The Line of Aesruna

Before the fire that consumed their hall, the House of Aesruna ruled a remote fjord settlement north of Ax Glacier. From its stone longhouse came warriors who carved their names into the ice and women who read the omens that guided them. All of them bore the piercing blue eyes of their line, a sign of their ancient blood. But their power bred a deep and poisonous jealousy in the heart of a neighboring Jarl, a man who watched their prosperity and coveted its heart.

Aesruna was the heart of the northern fjord, a priestess-seer revered in the old way. Her hair was the color of a forge's heart, a banner of the Sight that ran true in her veins, and her eyes were the chilling blue of a winter sky. She wore no collar, for none dared enslave the daughter of a High Jarl or a Seer, until the coming of Falken the Skald. He was a man whose mind was sharper than any axe, and he wove a lie so perfect it became her reality. In a steam-warmed cave, he cut their palms and joined their blood, a false rite that tricked her into surrendering her virginity and, with it, her power. He did not conquer her with strength, but with a single, perfect lie, binding the Veiled One to his will. She became his vessel, his seer, and the mother of his children.

Their children divided her legacy.

The Sons:

• Jarl Haakon Aesrunarsson: The firstborn, who carried his father’s cunning but not the Sight. He became a master strategist, his mind a weapon as sharp as any sword. Forewarned by a chilling vision from his mother, he and his brother were sent away from the fjord before the raid. Haakon survived, rebuilt, and became a Jarl, carrying the Aesruna banner back to the north.

• Leif Falkensson: The second son, a charismatic trader and diplomat. He also lacked the Sight but possessed his father’s silver tongue. He rode south with Haakon, using his wits to secure alliances and trade, helping to found their new northern stronghold.

• Bjorn Aesrunarsson: The youngest son, a warrior of immense strength and simple loyalty. He was his father’s enforcer, the shield of the house. He stood and fought during the Raid of the Burning Fjord, and his axe rose and fell until a crossbow bolt from a Farnacium ship took him in the throat. He was the first sacrifice.

The Daughters:

• Freydis Aesrundottir: The third child, a healer with hair the color of winter sunlight and her mother's piercing blue eyes. She was the gentle soul of the family, her hands meant to mend, not to fight. When the raid came, she was captured, stripped, and sold in the markets of Brundisium. The House of Caius recognized her beauty and the strength of her frame, designating her as breeding stock. She was given to a champion gladiator, a man of brutal power, and in the harsh, violent reality of her new life, she found a dark, unexpected pleasure in her total submission. She would be bred yearly, her children becoming a legacy of their own.

• Sivara Aesrundottir: The fourth child, a seer with her mother’s fiery red hair and chilling blue eyes. The raid was orchestrated by Jarl Eirik of Skarn, a man who wanted Aesruna for himself. He made a pact with Madrin of Farnacium, offering the pirate lord a share of the plunder and the prize of Sivara. Eirik instructed Madrin on the exact ritual needed to claim a seer. After the battle, as the longhouse burned, Eirik personally captured Aesruna, forcing her to watch as his pirate ally took possession of her youngest daughter before dragging his prize away to his fortress of Skarn.

• Ingrid Aesrundottir: The youngest daughter, another blonde with the family's piercing blue eyes. She was not spared by fortune, but by transaction. In the aftermath of the raid, she was given as political fodder to a Scribe of Kassau, a man who valued the bloodline of a fallen house as a curiosity and a bargaining chip. She was companioned to him, her fate a quiet, gilded cage in the city of scrolls. She would have her own brood of children, a mix of blonde and brown hair, but none would inherit the Sight, and the piercing blue eyes of their mother would fade with each passing generation.

The sons carried the Aesruna banner back to the north after the raid; the daughters were scattered, their fates orchestrated by the jealous betrayal of Jarl Eirik, who claimed their mother for himself.

Aesruna the Veiled — Captive of Skarn Her fate was not the markets of the south, but the frozen halls of her enemy. Jarl Eirik dragged her to his fortress, a place of ice and stone. There, he collared her. He forced her to use her Sight for his gain, to find rich veins of ore in the mountains and to predict the movements of his rivals. She who had never worn a collar now lived with one permanently around her throat, a symbol of her fall from a force of nature to a tool in the hands of the man who had destroyed her world.

Freydis Aesrundottir — The Brood-Mare of Brundisium Her fate was sealed in the markets of Brundisium. She lives still as a breeding slave, her beauty famed, her body belonging to the House of Caius. She is bred yearly, her womb a factory for the House of Caius. Her children are all known for their strong northern builds, their blonde hair, and their piercing blue eyes. They are highly prized; her daughters become passion slaves for high-end households, and her sons are trained as strong, formidable gladiators. No red-haired slaves are said to come from Freydis's womb, the seer's blood seemingly extinguished in her line, replaced by the legacy of the healer.

• Tove Roriksdottir: Her daughter, a stubborn girl with blonde hair and blue eyes who was learning the ways of healing under her mother. She escaped the raid that took her mother with a blade in her hand as a terrified young woman fleeing for her life. She was later captured, enslaved by Jarl Anvar of Hrimgar, and then gifted to Abaddon of Brundisium. She is now a devoted bond-maid, with a faint trace of her bloodline’s Sight that manifests only when storms gather. She is unaware that her mother still lives, or that her cousin is Syraen.

• Eirik Roriksson: Her son, a strong boy who was presumed drowned in a river crossing during his youth, a loss that haunts Tove to this day.

Sivara Aesrundottir — The Seer of Farnacium She became the heart of Madrin’s power, her visions guiding his raids to unparalleled success. She was the price paid for her mother's capture. She birthed a brood of sons who rule the Thassa’s lesser coves, and one daughter who would inherit her terrible gift.

• Kael, Roran, and Varric Madrinsson: Her sons, pirates and captains in their own right, who inherited their father’s ruthlessness but not their mother’s Sight.

• Reverie (Syraen) Madrinsdottir: Her youngest daughter, the only one to inherit the full weight of the Sight. Born with red hair and piercing blue eyes, she was trained in secret by her mother. Her visions foretold of a man she would read runes for, a man she would bind herself to for life. Compelled by this fate, she found Tenebris Umbra of Port Kar. Knowing her virginity must be the price, she drugged herself with a mild tincture to dull the pain. She snuck into his room and he performed the palm blood-letting rite and she took him inside her. She submitted to him completely, and now serves as his oracle and pleasure slave in Thentis, her visions steering his ambitions.

Tove Roriksdottir — Bond-Maid of Abaddon She lives a life of service in Brundisium, her past as a healer's apprentice a distant memory. Her devotion to her master, Abaddon, is absolute. Yet, when the sky darkens and the winds turn cold, a strange stillness comes over her, and she can taste the coming storm on the air—a faint, forgotten whisper of the power that runs in her blood. She does not know that her mother still lives, or that her cousin is Syraen.

Reverie Madrinsdottir — Seer of the Southern Seas Now known as Syraen, she is the treasured possession of Tenebris Umbra. She is the perfect seer-slave, her will completely submitted to her master. Yet, in her trances, she sometimes sees things that are not for him. She sees a cold wharf in Brundisium and a bond-maid with her own piercing blue eyes, a flash of shared recognition in the mirror of her mind. She does not know this is her cousin, Tove, a ghost of her own soul in another. The two branches of Aesruna’s line, the healer and the seer, remain divided, unaware of each other, their shared blood a secret held by the sea, their entire story born from the jealous betrayal of a northern Jarl who stole their grandmother and sold their future.