The Secret History of Norheim (The Prelude of Legion of Frostborne)

A long time ago, Léger and Noir were the two pantheons in charge of light and darkness, living in harmony and maintaining peace in the world.

One day, one of the Noir named Gullveig appeared. Believing that darkness should overrule light, she declared war on the Léger side.😡 After many intense battles, she was seriously injured and fled to lands unknown.

Many years later, the Three Goddesses of Norheim began to create a new world under the orders of the leader of the Léger. At this time, the long-missing Gullveig suddenly appeared before them. Gullveig had not abandoned her plan to rule the universe with darkness. The four deities fought a furious battle, causing Norheim, newly born from the chaos, to become extremely unstable. The world trembled and shook as all kinds of primordial energies burst forth amidst their battle. At last, the Three Goddesses defeated Gullveig, but failed to take her life. They then used a vast amount of their own life energy to create Energy Stones to stabilize the newborn continent, hence losing the strength to pursue Gullveig. Once again, Gullveig made her escape. Although the Three Goddesses did not pursue Gullveig, they knew that she had not left their world, and was hiding in the north of the continent. To trap Gullveig there, they used the last of their energy to seal that land in ice❄, and it came to be known as the Frozen Realms, the coldest land in all of Norheim.😷

After all this time, Gullveig is still searching for Energy Stones.

In the year 1427, Horheim's bottled homunculi were accidentally exposed. The following year, seven Gnomes escaped from their bottles, fleeing the world of humanity and alchemy to the Frozen Realms of the north. Gullveig appeared before them, claiming to be the Goddess of the Frozen Realms. With her help, the Gnomes quickly mastered the lost technology of steam machines. This allowed Gnome civilization to develop rapidly, and the age of the great tribes began. Gullveig became the highest goddess of the Gnomes, and the seven Gnomes who first met her became known as her guardian deities. The Gnomes also came to know the “truth” that the cowardly and despicable humans had stolen the Gnomes' souls because they feared their strength, and that their stolen souls were sealed in the giant red stone at the center of Norheim. Learning this, they began slowly hatching a plan of revenge.👾

As humanity feared the Gnomes and their strange technology, they used their summoning arts, which had been sealed away for millennia, to open the Gates of Truth, successfully summoning the Einherjar, or the Immortals. The appearance of the Einherjar drove Gullveig mad with desire. She craved to open the Gates of Truth for herself. For centuries, her obsession with the Einherjar had grown almost as large as her ambition to devour the light. However, Gullveig was not a Léger, and she lacked the Léger's alchemical powers. Furthermore, the Gnomes under her control only had partial souls, and thus could never master alchemy, let alone summon the Einherjar.

In desperation, Gullveig and her Gnomes uncovered an underground energy network. It was an untouched energy network, containing an indescribable amount of energy. If the Gnomes could discover all the energy networks and link them together, the World Heart created by the Three Goddesses could be suppressed, and a vast amount of energy would flow towards the Gnomes' capital.🤯

While the Gnomes' power was growing rapidly in the Frozen Realms, human civilization had been thrown into turmoil. The Empire of Light disintegrated, and the Three Kingdoms were established. In the year 1487, Immortal summoning resumed. Gullveig immediately commanded her Dark Alchemists to infiltrate human civilization to conduct clandestine activities. The three great alchemists seemed to notice this, and intentionally or otherwise, the Three Kingdoms all began exploring the lands to the north of the Icebound Mountains. To protect the Frozen Realms from humanity's snooping, Gullveig instructed the Gnome King to call upon all the Dark Alchemists living in Gnome territory to block the scouting of the human alchemists. For this cause, the leader of the Dark Alchemists successfully created replicas of Harold's Ice Wall.

Meanwhile, war had broken out among the humans. Greedy for power, the Three Kingdoms fought each other in a long and devastating conflict. The alchemists turned their attention away from the Frozen Realms, devoting their efforts to the civil war. Gullveig knew that her chance had finally arrived.👾

In the year 1500, Gullveig sent another “oracle” to the Gnome King, telling him that the opportunity had come for the Gnomes to conquer all of Norheim. In the same year, during the humans' Midsummer Festival, the Gnome King gave the order to attack. The Gnome armies broke past Harold's Ice Wall, starting the second “Crusade”. However, with the guidance of the Three Goddesses, and the assistance of Lords from other worlds who answered the Call of the Three Kingdoms, humanity slowly began to take the initiative back from the Gnomes.

Yet, the face of war is ever-changing. Just as the Gnomes' ambitions to capture the World Heart had been crushed, tensions between the Three Kingdoms began to rise once more. At this time, the three great alchemists announced to the world through the Sage Council and the Royal Alchemist Academy that they had discovered that the Gnomes were building a new energy network, as well as new Energy Stones. This news shocked all of Norheim. The Three Kingdoms had no choice but to bury their differences, and unite their armies to attack the Gnomes. However, humanity lacked the strength and confidence to simply invade the harsh and perilous Frozen Realms. They prayed to the Three Goddesses to save humanity once more. The Three Goddesses woke from their slumber, and used their power to send a portal to humanity. They told humanity's rulers that many other worlds existed in the universe that they had created. And these worlds contained great human civilizations. The Three Goddesses no longer had strength to fight for humanity, so they sent an oracle, summoning these human civilizations to come to Norheim to help humanity attack the Gnomes, and put an end to the schemes of the evil goddess Gullveig.

Humanity rejoiced, and began to prepare its armies for the long expedition ahead!😎