St. Olaf Tryggvason

It was a dark and stormy night on the rocky island just off the North coast of Albion. Sister Brigid handed the squalling child back to his mother. “It is a boy milady.” By the flickering light of the oil lantern, Astrid looked into her newborn son’s dark blue eyes and proclaimed, “His name shall be Olaf, and he will avenge his father’s murder!” Just then both a blinding flash of lightning and a terrific crack of thunder shook the small sod-roofed house, threatening to collapse it around them. They say that was the only time Mjolnir ever missed its target, and Midgard would never be the same.
Olaf grew up on the run, his mother moving them from village to village across the Saxon lands, hiding in churches and monasteries until they were forced to run again. They were pursued by the same man who had killed his father, Harald Greycloak, son of Eirik Bloodaxe. On a voyage to the Western isle, Olaf’s father, Jarl Tryggvi, had seen the power of the new religion that drove the revolution in Gaul and pushed the gods out of Albion. Upon his return, he burned the temple at Trondheim and attempted to force the people of Trondelag to convert. One of the gothis escaped to neighboring Opplandene though, where he told Jarl Eirik what happened. Eirik gathered as many men as he could from the surrounding Jarldoms, and sent them with his son Harald to restore order. Hearing of the approaching army, Triggvi sent Astrid and his own unborn son off to Albion, and the relative safety of the church’s influence there. They made it as far as the Orkneys before Olaf was born, but it was far enough to escape the vengeance of the gods.
As Olaf grew, his mother taught him about his father, and the priests and monks they stayed with taught him the lore of the god of the dead and his lich king son. Eventually Harald was chased out of Albion by the Church, and forced to abandon his quest. This gave Olaf the time he needed to finally focus on his studies. He continued to travel, but now it was to find new teachers and relics to add to his power. By his 18th summer, he had mastered the ways of the death god, learning to subjugate humans to his will, while inspiring them to sacrifice their lives for nothing more than the vague promise of redemption after their death. He started his own cult, and began recruiting followers. Soon he led a small army, and after building a small fleet to carry them, returned to Midgard to finish what his father started.