<div class="floatright">(http://s3.hostingkartinok.com/uploads/images/2013/05/e6d1a21c0c2010339d2b0df3f3297a76.jpg)</div>Svanhildr Grímsdóttir (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1179224)<div style="text-align: left;"><br/>Svanhildr was born the daughter of a seamstress and a blacksmith in a remote swamp-choked village on the absolute frontier of civilisation. Despite her parents efforts to the contrary she was an only child, and as such was chosen by her father to learn the smithing techniques he had learned himself growing up in the north. Though her father, Grímur, was hoping to have a male “heir” he refused to let all things he learned go to waste, and most of Svan’s childhood was spend as his assistant and apprentice. Nearly all the childhood memories she can recollect involve the sweltering heat of the forge or the deafening sound of her father pounding iron.<br/><br/>But she learned much from her father, so much so that when he had passed away she readily took up the mantle and began smithing herself. Though she was nothing but a common smith for a small town, most of her work involved making horseshoes, forging nails, or repairing the heads of farm implements.  It was a simple life, but she had no complaints. There was a weird tranquillity in she found while she was smithing, despite how repetitive it was she always looked forward to a new job, and even forged things in her spare time if she could afford to waste the supplies. On top of all that it kept her and her mother fed and kept a roof over their heads, so there was nothing really to complain about.<br/><br/>But it wasn’t long in till this idyllic life had to come to an end, news from came with refugees about a mad group of bandits destroying everything in their path and leaving entire towns in ruin, and it wasn’t long until they were next. While most of the town was terrified Svan took this as a challenge, she was almost excited. Her father had often lulled her to sleep with stories from the north of great warriors killing whole armies before dying in battle and meeting their god. To Svan that seemed to be a much more interesting pace than the drudgery that was her daily life, and despite having no knowledge of how to make weapons or armour she set out to make both to take  the bandits head on.<br/><br/>Despite her ramshackle armour she lacked pretty much any combat training, and as such was beaten with in an inch of her life and had her head forced into her still burning forge, severely burning half of her face. This onslaught was stopped however by the leader of the band of brigands, a surprisingly clean cut and well spoken man by the name of Yıldırım. He made her an offer, one she was in no position to decline. Help him, make armour and weapons for his troops and he’d make sure she was not only well compensated with the illicit goods they often “happen upon”, but he’d make sure to teach her how to properly fight. She accepted of course, and left her hometown a pile of smoking rubble.<br/><br/>In the years that followed she remained under the “employment” of Yıldırım, she’d make simple breastplates and bracers the best she could and had her share of the pillaged food and metals. She treated fairly well, surprisingly the group was fairly mixed and many of their ranks consisted of women and even non-humans. Yıldırım was no ordinary cut-throat, he had a plan. He directed those under his command with military like efficacy and accepted all new comers. He bolstered his rank with outcasts and runaways, but treated all of his troops like equals, thus fostering an unrepresented amount of respect and loyalty from his men. He went to extreme lengths to make sure all under his command saw each other as family, stealing and fighting where harshly punished, and rape or murder of another “family” member was punished by death.<br/><br/>Despite the circumstances in which she had joined the band after a while she grew to enjoy their company, she fought with them, drank with them, would even call many of them her friends. After she learned to fight her even when out on raids, cracking the skulls and burning villages, she had no moral qualms with it. But it wasn’t too long before their number grew too large to sustain itself, there wasn’t enough food or weapons to go around and raiding was no longer cutting it. It was then Yıldırım revealed the next step of his plan, this time they weren’t going to raid a village, and they were going to take it over. They were going to make a banner of their own to wave and make their own country to live under.<br/><br/>This was Yıldırım’s plan all along, to gain enough forces to be able to challenge entire nations. Though they were still far too weak for that, gaining control of a few outlying villages would be a good start so they were able to further bolster their ranks to the point in which they could truly challenge a lord’s army. They chose one close to their current encampment, and took it with little effort. Forcing the villagers to either join their cause or die. This was Yıldırım’s undoing however, he as many before him he had mistaken the cracks in the law as freedom, after he had taken a few more villages he soon had the attention of the local baron, who with a simple gesture ordered his band killed and him made an example of. The villages he had taken went dark one by one, and soon came upon where Svan was stationed. They came in the night, hundreds of fully armoured and expertly trained soldiers. They never stood a chance, Wave after of Svan’s friends and brothers fell to their blades or where captured, she fought valiantly but was knocked out with the hilt of a sword and subsequently stripped and thrown into a cell with all the other survivors. It wasn’t long until she was transferred to await public execution, but fate seemed to have other plans.<br/><br/>If she makes it off this island alive the first thing she’s going to do is find Yıldırım if he is still alive, and reunite the survivors, even if she has to lead them herself.</div>