Sigurd Gunnvor

Biographical Information:

Age: 20 (as of Part 1)

Sex/uality: Straight male

Height: 6'2”

Birthday: December 27th

Ethnicity/Race: Hrid-Hecadian, changeling

Magic: Mimicry. Due to being a changeling, he can imitate the appearance of a person he touches for 24 hours maximum, and he must enter a state of REM sleep before imitating someone again once exiting his disguise. Changelings also have bones with miraculous healing properties that they are often hunted for.

Pre-Story:

Born Ernest Tomasson, he grew up in the Hecadian district Silene's capital city of Singeva with his parents Katariina and Aulis Tomasson. Despite being a changeling he lived an incredibly normal life during his first twelve or so years. Legitimate danger seemed impossible and otherworldly and he couldn't fathom anything drastic happening to him or anyone near him. He spent his days going to school like any other child, pursued his interest in art, and spent time with his friends.

This obliviousness to danger was shattered when Sigurd's dad went missing and was presumed dead. Sigurd had only told two people about his changeling status-- that being his friends Kurt and Mimmi-- and he was left wondering if it was one of them who spread the word and got him killed. He didn't get the chance to ask them about it as his mother wanted to get them out of town as soon as possible, since whoever killed his dad could potentially come for him next. The two moved to the small town of Salbalis in Angelonia, Katariina changing her name to Karin and Ernest to Sigurd, with their new last name being Gunnvor.

Karin had a pen-pal named Majken in Salbalis who helped the two adjust to their new lives. Majken had a daughter named Lene a year Sigurd's senior who quickly became his friend. She went to an art school in Elgrunn, a nearby big city. After a year of helping out at Majken's little shop to help his mom make some extra cash, he decided to enroll in the same school as Lene-- called the Elgrunn Art Academy-- where he became acquainted with her group of friends. This group consisted of Karsten, Rosalyn, and Urðr. Others came and went but that's the core of the group that remained close.

A couple years went by, and at the age of 15, Sigurd tried selling some of his artwork but to no avail. But something happened that gave him an idea. One day, when selling his artwork, someone took an interest in one of the paintings, asking if it was made by a specific notable artist that Sigurd had taken inspiration from. When Sigurd said no, it was just one of his, they immediately lost interest. This made him realize that if someone thought the paintings where made by someone famous, they would want to buy it.

So naturally, he dipped his toe in the forgery business. He made a bunch, imitating the styles of different artists-- but not ones too famous, which would attract attention. He claimed to be selling pieces from his late father's collection in order to raise money. These sold much better. Although his buyers knew they were fake, they thought it was a matter of Sigurd's dad owning fake paintings-- not that Sigurd was selling fakes on purpose. The buyers thought they were convincing enough to resell at a higher price to others.

Wanting to expand his business, Sigurd told his friend Karsten about it who loved the idea and started working with him to paint and sell more fakes. Sigurd justified it to himself by saying he wanted to repay his single mother who spent a lot of money getting him into art school, but really he loved the thrill of danger and crime and wanted to prove to himself that he wasn't afraid when deep down, he was terrified of ending up like his dad.

A couple years into their joint business, Karsten started dating Roselyn and prioritized Sigurd (and their business) less and less. So when Madame Curio, a rich woman with ties to the criminal underworld, caught wind of Sigurd's activities and wanted to work with him, he accepted without mentioning anything about his business partner. He told himself it was just the logical thing to do-- that he just didn't want to throw any variables into this opportunity, but it was also for more emotional reasons. In a nutshell, he thought: "Karsten doesn't care about me? Fine. I don't care about him either, so I'll go do business with someone else and see how he likes it! Hah!". He frequently went to her estate to work in her fancy art studio and sometimes stayed there for days at a time.

