Einarr
"In the north the only person you can rely on is yourself." Age: 32.
Race: Human.
Origin: Weirn - The City of Normundr.
Personality: Einarr is a very stubborn and gruff person who prefers to rely on his own skills and abilities rather than those around him.
While his lone wolf and mostly antisocial behaviour was only made stronger by his time as a Ranger in the service of King Hagrir, during which Einarr spent most of his time alone while out on long distance scouting or hunting missions into the surrounding hills and forests, it can be traced all the way back to when he was a child living in the city slums where he had no one else to rely on but himself to provide food, shelter, clothing, and water.
Despite all of his self reliance and complete lack of a desire for social interaction with most people, Einarr has one trait that had always and will always remain engrained within him, and that is loyalty. Indeed Einarr is loyal to a fault and once carried a fellow Ranger who was fatally wounded back to Normundr, through a blizzard, by himself, simply because the man wanted to be buried with his ancestors and not in an unmarked grave out in the wilds. Upon returning to the city, the King made sure the Ranger was given a proper buriel before personally rewarding Einarr for his deed by giving him a sword from his personal armory.
History: Abandoned by his parents when he was a child, Einarr was forced to live out on the streets, stealing and fighting off the other homeless children to survive. While there were a few people who showed him compassion by giving him food, clothing, water, or a place to stay in exchange for work they needed done, most of the time he was ignored and left to fend for himself.
As he grew older, he became more and more desperate to survive in the frozen, inescapable hell he constantly found himself in by breaking into other peoples homes to look for food or to find a warm place to sleep for the night, not knowing that this habit would eventually see him crossing paths with a man that would change his life forever.
Veteran Ranger Bruin Stormblade.
~
Twenty Years Ago~
It was on a particularly cold winter night that a young Einarr was trying, and failing, to get a restful night's sleep under the snow covered awning of a nearby bakery, the freezing snow filled air tearing at his ragged clothing and the cold flesh underneath. Lifting up his head, Einarr saw what he thought was a well to do man clad in chain mail, leather, and furs armed with a bow, axe, and round shield walk past the bakery he was sleeping next to and off towards the more well off part of town. Well, more well off than the slums he was accustomed to living in anyway.
Smiling to himself, Einarr got to his feet and began to follow the man, keeping just far back enough to avoid rousing his suspicions, until he saw the man arrive at a small but modest home, open the door, and go inside. Doing his best not to shiver from the cold Einarr quietly made his way round to the back of the house, unlocked a first floor window, and slipped inside. The interior of the house was dark which caused the boy to fumble around for a bit in search of a candle or other source of light when the feeling of a sharp object brushing up against his throat stopped him from moving any further.
"Don't you know it's not wise to sneak into someones house unannounced boy?" A gruff voice said from somewhere in front of him. Einarr felt his blood run cold at the man's mention of the word "boy." How did this man know he was a boy unless...
"What?" The man said with a chuckle.
"Did you really think you'd be able to follow a Ranger and break into his house without him noticing?" With those words Einarr heard the man mutter something which caused a flame to materialize in the palm of his right hand. Stretching out his hand to a nearby wall the man uttered another chant and the flame surged towards it, causing a torch mounted there to ignite and bathe the small room in a flickering orange light.
Now that he could see better, Einarr's eyes went wide in shock and fear as he finally got a good look at the bear of a man holding the sword to his throat. He had long raven black hair that reached his shoulders, a thick beard tied in a braid, and a heavily scared face that made it seem as though he'd been mauled by a bear. Seeing the look on the boy's face, the man let out another, more amused chuckle, as he withdrew the blade and placed it back into its sheathe. He then walked over to a nearby chair and sat down in it before pulling out a wooden pipe from a pouch on his belt, placing some tobacco into it, and lighting it.
"Y-you're not going to kill me?" Einarr asked, his voice breaking slightly.
"Now what would that accomplish?" The man asked as he took a long draw from the pipe before exhaling a large cloud of smoke.
"You'd be dead and I'd have a mess to clean up.""Then...what are you going to do?" Einarr asked, the apprehension he felt written plainly on his face.
"I'm going to give you a choice." He said, leaning forward slightly.
"You can try to steal from me and run like you originally planned and try to live your life on the streets..." He said, indicating the open window with his pipe.
"Or you can become my apprentice and train to become a Ranger in service of the King and do something productive with your life."Einarr stared at him for a while, his mouth hung open in shock. First he'd thought he was going to die and now he was being offered a chance to have a life far better than the one he had now. Effectively a fresh start. Thinking it over for a long while, Einarr finally made up his mind.
"Alright." He said, standing up a bit straighter. "I'll train under you sir...um..."
"Stormblade. Bruin Stormblade." He said, taking another draw from his pipe.
Einarr nodded in acknowledgement and dropped to one knee. "Sir Stormblade."
"Eh, get up boy. Bowing is only done before those spineless nobles or our King, of which I'm neither. Now, I've told you my name, how about yours? You got a name boy?""Einarr." He said, getting to his feet.
"Well Einarr..." Bruin said as he got up from his chair and walked over to Einarr.
"I suggest you get some sleep. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."~
Present Day~
Einarr pulled the fur hood he was wearing further down his head to keep out the bone chilling mountain wind that whipped across face as the carriage he was currently seated in rattled and creaked as it slowly made its way up the narrow path leading through the Ghenna Mountains, the team of horses at its front kicking up clouds of snow with every step they took.
Looking off into the distance he could see the imposing form of the Orders mountain stronghold rising up from the surrounding mist and clouds like the carcass of some long dead beast left over from ages that have long since been forgotten by man and elf alike.
Prying his gaze from the towering structure, Einarr turned his attention back to the letter clutched in his hand. The reason he was even here in the first place. He stared at the damned thing for a long while before tossing it over the side of the carriage. He didn't even have to read it in order to know what it was. To know what it said.
It was a letter of banishment from King Hagrir himself for so called
treason against the crown, which was a load of bullshit. Einarr knew he'd done nothing wrong and so had the King, but he was forced to bend to the will of the nobles at the time which is what had led him to where he was now. Freezing his ass off in a rickety old carriage on the side of a mountain.
Letting out an exhausted sigh, Einarr turned his gaze back towards the oncoming keep, a look of stubborn determination on his face. He may have been exiled from his homeland by his enemies and stripped of his official title as a Kings Ranger, but he'd be damned if he let them break his spirit.
Relationships:
- King Hagrir - Acquaintance.
- Bruin Stormblade - Seen as an adoptive father.
Strong Skills:
- Archery.
- Hand-to-hand/Melee Combat.
- Survival (includes a bit of first aid, herbalism, etc).
- Tracking.
- Streetwise.
- Crafting (weapons and armor as well as the repair of said items).
Weak Skills:
- Pickpocketing.
- Lockpicking.
- Persuasion.
- Diplomacy.
Magic:
- Pyromancy - Apprentice (Attuned and trained as a member of Hagrirs Rangers).
Equipment:
- Leather pouch containing 125 pieces of gold.
- A small dagger.
- Good quality steel longsword from the Kings personal armory.
- Dependable steel hand axe.
- Hunting bow.
- Reinforced leather armor with furs woven into it for warmth.
- A large over the shoulder animal skin pack containing flint, tinder, a bedroll, some rope, food, and a water skin.