Character Notes

• Hel is a fairly negative person. As one surrounded by the dead and only ever contacted when someone wants something, she became convinced that the world of the living didn't want her. Though she had plenty of servants, she felt considerably lonely and developed a dark sense of humor to cope. She can be gloomy at times too.
  
• This is partly because Hel itself is a depressive place. Her bed was named "sick bed", her bed curtains "misfortune", her dining table "hunger", and her knives "starvation". This wasn't her doing, it was already named this way. Everything in her mansion is named after a misfortune. She is surrounded by negativity at all times.
  
• Because she's spent so long among those who died of sickness or old age, she doesn't entirely understand human struggles and finds many of them unimportant. After all, they should just be glad to be alive. The dead are miserable.
  
• Because of her unusual appearance, she expects hostility from humans. Even those who know nothing of Hel would be unnerved by someone like her.
  
• Physical comfort means a lot to her. Even a casual touch, if it's given with kindness or affection, is something she craves.
  
• She has a deeply negative view of her own appearance. In modern eras she'll try to cover it up as much as possible, though in Hel itself, she doesn't bother. Why would she? The dead fear and respect her.
  
• Having not spent much, if any, time with her family she is exceedingly awkward about them. However, she loves her father deeply and wants his approval and attention.
  
• She isn't very easy to unnerve. Things that would shock or frighten most people don't affect her at all. Part of it is the fact that she just doesn't care what happens to her. The other is her long association with those who died horribly but not in noble situations, and the things they went through in Hel - including Niddhogg draining their blood and her ship being made out of the fingernails of corpses. She's seen far too much shit to care about a jumpscare or a tarantula or a flasher.
  
• On top of that, she's Norse and thus pretty hardy. Women in their time were treated quite differently. While they were still not seen as being the same as men, and men were dominant, women owned the property and handled the finances, they made any decisions related to the household and essentially ruled the roost at home. This was intended so that they would not be dependant on a husband who might die, be away for long periods or decide to leave them. If such things did happen, the woman would in fact take control of the husband's entire business, be it farming or trading. Women could accompany their husbands on raiding trips, reclaim their dowries if their marriages ended and could divorce freely at any time simply by announcing it to witnesses in front of her and her husband's bed. As a result of this culture, Hel was not treated as unintelligent or weak by the dead around her, and as the ruler of her namesake land, she had absolute authority. The power to return the dead to life was in her hands, though she obeyed Odin's rules until Ragnarok.
  
• The cold is more appealing to her than the heat.
  
• She has a particular affinity for fog and mist.
  
• Gloomy places appeal to her the most. Graveyards, lonely forests, anywhere that people would usually avoid. She'd like to be comfortable in more bright and populous places, but they make her uncomfortable.
  
• Being cast down into Hel like this has left her fairly bitter towards the Aesir.
  
• Between her unintentional callousness, bitterness and a trained sadistic streak, she can be excessively harsh and threatening. While her general demeanour is calm and gloomy, angering her will bring pain if she can bring it and she took absolute glee in Ragnarok.
  
• That doesn't mean she's entirely without kindness. For most people she's neutral or uncaring, but for those truly miserable, she does feel - as long as they're not enemies. It's just dulled by her own misery, which likely will change the more happiness she experiences.
  
• She prefers dogs.
  

Appearance

Hel is a fairly tall young woman, with long, flowing black hair that's wild and uncontrolled. Though half of her skin is the healthy pallor of a nordic woman, the other half is blue in coloration, giving her an alien appearance. She favours simple, long dresses in Hel, and in modern eras is not adverse to jeans, a hoodie, and a light shirt underneath.

Her build is a little too thin, and her limbs are fairly bony, but she's actually very healthy.

Basic Information

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Helheim

The name Hel comes from the root word haljō, and means "conceeled place" or "underworld". Though it is also colloquially called Helheim - "Hel's Realm" - some accounts claim her realm is in fact in Niflheim. However, Hel is listed as last among the nine worlds connected to Yggdrasil, making it unclear how this cosmology truly works. Niflheim is only ever mentioned by name in the works of Snorri, the writer responsible for the only full versions of the tales, written during a time of occupation by Christian monks and likely influenced heavily by them. As much of the original forms of Norse mythology is actually unknown due to most of the old tales having been purely oral and only being written down during this time of occupation, a good deal is questionable.

What we do know is that Hel is a fairly gloomy place. It is not a pace of evil spirits, or a place whre only the wicked go to be punished. It is a place of abandonment. All those who do not earn the right to enter Valhalla, Folkvangr, the realm of Rán or the tragic existence of a mound dweller come here. Valhalla required one to die an epic death, a warrior's death, in battle. Folkvangr is the realm of Freyr and little is known about it. It's likely that only those favored by her would go there. The realm of Rán is where her drowned victims' souls are trapped, whle those known as mound dwellers were those trapped within their own burial mounds, the dead stuck on earth. Draugr. Coming to Hel isn't a punishment, it's simply not a reward. Some depictions even portray afterlifes there as positive, just not as good as Valhalla. People being people, they continued in death what they did in life; they got drunk, fought, played games, had dramas. Those deceased of particular distinguishment, such as Baldr, are treated exceptionally well, feasted and welcomed.

All of those who enter Hel, therefore, are the ordinary. Those who die of disease, of old age, who were murdered without glory, died of accidents, or otherwise died the death of a poor, ordinary person would be brought here. They lived fairly ordinary afterlives here, save for the presence of such torments as the dragon Niddhogg, who would drop in to drain the blood out of the dead on occasion. Hel was only a short trip from the roots of Yggdrasil after all, being the lowest of the nine realms.

Hel itself is gloomy, as has been previous mentioned. The objects and furnishings in Hel's home were all named after misfortunes and even her bed was named "sick bed". The ship they would sail to Ragnarok on was said to be build from the fingernails of corpses. It must be noted, however, that most of this gloominess and darkness stems from Snorri's writings and is not mentioned elsewhere. Hel was said to be misty and mysterious, often confusing to those who came from the outside. The living may enter Hel freely, and leave just as freely, though few do and only ever in search of something Hel can offer them.

N a v i g a t i o n

Basic Information
Character Notes
Appearance
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Helheim | Family | Ragnarok