Umm... ok?

1- trying to further refine the image of Einherjar/Vikings-in-general that I was putting forward.

2- trying to contest your statement

Many einherjar would likely not be remotely good or honorable people.

as well as R_C's

I'm thinking of outlaw bikers.  The type who enjoy fighting (basically over nothing).  Hell Angels, Outlaws, Bandidos - and their fellow riders.  Their love of fighting and their disregard of external authority are similar to how the Vikings lived.

without being an arse, by giving benefit of the doubt, and then explaining myself.

3- so much for that. If I came across troll-ish, or like I was talking down to you... sorry. I point to your own complaints about the written word as possible culprits.

Simple form:
Love of fighting? Good. By itself? Not good enough.
Disregard of external authority? Not a deal-breaker, but not really in-character either.
Complete lack of Honor? Definitely a deal-breaker. They have to be driven by something important enough they'd be willing to die repeatedly pursuing a fight they knew they were going to lose...
Lack of 'Goodness'? Probably ok.

Copy?

You should definitely bring it up... eventually.

As a sort of similar (but more obvious/straightforward) example, in my campaign, the Wizard in the group had just moved to Seattle... a RCVamp baron (and old rival of her missing-presumed-dead warden father) assumed she was the city's new warden, and had a 'coming out' party for her... cordially invited her and +1 to a banquet (held at his primary place of business) as the guests of honor... every other mover and shaker was there as well. The Baron's intent was just to out her in front of all the local big bads.
This guy is way out of her league, but no one in the city knows that, considering the history between her father and the Baron, he and everyone else is assuming she's much more dangerous than she really is. She and the +1 are just about queasy with discomfort being in a room full of things that could chew them both up for a snack... and doing their best to be as cool and quietly intimidating as possible... and doing a decent job of it.
While she's there, the Baron takes a page out of Marcone's book, and offers her a standing invitation to visit him anytime she wishes, every courtesy, etc etc...


And then my Wizard (soon to be Warden, but not yet)... says he's welcome to visit her home anytime, as well. Almost direct quote. Two other players at the table dropped jaws on the spot... she didn't realize what had happened until I slid 3 fate points across the table as 'an advance.'
To be fair, she had at least 2 aspects related to being a bit of an 'act before you think' kind of character. I told her that she could take the FPs and have no clue what she'd just done, refuse for free- she still says it but realizes what she'd said, or refuse them (paying me) to take it back altogether (ret-con in the category of "would/should've known better"). She took the fate points.
... and it eventually became a major looming threat.

If you want to do something similar- I see nothing wrong with that, but make sure your players are on-board with it somehow. If you don't trust them not to meta-game with it... then find a way to hint at it, at least.

Yes, but we never actually see anyone use that ability except for sauron (before he lost it)... galadriel seems to think she could, but that's unproven. It might be best to leave the more complicated powers off of the stat-block, but make a notation that the powers as listed barely scratch the surface of what the ring SHOULD be capable of.

I also like the idea of Demonic Co-Pilot... the stat-boost when working with the ring seems right to me... and it's an existing mechanic for semi-sentience.

Not a problem. Walt was an Outsider. The place is protected.

If he's trying to mimic the flavor of Prometheans, then the social penalty is there for a reason... and are almost perfectly appropriate- they'd be able to interact effectively in the short term, but something about prometheans always... just plain disturbed people. If they worked hard at keeping isolated, avoiding social interaction, they could buy time... but one way or another, it always ends in torches and pitchforks. (one variety in particular craved social interaction, and were pretty decent at it, but still came off as 'broken goods' in a big way, and could never actually form non-abusive relationships)

This could arguably just be the effect of an appropriate high-concept... but it needs more, if that's where he wants to go with it.
A flat penalty to all social effects, say, -1 works well IMO... -2 might be a bit heavy, but /shrug.

The only other thing I could think of is some sort of penalty to social consequences (recovering 1 step more slowly, and always being flavored by the 'torches and pitchforks' disquiet caused by not being quite... right, somehow). How does that sound?

Biggest problem I see with counterspelling with Thaum... is speed. Most of the time you need to counterspell something, you're in a bit of a hurry. You don't have time to set up a big (or even minor) ritual to stop the grey-smoke-of-death approaching you.

That said, it seems fairly obvious that thaum counterspelling would be possible, and exactly appropriate for countering, say, a heavy lasting curse.... (Curses short story).

Yeah- I've given up on the idea of connecting it to the weapon rating- the flaws in that have become clear- it's less about the weapon, and more about your skill with it... so a general weaponry stunt that improves defense or armor against melee only while wielding a weapon (by a flat amount!) is more what I'm leaning towards.... a better than standard version maybe if it only works using a specific weapon (as opposed to any weapons).
The limitation that it only works against melee (fists/weaponry strikes in close combat, no thrown) is limit enough to make it balanced vs similar stunts.