NorsePlay.

NorsePlay recently reviewed the Vikingverse series , and I loved it so much, I've reached out to its author & creator  Ian Stuart Sharpe to bring you this Q&A interview filled with all the inquiries his brilliant what-if-the-Vikings-had-conquered-the-world masterwork compelled me to ask.  For background, Sharpe's  career as a published writer started with the first Vikingverse installment, The All Father Paradox (2018 CE), continued with sequel Loki's Wager (2020 CE), gained even more literal public support with his crowdfunded Vikingverse graphic novel,  The Jötunn War (2021 CE), and then an equally fan-supported  Vikingverse -adjacent phrasebook Old Norse For Modern Times (2021 CE).   Sharpe's from London, UK, did some growing up in East Anglia, and now lives in Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada. His longer tech career includes working for the BBC, IMG, Atari, and Electronic Arts. [Note that this interview does contain spoilers. Now, ont...

The Vikingverse  series is a NorsePlay of stellar proportions, epic in scope & reframing, written in two books and one graphic novel by Ian Stuart Sharpe. [Marines at Iwo Jima? No,  Space Vikings  raising the Raven Banner!] The narrative involves alternative history , a few Stormpunk points-of-deviation, quantum physics, parallel timelines, entanglement, consciousness, intelligent design, imperial ambition, magic, and the endless Odinic search for knowledge. The only thing I can literarily compare this to is Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series, where a certain event changes the landscape of history to the present day, except instead vampires becoming societally dominant, it's Vikings instead. [Empress Trumba is based on a certain president ... !] The in-use of the Norse Lore is deep, and feels like it's been written for the Norse Lore hound by a Norse Lore hound , and at times I marveled at how much was drawn & woven into the Vikingverse by this, and conve...

In the Warhammer 40K Horus Heresy short story of The Harrowing , author Rob Sanders uses two neologisms, runebanks & runescreens , to describe devices of the technologically oriented Adeptus Mechanicus. We felt these two words alone were NorsePlay-evocative enough in terms of the implied uninterrupted use of runes , and wondered how we could runepunk that into our hardware/ software interfaces, so as to simultaneously NorsePlay the past, present, & future. Seeking manifestations of this, a few years ago designer MiTo made a limited-run of customizable keycaps called Canvas XDA. The alpha keys in the pictures below are the Dieter Rams rune kit based on the Elder Futhark alphabet.  (Rams was a German functionalist designer of the late 1950s to 1960s CE, whom MiTo named this modern runic product variation after.) [ergo-split futhark keyboard assembled by Xah Lee.] [wood-base version assembled by reddit user LukeNukem6.] With these in hand, code-skalds, it is ti...

Kara the Valkyrie gives what-for fisticuffs to some beetle armored adversary in Piccadilly Valkyrie ! Author Cindy Grigg NorsePlays Steampunk in an alt-regency England for her series Peacock Lavine and the Aetherian Fates of Nótt . Apparently "Valkyrie Kára is underdeveloped and unruly." Any of you read this? #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

NorsePlay had hoped for more of a Sherlock Holmes-related entry , and while we love Elementary to pieces, we feel that there's more than one reference to be mined from this possibility. [And Kim Newman, if you're reading, we'd like a StormPunk Moriarty & The Jötnar of Kensington Runestone book, please & thanks.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer,  do contact him .

What happens when you NorsePlay Steampunk into Norse Mythology? You get Stormpunk, a neologism coined by Storm Bunny Studios, LLC, creators of the tabletop roleplaying game Rhune: Dawn of Twilight , which does exactly that. We love this idea. [The Ragnarök Clock was once a Clockwork Gate that allowed the ancients to "walk the Great Tree ... ." Illustration by Terry Maranda.] #    #    # Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in  the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires'  Norse Gods and Giants  at age seven. Since t hen he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the  Map of Midgard  project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay.   If you have e mployment/ opportunities in  investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to  offer,  do contact him .