Fetzen — Roleplayer Guild

Here's my humble application. I hope it's not as bad as I am always afraid of.

O D D U R   O L A F S S O N

Oddur was born 1483 in Reykjavík, Iceland. At that point in time the settlement was hardly more than yet another small alotment of peasants and fishermen as it was a common sight in the sparsely populated area. While climatic conditions and volcanic activity are special properties of this part of the world that certainly have made their respective contributions, it primarily have been men's own folly and political struggle between his own people, Denmark, Norway and England that have made life more difficult than might have been necessary. At least the last swiping move of the black plague had been a few decades before his time.

With Europe craving for alternative sources of food, the young man did what many of his country's people did and started exploiting the abundant and ubiquitous maritime resources around the island. Fish was the thing at that time and the steady presence on boats and ships has taught him respect for nature as well as made him strong. His parents always cared as much for him as they could, allowing his body to thrive and grow up to an impressively large man. Despite all the constraints things could have been significantly worse: Absolutistic and foreign monarchs who'd care about nothing else than themselves and their own country while pressing their 'colonies' as hard as they can ? Strangers coming from the deep south and reintroducing the element of war and violence into this remote place ? Those two would have come much later if it had not been for the end of the world as he had known it.

Originally Oddur had hatched the idea of emigrating towards Europe. Italy, France, Spain -- those were the countries where true progress was made. Iceland was no good place for someone who was a fisherman to make a living but who was asking for science in order to have a life. Well... one can say that he ultimately has managed to leave his homeland. The sole problem is that neither he nor everything around him are what they used to be.
 
Sometimes the sea can be very rough. Sometimes an unanticipated wave, an ill-prepared crew, a rotten vessel or a lack in skill can cause an accident. Some accidents result in loss of life, but one resulting in loss of comradeship is something rare. Still it was exactly what happened to Oddur. One day he was out on the sea with his near life-long friend, Sigtýr, and another crewmember. His friend was tossed overboard with the other man standing nearby. They both tried to rescue him, but the stream of water rammed his skull against the solid hull and ultimately his body disappeared somewhere beneath the large boat.

Could the other man have reacted faster and gained a hold of Sigtýr ? Could he maybe have given the advice to avoid going that particular, narrow and dangerous way in that unsteady situation ? Within minutes questions invaded Oddur's mind accompanied by anger about what he deemed to be pure incompetence. An argument unfolded in the midst of the severe rain and Oddur virtually shouted himself into rage. It came what had to come: That iron hook had just been resting so comfortably near him, but metal can turn a hit that only would have hurt very hard into a bone-breaking experience. By bad luck, the other man's heart was impaled by a broken rib.

Oddur has never told anyone. He claimed that both men had been taken by the sea and noone ever became suspicious. Only his conscience has been suffering since then, but still he doesn't talk openly about this outbreak of wrath.
 
The abscence of war in his former life has not exactly helped in molding his mind into a host of combat skills. What he can physically do with his sword he has learned after the beginning of the purgatory -- and it certainly isn't much.
He's a damn big fellow. Impressively tall and muscled, but also with lots of food and drinking having left a thin, but soft layer around his waistline he's neither the fastest nor the most agile.
The sun is something he doesn't like. Not that much of a problem in regions as high in the north as iceland, but his albino skin still has a massive tendency to itch and burn even if the exposure is rather short. It causes distraction and induces pain. Also his eyesight might be impaired in such situations.
Born in 1483 he pratically was taken out of his original life at an age of 19. Oddur still looks halfway like a boy in his late youth. He can't boast with a lot of social experience, is easily distracted by his own natural curiosity and still doesn't know much about the world outside of Iceland.

Him not being skilled with a sword, halberd or bow doesn't mean that he's defenseless or has no bite. It seems as if fate -- in its own, strange way -- has granted him an amount of knowledge he has desired and that allows him to go beyond the physical domain. He could tell a lot of evil creatures how to improve in the occult and, given the material, he could make much more out of his equipment than just solid pieces of metal. He has already done so with his sword which he primarily doesn't use to try and make a stand in close quarters, but as a means of channeling power and releasing destructive energy of different kinds against the foes the world provides in such an abundance.
It definitely isn't a match for a decent weapon and the knowledge how to use it, however with his size he is quite a bit of a beast himself. Better try to fist your enemy or run over him than just standing there and doing nothing. Not always your comrades are readily available to help you out of an unexpected situation. Also if something needs to be lifted or chopped out of the way one could ask him to do it.

Violence: 7 (+1 for being male)
Fortitude: 4
Soul: 10
Passion: 1
Perception: 3
Command: 0
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