"You may have been in Asgard a short time ago, but now you're in Helheim. You're in my world."
~Hel
Hel is the Norse Goddess of the dead and despair, and the empress of Helheim, the realm of the dishonorable dead and damned. Her job is to take those who have fallen to disease, hunger, and age whereas Odin's Valkyries take those who have fallen in battle to Valhalla. She is a daughter of Loki, the god of mischief.
The Norse were honorific of death, often regarding Hel as being a force that even Odin could not challenge.
Appearance[]
On the right side view of her, Hel appears as a gorgeous and tall young woman, with silky black hair and cold-greyish blue eyes. On her left side, however, is a decaying, horrific image, hair white with age, and her bones and skull exposed. She has long black nails and wears a dress of bones.
If she does rise from her throne in Helheim, Hel leaves a trail of green hellfire in her wake from where she has walked.
Personality[]
Hel is a complicated goddess, she can be bitter and sarcastic, almost devoid of feelings of friendliness towards her and looks down on almost everyone. Indeed, those who walk in her realm are at her mercy, and whatever happens to them is at her command. She inherits a devious and cunning personality from her father, and can be an excellent manipulator when need be, and has worked with her father before, such as when one of Odin's sons visited her to resurrect Baldur, and she said that she would only bring him back when every creature on Earth mourned for him, knowing full-well her father will not, thus condemning Baldur and keeping him until after Ragnarok. However, Hel's true thoughts are unreadable, and when Odin tried to look in her head when she was a child, he described it as a "raging storm that does not allow passage".
When she is angry, her voice is loud and explosive, often making the whole realm of Helheim tremble and all the souls there scream. Yet her laugh when amused is best described as bone-chilling and hollow, ghostly enough to shake the living souls of those visiting her from the other realms.
Abilities[]
Superhuman Strength: Hel possesses vast strength that is considered to be higher than most beings in Valhalla, or even Asgard. As the literal Norse personification of Death itself, it can be safely assumed that she can overpower almost every figure in the entire Pantheon.
Superhuman Durability: Even without immortality, Hel's skin, muscle, and bone tissue are several times denser than that of a normal human's. She is invulnerable to powerful celestial blasts, weighted impacts, falls from great heights, explosions and various other opposing forces.
Superhuman Speed: Hel can move faster than even the finest human athlete, appearing as a blur to the naked eye. When confronted by Thor to resurrect Baldur, she appeared behind the latter with speed that the Thunder God could not follow.
Superhuman Agility: Hel's agility, balance, flexibility, and bodily coordination make her a great warrior in battle. She moves with incredible grace and speed. Her flexibility is enough to where she can twist any limb like a rag without any harm.
Helheim Prowess: Being a death goddess, she is stronger and faster in Helheim than she is anywhere else, and her magic becomes more potent. This even extends to such an extent that she is almost omnipotent as long as she is in her realm.
Life-Stealing Touch: Being the goddess of death and the image of death itself, she can take the life out of any living being with a touch.
Necromancy: As the Goddess of the Dead and the Empress of the Underworld, Hel has divine authority and absolute control over the deceased. She can resurrect the dead, raise an undead army to fight endlessly, sense when someone is close to death, and can kill mortals, demigods and legacies by turning them into ghosts, and forcing them into Helheim for eternity. That is only a few examples of what the Norse goddess of death can do using necromancy.
Soul Manipulation: She can see and control the living essences of any mortal she chooses. She can separate souls from their living bodies, produce illusions using their essences, silence dead souls with a gesture, and physically take hold of ghosts. If needed, she can also temporarily absorb every lost soul in Helheim into her being to boost her abilities and powers to unimaginable levels.
Umbrakinesis: She can manipulate darkness and shadows to any extent her imagination allows. From being able to shoot solid bolts of darkness, which can sometimes come in the form of sharp edges or dark weaponry, to being able to surround enemies into pitch black clouds of suffocating, lightless space. She can solidify shadows into barriers, which can be used to defend herself or deflect attacks. Using shadows, she is also able to travel anywhere else that has shadows nearby.
Hellfire Pyrokinesis: Hel does not just control fire, but hellfire as well, which is a green to violet-colored flame that is considered much hotter than normal flame. A cursed type of fire, once hellfire burns a living being, that wound will never heal, and can cause that being to wither away and it turns anything else it touches into liquid. It is also capable of burning souls away, eating at their spirit until they no longer exist.
Geokinesis: Hel has absolute control over all the earth and stones, as well as the walls and caves of Helheim. She can make the ground shake with a thought, tear open ravines, launch columns and blocks of rock, materialize objects out of stone, etc.
Induce Terror and/or Despair: Hel can radiate death and terror to an incredible degree, frightening even other gods. She can also release a sense of hopelessness and despair onto others, robbing them of their determination or will.
Allspeak: She can communicate in all of the languages of the Nine Realms to be able to speak to the dead.
Intangibility: Hel can phase through solid objects and can allow objects can phase through her like a ghost. In short, she can be untouchable if she wants to be.
Death Curses: Hel is also able to place curses on the living.
Mystiokinesis and Magical Prowess: She possesses vast knowledge and skill in the field of magic.
Telepathy: She can read others' minds.
Anti-Telepathy: She can shut down any passages and attempts from others to read her mind, even gods. When she was just a child, Odin tried to use telepathy to look in her head and failed, and described it as a "raging storm that does not allow passage".
Regeneration: She has the ability to perfectly and quickly recover from any physical injury.
Hemokinesis: She has the ability to manipulate blood.
Total Immortality: As a goddess, Hel cannot die from old age, or mortal illness. In fact, it is said that she cannot die at all, since she is a death goddess and is considerably already dead.
Divine Form: As a goddess, Hel has the power to enter her true god state, called the Divine Form, which is so powerful, it can cause any mortal onlooker to immediately disintegrate. As a death goddess, this extends so much that any mortal who sees this doesn't just disintegrate in the physical body, but their soul will too in an agonizing manner.
Weaknesses[]
Mystical Metals: Even though she cannot die, she can still be hurt and still feels pain. If she is attacked enough with Bone Steel, Imperial Gold, or Celestial Bronze, she can be temporarily incapacitated.
Signature Weapon[]
Hel's magic is powerful, and her abilities as a goddess can be used to dispose of enemies without even moving from her throne in Helheim. But when push comes to shove, she does possess a ragged-bladed sword that can ignite hellfire on anything it slices. Her physical touch alone is acid-like.
Triva[]
- A majority of the information on this profile comes straight from Norse mythology and Riordan canon about gods.