Swain

## Swain Magnuson

* **Name:**Swain Ole Magnuson
* **Position:**Part-time bouncer at Buddy's Bomb Shelter, full-time enforcer and bodyguard to Ma Underberg , head of the Underberg Family. Active Member of the Norse Warriors
* **Metatype:**Troll  (*Homo sapiens ingentis*)
* **Magical Tradition: '**Berserkr' Path of the Warrior (Adept)
* **DOB:**9/15/2056, Ackeley MN UCAS
* **Education:**Walker-Hackensack-Ackeley High School, class of '73.
* **Family:**Roland Magnuson (father, Brainerd MN), Patricia 'Patty' Magnuson (mother, Brainerd MN), Hafthor Magnuson (brother Ackeley MN), Inga Magnuson (sister, Brainerd MN), Bjorn Magnuson (brother, Bemidji MN), Torvald Magnuson (uncle, Walker MN), Ruth [Vidness] Thompson (ex-aunt, Walker MN)

If you asked him, Swain would joke that he moved from out of  Cass County to live in Cass County. Swain Magnuson was born, the youngest of four Magnuson children on the Magnuson's farm outside Akeley MN in Cass County in Minnesota. A third-generation troll and eighth-generation Minnesotan, he grew up on the same farm the Magnusons have worked since they came out to North America from Sweden in 1879.

Swain grew up expecting to work the family farm, which suited his quiet demeanor just fine. He wasn't afraid of hard work and his love of, and ability at, physical labor, even at an early age, had his dad joking that maybe he should have been born as a farmer a couple of hundred earlier before automation. And maybe it would have been better if he had.

In school, his Physical Adept ability was confirmed by a Magical Futures test given by his middle school and began training to take up the Path of the Athlete. His abilities made him a star in local sports and even let his school district raise some extra budget funds by competing in Awakened sports tournaments in the Minnesota's SASA (School Awakened Sports Association), and collecting the trideo broadcast fees.

But while Walker-Hackensack-Ackeley was doing pretty well off of Swain, his family was facing some hard times. Ares Agribusiness out of the Twin Cities had taken an interest in expanding into the Leech Lake area and was driving down prices and pressuring locals to sell out. Most of the Magnusons' neighbors were more than happy to get out of the game and sell out to the Ares buyers. But Roland held out, unwilling to give up the land his ancestors had worked for nearly two hundred years. Even in the face of the financial hardships Ares' monopoly could inflict on hold-outs, he managed to scrape by assisted by the hard work of his children.

Right up until 2071, during Swain's junior year, when Roland had his 'accident'. He was seriously wounded in a tractor accident. Roland wasn't killed, but he was seriously injured and the mounting medical costs forced the family to finally sell the farm to pay the bills. His mom took his sister Inga sister and brother Bjorn to Brainerd to get jobs there, while his brother Hafthor already had a job in the garage in Ackeley. Swain went to live with his uncle Torvald in Walker so he could finish out high school at W-H-A.

His senior year was pretty dramatic. Swain had a good season and was starting to be approached by scouts from the University of Minnesota looking to recruit him. It was also the year that Torvald and Hafthor found some evidence that the tractor accident hadn't been so much of an accident after all. While Torvald and Hafthor debated whether it was worth the risk of acting upon, Swain decided to act.

Swain's attack on the Ares land agent didn't get the farm back, didn't even (quite) kill the land agent, but it was enough to force Swain to go on the run. With his future plans impossible with a criminal SIN, he ran far from Cass County to draw Ares away from his family and found himself washing up in the Red River Valley, in Region 3, in Fargo.  His criminal SIN kept him from finding any legitimate work and out of desperation he ended up doing some bloodsport fights to support himself. He didn't enjoy it, but by God he was good at it.

While competing at 'Open Mike' night in the basement of The Square Round, his fighting caught the eye of Underberg lieutenant Sammy the Squat, he recruited the boy to do some security and strong arm work for him. He also hooked him with some combat trainers in the area (including the founder of the Norse Warriors) to give him training and convert his PhysAd ability to the Path of the Warrior.  The rave assessments of his natural talent and hard work, as well as his talent for discretion, led Sammy, Hamm and Kensington to recommend him to Ma as her new bodyguard. The enormous runesword he carries as a weapon focus was given to him as a gift by Sammy on the day he took the job with Ma's bodyguards. Swain has his questions about the nature of the Underbergs' business, but they've been good to him so far, he enjoys doing a job he's good at and the money he sends back him is useful for his family.

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