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Description
Thor is perhaps the most famous of all the gods in the Norse pantheon, thanks in no small part to modern pop culture. However, Marvel doesn't do a particularly good job at portraying the character accurately compared to our actual medieval sources. Oftentimes, all he really shares in common with the god is the name, so let's start there. Thor's name literally just means "thunder", descended from the the same Proto-Germanic root "*Þun(a)raz" that gives us the Old High German form of Thor's name, "Donar". This Proto-Germanic root itself is descended from the Proto-Indo-European nugget "*(s)tenh₂-", which is also the ancestor of the Celtic thunder god Taranis. These gods may or may not be related to another Proto-Indo-European god named "*per-k(w)-un-os", which means "the Striker", a reference to how trees are often struck by lightning. This root gives us the Russian Perun, Lithuanian Perkūnas, Vedic Parjánya, and interestingly, another Norse god named Fjörgynn who is only mentioned once in passing in Lokasenna as Frigg's father. It's possible these were just two names for the same Proto-Indo-European god that split over time, or there were two thunder gods who just sort of got randomly selected by different cultures, hard to say.

Internally, Thor is the son of Odin and a jötunn named Jörð (literally "Earth", also known as "Fjörgyn" with one N, interestingly enough). He is the strongest and bravest of all the Æsir, often identified with Hercules by the Romans because of his great feats. Often, Thor is away from Asgard, either traveling on foot or using his goat-pulled chariot to venture to Jotunheim and absolutely thrash those pesky giants. Famously, his weapon of choice is his trusty hammer Mjölnir, whose name is likely an archaic word for lightning. This devastating creation was made by the dwarves as part of a contest with the trickster Loki, who tried to sabotage the smelting process when he realized he might actually lose his head over the bet. Taking the form of a fly, Loki pestered the smith, causing the dwarf to lose concentration for just a split second, which in turn led to Mjölnir's distinctive short handle. Thor, however, fell in love with the weapon at first sight, as it always hits its target and flies back to his hand whenever he throws it. It is so powerful that even the mighty Thor has to wear a magical belt, Megingjörð, and gloves, Járngreipr, to be able to hold it (no worthiness clause attached). Basically, it makes Thor OP as hell.

Thor and Mjölnir became such a menace to jötunn-kind that the only way to nerf the prince of thunder was to separate them. In the poem Þrymskviða, Thor awakes one morning to find his one true love missing, and in his rage he first blames Loki, which… fair, all things considered. Loki was not the culprit though, but rather it was the jötunn Þrymr, who stole the hammer in order to gain the bargaining power to ask for the goddess Freyja's hand. Thor, most patient of all gods, immediately drags Loki to Freyja's place to say welp it's been a good run, Freyja, but we gotta get you in a wedding dress, chop chop. When Freyja refuses this ultimatum, presumably while Thor gives her big pleading puppy dog eyes, Loki hatches an alternative scheme to get Mjölnir back. Instead of Freyja, they dress Thor up in a wedding dress to trick Þrymr into giving up the hammer. Þrymr is taken aback by "Freyja"'s burning red eyes and capacity to swallow an entire feast in one gulp, but Loki plays it off that oh she's just been so excited about the whole marriage thing. As Þrymr is apparently a dolt who's just waiting for natural selection to take him, he buys this lie and presents Mjölnir to "Freyja" as a wedding gift. "Freyja" then starts cackling like a goddamn maniac and proceeds to beat the shit out of every single jötunn in the room, as is his prerogative.

Of course, Thor massacres jötnar in the service of mankind. Thor is remembered as a hero to all people of Midgard, regardless of their class or heritage. He's very much the everyman's god, evidenced by the overwhelming amount of Mjölnir pendants we find in the archaeological record, much like the one I wear. This may even be reflected in the afterlife, as in stark contrast to Odin's hall Valhǫll, a paradise made for a select few stuck up douchebags of royal blood, Thor operates out of the hall Þrúðheimr. In the poem Hárbarðsljoð, a disguised Odin basically harasses Thor from a distance and tries to insult him by saying that while Odin gets all the fallen noblemen, Thor keeps the fallen thralls. Thor of course sagely retorts against this troll's accusations by threatening to kick his ass. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Honestly, as much as I've been making Thor out as a bit of a dumbass brute, I think it'd be more accurate to call him "simple". He's the god of laborers, and a very straightforward warrior himself. Not every problem can be solved by hitting it with a hammer. Well… okay most can actually, but that's besides the point. I think it extremely telling that when Thor shows up at Ægir's hall in Lokasenna and finds Loki digging himself his last hole by insulting all the gods, he does not immediately bash his skull in. He threatens him, multiple times, but there's the kicker. He threatens him, because Loki is his friend, his very… very obnoxious friend, and to me it reads like Thor truly doesn't want to have to do Loki harm, but he will if he must. Thor has a duty to protect, and it is one he will not shy away from. Come Ragnarök, Thor will charge towards his fate head on, slaying the world serpent Jörmungandr, but only able to take nine steps before succumbing to the snake's venom. Mjölnir will be inherited by his sons Móði and Magni, ready to protect a new generation as the great dragon Níðhöggr descends from his lair.

