Sven Bjornson
Growing up, Sven Bjornson had a strange ambition, he wanted to be a Berserker. Now of course many men do become berserkers by choice, but they tend to be, in a word, stupid. It is this state that plays a significant role in their vocational choice. But Sven knew their was more to berserking then just blood lust and ignorance to a wide range of human senses and sensibilities. For the beserker, in the enraged state, is a man transformed. The berserker steps away from this world and away from his human self, as if possessed by an animal (wolf or bear) spirit. Or at least that's what a few skalds would say. Most berserkers became berserkers so they could kick ass.

Once he started studying Vikings and learning the ancient craft, Sven found that he had three problems. First, given the danger they put themselves into, berserkers didn't make much money. The heyday of norseman raiding ended hundreds of years before Sven's birth and it was difficult to make ends meet without a second job, so Sven took up the family craft of weaponsmithing, a highly respected craft amongst all Norseman. Of course many wondered why Sven waited so long in the first place-"your going to be a blade smith like your father aren't you? Berserking, that's interesting, oh I just remembered that herring I need to pickle". Through time Sven learned to become a good weaponsmith, but it has always come second to berserking in his heart.

Sven's second problem is a life long affliction known as a conscience or more broadly speaking, a sense of Right and Wrong. This is of little use to the typical berserker. Berserking is generally centered on killing: killing the enemy, accidentally killing your allies, and since no one ever retreats or yields while in a berserk state, getting killed. This emphasis on mindless death never sat well with Sven and he, like other conscientious and long lived berserkers, has had to rely on a great reservoir of will power to limit the conditions under which he succumbs to the mighty rage. While this has prevented needless death, it has also led to many missed opportunities to stomp his opponents into red squishy masses.

Sven's third, and greatest problem is his intelligence. Not that Sven Bjornson is the smartest man who ever lived, but he is far smarter then the typical berserker. One of the great attractions of berserking is that when the frenzy is entered most of the so called conscious mind is shut down, leaving just enough mental capability to identify the next target and to remember "drop ax bad". Sven's knowledge and thoughtfulness just had no place in the berserker lifestyle. It was this unneeded mental capability that led him to make a fateful decision: begin training with those ancient masters of lore, the Skalds.

And what has Sven gained from this training? Not very good poetry skills- "oh yes your coming along, you just need to come a little bit farther". A great deal of knowledge about some ancient, semi-mythical "Brotherhood of the Wolf", and a quest. Nothing wrong with a quest. Unless of course the quest is across the steppes (hundreds of leagues across the steppes) though hordes of dangerous Cossacks and Plains Goblins to aid a group of people never before met. People only told of in rhymes passed down by word of mouth through the centuries. People, who, while not stupid, are, in rhyme and reality, odd, very odd. Things would have been so much easier if Sven was just stupid.