u/dotdedo

I’m not sure what to tag this really. But today I was at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit and I saw this plot. There was a large tree several meters away.

I can’t tell if this is roots poking up or if another tree was growing there and chopped down at one point?

We didn’t take an official tour or anything but I took some interesting pictures and we even saw a cat lurking around, in the last photo.

So I only got art of just Stigr. I say both are ocs but Hel is just more so my characterization of her from Norse Mythology and how I think she would be like if she was real in my verse. It's a alt-history setting in the 1300s where basically all religions, not just norse, are 'real' in a sense and their gods/goddess all exist.

Hel can't really interact with the other ocs in my world though just because they're not powerful enough, Stigr is an exception because of his backstory.

Character Profiles

Name: Stígandr, goes by Stigr Laufey

Age: Appears as a human around 45-50 years old. Actual age at least 1,000 (Current year in my world is 1328)

Gender: Male, but technically gender fluid

Pronouns: Any, depends on what form they’re currently showing. (So usually almost always he/them is okay)

Species: Demi-god, centaur (Shapeshifter)

Moral Alignment: Chaotic-evil

Religion: Norse pagan. But also Catholic technically (acting). He’s a terrible example of both religions however.

Factions: Helheim, The Inquisition, Order of St. Ladislaus I (Original Christian faction in my world, basically like crusaders)

Known Languages: Has the ability to speak and understand any.

Description: His true form is a centaur looking creature, his horse side being a black and white speckled horse with his human side being a red headed green eyed man. Kind of similar to an appaloosa even though that breed of horse didn't exist yet.

Backstory: The son of Loki and a human mother. He was originally born in Norway as a centaur-like creature but from a young age realized his shapeshifting abilities, letting him take on any shape he wished. Much like his father, he has a need to both witness and cause chaos, almost as if he feeds off it. When he was a young adult he got in a deal with his half-sister Hel that if he secures souls for her realm she will help him refine his powers and gain more as well. But on the condition that he can’t be the direct cause of anyone’s death and that he is also doomed to live in Helheim after his death. (He is immortal, but still able to die) He has the power to give others powers or magic as well if they make a deal with him for their soul, too, which they will go to the Norse Hel when they die, regardless of their religion. He’s taken on multiple identities and lived in many different kingdoms in the past. His current one he is living as a human Catholic priest named Stigr Laufey who claims to be from the Holy Roman Empire but in Lithuania as he serves the church under Inquisitor Zeno, who is ignorant to Stigr’s true identity. The reason why he is working with the church is simply because he believes they are currently causing the most chaos at the moment, as well as subtly ticking Christians into his deals without them even realizing it.

Powers or Magic: Given more powers than usual demi-gods because of his deal with Hel. He quite literally has the 'Powers of a God' with some limits as long as he can hold up his end of the deal. Shapeshifting, trickster deal maker, ability to grant any wish to others (expect for killing or brining back the dead), can speak/understand any language, can speak to deities to other pantheons (He avoids this when he can though, he's scared of most other Gods), and can access the afterlife (Helheim only)

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Name: Hel

Titles: Queen of Helheim

Species: Goddess

Pantheon: Norse

Description: Left side is a beautiful black haired woman while the right half is ghastly ghoul with white hair. In true size like most divine beings she would normally be nearly as tall of a large building.

Moral Alignment: True Neutral

Backstory: (backstory in timeline of my world, as her full backstory is basically the same from Norse mythology, no need to re-explain it here.)

Ever since the rise of Christianity, and other religions, very few souls have been coming to her realm. She's gone decades even with no new faces coming through her gates. Overtime this had made her quite lonely. Waiting out her days in Helheim, overseeing the same faces and losing more due to Garm's growing appetite. Forgotten by the people and the Aesir she was desperate for a solution. That is when she met Stigr, who came to her asking for the powers of a God himself based on the fact they share the same father.

To be honest, she was quite offended with his audacity but she hid it. She knew of the prophecy that lead her to be Queen of Helheim where Odin saw that Loki's children will bring on Ragnarök and that is why the Aesir had them all chained, they likely didn't see Stigr as a threat and forgot him too because he was half human and not born as power as her other two brothers, but she could see he was going to cause problems if he remained unleashed. So she accepted, but with heavy conditions. He cannot cause anyone's death and he can have the powers of a god if he also makes deals with mortals to ensure souls come to her instead of anywhere else. This way, she can keep close eyes on him and ensure he doesn't cause enough trouble to get the other Gods to just do much worse to him. Since it seems like no one else is going to babysit this brat. Lately she has been getting frustrated with him as he keeps trying to find loop holes around the whole no direct killing clause and finds it quite offensive that he is trying to meddle in her domain of death.

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Plus a bonus because I mentioned him in passing in Hel's profile. Garm is also a figure from Norse mythology who's just a giant hel-hound wolf. (different from Fenrir) He guards the gates of Helheim and in my world he has just started to eat souls in the afterlife if they get too close, as he also is not having much to 'guard against' these days either.

My alt history world set in the 1300s has several different pantheons as all religions 'exist' in some sense and their mythologies are somewhat canon with some creative liberties there.

I made this meme to joke about my explanation why Stigr is mostly ignored by the Aesir even though Odin got a vision that Loki's children will bring upon Ragnarök. The reason is that they didn't really try that hard for Stigr as he's only a half human demi god and before he became a real problem for them anyways, Stigr got himself in a deal with his half-sister Hel in where in that if he tricks more souls into Helheim then he gets god-like powers. However he cannot be the direct cause of anyone's death. The reason why Hel agreed to this deal is because now that Norse believers are far and few, she doesn't have that many souls coming to her realm anymore which is making her lonely honestly.

So in a way, Hel just imprisoned him instead. He regrets this deal now as not only does he want to murder people, he also cannot properly defend himself in a fight. Which he gets into a lot of because of his ragebaiting. He can't just as easily get out of it by murdering anyone anyways, as if he does he'll be instantly dragged into Helheim and be trapped there. Hel doesn't care if they're related, she's strict.

In my alt history world set in the 1300s there was a tyrannical vampire king in Russia. My main group of ocs (some belonging to my gf like Exaara and Leofric) kill him and... welp he has a kid. Leonas who was the most effected by this kings terrible rule just wanted out out right kill him but that was a vastly unpopular decision in the group and he got temporarily kicked out for even suggesting it.

So now the story is about them trying to find a distant family member of his still alive, somewhere, that also won't murder them for basically kidnapping a prince.