The Mythology:
According to Norse mythology, Balder is the son of the Norse god Odin and Frigg. He dwelled in Asgard and was the god of beauty. He was the most beloved of all the gods.
One day he had a prophesy that he would die. The other gods were shocked and saddened. In an attempt to prevent the death of her son, Frigg set about the world getting oaths from all existing things, from people, deities and animals, to plants and even inanimate objects. The oath was a promise to never harm her son in any way.
When she came upon the mistletoe plant, she thought that the plant was so totally harmless that she didn't need to make it swear an oath.
One day the mischievous Loki disguised himself and was able to extract this information from an unaware Frigg.
Balder now seemed immortal and the gods spent a lot of time in Asgard playing a game of "throw this and that" at Balder. They threw rocks and swords and all other dangerous things at him, but these objects would simply bounce off him without so much as scratching him. The only god that didn't play the game was his blind brother Hod.
One day the gods were playing this game and Loki convinced Hod to play as well. He handed Hod the mistletoe and told him to throw it as hard as he could.
The mistletoe flew like a spear and pierced Balder, who immediately fell dead to the ground. He was then taken to the Underworld by Hel, the goddess of the dead who refused to release Balder unless everything in the world shed at least one tear for him.
Everyone shed a tear except for the giantess Thokk (some translations say that this was Loki in another one of his disguises), so Hel refused to release Balder.
According to the mythology, Balder is supposed to be reborn after the end of Ragnarök. His rebirth will herald the beginning of a new age.
Vikings settle in North America and the Merging of the groups:
In the year 1000 AD a Viking explorer by the name of Leif Erikson discovered North America with a small group of fellow Norsemen. He named the land Vinland and set up camp there on the northern coastline where he over-wintered with his people before returning to Greenland with a rich supply of timber, furs and other rare and valuable resources.
Leif had a good reputation with the native Americans during his stay in their country. They traded together and no lives were lost due to conflict.
In reality, Leif returned home to Greenland where he took over his father's estate and never himself returned to Vinland. His brothers and sister, however, all tried to colonise Vinland but were unsuccessful due to bloody conflicts they created with the Native Americans.
The only way that the Vikings would have been able to set up a permanent colony in North America would have been for their relationships with the Native American tribes in the area to be good and strong and without conflict. The Native American people greatly outnumbered the amount of Vikings who could come to the country at any given time, so without these good relationships, the Vikings would never survive there.
In my game, the Vikings and the native tribe of the area (a largely fictional tribe) found within each other's culture and ways of life a lot of similarities and were able to live peacefully side by side for many decades. Positive relationships that had started off with trade eventually led the two tribes to merge and became one. After many generations, they were neither completely Viking nor Native American.
A few hundred years later, in the timing of the game, the group is completely unique. Characteristics of both traditional groups can still be seen in everything, though much of their spiritual beliefs have either been lost over time or have been disregarded. The people live closely to nature, are generally peaceful and share everything equally amongst each other, just like the Native Americans did. They are also incredible farmers, innovators and have a deeply hidden, mostly ignored but naturally fierce strength like traditional Vikings had, though this characteristic is mostly only aroused when threatened as a group. This is not quite the same as the Viking fury, vengeance and honour which had often led traditional Vikings to kill for selfish reasons such as personal gain, honour, revenge etc. The people have over time learned to take a more peaceful and selfless approach to their problems, which has largely been influenced by their Native American side. The strongest characteristics and symbols of each group of people will be shown throughout the design of the game, so that both nations will still be somewhat recognisable.
At the same time, there are still other Native American tribes in other areas of North America. Some of these tribes are friends and some are foes, but they don't play too much of a role in the beginning of the game and are completely independent of my tribe. They are only important later in the game when my tribe must gain outside support for their army, and many of their neighbouring tribes are appealed to in side missions.
In terms of design, my characters and their world will be neither completely Viking nor completely Native American. As mentioned previously, only the strongest characteristics of both tribes will be apparent (with some exceptions where it creates contradictions). This means that there will be things in the world that are strongly inspired by Native American masks and totems etc, as well as things strongly inspired by Viking longboats and weaponry (specifically swords and helmets) etc. Other things, such as their houses, could be identifiable as either or neither.
Two main issues arise when combining the two groups of people - one with religion and the other, which has already been touched on but needs elaboration, with the contradictory sense of the importance of self and family versus the importance of a whole and a selfless attitude - basically greed versus selflessness.
