Vyk
09-11-11, 07:27 PM
Name: Olaf Audson
Age: Young Adult
Race: Direling
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Green
Height: 6’9”
Weight: 320 lbs
Occupation: Raider, mercenary, merchant
Personality
Olaf is motivated by a pressing need to prove himself worthy to his peers. He is nonetheless self-assured, possessed with talent and natural strength, and his passion and ferocity are notable even among the direlings – a race well known for its boundless energy. He has a shrewd, hungry mind, and a worthy intellect, but he is more like to solve a problem with violence and force than words. Still, he’s no bully. Among friends he is light-hearted and easy to laugh, patient, quick to forgive, and in a dispute will bark long and loud before ever thinking to bite.
He views the smaller races of Althanas as most of his people do – stunted, soft, and whiny – but he remains benevolent toward the skraelings on a personal level and, from time to time, he’s even curious about them and their alien cultures.
Appearance: To a human, Olaf would seem a hulking giant, and more bear than man. Out of his furs and armor, he’s a wide, towering mass of thick, inhumanly prodigious muscle. He has broad, heavy, sloped shoulders, and his chest is likewise broad and very deep. His arms are as thick as some human men are in entirety, and his gut is as a flat wall. The muscle of his back and shoulders is great enough to give him the impression of being always slightly slumped forward. This, along with his particularly long torso and impressive arms, gives one the vague impression of a great looming ape.
Dressed in his furs and leathers, Olaf seems twice as hulking, and all the more imposing.
Among direlings, Olaf is considered stout – short even, to some. No one would call him small, owing to his broad shoulders and cyclopean musculature, but most of his fellows have almost a foot or more on him. To them, he has a scrappy bearing: more a wolverine or rangy wolf than a bear, but animalistic all the same.
As with most direlings, Olaf’s skin is nearly snow-white, lined throughout with substantial black veins. The right side of his torso is heavily tattooed in thick, bluish black, jelling-style designs, which run sinuously from the right side of his chest, over his right shoulder, and down along that arm to the knuckle. He has hair the color of dark honey, which grows in thicker than that of a human. Though he sports a crest of fur-like hair in a tapering shape down along his chest, and thinner patches on his shoulders and forearms, Olaf is not nearly as hirsute as some.
Audson’s eyes are large, dark-ringed, and the green of tropical seas the like they’ve never been laid upon. His hair is very long and straight, largely swept back in a thick braid that reaches near to the small of his back, though a few stubborn strands inevitably hang free over his face. His tusks are a source of great pride to him: ample in width and length, harshly white, symmetrical, wickedly curved, and sharp. Runes and primal designs have been carved artfully – and painfully – into the bone. His beard frames his tusks. In addition to the two formed from his mustache, his beard is tied into five impressive braids: the thickest down the center, and two thinner braids to either side of each tusk. Small bone trinkets hang from each of the four thinner braids.
Humans often make the mistake of thinking a direling’s tusks are oversized canine teeth. They do not extend from the mouth, but in fact fall from the cheekbones above to frame either side of the mouth – more akin to a saber-toothed cat than a walrus.
Skills
Combat: Olaf is a force of nature on the battlefield, all red fury and savage skill. While there is no formal art to the way he fights, no southron swordsman would go so far as to call him inexpert. It is as if he – and indeed, his entire race – was born knowing how to fight. Olaf just likes it even more than most. As a result of his barbaric and frankly alien style of combat, it is often difficult for trained martial artists to predict what he’ll do next, especially humans from south of Sulgoran’s Axe. He is proficient in the axe and war-hammer, but he has some passable skill with the longbow and spear as well.
Climbing: Owing to great strength and a childhood of scaling sheer cliffs in search of bird eggs, Olaf is an agile climber.
Arctic Survival: Olaf has lived all his life on the frozen isle of Thool, and is particularly self-reliant. He can provide for himself and a few others in even the harshest arctic environment.
