I think too that ODIN (being all-caps) is all-machine, or perhaps fringes on the edge of being all-machine and retaining some biological component... But I don't think he's an AI in that sense. Wasn't one of the major themes in this game (or perhaps the entire trilogy) what makes a biological sentient things 'alive' and what would an equally sentient AI have to be in order to be recognized as 'alive'?
I think ODIN will be a Vader-like in appearance that he is a machine shell of his former organic self. But where Vader had a human face I think ODIN will be much more mechanical looking as a whole. Perhaps it is allegorical to Odin giving his eye to drink from Mímir's well? Perhaps ODIN gave up his organic form in order to be given the attributes of drinking from Mímir's well? Much like Hannar said about Ty losing his arm in the making/taming of the Fenris blade, since the mythology has him losing his arm to bind the monster.
Another aspect that I don't know if anyone's touched on yet (didn't see an article about it on toohuman.net), is Hugin and Munin's role in the game. will they be present at all, as in; will their characteristics be integrated into ODIN in other manners? seeing as how Hugin and Munin flew all over the world and told Odin about it, I assume they might be programs or AIs in TH. Two birds don't really have shit on the internet when it comes to surveillance or speed... Or perhaps Hugin and Munin will be treated like Jörmungandr and Fenris, and will be made into weapons. (The image that flashed in my head just now was ODIN with two long slender jagged swords...) But where Fenris is a wolf and can be related to close-quarters combat, ravens are birds, and possibly more important; scavengers... Perhaps some sort of ranged, poisonous weapon(s)? But then again Odin is known for having a very strong spear... so perhaps ODIN will have something similar?
I'd really like to draw up some mock-ups I have in my head right now, but I don't have my tools.
It would be nice to know the importance of the Fenris blade, so we could assert the importance of other monsters/creatures. We know that the Jörmungandr is important, not only from the cut-scene with Mímir, but from the fact that SK chose to release
that particular cut-scene that's nearly titled "Why Jörmungandr is so important"... I'm not saying the game revolves solely around Jörmungandr but I do think it's an integral part to the game progression (a minor mission that works only as a set-up to a larger one) and a large part of the ultimate goal of the story.
For instance, will Tor's goats have a place in the story? Tor already has his 'ultimate weapon' in Mjølnir, there is no reason for him to change weapons as it is a ranged and close-quarters weapon. The best at both, at least for Tor. Perhaps they will integrate the story from Trymskvida (where Tor has his hammer stolen by a Jotun), but this story is really silly and many speculate since it was written down in the 1200s (previously living through the memories of generations as all other Norse stories, they were all written during the 1200s), the people who wrote it tried to deface the Norse and heathenistic gods by adding elements that would make the gods appear fools. Some even speculate that this poem was written just for that purpose and never existed as part of the Norse mythology.
Either way, that is the only story about Tor losing Mjølnir, and that would be the only opportunity for Tor to wield other arms (If SK does indeed stay as true to the source material as we now presume)...
Something else I was thinking of... was the human aspect of this game. Will there be humans in it? I've seen some of the screenshots over at Toohuman.net had fallen human soldiers in them, but somewhere (I forget...) the world was described as a "post-human world in which cybernetic gods lived"...
While I'm unsure how this will work in the game, of even if it will appear at all in the game: the status quo of the Norse worshiping. The reason the vikings worshiped the gods was to give them strength, so that they could protect the humans. If the humans didn't worship the gods their strength would perish and the Jotun would enter the realm of man (and demolish Åsgard). I don't really see how they can integrate that into the game-play in any fulfilling manner. But it could be used as an angle in the story where the faith and devotion of mankind is faltering. I don't know how the human society is going to be portrayed in TH (or even at all featured), perhaps civilization is still the same as it was in the viking days (800-900), but with high-tech shit? Or perhaps it is a mirror of the world today, where only a few weirdos truly believe in the Norse mythology... I assume the former is the most likely for many reasons. But again, this is all hinging on how important the human aspect of the game/story is going to be... If the only relevance the humans have is to exist so the Valkyries have a reason to be in the game, they are probably not giving a shit about all of this. Which I expect is far more likely than SK having written a story that arches over the three realms, involving characters from each in a grandiose story (heh, that actually sounds very much like something SK would do).
The Valkyrie, as it is pictured in this game, and just it's presence at all tell me that maybe SK is really making a game about Germanic mythology. Norse is the most prominent of these, and the only one that really has survived the change into Christianity during the 1000 era. The fact that Grendel also plays a role in TH backs this up, even if only a little bit (Beowulf was set in Scandinavia I think, so that could be why Grendel is included though). The Valkyrie wasn't really seen as a winged woman in Norse, rather she was a long haired woman on a horse that could ride through the clouds and over water. When I think of winged Valkyries I think of the warrior women of central european countries at the same time as Norse existed. It is true that the Germanic mythologies had a lot in common, for instance Attila the Hun is featured in Norse as the Hero Atle in Atlekvadet.