Helheim

The Realm of the Dead

Helheim was the realm created from the sorrowful peace of Ymir. It is a land of silence, contentment, yearning, and sleep.

Helheim is a confusing place for many to grasp. It is a place where sorrow and contentment coexist. Tables are set with bountiful food, but not a single morsel has any taste to it. Thick pillows are wrapped with impossibly smooth silks, but their touch is so light there is no feeling to it at all. A silence pervades every last corner of the realm, but the silence makes any speech or sound seem unwelcomed. It is everything you would ever desire and nothing you want all at the same time.

The realm’s caretaker is the powerful Lady Hel. A daughter of Loki who is half alive and half dead. Hel was born to resent and hate the living and will not abide them in her realm. She loves all those who reside with her as her own children. She desires that they should want for nothing and be perfectly contented. She protects them and perfectly cares for them.

The lands of Helheim resemble an ash waste, with a fine silted powder that covers everything. It is not unpleasant, it does not choke the nostrils or irritate the eyes, but it coats all things like a thick layer of dust and gives everything a dull and slower characteristic.

Inside the buildings of Helheim, all of the floors are thickly carpeted and there are long halls filled with short tables with every food imaginable. Around the tables are short chairs and large pillows. Souls who are new to Helheim often spend days gorging themselves with food and drink, the tastes being vibrant on their first arrival and slowly dulling as they stay. Eventually, a gentle tiredness begins to set-in and before too long, all can be found asleep around these tables, in perfect contented comfort.

Once per year, on Winternights, Hel relaxes the borders of her realms and allows families and descendants to wake their loved ones and share a simple, quiet meal with them. It is said that the dead may taste all of the food when it is served to them on this night. This pleases Hel, for she loves them so.

  • No. This is a persistent myth that seems to have a basis in warrior cults who overly revere Valhalla.

    There is no dishonor to rest in Hel. Othin’s first son, Baldr, rests in Hel.

    Hel is the place where all creatures go when they die if a place is not made for them somewhere else. It is a place of complete rest and contentment.

  • Neither the realm, nor it’s lady are inherently good or evil; though if you were to assign morality to either, they would likely fall more to the good side than the bad.

    Hel does not love the living, but that is her nature. She will gladly bring those from other realms into her own for safekeeping. Hel does not begrudge any soul going to Asgard or Vanaheim, but it puzzles her why they would want to do anything other than rest eternally.

    As for the realm, there are some who say the absences make it torturous. That endless food you cannot taste, comfort you cannot feel, or song you cannot sing is a kind of malicious evil. They often forget that all things are muted in Hel, desire and ambition as well. There are none who reside their who long for anything more, and the absence means nothing without the longing.

  • The prophecy of Ragnarok says that on the day of the end, the residents of Hel will rise up again and be given a choice to fight for or against the realms of their life. Until then, they rest.

    There are also tales of bargains made with Hel to release souls or return them to Midgard, reborn. All things are possible.