Gunnhildr - Outlander Berserker

Gunnhildr was raised in the outreaches of Nordheim, a remote place where villages give way to endless forest and winter’s grasp always takes the souls of the unprepared. The people there whispered of spirits, devils, and the nameless things that watched from between the pines. To most, those tales were warnings. To her, they were family. From the time she could walk she carried something inside her, a rage she did not understand, and the things of the forest did not shun her for it. They knew her as one of their own. The rage first revealed itself in blood. Cornered by raiders, her body broke loose with a strength no girl her age should have had. When she came to, the ground was red and the men were torn as though mauled by some beast. She fled, horrified, but the stories spread all the same. A devil-woman lurked in the woods, they said. A monster dressed in human skin. She learned to live with the fear of others, though never escaped the fear of herself. Years hardened her. She came to see that the thing inside her was not mindless but a weapon, and with enough will it could be steered. She learned to call on it in battle and cage it in times of peace. Still, the aftermath of her fury left scenes no axe alone could carve, and to those who stumbled across the remains she was proof enough of the old legends. In her wake lay men who swore they had faced a devil, and in that belief she found a kind of shield. Few dared follow her trails. Now the self-styled gods that walk among the villages turn their eyes toward her. They see in her a zealous nature, and have bade her to stand at the side of Magnar Nylstrom, as a weapon to be used by their selected chief.