A long time ago, before I started to look for clues to solve mysteries, I simply played Valhalla. I took this screenshot because I liked the atmosphere. And now, when I look at it, I see runes etched in the bark of the trees...

@fudz4 Yes, the location can be found. It's the one with the cairns. It has changed a lot in these 1000+ years (there was a lake where there is now dry land next to the cabin), but it's still recognizable if you look closely. If you search around, you'll even find the location of Eivor's future grave, which is marked with 'sparkles' when using Odin's Sight.

And we all hope a later update will explain why Eivor is buried in Vinland.

@fimbulthulur We don't disagree on this. If Eivor is canonically female (and I really don't mind either way),Ubisoft certainly went out of its way to suggest otherwise in their branding etc. Because all we see is a male Eivor.

@jayveeonyt Some people like solving mysteries, some people apparently like messing with people solving mysteries.

Okay, let's take another fresh look at Bran, based on a close reading of the notes and other in-game information. Be ready for a long read.

We know Bran set out to find "Fae Treasures of Belas Knap, the ring of Silvanus, and who knows what else", "artefacts hidden around Glowecestre".

He was evidently unable to get his hands on the "Fae Treasures of Belas Knap", since we (Eivor) get to do that in the game. The treasure consists of Morrigan's Guard, a shield "of another era or another world", "made of a strange material", which is heavily implied to be an Isu-artefact (although not on the same level as Mjolnir, Excalibur, Gungnir and Nodens' Arc). The note at Belas Knap explains why Bran wasn't able to get the treasure because "only those touched may pass through Belas Knap". Eivor "Wolf-Kissed" is obviously "touched". In the same note there is also a reference to venturing "onward to worlds unspoken", but this has not (yet?) happened.

Next on Bran's list is "the ring of Silvanus". This, we know, is a reference to Tolkien, who worked at the excavation site of Nodens' temple at Lydney Park. Tolkien based his One Ring on the reference in an inscription found at Nodens' temple to a lost ring. In-game, Nodens' temple is represented by the Temple of Ceres with the associated Hidden Ones Bureau. Back to Bran: he was unable to find the ring, which had been "stolen" from the temple, but Eivor did find it in one of the houses of Glowecestre. It can't be picked up, unfortunately. In case everything was not obvious enough, Bran's note is actually titled "One Ring". So this "artefact" has been accounted for too.

Bran then takes up another clue, which was to lead him to "the Mask of Janus", described as "an enchanted item that allows the wearer to pass between the doorways between worlds" (and as "a cursed mask" by Bran's brother Dafydd, linking it to the "fae", or Isu). Bran searches high and low for the mask, but without success and finally, frustrated, returns home.

We don't know for certain what happens next. @Tchester1980 has suggested that his grave is to be found on the hilltop close to Thieves' Warren, where we can also find a superbly detailed medallion (which we can't pick up). We don't know yet where this medallion comes from. Whether or not this is indeed Bran's grave, this medallion is something out of the ordinary, which begs for an explanation, as does Bran's fate.

Although Bran was forced to conclude that "the mask is more myth than fact", there is every reason to believe that the Mask of Janus is indeed an (Isu-)artefact, that is somewhere to be found in the game, specifically somewhere around Glowecestre. The other treasures Bran set out to find did also really exist.

Janus, by the way, is the Roman god of doorways, and it has been suggested by some scholars that his counterpart in Norse mythology is Heimdall. Heimdall, of course, is one of the Isu that used Yggdrasil, only to be reincarnated too early as Rig (see the Rigsogur). His tomb could be another loose end.

Of course, the Mask of Janus could be the item we need to finally activate the runes, but it also deserves our attention in its own right. We may have learned nothing new, and we did explore this area before, but after reviewing the in-game 'evidence' once again, I still think it's worthwhile to keep investigating this. 

What do you think? Did I miss anything, did I misinterpret something?

@kreutzgang Think of all the development time that went into the careful process of hiding all that unimportant loot behind barred doors etc. Imagine if they had not went overboard with that stuff, but had spent that time balancing the game and finding and fixing bugs... We would have had a better Valhalla at launch (and now)!

@forcefrank The point is (as @kreutzgang has explained in an earlier post) that at some point in Valhalla Eivor gets so powerful that dying in combat is almost out of the question. Earlier in the game, and the zealots and witches especially, is something else.

@imbue_ Well, pigs are known to be very intelligent animals, so I won't feel offended.

@tchester1980 The things we do to get to the bottom of this mysterie...

@stonesie87 I think the cave the cartographer mentions in his note is Deoraby Spar Cavern in Snotinghamscire, one of the Treasures of Britain-sites. It's a cave in the northern mountains, there is a rope and "some tackle", the message we find in the cave refers to being "as surefooted as a mountain goat" (ram), and obviously there is "something glittering" in the cave. The blue mineral is apparently a very rare kind of fluorite, known as Blue John, found in Blue John Cavern in Derbyshire. In all, Deoraby Spar Cavern is by far the best match I've found for the cartographer's note.

After less than 10 minutes in the game following the latest patch it crashed while I was in round 9 of the brawl fight...

@tchester1980 I don't have that problem (yet in any case). But my game just crashed in round 9 of the brawl fight... There's little fun in that...

@verendrye Did you even dare to go to Vinland, considering your fear of turkeys?

@shafaialulusisi For those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Jewel

@tchester1980 The only sea monster I have seen today was some weird glitched fish that was twisted at a 90 degree angle and floated above the waves...

@tchester1980 Okay, I'll keep a lookout.

@outlander1982 Then I go fishing for big mackarell. Oh no, they're also not in the game.

@tchester1980 His body was brought back to England, as far as I understand it.

@tchester1980 We still have Rig's treasure to find...

@tchester1980 Sounds great! We can still hang out here. There's also an axe out there and maybe some more dragon bones...