In the beginning there was nothing.

 

Chaos swirled above the void and it became the Ginnungap, the rift where chaos fell into void.  One side of the rift was a world of eternal fire, and it was known as Muspelheim.  On the other side was a world of eternal ice, known as Niflheim.  Where the frost and fire touched, it created steam and water.   From this, the first and largest living thing was formed, Ymir, the primeval giant.  

 

After Ymir, the next living thing formed was Auðumbla, the great cosmic cow.  

 

Auðumbla licked the rime-stones on the edge of the Ginnungap.  Eventually she licked them into the shape of a man: the first god, Buri.  Since he did not have Idun’s golden apples to renew his youth, he eventually died of old age, but not before he had a son named Bor. 

Ymir spent his time drinking milk from Auðumbla and sleeping.  While he slept, one half of his body would mate with the other and his dreams would give his offspring shapes.  First, from his armpits, came the Jotunar, the giants, and then his left foot mated with his right and produced dragons called linnorms.  The vargr, the intelligent evil wolves, came from the spittle of his mouth, and his daydreams produced the fylgjur, the fey creatures.  Every time he slept, stranger creatures were formed.   

 

Bor married a frost giantess named Bestla.  They had three sons, Odin (Woden), Hoenir (Vili), and Lodar (Ve).  

 

The brothers saw Ymir kept producing more Jotunar and evil monsters and soon every place would be filled with them.  They went to Ymir and told him to stop producing monsters.  Ymir instead attacked the brothers and they killed him after a great battle.  The deluge of blood from Ymir drowned all the Jotunar but two.  Those two eventually washed atop a mountain in Jotunheim and repopulated the Jotunar race and fashioned servants for themselves called trolls, goblins, orcs, and other races.    

 

The brothers dragged Ymir to Ginnungap and used his body to create the universe.  

His bones became mountains. 

His teeth became rocks. 

His blood became oceans.

His skin became the land. 

His brains became clouds.

His hair became trees.

 

The worms that ate Ymir’s dead flesh were transformed into the dvergar who began the dwarves.  They found homes in the cracks under the ground and eventually in Nidavellir.  The brothers had four of the dwarves hoist up Ymir’s skull on ropes to create the sky.  

 

The brothers caught the sparks from Muspelheim and set them in the sky to be stars.

 

Odin found two young beautiful giants, Sol and Mani, who were friendly.  The three brothers made them two great chariots, one gold and one silver.  They instructed them to fly in the sky and became the sun and the moon.  Unfortunately, two of the vargr, Soll and Hati, saw them and became jealous.  They forever chase them in the sky, one after the other in an endless cycle.    

 

Into the world came the rain, the sun, the wind, and the soil.  It caused the ice to crack and melt, and great chunks flew off to become other worlds.  In the end, there were nine worlds.  

 

Odin took his staff and planted it.  It quickly grew into a mighty oak that became so large, its roots touched all the worlds.  This is Yggdrasil, the great tree of creation. 

 

On the world of Vanaheim, the first of the Vanir were shaped by nature.  They in turn made likenesses to be as beautiful as the night and day and bade them to watch over nature.  These became the light elves and the dark elves and then went to live on Alfheim and Svartalvheim.

Those fylgjur who walked out of the mists, were called svirfneblin, “mistwalker,” and were ancestors of the gnomes.  

 

When the brothers walked through what they had created, they came to an ash tree beside an elm tree.  Ve gave them shapes like the Aesir.  Vili granted them emotions and wills of their own.  Odin went to the trees and breathed life into them.  They were given the names Ask and Embla, the first humans.  

 

The humans that sought to join with the spirits of fylgjur became smaller but luckier.  They were the hamingja, also called the lucky ones, and became the ancestors of all halflings.  

 

The brothers left Midgard and ascended to Asgard via Bifrost, the rainbow bridge.  

 

Thus, the universe was made. 

 

Cosmology as seen by the Norheimers

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Gods & Demigods

Norse gods are split into different races.  The Aesir and Vanir once fought a bloody war before finally signing a peace treaty that included the exchanging of hostages for inter-marrying (a common Norse practice to keep the peace after a war).  The Aesir-Vanir are practically on the same side now. 

 

The Jotunar (plural of Jotun) are their primary adversaries.  A prophecy from Frigg foretells the final battle between Jotuns and the Aesir-Vanir called Ragnarök, after which the world will be destroyed but reborn into a new form.  Strangely, for enemies, they can be cordial, even helpful to each other.  Thor has been known to visit Aegir to drink a flagon of mead from time to time.  Loki became Odin's blood brother and occasionally helped them against other Jotunar (even though he still betrays them before Ragnarök).

 

Dragons are also typically villains in Norse mythology, but not always.  They are also used in heraldry to symbolize positive ideals.  So, taking those ideals and the names of some dragons mentioned but not described, I made some dragon deities good. 

 

Dwarves appear quite frequently in Norse myths as both antagonists and allies.  Strictly speaking, in mythology, they were indistinguishable from dark elves, but for game terms, I kept them as a separate race.

 

Wolves are also featured as villains and occasional allies.  Everything from Fenris, the enormous wolf destined to devour the world, to normal size wolves with malevolent intelligence.  Use the Awaken spell template on an ordinary wolf and add class levels for some interesting bad guys.  You can also add class levels to worgs and winter wolves.  

 

Unlike other RPG pantheons, a character's race is a poor indicator of which god he worships.  For example, an elf is just as likely to follow Odin as he is to follow Freyr and many dwarves revere Tyr. 

 

Also, characters can choose to worship the pantheon as a whole.  Clerics who do so lose the favored weapon but can choose any two domains.  

 

Aesir Deities

The Aesir deities have human appearance and traits.  After the Aesir-Vanir War, they inter-married with the Vanir and mostly cooperate with each other.

 

Vanir Deities

The Vanir deities have elven appearance and traits.  After the Aesir-Vanir War, they intermarried with the Aesir and mostly cooperate with each other.   

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Jotun Deities

The Jotun deities have giant appearance and traits.  Jotunar can change between Medium size and their normal giant size at will as a swift action.