Brynjar Ketilsson
Stonespeaker of Ostenvik Brynjar Ketilsson
A veteran merchant and former caravan captain, Brynjar rose through the Guild Council with blood, deals, and sheer survivability. He’s not liked, but he’s respected—and unlike most politicians, he still walks the Throat Trail twice a year “to remember who feeds who.” Gruff, pragmatic, and immovably stubborn, he’s ruled for over a decade with a tight grip and a dry sense of humor.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Brynjar was born in 453 HE, the youngest of five in a dirt-poor hauler’s family just outside the Throat Trail’s mouth. His father died in a cart collapse, and his mother held their family together with frostbitten hands and bartered pride. Brynjar didn’t inherit much but hunger, grit, and the lesson that no one remembers second place.
By sixteen, he’d joined a trade caravan hauling salt and ore from the mines to the coast—first as a pack runner, then a scout, and eventually as captain. He earned a reputation for never losing a load, even when faced with avalanches, frost wolves, or bandit tolls. His caravan routes became the standard, and for nearly two decades he was known across Skolna as "The Bastard of the Trail"—a name earned for both his stubborn survival and his scorched-earth response to betrayal.
He settled in Ostenvik in 488 HE, using his savings to buy into the Merchant Guild, then forced his way into the Guild Council through raw reputation and some well-timed debt recalls. When the Stonespeaker seat opened in 490 HE, no one dared oppose him. None have since.
Now in his early 50s, Brynjar still walks the Throat Trail twice a year—not for glory, but to remind himself of where he came from, and what weakness looks like. He governs with a hand like a vise and a tongue like an axe. He's not a warm man, nor a kind one—but under his rule, Ostenvik has weathered storms, guild infighting, and worse with its walls—and its pride—intact.
Rumor says he keeps a blood-soaked satchel in his study. Some say it's a bandit's ear from his caravan days. Others say it's a contract he’s never fulfilled—because when he does, someone important dies.
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