IThe root

“Beneath this valley runs a root of Yggdrasil, the tree that holds up the worlds.”

Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse myth, stands on three great roots. One of them runs beneath a quiet valley.

IIThe guardians

“Six guardian spirits kept the land alive: seed and boar, frost and claw, swarm and wing.”

The Norse called such spirits landvættir, the guardians of the land. For as long as anyone remembers, these six have kept the valley alive.

IIIThe dragon

“Far below, the dragon Níðhöggr gnaws the root.”

For an age, Ratatoskr the squirrel has run up and down the tree, carrying insults between the dragon at the roots and the eagle at the top. This time the feud boiled over, and Níðhöggr’s rage drove his venom up the root.

IVThe stillness

“His venom has risen, and where it touches, life turns to stone. One by one, the guardians fell silent.”

The guardians fought, and were sealed in rock and strangling vine. The honeydew stopped falling from the tree, and the bees that lived on it starved.

At the Summit, the great eagle Hræsvelgr answered the dragon’s rage by folding his wings. Without wind, the venom settled, and the valley fell still.

VThe Wildwaker

“You carry the runes the seeress Heiðr taught you, the tree’s own words. Carve them into the land, and the land remembers.”

You are the last student of the seeress Heiðr. Runes are the tree’s own language, won by Odin when he hung on Yggdrasil for nine nights. Match them, carve them back into the land, and the land remembers itself.

Break the stone. Wake the wild.