Grigoriy 'Grishka' Runebreaker

Born the 3rd day of the new year, thirty years ago, in the city-state of Adienne, Grigoriy was born second-son to Valery Stormrage, and his shieldmaiden chosen one, Urzula. Being a small child, his Father taught him to be brave and courageous, not to fear death, but to pray for a glorious death… Valery also taught his sons that Adienian are a proud people, hardened by their ways of life, yet passionate and both love and hate fiercely. They protect what's theirs to the death.

Grishka took to the sea like it was born to him… yet inside, he knew his place was on the ground. Sent with the raiding ships, his father carried the family runes, always adding to the stories it told. Glorius tales of cowardice and a village obliterated by treachery was the downfall to Valery Stormrage…

For after harsh youthful years of sailing and raiding living by the inscriptions of the family runes, Grisha discovers, in a foreign land no less, the falsifications relating to his family’s honor and the cowardly acts in battle committed by his own Father...

Returning to Adienne, his own exploits tarnished by paternal cowardice and lies, his brothers, older and younger, killed in battle in those truth-revealing lands, his mother having hung herself… and his younger sisters taken from their home.

In rage, summoned from deep within, he confronted his father, and engaged in a fight to the death, in the public square. Though wounded, and almost defeated, he summoned the pain of his shame, his sister’s disappearance, his mother’s suicide, and his brothers’ deaths… and reformed it into rage, a bloodlust… to become a berserker, hell-bent to reclaim honor; not only killing his father, but mutilating his father’s body in public.

Then summoning his familial rune, he wields his father’s axe and he smashes the century-old runestone that held familial dishonor and cowardice. Vowing publicly, reclaiming honor and never to shy away from danger, nor run from enemy, “Bol’She Nikogda” *Never again*. Became the family’s new motto. His new banner displayed a broken rune, and an axe buried in it.

Years passed, and in time, his runestone would begin to tell soties of bravery, victories at sea and on land. Grishka would learn from foreign lands, raiding but not subduing, taking not only gold and silver, but scrolls and manuscripts, and men to teach him.

Not long after arriving in Kar-Ness, he met a man, oddly dressed named Eirik Orrinson, a man of the Fells… Grishka and Eirik became quick friends. Eirik impressed by Grishka's fighting skills, the odd sword, and by his willingness to avoid killing. Grishka was impressed by Eirik’s leadership skills and charisma. Their time together discussing family and lands only strengthens their bond, and they view each other as equals.

But both had no family, and it was hard to prepare for the future with no one to share it with or pass on what he had earned and learned.