Uhtred

Uhtred is the king of the Saxangle petty kingdom of Bebbanburgh, ruling from the town of the same name. He is the father of Osbert, Uhtred the Younger, and the now deceased Stiorra. He is known to have spent some time in Kuronia as a slave and later as part of a punitive military campaign. He is an experienced and feared warrior, and a respected king.

He was sold into slavery when he was young, thanks to the machinations and treachery of his cousin Athelred, and remained a slave for some years. During his first few years as a slave, he was a rower on a Kuronian merchant ship. On this vessel, he traveled extensively around the North and Sunset Seas, though as a slave in chains, he did not experience much of the culture of the places he visited. Finan was his rowing mate on this slave ship and later he became captain of his kingsguard.

Uhtred was captured when the merchant ship was attacked by a Kuronian raider. He won his freedom from the leader of this band of Kuronians by proving his martial abilities in a duel with the leader's son. He served as a swordsman for the leader of the band for a short time before returning to his home in Bebbanburg along with Finan.

Once back in Bebbanburg, Uhtred (now styled Uhtred the Chainbreaker) discovered that his father was dead and his younger brother, styled Uhtred the Unready, was now king. Uhtred the Unready proved to be an incompetent ruler as well as cruel when he arrested Uhtred the Chainbreaker with plans to have him executed. With the help of Finan and his cousin Beornraed the Rude, Uhtred Chainbreaker escaped and eventually overthrew his younger brother.

When Aelfred of Wintanchaester, father to the current King Aethelstan, planned his punitive campaign against the Kuronians, he asked King Uhtred to provide the bulk of the fleet and to be a key leader in the campaign. It is in this conflict that King Uhtred won much of his reputation.

King Uhtred used the wealth gained in the punitive war to launch an invasion of the Kingdom of Lundene to take vengeance on King Aethelred for for selling him into slavery. King Uhtred succeeded in sacking Lundene and burning the town's defenses. In the aftermath, the Kingdom of Lundene fell into an 8 year long civil war.

The dwarf Hael Bebba, leader of the Demon Dwarves, is a sworn enemy of Uhtred and has taken a mighty oath to extinguish Uhtred and all his line and retake the Kingdom of Bebbanburgh.

Uhtred is in his late 40s, and is still muscular and wellbuilt despite his age.

He is descended from Uhtred the Wolf, and Uhtred the Crafty.

He is the first cousin of Aerthos Brightblade, King of Lundene. He is also cousins with Leoffaed, Aerthos's wife and Queen of Lundene, and with Beornraed the Rude, an accomplished warrior and ealdorman of Dunmine.

He and Aerthos Brightblade have recently reformed the Northern Ryk League in the hopes of being better able to defend their kingdoms against the forces of both the hobgoblins and the forces of the dragons.

He is disliked by Eroleth Elory, chieftain of the Wat-Chaka tribe, with whom he is now at war.

He has allowed some Drow refugees, including a matriarch who was mother to Markat the Sexy, to settle in his lands, following by conquest of New Drowla by the hobgoblins and their sympathizers and catspaws.

OOC - Uhtred is likely the father of Solveig Eriksdottir, and likely fathered her during his time in Kuronia. This is not known or suspected by any of the player characters at present, as no PC smart enough has all the necessary information to put it together.