[hider=Thorgrim Coldwood]
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[b]The Grimm | The Thrice-Damned | The Bloody Eight[/b]

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[hr][b]Race[/b]: Nord
[b]Gender[/b]: Male
[b]Age[/b]: 49

[b]Appearance[/b]: Thorgrim embodies the wilderness and the savage look one would expect from a Northman in his very appearance. His face is rarely clean shaven, though he generally keeps his beard from growing too long, usually maintaining a healthy stubble. His skin is scarred in countless places from battles fought, both against man, monsters, and beasts alike. His deep set, dark brown eyes and thick brow often give him a hard, cold, grizzled appearance. He lets his black hair -- already turning grey in most parts -- grow out and either keeps it shoulder-length or tied behind him in a simple knot, and his body is decorated with blue runic tattoos which he once believed would protect him from harm. His left hand lacks both its little and ring fingers, earning Thorgrim one of his moniker.

He towers over most everyone he meets, and he's built like a warrior. In addition, his time spent surviving alone in the wild and his countless years as a mercenary hardened him into a supreme hunter, physically. He can move at remarkable speeds for a man of his size and age, smoothly navigate just about any kind of natural terrain, and operate with the kind of grace and precision of a skilled predator. Though age has blunted him somewhat, he is still quite a force to be reckoned with and not a person one should underestimate.

[b]Personality[/b]: These days, Thorgrim’s primary personality traits seem to be thoughtfulness and a peculiar kind of quiet intensity. His height is enough to cast a shadow on most, but he shows conscious regard for this fact and seems to go out of his way to avoid making other people uncomfortable. Displaying a strange amount of restraint, he takes extraordinary measures to refrain from touching anyone, sliding around even moving persons in crowds with the ease of years of practice. His walk is the sort of smooth, silent thing that indicates he was a hunter first, a warrior second, and indeed he seems somewhat ill-at-ease in large cities. 

This was not always so, but nowadays he tends to stay away from large populations of people, though he does not express his discomfort if he has to mingle, instead just making certain that he remains aware of his surroundings. He can come off as a bit tense (not so much nervous as wary), and a common thought among those that know him is that he needs to “loosen up” a little more, or let himself have some fun.

Among friends, he’s a little more relaxed, and though not terribly talkative, he makes for intelligent conversation if you can convince him to speak with you for more than a few words at a time. He displays polite courtesy to most, and his rare smiles are somewhat disarming, given how different they are from his ordinary demeanor. Overall, he’s distant, but not to the point of rudeness, and makes for an excellent listener, albeit one who only contributes to conversations on occasion. 

[b]Class[/b]: Pathfinder/Swordsman
[b]Major Skills[/b]
[list][*]Blade
[*]Block
[*]Athletics
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[b]Minor Skills[/b]
[list][*]Archery
[*]Sneak
[*]Acrobatics
[*]Light Armor
[/list]
[b]Equipment[/b]: Thorgrim carries little in the way of personal belongings. Aside from the clothes on his back and the light scale armor he wears beneath an old weathered cloak, the Bloody Eight carries with him a set of blades and daggers, as well as a leather satchel which he uses to carry food, healing items and other assorted belongings. 

Of the two set of larger blades he carries with him, one is a simple steel longsword, sharp enough to kill a man but otherwise unremarkable in any other aspects. A battered, cumbersome looking weapon that has no doubt seen better days. The other blade he carries is a short blade, not quite long enough to be considered a sword yet not quite short enough to be considered a dagger either. During combat, Thorgrim uses both weapons at once, using the shorter blade to parry strikes while dealing his own with the longsword.

Aside from the two blades, Thorgrim also stashes a number of short daggers and throwing knives all over himself-- hidden in his boots, etched into his armor and tucked into his belt. Serving as last-ditch weapons and backup plans, they have helped Thorgrim greatly throughout his years as an adventurer and mercenary.

[hr][center][b]History[/b]
[i]"Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young."[/i] - Unknown[/center]
Some men can fall from grace. Other men have nowhere to fall to, having been born already on the ground. Thorgrim was the second child and first son of a Nord couple living in Skyrim. His parents lived in the Eastmarch, northeast of Windhelm, eking out a living as fishers along the coast.

He was a rambunctious child, and generally got himself into a great deal of little troubles, but nothing too major. Eventually, he channeled his energy into hunting, teaching himself to shoot and sneak about after prey-beasts for his parents’ table. Seeing no harm in this, they allowed and encouraged it. For the first eight or so years of his life, he also had a sister, though they were not all that close, as she always behaved coldly to him and he avoided her out of habit. Gradually, she began to seek him out a little more often, and they were beginning to come to an understanding when tragedy struck. 

Just before his fifteenth birthday, his home became the target of a Dunmeri slave raid. Led by an ambitious young member of House Dres, the slavers took advantage of the Empire's instability following the Oblivion Crisis to raid the surrounding coastlines in search of slaves while operating under the guise of pirates. Thorgrim was spared being killed or captured simply because he was not yet home during the attack, having left to hunt food for his family. He returned to find his home burned down, his father butchered and both his mother and sister being carried off to be sold as slaves in a distant land. He could only watch as the black sails disappeared further into the Sea of Ghosts, carrying with them the only life he ever had.

