The North

The **North**, is the colloquial name given to 2 dimensions whose stories and inhabitants are extensively linked. After the end of the Northern War and the beginning of the Age of Fall only one of these dimensions now remains mostly intact.

## ***Geography***

### ***Valhalla (Northern Soul Society)***

Valhalla at its height was the greatest and most prosperous land in the whole multiverse but now it's been reduced to mostly rubble.

### ***Northern Hueco Mundo***

Northern Hueco Mundo is an entirely artificial extension of the original Hueco Mundo created by the Dwarves and maintained formerly by the Vikings, it had once been connected to Hueco Mundo directly but now it's dimensionally separated by a powerful spell and a big fuck you wall. Northern Hueco Mundo has many more kinds of environments and different weather than regular Hueco Mundo because of their attempt to replicate the original Hueco Mundo.

### *Ragnarock*

A Dangai-like nexus between the Human World and the destroyed Northern Soul Society. It's composed of islands separated by the Cero Sea, a consequence of a past battle. Flying is not possible within it for the most part, although really strong people can manage it.

## ***History***

### **Age of Spring**

The North's story began proper at the tail end of the **Hueco Mundo War** when Shinigami failed to keep hold of Hueco Mundo. A group of True Souls and Souls under the command of Shinigami splintered off from his army once it became clear Shinigami would lose the war entirely after his loss of territory to Rasgadura.

This faction known as the **Aynu** (Ainu: アィヌ, *Aynu*) were dedicated to take back Hueco Mundo in whatever form it could, and living as garganta nomads they would begin a long history of guerilla warfare and raids on the Hollows of Hueco Mundo. These raids were performed using proto-dragons that nested in the garganta as beasts of burden and of war, these very same dragons would come to give birth to and become the Elder Dreki. Due to their lack of a settlement for resources the Aynu would use the hollows and dragons as their main source of materials allowing themselves to be on the move constantly, from this the very first Visoreds would come to be born as well, and their name as a people changed to the Viking due to their "adaptation" to hollowfication.

While the Vikings were surprisingly effective at dwindling and exterminating weaker hollows they would never realistically be able to take back Hueco Mundo like Shinigami before them, and their constant raids had only made them more of a target to the remaining generals that were constantly being pestered by them, the dragons they lost for a variety of reasons were also becoming an invasive species. The Vikings would persist by forging alliances and buying mercenaries from the other soul societies eventually creating the **Viking Pact** and becoming recognized as balancers in their own way. But even with this they were still losing more than they were winning and would have been destroyed in time if not for their chance encounter and alliance with the precursor(s) of the Dwarves.

Together with the Dwarves the Vikings would create within the Garganta a land to call their own: **Valhalla**, and from their partnership came forth the **Mjolnirs**, the **Giants**, the Arcanists and even the Druids. The dwarves would also create forts in hueco mundo to actually maintain territory and would "gain" territory from the hollows of Hueco Mundo by *creating it* and establishing outposts in this new land. This new invigorated force of Vikings would come to be known as the **Wild Hunt** and it was slowly but steadily becoming a genuine threat to the now scattered and individual forces of Hollows. The Vikings would encircle areas of hueco mundo with overnight-built castles that were impossible to siege and launch continuous rapid strikes to obliterate the hollows. The Plagas and Vasto Lordes were the only thing really stopping them from succeeding in their objectives.

But this victory would not come to pass because as their territory grew, more and more hollows and dragons were being created as well, some because of their own carelessness. The dwarves were physically unable to keep up with the manpower required to keep up the tempo the Vikings had gained. The advantage of the Vikings would shrink and shrink until the Dwarves and Arcanists would decide to use their combined might to separate the conquered territory from the rest of Hueco Mundo to keep the Northerners safe instead, cutting off a supermajority of dragons from the hollows of the east in the process because of the border's shape. This defensive action was in stark contrast to the desires of most Vikings who desired to keep up the assault, but since it was supported by their leader at the time it went unquestioned.

### **Age of Summer**

While the Vikings and Dwarves would live in relative peace for decades the oldest of the Vikings still sought to retake Hueco Mundo and continue with their warmongering, but this was now impossible and without the support of the dwarves the Vikings would be unable to realistically win regardless. The Vikings would use the Viking Pact as a propaganda tool to push for more war while still doing their jobs as balancers. The dwarves would not help uphold the Viking Pact instead focusing on domestic growth, and the Arcanists mostly kept to their own duties to the cycle. This conflict of desires between the Vikings and Dwarves would create a rift between the two groups that would widen overtime into outright conflict. When the leader who had sided with the dwarves was usurped and killed, the Vikings of the Wild Hunt became outright hostile to the Dwarves and this would signal the start of the **Northern War**.

The Dwarves were not masters of war themselves but they were impossible to siege due to their powers and mastery of technology. What should have been a quick civil war stretched on for thousands of years as the Dwarves created their ultimate superweapon to destroy the vikings and the hollows while the Vikings returned to their pillaging and raiding ways to fuel their war effort, having to gain their resources not from the Dwarves but from the other soul societies in raids.

The Dwarves bidding their time would repurpose the reishi their ancestors had used to create Valhalla in the first place and forge it into the Blue Sun, continuously adding to it with their own power and mining away at their home for materials. The dwarves would have won but for some reason before the Blue Sun was fully finished it went off and indiscriminately destroyed Northern Soul Society in its wake. Nearly every dwarf and viking in existence was destroyed by this event, the arcanists being entirely destroyed due to being utterly immobile and not having enough defense in their structures to survive either. Valhalla became an eldritch hellhole as its reimyaku became outright hostile to life and great old ones were summoned forth by the brilliance of the flash.

### **Age of Fall**

The current age and the aftermath of the Northern War where the remnants of the old north struggle to regain their former glory.

### **Age of Winter**

An hypothetical Age where Ragnarok will occur in and restore the original Hueco Mundo back to its former glory from the ashes of the old.

## ***Inhabitants***

### **Vikings**

#### ***Viking Pact***

A Pact created by the Vikings with the other Balancers, it is a pact that denotes that to prevent the destruction of the worlds by the End the vikings would get rid of the End by consuming all hollowfied entities and substances they encountered either directly or indirectly, removing the taint of the End an of hollowfication by processing it through their body or the body of a domesticated dragon that would in turn be consumed later. This was an effective strategy and allowed the Vikings to circumvent the need for Hell to dispose of their powerful fallen and the powerful bodies of slain enemies.

However by using the dragons as a way to get rid of their own who had been hollowfied the Vikings would sometimes accidentally create Elder Dreki, dragons who had grown incredibly powerful from consuming a superabundance of souls. While the Vikings were more than experienced in dealing with these events quite a few Elder Dreki would escape over the years and forever terrorize the worlds. These errors would contribute to their eventual downfall.