selves and follow . On the field of and they will build on the triumphant battle, Odin will engage , while foundations laid down by Odin. will be attacked by Jormungandr. WHAT IS ? will fight Surtr. Freyr will rue the WHY WE DEVELOPED THIS DECK Norse mythology is a complex of sto- day he lost his sword; after a fierce fight, We designed this deck to make learn- ries, lore, and beliefs about the gods Surtr kills Freyr. and Heimdall ing about the culture, mythology and and the nature of the cosmos develo- will meet again and cause each other’s society of the -age Norsemen ped by the Germanic peoples before death. Thor will kill Jormungand with extremely easy and fun. Our dream their conversion to Christianity. The a blow from Mjollnir, but will be killed was to create something so engaging stories tell of gods and goddesses that by the venom spewed by the serpent. that you would learn something new were far from being perfect or im- Fenrir will seize Odin between his jaws even if you did it by accident. Norse mortal. They battled and wooed and and swallow him. At once, Vidar will mythology can be a complex subject wedded. They were, by turns, strong press one foot on Fenrir’s lower jaw to understand and and understandably and weak, petty and noble, brilliant and grab his upper jaw, tearing the wolf so with all its characters, multitude of and dense. The stories range from the apart and avenging his father. Surtr will sources and on-line misconceptions. hauntingly powerful verses of Voluspa, fling fire in all directions. and This deck is meant to entertain and to the comedic and irreverent verses of and Jotunheim and teach in the most simple way imagina- Thrymskvida. We hear of a golden age, will become furnaces. The worlds will ble to us. free of strife, which was lost, resulting burn and the gods will die. The earth in a downward spiral of bickering and will sink into the sea. HOW TO USE THIS DECK feuding and killing. This was the world The earth will rise again, fair and green. The deck contains cards describing in which Viking-age heathens lived: a The eagles will fly and catch fish under sixty-five objects or beings from Norse world threatened by monsters barely crags. Grain will ripen in fields that mythology. Each card shows a classic held in check by the gods. were never sown. Vidar and Vali, sons illustration made by artists who were of Odin, will still be alive and will make not influenced by modern depicti- WHAT IS RAGNAROK? their way back to Idavoll, the shining ons and representations of the stories Ragnarok literally means the destiny of plain where the halls of the gods once from the mythology. Below the picture the Gods. It begins with three winters stood. Modi and Magni, sons of Thor, are the character traits. Each card lists of wars in Midgard. Then Fimbulvetr will join them there, and they will in- point values for four character traits of follows, the winter of winters, with herit their father’s hammer, Mjollnir. the being on the card, and the points bitter frosts and biting winds. Three and Hodr will come back from are coded by color and by icons. These such winters will follow with no sum- the world of the dead to Idavoll, al- character trait points gives the play- mer between them. Then the end will ong with Haenir. Two humans, Lif and er an idea of the place of the being or begin. The wolf Skoll will seize the sun Lifthrasir, who hid themselves deep object in the hierarchy of Norse my- and swallow her. The wolf Hati will within , will see light. For al- thology. The four traits are: Combat, catch the moon. The stars will vanish. though the sun was eaten by Skoll, she the might of each thing or being in The earth will shake. Jormungandr will give birth to a daughter no less fair, physical battle; Magic, the deviousness, will work his way towards dry land. who will follow the same sky-path and foresight and strength in the various The ship will sail, packed with light the world. Lif and Lifthrasir will fields of sorcery; Influence, the power giants. Loki, free from his bonds, will have children and will repopulate the to affect other beings or the shape of sail with the dead from . The sons earth. With the rebirth of the world the world, eg. the steps that are taken of Muspell will advance from the south, after Ragnarok, the golden age of the towards Ragnarok and finally mobility, led by Surtr, the flame giant. The gods, Norse gods will return. A radiant hall the quickness of movement and ability roused by ’s horn, will meet will rise up which no flames of perdi- to go where other beings can not.The in council. Odin will ride to tion can touch. In that hall, the noble player can even play out the event of Mimir’s spring to take advice from Mi- warriors who fought alongside the Ragnarok with the combat trait points mir. Yggdrasil will shake and moan. gods will live on in joy. The gods will alone. Below the character traits is text All of the Aesir and all of the find the golden playing pieces of their telling the story of the being on the in will arm and prepare them- board game in the shining meadow, card, with four icons which identify the species, group, family ties and