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History of this race is unknown.
Type of Government: Government type unknown.
Level of Technology: Technology level unknown.
Cultural Traits: Cultural traits unknown.
Representatives:
 History Section Needed! The history section for this article is either absent or contains very little information. You can improve this article by adding as much relevant historical information as possible. Articles should be written from an "in-universe" perspective as if they were written by a historian living in the DC Universe. |
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The Asgardians are a extra-dimensional race of beings who were worshiped by the Norsemen as Gods. Their origins are shrouded in myth, making it difficult to nail down the truth of all of the stories written about them.
The Norse Myths tell the story of their origin like this:
Eons ago, the giant hermaphrodite Ymir traveled icy wastes with a giant cow. The cow began to lick the ice, and this constant licking somehow caused a humanoid entity called Buri to emerge from the ice. Buri ran off with one of Ymir's children, producing his son, Borr. Borr also mated with a giantess, producing his family, including Odin, Villi, and Ve. The three boys in time slew Ymir, though his power to reassemble himself has long been documented.
Odin and his brothers then at some point faced Surtur, in a conflict in which Villi and Ve seem to have died. Odin fathered other Asgardians, but at some point, Asgard and its enemies fell in the first Ragnarok. Out of this emerged Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, beings who fed on the continual reincarnation of the Asgardians and Ragnaroks. Buri, going into seclusion, remained apart from this cycle.
The worship of the Asgardians by human beings began at some point after 18,500 BCE. (The first vampire, Varnae, immune to post-Thurian era gods, once stated that he saw the Asgardians emergence: "I watched and snickered as your savage ancestors gnawed their civilization from the bones of the old gods". Who these old gods were is unknown, although Crom might be one of them.)
The cosmic entity the Unbeing, while impersonating the other cosmic entity Origin, claimed that Origin had directed the Asgardians to seek out Earth. Circa 10,000 BCE, Woden (an alternate name for Odin) and other deities were frequently invoked by human beings, and there existed a culture of the Nordheimr, whose people called themselves the Vanir and Aesir. The Nordheimr also worshiped Ymir and his first daughter, Atali. They continued to do so up to roughly 8,000 BCE, when harsh events forced many Nordheimr such as Niord Worm's Bane to migrate to the Vilayet Sea, which became the Caspian Sea. These migrating Nordheimr became the ancestors of the Aryans.
The periodic cycle of Ragnaroks continued for thousands of years. The story of one such cycle, as told to Thor by a giant eye claiming to be the severed eye of Odin, was supposed to have happened around 7 BCE to a version of Asgard with a red-haired Thor. Their counterpart of Odin was also known as Wode, and was worshiped by the Franks in the area that later became Bavaria. The Franks held sacrificial jousts in which those warriors slain would gain the honor of joining Wode on the Wild Hunt in the sky. This Asgard went down in flames; according to the eye, Asgard's destruction served as part of the phenomenon later called the Star of Bethlehem which attended the birth of the Christian/Muslim prophet Jesus of Nazareth. Vidar, Balder, Hoenir, Vali, Villi, Ve, Modi and Magni (Thor's sons), and a few other gods of this incarnation of Asgard who survived this Ragnarok emerged to find the spear of the prior Odin. Grasping it, they were transformed/merged into a new Odin, who again created a new Asgard. Accounts differ as to whether the new Asgardians actually had childhoods or Odin implanted them with false memories of pasts and childhoods that never happened. At some point before the birth of of the current Thor, Odin thwarted the rebellion of Rimthursar. Evidently, memories of the past Asgard remained among men, as a man around 200 CE in Britain invoked Woden and Thor.
Odin grew tired of the Ragnarok cycle and decided to end it once and for all. He joined with the Earth-goddess Gaea to produce the latest version of Thor. Thor would have many adventures around 1000 CE, facing Marduk, Grylak, Varnae, Dromedan, and Atlantean mummies animated by Loki. Thor adopted the mortal Thiafli for Asgard's court. At one point, Thor saw Vikings attacking a Christian monastery; apparently unaware that the Vikings performed such acts for purely profit (monasteries were noted for hoarding gold), while Christian figures had pursued a fierce war against polytheists out of purely ideological Pauline reasons, Thor decided to no longer seek worship on Earth.
Around 1000 CE, Odin joined with Zeus and Vishnu to oppose the Celestials. Dwarfed by their power, Odin resolved to oppose the Celestials for their next host. Odin thus created the magical robot armor known as the Destroyer. Odin later had both Valkyrie and Thor live on Earth as mortals in a series of events that he later wiped from their minds, though he would admit to this brainwashing centuries later. During this time, Thor slew the giant Fafnir, who had transformed into a dragon. (A man named James Allison once incorrectly believed that the story of Fafnir slaying the dragon was only a "racial memory" of a conflict that he had had in his past life as Niord Worm's Bane.)
