Ymir
Norse
Scandinavia (Icelandic myth)
Deity (Primordial Giant)
Territorial
AffinitiesIce, Frost, Sea
Lore
Ymir is a Deity (Primordial Giant) of the first cold, felt more as a change in the land than as a single beast. Smell: the sharp, metallic tang of old ice and distant sea-salt, as if wind passed over ancient coastlines. Sound: a slow, hollow creak like a glacier shifting, punctuated by low, cavernous rumblings that settle the bones of the hills. Temperature: an inexorable, biting cold that steals warmth from skin and steals color from the world — not merely cold air but a pressure that makes breath smoke and time behave more slowly. Field notes: his traces show as white rime that never wholly melts, stones rimed in frost even under summer sun, and hollows where the snow lies deeper and older than memory.
Origin: Norse • Scandinavia (Icelandic myth)
Classification: Deity (Primordial Giant)
Field Notes
Observations
- Rings of persistent frost and rime on stones and lichen that refuse to thaw, accompanied by a distant, low creak like shifting ice.
Encounter Advice
- taboo: Do not haul away great chunks of glacial stone, strip the land of its frozen vestiges, or carve his name into living wood. Disturbing his ancient places for treasure or sport is said to unbalance the weather and invite a harsh, lingering winter.
- reverence: Respect is shown in quiet rites at dawn: place offerings on a flat, frost-polished stone, speak his name softly in the old tongue, and hold silence until the wind answers. Runes are carved into rock near the site rather than into flesh or living trees; songs for the cold are hummed until breath fogs the air and then left unbroken.
- offering: A shallow bowl of clear spring water, a length of white cloth folded thrice, and a simple song hummed until one’s breath mists the air are traditional gestures that acknowledge his presence.
Abilities
- Corpse-World ShapingYmir can transform his flesh and bones into permanent aspects of a world—earth, mountains, seas and sky—instantly reshaping the battlefield into living geography.
- Ginnungagap FrostHe exhales the primordial venom-ice born from Ginnungagap, freezing life and corrupting creation in a spreading field of frost and poison.
- Sweat-BirthFrom his sweating flesh or droplets of his body he spawns lesser jötnar and monstrous kin that rise to serve him.
- Blood-FloodYmir can rupture himself to unleash a cataclysmic deluge of his blood that drowns landscapes and alters coastlines.
Weaknesses
- Aesir-SunderCoordinated strikes by the Æsir—particularly weapons forged by the dwarves and wielded together—can fell or mortally wound him.
- Muspelheim HeatSustained fire or the heat of Muspelheim melts his frost-essence and rapidly consumes his living mass.
- Creative ParadoxEvery act of world-shaping fixes parts of him into the landscape, permanently reducing his available living body to draw power from.
Lore Check: YmirQuestion 1/15