Religion and spiritual beliefs and practices were greatly important in both groups of people. Both groups worshiped a wide array of deities. Generally, in Viking mythology, the gods were largely centred around conflict and battle, whereas many Native American tribes worshiped the earth and nature and many spirits (especially the spirits of animals). Considering that my game kicks off at the end of Ragnarök and the tribe of half-vikings still know about and believe in the Gods of Old and are depressed by the fact that these deities are dead means that this part of their Viking ancestry can't have been ignored or lost. However, since they believe that their gods are dead, they have given up hope and have lost a lot of faith in the Old Ways of the Vikings. The difficult consideration here is that the Native Americans also had a wide range of beliefs that cannot be simply ignored.
The only way that I can combine both faiths at least to some basic degree is helped by the fact that the Native American ancestry of my people is largely a fictional group who show some similarities to actual Native tribes that existed, but aren't to be identified specifically.
I think that my Native American tribe will have only worshiped the Earth as a deity and other aspects of nature, such as animals to some degree, and would believe in spirits and souls and ghosts. This will mean that there won't be any Native American Gods to clash with the Viking Gods and would mean that the Native Americans would have been more open to other religions that were more deity-based. The belief in an after-life would also have meant that the Vikings would have no longer believed in the need for battle as a means to enter Asgard, which would account for their now peaceful, selfless nature.
As a summary, this is what my tribe believe: The Viking Gods are real, but have mostly all died in Ragnarök. There is physical proof of this in the great north countries that their Viking ancestors had left behind, which has helped the Native American people to accept these gods as being real. The death of the Viking gods means that everything comes to an end, no matter how big or strong it is. They see this reflected in Mother Earth - the spirit of the earth deity, which is the only deity they have left to worship. The industrialisation of the world is harming this deity, which seems to be slowly passing away as well. As a result, the people are quite depressed and are very much without hope. They believe that the great Mother Earth uses animals and other parts of nature to communicate with people - she gives them a sort of spirit. This accounts for many of the rituals in which the people dress up as animals, impersonate animals, as well as the use of animals in every day life etc - it is simply a homage to Mother Earth who uses these creatures as her vessels. They believe that when any living thing dies, they become a part of Mother Earth where through their death, new life can be born. This is not reincarnation, however, some of their wisdom and knowledge can be passed on through generations in this way. They don't believe in an afterlife - Asgard has fallen and there is no more need for the souls soldiers to be collected for the final battle, since this final battle has already been fought and lost.
Now to the second point - the contradiction between the two groups in terms of a way they largely lived their lives, either driven by greed and selfishness or by peace and selflessness. Traditionally, the Vikings were a fierce nation who believed that personal and family honour was of utmost importance and would do absolutely anything they needed to uphold these. On the other hand, many Native American tribes (though not all of them) believed that everything should be shared equally among their people, that the tribe was one big family and that disputes could be resolved without the need for bloodshed (again, this isn't always the case). Both of these are somewhat stereotypes but create a bit of a conflict when trying to put the groups together.
For the purpose of my game, the people are generally to be peaceful, kind, sharing, selfless - they are the "good guys". In joining together to form one community or tribe of people, the Vikings would have had to lose their selfish nature, but a bit of their fighting spirit should be carried on. The Vikings would have seen how things were done by the Native Americans and would have admired the way that they cared for every person of their tribe. The Native Americans would have seen the determined Viking spirit and this would have been passed on through generations but perhaps would have been put to use in other, more prosperous areas - such as in farming, hunting, self provision, education, invention etc. However, in most people of the tribe there is still a secret, deeply imbedded but mostly ignored sense for honour, combat and strength, which can be unleashed when properly provoked.
At the end of Ragnarök, the people in North America turned from a lot of their old ways, specifically their coastal habitat, and turned to a kind of exile in the mountains. This was also forced by their enemies, who pushed them out of the way as they set up their own civilisation on the coastal areas where resources were richer and their factories more functional.
Ragnarök:
The end of the Viking Age (approximately 1100AD) is marked by the beginning of Ragnarök, the final battle between the Norse Gods and the Frost Giants. After a 3 year long winter that marked the beginning of the final battle, Loki, the leader of the evil giants and monsters led his supporters to war against the Æsir and Vanir gods. The actual physical battle of this great war was over after a decade, but the absolute end of Ragnarök was still far off - the effects of the war had yet to settle and resolve. In approximately 1113-4 AD, the last god and monster fell and only a small handful of Norse gods were left alive - Odin's brother Honir, his sons Vidar and Vali and Thor's sons Modi and Magni.
