Erika is very likely the last free Valkyrie, and she suddenly finds herself having to rise well beyond the call of duty for her kind, but true to her nature she's more than up for the challenge, and is ready to take the heavy burden of retaking Valhalla from the mysterious forces that have conquered it (forces that will remain hidden for now). She's got a serious look on her face that most adults would probably hurt themselves trying to imitate, and her rough no-nonsense personality clashes rather jarringly with her cute girly exterior, no matter how many horned helmets, sharp spears, long axes and unbreakable shields she may carry. She's courageous and adventurous, always ready to take on whatever the world may throw at her, though she also feels a small aversion to meddling in the affairs of mankind, since she has been taught from little to only care for the dead. Once she finds a suitable recruit for her army, she can transport them to a pocket dimension near this side of Bifrost where they meet with other warriors from other times and places and wait for the right time to strike. It's important to note that she has the power to take them there wether they're dead or alive, but she'd much rather not wait 'till they die, and most of the time she takes them still alive with a promise of returning them to their exact time like nothing had happened..

Erika's companion is just as inmortal as she is, though she's not sure of his secret identity. He's an old man dressed in robes who acts as her mentor, and probably is the one who carries the gateway to the warriors' staging area/pocket dimension. He may or may not be Odin. The /co/mrade who first came up with the idea wasn't too clear on this, but I think it's best this way.

One thing I really liked about this idea was that it could be used to as a study of the true meaning of "warrior". What is a warrior? Who is a warrior? What's the difference between a warrior and a killer? Do you have to kill to be a warrior? That sort of thing.
With that in mind, I came up with the character of Jimmy "Two-Thumbs", a cowboy who's found, inches away from dehydrating to death in the desert, by Erika and her companion. They take care of him, and to keep him conscious Erika tells him about Valhalla. Once he's back on his feet, Jimmy offers his services and experience to the pair, feeling rather curious about this heavenly place where he's apparently going to "drink wine an' fill mah gut fer half eternity, 'n spend th' other half shootin' holes in crazy europeans", not to mention that he's not so sure he has earned himself a place in regular christian Heaven. So he joins their party and spends most of the time learning what it means to be a warrior, while at the same time lending a hand with both his extensive knowledge of the West and his uncannily fast thumbs, which make him fast on the triggers even though his accuracy leaves something to be desired.
Basically, he's Erika's guide through the frontier, and a sort of paternal instinct drives him to try being her bodyguard which doesn't bode well with the valkyrie, who not only is near immortal and can decapitate a nail with her spear, but who also hates being treated, seen and talked to as a little girl.

And so together they roam the West, looking for lawmen, outlaws, desperadoes, rangers, bounty hunters, thieves... In short, any kind of man or woman "willing to kill or die for a true cause", which is more or less the basic definition of warrior Erika and her companion give to "Two-Thumbs". Just exactly what that will to kill or die really means, or what a true cause entails, is what will be analyzed before and after the smoke from the six-guns, Winchester rifles and shotguns clears. Because there will be shootouts, oooh yes. Lots and lots of shootouts.
Because sometimes you just need to see a bandido taken off his horse by a spear thrown by a little girl wearing a horned helmet.

A few suggestions for members of Erika's fellowship.
1) A Native American warrior who was slain while trying to defend his village from an US Cavalry charge.

2) A black former slave that tried to defend a defenseless white family while their wagon caravan was attacked by an Indian raiding party.

Have a common goal between most of the members be defending the natural beauty of the West and the homes of the people trying to survive out there.

well, Mormons (LOL) believe that there were Romans in Pre-Columbian America.

what if they are still there. or maybe their mythological heroes.

black Hercules carving a cave in a mountain faster then any machine

Charybdis in the Bermuda triangle

Native American centaurs.

oh, the sweet nostalgia

if you are going by what this story was before, she is a de-aged Valkyrie, retaining a portion of her powers, the old man and dog that are traveling with her are Loki and Fenrir, and the norse and western tall tales are inter woven: Frost Giant = Paul Bunyan; John Henry = Thor and thr machine = the snake that kills Thor; et cetera

>>20832
Ahh, I hadn't heard about this. Interesting... In Thor Henry's case, maybe the steam drill is not the snake, but rather the man driving it or the industrialist who built it, and the drill itself is the snake's poison, creeping inside men and making them weaker and weaker until they wither to death. It's a bit of a luddite message, but it fits both the age and the story.

