Ragnarok Conspiracy is a mythpunk novel. Meaning amongst other things that it is inspired by mythology, in our case by nordic mythology. While “inspired by”, the lore and world building of Ragnarok Conspiracy takes a lot of creative liberty in making the nordic mythology fit in a postmodern setting bordering on science fiction.
The first of the species from Ragnarok Conspiracies is a species that in the book first shows up in part-V of the book, in chapter 33 where Wietse steals the Hubble Telescope from a ESA museum in the Netherlands and uses it to find out what in the Perseus cluster of galaxies had been affecting his portal technology.
We will look at astrology and portal technology in later sections. For now we will look at the Jötnar as a species, or rather as a family of species, and about their society and culture. There will be many more things to say about the Jötnar and their history later on when we discuss the history of the universe and the hidden history of the earth, and even later when we look at some specific parts of Jötnar biology.
Looking at nordic mythology, the subject of the Jötnar is quite an involved one. Looking into the subject, it is clear that the Jötnar and their place in mythology has shifted over the centuries, and up to a point is still shifting. Modern paganism includes interpretations that aim to undo part of the earlier shifts, but it is unclear if such a thing is even possible. What is clear is that from mythology, the role and even the nature of the Jötnar is quite diverse, and it is speculated that the Jötnar might have started out as gods that were the personification of primal forces. There are texts and even family trees of the nordic gods, the Æsir and the Vanir, showing the Jötnar arent in any way either the eternal enemies of the gods, or somehow lesser beings, like us humans. In mythology the Jötnar come in many shapes and forms. Ice giants like their typical depiction in pop culture, a representation I’m dominantly using in Ragnarok Conspiracy, but also much more delicate and subtle forms, including shape shifters. In modern paganism, the idea of the Jötnar as primal forces, deities of a kind has taken some shape. One important aspect I learned from pagan friends is that the gender of the most powerful primal forces is often female.
It is important to note that the Jötnar in my novel have been the part of my world building I had to cut down in terms of exposure to a bare minimum due to the complexity of this part of the world building and the tension between a more elaborate Jötnar culture and the pop culture depiction of the Jötnar as mindless ice giants. The book shows the mindless ice-giants (the middle castes of the Jötnar culture) and hints at the vastness and complexity of the intergalactic Jötnar empire, though , to avoid confusing the reader too much with things like human sized shapeshifters (that I cut out of the book for that reason).
The Jötnar, like in much of mythology, come from a world named Jötunheimr. In our lore Jötunheimr is a planet in the Perseus-A galaxy, a galaxy 250 million light years from us, also known as NGC 1275. When we discuss the history of the universe, we will see that and how the Jötnar spread to many other worlds in many other galaxies, including at one point in history, ours.
While the Jötnar originate from a single ancestor species, the two and a half million years old dominating culture in Jötnar society has effectively split up the biology of the Jötnar into a dozen subspecies that aligns with a military caste system. The top two castes, castes that are not encountered in the book, can basically be thought of as the royal caste of princes and völvas, and the caste of generals. Jötnar in our lore is a matriarchal society. In the higher castes, völvas and generals rule.
Common denominators
While the Jötnar come in many sizes and shapes, there are commonalities between all classes of Jötnar. We will get into some of the biological aspects in the chapters about biology later on, but for now we need to talk about appearance.
In short, the Jötnar are white, actually white, like snow. Most of them are covered in white straight hair fur, but even the ones that don't, have a skin colour that is as white as snow. When a jǫtunn bleeds, its blood is an almost luminescent light blue colour. While most Jötnar and many are humanoid looking, multiple castes walk on all four. While one of the castes is able to live in higher temperature environments, and others can withstand the deep cold of space, the Jötnar thrive in the temperatures of their home planet that range from roughly 150 degrees kelvin up to 200 degrees kelvin. Higher and lower temperatures are uncomfortable to them, although all Jötnar can survive at temperatures as low as 100 degree Kelvin and as high as 250 degrees Kelvin.
The eyes of the Jötnar have the ability to change depending on light conditions, and for specific sub species at will. In low light conditions their pupils can grow to the size of their irises. In situations with much light, their eyes are like human eyes. Light blueish irises set in white eyes with a small round pupil in the middle. When the light does slightly dimmer, the shape of the pupils shifts from a small circle to a vertical slit, and when the light diminishes further, this slit widens to eventually cover the whole iris and if needed the whole visible part of the eye.
