PLAYED BY: Joel Robertson
CHARACTER NAME: Vidar Emberthorn, Forge Keeper of Drøbak
GENDER: Male
PRONOUN(S): He/Him
CLASS: Warrior
AGE: 31
RACE: Ulven
HAIR: Brown
EYES: Blue
OCCUPATION: Forge Keeper, smith, and warrior.
KNOWN SKILLS: Shield wall fighting, steel mending, and saving those who are not ready to meet the Great Wolf.
BIRTHPLACE: The village of Drøbak in Pack Emberthorn, Clan Ironmound
NOTABLE TRAITS: His long beard is often braided.
RELATIONSHIPS: His father is Halden, deceased mother was Eir, and sister is Signy. No relationships outside of his pack, but is beginning to meet members of the Broken Blade Company.
RUMORS: None.
BIO / BACKGROUND HISTORY: “Save those who are not ready, those who the Great Wolf hasn’t heard the name of.” – Eir, Vidar’s late mother.
Vidar will always remember his proudest day to be when he came of age and was chosen to be a Forge Keeper of Drøbak, a great honor but also great responsibility. Like his father before him, he took the role to his ancestors and pack seriously, carefully monitoring the Ancestral Flame in their town’s main forge and keeping it burning with small material rituals as the smiths did their work. Through this, he learned much from watching the elder smith work, learned patience after making mistakes, and made friends with a fellow young Forge Keeper, Ingi. He was glad to remain home during the
ulven civil war, but felt his calling from the Great Wolf to periodically travel with warrior groups to fight mordok in the Great Forest in the years after.
Vidar did not draw sharpened steel against another ulven until years later, when he found himself indescribably pulled by the Great Wolf to join his pack’s chieftain in the new war, the “Conquering”. New Forge Keepers were named from the younger pack members, allowing Vidar and Igni to trek to the east with the newly formed warpack. Arriving at what he eventually heard was named “Hammerfall”, blood was first drawn against a Clan Nightriver warpack as shield walls were formed and clashed against each other. It was unclear to Vidar who came out ahead in his fight, just that lives were lost on both sides. A month later, Vidar claimed his first kill in this prolonged battle, a veteran Nightriver warrior who fought well, and Vidar was proud to know that his name would be heard by the Great Wolf that day.
The following night, Vidar couldn’t clear his head that something about the kill didn’t quite feel right, but he had no doubts that he had fought honorably and earned it. He brushed off his nerves as caused by his preference to be killing mordok or the problematic colonists instead; but Vidar heard his mother’s words echo in his mind as he lay awake that night. He did not properly understand what she meant by them though. Everyone dies, but not everyone is favored by the Wolf after all.
Their warpack returned home for respite, but it was a bittersweet reunion as some warriors did not walk home, instead brought back on a cart for their bodies to be burned. Vidar spent his days sharing meals with his father and sister, and periodically taking shifts maintaining Drøbak’s Ancestral Flame, but his mind continued to be conflicted. Tension was ever present in his pack, as it was no secret that the warpack would need to return to the frontlines soon, and more fallen warriors would come from it, as is the cost of war.
After equipment was repaired and new inexperienced warriors brought forth, the Emberthorn warpack once again returned east, the situation having changed. Ground had been gained and enemies isolated, the siege of a place called “Bladehome” had begun, becoming the first time Vidar stood against colonists as his warpack joined the camp outside the fortified town. As siege defenses were built, aid stations established, and forges prepared, no one knew they would first encounter something much worse, something hungry.
The next day, the first lines were formed and marched out to test Bladehome defenses, but Vidar and Ingi were disappointedly stuck on guard duty. Distant horns and shouts indicated the fray was beginning, but then the forest around the camp was filled with shrieks and screams. The distant fighting sounded different, but no time could be wasted to dwell on it as a group of malformed silhouettes came stumbling from the
woods. Igni blew the warning horn as Vidar began to throw javelins from behind the spike wall, but the creatures didn’t slow. Wild spheres of magic began being flung from the horrid grotesque creatures as they shrieked like screams of the dead. The magic blasted the camp’s palisade and broke a hole, the creatures not slowing their advance.
Vidar foolishly rushed forward and tried to fill the hold with just himself and his shield, landing blows and briefly holding back the monsters, but it wasn’t long before his shield was shattered, armor melted, and he was sent flying back wounded. Vidar’s vision went blurry and began to blacken, but as reinforcements came to their aid, all he could remember was Igni holding back one of the creatures as its hands spun with magic and it reached for Vidar.
Vidar knew he owed Igni his life, but his next days were a blur, whether from lack of consciousness or from his mind not being able to remember things. It wasn’t long before he was called to the frontline though, and found himself marching with a shield wall up the hill to Bladehome. He could fight, but his mind was still foggy… crimson grass, shouts, horns, advance, metal, screams, blood, blood, blood, Vidar… “VIDAR!”
Vidar’s mind finally snapped into focus at the struggling scream of Igni calling his name, his friend’s torso impaled as their lines continued clashing with the Broken Blade. Everything else around him became empty noise as Vidar screamed and begin shoving his way through the battle to reach Igni as he fell to the ground wounded. With what felt like the Great Wolf’s guidance, Vidar managed to reach Igni and drag him back from the lines, reaching a safer place a short distance in the woods. A Stonetooth warpack advanced past them and charged into the flank of the chaos, their warriors ignoring or scoffing at Vidar and Igni.
Igni’s wound bled profusely from his torso and back as Vidar pressed worthlessly at it and called for help with a broken voice, but camp was too far and no support healers were available. Igni’s face grew pale, and all Vidar could do was sob. Igni died, and Vidar realized what his mother’s words meant as his friend’s soul traveled to the Great Wolf, his name not having been heard.
…
Months have passed, that day exhaustively repeating in Vidar’s head over and over in detail as a punishment from the Great Wolf for not understanding his mother’s lesson earlier. Vidar returned home, ignoring every other part of his life until he learned from the town’s sage how to give first aid, far too late for his friend, but in time for future wounded warriors. Igni’s body didn’t return home, instead burned on a funeral pyre outside Bladehome, where his ashes still remain.
Fury fills Vidar, and his blind focus almost having caused him to fail his duty as a Forge Keeper. He is glad his clan now instead fights against Clan Stonetooth, their dishonor having been unacceptable for a long time and his life almost lost to their recklessly released monsters. But now he must side with the people of Bladehome, the Broken Blade, who killed his friend in battle.
The warpack is once again preparing to march out, but this time to the north against Stonetooth. Vidar’s Chieftain, seeing his fury, refused his joining of the warpack though. Vidar’s protests were silenced as the Chieftain instead sent him to join his previous enemy, to fight alongside the Broken Blade as a collaboration of ‘allies’.
His fate from here is unknown, with only his mother’s words, the Great Wolf, and his fury to guide his choices.