Something the Odyn hate brigade loves to say is “Odyn should have just let us skip the trials and just given us the Aegis immediately, rather than give Skovald a chance to get it first.” To which I want to ask: Do you really think he would have given Skovald the Aegis if it actually came to that?
I think the much more likely answer is that Odyn wanted to try to thwart Skovald without breaking his own rules first. Which is not unreasonable, Odyn made a promise to the vrykul that if they passed these trials he would grant them the Aegis. Breaking that promise, even under these very understandable circumstances, would still greatly wound the trust between him and the vrykul. That’s the thing about breaking promises, it doesn’t matter why you did it, you’ve still proven a willingness to go back on your word and therefore your word cannot be trusted anymore.
In other words, Odyn didn’t want to break a promise he made to his favored children if other options were still available. He’s not Elune after all.
So Odyn held our hand through the trials as Havi in hopes that we could beat Skovald to the end and he could just give the Aegis to us instead of having to deny it to Skovald. (Side Note: I really liked the Havi thing. It was such a fun nod to real-world Norse mythology Odin who also enjoyed running around disguised as a mortal.)
Honestly, I don’t think the trials were made to be beaten in the first place. Odyn probably just wanted to give the vrykul of Stormheim an easy way to prove their valor. He created the trials thousands of years ago yet Skovald was apparently the first one who ever stood a chance of actually completing them and he was only doing so through a bunch of loopholes.
And Skovald using loopholes is an important detail too. The trials were clearly designed to test your moral integrity just as much as your strength. It’s obvious that Odyn had chosen these trials with the idea being that even if someone did somehow complete them and claim the Aegis then they’d have to be someone who could be trusted with the Aegis. Odyn probably just did not anticipate all the bullcrap technicalities Skovald would exploit.
TL;DR It’s likely Odyn would have just refused to give Skovald the Aegis had Skovald beaten us to the end of the trials, but Odyn probably didn’t want to make a liar out of himself either, which is likely the reason why he opted to help us complete the trials first rather than just give us the Aegis immediately.
Odyn was quite a jerk most of the time and we were only nice to him cuz the Legion was the more pressing issue. Watching him being worfed by Vyranoth was balm to my soul and in my opinion he deserved worse then that. He betrayed both the ragons and the Vrykul and the consequences were quite fitting for the burned earth he left behind.
On one hand, he literally did give Skovald the Aegis, and at best, didn’t give him the minor assistance/directions that he gave the (non-Warrior) PC. Sitting back and doing nothing and letting the Strong succeed is very much his usual MO.
On the other, he is prescient enough that he might have seen Skovald’s defeat coming and knew there was no real danger in giving us a bigger trial, and giving him the shield ultimately helped us in the fight. Skovald would have no incentive to help Odyn unlock his front door to get out, so Odyn had a massive incentive for the PCs to win, especially a Warrior PC.
I think Odyn’s plan was always to fight the winner, though his stopping point could have varied depending on who he was fighting. So while he stopped fighting us at X%, he could have just continued on till he killed Skovald.
I wasn’t happy to learn that Tyr had a whole eugenics program going on with the dragons and than stealing whelps while they were still in the egg and forcing order magic on them.
But as for Odyn, he’s not a cool character and he’s certaintly not a sympathetic one. I just hope we put him down for good someday
Here I thought I was the ultimate contrarian in this thread but I might have to relinquish my crown if you are going to unironically argue Vyranoth has more personality than Odyn. I can’t top that level of obtusive.
I did and I don’t think she’s interesting. She’s not fun, she’s not exciting and she’s a colossal hypocrite as are you for being so dismissive of Odyn as a character.
And now you’ve played your hand. I think I’m going to just block you if you’re only interested in trying to get a rise out of me instead of actually having a discussion.
Kinda. Odyn’s first mistake made the Halls of Valor his tomb (until defeating Helya) and has been really cool with mortals. I wouldn’t say he’s sinister or sympathetic at the moment.
