Game Name: Blademaiden
Character Name: Princess Astriðr the Twice-Born, Valkyrie, Warden of Midgard
Gender: Female
Age Bracket: mid-30s in appearance, closer to 900 years in actuality.

Cast Description:  In her natural form, Astrid is a superbly muscled woman who stands a couple of inches below eight feet tall. However, in order to at least try to fit in amongst humans, she uses a tissue densification amulet. This shrinks her down to a little over six feet tall, so she still stands out, but not enough to be thought of as unnatural

Her hair is thick and black, and it offsets her very pale skin. She wears her hair cut fairly short, the better to be worn beneath armour. Her eyes are sky blue, and contain a resolve and hardness that speak volumes about her determined personality. Her voice, with a thick Nordic accent, is also very firm, and when she speaks, it is clear that she only says exactly what she means.

Most of the time, when not in battle, she dresses in human clothes. When she is teaching, she has a tendency to wear expensive pant suits, or gym clothes, depending on the lesson. Off duty, she usually ends up in jeans and t-shirts. When fighting, she wears full Valkyrie space armour, an incredibly heavy outfit made of Asgardian basaltic alloy. Basalt is an excellent insulator, so it offers a degree of protection against temperature and electricity. It is also outfitted with magnetic boots, retractable claws, voice modulator, and serves as highly efficient space armour for those fun adventures without an atmosphere

Personality: Astrid used to be very prickly, but her time as a Valkyrie have mellowed her. She has developed a proper sense of humour, though remains very deadpan in delivery. She is ferociously loyal to her friends, and totally dedicated to her duty to protect Midgard. She has a particular fondness for children, and absolutely no sense of humour at all when they are under threat.

Mutant Powers: Astrid has the usual powers of a Valkyrie: superhuman agility, and truly staggering skill in combat with most weapons. Like all her kind, she is incredibly robust. Valkyries have a highly dense molecular structure, allowing them to absorb damage that would seriously hurt other beings. They also heal rapidly. Her pain tolerance is considerable, though this could push her into acts that cause serious damage, simply because she does not register the degree of harm she is experiencing. Like most Asgardians, she is strong. Valkyries typically have a carrying capacity of around forty tons in Earth gravity, and the commensurate feats of strength that go with that capability.

She also has the Valkyrie supernatural abilities. She can sense when someone is about to die, or at serious risk of death. She can draw a spirit from a recently dead body, or in very extreme circumstances, pull it out of a living person. These spirits can be stored in special containers for delivery to Asgard. She can open a portal to or from Hel, giving her the ability to move rapidly between places she has previously visited.

She also has a Valkyrie battle-beast, a vicious winged unicorn creature. Valkyrie mounts can teleport between dimensions, and are as every bit as fearsome in battle as their riders. They can also emit a devastating sonic scream, powerful enough to flatten a building.


Non-Mutant abilities: Astrid is skilled in most forms of combat, as well as wilderness survival. She is a skilled private detective, and speaks a great many languages, human or otherwise.

Weaknesses: Astrid is bound by her Valkyrie oath and code of conduct, which means she can at any time be ordered to perform acts that might run against the best interests of her friends. She is also obliged to harvest souls of the Worthy, and to protect Midgard, and in doing so she may need to go off on her own to do things other people might be better off knowing nothing about.

Equipment: As well as her mount and armour, Astrid owns her sword. Previously known as Gram, she now calls it Nothung, the name used for it in the Neiblungleid, and Wagner's Ring cycle. The sword is so powerful that Odin believes it to be capable of slaying gods - and himself in particular. It is also cursed, so that anybody who wields it who is not a direct relation of Volsung, progenitor of the race of the same name, will meet a gruesome and ignominious fate. So far as Astrid knows, only she, and a small group of elderly Volsung relatives, remain alive. The sword has an ornate jewelled hilt, but otherwise seems unremarkable. No flames or fancy light shows. It just seems capable of finding exactly the right method to kill the enemy.

History: Some time ago, Astrid felt that the only way she could undo the harm she had done to Guido, and to the X-Men as a whole, was to surrender her free will to Odin, and become a Valkyrie. She underwent a painful physical and mental transformation, and spent the next eight centuries or more in service to Asgard. Only then did Odin agree that she had served her penance, and permit her to return home. Using the power of the Norn Queen Erda, who was also her grandmother, she was returned to Earth only a few weeks after she had departed, and charged with protecting the planet as Warder, official Asgardian representative on Earth.

History: BEFORE: Astrid's origins are not really known to those who live on Midgard. She is unwilling to speak of them with anybody, but the overall impression is that she did not leave Asgard willingly, and it is obvious that she harbours a towering resentment to the Asgardian side of her family.

However, she is more open about her time since she arrived on Earth. Raised in the wilderness of Iceland, brought up in the old ways of her people, and trained for years to be the perfect warrior, she seems somewhat out of place in modern life in the USA. She has adapted well, and can pass easily for a human, but her concepts of truth, honour, and loyalty do not really mix well with the rather decadent and depraved attitudes in Western society.

She first encountered the X-Men shortly after they were formed, when their paths crossed while hunting down the same mutant threat to humanity. She was, at first, extremely wary of the X-Men, as she was with anyone who was not of her immediate family. However, over the years she has mellowed significantly, and is far more trusting to those who show her their worth. In that first instance, she discovered that the X-Men were actually good people, who held similar values to her own when it came to selflessly protecting the weak. On the other hand, they were very unsure about Blademaiden, as she called herself, as she was not human, and her obvious inner rage was something that could easily turn her to dark deeds.

As it happened, she eventually mastered her dark side, enough so that she could function usefully in her self-appointed role as champion of the virtuous, who could not protect themselves. Over the years, she crossed paths with the X-Men on several occasions, and in each case, she was able to prove that her prowess as a warrior was every bit the equal to those of the human-born mutants she fought beside. A form of professional courtesy developed between them, and she was willing to accept Charles Xavier as a worthy leader of his own people. She shows that degree of respect to very few people, and the X-Men were able to appreciate that she was showing them significant personal honour.

Blademaiden has not been seen by the X-Men for several years now. Reports of a Viking warrioress hunting down and eliminating significant mutant threats, or even capturing human villains, have filtered back to the X-Men from time to time. Blademaiden seems to be someone who is perfectly capable within her own sphere of operations, but who is also willing to turn to others for help when it is required. Her ego is not so huge that she is beyond admitting she needs assistance. Her down to earth practicality suggests that she is reliable, and past encounters with the X-Men back up that assumption. After years of walking a path that seemed to be rather grey, she has finally emerged on the side of the light.