Tsar Halfdan Karloving

"I will never forget when a messenger ran to tell me that my father was dead. But I knew I must swallow my grief, because now I was king. I rode down into the ruins of the imperial camp to take their banner as a trophy, my inheritance won by my father and passed down to me. Oh, some of the boyars were insubordinate. But I have since showed them that I am master." - Tsar Halfdan Karloving

Tsar

Halfdan Karloving is the head of the House Karloving, and Tsar of the Vaegirs.
Halfdan marched with his father, Tsar Vadinslav, alongside the Battanians and Vlandians to confront the Calradic Empire after the fading of the lights of Mt. Aethelstan. In the battles that followed, Vadinslav was killed as the Vaegirs fought the 8th Imperial Legion and overwhelmed their camp. However, Halfdan did not participate in the frontline, having been ordered by his father to stay back. Upon receiving word of his father’s death, Halfdan claimed one of the Empire’s Dragon Banners as his father’s trophy and thus his inheritance, but the Boyar Olek the Old refused, breaking the banner staff and throwing it at his Prince. Halfdan was further enraged by what he perceived as cowardice from Caladog of the Battanians for ambushing the imperials instead of fighting them directly.
Harsh and uncompromising, he believes that it is the right of the Tsar to command the Boyars in all things, not just in making war. For the time being they obey him, not least for his ability to call on the kinsmen of his mother, a Nordic princess with ties to the fearsome Skolderbrotva mercenary company. He has had ambitions to invade South, and control all the coasts of the Nordic Sea. Active hostilities have recently broken out, with raiding armies attempting to pillage the lands around the city of Caprera, necessitating an Imperial backlash in the region, and threatening his hold on power. Halfdan needs a victory to secure his place as Tsar against his rivals.

Ruled Locations

• Balgard