All of the Nine Realms had criminals. Asgard had supervillains like the archer Ullr, or mages who were consumed by their hunger for magic. Alfheim had a fraction of Light Elves who practiced dark magiks despite the damage it caused to their mind and soul. These criminals were small in numbers though, so the two realms were considered peaceful overall.
On other Realms, peace was a luxery that they did not have. The presence of the criminal faction was painfully obvious. Midgard, Muspelheim, and Jötunnheim were the three realms where it was easiest to see.
The technical definition of a civil war was when two members of the same country fought against each other. For Realmers though, a civil war happened when two members of the same species fought each other. By the Realmers definition, Midgard was in an eternal civil war with too many factions and countries to ever try to count. Most didn't try, and they assumed the humans would forever be in a civil war with each other.
Muspelheim was plagued with rebel factions that worked to try and usurp the rightful government and take control of it. Asgard had taken away Muspelheim's powerful artifacts so Surtr, the king of Muspelheim, did not have enough power to stop them. Despite Surtr's obvious right as ruler, Asgard has refused to aid him in keeping control. Dozens of factions are currently fighting, and while the palace was protected from the fighting the civilians outside it were not. They had to pick a side or risk being prey to all factions. Surtr could do little but watch as his planet and people are slowly torn apart.
Jötunnheim was better off than Muspelheim, but not by much. They to, had been stripped of all of their weapons – the Casket of Ancient Winters and the Icefall Jewel being the two most well know – after they lost their war against Midgard. Without their power, Jötunnheim's lifeforce is slowly but surely dying. Within a millennia, there will be nothing living on Jötunnheim, nothing. Asgard knows this, but the artifacts that could restore the realms' lifeforce remain inside the Weapon's Vault.
Before the end of the war, and the loss of the power, Asgard had pushed the Jötnar off of Midgard and back to their own realm and they kept fighting. Once on Jötunnheim however, Asgard had found itself woefully weak against the harsh environment of the realm. Laufey knew that would happen and told one of his captains, a childhood friend named Vasad, to harass the Odin's troops. Vasad used Jötunnheim's winter to destroy the intruders. Thousands of Asgardians died because he and his squadron prevented them from reaching shelter and let the cold take its toll. His squad did not follow the laws; essentially they became outlaws working under the King's orders.
When the war ended, Vasad and his squadron found out that they didn't want to go back to following the laws. They lost their respect and loyalty to Laufey from his crippling defeat, and saw no reason to stay with him. Instead, they and their families vanished and crossed into the otherwise uninhabited Northern Wilds. They made their stronghold within the heart of Jötunnheim's Arctic Circle, the Spineback mountain range. For a time, all they did was hide.
Then a decade later they came back, and began attacking villages calling themselves Raiders. These raids continued on for three centuries, until a few decades ago when there was an accident. One of the villages they raided was the home of Princess Nál, Laufey's younger sister, and she was killed. It was an accident, a horrible accident that shook Vasad. Aghast by what he had done, Vasad stopped the raiding.
Nál left behind two children, Helblindi and his younger brother Býleistr. With their father dead from the war with Asgard, Laufey's son Loki presumed dead, and his wife Fárbauti confirmed dead, the boys were his now only family. A tender peace has settled into place between the Raiders and Laufey after Nál's murder, but that peace was about to be shattered and it was Asgard that would become their battleground.
Vasad walked down the icy hallways of his base quietly, trying not to think about the situation he and his Raiders were in. His base, unlike Laufey's palace, was inside of one of the many mountains of the Spineback range. He turned a corner and stopped walking when he was confronted by the odd sight before him. There was a Jötunn girl about four centuries old with fiery red hair doing a handstand in the tunnel in front of him.
Vasad tilted his head to look at the girl, trying to understand what he was seeing. She must have felt his gaze because she managed to glance up at Vasad despite the position she was in. When she recognized it as being Vasad she hopped back to her feet. The exotic red was highlighted with copper highlights that illuminated her brilliant lavender eyes.
"Hello father," she greeted him.
"Buri, what were you doing?" Vasad asked her with a little smile.
Buri shrugged. "I got bored, so I was testing my balance. This snowstorm has been going on for two weeks already, and I want to go outside."
"You know it's too cold to do that," Vasad warned her. "Even Jötnar have their limit. This winter has been a harsh one to say the least."
Buri scuffed one of her knee-high fur boots against the floor of stone and ice in irritation. She was a rare beauty. Most Jötnar were born without hair, but Buri had hair as red as fire – fire-touched she was called. Unlike others born with hair, she was not a Rhutistic but she did have access to a touch of very unique magic that trounced Heimdall's in power.
Because hair was so rare for a Jötunn Buri kept hers long, clean, and free with only a leather headband to keep it out of her eyes. Vasad had told her it was too long and to cut it, yet she had never done it. Neither had he.
Buri had stopped smiling, just as she always seemed to. "I wish I had more magic."
"You are perfect the way you are," Vasad promised his daughter.
Buri lowered her head without responding. She drew her eyebrows close together as if hearing something and looked up suddenly.