Still, I'm not so sure about this whole mixing tall-tales with sagas/myths thing, mostly because it would end up making a kind of fucked-up timeline, unless we used cyphers and archetypes instead of the actual mythological figures.

A question, though: what about Loki? Does Erika know who Loki is? Is he tricking her? Is he genuinely worried about the fate of Asgard, or is he just trolling/sabotaging her and her mission? ... Looks like we got a subplot in our hands.

>>20832
what happened to old depowered yet still a badass Odin with the glass eye?

>>20834
>what about Loki? Does Erika know who Loki is? Is he tricking her? Is he genuinely worried about the fate of Asgard, or is he just trolling/sabotaging her and her mission? ... Looks like we got a subplot in our hands.

clearly, yes to everything

>>20836
But why would Loki care about Asgard? Unless he was trying to either gain Odin's favor by helping Erika reconquer Valhalla, or he was secretly hand-picking evil warriors behind the valkyrie's back in order to make his own army of minions and take Asgard for himself...
Either way, if she knows who he is then their relationship would be the very definition of uneasy alliance. That's always fun to see. Plus, it adds another burden to poor Erika, who not only has to take back Asgard but do so while keeping an eye out for Loki's machinations.
This stuff writes itself, man, I tells ya.

>>20834
the idea for the mixed mythologies is that the norse pantheon are in the old west but people of the time don't realize who they really are i.e. the norse gods survive hundreds of years and go to the american frontier.

He is Loki and he is worried about Asgard because his own powers are being affected too and until they get everything back to normal it is kinda impossible to get Ragnarok started, and no she doesn't know who he really is

I'm lovin it. I'm loving that you're enjoying working on it! It's always been a rather fun story to think about, though I admit I tended to veer the production towards the darker side. I like that what you got here still sounds fun and crazy. And keeping that tone along with the more serious elements is gonna be the biggest trick I think.

Anycase, I'll chime in again later with some of my own production notes and the outline of a story I had in mind for a very long time. But that'll have to wait, I've rather been enjoying this holiday. And I hope you all are too.

ps. I think unfortunately the name Jimmy "Two-Thumbs" might just be sidling in too closely to /co/'s other famous property Nicky "Two-Vests" in terms of naming. Soo... maybe somethin else? I dunno. Makes more sense as a thrid wheel than the Ninja did that's for damn sure.

>>20851
Hmm, I like it better that way. He never lets anybody know who he is. He is a trickster god after all. So besides carrying the burden of being Asgard's only hope, Erika also has to deal with trying to find out who this mentor is. And on the sidelines, Loki gathers his own army to take Asgard from the exhausted hands of whoever wins the battle between Erika's army of einherjar and the mysterious foes who have conquered the realm of the Gods.
As for the norse pantheon idea, perhaps the best thought would be to keep them all oblivious to who they really are, so Erika ends up unwittingly recruiting them. Or perhaps... perhaps there's more to that than seems the eye. Perhaps the Gods and Godesses are always there, in the spirit of these brave heroes. Perhaps there's been one Thor and one Heimdall in each generation, not the actual gods themselves, but a manifestation of what each and every one of them mean to mankind. Heroes with the might of thunder, eternal vigilants, mischievous tricksters, beautiful maidens, they live inside of us, and Erika's quest is to find those men and women in which they shine brighter than ever.

