Tornbjorg Magnüs

**Tornbjorg Magnüs** is the current head of the Magnüs family and the leader of the Nýr Aldur Tribe, a tribe of mages that worshiped the goddess Sol from Norse Mythology. Possibly the strongest pyromancer in the Physical Realm of Earth, Tornbjorg's adventures have led her to becoming a formidable mage and warrior, her flames reaching the level of Dominion, a rarity in the world of magi. She has fought and defeated humans and monsters both in the Physical and Border Realms. Becoming the Matriarch of her family and tribe is the latest adventure in her life, with the challenge of reconciling with her son the untamed beast in this rigorous journey.

## Background

Tornbjorg comes from the Magnüs family, a family that has acted as the head for the Nýr Aldur tribe for centuries. The Nýr Aldur was a rare tribe made mostly of mages. They worship Sol as their primary goddess out of the Norse pantheon. The tribe was among those who first traveled across the sea to settle Iceland.

Tornbjorg’s ancestor led the tribe in their search for a place to settle and ended up coming across one of the border zones. A forest that was filled with magical creatures and features, including hot springs with mystical effects that the tribe would end up settling in. Seeing the other tribes and the damage they were doing to the landscape they decided to protect at least this mystical area. Together the families cast a large barrier that concealed the forest, making it look like a barren area not worth the effort of settling. As time went on they added on more spells to ensure that none would be able to accidentally stumble upon the area either.

So they built up a largely self-sufficient community, only making a small clearing to live in rather than ridding the entire area of forest like the other tribes were doing elsewhere. They have continued to live the old ways in this hidden land and the Magnüs have remained as the head family. When the Grand Order of Magi reached Iceland they steadfastly remained on their own course, the Order, in turn, decided to dismiss them as a tribe of savages which led to a tense but peaceful relationship.

Tornbjorg was chosen over her younger brother as the next head of the family due to him not taking the training their mother gave them very seriously. Lýra held nothing back in preparing her daughter to become the next head of the family, the Magnüs are expected to not only be mages but also leaders and warriors. Her body was pushed to its limits every day and a normal individual would have broken under the training but Tornbjorg found it exhilarating. One time her mother brought her to a small island that had many hostile magical creatures on it and told her she would be back to pick her up in a month. By the time Lýra returned, which was actually a year later rather than a month, the residents of the island had learned to fear her daughter and their interactions had been reduced to leaving offerings for her.

After this Tornbjorg was given more and more independence to do and travel as she pleased. Even as a teenager, she was a force to be reckoned with, almost nothing she came across naturally could really compare to the training her mother had put her through. She made friends and enemies alike in her many adventures across the magical world with some older mages comparing it to her mother’s own years of adventure as the Blazing-Eyed Bear.

Tornbjorg was fearless and eager, always willing to go for a fight and ready for any challenge. Some but not all of her adventures are: dueling over honor with an Aprosopi warrior, fighting in a Snake Tong arena to get back a family heirloom for one of her friends, allowing herself to be taken by human traffickers so she could find and free their victims, interfering with magical crime groups in Scandinavia which has left her on several hit lists to this day, and saving the heir to a prominent magus lineage from assassination. Her magnum opus would come around the end of her days of independent adventuring when she single handedly saved a border realm settlement from an evil dragon.

It would be during one of these grand adventures that she would meet her future husband. She had been seeking out an opponent that could challenge her strength and managed to convince a giant in a border realm to agree to a sparring match. By coincidence, Dagur had been conducting some research in this area and would be in for a bit of a surprise when a giant suddenly stumbled into his area with a young woman who had somehow managed to get it into a chokehold.

Once Tornbjorg won she did introduce herself but didn’t think much of the meeting at the time, he was just another magus researching one thing or another, not an unusual sight by any means. However as if by fate the two of them would continue to cross paths again and again. Every time they met they got to know each other better and sometimes one of them would even help the other out of a sticky situation. After many of these meetings, Tornbjorg had grown attracted to him and also respected his power that could even keep up with her so they started a relationship.

They ended up marrying soon enough, a couple of years after she had Kal, and then a few years after that Astrid was born. Shortly after Kal was born, Lýra announced her retirement as family head now that she had a grandchild and passed on the position of family and tribe head to Tornbjorg. The responsibilities of running the tribe and raising children essentially ended her years of adventuring. She couldn’t go around battling magical beasts for weeks when she had babies to raise and a community to manage.

When it came to raising her children, Tornbjorg was a mother who pushed her children hard. It wasn’t because of ill will or anything, that was just the way her mother raised her and Tornbjorg had never minded. At most, she felt the same way a normal child would when they get scolded for something they don’t think is wrong. Actually she was somewhat ‘soft’ when it came to training her kids, at least in comparison to her mother. Even so, it involved things like combat training that would draw blood and having them react to life-or-death situations like falling from a cliff.

Unfortunately, she would not realize how unusual her way of mothering is until her son left the tribe and became distant from his family. He left due to both the harsh training and believing the tribe to be moving backward rather than forward. since this event, she has been trying to become more typically motherly and reconnect with him but it has proven to be somewhat of a challenge.

