Full Name and Title: Magnus Gulbrand (called lord by his company, an honorary title)
Age: 39
Birthday: 28, September
Occupation: Magnus has begun trading some goods, but for the most part his income is from his estates in Norway. Magnus still has men taking care of his merchant business. Drinking for entertainment.
Religion: Talon - God of Death
Hair: Shoulder length, dark brown hair that Magnus lets rule itself. He only goes as far as keeping it from sticking up and keeping his bangs out of his eyes. One of his most frequent habits is brushing one of his bangs away from his eyes (when in battle, he wears a headband or ties it all back). His hair is starting to go grey at the roots, and is far along in turning at the base of his neck. He usually uses a small knife to cut his hair, and never worries about making it even. It\'s down to tangled split-ends at his neck, and his hair is very dry anyway. He doesn\'t see it as one of his strong points so rarely takes care of it.
Eyes: Narrow, deep green eyes. Usually have a haunted look hidden away behind the ever present smile. Has light wrinkles at the edges of his eyes, that his constant smiling has worn in.
Nose: Long and narrow, isn\'t so large that it draws attention, but definitely adds a strange hawklike cast to Magnus\' looks.
Lips: Thin but not unpleasant, the left corner is usually turned up in a slight smirk.
Skin Color: Olive toned skin, has a few white scars laced about his arms and a couple above his left eyebrow.
Height: 5\'8"
Weight: 145 lbs
Physical Attractiveness: Is considered handsome at first glance. Has a gaunt, rough look to him, but most people are detered by his hawklike nose or they\'re unnerved by his constant calm and smiles.
Clothing: Wears a hooded tunic of dark brown. It isn\'t padded, like most others and he\'s had it fitted to his form. For pants he wears similarly fitted black pants of wool, tucked into very plain leather shoes. He has a fur-lined cloak, of dark brown. The cloak is as much for looks as it is warmth. Magnus figures that his enemies should see him as a man of wealth and standing, so that they either overthink their moves or question them in fear of political retribution. The fur he kept from some of his hunting for the Zirat. He keeps his clothing clean and brushes it to keep wrinkles out. He really isn\'t too concerned, but it gives himself something to do in the morning. As far as armor goes, he has a studded-leather vest and thick leather bracers.
Weapons: Magnus carries a large array of weapons. Wears a flanged-mace on his left hip, and a battle axe he wears on his right hip. Wears a dagger strapped to his left shin. Sent a second dagger and a two-handed sword away, back to the estate.
Mother: Carina (David called her Cara), was an off-the-farm girl who knew nothing of the world when she met David. She never really got used to having so much money, or having to run the estate when David was away. Their home wasn\'t that large, and they did have a few servants to help run it, but it was still much more than she was used to. She died when Magnus was still in his early teens. David never moved on to another wife, but he did have a few lovers.
Father: Magnus\' father, David, was a successful merchant, who bought weapons from their homeland and sold them to distant allies of the region. When one ally turned, he simply routed more of his shipments to the other allies, and cut them a better deal. David was killed on his way back from one of his trips, when Magnus was just reaching his twenties. Magnus used the wealth and estate left to him to begin financing and directing a mercenary force to help stabilize the savage region.
Siblings: Magnus has a younger brother, Dag, and a younger sister, Irine. The two stayed at the Gulbrand estate with Magnus, and are now traveling with him on his way to Oberon. He still owns the estate, and has enough money to try and buy a new place and resituate his company in Oberon. Dag is 33 and Irine is 29.
Childhood: David and Carina were both from Macedonia. Over the years they traveled further North. They never told Magnus why, and left their entire family behind. They even took up their names from a group of merchants they met. Gulbrand was a word David read out of a book, one of the few he could make out with his limited education. Magnus was born shortly after they found a place to settle. David first established himself as a soldier, earning fame and with it a place in the culture of the rugged North "mainland." He only turned to merchant work after their second son died prematurely. By the time Dag was born, he was making a small fortune. His father usually brought Magnus with him on hunting trips and business trips, so Magnus never saw much of his mother. He did get to see a lot of the world, and picked up a lot of information along the way, but he always felt like he was in the background. For the most part, he was. Hunting trips were the only times he was his father\'s equal, at first just as a hunting partner but eventually an equal in skill as well. Magnus has seen first hand the best ways to talk to people, and win them over with words rather than money, and money rather than blades. Yet he also knows when a little force is necessary too. He\'s picked up a lot on the merchant business, but was never really that interested in using it for selling weapons. That\'s how he got the idea of selling the service of blades instead. He keeps most of his emotions in a shell, since his lack of communication with his mother left him to fend for things by himself. His father\'s conviction for business led him to mask his own feelings to improve business.
Childhood Friends: David brought a few others with him on his merchant trips. Dag was with him every time, but several of his merchant guard\'s sons, and a couple of the servant\'s sons from the estate commonly traveled with him as well. He took them along as extra help for carrying out small tasks. It gave the kids a chance to see the world, and build a stronger work ethic at the same time. Of the children he brought with him, Magnus immediantly befriended two of them. One was the son of one of the servants, and a local farmer. Sigvald Haraldur is still one of Magnus\' closest friends, and his most trusted advisor for the Zirat. Sigvald took up the nickname Espen, the name of one of his favorite characters out of a story his parents taught him. Aside from Sigvald, Magnus\' other closest friend was the only girl David ever brought with him on his merchant trips. A local orphan, that some soldiers had taken in for a bit of sport. Broken early in her childhood, it took a lot of coaxing to bring her to any level of sanity again. What brought her out, was studying with Magnus\' tutors on war and fighting. Valdis Ragnhild picked up quickly on combat, and to this day is one of the fiercest fighters Magnus has ever met. She is also, one of the most dedicated craftswomen he\'s ever met, and spends most of her time carving small figurines (and mothering him.)
Education: As his father was a wealthy merchant, even if a short-lived one, Magnus had exceptional tutors. Although not the best, they were much more than his father had ever expected to be able to afford for his sons. Sadly, the tutors, although exceptional, were stronger in the fields of combat and tactics than they were in literacy and history (living in the North, the area was always in danger from one thing or another, it seemed natural to teach him how to defend himself.) Magnus\' father tried to teach him what he knew of those topics, seeing the importance of them in merchant work, which was what he expected Magnus to follow in. Horseriding was a necessary skill to learn, since merchants travel so widely.
Natural Talents: Magnus was always interested in challenges, and his father gave him puzzles and riddles to work out every day. He has a natural talent for it, one he constantly applies. His ability to think on his fight from a logical stand point has earned him many victories. He\'s considered going into politics before, but doesn\'t know how he could earn himself a title.
Hobbies: Hunting is an important task in keeping his company fed, and Magnus tries to lead as many of the hunting parties as he can. He loves hunting, and spent most of his years from childhood out on long hunting trips with his father. Aside from hunting, he also enjoys studying literature. He can read and write, but he was taught second hand from his merchant father and has to struggle to keep up, so he likes to continue learning the skills, even though he rarely has use for them. He can figure out most words reading, but when writing tends to invent words. He still tries, though.
Personality: Has a friendly, charming exterior full of smiles and warm greetings. Deeper down, he\'s cold and calculating, and below that, he\'s full of emotional turmoil and suppressed hauntings. The death and action of battle and day to day life that he can pass through so smoothly does leave an impression. The battles come back to him at night, and he rarely gets a full rest from the years of nightmares gaining on him. Every moment of the day he\'s fighting some sort of raw emotion, whether it\'s pure rage, or tormented sadness, he has something he needs to supress. Very rarely does one of those emotions escape him, and the result is always frightening.
