The Tomes of Utalis
New Entry: Volume Nine
Revised Entity
Atali
Atali is a young Goddess of the Dreamlands, a creature of elemental cold and ice. She is the daughter of the Great Ice God Ymir, who the Nordenheimer race claims as their father-god. It is also believed that she may bear some relation to the dreadful being known as Ithaqua. She resides in Ymir’s portion of the Dreamlands- a place of eternal cold where mountain and snowfields reflect the eternal auroras and other strange lights that glow from the darkling sky. She travels her father’s realm in various forms- a fell and icy wind that chills the flesh, a great white bear with dark, flaming eyes or a vampiric ice worm that dwells within the sunless cavern below the frozen surface. Few encountering her in her own realm ever survive her hunger and wrath.
At times the realm of Ymir within the Dreamlands intersects with Earth, allowing passage of being from one world to the other- most notably in the northern reaches of the Nordenheimer kingdoms. Atali often takes advantage of these alignments to sojourn to our world. Atali is but a young stripling as gods go though and the form she sends forth from Dreamlands can hold but a fraction of her power. This form is most often a chilling beautiful human one of pure snow-white skin, blood red lips and golden-red hair reminiscent of both branches of the Nordenheimer people. She is often accompanied by one or more of her less brethren, simple but powerful spirits who lacking much imagination take on the form of huge Nordenheimer warriors- the only human forms that have seen in their travels upon Earth.
Atali’s earthbound form is no stronger than a woman of the human race but possesses a prenatural beauty, grace and speed. Her very presence is hypnotic, drawing the eye and desire of both male and female. Aware of her limitations in this form, Atali hunts for small groups or single individuals that would provide easy prey. She often haunts the aftermath of the many battlefields of the Aesir and Vanir luring the few wounded survivors to their doom or waylays groups of travelers who come across her path. Atali has an odd sense of patriotism though- given the choice between a Nordenheimer or a member of another race she will prefer to take the outlander as prey instead. Such is only mercy she has on the those who worship her father.
Atali’s usual tactic is to dance seductively, employing her hypnotic charm to entice her prey to chase her. She then uses her superior mobility in the frozen terrain to stay ahead of her prey, driving it to exhaustion in pursuit and then die of exposure far from help. It should be noted though that though her earthy frame possesses great stamina it is in fact not unlimited. An exceptional human being may in fact be capable of tiring her out first. Should she find herself growing weary she lures her prey to where the her brethren lie in wait. In their gigantic forms, these Frost Giants can usually make short work of a human opponent but their unfamiliarity with the human form can make their strength all but useless against a swift human who takes advantage of their weakness. If her brothers are defeated Atali will flee. If truly pressed afterwards she will call upon her father to take her from Earth and return her to the Dreamlands, though this action shames her in her father’s eyes.