Tore

Grey eyes sit beneath chestnut hair that Tore keeps combed flat against his skull, and a narrow goatee frames his mouth. His raiding kit runs to a helmet, a grey shirt worn over darker clothing underneath, plus matching trousers and footwear.

A short fuse governs how he deals with the men around him. When his fellow raiders needle him, he flares up almost instantly, and he would sooner nurse the grudge than let an insult slide past.

Tore marched with the company as it swept through England, taking part in the sack of a farming settlement near Bath. Once the villagers had been put to the sword, the raiders settled in for a feast, and he fell to eating and talking with several others, Ake among them, on the subject of their leader Askeladd.

The friction started when Ake floated the idea that the band was wringing whatever it could from the region before pushing north into the Danelaw. Tore asked why they bothered with small settlements rather than striking a proper town, and Ake brushed the question aside, noting their numbers scarcely topped a hundred. Stung, Tore refused to back down and threw the label of cattle thief at his companion, so the exchange curdled into a formal challenge.

Bjorn caught wind of the brewing fight and, judging it already past the point of talking down, let the pair settle matters themselves, ordering that Askeladd be told should either man fall. Ake's refusal to yield proved fatal: Tore drove his blade clean through his opponent's chest and took the duel.