Polyglot: To be made useful to his father, Olaf was taught a number of languages. He was taught the southern Tradespeak by the Iorlan the Exile, a human from Salvar, and speaks it fluently albeit with a barbaric accent. He knows the tongue of the Berevaran orks, and he knows the languages of the dwarven thraels. His native language is called Osk.
Basic Sailing: Olaf knows how to perform basic maintenance on a direling longship, and is at least passably useful when given orders. He does not know enough to command a ship of his own.
Animal Ken: Olaf grew up around animals. He’s particularly good with beasts he’s familiar with: draves, arctic bears, direwolves, arctic aurochs, mammoths, and so on. He knows their habits, how to hunt them and how to soothe and sometimes tame them, and he knows how to spot tension and the signs of attack. This extends to their southern relatives, as long as the species are relatively similar. He is oft accused of feeling more attachment to beasts than he does to people.
A Sharp Mind: Olaf is smarter than one might think, and he picks up on a lot. He can be philosophically minded when given an excuse, and curiously empathetic for someone so bloodthirsty. He is cautious, perceptive, and curious.
Cleanliness: For barbaric conquerors, direlings are unexpectedly hygienic.
Abilities
Strength: Having survived a grave illness, Olaf’s heroic strength is rapidly returning (1.5x).
Stamina: The direlings are a hardy race, renowned for their boundless energy. Though pushed to its limits, Olaf’s constitution saved his life when sickness seemed sure to take it (1.5x).
Direling Physique: The direlings are built for survival in one of the harshest environments on Althanas, and they are built for war. Their bones are sturdier and flexible, their muscles dense and hard, and their hides are tough as leather. They’re just plain harder to hurt. After his illness, however, Olaf is not as hale as he ought to be (1.5x).
Equipment
Leather armor: Made from mammoth hide, and lined with white arctic fur. Olaf’s armor is composed of leather pants, overlapped with leather hip-guards that cover his thighs to just above the knee, a series of belts, a sleeveless tunic, and a leather baldric with fine bronze clasps.
Furs: Fashioned from a fearsome arctic bear Olaf killed in a trial. Consists of a pair of tough bracers from wrist to elbow, heavy boots that rise almost to the knee, and a long, bulky cloak. The fur is luxurious, thick, pristine white and very warm.
Axes: A pair of excellent one-handed, single-bladed, long-bearded axes. Dwarven forged from iron, etched with decorative runes. Hung from Olaf’s baldric and carried on his back.
Seax: A long knife with a bone hilt and iron blade used primarily as a general cutting tool. Sharp and long enough to serve as a weapon when the need is great. Sheathed at the hip.
Trinkets: The Osi only wear decorative jewelry if it signifies some great feat. Thus, small, sharp bear bones dangle at the ends of Olaf’s beard-braids, and he wears a necklace of bear claws.
History
Every student of the Thaynes knows the story of Bjoermund, a direling in far-flung Berevar who committed genocide against the race his people were created to protect. By and large, the story is considered a parable – a sort of warning against defiance of the gods – and in the south the direlings are thought to be as mythical as giants. In truth, the direlings do exist and Bjoermund’s sad tale is the single most seminal and divisive event in their history.
Bjoermund did not undertake the slaughter of his charges alone. Many direlings stood aside and did nothing, and many stood against him, but there were also a great number that followed his example. In the end, the forgotten race was wiped out and the direlings were left with no one to serve or protect, but their war went on even after Bjoermund disappeared.
That interminable war has persisted, in some form or another, ever since. The direlings are divided into two vast factions: the Osi, who historically fought alongside Bjoermund, and the Vani, who opposed them. Today the Osi believe the direlings were created to fight and kill and conquer the smaller races, never to serve them, and it is the goal of every Osi to die in battle and go to the Great Nether to fight alongside their ancestors forever. The Vani, on the other hand, believe it is their duty to atone for Bjoermund’s great sin, and that they can prove themselves worthy once again by protecting the smaller races.
