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Description

Name: Arnbjörg Arnardóttir
Born: June 8, 965; Tønsburg, Norway
Died: November 3, 1030; Tønsburg, Norway (age 65)
Allegiance: Assassins

Bio: Arnbjörg was born on a Norse pagan farm to a family of 8. The eldest of her siblings, she was her father's most beloved child, and was the first to be taught how to fight, worship, and farm. She was often well-mannered, but knew how to get rough and dirty if she needed to. Well-respected, living a decent countryside life, and having all she could ask for, Arnbjörg was content, and it seemed things would remain that way, which she took no issue with. However, things turned sour. In 975, the new king of Norway, Haakon Sigurdarson, took the throne after his predecessor, Harald Bluetooth, was defeated in battle by Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. While not an unjust king, he did have certain habits that left a lot to be desired, the most heinous being his love of kidnapping women from his lands and using them as concubines. This was a tragedy that befell Arnbjörg when she was 16. The king’s men raided her family farm and killed everyone except for her, and she watched her home burn through tear-filled eyes as they marched her away in chains.

She spent a year mourning in misery and losing all hope until one day she prayed to the gods in desperation, asking for a way out of this torture and a chance to make a difference. And to her surprise, her prayers were answered that night when a hooded man snuck into the king’s chambers and rescued her and many other concubines, rushing them to safety. Arnbjörg refused to leave his side as the others ran to their homes, however. She felt she owed this strange man, a skald named Thorvald Hjaltason, and asked him what drove him to such charity. He explained that he was a part of a Brotherhood, known now as the Assassins, that was dedicated to preserving humanity's freedom and good will. Seeing the girl had many questions and that she wouldn't leave unless they were answered, he took her to Sweden, where she was introduced to the Assassin Mentor, a wise old pagan priest named Torgny the Lawgiver. The Lawgiver took a liking to her spirit, and offered her a chance to join them and make a difference, as she had prayed. Needless to say, Arnbjörg gladly accepted.

As the months of training went on, Arnbjörg learned of the Assassin ways and their war against the Templar Order, a group dedicated to controlling humanity for what they saw as the greater good. Arnbjörg, looking for a chance at revenge, naturally asked about King Haakon. She was disappointed to hear he was not a Templar, but that the Assassins still held bitterness towards him just as they did with his Templar predecessor, Bluetooth. Bluetooth fled the Battle of Fýrisvellir in 985, and had unwittingly left behind a Piece of Eden which granted him his power over the Kingdom of Denmark. Seeing this open vulnerability, the Assassins sent Arnbjörg to assassinate the coward king the following year during a rebellion led by the king's son Sweyn.

Her chance at revenge finally came in 995, when rebellion broke out in Norway due to the people being fed up with Haakon’s sexual tendencies. The king hid in a pigsty with his slave Tormod Kark, who gave away their position to the vengeful Assassin in hopes of making it out alive. She killed Haakon, and marched out with his head with Kark. However, Arnbjörg’s vengeance came at a price. The rebels had accepted Olaf Tryggvason as their new king, and unbeknownst to Arnbjörg, his reign would be characterized by tyrannical, brutal, and forceful conversions to Christianity on threat of extreme torture. One man even had a live snake shoved down his throat for refusing to convert. Overrun with guilt for letting her personal vendetta bring ruin to her country, Arnbjörg devoted her life to bringing down Olaf and the Templars that he welcomed into his court.

In 999, she took to the seas when she heard that one of Olaf’s hirds, Leif Erikson, had heard reports of a mysterious land to the west of Greenland. Olaf, believing this land the location of a Piece of Eden, arranged for Erikson to travel across the Atlantic and establish a small settlement there in order to foindl this relic of the gods. Arnbjörg followed behind, cloaked by the fog, until the Vikings reached the place they called Vinland and set up a small town. Arnbjörg recovered the Piece of Eden before the Templar spies could, and she rushed back across the sea with it, dropping it into the ocean halfway back to Scandinavia. In September 1000, Arnbjörg finally received her chance to put an end to the Templar king once and for all at the Battle of Svolder, which featured a bloody battle between the two that ended in her victory. The Templar was replaced by Sweyn Forkbeard, the same one that helped bring down Bluetooth over a decade prior. The brief couple years of peace that followed allowed Arnbjörg to settle down with a gentleman whom she fancied and start a little family on a farm.

Changing tactics, the Templars looked to England for a way to fight Assassin influence amongst the Viking realm. In November 1002, the English king Æthelred the Unready was convinced to lead a massacre against the Danish inhabitants of England, knowing the Assassins wouldn't stand for innocent bloodshed and prompting a war. King Sweyn led his armies alongside Thorkell the Tall in an invasion of England that went on for years. Despite Thorkell betraying the Vikings, the conquest was ultimately successful and Sweyn was made king of England in 1013, though he died five weeks later. Sweyn’s son Cnut became king of England afterwards, and his rule was solidified when Arnbjörg killed King Æthelred and his son Edmund in 1016. So caught up in the English distraction, Arnbjörg failed to see the rising threat back in Norway, with a Templar faction led by a supporter of Olaf Tryggvason, Olaf Haraldsson, taking power. Arnbjörg rallied beside Cnut and the peasantry that rallied against the Templar king in what would become known as the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Their victory averted yet another threat, but it left the aged Arnbjörg with a wounded leg that she would never fully recover from. And thus she laid down her blades and returned to her family farm, where she passed away in her sleep, leaving behind a Scandinavia that would continue to be plagued by wars and converts as the Viking Age was drawing its final breaths at the sword edge of Christian kings.

Arnbjörg is an ancestor of Ava Arlie.

