The Northman

[KoriStronghammer]

Name- Kori Stronghammer

Age: 22

Race: Human

Height- 6'5"

Weight-225 lbs.

Physical Description: Kori is a giant of a human, and is muscular enough to be mistaken for a young troll in the dark. Kori has cut his hair and shaved after events in Shim, trimming all of his beard except for a long goatee and shaving the sides and back of his head, pulling the hair left on top into a ponytail. His goatee is plaited into one large braid, compromising of all of his goatee. He has glacier blue eyes, a mouth that seldom smiles, and what was once a good nose that is now crooked from fighting. Since he is from the Rising Bear Clan, he has slightly longer than normal canine teeth, giving him a fanged appearance. These are in no way vampiric or magical, merely a genetic fluke. He has large hands with callused and thick knuckles, and a deep and unbridled laugh when someone can draw it from him. He sings, and his deep baritone makes some songs lovely. He usually only sings when he is working, or involved in a fight.

Possessions: Kori doesn't believe in having many possessions, but what he does have he values.


Arms-
Desolation- A Claymore style sword forged by Kori himself, the blade is 55 inches long and two inches wide, not including the hilt. The edges have been hones to a razor sharp cut, and the blade itself is quite thick. The handle is two hands long for when Kori feels the need to use it, with down sloped cross-guard to catch other weapons. The ends of the cross guard have a solid metal ball on each of them. The hilt is leather and wire wrapped, with a flat, shiny circular disk as a pommel.

Wood Axe- Knowing that large weapons aren't very accepted in polite society, Kori forged an axe for himself, that can serve a dual purpose. The Forge in Shim that Kori operates requires a large amount of wood and charcoal to stay burning hot, and Kori helps procure those items with his axe. The other reason is that is doubles as a great melee weapon. The axe has two sides, and one is shaped as a splitting axe, more wedge shaped, great for splitting wood or skulls. It measures around 13 inches from tip to tip. The other edge is of a variety known as a felling axe, used for felling trees or opponents. The handle is 4 foot long, made of fire hardened oak. This way, Kori's axe can also double as a walking stick when he is in the forest.

Bearclaw and Wolftalon- A pair of matched daggers, Kori also forged these, knowing that not every situation in the world will allow him to have access to his larger weapons. Saying that, as they are to scale, these weapons are quite large. The blade of the daggers are equal in length, being 10 inches long. Where Bearclaw is thick, sharp and curved upwards (think falchion), Wolftalon is straight, double edged, and springier. These Daggers are one of Kori's best hidden secrets, and only if he choose to draw them will you know where they are hidden on his person.


Armor- At the moment, Kori only wears a suit of Chain-mail with leather and metal armlets covering his forearms.

Knives and Daggers- Kori has a large amount of throwing knives and daggers on his person, and is quite proficient with them.

The Bear Amulet- A amulet with a magical charm that gives Kori the strength and ferocity of a bear. It only last for one hour, and requires 24 hours to recharge the energy inside it.

Assorted Items- Skinning knife, flint box, oils to take care of metals, oil to care for the bear hide, whetstone, three cough syrup healing potions, two blankets, assorted tunics, a wooden hand-carved Mjolnir necklace, pants and boots.

THE HIDDEN ITEMS: After events in Shim leading to Kori becoming a recognizable criminal, he hid his bear cape, shield and hammer in a hole he dug in the forest, covering it with a large boulder, to be kept until he needs them again.

Powers/Strength- Kori is amazingly strong for a human of his size, being comparable to a young trolls power. Able to move large boulders, fallen trees, and use his fits to break any obstacle he has, Kori is a formidable hand to hand opponent. The work at the Forge is only stregthening Kori, making his muscles larger and stronger. Kori's strength not only comes from his muscles, but his will. Believing in himself, and mentally forcing himself to believe that failure is not and never will be an option have done wonders for Kori, though they can also get him into situations he wouldn't get in normally.

Kori has no magical powers, other than the powers the Bear Amulet gives him.