Design notes, I'm quite happy with this one! I hope that means Thor is pleased with my work too XD As Thor is one of those characters who has constantly been reimagined in popular media, it was a bit of a challenge to come up with something that was uniquely mine for Drake Hero. I knew I wanted him to be an absolute unit like he is in God of War (I haven't played the sequel yet pls no spoilers c': ), so I took reference from the hulks who participated in World's Strongest Man like Eddie Hall. Grant it, Thor's musculature is kinda hidden under all those furs and armor I gave him but ah well, I think his bulk still comes across. Most of his outfit is derived in part from the concept art done for the original costumes in 19th century performances of Wagner's opera. I stress again like I did in Odin's blurb, Wagner is not even remotely a reliable source for the mythology itself, but I like the designs they came up with. I also threw in a few elements from those 18th century Icelandic manuscripts that showcase random events in the text. For his gloves, I actually tried to design them in a way that resembles a Faraday suit, since in the mythology Thor has to wear them in order to hold his hammer, which I chose to interpret as being able to hold the lightning itself. Obviously the Vikings would have no idea what that meant, but I think it's a fun concept to play with. Speaking of Mjölnir, I sort of combined elements from the most famous Mjölnir pendants like the ones from Ödeshög, Bredsättra, and Skåne, while adding my own little bits of flare as well. I'm not sure how well it comes across in the drawing, but I imagine the handle being layered in a spiral of copper wire, echoing a Tesla coil in a way, just as a nice little nod. I also decided to include a design for a so-called "Hercules Club", based on Roman-era artifacts from Germania which seem to have been the precursor to Thor's hammer. I like to imagine this reflecting the mythology too, wherein Thor used to wield a club to beat the shit out of giants until he got Mjölnir and dumped his old stick. That's just my headcanon tho.

Description
Thor is perhaps the most famous of all the gods in the Norse pantheon, thanks in no small part to modern pop culture. However, Marvel doesn't do a particularly good job at portraying the character accurately compared to our actual medieval sources. Oftentimes, all he really shares in common with the god is the name, so let's start there. Thor's name literally just means "thunder", descended from the the same Proto-Germanic root "*Þun(a)raz" that gives us the Old High German form of Thor's name, "Donar". This Proto-Germanic root itself is descended from the Proto-Indo-European nugget "*(s)tenh₂-", which is also the ancestor of the Celtic thunder god Taranis. These gods may or may not be related to another Proto-Indo-European god named "*per-k(w)-un-os", which means "the Striker", a reference to how trees are often struck by lightning. This root gives us the Russian Perun, Lithuanian Perkūnas, Vedic Parjánya, and interestingly, another Norse god named Fjörgynn who is only mentioned once in passing in Lokasenna as Frigg's father. It's possible these were just two names for the same Proto-Indo-European god that split over time, or there were two thunder gods who just sort of got randomly selected by different cultures, hard to say.

Internally, Thor is the son of Odin and a jötunn named Jörð (literally "Earth", also known as "Fjörgyn" with one N, interestingly enough). He is the strongest and bravest of all the Æsir, often identified with Hercules by the Romans because of his great feats. Often, Thor is away from Asgard, either traveling on foot or using his goat-pulled chariot to venture to Jotunheim and absolutely thrash those pesky giants. Famously, his weapon of choice is his trusty hammer Mjölnir, whose name is likely an archaic word for lightning. This devastating creation was made by the dwarves as part of a contest with the trickster Loki, who tried to sabotage the smelting process when he realized he might actually lose his head over the bet. Taking the form of a fly, Loki pestered the smith, causing the dwarf to lose concentration for just a split second, which in turn led to Mjölnir's distinctive short handle. Thor, however, fell in love with the weapon at first sight, as it always hits its target and flies back to his hand whenever he throws it. It is so powerful that even the mighty Thor has to wear a magical belt, Megingjörð, and gloves, Járngreipr, to be able to hold it (no worthiness clause attached). Basically, it makes Thor OP as hell.

