Name: Niels Thomsen
Representative of: Viking Age Norway
Gender: Male
Age: 24 (Human) 950 (Historical)
(human and historical)
Brief personality: Niels is a rather closed off personality. Both physical and emotionally. Though once he makes a friend, or two. He is loyal to a fault. Though he personally would say different and that there was no issue. Being rather emotionally closed off it is hard to make a friend with the tough Viking. A jumpy skittish man keeps him on his toes when he would go out on voyages in new unexplored lands as was his favorite thing. Keeping him away from the cold and snow of Norway always with his men on a boat.
Brief physical description: Fully undressed, Niels is a thin looking man, with a lean muscle build though fast and strong for his outward appearance. He can lift and swing a sword though his magic is a large help, he tries his best not to lean too much on the ability and usually preferring hand to hand combat with swords and knives over bows and arrows or any long range weapons. He has paler blond hair than his more modern counterpart and violet colored eyes much lighter than the deeper blues. Across his back and chest are scars, though some fainter or more pronounced than others. He usually is one to keep these covered with bandages or not removing clothes. He is slightly over average with height for his time leaning more towards 6' though not quite
Brief history:
The Viking Age was a period of Scandinavian expansion through trade, colonization and raids. The first raid was against Lindisfarne in 793 and is considered the beginning of the Viking Age. This was possible because of the development of the longship, suitable for travel across the sea, and advanced navigation techniques.
Vikings were well equipped, had chain mail armor, were well trained and had a psychological advantage over Christian counterparts since they believed that being killed in combat would result in them going to Valhalla. In addition to gold and silver, an important outcome from the raids were thralls, which were brought to the Norwegian farms as a slave workforce. While the men were out at sea, the management of the farm was under the control of the women.
The lack of suitable farming land in Western Norway caused Norwegians to travel to the sparsely populated areas such asShetland, Orkney, the Faroe Islands and the Hebrides to colonize—the latter which became the Kingdom of the Isles.Norwegian Vikings settled on the west coast of Ireland ca. 800 and founded the island's first cities, including Dublin. Their arrival caused the petty Celtic kings to ally, and by 900 they had driven out the Norwegians.
Norwegians discovered Iceland in ca. 870 and within sixty years the island had been divided among four hundred chieftains. Led by Erik the Red, a group of Norwegians settled on Greenland in the 980s. His son, Leif Ericson, discovered Newfoundland in ca. 1000, naming it Vinland. Unlike Greenland, no permanent settlement was established there.
In the mid-9th century the largest chieftains of the petty kingdoms started a major power struggle. Harald Fairhair started the process of unifying Norway when he entered an alliance with the Earls of Lade and was able to unify the country after the decisive Battle of Hafrsfjord. He set up the very basics of a state administration with stewards in the most important former chieftain estates. His son Håkon the Good, who assumed the crown in 930, established two large things, Gulating for Western Norway and Frostating for Trøndelag, in which the king met with the freemen to make decisions. He also established the ledang, a conscription-based military. After his death in 960, war broke out between the Fairhair dynasty and the Earls of Lade in alliance with Danish kings.
Religious affiliation: Catholic
Any special powers or abilities: his magic is mainly nature based, calming animals etc