Personality

     Vain about his looks, stubborn to the point of stupidity, vengeful. His one redeeming virtue is his devotion to his girlfriend, which is clearly not based on looks. King is one insightful and perspicacious hero, and this grows truer as he grows older. Like the other warriors of his time, King is driven by his desire for lof—the kind of heroic fame that ensures immortality, as the noble exploits of the champions are sung by scops for generations until they become part of popular culture. In this respect and many others, he was successful. As he got older, King’s primary motivation became to protect the defenseless out of a sense of nobility.
     King is a hero, which greatly defines his actions. He must act in a courageous manner, boasting of his great deeds and of the things he is going to accomplish. He cannot shirk from actions that are dangerous, or allow a challenge to go unanswered. He is known to be a great hero, a powerful warrior and he must live up to these expectations. Naturally, this mind set does cause him to perform acts that people might call foolish. He removes his mail shirt before fighting Rhine, vowing to fight him barehanded since Rhine does not carry a weapon. He plunges into the crowd that holds Rhine's followers alone, pausing only to detail to his fellow men what to do if he should be killed. He fights a Dragon single handedly.
     Like most barbarians of the area, he’s also fatalistic—he knows that all is per-ordained by the Wyrd and that mere mortals cannot go against fate. Unlike most, though, he trusts that his destiny is a great one, and will fight until his last breath, confident that the Wyrd has him fated to great things and that he should never give up. Another consequence of this is that King will not hesitate to face certain death—such as fighting Rhine with but Human strength—since, well, so far it has worked out, an obvious sign that his fate is a great one. King is essentially fearless, and unrelenting. One thing he certainly doesn’t do is to back down.
     Being a muscular, long-haired barbarian hero wearing an animal skull, young King would occasionally enter a fighting rage, but this did not happen often and he was more or less in control. As he grew older and more controlled, those disappeared, though when very weary he could still have an aggressive, brazen, conflict-prone streak of considerable width. Even when calm, he has a problem with traitors and cowards—characteristics which he sees as punishable by immediate execution.
     King is a macho pseudo-Viking. He has a tendency to underestimate the physical prowess of women and to generally prefer that they content themselves with traditional womanly things. He’s smart enough to not have that alter his judgment, though, and he works perfectly well with female adventurers such as Shadow or Kyla Akero, whom he soon came to respect and treat as equals. In fact, he’s wise enough to even make some light fun of his own conservative views of women in their presence. King is also reluctant to fight women, which he sees as unfair and making him look effeminate.
     Born and raised a leader, King knows—despite his physical aggressiveness—to speak with caution and to listen far more than he speaks. When he talks, it is often in an elegant, somewhat poetic way meant to evoke the saga relating his exploits—he even manages to slip in a kenning or two. No need to ask—he’s a smooth operator. King also lives by the Germanic code that one cannot allow the death of a close companion or liege to go unanswered. Unlike most heroes of these sorts of tales, he doesn't get embroiled in the circular bloodfeuds that are a staple of most sagas, instead confronting larger supernatural threats.
     Quote: “Look ahead! Prepare yourselves! Satan’s game begins anew!”

Names of characters and the distinctive likenesses thereof are Trademarks and © of Nicholas Troyer and are used with permission.

© 1997 UGoI-ESF © 1999 ESF. All Rights Reserved. Image used without permission.