Out of Character:
Name: Leif Siggason
Age: Adult
Height: 8’1”
Weight: 417 lbs
Race
Direling. Direlings are a people of inhumanly heroic height and proportion. They are fair-skinned, broad-shouldered, mighty, and savage. It would take a fool to mistake a direling for a human from a distance, owing to their herculean size and bearing, but such a mistake is impossible up close. Direlings male and female have tusks: skeletal protrusions extending from the cheekbones down, like those of a saber-toothed tiger.
Personality
Aloof, self-assured, disciplined, and unwaveringly stoic. His silence can be mistaken for a grim demeanor, and his confidence easily gives into hard-grinning arrogance. He drinks of life deeply and without caution, especially among the skraelings, who he feels are no threat to him.
Appearance
Leif is big and brawny, even among direlings. He is as tall as a pair of dwarves stacked one atop the other, and easily as broad as two fit men standing side-by-side. His skin is fair and lined throughout with substantial black veins. The right side of his torso is extensively tattooed in blue-black designs, which run sinuously from the right side of his chest, over the shoulder, and down that arm to the knuckles.
He is strong-jawed and wide-faced, with high cheeks and a heavy brow. His dark-ringed eyes are large and expressive, but hard, the green of tropical seas the like they’ve never been laid upon. His tusks are a source of great pride for him: ample in width and length, harshly white, symmetrical, wickedly but subtly curved, and sharp. Runes and primal designs have been carved artfully – and painfully – into the bone.
Leif’s hair is enormously long and black, thick to the point of being fur-like. It has been tamed into countless long braids and ornamented with trinkets: carven shards of bone, chipped flint arrowheads, and glinting ever-ice, every one with a story. His considerable beard is likewise ordered into long braids, slightly thicker, each carefully organized to frame his tusks.
Skills
Animal Ken
Leif is familiar with the minds of beasts. He can often predict a normal, healthy animal’s wants and needs and can probably guess at how it will seek satisfaction. Given time, he knows how to tame animals he is familiar with, and he knows how to sooth, goad, feed, and wrangle domesticated animals. This skill is also useful in determining when and how an animal is likely to attack.
Arctic Survival
Leif is a self-reliant and capable survivalist in conditions similar to those in Berevar or northern Salvar. He can provide for a small group of individuals in addition to himself, and can traverse cold climates in relative comfort.
Athletics
Leif is a capable climber, swimmer, tumbler, fighter, and all-around general athlete. He knows how to recognize signs of skill, strength, and athleticism in others.
Basic Sailing
Leif is a capable hand aboard a longship, but would not have the skills to repair or command one without direction.
Combat
Leif is a trained fighter. He is proficient in the use of the spear in conjunction with a shield, but he is truly deadly with heavy two-handed axes, claymores, and mauls. He knows how to read another fighter’s body language in a split second, and can guess at probable methods of attack.
Trade
Leif is a heavy-handed and unsubtle merchant, but he is trained in the vagaries of trade and can make passable deals when the need arises. He speaks Trade with a thick accent, but has no difficulty as a listener.
War
Leif is a warrior by blood and training. Battlefield tactics, tools, and objective identification come naturally to him so that he not only follows orders; he unerringly grasps the intent behind them.
Abilities
Savagery
Might: Leif is naturally 1.5 times stronger than a human man. This is a measure of the maximum weight he can comfortably carry and the upper limits of the force he can deliver in a single physical effort.
Leif’s muscularity allows him to lift, carry, and swing heavy objects with explosive force at a speed 1.5 times greater than a normal human would be capable of. Normal tools, weapons, and armor are less burdensome to a creature of Leif’s size. This is a measure of how fast he can move in bursts, and does not reflect his run speed over larger distances.
Leif’s remarkable strength is also evidenced in his considerable fortitude, easily 1.5 times greater than that of a human being. Self-control, toughness, stamina, and general heartiness are easier to come by for direlings of Leif’s constitution. This is a measure of how long he can march, run, fight, and work before succumbing to exhaustion.
Son of Hromagh
Direlings are a unique race with a physiology which differs in several large ways from that of an average human.
Direlings have been carefully crafted to thrive in the harsh climate of Berevar. A direling’s resting body heat is much higher than that of a human being. This means that the temperature of an area feels 50 to 80 degrees higher for a direling than it would for a human being – useful for life in the arctic, but potentially deadly in warmer conditions. While it is exceedingly rare for a direling to freeze to death, it is painfully common for a direling to die of heat stroke, even in a temperate biome.
A direling’s ears are smaller and more basic than that of most humans. Their hearing is 2 times poorer over distances, and a direling is unlikely to notice muffled or subtle sounds nearby. In contrast, however, a direling’s olfactory system is easily twice better than that of a human being.
Notable Possessions
War Axe
A basic long-bearded, two-handed axe gifted to Leif at Audsalla. The haft is of oak, the head of thin-forged iron. While it was a good gift, it is clear this axe was probably forged by an apprentice and while not exactly crude, it is no masterwork.
Spears
A pair of simple spears, both made from ash, also gifted to Leif at Audsalla. Their heads have brass cores, with inferior iron laid overtop, and they have wicked but uneven wings. They are clearly the work of a young apprentice, but they are weighted well for throwing and feel sturdy enough.
Knives
The only items left to him that are his own, passed down through the generations, each an iron seax of considerable artistry. The blades themselves are good, long, even, clean, and sharp, but the true worth of them lies in their ornamentation. The blades are inlaid with runes, and the ancient oak handles depict Bjoermund’s defiance. They are his finest weapons, but Leif is loath to use them in battle because of their value as heirlooms.
Trinkets and Charms
A wide variety of trinkets, stones, and charms are braided into Leif’s hair and beard, each signifying some successful hunt or proud victory. They are mostly crafted from stone, bone, and ever-ice, and so gently click, rattle, tap, and clack when he moves.
His Story
The direlings venerate stories. They measure their fellows and ancestors by boasts made and deeds done, and to have a song written of one’s feats is to achieve immortality. They do not care what makes a man what he is, but they confer upon one another names, titles, and gifts to mark achievements. It is in the knowing of these that one can measure the worth of a would-be hero.
These are the names, titles, songs, and gifts bestowed upon Leif Siggason, and by them his story is known.
Heir to Sigga
It is known that Sigga is a war maiden who felled the giant Gram, raided the tombs of the Massacred Ones, and is a troll slaughterer. She has two sons and a daughter, and the eldest son is named Leif, which means “heir.”
Leif Olafson, Leif Svartbar, Heir to the Thunder Bear
Leif is the firstborn son of the hero Olaf Torbar, who is himself the only surviving son of Jorleif Aslaugson, also a hero. Olaf, which means “successor,” has acknowledged Leif as the first and greatest of his sons, heir to Aslaug’s prestigious name and fated lineage. Torbar means “Thunder Bear,” a title granted unto Olaf by his Jarl, the hero Hauk Mjollson. Leif is sometimes called “Svartbar,” which means “the black bear,” which acknowledges the resemblance between father and son.
Leif Stormrider
Across the direling families and even into the orc clans, Leif is known as a crewman of the Stormrider. The Stormrider is Jarl Hauk Mjollson’s longship, one of the greatest in the world, unstoppable on both sea and sky and honored by the legendary wyrm Verithrax. Only the best are allowed upon her deck and amongst the Jarl’s company. Leif was invited into the crew as Olaf Torbar’s son, and he must do much to prove himself to that esteemed fellowship.
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