Aksel Nygard

Aksel Nygard
Social Rank	7
Fealty	Redrain
House	Nygard
Gender	Male
Age	24
Religion	Shamanism
Vocation	Soldier
Height	tall
Hair Color	Dark Brown
Eye Color	Green
Skintone	Fair
Journals
Authored By / Featured In
Active

Description

Broad of shoulder and long of limb, Aksel bears a physique of pronounced musculature and sinew made for violence, his every movement purposeful and precise as though to conserve energy for the perfect strike. A chiseled jaw shrouded in a well-trimmed beard, and mussed dark hair that beckons a lady's fingers, his is a strikingly handsome visage, marred only by the slice of a scar that goes across his left cheek. Gold-flecked green eyes often betray their emotion within, whether it be frightening moments of fury or a boyish zeal for the simple pleasures of Northern life. And when he smiles, a lady must truly beware its roguish charm lest they find their hearts stolen.

Personality

Aksel is the everyman, the common man. Polite, courteous and compassionate, he has simple wants and needs, and says as much. Not to say that he has a soldierly attitude and personality, he would consider himself more a warrior than a soldier. There's honor and pride in what he does, but also the fact that he's never asked, or wanted for that matter, anything else. Like a slumbering bear, he can be jolly and hearty with friends and merciless and rage-fueled with his enemies. The grand events and gallas of the nobility only effect as much as his personal involvement, which thinkfully, isn't much. Much more inclined to stand in the background and be another face in the crowd.

He's never seeked out glory, rather he feels he's just doing his job as a soldier. There's a very aware understand of what he does, and what he does isn't always pleasant and maybe there's a vibe that he feels like if he could set the sword down, and pickup a tool instead, that he would. Grudges and rivalries isn't something he has much time for, nor is what he would call 'political nonsense' that he's usually witness to. No, this is a man who only wants a simple life, but realizes that'll probably not happen for years to come.

Background

Aksel hails from a commoner family Nygard that has been loyal to the Nightgolds for as long as anyone can remember. Like the clan of enterprising shavs so many generations ago, they too bent the knee to Arx and its rulers. The Nygard clan ended up being small, but proud family of miners, which they had done for generations before being brought into the fold of Nightgold. Good work, hard work, but fulfilling work. They worked the mines, were paid decently for their services and really couldn't be asked for much else. They were neither popular or disliked, the Nygards were seem more as a staple and anchor in Stonedeep. So long as a Nygard worked the mines, all would be well. Aksel, in the beginning, barely entering his teen, joined in the family work, taking up the pickaxe like his father, brothers, and ancestors before. In his clan, it was something as priviledge, grateful to the mountain that allowed them to take their bounty from it.

Aksel's life took a turn for the different, the day a tribe of shavs, still unwilling to bend knee and finding the hold of Stonedeep and affront to their way of life, attacked one of the mines worked by the Nightgold. Aksel's father older brothers were there that day, and were killed in the resulting cave-in that ensued, created by the attacking shavs. For all his life, Aksel had intended on just being another miner, an everyman, a common man, and was content with this. But now being the eldest of the family and burning with anger at the family taken from him, he enlisted in the duchy's armies to serve his cause and get his revenge after the tribe led to the collapse of a mine tunnel, entombing his father and eldestborn brothers with in it.

Come to his surprise, his more than anyone else's, he had a knack for combat. It came naturally to him as it did taking a pickaxe to ore. And this talent was picked out by the Nightgolds, one of their elder soldiers having an eye for raw, but bursting talent when she sees it. She took young Aksel under her wing, having him train alongside Nadia and her elder brother Dustin. A rather odd thing to do, which made Aksel nervous to no end, not thinking he should be anywhere near them, but oddly enough, the three of them formed a bond and fast friendship between them.

And so the training and fighting continued, Aksel, somehow making a name for himself as one of the better soldiers in Stonedeep, a point of contention the man always denies, having no want or need for songs sung or ballads told about him. Which really, only endeared him more to common folk of Stonedeep, being his humility and the simple statement that he was only doing his job. It was, and still is, something he hasn't gotten used to, being the center of attention. He's more happy to stand in the background and let the nobles have their fun. His likes are simple ones, such as his hobby of carving jewerly from soapstone.

Years and personal accolades later, Duke Neddim Nightgold goes on one of his "famous walks" that he was known to do and never comes back. Weeks pass, and after enough fretting and worrying, Dustin and a number of other Nightgold family members and soldiers go after him in search and end up missing as well. Some time later, a sack is sent to doors of Stonedeep. Inside the bag is nothing more than a number of severed, frostbitten and bloated hands back with rosegold signet rings. None of them were the duchal ring, which meant there was chance Duke Nightgold still lived, resulting in Princess Nadia to send a war party out for blood and take revenge. She appointed Aksel, her friend, to led that war party, though word is he requested to lead it because of his friendship with Dustin. The shavs, and it was shavs who committed the act, were killed to the man, Aksel as the one who killed their chieftan in single combat, leaving the latter dead and former with a scar on his face for his efforts.

It was to be this story that would be told for some time. Rescuing the Duke Nightgold and avenging the losses of the house, Princess Nadia named Aksel Sword of Stonedeep as a title, and giving him the relic weapon which represented that house. And yes, to this day, Aksel still downplays his involvement. He's just a soldier, even if these days Nadia keeps dragging him along in whatever she happens to get wrapped up in.