Pantheons: Smaugust Part 2 - Nidhogg and Orochi

Nidhogg: It is said that, eventually when Ragnarok happens, one of the few creatures that will come unscathed is the dragon of Yggdrasil himself, Nidhogg. (If you believe in Ragnarok that is).

Yggdrasil is less a literal tree and more a form of subspace that only the Norse Pantheon use for quick travel between realms. Nidhogg however is an example of why some who live within Asgard’s borders prefer fast travel in real-space. Dying in battle is all well and good, but when Nidhogg’s gape can swallow Earth-side planets and wipe out fleets and battalions of Valkyries? That’s not much of a fight now, is it?

His main specialty is the ability to tear through space with his claws, coming and out of Yggdrasil randomly to feast upon a random world or find a worthy foe to fight. At the same time, he gnaws out paths within Yggdrasil, usually one path for every new branch that the subspace creates which can cause much misfortune for those that rely on the “tree” for travel.

This leads to the real reason why he’s so feared; he’s unpredictable. While Nidhogg is by far the most powerful of the monsters that live in Norse space (and is so large he dwarfs his fellow Norse Godbeasts Fenrir and Jormungandr in scale), it’s the fact he can attack at any time based on if he simply feels like it. He'll be aggressive on one day, and downright pleasant on another.

Nidhogg is less an embodiment of one extinction event, and is more an embodiment of the unpredictability of extinctions themselves, and design wise is meant to evoke both aspects of an aquatic swimmer and a tree, with barky skin laced with amber.


Orochi: The 8 headed serpent of Shinto mythology, and once upon a time the most feared and powerful of all Yokai, a Godbeast that barged into Takama-Ga-Hara and assumed the role of a destructive entity that would demand everything and take anything he wished, especially alcohol and young maidens.

It certainly helps when each of your heads can blast energy beams of any element of his choosing, and can sprout weapons and armour solely from his skin. Even his “regular” scales are all fashioned to look like giant swords.

Eventually it was his own alcoholism that led to his downfall, as Susanoo tricked him into passing out on an absurd amount of Sake. Before the final blow was struck however, he became sober enough to forcefully bind himself into a particular indestructible sword-scale that not even Susanoo’s own blade could cut! That sword would then be gifted to the Empress of the Shinto Pantheon herself, Amaterasu, forever known as Kusanagi thereafter.

In an ironic twist of events, he has essentially become Amaterasu’s only real companion within her palace, as over the years she has become very, very estranged from her two brothers. 

He can only go full giant monster if Amaterasu allows him to, as he’s now pretty much bonded to her as much as he is bonded to the sword… And considering violence isn’t Ammie’s forte, he’s not gonna get the chance anytime soon.

Orochi is meant to embody the Anthropocene extinction event, and thus has the most metallic look of them all, and each head represents a different group of reptile and salamander/newt.