As the war waged on through the generations, the Osi have been gradually pushed toward the western coast. There they were forced to learn the art of shipbuilding, which they took to keenly, and they secured the western fringe of Berevar along with a vast field of small islands on which they could settle and live relatively unmolested. Chief among these islands is Thool, a large, rocky, darkly forested isle well off the northwest coast of Berevar.
It is there that the mead hall now called Audsalla was founded two generations ago, and around which the city-fort of the same name sprang up. Ruled by the firstborn daughters of the first Aud, Audsalla is among the most secure Osi bastions in the world, and its lady-ruler enjoys a great deal of political power among the direlings.
Thormund Ingridson was a young man when he first arrived at Audsalla more than twenty years ago, having only recently earned command of his first ship. In those days Audsalla was ruled by the second Aud, and her first daughter – Aud III – was newly declared a woman grown. She was smitten with Thormund, and convinced her mother to allow him and his men to winter at Audsalla. When Thormund sailed on to raid and conquer in the spring, he left Aud with child.
Olaf was born into fierce nobility, and he has proven himself strong and able and loyal at every turn. When the second Aud’s third daughter poisoned her mother and sought to ascend to control over Audsalla, Olaf supported his mother in the battles that followed. When the raider lord Surd overstayed his welcome and sought to make Audsalla his permanent seat, Olaf was there to force him out. When arcane creatures appeared from the Grey Wood intent on the slaughter of direlings, Olaf led the charge, and Audsalla yet stands. When the mad white bear nightly scaled the town’s walls to make off with Osk striplings, Olaf slew her in her cave and dragged her corpse back to the mead hall alone.
And yet, news from across the Ice Sea grows dire. The Vani have pushed hard into Osi territory, and rumors swirl of a great fleet being assembled. Thormund Ingridson returns to Audsalla to recruit able warriors and to seek the support of all the noble houses of Osheim. It is said that this will be the greatest war-host seen in generations.
And Olaf wants nothing more than to be at the forefront.
Age: Young Adult
Race: Direling
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Green
Height: 6’9”
Weight: 320 lbs
Occupation: Raider, mercenary, merchant
Personality
Olaf is motivated by a pressing need to prove himself worthy to his peers. He is nonetheless self-assured, possessed with talent and natural strength, and his passion and ferocity are notable even among the direlings – a race well known for its boundless energy. He has a shrewd, hungry mind, and a worthy intellect, but he is more like to solve a problem with violence and force than words. Still, he’s no bully. Among friends he is light-hearted and easy to laugh, patient, quick to forgive, and in a dispute will bark long and loud before ever thinking to bite.
He views the smaller races of Althanas as most of his people do – stunted, soft, and whiny – but he remains benevolent toward the skraelings on a personal level and, from time to time, he’s even curious about them and their alien cultures.
Appearance: To a human, Olaf would seem a hulking giant, and more bear than man. Out of his furs and armor, he’s a wide, towering mass of thick, inhumanly prodigious muscle. He has broad, heavy, sloped shoulders, and his chest is likewise broad and very deep. His arms are as thick as some human men are in entirety, and his gut is as a flat wall. The muscle of his back and shoulders is great enough to give him the impression of being always slightly slumped forward. This, along with his particularly long torso and impressive arms, gives one the vague impression of a great looming ape.
Dressed in his furs and leathers, Olaf seems twice as hulking, and all the more imposing.
Among direlings, Olaf is considered stout – short even, to some. No one would call him small, owing to his broad shoulders and cyclopean musculature, but most of his fellows have almost a foot or more on him. To them, he has a scrappy bearing: more a wolverine or rangy wolf than a bear, but animalistic all the same.