Description

Name: Arnbjörg Arnardóttir
Born: June 8, 965; Tønsburg, Norway
Died: November 3, 1030; Tønsburg, Norway (age 65)
Allegiance: Assassins

Bio: Arnbjörg was born on a Norse pagan farm to a family of 8. The eldest of her siblings, she was her father's most beloved child, and was the first to be taught how to fight, worship, and farm. She was often well-mannered, but knew how to get rough and dirty if she needed to. Well-respected, living a decent countryside life, and having all she could ask for, Arnbjörg was content, and it seemed things would remain that way, which she took no issue with. However, things turned sour. In 975, the new king of Norway, Haakon Sigurdarson, took the throne after his predecessor, Harald Bluetooth, was defeated in battle by Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. While not an unjust king, he did have certain habits that left a lot to be desired, the most heinous being his love of kidnapping women from his lands and using them as concubines. This was a tragedy that befell Arnbjörg when she was 16. The king’s men raided her family farm and killed everyone except for her, and she watched her home burn through tear-filled eyes as they marched her away in chains.

She spent a year mourning in misery and losing all hope until one day she prayed to the gods in desperation, asking for a way out of this torture and a chance to make a difference. And to her surprise, her prayers were answered that night when a hooded man snuck into the king’s chambers and rescued her and many other concubines, rushing them to safety. Arnbjörg refused to leave his side as the others ran to their homes, however. She felt she owed this strange man, a skald named Thorvald Hjaltason, and asked him what drove him to such charity. He explained that he was a part of a Brotherhood, known now as the Assassins, that was dedicated to preserving humanity's freedom and good will. Seeing the girl had many questions and that she wouldn't leave unless they were answered, he took her to Sweden, where she was introduced to the Assassin Mentor, a wise old pagan priest named Torgny the Lawgiver. The Lawgiver took a liking to her spirit, and offered her a chance to join them and make a difference, as she had prayed. Needless to say, Arnbjörg gladly accepted.

As the months of training went on, Arnbjörg learned of the Assassin ways and their war against the Templar Order, a group dedicated to controlling humanity for what they saw as the greater good. Arnbjörg, looking for a chance at revenge, naturally asked about King Haakon. She was disappointed to hear he was not a Templar, but that the Assassins still held bitterness towards him just as they did with his Templar predecessor, Bluetooth. Bluetooth fled the Battle of Fýrisvellir in 985, and had unwittingly left behind a Piece of Eden which granted him his power over the Kingdom of Denmark. Seeing this open vulnerability, the Assassins sent Arnbjörg to assassinate the coward king the following year during a rebellion led by the king's son Sweyn.

Her chance at revenge finally came in 995, when rebellion broke out in Norway due to the people being fed up with Haakon’s sexual tendencies. The king hid in a pigsty with his slave Tormod Kark, who gave away their position to the vengeful Assassin in hopes of making it out alive. She killed Haakon, and marched out with his head with Kark. However, Arnbjörg’s vengeance came at a price. The rebels had accepted Olaf Tryggvason as their new king, and unbeknownst to Arnbjörg, his reign would be characterized by tyrannical, brutal, and forceful conversions to Christianity on threat of extreme torture. One man even had a live snake shoved down his throat for refusing to convert. Overrun with guilt for letting her personal vendetta bring ruin to her country, Arnbjörg devoted her life to bringing down Olaf and the Templars that he welcomed into his court.

In 999, she took to the seas when she heard that one of Olaf’s hirds, Leif Erikson, had heard reports of a mysterious land to the west of Greenland. Olaf, believing this land the location of a Piece of Eden, arranged for Erikson to travel across the Atlantic and establish a small settlement there in order to foindl this relic of the gods. Arnbjörg followed behind, cloaked by the fog, until the Vikings reached the place they called Vinland and set up a small town. Arnbjörg recovered the Piece of Eden before the Templar spies could, and she rushed back across the sea with it, dropping it into the ocean halfway back to Scandinavia. In September 1000, Arnbjörg finally received her chance to put an end to the Templar king once and for all at the Battle of Svolder, which featured a bloody battle between the two that ended in her victory. The Templar was replaced by Sweyn Forkbeard, the same one that helped bring down Bluetooth over a decade prior. The brief couple years of peace that followed allowed Arnbjörg to settle down with a gentleman whom she fancied and start a little family on a farm.

Changing tactics, the Templars looked to England for a way to fight Assassin influence amongst the Viking realm. In November 1002, the English king Æthelred the Unready was convinced to lead a massacre against the Danish inhabitants of England, knowing the Assassins wouldn't stand for innocent bloodshed and prompting a war. King Sweyn led his armies alongside Thorkell the Tall in an invasion of England that went on for years. Despite Thorkell betraying the Vikings, the conquest was ultimately successful and Sweyn was made king of England in 1013, though he died five weeks later. Sweyn’s son Cnut became king of England afterwards, and his rule was solidified when Arnbjörg killed King Æthelred and his son Edmund in 1016. So caught up in the English distraction, Arnbjörg failed to see the rising threat back in Norway, with a Templar faction led by a supporter of Olaf Tryggvason, Olaf Haraldsson, taking power. Arnbjörg rallied beside Cnut and the peasantry that rallied against the Templar king in what would become known as the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Their victory averted yet another threat, but it left the aged Arnbjörg with a wounded leg that she would never fully recover from. And thus she laid down her blades and returned to her family farm, where she passed away in her sleep, leaving behind a Scandinavia that would continue to be plagued by wars and converts as the Viking Age was drawing its final breaths at the sword edge of Christian kings.

Arnbjörg is an ancestor of Ava Arlie.