Robert MacAnthony Thorsson, Thor's Deception (837 B.C.E.-???)

Born to Thor Trygveson and Tove of Avaldsnes, Robert Thorsson (later named Robert MacAnthony) was born beneath Ymir's Fragment (now known as Haley's Comet) in a field in Avaldsnes. His birth was seen as an omen of the coming of Ragnarok, though heretical priests in 803 refined this interpretation as an omen of the coming of the Deceiver – an unpopular belief that Thor would return to the mortal realm to quietly prevent the end of all time. Thus marked, Thorsson was raised as a tactician and warrior, both for his future life as a raider and commander and to prepare him for those who would assassinate him. He subsequently defeated a pair of assassins in 842 and in 851 and had their chieftains executed; this show of force stifled future assassination attempts.

In 859, Thorsson disguised himself as Hastein and sailed with a fleet of ships to raid the Mediterranean. His most famous success was the sacking of Luna on his way to Rome. There, he feigned his conversion to Christianity and faked his own death; his coffin was brought within the city walls for burial, attended by his secretly-armed men. Unprepared for a defense during a funeral, Luna's guards were overwhelmed by the Trojan Horse plot, and the city was lit ablaze.

To this date, scholars have assumed this feat to be a simple raid supported by deception, but recent discoveries in 2024 of an underground cave full of massive rune-covered stones in Denmark suggest an alternative plot: the search for the Gungnir, the spear of Odin. Archaeologists now suspect that Thorsson had joined the heretical order of Viking priests of his youth, a group now believed to have possessed the only written texts of the Book of the Gods – a now-destroyed book containing the words of Odin, Freyja, and the forgotten god Uylnir. This group believed that the weapons of the gods were hidden upon the Earth, and that it was the sole purpose of the mortal descendants of those gods to seek them out and use them against the coming darkness.

As a result of these discoveries, some scholars now believe that Thorsson's most significant raids were all efforts to retrieve these aforementioned weapons, taking on the disguise of major commanders or regular foot soldiers. These include: Gungnir in Luna; Gleipnir at York; Mjolnir at Dublin; Skofnung at Paris; Dainslief at Hastings; Angurvadal at Antwerp; Vidar's shoes at Deventer; Skidbaldnir at Sicily; Hofund at Sasireti (not a formal raid, but Thorsson was present); and, finally, Gjallardhorn at Vinland (specific location unknown). How these weapons ended up in these locations remains a mystery, though it is possible that Ymir's Fragment may have deposited them upon the Earth.

By 1446, Thorsson changed his name to Robert Bartholomew Rathsbone and assumed a series of new identities, wandering Europe as a sellsword, educator, bard, and, in one case, as a talking horse named Mathilda Rothschild. In 1772, Thorsson disappeared, possibly to the Americas or possibly to the mountains of Norway, where the Tomb of the Gods is rumored to reside. Several centuries later, he re-emerged as Robert MacAnthony and became a copyright attorney for Spellner, Rathsbone, and Bootes. His followers, while few in number, work at some of the most significant publishing houses in the United States, waiting for the day when he will stop Ragnarok with his armory of acquired weapons.