View From the OUtside
Seen from the outside, Asgard seems to be synonymous with barbaric customs and its famous Warband. Rumors speak of it as a barely settled land full of violent people and dangerous beasts. Modern day societal norms and civilized behavior seem to be missing, except perhaps in the Power’s gateway city of Hrafnborg, the capital city of the Iron Ring. The Warband, a massive roaming mercenary force, seems to wander throughout Creation, selling its services to anyone with gold and devouring the landside around it like some legendary horde of locusts.
Stories of violence, slavery, and strange magics do little to encourage those outside of the Iron Ring to learn anything further.
View from the Inside
From the inside of Asgard, however, another picture emerges, although it may be every bit as disdainful … facing outward. Asgardians believe themselves, man, woman, and child, to be a better people than those spread throughout the Rest of Creation. Prideful and tied to concepts such as integrity, reputation, and bravery moreso than economic success, their behavior seems haughty and unbending. It most cases, it is exactly that. Ruled by the Nine Clans and their equivalents within the other Races, Asgard wishes to both stand apart and join open Shadow.
It is a land of harsh truths and unbridled opportunity. In Asgard, a person may rise from being a lowly recruit of the Warband or enslaved thrall taken in battle to become a great lord or mage, holding power over man and beast. The way is difficult, and most who would seek to climb so high fall to their doom. The ladder, however, is open to all.