At some point, the elf Malekith became a foe to the Asgardians and to terrestrial humans. His Casket of Ancient Winters was stolen by a human being later called Eric Willis. This happened centuries ago; Malekith was then extra-dimensionally banished till the modern era.
An unidentified Asgardian at some point mated with a mortal to produce Vali Halfling, later called Agamemnon. The Asgardian Fandral also claimed to have romanced a human woman named Marian, though with no known progeny, living on Earth as Robin Hood or at least being mistaken for him. As such, Fandral may have encountered the time-traveling Avengers on one occasion.
In the 1900s, Thor and Loki journeyed to Earth to the American West, meeting a time-traveling Black Panther. In the 1940s, Loki opposed the Olympian deity Venus and invaded Olympus. Thor aided Venus against Major John Dark, the Creeping Death, and the Sultan of Cassarobia. In the 1960's, Thor again came to Venus' aid.
The stories told by the Thor comics show the repeat of Ragnarok again and again, with Odin trying to find a way to stall or trick the cycle, hoping each time that it would be the last. Finally, the destruction of Asgard came for real (at the end of Thor Volume 2. This last Ragnarok was different from the previous ones in several respects. This time, Odin gave Thor the Odinpower, and sacrificed himself for the last time in order to trap Surtur in the afterlife. Thor, with his new understanding of the cycle, was able to confront Those Who Sit Above in Shadow and break the pattern, sending them into oblivion. His strength and force of will was enhanced by Odin was merging Thor with the persona of Donald Blake, a human doctor. The humanity and humility learned by Thor gave him the ability to finally end the cycle once and for all.
Blake reappeared on Earth when Thor ended the cycle, and was able to convince Thor to return to Earth from the void of non-existence. The city of Asgard was rebuilt in Oklahoma and most Asgardians were restored to live, this time free to find their own destiny. Loki in particular has much to learn about life, being restored to life as a female, although that has since been revealed as part of his never ending plot to destroy Asgard. The female form that he has actually belongs to Sif.
In the Vi-Lock infected world of Earth-8545, The Asgardians are called upon to produce their Godly blood in able to construct a cure for the Legacy Plague.
The Asgardians are aliens that were manipulated by the Celestials. Their natural evolution over the centuries has put them in the third tier of the Celestial mutation cycle. As such, their appearance, powers, and identities are defined by the belief of others. As they are believed to be the Gods of Norse mythology therefor they have the same special adaptations. In the guise of Asgardians, these aliens have become are extremely long-lived, but not immortal like the Olympians; they age very slowly upon reaching adulthood. Their body density are three times denser than normal human beings, contributing to their superhuman strength and weight.
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Further Details
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The origin of the Asgardians of Earth-9997 is vastly different to that of their Earth-616 counterparts. In this reality, they were an unidentified alien race that were manipulated by the Celestials. The Celestials would come to fertile worlds and impregnate it with an embryo to give birth to a new Celestial. In order to defend the planet, they would manipulate the DNA of the dominant species on the planet. The altered species would go through three stages of mutation. The first would be that each individual could trigger a mutation that is unique to the individual. The second tier would be that each member of the race would have the same exact power. The third tier would make the entire species lose all definition. In this state, a species appearance, powers, and identity would be determined by those around them. This is the state the future Asgardians were in when they left their home planet. The reason for their departure is lost to the ages and remains unrevealed. They would arrive on Earth in the 11th Century, where they would be witnessed by the Norsemen. One in particular, a lame story teller named Donnerson (manipulated by Mephisto) made all present believe that they were the Asgardian gods, and that is exactly what they became. Donnerson told them that they were Odin, and when he had the Asgardians reenact the battle against Surtur, he merged with his "brothers" aliens who took on the shape of the fictional Odin's brothers Vili and Ve. When they merged with Odin, Donnerson gained the powers and long lifespan that he envisioned Odin to have. He would form the entire Realm of Asgard into existence using the very aliens themselves to form the foundation of that world, hence giving it the name "the living land" and in the convening centuries, "Odin" would live out his fantasies. Much of this history matches Norse mythology and the Asgardians history on Earth-616. Asgard remained as it was based on the collective belief of humanity that Asgard was real. Come the advent of new religions, belief in Asgard waned and threatened the realms very existence. In order to maintain his fantasy land's cohesion, Odin would send Thor back to Earth. Under the pretense that he was teaching Thor a lesson in humility by transforming him into the