Brenna Ardullsson
Appearance
Unlike most of her kind who have decided to continue their education to pursue a career in fighting, the years Brenna was unable to do so mean physically she has a lot of catching up to do. Less muscled and built like a brick privy, Brenna is shorter, curvier and more slender. However, the past few years under the tutelage of her uncle have seen her begin to bulk up more. Instead of skin and bones, Brenna has put on a good layer of muscle and filled out more. He frets she takes too much after her mother, who is also on the more slender side, however her lithe nature means she often outwits her opponents more on agility and strategy than brute force. She has blonde hair she keeps braided, though fine tendrils always seem to have escaped the weave, giving her the appearance of someone who is busy constantly. Brenna has inherited her mothers captivating eyes, which are a deep and vast blue, framed by thick and long eyelashes. Paired with her fine skin and high cheekbones she turns more than a few heads now she has reached the cusp of adulthood, though she is entirely oblivious to it.
In her Svalen form she takes the form of a beautiful copper-gold bear. Like in her human form, her bear form is slightly more slender than most of her fellow apprentices.
In her Svalen form she takes the form of a beautiful copper-gold bear. Like in her human form, her bear form is slightly more slender than most of her fellow apprentices.
Skills and Abilities
Svalen: Like most of her race, Brenna has the ability to shape-shift into the form of a bear. The transformation is easy and painless, like stepping in to another coat. Scars, wounds, and permanent injuries transfer between her two forms. This also means her deafness transfers between her forms.
Heightened senses: Like most of her people, Brenna has an incredibly good sense of smell. However, in the years following her loss of hearing Brenna found her other four senses made up for her lack of hearing even further. Her sense of smell far surpasses that of her fellow novices, she appears able to pick up movement further away than most, she is incredibly sensitive to taste and also touch. This has its downfalls. At times busy areas can become too much for these other senses, and touch can cause her to physically flinch if she has had too much of it recently.
Sign Language: After losing her hearing Brenna learnt sign language. However, the language was geared towards the communicating on the battlefield and hunting, not the more everyday aspects of life. Irritated she couldn't communicate well anymore, Brenna helped to develop the language alongside some of the more well respected educators of the kingdom. Their work means that now the language can be used in multiple ways, and Brenna has helped teach it to tutors across the land, as well as herself teaching all young children as part of their education in Fiirevik.
Lip reading: Brenna has learnt how to lip read incredibly well and she can follow most conversations with ease without the use of sign language on their part.
Weaponry: Brenna is now two years into her formal education under her Uncle Haandel. Her natural skills have fitted in more with swords and spears, which require quick and fluid movements. She can use the heftier pole arms and axes, but currently lacks any particularly skill in them above the basics.
Heightened senses: Like most of her people, Brenna has an incredibly good sense of smell. However, in the years following her loss of hearing Brenna found her other four senses made up for her lack of hearing even further. Her sense of smell far surpasses that of her fellow novices, she appears able to pick up movement further away than most, she is incredibly sensitive to taste and also touch. This has its downfalls. At times busy areas can become too much for these other senses, and touch can cause her to physically flinch if she has had too much of it recently.
Sign Language: After losing her hearing Brenna learnt sign language. However, the language was geared towards the communicating on the battlefield and hunting, not the more everyday aspects of life. Irritated she couldn't communicate well anymore, Brenna helped to develop the language alongside some of the more well respected educators of the kingdom. Their work means that now the language can be used in multiple ways, and Brenna has helped teach it to tutors across the land, as well as herself teaching all young children as part of their education in Fiirevik.
Lip reading: Brenna has learnt how to lip read incredibly well and she can follow most conversations with ease without the use of sign language on their part.
Weaponry: Brenna is now two years into her formal education under her Uncle Haandel. Her natural skills have fitted in more with swords and spears, which require quick and fluid movements. She can use the heftier pole arms and axes, but currently lacks any particularly skill in them above the basics.
