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Demographics
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Name: Skoll RavenFeather
Sex: Male
Age: 27
Culture: Viking
Ethnicity: Scandinavian
Title(s): Warrior. In Viking terms, he is a “karl” or a “free man”.
Occupation: Warrior
House: His clan was known as the RavenFeather clan.
Religion: Norse Pagan
Location: Originally from Norway
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Spouse: N/A
Father: Balder RavenFeather
Mother: Brynja RavenFeather
Issue: N/A
Name and Title (age) N/A
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Stats
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Height: 5Ft' 11In"
Weight: 180lbs
Eye Color: Pale Blue
Hair Color: Blonde
Dominant Hand: Right
Distinguishing Features: A scar over his left eye. His hands are tattooed black with the tattoos slowly grading into twisting, stylized flames up the forearms reaching to the bicep.
Scar(s): One over his left eye is the most immediately noticeable, though it is old and has since healed with no damage to the eye itself. A smattering of an array of scars adorn his torso from the various fights he’s been in, none worthy of particular mention. Battle scars that show experience and nothing more.
Piercing(s): The canine tooth of a wolf pierces his left earlobe.
Education Focus: Martial
Positive Traits: Brave, Diligent, Patient, Temperate,
Negative Traits: Ambitious, Sadistic, Stubborn, Vengeful
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Appearance and Character
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Physical Appearance: Skoll is nothing short of typical when it comes to what the visage of a Viking would be like.
First and foremost he was a warrior, and he was certainly built like one. Raw rippling musculature laced across a broad chest that had been built up over years of wielding heavy axes for the love of wealth and war, tapers into ripped abdominals and narrower hips. Lower still were muscle-bound legs used to marching through thick snow drifts, climbing the wild and rugged landscape or running long distances over desolate plains. Across his hardened sun kissed skin lay the scars of countless battles that he wore with a warrior’s pride- each and every mark showing his imperfections as a fighter, his vulnerability as a mortal man, but also his strength to overcome his adversity in spite of these mistakes that hadn’t cost him- yet. Memories adorn his skin in the form of dark, intricate tattoos across his chest and back. Particularly noticeable though, (when his arms and legs are uncovered), is the way that his hands and feet are completely blackened as though he fell into several inches of black ash, the darkness rising up his fore-arms into stylized flames that lick past his elbows and eventually end at his biceps.
In attire, the man’s torso is born bare and free, a choice he makes because it ups the stakes of every battle. It is as though he taunts his opponent with his vulnerability, confident in his ability to defend it without the need of armour. Warm furs cover his shoulders as a mantle, extending into a half-cape that falls to the midpoint of his back. More furs wrap his arms and legs for warmth where the extremities may suffer. Sitting upon the furs draped over his shoulders are pauldrons carved from bone, strapped with the twisting, ornate ivory horns of bulls; a memento of victory over a rival who had plagued him for years and ended with Skoll eventually killing him.
The man’s face features upon a light tanned rugged complexion; wild and untamed like a Brumby, with a haphazardly braided mane to match. Usually the hair on the left side of his pale blonde head is adorned with intricate plaits, woven with whatever muted coloured threads he had on hand at the time to give him an ever changing streak of chaos within the order he imposed upon the wayward strands. The rest of his hair is usually flipped over to the right and left to hang loose and free, the symbolism known only to himself- though it does lend itself to that wild stallion appeal; one of strength, will and conviction to succeed.
A strong straight nose juts from his prominent brow, which overshadows the crisp blue hues of an intense gaze. As with all eyes, Skoll’s may tell one everything about the man if they are careful not to be lost within the beautifully hazardous depths they hold. For the unobservant though, they are like icy shields simultaneously burning with the hot passion of blue fire- an impossibility or hypocrisy of a man with intelligence shedding blood for meager spoils. Below the sharp spearhead of his chiseled nose lie lips that are almost always cast into an unreadable expression. Acting as the gatekeeper to his shielded thoughts, (unlike his eyes that speak volumes more without the utterance of a single word), they rarely open to speak unless he has something pointed and worthwhile saying, at which point the listener is graced with dark smooth tones. Calm and steady, his voice shows restraint and consideration, but an ever present threat within them remains like a strong undercurrent below still waters.
Personality: Put bluntly, Skoll may look like a typical Viking warrior, but in essence he doesn’t act like one. This is because he doesn’t seem to have a clear motive behind his actions, not seeming to act upon the sins that plague other men; not for lust of blood or flesh, gluttony or greed. This makes him a bit of a mystery to the other men of whatever warband he happens to be in attendance of. Some regard his strangeness with awe, some with fear, some with disgust or rivalry because of insecurities found within their own souls. For as many battles he has fought against foreign forces, he’s fought as many feuds against those whom he runs with. Still, there are also those that would follow him with unending loyalty if he only said the word, and yet, he never seeks for power or notoriety as a warchief, preferring the freedom to join with whomever is suiting his particular purposes at the time. Perhaps that is part of his strange appeal that moves many to either love him or hate him so passionately. The way that he wields his convictions so confidently, sometimes it seems his strength is inherently stitched into his spine.
