[CoH] The Ancient History of the Norse People

The University of Normark, based in Konungsheim.
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Tarjei Einhornsson
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[CoH] The Ancient History of the Norse People

Post by Tarjei Einhornsson »

The Ancient History
of the Norse People

The University of Normark - College of History



This particular text refers to the times of the Norse people from the time of the mid and late Neolithic to The Cataclysm and subsequently the Petty Kingdoms.

Late Neolithic

The late Neolithic period of the Norse people saw their migration from the northern-most regions of the King Peninsula into the regions in and around the Konungsbjarg range. During this period, the ancient Norse were still mainly hunter-gatherers However, they found the warmer climates of the southern region of the peninsula to be more hospitable to farming, beginning a long period of settlement throughout the peninsula, especially along the western coastline. It is theorized that, during this period, we began to see the beginnings of what is now the Proto-Norse language, but had yet developed a uniform system of writing.


The Kvam Site, the most complete stone-and-sod community found to date, located 10 kilomters outside of Kvam, an outlying community near Konungsheim. It is dated as being around 8,500 years old.


Information during this period was primarily relayed through oral tradition and the use of pictographs. During this period, the arrangement of large stones was also practiced, most likely for religious reasons. Weaponry and tools at the time were made of local stone, almost invariably some form of Agate, with dwellings being constructed from sod-covered stacked stones with sod roofing. This style of dwelling allowed the Neolithic Norse to settle the South and the North year-round, rather than dwelling in the North during the summer and wintering in the South, following the cycles of the Reindeer and other wildlife. It was during this period that we see the formation of crude, structural societies. It is thought that oral tradition still prevailed in favor of a uniform system of writing, however, we see the counter-intuitive development of a rudimentary caste system based upon the possession of stone battle-axes and spears.

We see, therefor, the clear division between the hunter and warrior castes of our ancient ancestors. It is at the height of this era, when we began the exploration of the Konungsbjarg range that we slowly advance into the Bronze Age. The mountains were rich in copper and tin ores which were found to make the eponymous alloy - Bronze. It isn't known when or where the alloy was first discovered, but it was more than likely discovered by accident and over a long period of time, whereby the use of the much more malleable copper was discovered and used, giving way to crude metallurgy. Until then, however, stone tools remained common throughout the remainder of the age and indeed up until the late-early Bronze age due to the still-crude methods of mining, smelting and shaping.

Possibly the height of the late Neolithic, however, was the development of more formal methods of animal husbandry and pottery - invaluable to completing a sedentary life on the harsher King Peninsula. Because many animals migrated throughout the year, it meant our ancestors had to do much the same, but agriculture changed this. However, it could only go so far, as the ancient Norse couldn't live solely off crops which were as seasonal as animals. To facilitate true sedentary lives, it was necessary to ensure a year-round source of food and the storage of food for long periods of time - achieved by animal husbandry and pottery respectively. These creations lead to more defined societies as well, although we would not see what we think of as the societies of the ancient Norse until the Bronze Age. Equines, cervidae (especially red deer and reindeer) and occasionally fowl were the most prevalent groups of animals to be domesticated, with horsemanship being developed fairly early on - both as a means of transportation and hunting of faster or larger prey - most famously the mammoths.

Mammoth tusk scrimshaw (and scrimshaw in general), were the major artistic medium during the Neolithic period and well into the early Bronze Age. In many ways, scrimshaw carvings were also the books of the time, albeit through the utilization of rarely uniform or contiguous forms of pictographic communication. Antlers and tusks of a wide range of species were used for the purpose of Neolithic scrimshaw pieces. They were also used in a variety of decorative items for what could only be considered tribal elders, warrior chieftains and other people of importance, especially as weapon handles. Many southern Norse tribes took to the usage of scrimshaw items as religious talismans and other spiritually significant items.


An asortment of stone tools discovered 26 kilometers south of Frystekapp.



Bronze Age

The most definite date we are able to put on the Bronze age are the results of carbon dating the earliest known implements to be made of metal, roughly 6,500 years ago. The first such things to be made of copper were not weapons or tools, however, instead jewelery and decorative artifacts, hinting to the initial supplies of the material being rare. It would be another 200 years before we see the use of copper, and subsequently bronze, with any degree of prevalence. This does, however, give us hints as to the development of Norse society during that period. It is safe to assume that, due to the nature of the early period's copper jewelery, that we were developing a more rigid structure.

Oral tradition still prevailed, however, but pictographs were becoming more and more elaborate. New advancements in tanning and agriculture also emerged during the early Bronze Age. Agriculture became more and more of a science, with complex irrigation making it's appearance, crude fertilization using fish, crude plows drawn by horse and crop rotation were all innovations of the first thousand years of the Bronze Age.

It was, however, during this period that The Cataclysm occurred. The Cataclysm is indicated as occurring roughly 5,500 years ago.

The Cataclysm

The Cataclysm occurred in the early-mid Bronze Age with one of the most infamous periods in Norse pre-history. This period heralded the arrival of a race known to us as The Derge (Proto-Norse: *deygaz). The origins of the Derge aren't known, however, discoveries of bas reliefs in ruins of the Konungsbjarg range and the Blue Mountains indicate that they may not be native to the planet Micras. The reason for their arrival is theorized to be mostly the extraction of resources from the aforementioned mountain ranges, which are abundant in minerals to this day. What is known about the Derge and their interaction with the ancient Norse is that the ancients were largely enamored by the technological advances of the Derge. For a period of roughly 1,250 years, the ancient Norse were used as slaves, both as workers and warriors, by the Derge. The rebellion is given a date corresponding to 3756 BCE, with the first Petty Kingdoms forming between 3200 and 3000 BCE.

Our eventual rebellion against them lead to the founding of the petty kingdoms by the sons and grandsons of the hero Þeudaríks - the rebel general who lead the Norse people against the Derge, destroying their primary city in the Konungsbjarg range. From there, they slowly began to disappear or were eradicated by the rebelling Norse. Used essentially as animals for work and battle, we had become physically powerful, but inadvertently, also mentally powerful. What is left of the bas reliefs of Derge ruins indicates that they had a working knowledge of genetics and cloning. Through years of experimentation on our Bronze Age ancestors, the Derge gave us extreme longevity and mental and physical prowess. This genetic modification is the primary reason behind the current life expectancy of the average Norse male of 180 and the average Norse female of 187. The warrior slaves of the Norse were even further experimented on, leading to the notable longevity of the Einhorn clan, some 300 to even 400 years.


Þeudaríks and his three sons, Aþalawulfaz, Hlúdavígan and Friþugaizaz


The Derge's quest for breeding bigger, better Norsemen became their own downfall, with Þeudaríks rebelling approximately 700 years before the beginning of the petty kingdoms. His clan became the progenitors of the Kingdom and Grand Kingdom period nobility, including the ancient and powerful Einhorn clan, descendants of his middle son - Hlúdavígan. Our time as the slaves of the Derge also gave us technologies such as our innate skill with metallurgy, advanced language and writing, aside from the genetic benefits from their experimentation. Through the centuries and millenia, however, much of what the Derge had has been destroyed - and for good reason. The inadvertent benefits they caused the Norse people do not outweigh the grotesque atrocities our people suffered at their hands. Today, little is left of them to extrapolate a truly exact appearance, save a trophy skull passed down through the Einhorn line.


The skull belonging to the Einhorn Collection, oral tradition maintains that they were fairly human in the face, smaller in size but their mental abilities surpassed any earthly concept of intelligence.

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