>>20854
And I'm more than glad that you're enjoying it too!
I never noticed the resemblence between Nicky and Jimmy. I came up with the "Two-Thumbs" idea as a nickname for being really quick with the thumbs, and as a way to give him a certain super-power without recurring to the perfect aim most cowboys have. He's really quick with two revolvers, but he's not that good at precision aiming. Of course, this doesn't matter much after proving his worth to Erika and getting his guns enchanted with mystical runes that give him unlimited magical ammo...
I guess the best choice would be changing his name to something without that "iy" sound. Perhaps "Two-Thumbs" Joe? "Two-Thumbs" Jack? Or just "Two-Thumbs", ala Angel Eyes in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?
Love the old man's sketch, too. It really shows how he tries to blend in with the Wild West crowd, while Erika is more than happy to go around with a horned helmet and wooden shield. It's a fun little piece of character interaction, plus it makes you doubt wether he's trying to fit in with the crowd... or hide in plain sight.
To be honest, I was more than tempted to turn to the darkest parts of the story, which is the reason why I included a human anchor character. He's there to make fun of Erika, to try and get Loki drunk, and in time to do his best to protect her, which naturally pisses her off. He doesn't start with the best of intentions (he's basically trying to buy himself a better afterlife) but as he follows them he finds something every true warrior must have: a cause. Something to fight for. Something to die for.
And maybe because it's too corny or maybe because I want to create some mistery around it (and therefore the character) I'm not letting you in on what that cause is... for now.
Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!

>>20855 Perhaps the Gods and Godesses are always there, in the spirit of these brave heroes. Perhaps there's been one Thor and one Heimdall in each generation, not the actual gods themselves, but a manifestation of what each and every one of them mean to mankind. Heroes with the might of thunder, eternal vigilants, mischievous tricksters, beautiful maidens, they live inside of us, and Erika's quest is to find those men and women in which they shine brighter than ever.

That is kinda lame, actually. Why not just go with the Thor goes to the old west and people do not know who he really is. He is going by the name John and even though he is mostly without his god power he is still almost super-human and so stories are told about him.

>>20856
There's a number of issues I have with that:

1) It kinda centers Erika's quest too much on the Wild West (since that's where most of the Norse Gods ended up somehow) and that ruins Erika's quest a little. If she's trying to build an army of human warriors to take back Asgard, then it'd make much more sense to search for them in various historical periods (Crusades, World Wars, Ancient Greece) than just going to the Wild West.

2) Connected to reason 1, if the Norse Gods are reincarnating in the West, then Erika's quest becomes looking for them, which I feel throws away a human core that'd be very important to the story. With Erika looking for human warriors who share the characteristics of Norse Gods, it becomes a story about the power of men and how they can rise to godhood through their deeds and sacrifices, being inspired by ancient myths while at the same time creating their own to inspire future generations with. If she's looking for the Gods themselves, then it becomes a story about gods looking for gods, and while mixing that with western tall-tales is a nice idea, it kinda loses the human heart that I personally feel it could have.

3) Erika is a valkyrie who's suddenly given this heavy burden to carry. She's become the last, best hope for Asgard completely out of the blue, and tries to do her best. If we put the actual Norse Pantheon in the story, then it not only diminishes Erika's efforts, but raises the question of why are those Gods not trying to take back Asgard. If they were amnesiac or something then it'd make sense, and it could be used as a plot point: Gods are hidden among humans; nobody, not even Erika knows them; and she stumbles upon them or is drawn to them, helps them regain their memories and sends them to the staging area to join and train the army of Valhalla.

That's how I see it, anyway. I'm always open to more ideas.

>>20859
1) so she can time travel?

2) the gods were depowered and they had men with them. and a man helping a god fight some mega mythological beast makes the man seem so much greater whilst if it were just a man it would make the beast seem weak.

3) amnesia WAS a plot point.

>>20860

1) Either that, or the attack on Asgard happened right at the time of the Old West. But yeah, time travel is an option, since I doubt there are enough worthy warriors in the west to make an army to storm Valhalla.

