Okay, this topic deserves a little bit of backstory.
My friend and I are in an NJROTC unit, and I'm very much into the military and the armed services. So, we were talking after inspection and she mentioned that she was a Pagan. I picked her brain about it for a while until she had to go, but what she said was interesting to say the least. For starters, you essentially serve as a mortal servant of a patron god from one of any number of ancient religions, and when you die you go to their afterlife, or something like that. Well, I thought to myself, "To hell with those pansy gods of love or crap- if I ever went Pagan, I'd be working for, like, THOR or something."
That got me thinking- just what WOULD Valhalla look like, if I were to imagine it? And thus, I pose a similar question to you- if you had to imagine the afterlife of your religion or of another religion, what would it be like?
For me, I thought of, well, Valhalla- home of the most hardcore asskickers to ever bite the dust. I imagine it as a massive fortress (at least as large as, if not bigger than, West Point), a giant castle-city standing high above a land rife with chaos- a land of forests, rivers, and mountains where the local villages are tormented by the forces of evil (trolls, goblins, dragons, etc.). The great wooden wall surrounding the fortress is decorated with the banners of the gods and the gate leading in is watched by one of the two ravens that constantly inform Odin of what is going on around the world (the two switch off occasionally).
Inside the walls, Valhalla seems, at first, to be nothing short of a massive boot camp for the greatest warriors the world has ever seen. Across the many training grounds tramp armies of mankind's finest, from every corner of the globe. Counted amongst their ranks are Vikings, Spartans, Roman Legionnaires, knights, samurai, ninjas (rare, due to their use of stealth, but still present), pirates and other ship commanders, and numerous others. Even modern-era soldiers are included- Polish GROM, German GSG9, U.S. Marines, Navy SEALS, SAS, the French Foreign Legion, and so on- all of them are warriors who died in battle and accepted the call of the valkyries to train for all eternity in hopes of fighting for the forces of the gods, come Ragnarok. Every day, these men, loosely organized into warbands of anywhere from 10-100 soldiers, fight viciously to hone their skills in combat with all manner of weapons, from battle axes to machine guns and tanks. They make use of the training environments within Valhalla's walls to simulate all the environments they may fight in, from jungles to ruined cities.
Throughout this, the valkyries, the very maidens who chose the soldiers for Odin's army, watch the progress of the warriors as they butcher each other in 'training missions.' Even as the bullets fly, they step through the battlefields unharmed, correcting and criticizing warriors who have misused a weapon or warband leaders who have made a tactical error. The training is harsh, to say the least, but that's expected- only the best can be allowed to fight on the front lines when the armies of Utgard attack the halls of the gods. Therefore, criticism is quick and harsh.
However, when night falls, the dead and wounded from the day's carnage are revived and healed to their full strength. The great masses of warriors go to the great feasting hall at the center of Valhalla, to wile the night away drinking and having fun. They spend this time doing whatever they wish, since they have to blow off steam before they resume training the next day.
Also, occasionally, Odin or one of the other gods will call upon a warband and its members to fulfill some sort of mission in the surrounding area, like wiping out a troll raiding party or slaying a giant.
Note: I don't actually believe this, I just think it would be completely awesome.
My friend and I are in an NJROTC unit, and I'm very much into the military and the armed services. So, we were talking after inspection and she mentioned that she was a Pagan. I picked her brain about it for a while until she had to go, but what she said was interesting to say the least. For starters, you essentially serve as a mortal servant of a patron god from one of any number of ancient religions, and when you die you go to their afterlife, or something like that. Well, I thought to myself, "To hell with those pansy gods of love or crap- if I ever went Pagan, I'd be working for, like, THOR or something."
That got me thinking- just what WOULD Valhalla look like, if I were to imagine it? And thus, I pose a similar question to you- if you had to imagine the afterlife of your religion or of another religion, what would it be like?
For me, I thought of, well, Valhalla- home of the most hardcore asskickers to ever bite the dust. I imagine it as a massive fortress (at least as large as, if not bigger than, West Point), a giant castle-city standing high above a land rife with chaos- a land of forests, rivers, and mountains where the local villages are tormented by the forces of evil (trolls, goblins, dragons, etc.). The great wooden wall surrounding the fortress is decorated with the banners of the gods and the gate leading in is watched by one of the two ravens that constantly inform Odin of what is going on around the world (the two switch off occasionally).
Inside the walls, Valhalla seems, at first, to be nothing short of a massive boot camp for the greatest warriors the world has ever seen. Across the many training grounds tramp armies of mankind's finest, from every corner of the globe. Counted amongst their ranks are Vikings, Spartans, Roman Legionnaires, knights, samurai, ninjas (rare, due to their use of stealth, but still present), pirates and other ship commanders, and numerous others. Even modern-era soldiers are included- Polish GROM, German GSG9, U.S. Marines, Navy SEALS, SAS, the French Foreign Legion, and so on- all of them are warriors who died in battle and accepted the call of the valkyries to train for all eternity in hopes of fighting for the forces of the gods, come Ragnarok. Every day, these men, loosely organized into warbands of anywhere from 10-100 soldiers, fight viciously to hone their skills in combat with all manner of weapons, from battle axes to machine guns and tanks. They make use of the training environments within Valhalla's walls to simulate all the environments they may fight in, from jungles to ruined cities.
Throughout this, the valkyries, the very maidens who chose the soldiers for Odin's army, watch the progress of the warriors as they butcher each other in 'training missions.' Even as the bullets fly, they step through the battlefields unharmed, correcting and criticizing warriors who have misused a weapon or warband leaders who have made a tactical error. The training is harsh, to say the least, but that's expected- only the best can be allowed to fight on the front lines when the armies of Utgard attack the halls of the gods. Therefore, criticism is quick and harsh.
However, when night falls, the dead and wounded from the day's carnage are revived and healed to their full strength. The great masses of warriors go to the great feasting hall at the center of Valhalla, to wile the night away drinking and having fun. They spend this time doing whatever they wish, since they have to blow off steam before they resume training the next day.
Also, occasionally, Odin or one of the other gods will call upon a warband and its members to fulfill some sort of mission in the surrounding area, like wiping out a troll raiding party or slaying a giant.
Note: I don't actually believe this, I just think it would be completely awesome.
