Gorm

Well into his later years, Gorm carries the look of an aging landholder. His hair falls a touch past the shoulders, and a sharply tapered beard finishes off the face.

Coin sits at the center of Gorm's world, and he insists that simply gazing at gold warms a man's spirit. Whenever someone slips up, his first instinct is to tally the cost of the blunder out loud rather than deal with the error itself. He is bound to Askeladd by blood, standing as the raider's uncle.

Gorm is first shown seated with Askeladd inside his hall, working out the expense of housing and feeding the mercenary's company. Once Askeladd promised the payment, the lord grinned and admitted that was exactly what he had hoped to hear, then confessed his fondness for gold when pressed. He called on his slave Hordaland to fetch fine German wine, needing to repeat the order because she had not been paying attention. Curious about her odd name, Askeladd remarked that it resembled a region up in Norway, and Gorm explained that she had belonged to a noble family from that area before a lost war left her to be sold, after which he bought her.

When Thorfinn turned up itching for a fight, Gorm was asked to serve as the witness. He presided over the resulting bout between Thorfinn and Askeladd out in the open. At the feast later that evening, Hordaland let food fall to the floor, and the enraged lord lashed her with a whip while demanding whether she grasped the price of what she had wasted. He afterward ordered her to carry a meal out to Thorfinn, who had chosen to stay behind guarding the ship.