2) So the mythological beasts came with them over to Earth? Wouldn't that be a bit of a clusterfuck, having frost giants walking around Mexico? Besides, what men were with them? Followers they picked around on Earth, or einherjar that escaped the fall of Asgard with them?
In any case, in the end I fear it may end up deviating too much from the western setting and end up being a norse gods story that just happens to be set on the west, merely fitting norse myths with western tall-tales like set pieces.
Besides, making a beast seem weak or a man seem strong is all up to the story and writing. Way I see it, having a man beat a beast without the help of gods conveys a message of mankind's growing power over its' fate, something which is further driven home by Erika's mission of recruiting human warriors to take Asgard back, which is basically the gods of old asking these human tall-tales, these modern myths made of earthly flesh and bone and yet somehow inspired (even unconsciously) by the old tales, for help. If you change that mission to finding the old gods and bringing back their memories, it kinda loses the human heart of the story, relegating it all to a setting, a background.

3) Ah, sorry, didn't get that. It does add a big part to the story and Erika's quest if she runs into de-powered, amnesiac gods roaming the land, disguised without them even knowing.

>>20863
1) time travel cluster fucks stuff. let's go with the second option.

2) frost giants disguised as mountains. the men are the men of the old west who happen to be at the right time next to the right god. and since the gods are Depowered and amnesiac they will probably have already made some sort of relations in the various places they reside.

>>20859
the plot was not that Erika was trying to recruit an army to fight. And the story did take place during the time of the old west. the other gods lost most of their powers and memories. Erika and Loki both retain some of the powers and memories.

What she was after is an acorn. Baldr pretty much killed Yggdrasil and absconded the one acorn it produced, mostly likely wanting to avoid his own death. He ran to the old West and tried to take over (I believe we decided that he was going to be General Lee).

Erika's goal is to get the acorn and replant the tree.

>>20863
As far as mythological creatures. They are mostly depowered too. and not many do come over. The when a frost giant comes over he goes down into tall tales as Paul Bunyan. So essentially all the tall tales of people doing things beyond a human's ability are really the Norse creatures or gods.

And as a side note the mythological creatures and gods like Thor are just supposed to be background ambiance not the main focus of the story.

>>20864
It doesn't really have to fuck stuff up, but if we go with the original plot idea of the acorn then yeah, the only way to go is focusing on one time period.

>>20867
>>So essentially all the tall tales of people doing things beyond a human's ability are really the Norse creatures or gods.

That's what rubs me a bit wrong. Tall-tales are modern myths, but what sets them apart from the classical ones is that they're all believable stories or are based on real figures. They're the proof that mankind can create its' own mythology without recurring to almighty gods, but at the same time taking their archetypes and making them their own, effectively putting mankind one step closer to godhood through these stories. If you turn the actual people in these tales into gods, it defeats their whole purpose, no matter how many human helpers they have. As much as I like the idea of Thor Henry, turning his tale into a repaint of a norse story bugs me.

I think we may not be in the same train of thought here. I'd like to ask the drawfag which interpretation he likes best before getting down to writing the script. After all, he's the one gonna draw it.

>>20868
>>Tall-tales are modern myths, but what sets them apart from the classical ones is that they're all believable stories or are based on real figures.

A giant lumberjack or a man lassoing a tornado are believable?

>>20871
The first one sure. The second one not so. But still, the key idea here is that they're both men, made of flesh and bone, who make their way through the world without help from the Gods. They're not driven by otherworldly beings or given powers by supernatural entities, but by their heart and will, and it's those things that allowed these men to become legends and inspire others to follow suit. While mankind once looked up to the Gods for inspiration and guidance, now they look up to other men, men who rose up from their humble origins, fought with all their hearts against impossible odds and were rewarded with their own place at the halls of legends.
But now the halls' doors are closed, and these legends, these mighty warriors, these modern einherjar must unite to bring balance to the universe. Inspired by the myths and archetypes that came before them but still their own legends, they will stand tall where even Gods have fallen.

THREAD #20827 OF /draw/

RISE