Origin Story

Sigrid Thorsdottir was born in Göteborg, Sverige (Gothenburg, Sweden) twenty-three years ago. She had a normal enough and relatively uneventful childhood. When she was twenty-one years old, after finishing Högskola (i.e. College) she moved to America and became a fashion model. Within her first year in Millennium City, she revealed herself to possess electrokinetic superpowers and started to fight crime as a registered superheroine called Thunder Raven.

The details of Thunder Raven's origin are shrouded in mystery. She doesn't like to talk much about it, and when she does it's always in very broad strokes. What she has shared with PRIMUS and UNTIL is a recollection of what could be called a religious experience. On her 21st birthday, which happens to fall on Yule--the winter solstice--she went for a walk alone in the woods, back in her native Sweden. At some point she encountered an apparition of a giant Viking claiming to be Odin the Allfather... And her very own grandfather! He told her she was the daughter of his son Thor, and he told her of her destiny, to protect the realm of Midgard--which is to say Earth--from supernatural threats and more mundane ones as well. He taught her the ancient runic spells to control lightning, as her father is none other than the Norse god of thunder. This heroic calling is the reason why she moved to America after finishing her education in Sweden.

Soon after arriving in Millennium City, Michigan--a place she chose to call her new home based on the prominence of superpowered individuals, both heroic and villainous--Sigrid Thorsdottir was discovered by a modeling agent and offered a very lucrative modeling contract at a prestigious international agency.

Personality

Sigrid Thorsdottir is a sensible young woman, with a strong will and a great determination to succeed. She is a true visionary but also has a highly rational mind, a great tenacity, a positive attitude towards life, with great enthusiasm and stamina to stay focused on her goals.

At her best she's loyal, caring, friendly, social, humorous, brave, motivated, hardworking, responsible, fair, driven, focused and successful. But at her worst she can also be moody, closed, intense, selfish, uncooperative and impatient.

Alignment

Although the Character Alignment system is not without its flaws--human beings are essentially far more complex and don't always fit in neat little boxes, to say nothing of cognitive dissonance!--it is still useful as a general guideline. Within that system Thunder Raven can be said to be Lawful Neutral. She perceives her role as a superhero to be more about maintaining order rather than being a single-minded (or simple-minded!) do-gooder. She sees herself more as law enforcement rather than a social or charity worker. Which is not to say that she doesn't see herself as being good. She just sees protecting the social order as the good she serves. In a way it's more about her own sense of right and wrong, her own code of ethics and especially her idea of honor. As such she is not bound to the letter of the law, she is not Lawful Stupid. At the same time she has no problem with the punishment aspect of her work. While she's definitely NOT out to kill--or even hurt--every bad guy out there, she nonetheless doesn't adhere to an absolute "never kill" morality either, like a Lawful Good character would. She has no problem hurting or even killing a wrongdoer or a lawbreaker in self-defense, even less so to protect innocent bystanders. Philosophically, she has no moral objections to the villainous casualties of the "War on Crime."

Powers

• Theophanic Electrokinesis: The ability to summon lightning storms, to generate or channel vast amounts of electricity, as well as to project it and manipulate it to various effects. This ability seems to be a kind of divine manifestation or intervention, as there is nothing in Sigrid Thorsdottir's physiology that can explain the source of her superpowers.
• Flight: The ability to move about within the Earth's atmosphere with apparent disregard for the law of gravity or any means of propulsion. The PRIMUS scientists who evaluated her superpowers posit that she can accomplish this through her electrokinesis by controlling the position of her body within the Earth's electromagnetic field.
• Teleportation (Short Range): The ability to disappear from one place and reappear in a different though nearby place. This is accomplished through phasing into a substrate quantum reality for a short time through electromorphosis. The process can be very exhausting and can be hard to do in succession without a short rest between jumps if energy was expended.
• Teleportation (Long Range): The ability to disappear from one place and reappear in a distant other place. This is in essence a very similar process to the short range version of the power, but the greater distances make it much harder to re-emerge into our reality without a strong connection--an electromagnetic anchor, so to speak--to the place where one is teleporting. Therefore, options are limited to a very few extremely well-known locations.

