Summary
Usually, the player takes control of the hero of the story, and that seems to be the case when it comes toValheim,since the player takes control of a Viking sent by Odin after coming back from the dead. It seems as though the player is on a mission dictated by the leader of the Aesir Gods to defeat and conquer the many biomes scattered around this new land, but that isn’t actually the case. AlthoughValheimis never overt with its lore, it is quite possible that it implies the player isn’t the hero they thought they were.
The basic premise ofValheimis that the realm is a prison for the enemies of Odin; deer, fish, boars, and all. The most prominent of these enemies is The Forsaken, who the player is tasked with slaying and mounting on the Sacrificial Stones. These are essentially the bosses of the game, such as Moder, the Ice Dragon, or the Swamp’s Bonemass, and their imprisonment largely explains the pre-existing cultures and societies of the prison realm, which the player has essentially come to destroy. A fan theory suggests that these actions aren’t actually heroic.
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A Valheim Fan Theory Suggests That The Player Is The Real Villain
And There Might Be Some Weight To It
According to a theory byKhrispy-minus1on Reddit, the player may be the bad guy.The Forsaken are attempting to re-link the realm ofValheimto the World Tree, Yggdrasil, so that they are no longer imprisoned, but it is implied that this is an impossibility since the World Tree will be destroyed before that can happen. The player is tasked with slaying the Forsaken and ensuring that this does not happen under Odin’s orders. It seems like the Odin ofValheimis not the noble incarnation seen in theMCUbut rather closer to the knowledge and power-hungry trickster seen in the Norse Myths.
In the Norse Myths, Odin isn’t exactly a good man, having tricked many, many individuals to get what he wanted.The Forsaken might not be evil monsters, but they do bring some structure to the strange prison realmby keeping mobs native to certain biomes largely within those biomes. That is until the Vikings sent by Odin come along, slaying the Forsaken to prevent them from linking the realm to the World Tree and freeing themselves of their prison.Mobs from multiple different biomesthen mix, causing chaos and mayhem.
In the Norse Myths, Odin is more like Loki in that he often employs disguises to trick people. The Zeus-like portrayal of a noble, wise king, which isn’t all that accurate to Zeus either, isn’t true to the myths.
Valheim Is A Cruel Prison Made By A Power Hungry God
He Fears The Forsaken
Valheimas a realm is quite a cruel place for everyone involved, not just the player character. Yes, there are times when a Viking will have to chain together Corpse Runs to get their inventory back after being bitten to death by a pack of hungry wolves, but this only works because many things inValheimseem to live in a state of undeath. The Vikings themselves have already died, and that’s the reason they’re in the realm to begin with, but even the slain bosses will talk if their heads are mounted on a wall.
Players can fight bosses again to have spare trophies, which can be mounted on walls as decoration. They will notreceive more boss powersby doing so, however.
Being slain in such a manner is cruel enough, but then the Vikings conquer and pillage the realms that once belonged to them, razing villages, like the ones that belong toFulings, and stripping the land of its natural resources to build admittedly cool mega-structures never before seen. Although this is common for mythical Vikings in other media,raiding and pillaging prisoners who are already suffering isn’t all that heroic. Pair that with being under the orders of a potentially cruel god, and it begins to paint the player in a villainous light.
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The Vikings Of Valheim Are Just Following Orders
Their Status As Hero Or Villain Depends On Odin And The Forsaken
The player is often given guidance byOdin’s ravens, Hugin and Munin, to better ensure their success, but their status as hero or villain doesn’t really depend on them. The game presents the ravens and Odin as one of the few allies, outside of traders and a judging Thor, andslaying the Forsaken is the point of the game. There really isn’t any other main objective and the player isn’t given much choice against this, so it all depends on whether Odin is right in imprisoning the Forsaken and allowing chaos to flourish amongValheim’s denizens.
If Odin is a cruel, knowledge-hungry god who wants to punish any threat, even if they’re largely innocent, then the Vikings can be seen as the real villains. If The Forsaken are dangerous and evil in their own right, and their imprisonment away from the World Tree is justified, then perhaps the Vikings are heroic warriors sent by a just deity.What isn’t deniable is that the denizens ofValheimwill suffer, and chaos will thrive the further the player gets into the game because of the Viking’s actions.