lame Dr. Donald Blake. All the modern day events that involved Thor, including the formation of the Avengers were all a orchestrated by Odin to make people of the modern era of believe in the existence of Asgard once more. In modern times, Odin would be convinced by Loki to each Thor another lesson in humility and would change him into a woman and banish him to Earth once more. Thor would become trapped on Asgard once more when she would bring Clea to that realm for punishment for betraying Dr. Strange to Loki. Loki would learn the truth of the Asgardian people and be asked to rally them to help protect Earth from the Final Host of Celestials. When Loki attempted to convince Odin and Thor for help, they would refuse. Killing himself and ending up in Hel, Loki was able to convince all who were trapped there of their true nature and would lead them in battle against the Celestials on Earth. The Celestials superior intellects proved to be the Asgardian's undoing, when they convinced them that they were once more dead causing them all (save for Loki) to return to Hel. Although their attack was a failure, it gave Earth the precious moments it needed for Galactus to arrive and drive off the Celestials. Later Loki would begin redefining himself, and he would also try to convince Thor of her true nature. It wasn't until Thor witnessed Mar-Vel taking her hammer and using it to kill the Supreme Intelligence did she realize that what Loki had told her was true, and reverted back to her male form. The two would work together in a conspiracy to take down Odin and free their people from his imposed slavery, believing that Odin's fantasy's was akin to slavery. Finally, Thor and Loki would return back to Asgard with the intent of bringing about Ragnarok. They would do so by having Thor disguise himself as both the Fenris Wolf and the Miguard Serpent. They would attack Odin using his own mythology against him. However, Odin attempted to halt this by reorganizing Asgard into a new fantasy world that was similar to Asgard. However, the involvement of X-51 (who Thor and Loki brought to record the event) proved to be Odin's undoing. X-51 would reveal to all present Odin's origins and what he had done to them. X-51 would then have Thor chop down the World Tree, as it contained a map to parallel worlds. Horrified by what Odin had done to them, the Asgardians would shed their false forms and abandon him, leaving him to die in the void of space. However, with his dieing breaths, he pleaded them to come back and repented for the wrong that he did. The Asgardians hearing his pleas, decided to return and restore Asgard to it's former glory, restoring Odin as their leader. |
The majority of the Asgardians all have some potential to practice magic, mostly but not limited to changing their appearances, transforming matter and wielding cosmic, elemental and paranormal energies. Though upon a world undefended by any known Sorcerer Supreme, all Asgardian races (like all sentient races of the Marvel Universe, including humans) have the natural ability to harness eldritch energy (magic) far more easily than humans, drawing upon the ambient mystical might of Asgard itself and power-objects found therein, though their magical strength wanes beyond their native dimensional plane, if never fading completely. It has previously been stated by the Sorcerer Supreme of Midgard, Dr. Strange, that personal vitality is a key factor in one's ability to harness magic and since Asgardians are many times more durable than humans they can manipulate far greater magics than most human beings. All known Asgardian races have super-human strength and are extremely long lived, not truly immortal like the Olympians but long enough lived to seem ageless. Each group has especially dense body tissue rendering most of them bullet proof to at least small caliber weapons. Ulik resisted high powered, armor piercing rounds but it should be noted that he is the strongest of Rock Trolls and is probably more durable as well. The Asgardians have been shown to be bullet resistant but not completely unscathed from damage by them, though the more powerful gods, such as Thor and Odin have shown complete immunity to them.
None known.
The average Asgardian male can lift (press) about 30 tons under optimal conditions; the average Asgardian female can lift (press) 25 tons under optimal conditions.
The Asgardians are not highly advanced in technology, and unlike many of the Olympians or other pantheons, very few relatively wield magic; even Ares has been shown using it for various effects. The Asgardians were doomed to die and be reborn in the eternal cycle of Ragnarok, until Thor ended it, their lives bound to the Norns, Yggdrasil, Hela and Those Who Sit Above In Shadow. Even on Midgard without Ragnarok, it has been shown that "the touch of mortality upon" the Asgardians are greater than in Asgard, and, like Odin, their natural powers are weakened.
Habitat: Earth-Like
Gravity: Normal
Atmosphere: Normal
Population: Population of this race is unknown.
Type of Government: Monarchy
Level of Technology: Magic
Cultural Traits: The Asgardians were worshiped as gods by the people of Scandinavia and Germania, occupying parts of Britain, Gaul and North American outposts.
Representatives: Odin, Frigga, Heimdall, Hermod, Hildegarde, Hoder, Loki, Lorelei, Nanna, Njord, Saga, Sif, Sigyn, Thor, Tyr, Valkyrie, Vidar, et al.
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