Thor and Mjölnir became such a menace to jötunn-kind that the only way to nerf the prince of thunder was to separate them. In the poem Þrymskviða, Thor awakes one morning to find his one true love missing, and in his rage he first blames Loki, which… fair, all things considered. Loki was not the culprit though, but rather it was the jötunn Þrymr, who stole the hammer in order to gain the bargaining power to ask for the goddess Freyja's hand. Thor, most patient of all gods, immediately drags Loki to Freyja's place to say welp it's been a good run, Freyja, but we gotta get you in a wedding dress, chop chop. When Freyja refuses this ultimatum, presumably while Thor gives her big pleading puppy dog eyes, Loki hatches an alternative scheme to get Mjölnir back. Instead of Freyja, they dress Thor up in a wedding dress to trick Þrymr into giving up the hammer. Þrymr is taken aback by "Freyja"'s burning red eyes and capacity to swallow an entire feast in one gulp, but Loki plays it off that oh she's just been so excited about the whole marriage thing. As Þrymr is apparently a dolt who's just waiting for natural selection to take him, he buys this lie and presents Mjölnir to "Freyja" as a wedding gift. "Freyja" then starts cackling like a goddamn maniac and proceeds to beat the shit out of every single jötunn in the room, as is his prerogative.

Of course, Thor massacres jötnar in the service of mankind. Thor is remembered as a hero to all people of Midgard, regardless of their class or heritage. He's very much the everyman's god, evidenced by the overwhelming amount of Mjölnir pendants we find in the archaeological record, much like the one I wear. This may even be reflected in the afterlife, as in stark contrast to Odin's hall Valhǫll, a paradise made for a select few stuck up douchebags of royal blood, Thor operates out of the hall Þrúðheimr. In the poem Hárbarðsljoð, a disguised Odin basically harasses Thor from a distance and tries to insult him by saying that while Odin gets all the fallen noblemen, Thor keeps the fallen thralls. Thor of course sagely retorts against this troll's accusations by threatening to kick his ass. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Honestly, as much as I've been making Thor out as a bit of a dumbass brute, I think it'd be more accurate to call him "simple". He's the god of laborers, and a very straightforward warrior himself. Not every problem can be solved by hitting it with a hammer. Well… okay most can actually, but that's besides the point. I think it extremely telling that when Thor shows up at Ægir's hall in Lokasenna and finds Loki digging himself his last hole by insulting all the gods, he does not immediately bash his skull in. He threatens him, multiple times, but there's the kicker. He threatens him, because Loki is his friend, his very… very obnoxious friend, and to me it reads like Thor truly doesn't want to have to do Loki harm, but he will if he must. Thor has a duty to protect, and it is one he will not shy away from. Come Ragnarök, Thor will charge towards his fate head on, slaying the world serpent Jörmungandr, but only able to take nine steps before succumbing to the snake's venom. Mjölnir will be inherited by his sons Móði and Magni, ready to protect a new generation as the great dragon Níðhöggr descends from his lair.

Design notes, I'm quite happy with this one! I hope that means Thor is pleased with my work too XD As Thor is one of those characters who has constantly been reimagined in popular media, it was a bit of a challenge to come up with something that was uniquely mine for Drake Hero. I knew I wanted him to be an absolute unit like he is in God of War (I haven't played the sequel yet pls no spoilers c': ), so I took reference from the hulks who participated in World's Strongest Man like Eddie Hall. Grant it, Thor's musculature is kinda hidden under all those furs and armor I gave him but ah well, I think his bulk still comes across. Most of his outfit is derived in part from the concept art done for the original costumes in 19th century performances of Wagner's opera. I stress again like I did in Odin's blurb, Wagner is not even remotely a reliable source for the mythology itself, but I like the designs they came up with. I also threw in a few elements from those 18th century Icelandic manuscripts that showcase random events in the text. For his gloves, I actually tried to design them in a way that resembles a Faraday suit, since in the mythology Thor has to wear them in order to hold his hammer, which I chose to interpret as being able to hold the lightning itself. Obviously the Vikings would have no idea what that meant, but I think it's a fun concept to play with. Speaking of Mjölnir, I sort of combined elements from the most famous Mjölnir pendants like the ones from Ödeshög, Bredsättra, and Skåne, while adding my own little bits of flare as well. I'm not sure how well it comes across in the drawing, but I imagine the handle being layered in a spiral of copper wire, echoing a Tesla coil in a way, just as a nice little nod. I also decided to include a design for a so-called "Hercules Club", based on Roman-era artifacts from Germania which seem to have been the precursor to Thor's hammer. I like to imagine this reflecting the mythology too, wherein Thor used to wield a club to beat the shit out of giants until he got Mjölnir and dumped his old stick. That's just my headcanon tho.