I have been getting a lot of messages and comments (some not so nice) concerning two of my Roaming Boss’s. Hati and Skoll .

These messages have been stemming from readers of the Webcomic “Off White" (http://off-white.eu/)”, that featured the two wolves as the main focus of the story. Some are asking if I had permission to use the characters in my mod, others are flat out accusing me of stealing them and wanting them removed, even threats to report me for this 'theft' and have my mod removed from the workshop.

I want to clear this up. Nothing has been stolen, and I do not need permission to use them.

Skoll and Hati are not original concepts, and thus were not created or owned by the authors of 'Off White'. Instead, their concept came from Norse mythology, where they are said to chase the two chariot’s that contain the sun and moon through the sky every day until the time of Ragnarok, where they will than swallow them bringing about the end of the world. Skoll and Hati have been featured in many a book, game, and artwork, most showing them as a white/gold and brown/black wargs. Some showing glowing runes on their body’s, others not.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%B6ll
In Norse mythology, Sköll (Old Norse "Treachery")[1] is a warg that chases the horses Árvakr and Alsviðr, that drag the chariot which contains the sun (Sól) through the sky every day, trying to eat her. Sköll has a brother, Hati, who chases Máni, the moon. At Ragnarök, both Sköll and Hati will succeed in their quests.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hati_Hr%C3%B3%C3%B0vitnisson
In Norse mythology, Hati Hróðvitnisson (first name meaning "He Who Hates", or "Enemy"[1]) is a warg; a wolf that, according to Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, chases Máni, the moon, across the night sky, just as the wolf Sköll chases Sól, the sun, during the day, until the time of Ragnarök, when they will swallow these heavenly bodies.


Where I got my inspiration for my version of the brothers came from the game Through the Woods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFtbEK4YVM (skip to 1 hour in to watch the encounter with the wolves)
The first idea was to have their marking’s glow at night and to look like normal wolves during the day. But it wasn’t something I knew how to do at the start of my modding venture. Plus if not for the fur on the old wolf model (this was way before the TLC patch’s hit) not being properly UV mapped thus messing up the markings, the face markings would have traveled along the spine to the tail and along the hips.
https://i.imgur.com/5W54f1r.jpg (Copy and paste URL, as steam seem's to not like imgur.)
Early attempt at the markings, as you can see on the old wolf it added the markings only to the tips of each fur tuff instead of markings down the center back. Due to this I settled for them being just on the face and front legs.



Hati & Skoll are also featured in the new God of War game, several times through out the game. In both spoken lore and in puzzles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z6lMZHEi0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duOYL8JdKr4
(Videos contain no main game story spoilers, first one just shows the story of the wolves, last is a puzzle featuring them, you can watch the first 30 secs on the puzzle one to get the story and not give away the puzzle solution)

There's much more out there if you look that featured the brothers, books, games, movies, they are even both in WORLD OF WARCRAFT
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Skoll
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Hati



Off White readers will remember Hugin and Munin, the two crows that aided Hati through the story?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn
"In Norse mythology, Huginn (from Old Norse "thought"[1]) and Muninn (Old Norse "memory"[2] or "mind"[3]) are a pair of ravens that fly all over the world, Midgard, and bring information to the god Odin."

That's where their concept of Muninn being the guardian of memories came from as seen in Off White page 196: http://off-white.eu/comic/page-196/

Or Askr, and Embla, the white and black human spirits?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ask_and_Embla
In Norse mythology, Ask and Embla (from Old Norse: Askr ok Embla)—male and female respectively—were the first two humans, created by the gods. The pair are attested in both the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, three gods, one of whom is Odin, find Ask and Embla and bestow upon them various corporeal and spiritual gifts.




(Again Copy and paste the images URL into your browser, as steam seem's to not like imgur.)
https://i.imgur.com/xfDv40y.png
There is my take on Skoll.
As stated, the face markings would have flowed past the diamond on his forehead and traveled down along his back with parts splitting off to his legs. But as the texture and COLOR of the mane and tail on the old wolf model are a single color and not UV mapped right to allow the markings, I left it at just the face and front legs.

https://i.imgur.com/nXNm4kn.png
There is my take on Hati.
Same issue as with Skoll, though if the markings would have worked along the back, his forehead markings would be vastly different.

Both wolves also use my old saber warg model, that though its hard to tell, gives them THREE sabered teeth, the center one being the longer. https://i.imgur.com/soc528o.png
That along with other edits like slimmer body, longer legs, etc that differed them from the wolf model the game used.

Now for those saying I 'ripped off' the face marking's. Please do compare
http://off-white.eu/comic/page-255/
http://off-white.eu/comic/page-199/

As you can see, they are no where near the same, and the concept of glowing marking's is not isolated to Off White.


Also, the comic's take has them looking pretty much as normal wolves, with Skoll being gray, and Hati being more brown.

My take again uses my saber warg model, My Skoll is also more blue, with the stripe along his back and nose, and blue front feet, while my Hati has the darker stripe just along his nose, and is more redish bronze with a copper belly. Both their eyes also have a flameing glow and their manes and tail also have a glowing hue to them.


In the end, Skoll and Hati, along with all characters barrowed from Norse mythology are not characters made and owned by the authors of “Off White”. The only thing they own is their imagining of them and their own take and concepts they made up for their story.
Concepts like how Skoll abandoned chasing the sun after Askr got eaten and wanting to live as a normal wolf until the end. Or how they keep reincarnating, or how their all each guardians of elements of the world and if their kind goes extinct that element is lost to the world. Like how the world lost the use of magic after man hunted the guardians of magic; dragons; to extinction (and so many others): http://off-white.eu/comic/page-207/ so on and so forth.

Same for games like God of War, Through the Woods, Runescape, and all games/Books/Movies the two have been in. They all own their own take on these characters, their own twists to the legends and versions of events and world they belong to, but they do not own the characters themselves.


I hope this help's clear matters, and if you hadn't noticed, yes, I am also a reader of Off White, I've been a long time watcher of the authors on DA long before they started the comic. But I also know where they got their inspiration from as I'm a big fan of Norse mythology, (and was STUPIDLY GIDDY when I found out the new god of war was set around it! like SQUEEE giggy!)

So from now on, any more comments, remarks or threats of me 'stealing characters' will be removed and the commenter re-directed here. I also posted an image with snips of this in the gallery in hopes of further stemming the flow of these kind of messages.