What is a Gode?

[archaeolept]

"meg" should be "might" and "as" should be short for the aesir, so someone who is a personification of the power of the aesir...

/speculation

[Trumanator]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have a vague recollection of "gode" having a Saxon meaning too.

[Kristoffer O]

Asmegs are the (more human) descendants of the dead Aesir that will populate the new world after Ragnarök, according to some reference.

[vfb]

Hey, how did "Áss-power" make it through the Shrapnel obscenity filter!

[lch]

Because it is a magnificent Áss-power.

[sector24]

I've got some more, not -heim specific though:

Galderman
Hangadrott - "The Hanging God" referring to Odin
Vanadrott - ?
Enarie
Ambibate - (Actually any website that might clue me into the Maverni units would be nice)
Shura
Onaqui

[Kristoffer O]

Drott is a king, more or less. Hangatyr (tyr=god) is a more common Odin name, although I think hangadrott was used at times.

Enarie is used by Herodotos to name the transvestite soothsayers of the scythians.

Ambibates was one of the gaul tribes IIRC. Their specifics in dominions are of my design IIRC. Their specifics are probably not historical.

The Shura is a warrior ghost according to the old but beautiful Bushido RPG. Bushido is by western fiction standards a remarkably good portrayal of Japanese medieval culture. Although it makes some strange creations to fit spirits and stuff into a fantasy setting. The Shikome of nihongi have turned into some kind of stone eating goblins, but the game is still a nice source on yokai, obake and japanese folk religion.

The Onaqui is a tribute to the old pen and paper RPG 'Chill', or rather it's swedish version 'Chock'. There was an entity named Onaqui in an adventure that later on was adopted and remade in the monster-book of the most widespread swedish fantasy RPG 'Drakar och Demoner'. Thus the Onaqui is probably not a nahuatl or mayan name. Some of it's aspects on the other hand can be found in gods such as Camazotz, the bat. I was fond of the Onaqui in the swedish RPG milieu when I was 12-15 years of age so I couldn't resist my nostalgia and used the name, even though it might be inaccurate. Coming to think about it it might be a good idea to rename the beast bat to camazotz or zotz, since the jaguar fiend is called Ozelotl (jaguar).

Edit: Galderman is a singer of Galdrar, spell songs. Thus a Galderman is a spellsinger or a sorcerer able to conjure mists, turn arrows and cause fear to grow in the hearts of the enemies. Galdr and seith/sejd were the two magic traditions mentioned in norse myth. Hmm, inscriptions of runes as well, but that would probably be something galdermen did. Seith was different. It was declared unmanly and forbidden by Odin. He was the only male god that was allowed to use it's dangerous powers. Seith was used to perceive the past, present and the future, as well as sending curses, death and disease on people and livestock.

[archaeolept]

"galdr" is cognate with english "yell", though any sense of singing is long lost.

"Seith" (i'm pretty sure) is cognate w/ Sooth, so derived from old IE for truth, *es, and related to sanskrit terms for being like "sat"

the "kona" in seithkona just means woman; cognate w/ gr. "gyne"



Bushido brings back memories - an offshoot of the old Chivalry and Sorcery rpg; which was noted for having the world's most obtuse magic system

[Gregstrom]

Further to Seith/Sooth... in words like Soothsayer, I believe the Sooth part is implied to mean truth about the future.

Afterthought: Not knowing much about the nordic languages, I'd assumed kon was similar to the scots ken, meaning roughly 'to know', and therefore a seithkonur was 'one who knows the future'. It's nice to know better.

[sector24]

Three more today:
Kunshu
Uba
Nushi

I think they're all Japanese but I didn't see them on obakemono.com