What would my Gestr do and be?

 The word Gestr is an old Nordic word, like Norn. In fact, in one old Nordic myth the two words were even combined to form the hero's name¹. The word itself means both stranger and guest, and I personally cannot imagine a more fitting word to describe aliens.

So, this is the name I chose for the race of aliens in my Soso/Sosir stories². 

I have written about them before, speculating they would have been a fourth race in creatures in creatures 3³. Searching, puzzling lore and writing stories is interesting enough, but what would these beasties do in the game?

I had at first envisioned them to replace the role of ettins if ettins were to be butlers and workers again, call the Gestr natural born sappers and be done with it. However, that would be an easy way out, and deprive the Gestr of an identity of their own.

Say I were to take my chicken’s bedding and try sleeping in it. It wouldn't be too comfortable, but I'd make do, right? So would a lizard or lemming. A slug or a frog would fare significantly worse though. Shee, Norns, Grendels and Ettins all thrive in more or less the same environment, but what if the Gestr did not? What if not only they were to prefer different surroundings, but were willing and able to change environments? If some invisible agent would allow them to plant pest nests and weeds, weeds that would like a blight corrupt normal plants, fruit and seeds?

Another option would be to play into the alien trope of abduction. Whenever a Gestr would get too bored or crowded an invisible agent could teleport them somewhere in the world, taking whatever creature that's near them with.

A last idea that also plays into the alien stereotypes would be the creation of native/alien hybrids. Perhaps the Gestr would not at all be picky in their breeding choices, and upon meeting a creature of another species breed with it: creating either the problem of a breeding population of halfbreed Ettin or Grendels; or the problem of corrupting your pedigree Norn population with alien limbs and dDNA.

All options are interesting and technically viable, with the secondary perhaps the easiest to implement and the least destructive. What do you think?

1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norna-Gests_%C3%BE%C3%A1ttr

2: https://conjurergob.blogspot.com/2025/04/sosir-and-un-sea.html

3: https://conjurergob.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-strangers-or-fourth-pillar.html