Skoll’s selfish motives typically remain unclear. On the battlefield he’s certainly sadistic, yet still capable of mercy; living by a code ingrained into his being through the wild blood of generations of Scandinavian savagery. A dying breed that’s fighting against the inevitability of extinction. Skoll continues to stubbornly follow the old ways in spite of more of his kin beginning to convert to the new religion. Recognising that civility comes at the cost of freedom, he sees the idea of society as nothing more than a different form of enslavement, one that wills a person to submit through obligations to arbitrary rules that make little sense other than as ways to protect the weak and bridle the strong. A life he’d rather escape through death than see himself in servitude to. Though this is the height of the reign of the Vikings, everyone knows that the tide may change at any time.
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Character Biography
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Skoll’s origins are not well known, even to himself, aside from the snippets of details he can remember from his early youth. When he was roughly 5 years of age and already beginning the basics of training in the art of war, Skoll’s village was raided by a rival clan. The attack came as a complete surprise and the only thing that he could remember well was the all consuming heat of the fire burning around him as their village was set alight. He didn’t remember how his mother shoved him out of the way just as a burning chunk of the structure fell upon her and his younger brother, crushing and killing them instantly. The same chunk of structure that gave him an escape from the burning home as it tore through a burning wall. He barely remembered clambering from the ruined house, flames licking at his heels and smoke billowing behind him, or how his father, the jarl, had seen him and subsequently engaged an intruder that was headed right for him, defending Skoll’s life with his own. All that Skoll remembered was the heat of the flames, coughing up the soot from his lungs as the suffocating air permeated them through his breath, the stinging of his eyes from ember and acrid smoke, and something in his head telling him to run. A voice that he listened to and as best he could- escaped into the nearby treeline. As he reached it, he stumbled and fell, his face slamming into a jutted rock and knocking him out cold. That was how he got the scar over his left eye. He awoke hours later to find the village burned out and empty, with only the corpses of the dead left to tell the tale of what happened. All he could do was leave them to rot.
From that day forth Skoll had been a quiet, lone wolf who held nothing but vengeance in his mind, though toward what he didn’t know exactly. He was just angry but had nothing to blame. With nowhere else to go, Skoll wandered for days to eventually find a neighbouring tribe that his father had taken him to several times, the jarl of that tribe being his father’s twin brother - Skoll’s uncle. His father had always told him that the allegiance of their tribes were bound by something stronger than blood: spirit. That if he ever needed to go somewhere, that his brother’s tribe would always take him in. Which is exactly what they did. The unfortunate tragedy proved as a forewarning to his uncle’s tribe who prepared to be hit next, ambushing those responsible and killing most of them. The rest either escaped or were captured as slaves.
It didn’t bring closure to the young boy however, who voraciously thereafter participated in martial training in this new clan. His uncle treated him like his own son even though he had several others over the course of the years. Skoll’s uncle always maintained that Skoll was favoured by Odin and that’s why he’d been spared- his reasons for this is because of a strange curiosity that ravens seemed to take in the boy, and this strange relationship he held with those black omen bringers didn’t stop when he reached adulthood. Of course, it could also just be superstitious eyes finding synchronicities in things that held no true meaning. His uncle often told him of tales of the old gods, instilling the beliefs and way of life of their Norse ancestors strongly into the boy. Since Skoll was an orphan it meant that he was to inherit nothing, and so, the young man did what most young men did when they came of an age where they could maintain a healthy independence - he joined a warband and sailed the seas, raiding the fattened coffers of undefended monasteries and provinces that held little defence against the marauders.
In the course of the next few years, Normandy would be taken by the Vikings who established a strong hold over the lands, settling there as a staging ground for raids to occur further inland. Mostly, they used the river systems as a fast means to travel from A to B, hitting many towns with speed and veracity that left their European targets reeling. In that time Skoll had undertaken more raids than he could count, his spoils accumulating until he was able to comfortably afford farmland in the lands of his adoptive tribe which had since been passed to his eldest cousin. Skoll didn’t seek to settle down however. Amassing several slaves to work the lands to contribute to the well being of the clan that adopted him growing up, Skoll continued to risk his life through raiding rather than settling down. Although he’d taken many women through convenient circumstances when opportunities arose, he’d never quite found one that he could envision a life with, and quite honestly, he wasn’t going to settle down until he did find one- if ever.
Thus it was that Skoll finds himself travelling inland from Normandy in search of fresh fields to plunder with a warband that held no name. This warband held Odin close to their hearts however, which is why Skoll felt such a kinship with them and he had been at home with them for some years now. Living for the thrill of the fight and the right to be free, he had no desperate need for anything else. He would die happily with some sharp pointed object wedged through his heart one day, at least that’s what he hoped, but until then he had a glorious gift that was his life and he intended to fight for it until the bitter end.