With the pride that came from his new step into the underworld, it took Sigurd a while to realize the reason Curio took him under her wing-- it was because he was young, inexperienced, and didn't know what he was getting into. While Curio paid him generously for his paintings at the start of their collaboration, she gradually offered less and less, and when Sigurd asked why she wasn't paying him as much anymore, she gave him a thinly veiled threat-- whether it was something she had the capacity to go through with or not was unknown to Sigurd but he didn't want to find out, so he kept working with her.

Not liking the way Curio was using him, he plotted to get back at her. There was a part of Sigurd that always wanted to use his mimicry for nefarious purposes and he was lowkey thrilled to finally have been slighted by an objectively shit person so he'd have a justified opportunity for revenge. He needed more information before doing anything big, so he thought he'd do a smaller operation before really screwing her over.

For months, after Curio fell asleep, Sigurd would sneak into her room and transform into her in order to interact with others in her estate while masquerading as her. He would make normal conversation and try to find opportunities to prod them for information when a relevant topic came up. He would also access restricted areas that normally only Curio could access, such as the storage room in the attic that held personal belongings. Progress was slow, but he eventually struck gold and learned something he could use: a collection of old letters between a much younger Curio and a friend of hers. In the letters to Curio, she was addressed as "Annie". Among the letters was a suicide note, penned by Curio's old friend.

From here Sigurd thought of the perfect gut punch. He wrote "I miss you, Annie" in the attic dust using his finger and then waited for Curio to find it. Sigurd's plan worked but not in the way he thought it would. Curio found the message a couple weeks after Sigurd wrote it but instead of believing it was actually the work of her friend's ghost, she thought it was a cruel prank and started being suspicious of everyone in the estate. Add that to the fact that Sigurd had been impersonating her for months, which caused others to ask her about conversations they said she participated in but that she has no memory of, she started to go a little insane. Her boyfriend-- named Elias-- ended up having her committed to an asylum.

Sigurd was absolutely intoxicated from this result. With Curio hospitalized, Elias got temporary control of her estate. His presence gave Sigurd an idea. Still high from his gamble paying off, Sigurd decided to add insult to her injury by impersonating her boyfriend and paying her a visit. But of course, Elias ended up catching him and proceeded to immediately blackmail him into doing his bidding in his criminal organization, which involved smuggling drugs to Ferroburgh.

But lucky for Sigurd, there was already a mole from the Hecadian castle in Elias' organization. His name is Halfdan, and he was instructed to keep tabs on the group from within and stay there as long as possible to gather information, and to only betray them in order to save someone's life. Elias kept Sigurd's changeling status a secret and simply introduced him as a new member of the group-- just to make sure no one got tempted to steal his bones to cure their grandpa's cancer or something.

Sigurd was only working with them for a month before Elias picked up demand that a Ferroburgh group would pay good money for changeling bones, so naturally Elias planned to kill him off and sell his body. Halfdan intervened, however, and talked him down to only cutting off his arm and selling that-- since his changeling abilities were extraordinarily useful, they should make use of him for a little while longer. This bided them enough time for Halfdan to get into contact with the rest of the covert operations unit to get Sigurd to safety.

Crown princess Alaric, being in control of the covert operations unit, was also present and offered to let Sigurd stay at the castle as another servant in order to protect him. He took the offer, desperately wanting to put the life of danger behind him. He suspected he was kept around in case she'd ever want to make use of his changeling abilities-- after all, it was common knowledge that the last couple generations of Hecadian royalty suffered from sudden strokes that are seemingly hereditary in nature. He didn't dare have his suspicions confirmed, though, so he kept them to himself. With the illusion of safety finally within his grasp he couldn't bring himself to shatter it.

Sigurd spent the next few years at the Hecadian castle, a shell of his former thrill-seeking self. The cover-up story about his arrival and lack of left arm was that Alaric met him while hunting in the woods, and he ended up being bitten in the left arm by a poisonous snake, and she had to cut off his arm in order to save his life. She claimed to blame herself for the incident, so she decided to repay him by offering him work at the castle despite his lack of qualifications and dominant arm. Given that Alaric was the only one present who knew about his true circumstances, he grew attached to her, feeling awkward around other people since he felt like he had to constantly lie. It helped that they were the same age as well.