Personality
Like her brother Valthar, Brenna didn't take after her father in terms of his brash and bold personality. However, she did share in his love of fighting. As a very young child she was adventurous, curious and loved nothing more than to play fight with her father. Even before the accident she was incredibly intuitive and her parents used to comment that it was as if she had been on this earth before. Despite her dream of one day earning the right to ride a Strekker in the army, Brenna loved with all of her heart and was a very sweet girl - her laugh and surprising gifts of woven art softened even her fathers grizzled heart. Despite being the apple of her fathers eye, her true love was her older brother Valthar, who she would shadow constantly.
It was a crippling blow as a young child to be told the future she had dreamed of for herself of following in his footsteps was gone forever. It was yet another blow when she lost her father soon after and their family moved to be with her Uncle. Brenna became a very quiet child, though she was still a sweet and affectionate one. The cruel blows fate had dealt her gave her a strong streak of stubbornness and determination, which spurned many of her life choices including her quest for a language that still connected her to her home, her journey to find her Svalen, and her eventual enrolment into the army. Her quietness can often come across as shyness, and her gentleness mistaken for weakness.
Brenna still loves with all her heart and remains a stark contrast to most of her peoples brash natures, though they only ever seem to make her love her people more.
It was a crippling blow as a young child to be told the future she had dreamed of for herself of following in his footsteps was gone forever. It was yet another blow when she lost her father soon after and their family moved to be with her Uncle. Brenna became a very quiet child, though she was still a sweet and affectionate one. The cruel blows fate had dealt her gave her a strong streak of stubbornness and determination, which spurned many of her life choices including her quest for a language that still connected her to her home, her journey to find her Svalen, and her eventual enrolment into the army. Her quietness can often come across as shyness, and her gentleness mistaken for weakness.
Brenna still loves with all her heart and remains a stark contrast to most of her peoples brash natures, though they only ever seem to make her love her people more.
Biography & Lore
Brenna was the youngest child and only daughter to the legendary warrior Ardull. She spent most of her young childhood as all young cubs do: playing, exploring, causing their parents to tear their hair out. However, Brenna spares her parents the later and was an extremely affectionate and loving child who was always returning when called and peppering her family with gifts she had found on her outings. Her favourite activities were when her father or brother would let her accompany them on one of their shorter hunts or journeys.
Enrolling in school was an exciting moment for Brenna: this was her first step to become a warrior like her father. As with all Nordenfiir children, leaning how to wield a sword and shield were as important a lesson as learning how to read and write. Brenna took to learning like a duck to water. She loved her lessons and her teachers, and applied herself to every subject with a joy that was admired by her tutors. It was less admired by some of her peers. Naturally, as is the case with children, rivalries began, and by the age of eight Brenna had a serious one with another young boy named Garth. Garth, like her, had a warrior father. But unlike Brenna, he was naturally inclined to be thuggish, brash, and a bully. When competing for the top place in class it was usually between the two.
During one of her combat classes when she was fighting Garth, their rivalry took a step over the line of friendly competition as the tutors had seen it. Brenna and Garth were fairly well matched - whilst Brenna was slighter she used her brains more, Garth was large for his age and had the strength to match it. After a long drawn out fight that had left the two panting, Brenna managed to get the first solid hit and was declared the winner. In a fit of rage Garth had swung for Brenna when her back was turned to him, just as she lifted her helmet off. He caught her across the back of the head with a sharp crack.
Brenna was in a coma for six months with no signs of improving and until she awoke, the doctors were unsure of the extent of the damage.
But, Brenna was her fathers daughter and was a fighter. She woke on her mothers birthday, which caused the woman to break down in tears and pray in thanks. It became clear very quickly that not everything, however, was right. First it begun with her only being able to hear a sharp ringing in her ears. Over the weeks that faded into total silence. She was pronounced deaf on her 9th birthday. Brenna was distraught. Her mother firmly put her foot down to any physical activities after the doctor warned another trauma to the head could mean the girls life, and it appeared that her dream of joining the ranks of the military were dashed. She could see it upset her father too, and she internalised that as disappointment. Brenna barely came out of her room for the rest of the school year.