Weaknesses/Flaws- Kori can fly into a beserkr rage, and when he does he can't tell the difference between friend and foe. Kori relies heavily on a "smash 'em" attack, and doesn't really on his speed as much as he should. He doesn't take any slights to his honor, imagined or not. People who believe they are born to respect irk him, and he loves to get drunk and fist fight in taverns. Kori sees both his rage and his alcoholism as weaknesses. When he flies into his rage, he gets stronger, but he can abandon his friends or hurt them, and since Kori has a strong sense of loyalty and self-honor, this hurts, in his mind, both those concepts. He sees his drinking as a weakness because he is getting to the point where he gets shakey if he doesn't drink, and his reaction time a fighting abilities are greatly reduced while drunk. The old wounds don't hurt him as much as the wounds of the heart do, from losing both his parents at a young age, and being kept in a cage most of his life by the people he thought loved him.

History:

Kori Stronghammer is a Warrior from the very northern part of Norroenirlund as the son of Gunnar Ironmace and Anya Goodwife. Koris father was not a chieftain, but one of the most respeacted housecarls of the tribe. When Kori was old enough to grasp a weapon, his father placed one in his hand and began training him. Kori was tall for his age, at 5 he was as tall as a 10. Due to his size, at 7 he was apprenticed to a blacksmith to gain build his muscles. When Kori was 11 years old, while the warriors of the village where away, leaving only the old men and young boys who had just began there training behind, a rival tribe raided Kori's village. Kori was working at the blacksmiths forge. At the start of the raid, Koris mother had decided to take him lunch and was grabbed by a enemy right in front of the forge. Anya wouldn't go without a fight and began punching and attacking as Kori grabbed a hammer and began to ran towards them. As he almost reached his mother, the enemy tribesman pulled out his sword and ran the woman through. That is when Kori fell into the first beserkr rage of his life. When Gunnar and the rest of the Warriors returned from their own raid, the found all the remaining women and children clustered in the mead hall with the doors barred. The old warriors they had left behind were guarding the door, and when asked what they were guarding against since the foe had been vanquished, they simply replied "The Bear Child." They told of one of their own who had became a demon and slaughtered all, friend and foe alike. They said that they had watched Kori kill at least 10 of the enemy, and had watched him kill 5 of their own warriors who had got to close to him. When Gunnar found his son, he was clutching his mothers dead body. They say that when Gunnar seen the look in his own sons eyes it drove him mad, or that the death of his beloved did. Either way, he was insane until the day he died. Kori was brought into the warriors and trained with the men, even though he was only a child. The chieftain or the war-band captain, who ever was leading the battle, would remind Kori of his dead mother and crazy father to let him feel the rage, and then turn him loose on their enemies. Many tribes feared him, calling him the Bear of the North. His own tribe mocked him, calling him Kori Madmansson or Kori Deadmother. HE lived like a caged animal with his own people, for even they feared him. When Oleg Oneeye became Oleg Noeyes, he stepped down as chieftain and his son, Olain the Fair became chieftain. He gave Kori his freedom, but after giving him equipment to survive, told him to leave the tribe, simply because Kori was to dangerous to have around. Kori plied himself as a sell sword (or in this case sell hammer) across Eyropa, trying to bring himself a sense of honor again, and somehow to control his rage, so he can return to his people. For his latest job, he was hired on as a guard for a caravan leaving Keltaris and passing through Thar Shaddin. When the caravan stopped in the Thar Shaddin city of Marn, Kori got drunk and got into a fight with the caravan leader. While Kori was passed out, sleeping off his hangover, the caravan left him behind. Kori lived in the Historic District for a few days after being left behind, and then began doing whatever job he could so he could stay in Downtown inns instead of fighting the criminals and drug dealers that he saw in the Historic District. After so long, Kori removed himself from the city, believing it to vile and corrupt. Arriving in the Village of Shim, he managed to get himself involved in a strange series of events, which landed him afoul of a battlemage. Hiding the items that helped mark him as memorable, Kori decided to start a brand new life. He stays in Shim now, working at the Forge he has built and helping those he can. If not at his Forge, he can be found at the Red Chailce.