| “ | Folstag ate my cattle and hurled my cabin into the river! | „ |
| ~ One of Arngrim's soldiers griping about the grief Folstag has given him. |
| “ | You carry the banner of Folstag — a giant who raids the people in this region. That is why they attacked you. It's an old trick — it's one of the ways Loki gets the Norsemen to fight one another. | „ |
| ~ Reginleif revealing to Arkantos and his friends who Folstag is and how Loki uses his reputation to his advantage. |
Folstag is a recurring character in Age of Mythology games and their remaster, Age of Mythology: Retold. He is a frost giant who leads a clan of his brethren in Midgard as a notorious raider. He is first mentioned in the Fall of the Trident campaign, but he first appears in The Golden Gift as the main antagonist of the first scenario. In "Reginleif's Rally", a scenario from Retold, he is one of the main antagonists along with Gargarensis and Halogi. In the The New Atlantis campaign, he appears as one of the protagonists of the ninth scenario.
He was voiced by Michael Bell in the original game.
Biography[]
Background[]
Folstag is a frost giant from Jottenheim. His past, including his age, is largely unknown, but he hates humans and has made himself infamous in icy Midgard as a troublemaking raider and pillager. He has a fondness of eating people's cattle and tossing their cabins. He has his own banner that depicts two crossed axes, and he leads a clan of frost giants and mountain giants.
The Golden Gift[]
Years before the events of Fall of the Trident, the great dwarven blacksmith Brokk is manipulated by Skult to fight his brother Eitri over the right to forge a giant golden boar for the god Freyr. To get to the forge beneath the mountains, he must travel through Folstag's territory. If Brokk takes the straightest route through the mountain pass Folstag watches over, the giant creates freezing storms to keep him away. The pass can only be navigated while Folstag rests between every storm. Brokk can also gain a passage that will take him closer to the forge's entrance if he returns to a man named Arngrim his cattle Folstag has stolen. It is not necessary to defeat Folstag to complete the first scenario, but if you want to, he will be found on a little frozen island where he is guarded by two polar bear hero units called Polaris.
"Reginleif's Rally"[]
While the main heroes of Fall of the Trident are working to stop Gargarensis' plans in Egypt, the cyclops travels north where he unites the giant clans, including that of Folstag, under his banner. The giants attack Alfheim where the unprepared Norse forces are almost entirely crushed. However, Folstag does not get along with the Fire King Halogi, the fire giant who leads both fire giants and rock giants. They almost come to blows before Gargarensis stops them and tells them to focus on crushing the last standing village. Reginleif, a valkyrie of Odin, leads the village against Gargarensis and the giants. While defeating Folstag and Halogi before crushing Gargarensis is optional, the scenario ends with Folstag and the surviving giants retreating into the hills.
Fall of the Trident[]
When the Atlantean admiral Arkantos and his friends are on their way to Midgard in pursuit of Gargarensis, they meet an old man named Skult who is actually the disguised trickster god Loki. He tells the heroes that the Norse Clans are busy fighting both giants and themselves to unite against Gargarensis and prevent Ragnarok from happening. The heroes would most likely be killed on sight before they would get a chance to negotiate peace, so Skult gives them Folstag's banner which he lies to be that of his village and claims that showing it to the Norse Clans could make them pause long enough to listen to the heroes.
The heroes eventually find the three clans of Arngrim, Eirik and Vibald, who are past victims of Folstag's raiding, fighting each other. When they wave Folstag's banner, the warriors stop fighting, but to the heroes' surprise, they are attacked by the enraged warriors who mistake them for Folstag's followers. After the heroes force the clans to join them by killing the clan leaders, Skult escapes with laughter. Reginleif then arrives and tells the heroes who Folstag is and that using the giant's banner is one of Loki's favorite tricks to make the Norsemen fight one another. She tells the heroes to leave the banner behind before they head out to convince the remaining Norse Clans to unite against Gargarensis.
The New Atlantis[]
After Arkantos' heroics to stop Gargarensis from releasing Kronos prevent Ragnarok from occurring, Folstag starts reconsidering his hatred of humankind. During the ten years following Gargarensis' death and Atlantis' destruction, he becomes a king favored in Midgard after he unites the giants and Norsemen in peace through a series of events, including taming a Nidhogg dragon.
After Arkantos' son Kastor is tricked by the Servant of Kronos to release several lesser Titans, the one named Ymir wreaks destruction across Midgard. After stopping Cerberus in Egypt, Kastor, Queen Amanra and Ajax travel north where they run into Folstag. Kastor initially mistakes the giant for a Titan before Amanra corrects him and Folstag points Ymir out for them. After the king introduces himself and affirms he has come to fight the Titan, he joins forces with Kastor, Amanra and Ajax. His powerful breath is able to freeze Ymir for short periods of time as he waits for the arrival of his Nidhogg that can finish off the Titan from air. While he does not appear for the rest of the game, he presumably sends Norse units to help the heroes during the final fight in the ruins of Atlantis.
Quotes[]
| “ | Folstag: Do not enter my domain, tiny men! Brokk: It's starting to snow. It's getting cold. Folstag: Rrrrrrroooarr! |
„ |
| ~ Folstag unleashing a freezing storm upon Brokk and his forces. |
| “ | You are brave! | „ |
| ~ Folstag commenting on Brokk's audacity to attack him. |
| “ | Rrrrrrooooargggh!!! | „ |
| ~ Folstag defeated by Brokk. |
| “ | Bah! Go on, then! | „ |
| ~ Folstag letting Brokk go if the latter gets to the forge's entrance without defeating Folstag. |
| “ | Begone from my domain, Fire King, or I will bury your armies in snow and ice! | „ |
| ~ Folstag threatening Halogi. |
| “ | Gargarensis: Giants of Jotunheim! Rejoin me, and we will crush Freyr's followers! Folstag: Hmmm… friend One-Eye is right. Come, my brothers! |
„ |
| ~ Folstag answering to Gargarensis' call to attack Reginleif's forces. |
| “ | This is not going well. I did not expect these Norsemen to fight so fiercely! | „ |
| ~ Folstag facing Reginleif's attack on his base. |
| “ | I knew attacking the valkyrie would be a bad idea. We are going back to pester the dwarves near my homeland. | „ |
| ~ Folstag retreating before Reginleif's army. |
Trivia[]
- He originally appears in The Golden Gift as a generic Frost Giant of Thrym. This is rectified in the Retold version.
External Links[]
- King Folstag on the Age of Empires Wiki
- Folstag on the Heroes Wiki
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 Villains
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Age of Mythology Age of Empires III | ||