Skjorheim
I fell in love with the random map I was using to test mods after the latest game update so I am switching over to this new world which I have named Magpie World. I've given up on finding anyone else who wants to play Valheim the way I do, so my partner shut down the server he's been paying for that I basically played on alone.
playstyle
The biggest thing is that I don't fight the bosses, and use craftable boss drop mods instead. I want to reclaim the world and then fight the bosses because I am good at grind and not at combat. That way I can be way OP for them and hopefully not get too frustrated. I play with a lot of mods to make the game more like a Norse settlement building and exploration sim, with just a little extra/different magic. Some of the mods I have just because the game might be balanced, but it isn't realistic that I can't harvest entrails from any large animal with a digestive tract. And there are some mods I think I'll end up seeing if I can make just because they would be more realistic, like a wooden cultivator FFS.
head cannon
Ok, bear with me here. We're going to go on a little journey. You die and are considered by Odin to be one of his greatest warriors so he takes you to a kind of penance world where he has imprisoned his enemies so that you can beat them. Your memories are gone, in fact, everything you know about yourself and your afterlife is what Odin has told you. He's a tricky guy though, how do you know that he is telling the truth? Ok, so you don't, but Odin is all you have. You don't even know who you are. You know Odin wants you here and wants the creatures of the realm brought under his control. Were you a Norse warrior of ye olden days? Here in this world you are, and that's all that can be known. You sleep and wake and don't know what days have passed. Sometimes you find signs that others have been here, using what you have gathered, tending your livestock, cooking you food, and mending your tools. You find tools, food, fields, beds, and tamed animals that aren't yours, but you care for them as if they were all the same, remembering that someone has clearly done the same for you. You build strange things that serve no purpose, whispers of the life you had in a different time. The life you are remembering now revolves around farming, animal husbandry, home defense, cooking, mining, metalworking, and a lot of manual labor.
In fact, the longer that you stay in this strange world of fixed seasons, the more certain you are that more have walked these hills before you than the humans who have left their mark on the world. So many of the other creatures that you meet might once have been much more human than they now appear to be. Having no other choice, you get up every day and try to build yourself a home, fighting for survival and taking what few comforts life allows you.
Villages & Settlements
Rjúpnabú
A modest deer farm located next to a simple deer shrine. This settlement has a little of everything needed for a pastoral life tending deer. Reclaimed and rebuilt by Feltkvinne. The farm is patrolled by tame Greydwarf Shamans and Boars.
Eðlagirðing
A small waypoint where tame necks are bred in a reclaimed ruin. The area is patrolled by tame Greydwarves and Trolls. It also serves as a staging area on the edge of the Black Forest. There are no beds, and a single unimproved workbench inside the ruin. I'm not sure yet if I'll be continuing to develop this location or if my use of it is just temporary.
Nornastaður
A small farming village being reclaimed by Ketilkona as a meeting place for witchs and other magically inclined creatures. This will include a fully improved crystal crafting station and fermenting stations. After the settlement is complete a gate house will be made close by to house portals to locations across the world.
Dádýrakirkja
A planned religious site dedicated to the fertility of the deer, a vital part of life in Skjorheim. There are two stone circles, one of standing stones and the other dedicated to Eikthyr that will be repurposed. They will be connected with a ceremonial walkway and necessary shrinekeeper's and pilgrim's accomodations.
Market City
A large settlement planned for the northern shore of the large lake south of the area where the settlements and village are located. Modeled on the real life Norse city of Heddeby, so it's going to take a really long time to build up the resources needed to start it, let alone complete it. It will have goods from all the villages and settlements, a harbor, and all the goods that have been brought in by boat: ores, leviathan scales, serpent meat, etc. I'm planning an ahistorically large and communal long hall and temples to different gods. And of course a lot of little houses (most of what they've found at Heddeby).
