Eskil Frodesson

## Appearance

**Hair**: Ginger (so orange it is almost laughable), shaved on the sides with it being longer and swept to the side on top. Also longer sideburns which he has braided into small braids on either side of his face.

**Skin**: Fair, though often dirty with soot

**Eyes**: Brown

**Height**: 6’3”

**Weight**: 200 lbs

**Markings** (Scars, Tattoo's etc): Has several scars across his body from fights, most notably the ones running up his back and the one through his right eyebrow. Also covered in tattoos of various runes and mythological creatures from the neck down.

## Personality

Gregarious and loud is a good way to sum Eskil up. When he’s not talking he’s either sleeping or eating, though sometimes he speaks even during those moments. He’s brash and uncouth, often deserving to be called a lout. But, damn, he is a good man to have at a party. Often very successful in livening up the space around him.

Though he takes up a lot of space, and ironically enough with his choice of fighting style. Eskil is a very patient man and rather kind one. Exhibiting a tendency to bottle things such as anger and grief up only to then release them in a fight. Effectively losing himself for just a moment in the process.

He is also rather prideful, thus making him meticulous when it comes to his work as a blacksmith. He wants to provide only the best of quality in order to keep his ego intact. As he doesn’t take criticism very well. Still, it is often very hard to conclude what Eskil is actually thinking as he covers most of his emotions with a veil of jokes and laughter. Something not very desirable when it comes to him participating in important decisions.

Still, he’s often charming enough to talk himself out of whatever trouble he finds himself in. Some say it’s a facade he puts up, but what do they know?

## Abilities

* Very proficient with dual axes
* Blacksmith skills
* Ambidextrous
* Has a higher degree of heat resistance due to his profession
* Very physically strong, hours of hammering metal do wonders for arm-strength
* Multilingual to a degree (can find himself a mead hall in at least a couple of languages)

## History

Born number seven out of thirteen children (of which ten survived past infancy), Eskil was named Hilde after his grandmother when he was born. By all accounts his family thought a daughter had been born. It was what it looked like.

Without any modern medicine nor understanding of hormones nor hormonal conditions, Eskil’s family was bewildered when their daughter struck puberty and began developing a beard instead of breasts.

Eskil didn’t mind. He had never paid much thought to it anyway. He was pretty sure that if he’d been cursed he’d be dead by now anyway.

Not seeing any solution, his parents decided it would be best to just raise him as a son. What else could they do? All they had to do was change his name so that he instead was named after his grandfather, Eskil.

So Eskil learned how to fight instead of how to manage the household, tumbling around with his brothers, throwing knives, practicing archery (something he was never very good at, his older brother Björn can attest to this after having an arrow lodged in his arm instead of the target he stood ten feet away from). Being one of the younger sons he wouldn’t inherit anything – and thus when he became of age, he became a mercenary. Inheriting the ocean just like so many of his other brothers.

When not raiding and before even being old enough to go, (having proved to be a very competent and ruthless berserker) Eskil hung around his uncle. Serving as an aid and helping with making the ringlets for chainmail. Slowly learning how to smith and often working on small projects of his own (such as making knives or jewelry) until he was proficient enough to actually start taking on real orders.

But, even though Eskil was by all accounts a man (though the people in his village knew he lacked… certain appendages), he never felt truly accepted. Feeling as if he was regarded as an oddity, never quite taken seriously. The man with the wound of an axe instead of a cock. It was part of why he was eager to go raiding, many of the men he traveled with treated him no differently from anyone else. They held no knowledge of his condition.

When rumors of an expedition was going around, Eskil was one of the first to eagerly jump on it. Sailing to Mosfell in order to set up his own forge and to live without any prejudice. Fully intent on keeping his secret and to live life as he pleased.