OCCUPATION: King of Hedeby
SUGGESTED FACE CLAIMS: UTP (Peter FranzĂŠn)
Ragnar is unmarried but has many children, He has only acknowledged his two sons, THE PROTECTOR and THE VIPER that both came from the same mother, his late wife who died from unknown causes ten years ago. The other children he has he doesnât consider to be his children and doesnât have any claim to the crown.
INGRIDâS father was the king that he had dethroned. And because of his distrust with the woman at the fear of her someday being his downfall, he has kept her as his householdâs personal servant just to keep a watchful eye on her. Everyone suggested on killing her, but the witch talk rumours about her keep him wary.
A very proud man that gets easily manipulated when it comes to power. He doesnât stop until he has all the kingdoms in his hands. He is currently making raiding arrangments to head out to the Kingdom of Francia, where he hopes for a successful invasion.Â
Ragnar is a well-respected man throughout the village and neighboring regions. He has fought hard and bloody to become the King od Hedeby and had overthrown the late-king in a battle that had once split Hedeby into two different areas. Once Ragnar became King, he had managed to unite the village together. However, no man is perfect, and there is always someone out there that desires his influence.Â
They say the violence begets violence. Is that not how perseverance is born, into the darkness amidst a frigid winter solstice? A small creature with gleaming eyes of emerald, of a distant mother, and the protruding locks of his father. He cried as he was placed into the limp arms of his mother, already half-hearted from the cruelty of her husbandâyet she had bore a son at last. Indeed, the legacy of Bjorn Hrafnkelsson would continue by the grace of the gods. Two older sister proceeded Ragnar, and both had died young, and both were not considered lineage by his father. A precursor to Ragnarâs own legacy years later perhaps.
Bjorn was neither kind nor anything short of brute. He was a warrior to and through, his blood boiled each spring at the nearing of raiding seasons. He taught his boy to fight before much else, determined to keep their bloodline paramount. It was Ragnarâs mother, despite her distance from the boy (fruit of a barbaric husbandâwho could blame her?) that taught him more than the sword. AlfdĂs had taught him the power of devotion, how charisma could compel. If it was power the boy strove for, then he ought to learn to speak to his fellow men, to demand their allegiance. Ragnar took this to heart, and found himself a natural. For whatever it may have been worth, in the beginning the young man was sincereâhe did care for his fellow warriors, the people of his village, and in some capacity, his parents as well.
Near his fourteenth year, AlfdĂs had another child. Another boy, much to the delight of her husband, and to the bane of herself, who missed her daughters dearly. If Ragnar had been spared the majority of her affection, Leifr was granted even less. Perhaps that was the catalyst for the younger Bjornsonâs streak of rage. Encouraged by Bjorn when the boy was old enough to raid, and Ragnar was often the anchor to stop his brother from going too far. Unfortunately, Bjorn had instilled a sense of rivalry between the siblings that remained until the end.
Throughout the years, Ragnarâs reputation grew. Leadership came naturally to him, despite the loathing of his younger brother and attempts to usurp Ragnarâs position. Now a man, however, Ragnarâs strained relationship with his abrasive father crumbled entirely, and when Bjorn Hrafnkelsson perished in a raid, there were no tears to shed. A year before, his mother had vanished, and while Ragnar suspected her destination, he continued on. Throughout his conquest of land, the desire for acquisition, he bedded many women, leaving swelling bellies in his wake with no acknowledgment of the life heâd helped create. For Ragnar, too proud to boast of children while unwed, it was not an easy decisionâ but a necessary one.
Around his thirty-fourth year, heâd met the woman he would marry. Her name he will not speak again, though she bore his first acknowledged son, and near his thirty-eighth year, the second of his legacy. While suspicions of poisoning surrounded the death of his wife shortly after the youngestâs birth, Ragnar says nothing of the event. He mourns her in his own way, and whether or not the murderâ rather, unfortunate accidentâ of Leifr is related, is another mystery that only the gods and Ragnar know.
Near his forty-seventh year, Ragnar knew what he strove for. Power, adoration; the two interchangeable as far as he knew. The king of Hedeby fell into a drunken sort of vulnerability, thus losing his reputation and many supporters. It hadnât been much of a feat to usurp the king. Thus King Ragnar sits upon the throne, with the former kingâs eldest daughter kept as a servant. Though the thought of simply killing her has been whispered into his ear, he relents, instead opting to keep a careful eye on her. Meanwhile, he crafted his ambition into looking for fruitful lands to raid.
