Black Krieg
What is your full name (and any nicknames)?
Krieg, son of Svayne the Stark, son of Krieg the Kinslayer, scion of the Snow Wolf Clan. Called Black Krieg for his distinctive coloring. It is customary for dragonborn warriors to go by a distinctive tag earned through their exploits, but Krieg is young enough that he has not yet earned sufficient renown for such a sobriquet. Among his fellow clansmen, Krieg is often known as Little Krieg, or (more formally) Krieg the Younger, to distinguish him from his grandfather.
What do you look like?Average height and weight for a dragonborn, with the athletic build of a runner and forester. His scales are a red so rich and dark that it looks black to most eyes (by way of illustration, the exact color of a freshly poured pint of Guinness. Which is red. Look it up, bitches). His ropy hair-spines are long, reaching down below his shoulders, and Krieg typically ties them back into a ponytail. Two backswept horns with a slight inward curve. Large slanted eyes, the color of molten gold, alert and slightly nervous. Blunt-faced, with a flattened mouth and small frills. Krieg generally wears forest leathers that he makes and repairs himself, finding little need to waste money on clothing. He wears light fur-lined moccasins and tawny deerskin breeches, with a fox fur cloak that has a voluminous hood. He often wears a strip of cloth across his mouth and lower face while out and about, finding it useful for protecting his face and muffling inadvertent vocalizations. More importantly, it makes him look like a cool ninja, or those Ithilien Rangers from LotR. He also wears a white wool headband stamped with the grey dire wolf symbol of his clan. He wears a leather quiver across his back, with an attached dagger sheath and a long curved dagger with a bone hilt. His belt is braided leather of intertwining umber, beige, and olive green. This is where he wears his weapons: on his right hip a second dagger, this one with a plain iron crossguard and a thick notched blade; on his left hip a thin longsword with twin fullers and a hilt of banded ebony and myrtle woods; and tucked in his belt in the small of his back, a steel tomahawk, expertly crafted with a hollow blade for throwing balance. He carries his third dagger, a slim hiltless knife designed for throwing, in a sheath along his left calf. His only truly impressive possession is the steel bracer he wears along his left arm to protect it from the snap of his bowstring. The bracer is a family heirloom: gleaming steel, acid-etched with draconic runes of power and protection, with edges of silver and the dire wolf sigil of his clan embossed in white gold running rampant in the center.
What is your family like?Father: Svayne the Stark, chieftain of the Snow Wolf Clan. Also called Svayne the Sorrowful, the chieftain is a man haunted by the past. He traces his ancestry back to the line of kings that ruled the dragonborn empire of Arkhosia before its fall (though, it must be said, most clan leaders make similarly grandiose claims), but his people are today scattered, divided, and leaderless. His father, Krieg the Kinslayer (sometimes more charitably called Krieg the Unlucky or by his youthful name, the Crimson Fury), rallied to the defense of Hammerfast during the Bloodspear War. Blinded by arrogance, he led his people to slaughter at the hands of the enemy orcs in the Battle of Steeltooth Crag. Once fielding hundreds of ferocious soldiers, the Snow Wolf clan now numbers barely a dozen foresters who range across the Nentir Vale. Though as a young man Svayne had great plans to remake what his father’s folly had broken—to unite the dragonborn under his banner and lead them back to greatness—his wife died giving birth to Krieg, and Svayne’s dreams died with her. Despite his enduring sorrow and somber aspect, he has been a devoted father (though perhaps not as harsh as a good dragonborn should be) and counts nothing more important than his son. He worries constantly about his brother Jakken.
Uncle: Jakken the Joker, called Razorback Jak and, more recently, the Lone Wolf. A fierce and powerful dragonborn, Jakken is everything that his older brother is not. He has a boisterous sense of humor, boundless energy and enthusiasm, and possesses an ability to instantly make friends with anyone by sheer force of personality. He is fearless in battle, delighting in danger and thirsting for the glory of honorable combat, though he would just as soon make peace and get drunk with his enemies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he has sustained a staggering number of injuries that would fell a lesser man, and earned the name “razorback” for an arrow wound that he actually never noticed until it had entirely healed; the steel head of the arrow remains in his leathery hide to this day. He is also missing his right eye, but like Nick Fury is able to make the whole eyepatch-and-scar thing look unspeakably cool. Jakken has recently begun acting strangely, speaking of portents and the destinies of gods and men—something that he was never interested in before. Just before the campaign begins, one night the clan goes to sleep and when it wakes Jakken is simply gone. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Krieg has no other living relations.
Where do you live?Here and there, in the environs of Fallcrest. Krieg is perfectly capable of, and content to, live in the wilds with only brief stopovers in civilized places.
