With the Trial of Valor unlocking tomorrow for World of Warcraft players, we thought you’d enjoy a little raid lore. In ages past, titans watched over Azeroth. They were tasked with its protection and the stewardship of the fledgling life on the planet. Foremost among these watchers was the Keeper Odyn. Together with his brother Tyr, his sons Thorim and Loken, and his adoptive daughter Helya, Odyn’s Pantheon kept vigil over Azeroth, keeping the madness of the Old Gods at bay.
So, where did it all go wrong? Why is Odyn now desperate for your help in defeating his old ally Helya? How did Helya end up as Queen of Helheim and mistress of the monstrous kvaldir? Well, it’s pretty much all Odyn’s fault.
The master of the Pantheon made promises to the mortal vrykul. He promised that those who died worthy deaths would ascend to the Halls of Valor and be given new powers and bodies with which to defend their homes for all eternity. The problem was, he needed vrykul to volunteer their lives to be the undead ferriers of the gloriously departed. Naturally, the living were quite attached to life and refused Odyn’s request. His sorceress daughter Helya also objected. But Odyn was adamant in his vision and fuzzy on the details of workplace ethics, so he decided Helya would make a fine first addition to his army. So, he transformed her against her will into the first Val’kyr.
What’s surprising was that Helya went with it. For years, she shouldered the task of fulfilling Odyn’s wish to have the best among the vrykul transported to his Halls when they died. But she didn’t have to be happy about it. And, rest assured, she wasn’t. For years, she harbored a massive grudge, and she was finally convinced to act on it by brother Loken, who was already driven to madness by the whisperings of his prisoner Yogg-Saron.
Helya, in a storm of retribution, imprisoned Odyn in his Halls of Valor and created a new realm for herself: Helheim.
From her watery throne of shadow and mist, she now prepares her conquest of the Broken Isles. In Helheim, she perverts her original purpose, taking the souls of the damned and potential Valarjar candidates and turning them into her own Helarjar, thus robbing Odyn of his fresh batches of new recruits.
Defeating her, her spectral hound, and her army of vrykul is key to releasing Odyn and ensuring the safety of the Broken Isles. But no ordinary adventurer can tackle this task. And so, Odyn awaits worthy champions to test their might before sending them off to defeat an enemy he himself is culpable in creating.
This encounter is the Trial of Valor.
For all of your World of Warcraft: Legion questions, visit Wowpedia.
Thanks Chrown for sorting out a few vrykul errors.
Ashley Parrish
Ash is a part-time writer/full-time gamer and has managed to successfully combine the two hobbies into one profession. She enjoys RPGs of all stripes and dreams of being a competitive Triple Triad player.