Ordinarily jovial and carefree (some would go as far as to say gentle-hearted), Ashnak is nonetheless a highly experienced and fearsome warrior who has killed many rivals to achieve authority over his clan.
Though he is an orc, Ashnak is proud to have grown up and lived as a nord, and even prouder to have counted High King Jorgen as one of his dearest friends. However now that the man is dead, a black mood has taken over Ashnak's demeanor and all the mead in Atamor isn't enough to drown it. Not a good sign as he is of the type who is sorrowful in his cups and then angry afterwards when sober.
In this case however, when true hatred takes root in Ashnak's heart, it runs as cold as a northern glacier and, when the time comes, it crashes with the fury of an avalanche. A side of him ever only seen once, back when he was vying for the leadership of his clan and all his cunning and strength had to be brought to bear against a most ruthless foe.
Being the chief of a northern clan, Ashnak commands much authority and respect from his people, and can mobilize a force of fighters with but a word. He is also a peerless warrior himself and immensely strong due to his orc physiology.
Ashnak's mother was pregnant when raiders from Atamor invaded her village, killed her family and took her as a slave. A few months later, she fled north to escape from her captors, only to get lost and die giving birth in a forest. Shortly afterwards, a hunter heard a crying infant and found it huddled underneath the frozen corpse of its mother. Having never seen an orc before, the hunter took the infant back to his village as a curiosity and then later adopted it as son, naming him Ashnak for the symbols vaguely resembling letters that were sewn into his blanket.
As he grew, he proved to be useful as a hunter and a fighter, but he also had a knack for making friends, having learned from an early age to deal with petty insults and racial remarks with good-natured humour and a share of mead. He used his skills to forge alliances when the clan chief died without a clear successor, and a violent power struggle ensued.
For many days and nights, kinsmen fought against kinsmen as they tried to push their respective champions into power, turning houses into forts and the streets into a battlefield. At first, Ashnak only sought to keep his friends and anyone not involved safe from the violence, but then the people he was protecting began hailing him as their champion and went to join the fray. Before that could happen, Ashnak proposed to end the fighting quickly by challenging each candidate to a duel and one after another, day after day, his rivals became fewer and fewer.
However, there was one who proved to be especially dangerous as not only was he a formidable fighter, but he also had a complete lack of scruples. Before it was his turn to duel, the man killed one of Ashnak's childhood friends to provoke him to anger and thus unbalance his fighting form. Much to the man's surprise however, it only made Ashnak more focused in his attacks and the man barely escaped with his life.
When the High King Jorgen came to quell the fighting, Ashnak was already made chief and when he recounted the events of the struggle, Jorgen congratulated him on his strength and initiative, for few would have been willing or even able to fight many consecutive duels within a week. Over time, the two became hunting companions and Ashnak would later earn the name 'Bear-Breaker' for saving the king's life from a bear by literally breaking its back with a large rock.
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