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capnq said:Those examples sound like they could work in game as mercenaries, rather than nations.
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Mostly, they stay in one place. Väinämöinen, the old singer, stays in his home and farms his fields. He doesn't manage to get married, but does boast a rather inspiring array of magical powers. He is always a bit more powerful than even his most powerful enemies, entrancing scores of people with his magic and negating plagues sent to destroy the nation. Or making a forge
in the stomach of the giant that ate him. Or going to world of the dead just to find the words for finishing his boat. The one time he got really angry earth shook, mountains shuddered, and Joukahainen (Youkahainen) learned an important lesson about humility and respecting your elders. The young guy only got away after he promised his sister would marry Väinämöinen.
Ilmarinen, the great smith, doesn't move about much either. He created an artifact to get the permission to marry one of the daughters of Louhi, the crone of Pohjola, and after his wife's death (thanks to the the anti-hero) made a golden replica that he still found lacking. With that much wealth and skill, he wouldn't be a mercenary. People would come to him, not the other way round.
Lemminkäinen died, and his mother brought him back. Would you buy a mercenary who already failed once? I thought so.
Louhi, the crone of Pohjola, governs her manor and doesn't go out much. Oh, she might steal the sun and the moon, or freeze all the oceans of the world, call in the great beasts of the seas or transform into a mighty bird to carry her army when trying to recover the artifact Ilmarinen stole back with the other good guys, but she's not the adventurous type.
There are also some minor characters, like the man barely an inch high. He came from the sea, equipped with miniature armor and a miniscule axe, and stepped up to became a hulking giant for whom felling a tree big enough to cover all sky was no problem. There are also various monsters: Iki-Turso of the seas, a great moose, a great bull, etc.
Oh, and that promised wife of Väinämöinen? She wasn't happy with the marriage and drowned herself. Ilmarinen's wife died too. Not to mention the anti-hero and his whole family. No wonder Finns are said to be melancholic.