Following the event, the young Thorgrim spent most of his time out in the wilderness, practically a wild thing himself. In his grief and recklessness, he ventured further and further into the wild, relying on his skill to keep him alive against bears, wolves, and even the occasional spriggan. This would continue for several more years, and the young Nord practically raised himself and lived alone until he was nineteen years old. By then, the grief over his family had frozen over and turned into a fiery anger, and he forced himself to return to civilization, if only to gain the opportunity to avenge his family.

And thus, he traveled south, into Cyrodiil. There, he found work as a member of the Fighter's Guild. He spent several years as an adventurer, learning valuable skills and making friends with fellow Guild members. He took on any and all contracts that would allow him to slaughter Dunmer, no matter the pay. Eventually, after many years of fighting and killing for the sake of killing, he found that it did not bring him joy. Try as he might to kill each and every Dunmer standing, his efforts would not bring his family back from the dead. So, he abandoned this life and the Guild, and attempted to live a humble life back in his homeland as a simple hunter. When tragedy struck him yet again, he returned to the life of a sword-for-hire. His experience as a member of the Fighter's Guild made him valuable and he eventually found work under a particularly ambitious noble in High Rock. There he served for several more years, fighting in numerous skirmishes between the noble houses and taking part in their political intrigue whenever violence was needed more than words. Once more, he eventually decided to leave behind this life and begin anew. Once more, Fate threw a wrench in his plans and forced him to return to a life of killing and fighting. From then on, he served in Skyrim and Cyrodiil, fought in Hammerfell and Elsweyr, bled in the Black Marshes and even once spent time in the Summerset Isles when he worked for a Merchant Guild. Fighting gave him purpose and offered him a chance to forget all his past sufferings, and for a time it was all he knew.

That was, of course, until he met Elysa Farelle. The owner of a small tavern in the port city of Southpoint, Thorgrim met her during his time working under a Bosmer Merchant. As a regular customer, he found himself talking to her daily, and overtime he fell for her. It took time for him to convince her to think the same way and by the he did, she had changed him for the better. She gave him a new purpose in life and even managed to convince him to leave behind his life of fighting if only to make amends to himself for all the things he'd done and regretted in life. So, he did just that. For a time, he lived happily with Elysa, marrying her and working alongside her in taking care of the tavern. Thorgrim had completely turned over a new leaf, and he pictured a future with Elysa, growing old together and living humbly as the owner of a tavern. Unfortunately, like most things in his life, it would not last.

Thrice Thorgrim was married in his life, and thrice he was widowed. His first marriage came about when he left the Fighter’s Guild to return to his ancestral homeland and try his luck in the Reach as a hunter. His wife died to a Forsworn arrow, and with her died Thorgrim’s hopes of living a life of peace. The second he married during his time as a mercenary in the Reach; the daughter of a noble whom he served under in battle. They eloped and made to flee towards Hammerfell to begin a new life together. A fever that lasted for weeks took her away from him, and Thorgrim once more learned the hard truth that Fate had no quarter to give him. The third was the last and undoubtedly the one that did him in: Elysa. Though the two lived and loved each other for years, she was sadly taken away from him during childbirth. As death took both his last love and his only child away from him, Thorgrim found himself without purpose. 

His experiences had left him into a broken husk of a man who felt that he had achieved nothing in his life. There was no more purpose for him on Nirn, and for a time he debated whether or not he should follow his loved ones and embrace death as death had embraced them. Yet, while Fate has taken away everything he held dear, he still found that he was unable to end his own life. Instead, he fled into the wild as he once did during his youth, living along bear, wolf, and raven for some years. It was in this long period of solitude that he developed his beliefs. A death now would be meaningless. Sure, he could join his loved ones in whatever afterlife awaited him, but what had he really done? Who had he really known? What purpose had he really fulfilled? Had he even lived at all? He didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but he meant to find out. He developed the idea that there was a Path for him, one that had started with the death of his loved ones, and one that ended with his death. He would experience life in its fullest capacity along this Path, even if it led him to his death. No more, no less. It didn't matter when his life ended, so long as he was satisfied with the life he had led.

With this mindset, he returned to a life of adventuring. Instead of fighting for the sake of fighting, he did all he could in order to help those around him. A weathered and hardened mercenary with a heart of gold, some people liked to call him. Many more would attest to otherwise, yet Thorgrim worked hard nonetheless to shake off his past and live his life to the fullest. His travels would eventually bring him back to Cyrodiil, where he joined with the Skingrad Company in an effort to acquire a means to gain pay without needing to pick up a new trade. Though the Company was already well-established by the time he joined it, it did not take much for him to convince them to accept him. Ever since, he's been a valuable member and has established himself within the Company as a reliable, albeit old warrior with years of experience behind him.
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