Ga'aoqi

Ga'aoqi wears his dark hair at medium length above a markedly receding hairline, and like several of his people he has no eyebrows. Bold face paint sets him apart: a white stripe runs from his brow down to the tip of his nose, a second white line marks his chin, and four diagonal streaks, two pale and two dark, sit on each cheek. He crowns this with a slender headdress bearing three dark feathers to either side, and drapes a short cape of dark plumage across his shoulders.

Ga'aoqi is gripped by a fascination with Norse goods, above all the sword Ivar carried to Vinland, which he calls a Big Knife and believes would tip the balance in his people's struggle against the settlers. He shares something of Garm's blunt, restless brutality, though without the humor or playfulness.

His savagery shows plainly in his methods. Where other tribes gathered under the shaman Miskwekepu'j to talk through the coming conflict, Ga'aoqi treats such councils as pretense and moves straight to violence. He orders the killing of a settler and a pregnant woman, has their home torched, and coolly questions the dying woman about the sword. When a warrior asks to face the defender Cordelia in single combat, he refuses without hesitation and commands the others to finish her quickly with arrows.

Ga'aoqi took up the life of a warrior, a path suited to his combative temperament. In the final arc, when the shaman Miskwekepu'j calls the fighters of the surrounding tribes together to discuss expelling the Norse from Vinland, Ga'aoqi instead treats the gathering as his opening to strike. He leads a band to plunder the settlers' homes, chasing the rumored sword he means to claim for himself.

Searching one house, he lets a follower keep a small metal knife while he hunts for something far larger. He presses a dying pregnant woman about any big knives, but the language barrier leaves her unable to answer, and when a warrior warns him about catching sickness from the Nords, he shrugs it off, certain a sword matters more. Short on time, he has the home burned and moves on to his next target, where Cordelia stands guarding a doorway. Refusing a warrior's request for a duel, he orders arrows loosed at her, and when she holds her ground even after being struck, he runs her through with a spear. Her lack of reaction convinces him she must be the settlers' strongest fighter, and deciding the house holds no sword worth the danger, he calls off the raid.