We will get into the biological details in a later chapter, but the Jötnar are beings of fire and ice in the most literal sense.
The Völva caste
The highest class in Jötnar society is the völva class. The females in this class are responsible for overseeing the breeding programs of their own and all of the lower classes. While Jötnar society isn’t very technologically advanced, it is an old society that plans ahead. It plans ahead enough to the point where its breeding program is one of its three most effective weapons in warfare. The second being technology they did not themselves develop, the third being a biological weapon. Both the later two we will discuss in later chapters about history and about biology.
A male member of the völva class is referred to as a prince, although there is very little status bound to that title. They are part of the breeding program, and their sole role, if they have any, is breeding the next generation of female völva. While in other classes the male breeders are allowed to breed with females based on their own merits or survival, the right for a prince to mate with völvas is determined by the social and career advances of his sister or sisters. This extends so far that if the mother of a prince comes to the end of her virtile life without having produced female offspring, she is expected to kill her male offspring in an act of mercy.
A second role of the völva lies in the deployment of forces and bio weapons using extraterrestrial (non-Jötnar) technology.
The General caste
Just below the Völva in Jötnar we find the general class. Generals, like Völvas are female.
Male members of the generals caste are referred to as breeders, and their role isn’t much different from that of a prince. The way natural selection works though for them is quite different.
Competition amongst the female generals is fierce, and assassination is a common way for generals to advance their careers and secure their own breeding rights. If a general convinces a breeder to try and this breeder successfully assassinates a competing general and survives, the assassin and the remaining general both earn breeding rights.
The spies caste
The spies caste is in a league of its own and while below the generals class, it is the only class that escapes much of the breeding program's brutalities and the only class where men aren’t considered inferior to women. The reason for both is that the job of a spy is pretty much its own natural selection, and that spies get interbred with lower classes in order to breed specific genetic trades into future generations. Spies can be both male or female. Spies are shape shifters. While lower caste members might sometimes breed with the spy class, the caste membership of their offspring is uncertain until they reach puberty and their shape shifting skills are assessed. Even the child of two spies may get demoted to a soldier or worker class in case of insufficient skills.
There is another genetic selection criteria that is way more brutal than anything. While the base species of Jötnar is able to survive in temperatures ranging up to 250 degrees kelvin (-123°C, -10°F), members of the spies class need to be able to survive at much higher temperatures. At four years old, a spy child is put into a special chamber where the temperature is raised to a whopping 350 degrees Kelvin (77°C ,170°F) for a few minutes. If the child hasn’t inherited the proper genes, he or she will burst into flames.
The soldier castes
The soldier castes are bred into different castes each with its own role in warfare. Opposite to the spies caste, soldier castes are bred not to be able to survive the high temperatures that spies are bred to survive in, but instead their temperature range has been bread to extend down so they are able to survive for days at temperatures close to zero degree Kelvin.
While the weapons used by these soldiers are relatively primitive, when they use weapons at all, their resilience to the weapons of technologically superior races gives them a shared edge.
Some of the types of soldier Jötnar are almost animal-like. Like depicted in chapter 40 of Ragnarok Conspiracy, where Wietse and Dakila battle different types of Jötnar, some Jötnar were almost like Hyenas, while others looked almost human-like. We’ll discuss the ones from the book and hint at others, using the names Wietse and Dakila used in the book (not the names from my notes) to avoid confusion, adding names Wietse and Dakila ‘might’ have given had they encountered them. There is one exception to this rule, the wino, that is part of a larger class of Jötnar.
