Contrary to what you might believe, humans are becoming less common in Geiranger, aside from the few families that are neither involved with hunters nor witches. Other than that, there is the small handful of immigrants or tourists that come to the village. The humans know of the legends and myths about the village, but see them as nothing more. If it weren’t for their presence in Geiranger, the small town would have little secrecy when it comes to the hunters and witches. Their feud would be common knowledge, and fights would be frequent. Regardless of their knowledge, the presence of humans keeps the village in some sort of a balance. But as the fight for the beacon is on the cusp, the citizens of Geiranger may no longer be in the dark.
With the introduction of Christianity to Viking culture came the creation of the hunters. They reported directly to the church as the first line of offense trying to bring to an end the witchcraft that plagued Viking lands. At their creation, every hunter worked in the name of God to remove these abominations. As time progressed, many of them no longer practice a religion - though they still work under the umbrella of the church - but instead fight to cleanse Geiranger, seeing all witches as evil. In the present, the hunters have their hands in everything within the village, especially law enforcement. They are all trained exceptionally well in combat, offensive and defensive tactics, warding from magic and blend in well in a crowd.
Witchcraft has been around long before Christianity and the hunters. Those who practice magic are referred to as vættr or witches. They can be men or women, and have all sorts of areas of focus. For the Vikings, their magic was usually pulled from nature. They were never the type to disrupt the order of the world. If they took, they gave back, working in a sense of balance and harmony. But not all witches were as harmonious with their magic. Part of the reason witches are seen as evil is because of those who practice the darker magics. They offset the balance of nature, working with blood magic, trying to raise the dead and steal power from other people or dimensions, using magic for deadly and selfish purposes. Although a majority of the witches are peaceful people, the ones that use dark magic overshadow them and paint a bad picture of all of their kind. Most witches practice within sveits, or covens, believing in strength in numbers, especially against the strong arm of the hunters.
Vætter are the souls trapped within the Vægher. These are the souls of the exorcised witches, those who were killed under false accusation of being a witch and then the hunters who’ve passed on as part of the witches’ counter curse. As is expected of spirits, they do not age, sleep, or require any other basic human functions and necessities. Time is relative for them, moving slowly at some moments and then at other moments seeming to flash by. Their souls are still themselves, holding onto everything that makes them the person they are. But the longer they spend in Vægher, the more their souls begin to chip away piece by piece. The use of magic within this parallel dimension accelerates the deterioration of their souls. When enough of themselves is gone, the Vætter becomes a poltergeist or demon of sorts, a shadow that terrorizes the souls left. Once past that point, the soul can never be brought back or taken onto Valhalla.