As with most direlings, Olaf’s skin is nearly snow-white, lined throughout with substantial black veins. The right side of his torso is heavily tattooed in thick, bluish black, jelling-style designs, which run sinuously from the right side of his chest, over his right shoulder, and down along that arm to the knuckle. He has hair the color of dark honey, which grows in thicker than that of a human. Though he sports a crest of fur-like hair in a tapering shape down along his chest, and thinner patches on his shoulders and forearms, Olaf is not nearly as hirsute as some.
Audson’s eyes are large, dark-ringed, and the green of tropical seas the like they’ve never been laid upon. His hair is very long and straight, largely swept back in a thick braid that reaches near to the small of his back, though a few stubborn strands inevitably hang free over his face. His tusks are a source of great pride to him: ample in width and length, harshly white, symmetrical, wickedly curved, and sharp. Runes and primal designs have been carved artfully – and painfully – into the bone. His beard frames his tusks. In addition to the two formed from his mustache, his beard is tied into five impressive braids: the thickest down the center, and two thinner braids to either side of each tusk. Small bone trinkets hang from each of the four thinner braids.
Humans often make the mistake of thinking a direling’s tusks are oversized canine teeth. They do not extend from the mouth, but in fact fall from the cheekbones above to frame either side of the mouth – more akin to a saber-toothed cat than a walrus.
Skills
Combat: Olaf is a force of nature on the battlefield, all red fury and savage skill. While there is no formal art to the way he fights, no southron swordsman would go so far as to call him inexpert. It is as if he – and indeed, his entire race – was born knowing how to fight. Olaf just likes it even more than most. As a result of his barbaric and frankly alien style of combat, it is often difficult for trained martial artists to predict what he’ll do next, especially humans from south of Sulgoran’s Axe. He is proficient in the axe and war-hammer, but he has some passable skill with the longbow and spear as well.
Climbing: Owing to great strength and a childhood of scaling sheer cliffs in search of bird eggs, Olaf is an agile climber.
Arctic Survival: Olaf has lived all his life on the frozen isle of Thool, and is particularly self-reliant. He can provide for himself and a few others in even the harshest arctic environment.
Polyglot: To be made useful to his father, Olaf was taught a number of languages. He was taught the southern Tradespeak by the Iorlan the Exile, a human from Salvar, and speaks it fluently albeit with a barbaric accent. He knows the tongue of the Berevaran orks, and he knows the languages of the dwarven thraels. His native language is called Osk.
Basic Sailing: Olaf knows how to perform basic maintenance on a direling longship, and is at least passably useful when given orders. He does not know enough to command a ship of his own.
Animal Ken: Olaf grew up around animals. He’s particularly good with beasts he’s familiar with: draves, arctic bears, direwolves, arctic aurochs, mammoths, and so on. He knows their habits, how to hunt them and how to soothe and sometimes tame them, and he knows how to spot tension and the signs of attack. This extends to their southern relatives, as long as the species are relatively similar. He is oft accused of feeling more attachment to beasts than he does to people.
A Sharp Mind: Olaf is smarter than one might think, and he picks up on a lot. He can be philosophically minded when given an excuse, and curiously empathetic for someone so bloodthirsty. He is cautious, perceptive, and curious.
Cleanliness: For barbaric conquerors, direlings are unexpectedly hygienic.
Abilities
Strength: Having survived a grave illness, Olaf’s heroic strength is rapidly returning (1.5x).
Stamina: The direlings are a hardy race, renowned for their boundless energy. Though pushed to its limits, Olaf’s constitution saved his life when sickness seemed sure to take it (1.5x).
Direling Physique: The direlings are built for survival in one of the harshest environments on Althanas, and they are built for war. Their bones are sturdier and flexible, their muscles dense and hard, and their hides are tough as leather. They’re just plain harder to hurt. After his illness, however, Olaf is not as hale as he ought to be (1.5x).
Equipment
Leather armor: Made from mammoth hide, and lined with white arctic fur. Olaf’s armor is composed of leather pants, overlapped with leather hip-guards that cover his thighs to just above the knee, a series of belts, a sleeveless tunic, and a leather baldric with fine bronze clasps.