All types of soldiers are bread like animals in an animal breeding program. Only soldiers who have seen battle are bread. It is important to note that the name ‘soldier’ in Jötnar language is used to denote the male soldiers. Female soldiers are given the honorary name of breeder, the same name that is used for males in the higher general caste. This naming is showing how much more females are valued in Jötnar society.
runners
As mentioned in the book, runners look like a rhino sized albino hybrid between a silverback-gorilla and a hyena. They are blazingly fast runners and attack in packs. These Jötnar are the closest to mindless killers as the Jötnar can get. Aggressive like rabid dogs, but with the coordination of a pack of wolves chasing down a reindeer. Runners don’t use any weapons other than their razor sharp teeth. In the vacuum of space runners have the ability to propel themselves, basically by releasing energy dense farts. This is an ability unique to the runners that compensates for their lack of hands.
kong
A second class of Jötnar that we saw in chapter 40 was the Kong. These Jötnar look like a T-Rex sized hybrid of a human and gorilla silverback male. While they don’t come to a battle with any actual weapon, Kong are bred to use things they find as projectiles that they throw with great strength at the opposing forces. Rocks, trees, and like in the book vehicles like the semi-trailer one of the Kong threw at Wietse. The Kong have long and powerful arms and can throw heavy projectiles at incredible speed and accuracy.
bigfoot
One type of soldier Jötnar in my notes that didn’t make it into the book is a type that I imagine Wietse and Dakila would have referred to as Bigfoot. In appearance this soldier class is the closest to the two highest castes of the Jötnar. A bigfoot is roughly 3 metres tall and roughly resembles the furry Wampa predator from the empire strikes back. Also unarmed, their main task of reconnaissance relies mostly on their relatively small size and stealthiness.
winos
While the Wino’s Wietse and Dakila encountered looked like building sized humans, it isn’t the only shape they take. These giants are the biggest of the Jötnar, and are the size of roughly the statue of liberty without the pedestal. The Wino Jötnar share a gene with the shape shifting spy caste, but unlike the spies they can’t shapeshift at will. Instead they are instructed to shift into a specific shape when they come of age, a process that for a wino takes several years. The shape chosen for winos by the Völva is a tactical one. Because the Wino’s are so big, and not that fast, they are a big target for technologically advanced enemies. While they are able to wield weapons like huge swords or axes, they rarely do so from the same tactical position. The shape chosen for the Wino’s tends to be one that aims to provoke compassion in the enemy forces. The shape of a child, of a pet, or both. In the section of the hidden history of the earth we will see why Jötnar Völva chose the shape of big headed human-like figures for their Winos in their first attack against earth. As a bit of a teaser: they mistakenly shaped them like young pets in the earlier version of our planet the Jötnar knew about. We will say more about this in later chapters.
imposters
Now we come to the last of the subspecies of soldiers in our list. The imposter caste is a type of soldier with genetic ties to the spies caste. In fact they are surviving children of spy/soldier or spy/worker parents that either caught flame but didn’t explode in the hot chamber and survived, or that failed the shapeshifting test. Imposters do have shapeshifting abilities, just not to the level a spy is supposed to have. Where spies need to be able to maintain a shape for multiple decades, an imposter only needs to do so for the duration of a mission. Hours up to days or on a rare occasion weeks.
The worker castes
The lowest castes amongst the Jötnar are the working castes. My world building notes didn’t have notes on the whole range of worker castes, and I’m not going to make up details that weren’t in my notes, so this last section of this chapter is a tiny bit limited.
Basically for every task not military in nature there is a worker caste responsible for those specific tasks. Worker castes are subject to genetic breeding experiments by the Völva, so most workers have one or more genetic anomalies.
Tree keepers
The one caste of workers that is truly relevant to the lore of Ragnarok Conspiracy are the tree keepers. This caste of workers. These workers care for the world tree, Yggdrasill. We will discuss more about Yggdrasill when we discuss biology. For now, it is just important to know that Yggdrasill plays a huge role both in warfare and in the Jötnar’s ability to terraform life supporting planets to support their own conditions for live.
Coming up
This is it for now, my first post in this long series. A series that is going to be a Lore of Ragnarok Conspiracy book when it’s finished. If you are an author, feel free to use anything from this worldbuilding and lore, for your own work. A link to the specific open source licence for this work will follow, but it will be free for any derived work under the sole condition of the original work getting referenced. There is a lot more coming up. This post today is just the tip of the iceberg. There are four more species posts coming up before we move on to the astrology part of the world building, and after the astrology part, there are eight more major sections.
For now this post is posted stand-alone, but as the number of posts grows, I’ll structure the posts into a web-book like I’ve done for Ragnarok Conspiracy itself.
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