## Personality

Tornbjorg has been significantly mellowed out since her younger years by responsibility and experience. Even so, she can still be a rather stubborn and hot-headed individual at times. While not as easy to trigger as in her youth she still has a relatively short temper. Anyone who’s ever properly met or lived with her can testify they would never want to be on the receiving end of her furious glare.

Combat is where she is happiest and feels the most natural, being able to trade blows without thinking of anything else. Battle is an almost surefire way to get her excited and she will rarely if ever turn down a challenge. She prefers to face worthy foes but due to her strength, she has gotten used to fighting opponents weaker than her as well and can usually content herself with that as long as the battle isn’t completely underwhelming. She has pride as a warrior and generally fights straightforwardly, abiding by any expected rules of engagement if that’s applicable.

The only exception to her love for battle is going against subversive opponents. She doesn’t care if someone wants to plan around or ambush her, that’s fine. What she doesn’t like going up against are opponents who insist on constantly using tricks or not even properly confronting her. Martial artist assassins using hit-and-run, illusionists, those who don’t follow any agreed-upon rules, etc. These opponents are more frustrating to her and she generally just tries to get the battle over with quickly. She also dislikes cowardice, not people who recognize her superior strength and make a tactical retreat but those who try to face her only to run away in terror. Cowards are generally met with contempt rather than anger.

Tornbjorg thinks of herself as amongst the strongest of modern humanity. This is part of why she enjoys testing her power, it allows her to confirm if that’s true or not. She won’t boast about it 24/7 or anything but she’s happy to mention it if it comes up. She tries not to be arrogant but at the same time has no intention of being unnecessarily humble about her might and accomplishments.

With most people, she is straight to the point but not overly or purposely rude unless she sees the other person as deserving it. She simply doesn’t like it when people beat around the bush instead of saying what they need to say, wasting time for pleasantries. Although if she is in a particularly bad mood for some reason she can sometimes end up indulging in some rudeness, especially if you’re not someone she really cares about.

She regrets how things have gone with her son and wonders if maybe she might have done something different. As a mage she shouldn’t care too much, after all her daughter is the primary heir to the family and keeps in fairly regular contact while attending her lessons with the Grand Order of Magi. As a mother and a person though she wishes to have a whole and happy family. She has become more typically motherly since then because of that but still has issues with how to reconnect with Kal. She feels he does deserve his space if he needs it, after all she wasn’t exactly at home much herself at his age, and the times they have met recently she has been unable to properly express her full feelings on the matter usually only revealing her frustration which comes off as confrontational rather than her looking for a reunion.

## Abilities

**Physical Capabilities**

Tornbjorg’s strength and speed have been improved continuously over decades of training and combat experience. She is an absolute monster when it comes to physical ability and is considered by some to have the most raw strength out of modern humanity. Certainly, she at least comes close to the limit of what modern humans can achieve and is able to perform extraordinary feats. She could reliably win against many magical beasts with only Glima and has proven that even a dragon’s scales cannot stand up to repeated blows from her fists.

**Glima**

An ancient martial art from Scandinavia that the Magnüs family has continued to practice for generations. It contains techniques for grappling, striking, footwork, armed combat, and mounted combat. It is a martial art that was used in war and by many of the gods that the Nýr Aldur are devoted to. She is a very skilled practitioner in all of its aspects.

**Magic**

The Magnüs family has long sought to imitate their goddess and devote all of their magic to the principle of the sun. This trait of theirs makes Tornbjorg possibly the current strongest mortal pyromancer. The fire of the Magnüs family is so intense that just casting it may very well be a death sentence for lower magi, they themselves are resistant to extreme temperatures which they claim is a blessing from their goddess that has been passed down ever since the first Magnüs in the mythic era, some others theorize they simply modified themselves and it has become part of the bloodline but it results in the same thing and can't be proven either way.

With this magic she can shine healing rays of light, create barriers of flame and light, surge her burning mana through her body which both generates flames around her body and enhances her physical capabilities even further, shape melee weapons, fly by using the flames similar to a rocket, or simply fire off blasts and projectiles of flame.

**Svallin Fall**

A Dominion that Tornbjorg unlocked through mastering the Magnüs magic and its principle of the sun. The epitome of her magic, her goddess, and her warrior spirit. She named it after the legendary shield that was said to be attached to the front of Sol’s chariot. If the shield were to fall from its position then mountains and seas would burn which is exactly what Svallin Fall looks like. Upon activation, all of Tornbjorg’s surroundings immediately catch fire creating a seemingly endless blaze. Just the heat from its activation would be enough to kill any sleeper unfortunate enough to be in the area and even mages will need appropriate defenses. On top of that Tornbjorg can control all of the fire in this dominion at will, any fire she pulls away from its source is quickly replaced by more which gives her an essentially infinite source of fire to do as she pleases with. She can also cause the fire to have traits it usually wouldn’t such as granting it the form of an intelligent creature, burning magical energy itself, and stopping it from burning specific people or not burning at all. Whether launching a rain of fiery arrows, creating constructs, or just blasting her opponent with a huge wave of fire she has immense power within this dominion.