Annar

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

Annar is a young volot who has of late come from the eastern shores of the Western Sea. He is a lean giant, nearly 11 feet tall, with long, dark blond hair, green eyes, and very fair skin. Annar is driven by wanderlust, justice, honor, and a desire to make a name for himself, though he has found that real life diverges from the ideals sung about by his people. Annar is brave to the point of foolhardiness, though when facing resistance, he has been known to be cavalier with heroic ideals. Like many of his people, he also has trouble turning down a drink.
While living somewhere among the kurgans on the steppe, his people. were contracted by the Grand Prince of Galinda to be his shock troops. When Annar was still young, they came north to enter his service, and to help him build his cavalry. While moving about the country, Annar learned of an island in the Western Sea that was a cult center of the old gods (which the Grand Prince's family still reveres). The cult center was destroyed by the Ritterheim Knights - the Grand Prince's enemies from the north.
Annar was interested enough in this story to solicit his patrons to get him a boat, so he could visit the island. The cult center, the standing stones, all of it was indeed destroyed and desecrated. He spent the night there to gain insight, and at that time, the thunder god Perkons came to him in a dream. He told Annar that there was a single survivor of the priestly clan named Druvvaldis, who managed to escape the carnage, and went east, to seek out help among those who still followed the old ways. Perkons also told him that there, in the east, would the great drama of the old gods conclude, or perhaps they would rise again. And there the future of the bogatyrs, mostly destroyed during the Kochmak invasion, would be decided.
The next day, Annar rowed back to the mainland, sought blessing from your family and the Prince, and set out in search of Druvvaldis. At first, you met with no success (plus, people feared him, and didn't tell him much). But deep in the woods, at the boundary between Galindy and Noriki lands, he met an old crone who said that she had seen him, and that he was headed toward the lands ruled by the Prince of Radomysl. So he continued your journey eastward. Every so often, Annar would run into someone who claimed that he saw a person with grey hair, and a raven atop his shoulders - the image put in his mind by Perkons. Despite multiple false starts and dead ends, he pressed on, until you came upon a boar corpse on the banks of the Vydra River. While attempting to salvage the carcass for food, he met Druvvaldis and his companions - Plamen and Chonkorchuk. After telling him that they also followed the old gods, and were on a quest for one of them, Annar briefly joined his fortune to theirs.
He followed his new allies to a hut that served as a hideout for smugglers who were his companions' enemies, partly because they gave sanctuary to Vasya Toptygin - an escaped servitor of Baba Yaga. Annar became involved in a confrontation with the smuggles, which ultimately led to the cabin being partially burned down. The smugglers were defeated, but while he was assaulted by several of them, Annar briefly lost his nerve and abandoned the role of his group's champion. This may explain why he soon parted ways with those he had come to seek out.
After the battle against the smugglers was concluded, Annar transported Vasya - the bear shapeshifter - back to Baba Yaga, who turned out to be the same crone that had appeared to him earlier. He also took the anvil the smugglers used as a trap, and buried it in the woods, intending to come for it later. After the party sent him (as an person unknown to the villagers) into Lazarevo to learn what was happening to Katarina, he was received by Hegumen Yaakov, who seemed fully aware of his collaboration with the other companions, and offered him a deal: to deliver the polevik's wheat stores from the warren (where the rest of the group was hiding out) in exchange for the young woman, and then, to ensure her safety at all costs.
The volot agreed, and then sought out Katarina's blacksmith father to make him a bogatyr's sword fit for one of his size. Since the iron for such an undertaking was expensive, the volot went off to fetch the anvil he had secreted, so it could be melted down.
He has not been seen by his companions ever since.

Species

Volot

Year of Birth

6809

Eyes

Green

Hair

Dark blond

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Fair

Height

10 feet 8 inches

Weight

460 lbs.