Honir, Vidar and Vali disappeared after the battle and were never to be seen or heard of again. They were joined soon after by Modi and Magni, who had to first rid themselves of the Mjolnir, their father's weapon. Before the war, Thor had sworn his sons to an oath that if he should fall, the Mjolnir would be taken somewhere safe and kept within the Viking people. He had refused to elaborate further on the matter and after his death, out of obligation, his sons sought out the best suiters. The few Vikings left in Scandinava were in shambles after the conflict and were deemed incapable of guarding the weapon. The only other somewhat Norse colony known was the one who had settled with Leif Erikson in North America. The weapon was taken there and given to the leader of the group who was appointed its official guardian. Modi and Magni were somewhat reluctant at first to give this race of Halflings the weapon, but their desire to disappear was too great for them to do otherwise. They arrived and in a day were also gone, never to be seen again.
The end of Ragnarök was to be when the last living thing from the time of the great battle had died. This occurred in last decade of the 18th century, the industrial age, when the last leaf from an ancient norwegian tree fell to the ground. It is at this moment that Balder was reborn.
Scandinavia:
The battle of Ragnarök was fought in the northern parts of Scandinavia and, as a result, the majority of the Viking people also went to war. Many lives were lost and the country was left in shambles. The Viking people who survived were left weak, injured and sprinkled across the lands, unable to help themselves. Many died from the effects of the war, not only from injuries, but from sadness and lack of resources. Only a few hundred Vikings survived on these great lands and over the next several hundred years until the end of Ragnarök, nothing was heard from or about them by other people - their fate was a complete mystery to their people in North America who feared to return to Scandinavia until the end of Ragnarök had arrived.
Greater European/Enemy home-country History, and their colonisation of North America:
The enemy land (Russian-esque, but only ever referred to as the "Great, Vast Land") before the industrial age (which was led by this country rather than the English, for the sake of the game) was the biggest and strongest land known to civilised man. The greatest people from all over the known world flocked there seeking fame, power and riches. It was the biggest land and had the most resources known to mankind, which was the source riches and power during those times. With such an increase in population, the country just became more and more powerful.
The Industrial Age began in the late 1700's in the "Great, Vast Land" as an answer to several issues faced by the country. Firstly, it was the solution to create a more effective way of doing manual labour (through machines) and gathering resources. Secondly, and more importantly, it came largely from the growing issue of dwindling resources in the country.
The land had started off rich in resources and had attracted a population so large and greedy that it could only support their habits for a short period of time. Initially, this wasn't even considered as a possibility by the government or the people, who were too greedy to think of anything but their own well-being. However, when the forests had been cleared and all the surface coal had been burned through, the people needed to find a solution before they died out. They created machines that could dig coal out of the earth and as a result, the Industrial age with all its many inventions, including steam, was started.
This industrial age in the game is very similar to the one that had occurred in the real world (which was largely led by the British), but the inventions have a distinct Russian look and feel. It is only logical that the same inventions would be made with time, regardless of who had begun the Industrial Age. When something was required, when a problem arose, a solution would always be found.
Back to the backstory of the game - when the resources had all mostly dried up and the Industrial Age was started as an answer to a serious problem, the King of the "Great, Wide Land" started seeking new lands with fresh resources. He had heard tales of Vinland and decided to send a group of explorers to find this land.
When they found the land roughly a few hundred years before the game is set, they found an abundance of resources. The King was overjoyed and arranged for an absolutely massive group of soldiers, volunteers, colonists, convicts, orphans - whoever he could force or persuade - to go to the great land with the aim of gathering resources to send back to their home country. The large group was required to keep the natives under submissive control, and to allow them to gather enough resources quickly to help the massive population back home.
The Native Americans never stood a chance. While many tribes initially tried to fight off the invaders, they were quickly overpowered and were pushed from their lands and sent into hiding in the mountain areas. The enemy didn't necessarily go out of their way to kill these people, but thought of them as nothing more than animals who had to be controlled.
This is also the attitude that they had toward the strange Halfling race - they wouldn't spend their energies exterminating them, but would ensure their dominance over them.
All races would be monitored by the enemy army in that section of the country and were controlled.
The enemy group of people set up a major city and smaller communities in the country. The city is basically a massive stretch of factories where convicts, orphans and many other people worked to gather and prepare resources which were mostly to be sent back to their home country. Most of the poorer living communities were slums where the majority of the workers lived, squashed together like chickens in battery farms, living spaces stacked upon each other. The richer communities had nicer Russian-esque houses. The feared Governor lived in a kind of Russian palace. The Armies lived in their own small communities and were scattered across the country with the main aim of training, controlling the natives and designing and producing new secret weapons.
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