Appearance
For a woman of Dein, Tóra is not all that remarkable. The crown of her head reaches a little shy of six feet and she has the solid sturdy build typical of those who hail from the frozen wastes of the north. Likewise, Tóra adorns herself in the style of her homelands. Her hair and clothes are often adorned with beads and the trinkets of strange gods, an axe is rarely far from her hands and she bares the tattoos so important and prized by denizens of Dien.
Those who have spent time amongst the north folk and are keen of eye might notice that Tóra actually has curiously few of these almost sacred markings. Likewise there are a few other curiosities that the observant may notice about this northerner. Her ears for example are almost inhumanely tapered to a point. Her cuspid teeth are devilishly pointed and almost fang like. And in the dark of night, her eyes will shine bright in the light of the moon.
Personality
Some people put up walls around themselves, Tóra puts up fortresses. Even for those gifted of in the language of the unspoken, this strange mongrel of a woman is tough to read, if only because there is so little to be understood. Events that would bring others to tears of either ecstatic joy or crushing sorrow barely seem to register to this north-woman. Near every event in her life is met with the same tepid expression, the merest hint of a smirk being the most you'll see of happiness on her face; the slightest damping of her eyes of sadness.
There are perhaps only two times when anyone might see more vivid emotions coming from Tóra. The first is in the moments before a battle when she is reminiscent of a child waiting to be given a new toy. The other time when emotion could be considered to flow freely is when the mead and ale do to. At such times, Tóra can be entirely unpredictable as her emotions take their chance to escape.
Biography
Tóra's mother, Talia, was recently married to a warrior of a neighboring tribe when Tóra was conceived. As was traditional in Talia's new clan, as a childless woman she accompanied her husband on raiding trips where she and the other women provided a rear-guard to watch over the boats and the camp while the warriors were further inland.
On an expedition to the sun lands, soon after the bulk of the force had left on a raid the camp was attacked by a force of strange animal folk that quickly overwhelmed the defenses. Most of the camps defenders were slaughtered within minutes of the attack. Talia and a few other survived because individuals amongst the wolf kin claimed them as prizes and forced themselves upon the women. Horrific as it was, this meant that they were still alive when the raiding party returned and manged to kill the attackers.
Two months or so after the attack Talia found that she was with child and happiness began to find its way back into her life at the thought of having a baby. Nothing untoward was thought of the pregnancy at the time, Talia had laid with her husband since the attack and none of the other survivors had become pregnant. The truth of the matter was apparent within moments of Tóra's birth and both mother and baby were cast out of the tribe after the rest of the tribe saw the babes eyes and teeth.
Mother and baby returned to Talia's birth tribe where her farther was able to use his influence to allow mother and child to stay. For ten years they were grudgingly permitted to live on the edge of the village even though most members of the tribe despised and harassed the pair. However soon after the start Tóra's tenth year the political balance of the tribe changed and the protection brought by Tóra's grandfather was lost. Mother and daughter were stripped of the tribe name, declared unwanted, forced out of the village and forbidden from ever returning. From that day on the pair wandered the wilds of Dein following the migrations of the animals that they now depended upon for their survival. This was when Tóra, at the hip of her mother first learned how to hunt..
The pressure of survival honed her skills to a fine point with Tóra's ability surpassing that of her mother's within a handful of year. Even so life was exceptionally hard for the pair. Word of a cursed child had spread across the tribes and most villages were completely closed to the pair. Even the those that would deal with them treated the pair as pariahs and kept them to the outskirts of settlements. Without the support of others, every long Deinian winter was dangerous and in the winter after Tóra's seventeenth birthday Talia fell gravely ill. Unable to provide enough food and at the same time as caring for her mother Tóra watched as her mother faded away and died in front of her.
With nothing left to keep her in a land she now hated, Tóra began to wander south. She never meant to become a mercenary, in fact, at first she tried to make a living of sorts as a hunter. Trouble though, trouble always seemed travel in her footsteps. Wherever she went, nearly every night Tóra would end up in a fight of some kind. It didn't matter who she was facing, Tóra would fight till all her opponents were flat in the dirt or she was. It was as she was being dragged from the floor after one fight that a merchant offered Tóra coin if the north woman would fight to protect her good as eagerly as Tóra had fought the night before. She stayed with that merchant for a while, but eventually was offered an better deal which she took without another thought. And so this woman, this stranger in every land began the life of an Itinerant mercenary going wherever coin or danger called her to go.
Abilities
Nomadic Survivor: It has been a long time since Tóra lived anything that could be called a normal or settled life. She has survived because she learnt the skills she needed to find food and shelter in Dein's biting cold.
Fearless Warrior: No matter what the heavens throw at her, if this strange half breed has to fight it, no fear will enter her body. In fact just as in the tales of crazed warriors that hail from the lands of Dein, Tóra seems to welcome the worst possible scenario.