norse Pantheon!

If you guys got a kick out of this list let me know and I'll move on to other pantheons as well. If you don't like it or there isn't a lot of response, I'll forgo further torture to the Forums and go hide in my Misery Box for a few days.

Since the Norse apparently believed in a LOT of gods, what follows is an abridged list from the plethora of those available.

Andhrimnir: Cook for the gods. While picking him as your Incarnate might not give you too many extra powers, at least you’ll get that Day Job badge for short order cook sewed up quickly.

Audhumla: The primeval cow, formed from the melting ice. Yeah, not kidding. A cow. Strengths: calcium means strong bones and teeth. Pitfalls: unending target of obvious and hideous cow puns.

Balder: Fairest of the gods. Despite being a little light in the loafers, Balder was actually a keen warrior and possessed of near invulnerability. Unfortunately he was killed in action by a blind archer. So…. Invulnerability good… Luck… not so much.

Borghild: Goddess of the evening mist or moon, she slays the sun each evening. She would make a very powerful incarnate under normal circumstances, but in the CoH universe she’s so exhausted after killing the danged sun every 20 minutes that she doesn’t have a lot of strength left for her followers.

Bragi: God of poets and patron of all poets in Norse culture. Oh yeah, and we ALL know how popular and respected poets were among the Vikings. The plus side though is all those who take Bragi as their Incarnate get a bonus to dodging thrown objects.

Eir: Goddess of healing and shamanic healers. While most healing goddesses prefer only Defenders in their ranks, Eir is not one of them. This is likely because she has a typically Viking approach to healing… as in “here drink this keg of ale before I cut off your injured arm with a dull saw.” Scrappers and Brutes are welcome to share in her power so long as they don’t whine too much.

Elli: Goddess of old age. What? Really? Old age. Yeah right, like any Viking ever made it to old age.

Freya: Goddess of love, beauty and sensuality. Archetype doesn’t matter. Alignment doesn’t matter. Freya’s only requirement is that your character have costume covering at most 20% of your body.

Freyr: God of fertility, sun and rain. Freyr is the twin brother of Freya and mixing them up is a baaaaaad idea. He takes being mistaken for his sister personally. Add to that the fact that there are no kids and no weather in CoH and you begin to learn why the Paragon version of Freyr is a surly individual.

Frigg: Wife to Odin and the goddess of marriage. Hmmm… goddess of marriage huh? No wonder her name became a semi-swear word.

Heimdall: God of light and protection. Oh, and he was responsible for guarding the Rainbow Bridge. Guess he must have been asleep at the switch the day Dorothy made it over.

Hel: The goddess of death and ruler of the realm of the dead. Yes, it IS spelled with one less “L” which means you can name you Incarnate in chat and not get censored. BONUS!

Hermod: Messenger of the gods. He is currently unable to be an Incarnate due to legal difficulties. He has been hit with a cease and desist order by the lawyers representing the greek god Hermes until the copyright issues have been hammered out.

Idun: Goddess of the spring, eternal youth and keeper of the golden apples. A word of warning those choosing Idun as their Incarnate; be VERY careful about suggestive innuendos regarding her “golden apples.”

Jord: Goddess of primitive and unpopulated earth. Leave it to the Norse to come up with a goddess of an unpopulated world.

Loki: Trickster god and lord of thieves, magic and fire. In game terms god of griefers, PVP Stalkers and that jerk MasterMind who parks all his robot henchmen in the middle of the toboggan run during the winter event.

Miming: Minor forest god. He is only god over minor forests; so if you see a small grove with only two or three oaks or a lonely pine on a hill… Miming’s in the hood.

Norns: Three goddesses of fate and destiny. So if you got all your debt badges before reaching 20th level, you know who to blame.

Odin: The chief god of the Aesir and most important of the Norse deities. Let’s be straight here, Odin was against this whole Incarnate business in the first place. Lord knows he has enough problems with his OWN kids much less a bunch of adopted super beings running around Midgard. You can pick him if you want to, but be prepared to have a grumpy Incarnate who is heavy into punishment and sending you to bed without supper.

Ran: Goddess of storms and the drowned dead. Ummm… sounds like a conflict of interests if you ask me.

Sif: Wife of Thor and possibly an ancient fertility goddess. Wait… ANCIENT fertility goddess? Wow… those Norse gods aged well, didn’t they?

Sleipner: The eight-legged horse of Odin. Don’t even think about it. The Devs won’t even consider a normal animal skeleton model in CoH, much less an eight legged one.

Sol: Goddess of the sun, who guides the sun chariot through the sky. Ummm… if she guides the sun chariot then wouldn’t she actually be the one in harness to it? Er, if you choose her you don’t necessarily have to tell her I said that.

Syn: Goddess of watchfulness and truth. Wait… the goddess of truth’s name is Syn? Really man.. you just gotta LOVE those Vikings.

Thor: Thunder-god and protector of men and gods. This is your basic warrior-god; not to bright… loves a good fight… would rather be up to his ears in combat than practically anything else… definitely your fight first ask questions later sort of god. That’s right folks, he’s the Scrapper of Asgard.

Ull: God of justice and dueling, archery and skiing. Not a bad choice for a heroic Archery defender, corruptor or blaster. Choosing him gives you Super Jump and Super Speed as inherents, but only on the ski slopes during the winter event. Also, rumor has it Ull is the yodeler you’ll here while there.

Valkyries: The battle-maidens, who choose the best warriors from among the fallen on the battle field to take to the afterlife in Valhalla. In the CoH universe the Valkyries have retired from the battle-maiden bizz; they took the proceeds from their endorsement of the Valkyrie Pack and retired to South Beach.

Vanir: A group of fertility and nature gods. Don’t even bother taking these guys… as a GROUP of fertility gods they are MUCH too busy to be answering any requests for powers or the like.

Var: Goddess of contracts and marriage agreements. You can take her if you like, but please be aware that word on the street has it Manticore has a contract out on her.

Vidar: Son of Odin and the god of silence and vengeance. Yeah… you read that right… the Norse have a god of sulking.

You're misrepresenting Freya

More!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

"You're Thor? I'm tho thore I can barely..."

Case in point I would have to agree with GG on this one, although not for the reasons she presented.

Let's face it... given the general climate conditions in the areas who worshipped the Norse gods, any priest or priestess of Freya who covered only 20% of their body was likely going to die of frost bite or hypothermia between religious observances.

Freya, who was apparently allergic to shirts.

This... was pretty damn funny. I almost wanna request one for the Japanese Pantheon, or make one myself, might take awhile to find some good cracks about them. (Okay, aside from obvious ones like Izanami divorcing Izanagi over him not being into the whole 'necrophilia' thing.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

*laughing*

Another vote for the Japanese pantheon please, although Celtic gods would be nice as well!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

And Zeus slept with way more people than Aphrodite - the "immodest" goddesses are always way less promiscuous than the male gods.