As summer came around, such as it was in the lands of the North, Brenna began to return to her normal self. Despite not being able to hear her families voices, she still made sure she made them laugh and smile. The first time she brought her mother one of her usual small gifts, it made her mother weep for her baby girl was healing. Brenna pushed herself hard that summer to catch up on the year of schools she had missed and made her parents fight hard for her right to return to the class she had been with so far.
Things were just beginning to get back to relative normality when her father died shortly after her 10th birthday. It was a shock for the whole family, but it was what finally broke their mother. Soon after all the correct rites were performed, she packed the family up and moved to be closer to their uncle Haandel in Faarin.
It was a strange new place, Faarin, and it was frustrating to start having to teach a whole new class how to communicate with her in sign language. Over the next few years, Brenna began to realise that there were just too many words that didn't exist and it left gaping holes in her ability to communicate. As is often the way with quiet children who do not want to worry their family, Brenna took it upon herself to write to the various scholars who specialised in Fiirevik to ask for help herself. A few scholars returned her letters with great enthusiasm, and it was only when she was asked to the capital to begin the expansion of sign language so it could be used in everyday life, that she brought the topic up with her mother at all.
As she feared, the thought of her daughter leaving her distressed the woman, but it was her brother who fought her corner with her, and eventually their mother relented. She stayed in the capital for a year with the scholars, helping to develop the language, and by the time she returned it had been published. Alongside her own education, Brenna taught adults and children alike how their language transferred into signs that they could make with movements from their hands. By the time her education came to an end at 16, it looked pretty certain that Brenna would take the path of teaching full time as a career.
And Brenna did try. She could see having such a gentle career soothed her mothers fears: neither of her children were about to go risking their lives and she wouldn't spend her waking hours worrying. But, Brenna still held out hope for that dream of joining the military and earning herself one of the beautiful Strekker horses to ride into battle. As her 18th birthday approached, Brenna dropped the bombshell that she would be undertaking the Take the Path on her birthday, with a group of others from her old school days. Her uncle shared her enthusiasm and offered nothing but encouragement, it was hard to read her brother's reaction, and her mother was - unsurprisingly - upset.
Brenna doesn't talk about this year of her life, but it was during this time that she discovered her Svalen.
When she returned, however, it was to horror. The Red Mist Crisis had happened only days earlier, and she learned that her own brother, Valthar, had vanished. Their mother had already written him off as dead, but Brenna refused to believe such a thing. If her brother was gone, she insisted, she would feel it in her soul. It was strange settling back into her old life for she was changed. She had lost all looks of being a child and she was undoubtedly now a young woman, and a young woman who knew what she wanted now more than ever. She wanted to join the military. Brenna didn't bother to go to her mother, so she went to her uncle instead who agreed to take her under his tutelage with the new wave of recruits he was drawing up to replace the losses of The Red Mist Crisis had caused.
As fate would have it, as it had been for her mother all those years past, it was on her 21st birthday that Brenna got the news her brother had returned.
Enrolling in school was an exciting moment for Brenna: this was her first step to become a warrior like her father. As with all Nordenfiir children, leaning how to wield a sword and shield were as important a lesson as learning how to read and write. Brenna took to learning like a duck to water. She loved her lessons and her teachers, and applied herself to every subject with a joy that was admired by her tutors. It was less admired by some of her peers. Naturally, as is the case with children, rivalries began, and by the age of eight Brenna had a serious one with another young boy named Garth. Garth, like her, had a warrior father. But unlike Brenna, he was naturally inclined to be thuggish, brash, and a bully. When competing for the top place in class it was usually between the two.
