Freya's medallion

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Freyja's Medallion was a device made by the Isu that was able to open the door to Freyja's Cave and create a variety of previously designed simulations inside the user's mind. The medallion featured golden detail with the visages of a wolf, a bear, and a raven adorning it, and had the Elder Futhark runes Isaz (ᛁ), Haglaz (ᚺ), and Sowilō (ᛊ), respectively, associated with each animal. Whether the runes were part of the original design or added later is not known.

Owners[edit | edit source]

Odin (? - ?)^[2]
Freyja (? - ?)^[2]
Hildr (? - ?)^[3]
Hildiran (c. 883 CE)^[2]
Eivor Varinsdottir (c. 883 CE)^[2]

History[edit | edit source]

Isu Era[edit | edit source]

The medallion was created by the Æsir during the Isu Era to let its user train inside a sort of simulated mind realm with no fear of injury. The Isu device was also used as a key to open the gate to Freyja's Cave^[2] and Odin's Vault.^[3]

Sometime after the medallion's creation, the Valkyrie Hildr led a revolution against the Æsir's leader Odin, mad at his selfishness in only wanting to save himself from the coming catastrophe. The revolution was a failure and Hildr was imprisoned for her crimes. Her former lover Freyja managed to sneak the medallion to her within her cell, told her that her armor had been locked away within Odin's Vault, and instructed her on how she could find it again using Odin's Eye.^[3]

Freya's medallion would subsequently be passed down from Hildr to her daughter, along with her desire for vengeance against Odin; Hildr's daughter in turn passed the artifact to her own child, a tradition that would continue for hundreds of generations. The medallion thus remained with Hildr's descendants for millennia, but the location of Odin's Vault and Eye eventually became lost to memory.^[2]

Viking Age[edit | edit source]

Circa 883 CE, Hildiran, a descendant of Hildr, found the location of Freyja's Cave in Mercia, England, and used the medallion's illusive powers to conceal its location. When the time was right, she made her presence known to Eivor Varinsdottir, the jarlskona of the Raven Clan, who had coincidentally established their settlement of Ravensthorpe nearby. Hildiran created an illusion of a meteor striking the side of the cliff where Freyja's Cave was located to "reveal" its entrance, and went to investigate it at the same time as Eivor. After introducing herself, Hildiran convinced Eivor to let her stay in Ravensthorpe, offering to teach her the art of Hugrheim, a form of battle meditation named after the eponymous mental realm where warriors could train.^[1]

Eivor was initially unconvinced by her words, but after the old woman won a brief fight with her, she became interested in learning her tricks. Hildiran then showed her Freya's medallion, activating the device and making both Eivor and Hildiran enter a simulated space in their minds. After the two fought again, they were brought back to the real world. Hildiran then told the amazed Eivor that only after the medallion was filled with the energy created in battle would she be able to open the door to Freyja's Cave. With that, she handed the medallion to the Viking so she could commence her quest.^[1]

Eivor traveled to several Shrines of the Valkyrie scattered throughout England and completed various meditation challenges,^[1] eventually filling the amulet and bringing it back to Hildiran, who had spent much of her time clearing away the rubble from the door. After finally opening the gate, the two women entered Freyja's Cave, which was a vast stone room. Inside were three large archways carved into the walls, gateways to nowhere that impossibly contained cold fog spilling over stalactites and stalagmites, rubble covered in still-living vines, and a falling river of fire. The chamber was flooded in ankle-deep water save for a single stone path to the center, where Odin's Eye rested on a small plinth.^[2]

Hildiran quickly spotted the compass and told Eivor to grab it. As the Viking stepped forward, the medallion and the Eye interacted with each other. The spherical artifact's outer shell glowed white and spun as it briefly hovered and projected glyphs, before the amulet's light deactivated it, settling it back in its spot. Hildiran then demanded that Eivor give her the device, saying she would need it to find Odin's Vault, where further treasures awaited them. The Viking begrudgingly complied, handing Hildiran the Eye while she kept the medallion, putting it back in her satchel.^[2]

Sometime later, Eivor and Hildiran used the Eye to find Odin's Vault underneath Dunwic fort, but as its entrance was locked, Hildiran instructed the Viking to travel to more Valkyrie Shrines around England and fill Freya's medallion with additional energy. After Eivor did so, the two women accessed Odin's Vault, discovering it housed Hildr's armor. At that moment, Hildiran betrayed Eivor, donned the armor, and attempted to kill the Viking to achieve her family's ancestral revenge against Odin, but was defeated. Ultimately, Hildiran was able to reconcile with Eivor after recognizing that she was wiser than Odin, and allowed her to keep both Freya's medallion and Odin's Eye.^[3]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

Each rune and animal on the medallion represent a type of trial Eivor can undertake. The rune Isaz (ᛁ) and the bear represent the Combat trials, Hagalaz (ᚺ) and the wolf represent the archery trials, and Sowilō (ᛊ) and the raven represent the stealth trials.

In an alternate reality presented in The Tyranny of King Washington, a 2013 downloadable expansion for the 2012 game Assassin's Creed III, the Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton drank tea from the leaves of the Red Willow and met almost the same animal totems while on the vision quests, though he learned the abilities Wolf Pack, Wolf Cloak,^[4] Eagle Flight,^[5] and Bear Might instead,^[6] without any ties to the Raven or his legends.