Bodil Garðr

Skald Bodil Garðr never intended to become a military commander. She was quite content proselytizing about the end of the world, sharing her stories of doom so success- fully that she was deemed a threat to the city of Solheim. But her exile—supposedly an honor—from Solheim has only furthered her devotion to the Røkkva religion. She wants to hasten the end of the world, and as commander of Cold Iron Keep, she’s been unwittingly handed the tools to further those goals.
Commander Garðr was an accomplished skald with a fair hand at runesmithing before she was assigned her current position. As she began interviewing the inmates kept in Cold Iron Keep, she contemplated how she could bind them to her will, sending them out on missions, nominally to stop Thrull’s invasion of Kandar. Putting criminals to use, supposedly helping them to rehabilitate themselves, appealed to Queen Andrea Helsing, who has put more funds into Bodil’s research.
Bodil is a tall woman with rich walnut skin and a knifebright smile. She wears her long hair in a complicated pattern of intertwined braids; these are, themselves, a rune working, granting her a protective aura. She dresses simply, carrying with her a shield and baton that double as a percussion instrument as needed— she’s perfected a metal-drumming technique that allows her to accompany herself in the skaldic tradition, should the need arise. A full hird of one hundred soldiers serve at Bodil’s command, giving Bodil the rank equivalent to a hersir in the Mithran military structure. These soldiers are on rotation, as with the rest of the military, as no Varangus have volunteered to serve at the keep.
This suits Bodil, given that she means to keep her full plans for the inmates a secret. Twelve scholars and mages also serve at Cold Iron Keep, including runesmith Tove av Eikenbu, a Clan Mithra convert to the Røkkva. While Tove is the only one to fully understand Bodil’s plans, the rest have enthusiastically taken up the problems of maintaining the dangerous inmates, including what might be required to use them in the field. The team is preparing to send their captives on their first mission, a result that will either further protect Kandar—or bring the apocalypse one day closer.