During one of her combat classes when she was fighting Garth, their rivalry took a step over the line of friendly competition as the tutors had seen it. Brenna and Garth were fairly well matched - whilst Brenna was slighter she used her brains more, Garth was large for his age and had the strength to match it. After a long drawn out fight that had left the two panting, Brenna managed to get the first solid hit and was declared the winner. In a fit of rage Garth had swung for Brenna when her back was turned to him, just as she lifted her helmet off. He caught her across the back of the head with a sharp crack.
Brenna was in a coma for six months with no signs of improving and until she awoke, the doctors were unsure of the extent of the damage.
But, Brenna was her fathers daughter and was a fighter. She woke on her mothers birthday, which caused the woman to break down in tears and pray in thanks. It became clear very quickly that not everything, however, was right. First it begun with her only being able to hear a sharp ringing in her ears. Over the weeks that faded into total silence. She was pronounced deaf on her 9th birthday. Brenna was distraught. Her mother firmly put her foot down to any physical activities after the doctor warned another trauma to the head could mean the girls life, and it appeared that her dream of joining the ranks of the military were dashed. She could see it upset her father too, and she internalised that as disappointment. Brenna barely came out of her room for the rest of the school year.
As summer came around, such as it was in the lands of the North, Brenna began to return to her normal self. Despite not being able to hear her families voices, she still made sure she made them laugh and smile. The first time she brought her mother one of her usual small gifts, it made her mother weep for her baby girl was healing. Brenna pushed herself hard that summer to catch up on the year of schools she had missed and made her parents fight hard for her right to return to the class she had been with so far.
Things were just beginning to get back to relative normality when her father died shortly after her 10th birthday. It was a shock for the whole family, but it was what finally broke their mother. Soon after all the correct rites were performed, she packed the family up and moved to be closer to their uncle Haandel in Faarin.
It was a strange new place, Faarin, and it was frustrating to start having to teach a whole new class how to communicate with her in sign language. Over the next few years, Brenna began to realise that there were just too many words that didn't exist and it left gaping holes in her ability to communicate. As is often the way with quiet children who do not want to worry their family, Brenna took it upon herself to write to the various scholars who specialised in Fiirevik to ask for help herself. A few scholars returned her letters with great enthusiasm, and it was only when she was asked to the capital to begin the expansion of sign language so it could be used in everyday life, that she brought the topic up with her mother at all.
As she feared, the thought of her daughter leaving her distressed the woman, but it was her brother who fought her corner with her, and eventually their mother relented. She stayed in the capital for a year with the scholars, helping to develop the language, and by the time she returned it had been published. Alongside her own education, Brenna taught adults and children alike how their language transferred into signs that they could make with movements from their hands. By the time her education came to an end at 16, it looked pretty certain that Brenna would take the path of teaching full time as a career.
And Brenna did try. She could see having such a gentle career soothed her mothers fears: neither of her children were about to go risking their lives and she wouldn't spend her waking hours worrying. But, Brenna still held out hope for that dream of joining the military and earning herself one of the beautiful Strekker horses to ride into battle. As her 18th birthday approached, Brenna dropped the bombshell that she would be undertaking the Take the Path on her birthday, with a group of others from her old school days. Her uncle shared her enthusiasm and offered nothing but encouragement, it was hard to read her brother's reaction, and her mother was - unsurprisingly - upset.
Brenna doesn't talk about this year of her life, but it was during this time that she discovered her Svalen.
When she returned, however, it was to horror. The Red Mist Crisis had happened only days earlier, and she learned that her own brother, Valthar, had vanished. Their mother had already written him off as dead, but Brenna refused to believe such a thing. If her brother was gone, she insisted, she would feel it in her soul. It was strange settling back into her old life for she was changed. She had lost all looks of being a child and she was undoubtedly now a young woman, and a young woman who knew what she wanted now more than ever. She wanted to join the military. Brenna didn't bother to go to her mother, so she went to her uncle instead who agreed to take her under his tutelage with the new wave of recruits he was drawing up to replace the losses of The Red Mist Crisis had caused.
As fate would have it, as it had been for her mother all those years past, it was on her 21st birthday that Brenna got the news her brother had returned.
