Its was posted 5 months ago. The attention to detail is crazy. Its a long one but its nicely backed up with pics etc.
And seems pretty accurate.
And seems pretty accurate.
To make it quick: Iceland!Hints are littered throughout the video.
The volcano you see at the beginning is the Eyjafjallajökull (or at least heavily inspired by it) a pretty famous icelandic volcano located in the south.
As mentioned the volcano is located at the south coast of iceland and the camera in the trailer is moving inland. North of the Eyjafjallajökull lays the Suðurland. Take a look at it in google maps especially around lake Hvítárvatn and lake Sandvatn. One of those two areas was probably the inspiration for the location of the small village shown later on. (Terrain, color, vegetation and the presence of mountains, rivers + lake. All match up) After going through a couple of travel blogs detailing the lakeside and inspecting it thoroughly in google maps I'm rather certain they could have used Hvítárvatn as a template.
Tameem Antoniades (the chief design director of Ninja Theory) spent a vacation in Iceland about a year ago, according to his instagram (@superninjatam) and was seemingly accompanied by an icelandic native photographer specializing in quite impressive landscape photography.
The runes seen throughout the trailer are icelandic galdrastafir. A quick google search for them will do the trick and you'll recognize the patterns.
Speaking of icelandic staves.There are a lot of different symbols more or less hidden within the trailer.So what's up with those?As previously explained most of the runes are icelandic galdrastafir/staves. Some are not found in the handful of historic manuscripts from the 17th century I went through, which are kind of the main source for those things as I learned. (Namely "Huld", "Galdrabok", G"aldrabloed", if someone wants to take a look for themselves) So no idea if Ninja Theory made them up or went with another source. As I understand it there is a lot of intersection with other runes and icelandic ones seem to originate from an older nordic alphabet or something (no expert here!)
The ones I managed to research none the less are:
Above Senuas eyes = According to a theory I found it's a combination of different symbols with the purpose to guide/amplify magical energy. In the way they are arranged in the trailer it should send all the magic towards her eyes. Which kinda makes sense judging by what happens to said eyes later on. Not sure how the circles work though. In the example below 8 "returns energy" in other sources it also implied to be a kind of energy well for storage or representing the self/a person/their soul etc.Nose = Similar to the eyes. But more complicated/contradictive. My best guess would be that it pushes the magical energy outwards (5) from the middle (voiced my problems with the circle (8) already) while the crossing lines (6 )amplify it. Maybe it's directed at her brain/head?!Throat = A circle with what appears to be 3 to 4 3s pointed towards the center. My best guess would be that it's purpose is to somehow magically enchant her vocal cords which in turn could explain her strange creepy voice.
On the shield of the 1st viking shown= Hard to tell because half of it is missing. Looks like an " Ægishjálmur" variant. Those are usually meant to protect warriors in battle so it makes sense having it on your shield. (I could be way off with this one, there also seems to be germanic elements mixed in like for example a Wunjo rune)
Shield of another viking= "Hraethigaldur" (two *s basically) (?) Makes your enemies fear you. Again a logical choice for a warrior I'd say. Again no guarantee I'm no expert and there's a ton of ancient nordic symbols resembling a cross.
The big glowing one shown at the very end = "Ad stilla alla reidi" To calm/end all anger/strife. Fits in perfectly with Senua actually having somewhat calmed down in the end. Also it kind of being part of the logo itself could be a possible hint about the themes of the game. This is pretty much the only one I'm fully convinced I got right.
Possible runes that are not part of the galdrastafir:The skull on the ground= Very hard to tell because it's way too small. But it kind of resembles a "trollkors" a swedish/norwegian sign to ward off malevolent magic.
On Senuas hairband = Looks very much like the "Triskelion" an ancient symbol which was also frequently used by the celts. Mostly there to emphasize her celtic origin, I'd wager. Also notice the strings wrapped around it. Looks almost like someone is trying to "seal" it away, hide it or is symbolically crossing it out.
All the other symbolism:
The hanging hands = The majority are left hands (save for the circled ones). This could tie in with the song performed by Senua/Heilung which (as pointed out in the comments) is a prayer to Tyr. The god of war Tyr himself sacrificies his (right) hand so Fenris (in nordic mythology literally the wolf who will end the world and eat the gods) can be chained to put off the inevitable end of the world (Ragnarok). Maybe the vikings want to somehow reproduce this ritual to prevent a similar (seemingly) world ending event (possibly the smoking volcano in the beginning and/or whatever is the cause behind those pile of skeletal human remains we see before it. If we go by the chronology of the trailer: Volcano -> peaceful village -> tons of dead ->hands) The could be some causality there. But them being professional warriors and thus in need of their right arm they chose the other one except for the minority of them being left handed ofc.
Fire sacrifice = Likely another act to appease the gods and avert coming desaster. This one though I believe is commited by celtic druids rather than norse priests. They seem to have an affinity for burning victims and are wearing wooden maks. There is (a bit questionable) archaeological/historical evidence for both those being common within celtic culture. Also they appear to be wearing white robes which are also commonly associated with druids since (afaik) the times of the late roman republic. Another tradition of the druids according to roman scholars is the golden sickle. A tool shaped like a crescent moon. The moon played an important role in celtic culture and a couple of pictish stones have been found spotting a crescent symbol. You ofc don't have to search to thoroughly to find something resembling a crescent in this scene.
So what could the story be about?In conclusion I believe there is a brief summary of it hidden within the trailer. Senua at the beginning stands in front of the flames. Which could be signifying her "rebirth", "burning of a bridge behind her" or literally burning something/someone she has hold dear. The Triskelion on her hairband is already covered with rope at this point so she probably has sworn off religion/pictish culture (remember her father was a celtic shaman (a sort of representative of celtic culture, if you will) so she has plenty of reason to abandon her former beliefs). She also seems to have gone after the vikings who murdered her husband, who historically would reside on iceland, likely via boat (when the vikings are patrolling the beach they come across a shipwreck). While chanting her war prayer in the small village she's surrounded by people behind some kind of fence (clearly visible at the end) . What I take from this is, that she's in some kind of arena facing a viking chieftain in ritualized combat while his subjects are gathering around watching it. Senua seems to be using some kind of rune magic, maybe so she can project her inner demons outwards (ties into the interpretation of the signs I found and the flow of magical energy). Would also explain why the vikings can clearly see the troll(?) on the coast while those creatures were merely a product of Senuas brain in the previous entry. Take those 2 whacky claims with a grain of salt though. Highly doubt they go the high fantasy route and let us cast actual magic. She could be on another crusade where she has to take down specific enemies like in the first game. Murdering viking chieftains to get her vengeance and quell her anger (remember the "To end all anger/strive" stave and it's prominent role in the title screen)I'm aware this sounds more like your average "quest for revenge" storyline. But I honestly can't think of anywhere else they could take a story as complete as Hellblade. She has conquered her fear in the first game so it seems only logical for her to get rid of her hatred towards the northmen next. Potentially she could learn to forgive, find a new home within the icelandic society and faces the aforementioned implied desaster together with her new friends. She could use the wisdom she gained from her "journey through the underworld" to settle things and stop the northmen from sacrificing eachother to gods they hold responsible for a natural catastrophe.
Still there are plenty of things left I'm not able to make sense of ... yet.But I'm fairly convinced it's gonna be one hell of a game.If you found anything else hidden within the trailer I'd be highly interested to read about it or simply hear your take on what I put together!
r/hellblade - Thoughts on the Hellblade 2 Trailer (maybe interesting, probably containing potential "spoilers")
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