Story

Story

Ragnarök is fast approaching and you’re a Norse warrior of great reknown and power who is yet to die in battle. However, now with ragnarok fast approaching you wish to reach Valhalla and so seek to die in battle. Unfortunately for you though upon seeing your hubris and pride, the gods have seen fit to curse you to not be allowed entry into Valhalla until you defeat them all in combat.

As a result, you now must fight your way through the minions and subjects of the gods of norse mythos and then the gods themselves in order to reach your goal of Valhalla.

Plot

Game Story

Basic Plot

With the omens now pointing to Ragnarök you the player, a norse warrior of great renown and skill wish to die in battle to be able to join your brethren in Valhalla. However upon seeing your pride and Hubris, Loki the trickster god has decided to prevent you from being able to fight and die in battle and instead has taken you and locked you away in a dungeon within Hel.

Now as a result, you the player must fight your way out and escape Loki’s clutches and hope that your deeds will be enough to grant you entry into Valhalla.

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Main Story

Having been snatched away by Loki, you awaken in a dungeon guarded by those who serve him. Upon waking the player hears the booming voice of Loki, taunting them and poking at them and their fate, daring them to try to make it out knowing that their attempts are doomed. (This initial room will also serve as a hub room for the player to interact with neutral NPCs with after their first run where they can get their upgrades and the like.)

Undeterred, the player leaves the initial room and will thereafter find themselves needing to fight through a series of rooms populated with those in servitude to Loki and the like. After making their way to the end of the rooms the player comes to the final room in the sequence, the boss room. As this will be the first boss the player comes across it will not be a god, and will instead be a less complex boss fight. This boss of this section of the game will be the wolf/dog Garmr who guards the gates to Hel.

After defeating Garmr the player pushes on through only to find that Loki’s personal dungeon was within Hel itself and so now they must fight their way out of Hel. As before, Loki’s voice can be heard booming taunting the player yet again, speaking to the futility of their quest. The denizens of Hel are dead norse warriors and people who would normally spend their time doing the same kinds of things that they would normally do whilst still alive [2]. However, now they have been recruited to the cause of preventing you from leaving Hel and making progress in your journey towards Asgard to find Loki. After making it through Helheim, you will come across Hel herself, Loki’s daughter and goddess of the underworld. Being Loki’s daughter, she too will fight the player in an attempt to thwart them from making any progress.

After triumphing over Hel, the player makes their way out of Helheim through its exit/entrance. Through leaving Helheim the player will find themselves travelling across a bridge which leads back to the overworld. On the other side of the bridge is the next major zone, a deep valley will trees lining the sides. Through this area the player could potentially come across enemies in the form of wild animals and the like. After progressing through this area the player comes across Tyr, the god of war who ears have heard tales of your exploits up to this point, managing to be the first person to ever make it out of Helheim on top of all that you had managed upon the battlefield and wishes to try his strength against you. (Could be a two stage boss where the first stage is quite easy as he holds back given the fact you are still technically a mortal and non god, and then the second phase could be one where he is impressed enough to use more of his power and present a real challenge.)

The player still manages to overcome Tyr and the god suitably impressed points you in the direction of Bifröst/the burning rainbow bridge and thus the entrance to Asgard. Once the player arrives at the rainbow bridge, they come across Heimdallr, the guardian of the rainbow bridge. However he too knows about what has occurred between the player and Loki and allows you to pass freely as him and Loki are rivals and so he allows you to continue on in your quest. Not only does he grant the player passage through the rainbow bridge but he also sees fit to grant the player a boon of their choosing in order to aid them in their cause against Loki. (This will be a per run buff that will only exist past this point in runs and will have to be chosen each run. It could be something simple like a choice between 50% bonus health or 50% bonus damage or something more complex depending on time constraints.)

Past the rainbow bridge lies Asgard and now having reached it the player is greeted not by the voice of Loki, but by Loki himself in person who taunts the player one last time before leaving the player to make their way through Asgard towards Loki’s domain. Through their journey through Asgard the player will come across more norse warriors but this time those who are up in Valhalla. They could also perhaps come across Valkyries and other such beings from norse mythos. After progressing through the rooms in Valhalla, the player will at last come across Loki in person where they will face off against him. Should they triumph over Loki he will at last admit he has been bested and allow the player to make their way towards Valhalla.

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Extra stuff /Alternative route

After defeating Loki, the player is met by Thor and Odin who agree to allow them entrance to Valhalla without needing to fall in battle on condition however that the player faces off against them as well. This boss fight could be a fight against both Thor and Odin or it could be one after the other, or maybe even the player could get to choose which of the two occurs. If the player faces off against them one after the other then they are given entrance to Valhalla without needing to die in battle. If however the player faces off against them both at the same time then Odin decides to raise them above being a mortal and elevates them to a position that is not quite a god, but as a close as a mortal could get to being one.

This could also give the player a way to reset runs after having completed the game in a way that makes sense. For example, if the player first decides to face off against them one after the other when the player goes to talk to Odin whilst in Valhalla then he could say something like “Oh ho ho, you wish to face us both? Well first you must go through your trials once again.” And then send you back to when you were in the dungeon and yet to reach Asgard. And then if you did fight them both and come out on top then the power that you are granted by being elevated above mortal position could allow you to relive that yourself, just for the sake of it.

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Game mechanics and story tie ins

As a roguelike, each time you die you are sent back to the beginning of the run with minimal progression being kept. To have this make sense in the story, each time you are defeated you are carried back to the beginning of the game by Valkyries or some minions of Loki and put back into the dungeon where you initially begin. Loki then taunts you about your failure to reach and defeat him in Asgard. This dialogue could have several different variations so each time you are defeated its not the same thing over and over.

The progression that is in the game could be either or both small incremental upgrades and new weapons/abilities you can unlock by defeating the various bosses in the game. The incremental upgrades could be obtained by talking to a dwarf or something similar in the corner of the room where you start. He will upgrade your gear but only if you bring him trinkets/materials/whatever that you collect as you go through the world in your attempt to get to Valhalla.

The new abilities/weapons that you unlock would come from bosses that you defeat. Each time you defeat a boss you obtain a power or weapon that they use. So for example Hel could be some way to manipulate enemies that you face, Tyr could be a sword and shield, Loki could be some mirror image ability that confuses enemies, Thor could be Mjolnir and Odin could be a spear. With this the player is rewarded for playing the game and making progress deeper into the game.

References

[1] Garmr - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmr [2] Helheim - https://norse-mythology.org/cosmology/the-nine-worlds/helheim/