In the year 389, the race of Norn established four primary clans. The Ursaborn, the Lothbrok, the Turgard and the Helvig. Each clan ruled an equal share of the Hammerlands and agreed not to interfere with each other’s territory, and for 172 years, the borders were respected and the clans live in peaceful isolation.
This changed when the Dragon Nidhogg, an outsider to the Hammerlands, broke through a not yet open gateway and tore across the realm with a ferocity like which the native races had never experienced. With no experience battling such a deadly creature, the Norn stood little chance and within weeks Nidhogg had desolated the Ursaborn clan and claimed their capital, Trelleborgen, as his nest.
With their options lessening and fear sweeping across the realm, the Lothbrok clan proposed that the four great clans merge under joint rule and offered their lands as a new home due to it being the furthest from the Dragons new residence. After some initial hesitance, the Jarls agreed and the new Norn capital, Hammerheim was founded.
Clan Feats
The powerful Viking-themed character can be a fun, thematic space to play in and the Norn Race is a great starting point to fulfilling this power fantasy. However, if you’re anything like me, you might want to wrap your character in all the fun lore and world-building you can! You might also want a Viking-themed character that isn’t necessarily a Human. With this in mind, I created 4 fun, thematic Feat options that allow your character to be a part of one of the four Norn Clans.
Ursaborn Clan Member
As a member of the Ursaborn clan you have a mystical connection to bears. Thanks to the actions of the first Jarl of the Ursaborn clan, you and your clan members have been blessed with the ability to transform into the powerful beasts.
Much like the animal the clan is named after, members of the Ursaborn clan are typically large, strong and hardy individuals. As the people that lost their home to Nidhogg, they are filled with an incomparable hatred of Dragons and seek to cleanse the realm of the invasive species. Despite this, they are a considerate, hard-working folk that evaluate the risks to others before acting and put their all into everything they do.
When you take this Feat you gain the following features:
- Increase your Strength or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You can cast animal friendship an unlimited number of times, but you can target only bears with it.
- You gain the ability to transform into a Brown Bear. You use the 5e Brown Bear stat block and remain in this form until the bears HP is reduced to 0 or you chooses to end the ability. While in this form, you keep the attack bonus and AC from your humanoid form. Once you’ve used this feature, you cannot do so again until you take a long rest.
Lothbrok Clan Member
The Lothbrok clan have proven themselves a powerful ally to all of Norn society many times throughout history. They gave up their own territory to ensure the safety of those to whom they owed nothing. Above all else, the Lothbrok clan prioritises the collective good over person glory.
As a member of the Lothbrok clan, you share this selflessness and aptitude for helping those in need. Through spiritualism or sheer force of will, you can provide help to nearby allies, even bolstering their vitality temporarily.
When you take this Feat you gain the following features:
- Increase your Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You can use the Help action as a bonus action, with an effective range of 30ft. Creatures you Help using this feature gain Temp HP equal to 1d8 + your Wisdom Modifier. You can use this feature an amount of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain these uses after taking a long rest.
Bronzebeard Clan Member
While the Ursaborn, Lothbrok and Helvig clans have maintained rule over their clans, the Turgard lost their only surviving member in a battle 74 years ago. The Bronzebeard family have since be given rule, thus changing the Turgard clan into the Bronzebeard clan.
Many Norn where unhappy with the change in leadership but with no heir, there was little choice for the clan. Still, the reputation of the clan members remains tarnished to this day.
While the other clans share historic significance and ancient customs with their clan members, the Bronzebeard have no such cultural significance. What they are know for however, is overwhelming offence with little care for protection. They will charge into battle with the plan to kill their foe before their foe kills them.
When you take this Feat you gain the following features:
- You gain proficiency with Handaxes, Battleaxes and Greataxes.
- You can throw aside all concern for defense to attack with fierce desperation. When you make your first attack on your turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on attack rolls during this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn.
Helvig Clan Member
The fourth and final of the four Norn clans is the Helvig clan. Originally ruling the Eastern land beneath the shadow of Mjonir’s Handle, the Helvig clan have had more interaction than most with the elusive Valkyrie of Úlfdalir. For over 600 years, the clan has been blessed with the patience and wisdom of a Valkor Jarl. It’s current Jarl, Göndul Helvig is a 4th generation of Valkor and has maintained the gentle guiding hand that only one blessed by Thor’s chosen can provide.
The people of the Helvig clan are wise and strong, yet their true gift lies in the lineage of their Jarl. For in moments of need, the souls of the fallen Valkyrie have been seen to protect the vulnerable bodies of this clan.
When you take this Feat you gain the following features:
- Increase your Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Whilst unconscious, the spirits of fallen Valkyrie protect your body from further harm. When a hostile creature moves within 5ft of your body, they take 2d6 radient damage. In addition, when a hostile creature takes damage this way, you immediately gain a successful death save.
Designer’s Thoughts
When designing these Feats, my highest priority was flavour and lore, followed by meaningful mechanical choices that backed up this lore. I wanted someone who took of these feats to feel like they truly are one of these clans in more than just written backstories. This led to me making some changes to the initial lore. For example, originally it was only the direct descendants of the Ursaborn Jarl who could take the form of the bear, however, in designing these feats, I came to the conclusion that as a player, if you heard that your leader could turn into a bear you’re going to want that too! And who am I to deny you? Now, anyone who takes this feat and becomes part of this might Norn clan has the mechanical tools to pack up that claim.
As mentioned, when designing the Ursaborn Clan Member feat, having the bear form wasn’t my first choice. To begin with I was toying with simply giving the player bear-like attributes such as a climb speed or a terrifying roar. It was only after someone in my Twitch chat challenged that I wasn’t truly fulfilling the players power fantasy of being in this clan that I turned towards adjusting the lore and opening up bear form to everyone. And I’m glad I did! It’s much more fun this way! (Having your party member become your bear mount anyone?)
For the Lothbrok clan I knew I wanted something sociable and giving. They were the clan that suggested the merge and gave up their land after all. The idea for using the Help action as part of the feat came about pretty quickly from a fun discussion with my Twitch chat and we added the Temp health to give it more bite. After all, there’s such a meta on feats at the moment that it takes something special to convince someone to take anything over Sentinel, War Caster or Lucky…
The Bronzebeard Clan Member feat is honestly just a selfish fulfilment of opening up Reckless Attack to other classes. Wizards of the Coast have been pretty clear in their wish to allow players to take more of a pick n’ mix style approach to character creation, both through the changes to race ability score increases and the inclusion of feats like Metamagic Adept so I don’t feel its unreasonable for a Druid or Monk to get the opportunity to go Reckless.
For the Helvig Clan Member feat I didn’t have a huge amount of lore to go on. Their primary feature as a clan is that while the other clans are ruled by a Norn, they’re ruled by a Valkor. So that’s what I leaned into when cooking up this feat. I’ll be honest, I typically don’t like using the unconscious condition in features and abilities. I’d rather give you something that keeps for from falling unconscious to begin with. But in this case it felt appropriate to put my personal feelings aside and lean into the lore of the Valkyrie for a thematic (and situationally strong) feature.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed the content and can take something you like for your own games! I always try to add a healthy mix of lore and mechanics to these posts. By now you should be getting a tease of what the Hammerlands are like!
If you’d like to be part of the community then please do swing by my Twitch channel or join my Discord server. Thanks again and as always, I hope your next session is filled with glory!
Veneon Reforged 
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