Ragnarok Online

Ragnarok Online
PEGI Ratings
ESRB Ratings	Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol

Ragnarok Online is a game created by Gravity Interactive released on the Personal Computer (PC) platform which is loosely based upon the Ragnarok comic, or Manhwa called Ragnarok which outlines elements which were used in the game. It was originally released in 2001 with a public alpha, and later with two beta releases in April and May of 2001. Due to its success, its scope expanded quickly into a paid service, operating beyond Korea into a Japanese server and an international server based in the United States, as well as other regional variants based in Europe, India and Oceania which were run by a licensing model with third parties.

Various discontents around actions taken by companies running Ragnarok Online servers, as well as general curiosity, led to the foundation of a long-lived and storied community of reverse engineers who managed to reverse engineer the game and create Server Emulators which mimicked the official service Gravity, and those who then used these server emulators to create their own versions of Ragnarok Online known as Private Servers which provided a publicly accessible, almost universally free-to-play and community-supported versions of the game which ostensibly used Gravity's own game client.

Story

The story of the game is told via a patchwork of dialogue provided by in-game NPCs, which is loosely based upon the Norse mythology, and uses many references to the names of places and people referenced in Norse Mythology. The game's plot is more accurately based on the Manhwa named Ragnarök by Korean manhwa artist and author Lee Myung-jin.

Game story

In the Ragnarok Online Alpha, Gravity defined the underlying story for Ragnarok Online as (paraphrased with improved English):

After a long period of holy war between Gods, Humans and Demons..

As this war began to take its deadly toll on the Gods, Humans and Demons, an uneasy truce was arrived at, creating an uneasy peace for a thousand years. After many years of peace, Human beings forgot the miserable past and wounds of the war, became complacent and selfish, not learning or growing from the faults of the distant past.

Bizarre occurrences began to break the peace in Midgard, the land of the humans. Wild animals began to become aggressive and attacked humans. Earthquakes and tidal waves hit Midgard unlike ever before, and out of this chaos came reports of a terrifying roaring sound, and mysterious gods and demons. 

Rumors also swelled about the story of the pieces of Ymir, a defender of the peace, sparking intense curiosity in the adventurers of Midgard hoping to find some way to restore the peace they once took for granted. These adventurers now start out on a path to find these pieces, as well as fame and fortune, not knowing the true depth of what is happening..

Underpinnings in Norse Mythology

More specifically, it references the mythology as laid out in the Elder (Poetic) Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems which outline the mythology of the Norse gods and humans. In the mythological poems about the gods in the Elder Edda, the creation of the world is outlined in several different poems: the Völuspá and Vafthrúdnismál, both of which give contradicting accounts.

In the Völuspá, the world was began by Odin and his brothers, Vili and Vé, who raised the earth up from a sea into the sky, the sun shone on the barren rocks of the earth, and became replete with green herbage. Odin later along with two other gods come upon two tree trunks named Askr and Embla, who they endow with breath, reason, hair and countenance (facial expression) and create the first human opposite-sex couple. There also exist a type of being known as jötunn which have previously been problematically translated as "giant", but are a type of being with powers akin to a god, but which do not reside in Asgard, the dwelling of the gods.

In the Vafthrúdnismál, a cow named Audhumla existed, which formed from her udders as she licked the frost from salty stones, and the milk that flowed from her udders created four rivers of milk. The cow also licked the stones into the shame of a man, which became known as Búri, the grandfather of Odin and his brothers.

From the rivers created by Audhumla, spurted venom-cold drops called Élivágar which then created a primal giant named Aurgelmir, who was also known as Ymir. As he grew, eventually one of the giant's legs grew into a six-headed male son, and the other leg and under his arms grew a maid (a girl). Ymir is then later killed by Odin and his brothers, Vili and Vé, the descendants of Búri to make the world of Midgard, the home of humans. Ymir's bones are turned into the rocks, his skull the sky, his teeth the cliffs, his hair the trees, and his brains which were blown over the earth (presumably like seeds) to become clouds.

The Völuspá also explains that there was an ash tree seed, known as Yggdrasil which when it grew, its roots connected the nine worlds. Under one of its roots lay Niflheim, the cold and icy world of the dead ruled over by the goddess Hel, which was supposedly the last of the 9 worlds into which evil men passed (also interestingly a carry-over from Germanic/Norse mythology to the concept of "hell" in Christian Mythology). Situated half-way between Niflheim is Midgard, and then Muspelheim to the south, the world of fire, guarded by Surtr, the fire giant.

The human realm, Midgard, is also joined to Asgard via a rainbow bridge known as Bifrost. Asgard is the dwelling of the gods and also the home of Valhalla where Odin dwelled along with the heroes slain in the realm of earthly battle, and Thrudheim, the realm of Thor.

It is also important to note that, among the gods, the god Loki and female jötunn and giantess Angrboð bear three children: the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard serpent Jörmungandr, and the ruler of the world of Niflheim, Hel, but were left in the land Jötunheimr to be raised. Later this was discovered by the gods, who dispatched Odin to deal with them.

Odin later threw Hel into Niflheim, Jörmungandr into Midgard/earth's deep sea. The god Týr was the only one with the courage to approach Fenrir and feed him. Fenrir grew rapidly and had restrictions (fetters) placed upon him to limit his power and strength, which he eventually outgrew and broke, becoming more and more wild, and eventually biting off Týr's right hand. Fenrir was later bound by the gods and pulled his mouth wide, trying to bite the gods, and its jaws were split apart by a sword, with Fenrir lying there until the events of Ragnarök.

Ragnarök in Norse mythology

The term Ragnarök refers to a series of events (essentially a war) described in the Elder (poetic) Edda's poems and a great battle, in which several of the Norse gods (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, and Loki) are killed and the world is burned, and then submerged in water, later to rise again, cleansed and fertile, with the surviving gods meeting once again, and the world being repopulated anew by the remaining survivors Líf and Lífþrasir.

The Völuspá explains that the extent of the strife in the human world, Midgard also entails brothers and sisters fighting each-other, an age of swords and axes will prevail, and eventually shields would be riven in strife. Also among this tale of strife the huge sea serpent which encircles the earth (Midgard), an ouroboros, begins to thrash around in the sea as it releases its tail from its mouth and causes waves to crash upon the land of earth.

Surtr, the guardian of Muspelheim begins to march from the south towards Midgard with his sword burning brighter than the sun. Fenrir, the monstrous wolf seeks revenge, and his sons swallow the sun and the moon, causing natural disasters on earth and freeing Fenrir, now breathing fire from mouth and nose, and rides to the battlefield (presumably in Midgard) to meet surtr and his sibling Jörmungandr, the giant sea serpent.

The sea serpent Jörmungandr opens its mouth as it roars into battle, as well as Fenrir. Jörmungandr is met by Thor, Odin's son and also defender of earth. Thor battles the serpent and defeats it, but is killed as he walks away from the battle, infected with Jörmungandr's poison. Odin squares off against Fenrir, but is eventually swallowed whole and is killed, before Fenrir is then killed by Odin's son Víðarr who rips him apart by the jaw. The final battle between Freyr and Surtr results in Freyr being killed and the world being swallowed in flames, the earth sinks into the sea, stars vanish as the steam rises, ready for the cycle to begin again.

See also

• Episodes (Ragnarok Online) - A list of Ragnarok Online episodes
• Services (Ragnarok Online) - A list of Ragnarok Online services operated in countries and regions all around the world.