What sort of training did you receive as a child and young adult?Extensive training in everything needed to live in the wilds of the Nentir Vale. His survival skills allow him to endure bad weather in any season, from the mountains to the marshes. He is a crack shot and an excellent hunter, but even when game is scarce he knows half a hundred edible plants, roots, and berries. He knows a bit of herblore and first aid. He can train animals, from horses to ravens to wolves, though he has never learned the knack of calming wild beasts the way Petra Stonefist can. He is especially fond of horses, who seem to naturally like him, and enjoys riding them whenever possible. He can manufacture weapons from readily available materials—bows from the yew trees that grow in the Vale, bowstrings from deer sinews, arrows from steel, bone, stone, or fire-hardened wood. Like most adults in his clan, he is also accomplished at every stage of leatherworking, from skinning felled beasts to sewing finished garments.
Do you have a job? What do you do for money?The Snow Wolf clan survives largely on the fur trade. They range across the Vale in search of fox, beaver, bear, and other precious beasts, stopping at communities like Fallcrest or Hammerfast to trade the valuable skins. According to Loresinger Brand (called the Bold), the oldest dragonborn of the Snow Wolf clan, their ancestors distinguished themselves as the most feared mercenaries in the land, but nowadays they number too few to make much difference in any battle, much less strike fear into the enemy. The battles of the Snow Wolf clan are now mostly limited to valiant defenses of friends and trading partners in times of great need. When Krieg reached his Age Day—the day when dragonborn become adults are must leave the clan to seek their fortune independently for a time—he caught the eye of Lord Aegon Dondarrion by tracking a party of orcs threatening his lands and slaying them one by one from afar. As Dondarrion’s sworn man, Krieg became apprentice huntsman to the kindly Warden Hartswood. Together, they patrolled the woods, watched for poachers and invading orcs alike, and accompanied Lord Dondarrion on the rare occasions when he ventured forth for a hunt. After Dondarrion and Hartswood both fell in battle, Krieg mostly hangs around Fallcrest to remain with his companions and sworn brothers, earning the coin for his few material needs by selling game and furs to House Azaer.
Do you have any hobbies?He likes to whittle, and sometimes wishes that he could learn to sculpt stone or bronze like the artisans of old; he occasionally makes little toys and dolls for the children of Fallcrest. Though leatherworking is as much a profession as a hobby, he enjoys it a great deal and sometimes works on frivolous projects of no practical value—almost a sin for the practical forester. He enjoys climbing trees and sitting in them to meditate or just chill for a while, and finds stalking prey relaxing. He enjoys swimming in the summer, spearfishing, or just sitting in the sun with bait on a stick pretending to fish.
What are your quirks or pet peeves?He is inordinately fond of human children. Dragonborn kids usually irritate him (though this is based entirely on his experience with Little Tigh, who is the clan’s only youngling and a snotty little brat), and halfling children freak him out. He hates haggling and is a terrible businessman; he doesn’t know it but the Azaers are pretty much ripping him off for the furs he provides. Krieg does not drink any kind of alcoholic beverage, not even coffee or the ubiquitous ale that Fallcrest’s folk drink with their breakfast, nor does he “pollute” his body with any other sort of drugs. He even prefers his food bland, his meat rare and unseasoned—quail is the exception, which he likes to eat in the same manner as the meal that he was served the night he gave his oath of service to Lord Dondarrion. He is exasperated by people who are not able to take care of themselves. He thinks his dry sense of humor is very clever and should be appreciated by everyone, and doesn’t understand why some people don’t get his jokes.
Are you religious?Extremely, and also superstitious. Like most folk, he prays to all the gods in their different capacities, though he tends to pray to a few more than others. Because he spends so much time in the wilds, Melora’s name is often on his lips. He asks Kord to lend him strength in battle, Avandra to grant him luck in his hunts, and asks Bahamut to help him live up to the high ideals of his people. He fears the Raven Queen in all her guises, and always makes the sign of protection (a two-finger slash across the chest, followed by a hand-in-fist push outward towards the offending omen) when he spies the evil omen of crows or ravens.
What are your three biggest fears?1. Freezing to death and rising as a vile undead creature.
2. Shaming himself or his clan through cowardice or dishonorable action.
3. Coming to the point at which a great destiny is laid before him, and then either not realizing it until it’s too late or being too afraid of what might happen and turning away from it (and thus risking the Raven Queen’s wrath).
What is your biggest dream?To do something really extraordinary, so that he could earn a place beside his legendary forefathers and not feel shame in the halls of the afterlife. The stories that Brand the Bold tells him are always about the glorious histories of men and dragons, like the Lay of Vendar and the Dragon, from times when the world was a bright and beautiful place. The world that he sees is not like those stories at all—it is dark, and cold, and unforgiving. He would like to make things the way they once were, and to bring back wonders that the world has forgotten.
What is most important to you?Honor and duty and living up to the demands of destiny. Also, he really, really, really likes the taste of roast quail with a little bit of salt and butter, and would punch babies in the face for the chance to eat some. A pet wolf would also be nice.
Subject: Black Krieg 
Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:28 am
