So...I totally have a thing for Icelandic words and all those gorgeous accents. <3 As a result, all of the names in Ninth Twilight got changed from the Anglicized versions (Odin became Oðinn, Thor became Thórr, etc.) to the Old Norse versions. (And technically Thor should be Þórr, but most people won't know how to pronounce the first letter, so I had to Anglicize that. Sigh.) Anyways, been doing a bit of worldbuilding for the jötnar; I'm mapping out some basics so that I can start delving deeper.
Here's a quick overview of my jötnar. :3
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Jötnar (singular, jötunn), are creatures with immense amounts of chaos magic. All full jötnar are shapeshifters, and half-jötnar or less than that are usually shapeshifters as well (though not always). There are five different ‘breeds’ of jötnar: earth, fire, frost, rime, and storm. Earth jötnar live primarily in Miðgarðr, fire jötnar in Múspellsheimr, frost jötnar in Jötunheimr, rime jötnar in Nifelheimr, and storm jötnar in Yggdrasil.
Chaos magic, unlike Kvasiran magic, is largely instinctive and controlled by emotion. It manifests itself in sparks of colored energy around the jötunn, visible only to users of magic. When the jötunn feels extreme emotion or desires something strongly, their magic will lash out or work to obtain that desire without the jötunn’s knowledge. Conscious use of chaos magic involves willing something to happen strongly enough to make the magic bound to the user respond. It’s an unpredictable and dangerous form of magic, as suggested by the name, and while it is the purest and most powerful form of magic in the Nine Worlds, it is also very difficult to control and direct.
Each breed of jötunn is aligned to a particular element, and their magic tends to warp the world around them towards that element. Fire jötnar cause forest fires where they walk, frost jötnar bring snow storms in their wake, storm jötnar fill the air with static electricity, and earth jötnar cause earthquakes and shifts in landscape. The ancient rime jötnar never go anywhere that their magic would have to warp the world to suit them, but if they did, they would bring frost and ice. Jötnar have difficulty shapeshifting into animals not compatible with their element; for instance, fire jötnar cannot become fish and earth jötnar cannot become birds.
Their typical forms are humanoid, ranging from eight to fifteen feet tall. Skin tone is anywhere from absolutely white to nearly black, and color varies between breeds; earth jötnar tend to come in shades of brown, frost jötnar in blue, rime jötnar in shades of slate and gray-blue, fire jötnar in dark red (though fire jötnar are typically covered in magma and rock, so their skin color is usually not discernable), and storm jötnar in shades of gray.
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