Meet the Blodvins

Despite spending numerous allowances and Subway paychecks keeping TSR solvent I didn’t actually play a lot of D&D back in my youth. In high school I only had one regular group and it was regular in the way that Halley’s Comet is. I did spend a lot of time by myself creating characters, adventures, inns and dungeons and then playing through them myself so that when I got to play I was well prepared. As a result the fluff has always been really important to me. Why am I posting about this? Well…

1 – Working on a Saturday for me involves doing something, waiting 20 minutes for Unigraphics to do what I told it to, doing something else, waiting 20 minutes for Unigraphics to do what I told it to, etc. So I need something to do (thank the lord for multi core processors)

2 – Halvard needs more backstory!

I’ve been toying with the idea of future characters all being related to each other. They’re all part of the great Blodvin clan. So I figured I’d start with telling you the story of how the Blodvins got their name.

It is known that Cheliax was a mighty empire before the fall of Aroden. Only the most bold raiders dared to harrow her coast in these times. Oddløg Frothisen was one such raider. He is not mentioned in King Hrolf’s saga although he made his name sailing in that great fleet and it was Hrolf’s blessing that gave him the name Blodvin.

I’m sure you all know the story of when Hrolf matched wits with the Pharaoh of Osirion and won the Sapphire Scarab. How can you not? It’s told to all true northern children from birth! After this Rolf decided to raid the wine lands of Cheliax as the sands of Osirion had made his crew parched.

In those days, before the rise of the Cheliafornia region, the best wines came from the hills just in from the coast of Gemcrown Bay. This is where Lord Wiglaf had his hold.* The Wiglaf family was a small but wealthy one due to the fine vintages that their land produced. The first Lord Wiglaf had chosen three bunches of green grapes on an earth brown field as their crest. This was to remind them of the source of their fortune and what they are entrusted to protect. Southern men care about these types of fiddlesticks.

The Wiglafs were no legendary house but did not lack might either. Their watchmen and skryier had seen Hrolf’s fleet long before they landed aground. Wiglaf caught the Ulfen by surprise at the foot of the hills. Their great charge nearly broke the northmen but for one man they may have won that day.

That man was Oddløg Frothisen who, blessed by Gorum, slew the Lord Wiglaf and his sons Edward and Burgred, ending the house of Wiglaf. Leaderless Wiglaf’s men fled like the curs they were, leaving behind their lands to the Ulfen horde. From that day Oddløg became known as Blodvin, Bloodwine in the Ulfen tongue.

King Rolfe and his men drank and feasted for a week at Lord Wiglaf’s hold. Out of gratitude Rolfe gave Oddløg the ship Ragnfrid. Rangnfrid as you know was the linorm Rolfe killed to become King. The ship’s Rormann had been killed that day. He also gave him Wiglaf’s daughter for a salt wife. Since this day all sons of Oddløg have taken the name Blodvin, worn a blood red bunch of grapes on their armor, and praised Gorum for all the wealth and glory his Lord in Iron has given them.

*Don’t use Google to look up Mercia in an effort to steal Viking period British names. You’ll only get America as ‘Merica jokes.