Furs: Fashioned from a fearsome arctic bear Olaf killed in a trial. Consists of a pair of tough bracers from wrist to elbow, heavy boots that rise almost to the knee, and a long, bulky cloak. The fur is luxurious, thick, pristine white and very warm.
Axes: A pair of excellent one-handed, single-bladed, long-bearded axes. Dwarven forged from iron, etched with decorative runes. Hung from Olaf’s baldric and carried on his back.
Seax: A long knife with a bone hilt and iron blade used primarily as a general cutting tool. Sharp and long enough to serve as a weapon when the need is great. Sheathed at the hip.
Trinkets: The Osi only wear decorative jewelry if it signifies some great feat. Thus, small, sharp bear bones dangle at the ends of Olaf’s beard-braids, and he wears a necklace of bear claws.
History
Every student of the Thaynes knows the story of Bjoermund, a direling in far-flung Berevar who committed genocide against the race his people were created to protect. By and large, the story is considered a parable – a sort of warning against defiance of the gods – and in the south the direlings are thought to be as mythical as giants. In truth, the direlings do exist and Bjoermund’s sad tale is the single most seminal and divisive event in their history.
Bjoermund did not undertake the slaughter of his charges alone. Many direlings stood aside and did nothing, and many stood against him, but there were also a great number that followed his example. In the end, the forgotten race was wiped out and the direlings were left with no one to serve or protect, but their war went on even after Bjoermund disappeared.
That interminable war has persisted, in some form or another, ever since. The direlings are divided into two vast factions: the Osi, who historically fought alongside Bjoermund, and the Vani, who opposed them. Today the Osi believe the direlings were created to fight and kill and conquer the smaller races, never to serve them, and it is the goal of every Osi to die in battle and go to the Great Nether to fight alongside their ancestors forever. The Vani, on the other hand, believe it is their duty to atone for Bjoermund’s great sin, and that they can prove themselves worthy once again by protecting the smaller races.
As the war waged on through the generations, the Osi have been gradually pushed toward the western coast. There they were forced to learn the art of shipbuilding, which they took to keenly, and they secured the western fringe of Berevar along with a vast field of small islands on which they could settle and live relatively unmolested. Chief among these islands is Thool, a large, rocky, darkly forested isle well off the northwest coast of Berevar.
It is there that the mead hall now called Audsalla was founded two generations ago, and around which the city-fort of the same name sprang up. Ruled by the firstborn daughters of the first Aud, Audsalla is among the most secure Osi bastions in the world, and its lady-ruler enjoys a great deal of political power among the direlings.
Thormund Ingridson was a young man when he first arrived at Audsalla more than twenty years ago, having only recently earned command of his first ship. In those days Audsalla was ruled by the second Aud, and her first daughter – Aud III – was newly declared a woman grown. She was smitten with Thormund, and convinced her mother to allow him and his men to winter at Audsalla. When Thormund sailed on to raid and conquer in the spring, he left Aud with child.
Olaf was born into fierce nobility, and he has proven himself strong and able and loyal at every turn. When the second Aud’s third daughter poisoned her mother and sought to ascend to control over Audsalla, Olaf supported his mother in the battles that followed. When the raider lord Surd overstayed his welcome and sought to make Audsalla his permanent seat, Olaf was there to force him out. When arcane creatures appeared from the Grey Wood intent on the slaughter of direlings, Olaf led the charge, and Audsalla yet stands. When the mad white bear nightly scaled the town’s walls to make off with Osk striplings, Olaf slew her in her cave and dragged her corpse back to the mead hall alone.
And yet, news from across the Ice Sea grows dire. The Vani have pushed hard into Osi territory, and rumors swirl of a great fleet being assembled. Thormund Ingridson returns to Audsalla to recruit able warriors and to seek the support of all the noble houses of Osheim. It is said that this will be the greatest war-host seen in generations.
And Olaf wants nothing more than to be at the forefront.