Snjall Fjorgynson

Background

Snjall was born in the high forested mountain valleys of Djupdalr in a community in (south-central FF Norway), where the ikornjar had traditionally lived alongside humans for generations. His family's village was centered around the great holy tree Rauðavegasil (the Ash of the Red Road), which was venerated as one of Yggdrasil's seedlings by the pagan community there. Snjall was the third of seven children of the chieftainess Fru Fjorgyn Angridsdottir who led the community, and was taught the old traditions, lore, and poetry, which he absorbed with great passion. When he was twelve, though, Djupdalr was finally converted to the Saints' Creed, which brought new leadership and new tensions to the community. Rauðavegasil was cut down to build a temple, and those of the valleyfolk who did not convert, including Snjall and his family, were forced to flee northwards, almost to the Arctic Circle, to the village of Auðn. Two of his brothers died during the trip north, one of whom, the eldest, Viggo, was very close to Snjall.

On his first midwinter noon in Auðn, immersed in darkness, Snjall undertook the utiseta ritual, used for centuries by his people, by which sitting outside outdoors at night led to messages. There, he received a visitation from a figure he came to understand as Gna, Frigga's handmaiden and messenger, who conveyed to him a message in flowing verse, hrynhenda, that he was to be a speaker for the people, but always bearing in mind that pure truth is corruptive, and only through the admixture of truth and lies would reality be revealed. Though Snjall was never (and is still not) deeply religious in the traditional sense, Gna's message became the central way that he came to understand his relationship to the old faith, to the ratatoskr from whom the ikornjar are descended, the great ash trees in Yggdrasil' image, and his own purpose in life as a skald. [The exact nature of the message, including prophecy, tools for self-understanding, etc., to be determined]

After that episode, he knew that his path required him to train with one of the skaldic elders still left. As there was little opportunity to train further in this craft in tiny, barren Auðn, Snjall left his family and travelled south to [place where Revna is from], where he learned from the skalds at the great hall of [Hall name]. His teacher, Egil Ommasson, was a hard, dispassionate man, intolerant of error and ill-suited to Snjall's mirth, leading to many beatings, but the two came to appreciate each other, particularly as Snjall proved a quick learner. There, he met who would become one of his closest friends, Revna. He has been in love with her almost since the day they met; at this point, she surely knows, but they don't talk about it much. Eventually, when her mother died unexpectedly and her sister took control of their family's lands, Snjall followed Revna southwards, because their friendship was well-known and he would be seen as unwelcome at best, a spy at worst, if he stayed.

Appearance

Snjall is a small humanoid with a long bushy tail, and a basically human-like face though highly suggestive of his rodent background. He has red-brown hair, heavy enough to be called fur on his back, arms, and thighs. In poor light he could be mistaken for a human with dwarfism though his proportions are wrong for that. He's thin, never given to any sort of musculature, but wiry and tough. Here in the south, he takes to light, comfortable clothes, as he cannot stand the heat down here.

Goals

• For now, he is resolute that he is not going to tell Revna about his feelings for her. He is good enough at lying that that's at least plausible, although she knows him better than almost anyone, so ... yeah, probably she knows, at some level.
• To understand - and then, to act on - Gna's message to him, which certainly involves elaborating it and making sense of it.
• To preserve and protect the old faith against the Saint's Creed, without getting in trouble for his faith. He probably used to (and maybe occasionally still does) make efforts to understand Gna as a saint, though he will likely never fully convert.

Personality

Snjall is a witty chatterbox, given to fanciful descriptions of himself, others, and situations, prone to jokes that he normally aims to sit just this side of true offense, although offense is of course always a matter of opinion. He sees what he's doing as just telling the right alchemy of truth and lies to accomplish his goals; he is a master of verbal art. Those who know him, though, are aware that he is more than a trickster; his words always have a message behind them, often more than one. He is a speaker of both truths and lies, which are two sides of the same coin, Reality, and neither is inherently more useful or valuable than the others for understanding reality. This can be frustrating for those just getting to know him, as he may seem cryptic or unnecessarily esoteric, but he is not doing it to be enigmatic (usually).

Quirks

While never much of a musician, Snjall uses the bumbari ('rumble-maker'), a membranophone made with thick horsehair, to accentuate his poetics with low drones, great rumbling noises, and joyful flatulence, as the case arises. He can use it deftly to taunt, to intimidate, or to overwhelm. [Does it have any in-game effects? Perhaps not yet]

Whenever he talks about his brother Viggo, it is always with the greatest praise, full of stories about their adventures together. What he says to almost no one is that Viggo is long-dead; he never talks about anything recent Viggo has done, but is happy to speak of him as if he were still alive.

Snjall has a finely-crafted set of hlautviðr, carved wooden divining-lots, made from a lesser branch discarded by the priests when they were constructing their temple out of Rauðavegasil. [He uses these in lieu of simple material components for any of his spells that require them.]