Seventy years ago, the young historian Thormun, one of the winged Kyrie that populate Valhalla, rediscovered an ancient power: the lost Wellsprings. Drinking of their water transforms the Kyrie into immensely powerful Valkyrie, gifted with visions of warriors across the universe and the ability to summon them to Valhalla. However, without drinking frequently from the waters, the powers and the visions fade.

Although Thormun desperately tried to hide his discovery, it was too late. War erupted across Valhalla as Kyrie leaders vied for control of the Wellsprings, and each used their power to summon armies to fight on their behalf. And so the period of war called the Rise of the Valkyrie began.

In the early days of the war, Sgt. Drake Alexander and Raelin faced many trials together while leading Jandar’s forces. In one such battle, Raelin was kidnapped by the army of the vicious Valkyrie Utgar. While trying to rescue her, Sgt. Drake and his closest followers discovered that she had been placed under the spell of Kee-Mo-Shi, an alien Marro mastermind with the ability to shackle the minds of her victims and bind them to her will.

Sgt. Drake was able to free Raelin from Kee-Mo-Shi’s grasp and slay the witch in the process, but Kee-Mo-Shi’s enchanted amulets ensured that she would return from death, and her plans for Raelin were not over.

As the Valkyrie Utgar flooded Valhalla with swarms of Marro and Grut Orcs, the noble Valkyrie Jandar discovered his true plan: to use the Wellsprings to invade worlds beyond Valhalla. A Valkyrie who gained control of all fifteen Wellspring Chambers and the amulets they hold could open a gateway from Valhalla to anywhere in the universe. For Jandar, a way to send all those summoned to Valhalla home. For Utgar, a doorway to new worlds to conquer, starting with Earth.

Jandar beseeched the historian Thormun to represent him on a perilous mission: to visit the loyal Valkyrie Ullar, the brooding Valkyrie Vydar, and the regal Valkyrie Einar, and ask them to join an Alliance against Utgar. Although he lost friends along the way, Thormun completed his quest, and the Alliance was born.

The newly formed Alliance resolved to send representatives from each Valkyrie—the soldier Sgt. Drake Alexander and the noble Raelin the Kyrie Warrior, the runaway ninja Shiori, the elven archmage Sonlen, and the merciful Soulborg commander Major Q10—south to investigate the rising threat of the Marro, a techno-organic species from an alien world summoned by Utgar to overwhelm Valhalla.

The journey led them south to the deep jungles of Ticalla, where they dispatched a great Marro hive at Xualtiaca. Although the journey left them on the verge of death, they were rescued by the Kyrie of the Moon Tribe, who revealed that a sixth Valkyrie General, a young priestess named Aquilla, had come into power, and that she was eager to join the Alliance against Utgar and repel the Marro invaders from her home.

In the years that follow, not all are happy to serve under the Valkyrie that summon them. A growing fleet of defectors became pirates and mercenaries, sailing Valhalla’s seas on ships as varied as their crews. And they are inspired indeed when a rising new Valkyrie named Revna proves that her fellow Valkyrie can be killed.

Thormun the historian tires of merely documenting an endless war and leaves Jandar’s side, aiming to forge his own blazing path towards the war’s end.

In a grave blow to Jandar’s forces, Raelin is seen once again wearing the amulet that binds her to Kee-Mo-Shi’s will. Sgt. Drake vows to see her restored, even as Raelin flies into battle alongside Loviatäk for Utgar’s cause.