Opening his eyes, Jack was greeted with a bright sun shining straight in his eyes. His nose worked again and it was filled with the smell of the sea. His ears were sending signals again by filling his mind with the clashing of waves. Slowly Jack got up and took a look around. Around him as far as the eye could see was ice, snow and water. Still Jack was not cold. ‘Maybe its because I’m standing in the sun.’ To his left was a small village. Jack called it a village but it was nothing more than 3 huts and one bigger house, that looked more like a barn or a warehouse, than a real house for people to live in. It was blocky and had no windows. Not even a door was visible on the two sides visible to him. Next to the houses at the shore to the water there was a ship. Not that big from the looks of it. It appeared to Jack as a norse longship but not a really big one, and it was filled with what appeared to be fishing equipment. Around his neck Jack could feel a big chain with something heavy attached to it. Looking down it appeared to be a big book. More like a tome. Encased in leather form some animal. On it was a symbol of a longship in the waves as well as the Word ‘Nordar’ on it. Looking at the book he saw his own skin for the first time. ‘Why am I blue? Am I not human anymore? Well there were pretty high chances of me not being human anymore but still…’ Looking at his light blue skin and then checking his body in general Jack was curious to see what else changed in this new life. Apart from his light blue skin nothing else changed as far as he could tell. ‘What about my head? Do I have some fancy new hair colour? Do I have a fish head or something? I have no idea what to expect of being a Nordar.’
Curiously he opened the Tome. ‘Maybe there is something in the tome than explains things to me?’
As soon as the first page was opened some words formed on the blank page in an already familiar font.
You made it to your new life. One of many that were brought here to give this world some colour.
There is one native humanoid race in this world. But all other races and some new beasts come into this world under a fellow human soul.
Explore, trade, conquer, raid…
Its up to you.
After a few seconds the words faded out again only to be replace by new words.
You start with five members of your race. You are their leader. Everybody has the same start. If you started as a mighty host of dragons then you now have 5 big hungry dragons under your command. Go conquer the sky.
If you started as a small little kobold, maybe try to build up some things before you go wage war.
But don’t despair, your races sets the frequency of new people arriving for you to command. Who said quality is better than quantity.
Looking at the words slowly fading Jack guessed that not everything in this world was about conquering and building up your race. Plus as the ‘Lost Nordar’ Jack guessed that he wont have too many enemies around him, except maybe wildlife. By the time the first page of the tome was blank again, five pages of the tome started shaking and ripping away from the tome. They floated away from the book and transformed with a flash of light into five figures. The figures slowly took shape of five Nordars. Jack finally saw the how his head approximately looks like. They had variants of grey hair with some almost white hair and one of them had fully white hair. The two Nordars with the lightest hair colour were undoubtedly female, as they had broad hips and a full bust. The males were almost built like a strongman from earth. They were all draped in a combination of leather and fur garments. But even with the clothing, some fat was visible on their bodies. ‘They are probably built to endure the cold of the north. Not exactly the beauty standard of earth. And they all look a little brutish too. Especially the three males.’
After observing these five newly created Nordars for a few seconds, Jack asked after some hesitation “Can you understand me? Do we speak the same language?” ‘I hope they speak the same language as me. Should be expected considering the one that sent me here can take my soul to a new world and create beings out of pages in a book. If he is not able to make us speak the same language I can only resort to some primitive gestures for communication.’
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Their eyes, all blue, focused on me and one of them, a middle aged Nordar by the looks of it, answered “We understand leader.”
“Tell me about yourself and our race. Then we can take a look at the village and our surroundings.” Said Jack while thinking ‘I need to check how these Nordars react to commands and try to find out if they are like puppets without a soul or if they are genuine people.’
“I am Bilsor. I’ve seen over fifty winters and all my life I have spent by the sea. I am a good enough navigator. Give me a bone spear and a ship and I will feed a whole village and get you the head of a leviathan with it.” Said the Nordar that answered me before. ‘It seems like he is the oldest of them, if we go by looks and the fact that he spoke first.’
“Please introduce yourselves as well, in the same manner as Bilsor.” Jack told the others.
The second Nordar to introduce himself came forward, “I am Haf…” Everybody introduced themselves. In the end Jack had five Nordars under his command. Bilsor the navigator and fisherman. Haf also a fisherman and apparently quite the craftsman. Haf was about forty years old but looked like someone around thirty. ‘Would be nice if Nordars have a longer lifespan compared to humans.’ Asa the white haired of the two females was around thrirty years old. She was apparently very good at making clothes and knows her way around some herbs and other medicinal remedies. The other woman was called Ragna. She was a real warrior. She could fish, she could defend herself against wolves and bears of the ice steppes. She said she was close to fifty years old.
Eskil the third and only male that isn’t good at fishing. He makes up for it by being a killer machine with an axe. Doesn't matter if its a throwing axe or a heavy battle axe. ‘They are the perfect group to start a village or tribe. It’s almost as if by design. Haha’
‘The only downside is that none of them have any weapons with them. They have only clothing. Maybe there will by some by the village.’ Mused Jack to himself.
“Alright, I am Jack. As you pointed out, I’m your leader.” ‘I just hope they don’t find out I’m not even twenty years old.’
“Lets go explore the village. After I call you back we meet by the boat and then we do inventory of all the things we found in the village.” Said Jack before he turned around and walked to the few huts he called village. Jack expected to have no idea what half the stuff in the village even is. He knows he can recognise an axe or a longship but all the finer equipment's use is probably lost on him. Looking at the sun it was probably around five in the afternoon. But who really knew what time it was. The sun was pretty close to the horizon. Which either meant it was close to sundown or Jack was really far north and the sun would only go down deep into the night. All this was only true during summer of course. Jack needed only a few minutes to see that the three huts were prefect to sleep in for all six of them and that the boat was ready for a fishing trip. All the other finer things were more or less lost on Jack. ‘Well all this did is make me feel overwhelmed and a little lost. On the bright side I think that makes me a proper member of the lost Nordars.’ After spending a few minutes staring out into the sea, he called all five of the Nordars to the boat.
“Everybody please tell me what you found and add to what others said if need be.” Announced Jack while gesturing Bilsor to go first.
“I took a look at the ship and it is perfect for fishing and exploring. It takes about four people to manoeuvre it reliably. I don’t know the local waters yet, so I suggest four or five of us go out for fishing and exploring tomorrow. There are two iron harpoons on the ship for bigger catch if we find some.” Said Bilsor.
Next Asa took a step forward and started explaining her findings. “As far as I can tell there is almost nothing growing here when it comes to herbs. Although I have to admit I’m not familiar with the local flora for this to be a certainty. The huts are isolated enough to not get cold in the night and there is even some additional fur in the warehouse. I also found some basic tools in the warehouse.”
The others had nothing to say except Eskil, who proudly presented a chest full of iron axes that he found. The chest had five normal hatchets, almost a dozen throwing axes and two big battle axes. Eskil also found three heavy shields ina corner of the warehouse made out of wood and covered with animal hide. Sadly no armour or bows were found. All in all it should be the perfect start for his tribe of Nordars.
“Everyone except Asa and Bilsor can go claim a hut in pairs as well as start looking for wood and food in the surrounding area. Asa and Bilsor, I would like to ask you some questions.” Jack did not expect them to find much food in the snowy surroundings but he did want to collect some wood to dry and use in the night to keep them warm and for some light.
“Tell my a little bit about your origin and about Nordars in general. Just act like I have absolutely no idea who we are.” Said Jack to the two Nordars in front of him. ‘I do know almost nothing about Nordars. But they do no need to know that.’