No relation to either of those words. Here's a good Wikipedia article that gives an indication of how slippery the word is.So then where do we get the term Viking from? Is it akin to ‘heathen’ or ‘pagan’?? I’m confused.

No relation to either of those words. Here's a good Wikipedia article that gives an indication of how slippery the word is.So then where do we get the term Viking from? Is it akin to ‘heathen’ or ‘pagan’?? I’m confused.
First, let me remind readers that this is historical stuff. For writerly purposes, we can make of Vikings (and pirates and merchants and etc.) whatever we wish.Wouldn’t the common ‘way of life’ be seafaring and raiding peoples?
That makes sense given that sadly two different species are probably more likely to fight than share technology. Makes me wonder about including more than one sentient species myself. I had planned on just humans.In an ancient fantasy setting I was working on,a long time ago, I had different civs and species with different tech levels and historical inspiration, one was a Victorian-era human culture with rapid expansion and steam technology, and another was a species of humanoid fox that lived in the vast woods with a neolithic/native American inspired culture and tech