The World Tree and Creation

The war between The Great One and The Counterpart led to the birth of various entities from the blood of the two which were later on identified as primordials, titans, gods, demons, devils, angels and so on. Some of them possessed a humanoid shape, others had the shapes of animals, some even looked like plants while some had appearances that existed outside of what others could perceive much less comprehend.

Among the various beings spawned was a being known as The World Tree, also known as Yggdrasil. Unlike its brethren, Yggdrasil didn’t partake in the war and drifted across creation for eons until it came across the fire filled universe of Muspelheim which for some reason still possessed the spark of creation that had been used to create it and the ice filled universe of Niflheim which existed next to it and also contained the same spark of creation as its neighboring universe, but it laid buried under ice and snow, its location obscured by the ever-present mist. Seeing the two uninhabited and unclaimed universes, Yggdrasil settled in the void between the two universes as two large tendrils emerged from its back, drilling into the two universes feeding it. Yggdrasil closed its eyes, drifting into a deep slumber as it fed on them, oblivious to the world around it, but at the same time aware of everything that happened around, on and within it.

Time passed and the fires of Muspelheim that flowed in the veins of Yggdrasil met with the liquid ice of Niflheim that flowed in its veins, creating hots steam which was expelled into the two realms. The steam melted some of the ice of Niflheim, thawing out Ymir the giant and later on Buri, the ancestor of the gods, both of whom had chased after the spark of creation and ended up being frozen over by the ice of Niflheim when it got created. The steam continued to spread over Niflheim and melted more ice revealing the giantess Bestla who mated with Borr, son of Buri and gave birth to the first of the gods: Odin, Vili, and Ve. While this was going on, Ymir created three beings which became the ancestors of the giants; two males and a female.

Seeing a threat in the form of the giants, Odin led his brothers to wage war against them, but Ymir was too powerful. Unable to defeat Ymir, Odin led his brothers to kill Ymir in its sleep, drowning all the giants in its blood with the exception of Bergelmir and his wife who escape on a raft with the knowledge of what Odin and his brothers had done. They repopulated the giant race and taught them to hate the gods, leading to the two races becoming sworn enemies. Odin, Vili, and Ve threw Ymir’s body into the void of where Yggdrasil rested and together the three of them created the remaining six realms (universes) as well as the first man (Ask) and first woman (Embla) from the first tree that sprouted in Midgard. Knowing that the giants survived, Odin urged his brothers to help him exterminate them once and for all, but they refused due to their belief that peace could reign between the giants and the gods. Seeing that his brothers refused to help him, Odin killed them in their sleep and took their power for himself, biding his time and planning for their extermination, mostly due to the fact that Surtr acted as a defender of the jötunn. At the same time, Ymir’s blood flowed through Yggdrasil’s veins and some of it found its way to Muspelheim where the spark of creation brought it to life in the form of Surtr; the flaming giant who will use his sword Sumarbrandr which he forged from millions of corrupted stars, cooled with the blood of Aesir, Vanir, other Jötunn and Jósálfar, before being baptized in the river Iving and was finally blessed by Surtr with words of power so ancient and vile that Surtr wiped his mind of those words in order to avoid being driven to insanity.

Eons passed and more roots grew from Yggdrasil’s body which supported and fed off the newly created realms, recording the information of everything around it for later use while the parasite Niðhǫggr (Nidhogg), the dread corpse-eater gnawed at his body, slowly growing stronger.