Weaknesses

Sigrid Thorsdottir is essentially a normal human woman. She is young, healthy and fit but not invulnerable. She can use her electrokinetic powers to electromagnetically deflect bullets and her flight to dodge blows but were she to get hit, it could be fatal. It is also noteworthy to mention that despite her many human weaknesses, she is under the protection of at least two deities of the Norse pantheon and as such benefits from divine intervention on her behalf. Also, her electrokinetic powers afford her a greater level of protection--if not total immunity--from electrical damage.

Equipment

Thunder Raven generally doesn't use gadgets as her superpowers are quite sufficiently strong in themselves, but she does wear a thematic costume made out of spandlar, a very expensive kind of spandex that is highly resistant like kevlar. The costume was--much like her heroic name--inspired by the raven, the bird associated with the Norse god Odin. It was fashioned by the French designer Jean Pierre Legault, based on rough sketches made by Sigrid herself. She claims the design came to her in a prophetic dream.

Sigrid Thorsdottir can use her runic magic to instantly change into this costume, no matter what she is wearing, and she can likewise revert to what she was wearing before using a reversal of the same spell.

As far as actual equipment goes, she does use a gravbike, supplied by UNTIL, one whose lines are also reminiscent of a raven's beak and talons.

Skills

• Thunder Raven has shown to be knowledgeable in the fields of Mysticism, Magic, Occultism, etc.
• Thunder Raven is a keen investigator, though completely self-taught.
• Sigrid is a proficient makeup artist, she almost always does her own beauty makeup, even for professional engagements like photoshoots and runway work.

Associations

• Cindy Banks: An American fashion model of mixed origins (she's part English and Scottish on her father's side and Spanish and Mexican on her mother's side), and Sigrid's best friend. She is represented by the same modeling agency, though by a different agent. They met on the job doing runway work when Sigrid was just starting out and hit it off. The two have since become "besties" and aside from often working together they also go out shopping, as well as clubbing, dancing and partying together.
• Roderick "Rod" Hopkins: A famous fashion photographer who has done work for all the leading fashion magazines, but who's mostly known for his pictorials in the iconic magazine Vague. He also does some photojournalism and has pretensions of being an artistic photographer as well. He is very charming and as such has become Sigrid's favorite photographer to work with. Although he is almost twice her age, the two have been known to date occasionally, though their relationship is not particularly serious. He is based in Millennium City but he often travels for work.
• Sylvia Seibel: She is Sigrid's personal agent at International Modeling Agency Global Enterprises in Millennium City. Sylvia has worked in the fashion industry for over three decades, first as an aspiring model herself, then as a model scout and finally found her true vocation as an agent. She discovered Sigrid in a clothing store at the Galleria Downtown very soon after the young woman arrived in Millennium City and immediately saw her potential and signed her on the spot. Sigrid interpreted this chance meeting and the resulting opportunities as a clear sign she was following her destiny.
• Jean Pierre Legault: A French iconoclastic fashion designer renowned internationally for both his prêt-à-porter and haute couture collections. He is also the creative director of the prestigious manufacturer of luxury goods Mercurius International. He has become quite fond of Sigrid--calling her his muse--and always insists on employing her whenever he requires models, for both runway work and photoshoots. He designed and fashioned her Thunder Raven costume based on Sigrid's rudimentary sketches which she drew after having had a prophetic dream.
• Amanda Morgan: An aging yet still highly in-demand international model who has taken Sigrid under her wing in the modeling world. She became Sigrid's mentor after meeting her at the modeling agency--they're both represented by Sylvia Seibel--and has since come to see Sigrid as the daughter she never had. She is a descendant of a long line of pagan witches from Wessex, England, though her own magical powers aren't the most impressive (she specializes mostly in glamours and prosperity spells). Her mother, Lucinda Morgan, is a member of the Trismegistus Council. In another universe, Amanda hooked up with Roderick Hopkins almost two decades ago and they had a child, Miranda Morgan, who became a magical superheroine called Moonstone, though this did not happen in this particular multiversal iteration.
• Doctor Frederic Simmons: A Millennium City psychiatrist who works primarily for PRIMUS but also consults for UNTIL on occasion, as a specialist on superhuman psychology and psychopathology. He was charged with evaluating Sigrid when she registered with PRIMUS, as there were concerns for her mental health regarding some of her claims to be--or at least to have been--in contact with an actual deity from a polytheistic pantheon. PRIMUS and UNTIL have required Sigrid to keep seeing Dr. Simmons on a regular basis to make sure she is mentally stable enough to operate as a superhero in Millennium City and around the world. So far she has been deemed sane enough to do so, with the current theories explaining her powers hovering between unknown alien influence masquerading as Norse deities or her subconscious mind having used her Scandinavian cultural heritage to make sense of nascent psionic abilities who have as of yet no basis in her physiology.