home of the highest trait point wins. All cards way to find connections is to read the the card represented below it. Each of are put into the reserve pile, but only cards well! the sixty-five cards is packed with in- the winner of the bout gets to replenish formation taken directly from the ori- his Shield Wall. Then the next Viking, Sacred Bond 2 (Advanced player): ginal sources. going clockwise, chooses an attacking Same as Sacred Bond 1 except now Vi- trait and cards to attack. In the event kings can put out their card once they GAME RULES of a draw, the cards stay face up and see the connection and do not have to Battle of Ragnarok (Novice): All the the next round continues as normal. wait for the next Viking in line. cards are dealt face down among the The winner of the next round replenis- Vikings. There must be at least two hes both the tied card and the current Mímir’s well (Master): Each Viking Vikings, and at least one card for each one, while the one(s) that lost replenish is dealt a hand of 7 cards. The rest of Viking. The Viking with the longest neither. When a Viking loses his Shield the cards are placed face down in the beard starts and selects and announ- Wall, and only his Chieftain is left, the middle of the table. The Viking who ces a character trait, then picks up his game continues as normal with one last sailed his longship to Vineland or her topmost card and reads out the exception - the Chieftain isn’t flipped starts the game, flipping the top card point value of that trait. In turn, all the over until an attack would kill it, ma- in the stacked pile face up. The starting other Vikings pick up their top-most king the attributes a mystery until the Viking tries to connect as many cards card and read out the value of the same final hour! The last chieftain left alive is from his hand as he can to the flipped trait from their card. The highest num- the winner! Alternatively for a shorter card, using connections in the lore and ber wins and the winner takes all the gameplay, the first to score a kill versus mythology. Each card with a connec- competing cards from his opponents a competing Chieftain, wins! tion is discarded into a discard pile in and places them at the bottom of his or the center. If the Viking cannot con- her pile. That Viking then announces Sacred Bond 1 nect even a single card from his hand, a trait and looks at their new topmost (Intermediate amateur): To under- he draws another card. The first Viking card for the next round. stand the Sacred Bonds between gods, to lose all of his cards is so knowledge- In the event of a draw, the cards are giants, men and monsters, the Vikings able, he has surely drunk from Mímir’s placed in the center and a new catego- need to see the connections. In this well and in doing so wins the game. ry is chosen from the next card by the game each Viking is dealt seven cards same person as in the previous round. with the remainder put in the center, The Eye of Odin (Grandmaster): Each The winner of that round obtains all of face down with the top card put besi- Viking picks a card from the deck the cards in the center as well as the top de it face-up.The Viking who owns the without looking at it, he holds the card card from each player. The game ends most magical sax begins and selects a facing the other Vikings above his eye. when one Viking has won all of the card. Each turn a Viking selects a card The Viking who last wrestled a Draugr card off the other Vikings. from his hand that has a connection starts by asking one question to ano- to the topmost face-up card. If the Vi- ther player to figure out which being or Holding the shield wall (Amateur): king has no card that has a connecti- object is on the card. These questions For 2-5 Vikings. Each Viking is dealt on to the face-up card, he must draw can be anything except the card’s name, ten cards, face down, making a three- one more card and put on his hand. If and the opposing player must answer by-three square with the last card “be- the Viking makes the connection, he truthfully. After each question, the turn hind the shieldwall” in the center away doesn’t draw a card. The first Viking to passes to the next Viking around the from the enemy Viking(s). This is the lose all his cards wins the game! Those table. After each question, the Viking Commander. The Viking with the fres- who are not formidable in their know- may choose to guess the card he holds hest turf on his longhouse starts the ledge of Norse mythology might requi- on his forehead. If the Vikings guess game by choosing one of the four at- re might require the connections to be wrong, they draw a new card from the tacking traits, choosing a card in the mentioned on the cards themselves, deck and start over. The first Viking to competing Vikings’ Shield Wall to at- but advanced Vikings can drop that re- guess the card that he presents surely tack and a card from his own Shield quirement - creating a jury out of the has the all seeing eye of Odin and wins Wall to attack with. Each Viking flips other Vikings whether the connections the game. over the attacked card and the one with are valid or not. Remember - the best