Inhabitants
Valdís
Valdís was the first to arrive in the first world, and she built a small village centered around a small shrine to Mother Death. She carved the fields from the land and tamed the night for those who came later. She mastered the art of crystal magic and gifted those who came after with powerful weapons and armor imbued with the magic of refined crystals. When she disappeared into the void those she had helped began to identify her with Mother Death and to venerate her alongside/as the Goddess. She has been quiet about these practices since her return, but perhaps it is why she has been so scarce. She speaks to no one about the life she lived before her death, but she remembers some of it. She was a member of a large Norse family who never took to the sword and caused her parents great disappointment. Consigned to guarding the sheep while her betters went raiding, she died fighting off a rabid wolf that had come for them. The only weapon she had was a small boot knife she normally used for foraging. She hopes that she saved at least some of the sheep.
Tunglskona
Tunglskona arrived some time later and found the village after seeing the torchlights through the trees while stumbling throught the woods. She remembers very little about her life other than struggling against endless dark water and the overwhelming pain of drowning. She does not like the water and prefers not to board ships, but is very fond of the moon. She is very diligent and crafty and has nurtured many a little sprout into adulthood. She is very fond of Mother Death and often leaves offering and prays to her. She was not allowed to participate in the religion of her people during her life but does not recall why.
Dökkona
A dark haired woman that arrived in teh first world soon after Tunglskona. She is the sort of person who prefers the company of animals over people. She tamed many of the animals that occupied the village in the second world after Valdís disappeared. She is wary of magic and dislikes travelling by portals unless absolutely necessary. Dökkona is happiest when she is alone, preferably foraging in the forest or a picked over crypt. She is more likely to run than fight. All she remembers from her life is a vague feeling of a childhood filled with pain.
Eldkona
Eldkona is not much of a talker, but is great at expressing her feelings through violence. She prefers to spend most of her time out in the forest hunting, mining, and killing anything that gets in her way. She was the last of the women to arrive in the first world, but never appeared in either the second or third worlds. However she was the only member fo the group that ever appeared in the fourth world where she built a settlement to welcome others whether they came or not, as Valdís had taught her. She tamed creatures and recruited wanderers to protect what she had built. She remembers nothing of the life she lived before, but when she dies she thinks she catches a glimpse of it before she wakes again in the realm of the undead where Odin has sent her. When she thinks too hard about it she goes out to kill something.
Ketilkona
The first to arrive after Valdís' disappearance, Ketilkona first set foot in the third world where she was taught by the others to follow their teacher's example. She is dilligent and curious and excelled at magic where the others did or would not. She quickly adapted to running things by herself when the other three disappeared. She expanded their initial village, then sailed to another continent and started a new village with an expansive farm. She recruited wanderers in the world and with their help was able to raid swamp crypts for iron and fight icy dragons at the tops of mountains to harvest silver. Her natural curiousity and necessity led her to become quite adventurous. She remembers the most about her life on earth. She was a kitchen thrall for a large Norse family, preparing food in their long hall crowded with people who had come to have an audience with the Lord and Lady of the house. However, prosperity creates envy. The village was raided. Ketilkona found herself defending the young children of the family with her trusty soup ladle. She held the raiders off long enough tbaf one of the household fyrdmen arrived to save the children. She was mortally wounded in the process and bled out where she fell.
Feltkvinne
The most recent member of the group, and the first to appear in the 4th world. As she's been taught she is reclaiming structures to make comfortable living quarters for others, whoever they may be. Feltkvinne likes to spend her time with plants and doesn't care much for idle conversations. She finds the strange creatures of this purgatory world fascinating, and looks forward to taming the strangest and fiercest of them.
Gods' Service
It's weird to me that in a game where the plot is initiated by a God there aren't any religious aspects. But don't worry, because I have Thoughts. Firstly, build nice temples around all the boss altars. They can all be different or the same, whatever is fun. When you find standing stones that mark a burial (have bones in them), build a campfire there and add wood when you see it's out. You can do the same for other burial areas after they've been cleansed, like ship burials, burial chambers, sunken crypts, etc. Runestones can get appropriate small shrines. Build a chest at a shrine and slowly fill it with offerings. Build a small shrine in your base to earn the blesssings of your chosen divinity. Tasty Mead is my go to offering as soon as I am able to start making it, but you can have fun figuring out what each God or entity would like.