"Forad is coming," she announced suddenly and looked down the hallway behind her, "and I think he's irritated."
A few seconds later, Vasad heard footsteps and Forad, one of his advisers, walked into sight. There was something in his expression that could be described as irritated. Vasad gave a tiny smile at the wonder of Buri's magic.
"Forad, is something wrong?" Vasad asked. "Did a tunnel collapse?"
"Nothing like that," Forad promised.
He looked down at Buri with a neutral expression. Although Vasad had a son, it was his daughter that had been named his heir. He supposed Vasad's son wasn't fit to be heir though.
"If I may speak to you alone," Forad asked quietly.
"Of course," Vasad agreed. "Run along Buri."
Buri didn't acknowledge her father, and instead looked up at Forad. "It stopped snowing, didn't it?"
Forad felt a little chill at the girl's observation. Buri's magic was passive, that was she couldn't summon it to her fingertips and use it in a spell. Her magic let her sense things that her five senses couldn't. Sometimes she could sense things that happened on other realms, or things that had not yet happened. As ever, she was correct.
"Yes, it has," Forad told her in a similarly neutral tone.
"Father?" Buri asked Vasad in her most innocent voice without looking at him.
"Stay in the training grounds," Vasad ordered.
"Yes!" Buri smiled again.
She gave a quick bow of respect to Forad and started skipping down the hallway.
"Keep away from the plateau edges!" Vasad called after her.
Buri paused her skipping and turned to eye her father. The young girl put her hands on her hips and gave him a 'really?' look. She had grown up living in the mountains, and she knew better than to be near the edge of a cliff face. If you got close enough to the edge and the ground gave way it would be a long fall to the ground.
Vasad smiled as the girl continued to skip down the hallway. "Now Forad, what is it you wish to speak to me about?"
Forad hesitated. That slight movement caught Vasad off guard. This far in the Northern wilds every Raider needed to trust each other. He relied on that trust and loyalty to keep his people safe. As such, Vasad himself had few secrets – a claim few could make. Yet it was clear Forad wanted to speak in secret.
He motioned Forad on and they ducked into a room. The doorway to the room vanished into the walls.
"All right," Vasad started after the doorway of snowflakes reappeared behind them. "What do you wish to speak about so badly?"
Forad wordlessly handed Vasad a scroll of stiff white skin. Vasad took it warily and unrolled it, keeping a hold of the two bones on either end. Written on it in a blood-based ink was a report of food supplies.
He read it and then looked up at Forad. "Is this correct?"
"It's been double-checked," Forad promised. "That last storm taxed our stores. This is only the first month of the storm season. If we get hit with another storm like that then our supplies…"
Vasad let the scroll roll back up and sighed. "We will have to cut back on our rations."
"We are already on winter rations," Forad reminded him.
"We'll have to reduce them more," Vasad replied simply.
Forad shook his head. "Vasad, we might want to stop by Phaedra. The reports we have on them say that they have extra food stored up. We can assemble a raiding party and bolster our supplies."
Vasad gave a short laugh, "I knew you going to say that Forad."
"We are called Raiders, Vasad," Forad pointed out. "It's been decades since our last full scale attack on a village. Tell me, did that truly shake you so badly?"
Vasad knew he was referring to Nál's death. "I grew up with her and Laufey in the palace. She was like a little sister to everyone there. I killed her, and orphaned her sons. You wouldn't understand."
"No, a commoner like me would know nothing about palace life." Forad pointed out nonchalantly, "but we need more supplies. The only way to get it is to raid."
"Laufey has been ignoring us since we stopped our raiding If we cross south into his territory again, he will remember we exist." Vasad decided. "It is not worth shattering what small peace there is."
"What do you expect him to do if we stay peaceful enough?" Forad demanded. "Welcome us as a sovereign nation? You killed his sister!"
Vasad closed his eyes and looked down.
Forad realized he had pushed too hard and quieted. "All I am saying is that we Raiders might as well live up to our name. Are you scared of war? Our warriors are getting anxious from this lax time."
"I am not scared," Vasad answered instantly. "But I see no need to start a war without reason."
Forad knew that he was right despite Vasad's rapid response. "Is that your answer?"
"I will need to think this over. My orders will be relayed tomorrow," Vasad decided in a voice that made clear that was final.
Forad gave a slight bow and walked back out of the room. It was clear that Vasad's orders would not be different from what he had just said. He would not resume raiding and risk starting a war with Laufey. Although Forad was disgusted by the weakness, he was not surprised.
Fine Vasad, if you are too scared to start a war then I will have to do it for you.
Remember the end of the last story that said Asgard was soon going to be in a war? This is how it all starts.
I found it a little odd that Heimdall was the only one with clairvoyance so I gave Buri her own. Unlike Heimdall she can't control what she senses, but she can see a far broader scope of information then he can when she does see something. Yes, Asgard is not the nicest race in existence. Did you think they were? All of the stories we're told in the Cinematic universe are from Asgard's POV and history is written by the victory, correct?