Trivia

• Although she speaks English very well, a slight Swedish accent can be detected.
• Sigrid is quite fond of lingonberry jam.
• Her superheroic persona is based on her spiritual father's mastery over thunder and lightning and her spiritual grandfather's symbolic association with ravens.
• When Sigrid went public with her superheroic activities, it was no surprise to her best friend Cindy, who had already figured it out despite the few blurry images in the paper and on SNN. She could tell her best friend had been hiding something big. Ever since Cindy's suspicions were confirmed, she's been pestering Sigrid with requests to be set up with eligible super-bachelors!
• Aside from having appeared in many fashion magazine pictorials, Sigrid has already landed several magazine covers including last October's issue of Vague, which is the one she is the most excited about, given how iconic and influential that magazine is in the fashion world.

Tropes

• Fashion Model: Being a model is Sigrid's highly lucrative civilian occupation. It's a day job that allows her a certain flexibility and many perks she enjoys.
• Instant Costume Change: As mentioned above in the Equipment section, Sigrid can almost instantly change into her superheroic costume and back to her civilian outfit through the usage of runic magic spells.
• Chest Insignia: Thunder Raven wears such an insignia bearing the image of a raven.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Thunder Raven's hooded cloak combines both of her symbols, the raven and the lightning (thunder).
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Whilst it's technically a hooded cloak, it still qualifies as a cape and is indubitably the most essential part of her costume.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Just as ravens are black, Thunder Raven's costume is almost entirely black, but she is definitely not on the side of evil.
• God Of Thunder: Sigrid is the spiritual daughter of Thor, the Norse god of thunder.
• Shock And Awe: Lightning is the very be-all and end-all of Thunder Raven's awesome power to obliterate her foes.
• Ride The Lightning: Thunder Raven's flight and teleportation capabilities are inextricably related to her divine mastery over lightning.
• Lightning Can Do Anything:Lightning allows Thunder Raven not just to blast her foes to smithereens but it allows her to fly, teleport and power the casting of a variety of spells.
• Elemental Hair Colors: Sigrid is a natural blonde and this particular hair color is often associated with lightning.
• Most Common Super Power: It is an industry cliché, and Thunder Raven is definitely not an exception!
• Buxom Is Better: Sigrid Thorsdottir is considered one of the world's most beautiful women, in no small part due to her bountiful breasts.
• Dangerously Short Skirt: Thunder Raven's costume consists of a mini dress which is incredibly short. Even in civilian garb, Sigrid tends to favor short dresses and skirts.
• Shes Got Legs: Sigrid's legs are very long and shapely. And she's not afraid to show them.
• Combat Stilettos: Sigrid opted for stiletto-heeled boots--that feature a thin outline of a thunderbolt on the side--for her Thunder Raven costume, obviously for sheer stylishness and not for any practical reason. As a model she is definitely used to walking in high heels, but this is still not the most practical footwear for crime-fighting action. But then again she can fly too, so she is usually off her feet in combat.

Theme Songs

• Thunder Raven Prophecy Theme: Einherjer - Odin Owns Ye All

• Thunder Raven Battle Theme: Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God

• Sigrid Love Theme: Klaus Nomi - Lightning Strikes

Gallery