Once there was a beautiful Goddess of the astral sea. So beautiful and wondrous, no realm could contain her. Her hair flowed throughout the cosmos and into the planes of existence, connecting all that there was and is and every would be. One day, a mortal by the name of Ivaldi went sailing on his ship. He spent many days on his ship catching fish for his family. He was the best fisher and a skilled sailor, and always brought home enough fish for his whole family to eat and be full. His father, Skidblanir, was old and tired. So old was he, that he could not fish and sail anymore.

And so Ivaldi was in charge of feeding his family, which he did with pleasure. Until one day when he pulled up his nets and found he had caught a hair of Crios. He pulled and pulled, trying to heave the hair into his boat, but he could not do so. Crios, feeling her hair being tugged, looked down from her lofty place among the astrals and saw Ivaldi alone on his boat. She called out to him, “Who are you who wishes to pull upon my lock?”

“It is I! Ivaldi! A simple sailor and fisher, looking to feed my family. I apologize for pulling on your lock of hair, for I did not know it belonged to you. I mistook it for a fishing line!” Ivaldi called back.

“And so it would seem I have caught what I lured.” Laughed Crios as she leaned down to Ivaldi’s boat. “Would you like me to help you fish?”

Ivaldi gazed upon the face of Crios, and wavered. “My lady, forgive me. I need not trouble a beauty such as yours.” He hid his eyes away from Crios. “I will feed my family and be happy with my fish for now, but I will always cherish your gaze for the rest of my days.”

Crios laughed at this compliment. “Such kind words,” said she, “from a mortal. Tell me, would you care for a different fish? One that would feed your family for a year?”

Ivaldi kneeled in his boat, “Oh would you be so gracious as to gift me with such a present? Will your generosity know no end? For you have filled my heart, and would you now fill my family’s bellies?”

And so Crios pulled on her hair and caught in the astral sea a creature of great size and strength that could feed a family for one whole year. When she had done this, she spoke again to Ivaldi, saying, “Take this gift. Have your family eat of it. And they will be full. And now I must ask what would make you full?”

“To sail the seas of the skies and to be with you for the rest of my days. Now that my family is full, I need not worry for them.” Said Ivaldi.

And so Ivaldi built a new ship, and named it the Skidbladnir after his father. He took this ship and fashioned sails like wings from Crios’s hair, and with her help he sailed off into the astral sea to be with the one he loved. The Skidbladnir saw many worlds, and Ivaldi became a great king in his lifetime, but he and Crios would return every year to feed his family with fish from the astral sea. And so it came to pass that families in Muspilar would feast on the fish of the Fractaled Seas and be full. This was, of course, until those seas were sundered in the War of Light. But during that time when Ivaldi was away from his family, he and his father would speak to each other through magical journals. Ivaldi would write in his journal the wonders he saw with Crios, and Skidbladnir would see the words appear in his own. And likewise when Skidbladnir wrote of Ivaldi’s family growing and prospering, Ivaldi would read of it in his own journal. It was love that connected these two, and love that kept their hearts full.