Balder

Once Jarl of Yorvik. Steward and Advisor to Harald.

Balder comes from a small hamlet called Yorvik, a few days north of Hammerfall, where he was the local Jarl. They were a small community and mostly self reliant. Balder was a strong Viking warrior once, and he took himself a beautiful bride, Ygritte, after joining the larger settlement of Cattegut in its raids on the towns to the east. He bedded her as was his prize. When he came home to Yorvik with her he was met by Cattegut's Jarl, Ivar. Ivar and his goons snatched his new bride away and beat him down.

Almost a year passed. Then a thin raft came downriver to Yorvik with an infant's carcass tied to it, and runes carved into its chest. Here lies Balder's Bastard. Balder fled from that horror. He left his town and did not go back, and looked for solace at the bottom of a bottle.

The years of loss have carved deep guilt into Balder's chest, a wound he has never found the words to name. He numbs it the only way he knows: drink, and plenty of it. When sober plans crumble around him and comrades look to him for answers he no longer trusts himself to have, that guilt curdles into rage. He becomes reckless, throwing himself at problems head-on with little thought for those beside him, as if suffering enough might somehow balance the ledger of everything he has lost.

Hammerfall

He was tending bar at The Black Tide Tavern when the party came together, and he lined up their first smuggling job. When the Pit took Ygritte, he told them the whole bitter story.

In the council chamber he had Ivar wounded on the floor and a blade at his throat. I should put you down for everything you have done, but I am not a strong enough man, and I will not hold you guilty for my own weakness. He turned away. Harald did not.

After that night Balder left the party to steward the Norse for a boy-jarl. He was beside Harald in the ruined sanctum when the Guild came, and in the next cell when Yennen came begging. His counsel to the boy is plain. Let Hammerfall go. Come home to Yorvik, where Balder can keep him safe until he is older.