Around a year before the story, Alaric's father ended up having a mini-stroke, which could mean he would die within a few years. He started urging Alaric to get married before then, so Alaric asked Sigurd if he would be willing to be the one she marries-- since she couldn't think of anyone else she'd be able to tolerate in marriage. He accepted, both because he was quite fond of her by this point and because he thought being married to the leader of Hecadia would make for an easy, comfortable risk-free life, which was all he wanted at this point.

Personality, Interests, Quirks, Dilemmas, and Beliefs:

Sigurd is reserved and collected, and in any given group, he becomes the level-headed voice of reason among them. He's averse to conflict and applies a thick coat of sugar whenever forced to disagree with someone. His laid-back demeanor can make him come across as spineless because he prefers to keep dissenting opinions to himself. Sigurd prefers to see himself as "chill" and easygoing and he thinks it would be embarrassing for him to "start shit". In rare moments he does go off on someone, people tend to take his side because it happens so rarely people are inclined to think he must be going off for good reason.

He likes to keep himself on a moral high horse, and whenever he notices himself falling into typical human vices, he performs olympic-level mental gymnastics to justify it to himself and others. He has a disdain for certain types of bad people and he takes a sort of comfort in the idea that he's better than them. Broadly he tends to dislike those who are selfish and/or inconsiderate of others, and those who disrupt the peace.

Whenever he sees someone causing problems or being a nuisance he likes to think to himself, "Why can't they be more like me, someone who is always pleasant to be around and never annoying?". Others annoy him more easily than he'd like to admit, and instead of thinking that they simply don't vibe, he convinces himself that there's something fundamentally wrong with the other person and that his dislike for them is some sort of moral right. Even when disliking someone, he's good at hiding that fact and can get along with them well, which he mentally pats himself on the back for, thinking that makes him mature.

Because of his talent for getting along with everyone, he ends up overall well-liked, which causes people to frequently come to him for support. He initially had a habit of offering unsolicited advice, but after realizing people didn't respond to it positively, he quickly learned that it was better to just agree with whatever they said and tell them what they want to hear.

Sigurd undergoes two main personality and worldview shifts in his life. The first was after his dad went missing, and the second was after losing an arm. This was mostly went over during his backstory, but to summarize and elaborate, he had an evolving sense of danger and need for preservation. Before his father's death, he didn't feel like anything bad could happen to him, but afterwards he got the idea in his head that he could be next. Despite this newfound sense of danger, he felt the need to face it head-on rather than run from it. He got a thrill from danger and lived to prove to himself that he wouldn't live his life in fear. After losing his arm and barely escaping death, he decided to live his life danger-free and he finally allowed his self-preservation instincts born from eons of evolution to do their work.

Sigurd has a notable attitude about work. He's a real hard-ass about work ethic and in his forgery business with Karsten, he was the one always on top of things and didn't like slacking off. He takes pride in his "grindset" or whatever and puts less priority in his personal relationships. This mindset partially sprouted from his father dying when he was 12, and he felt he needed to earn money in his place to support his mother. He claimed that he didn't want a girlfriend because he was "married to the grind", although it's possible this was simply a cope because he couldn't get one.

Besides art, he has a handful of other hobbies as well. He enjoys reading about niche nonfiction topics, the more bizarre they are the better. He has a fondness for conspiracy theories and although he doesn't believe them even a little bit he finds it entertaining to be walked through the thought process of someone who does. His friend group at the art academy converted him to joining a trading card game which he enjoys more than he'd admit, and he could easily see himself getting addicted to it if he lacked self-control. After losing his dominant arm, he gave up on art, and instead spent more of his time at the castle reading and socializing. He does however give pointers to other aspiring artists at the castle if they want help and he entertains the idea of being an art teacher one day. Also worth mentioning is that Sigurd is curious about his Hridheimer heritage and his ancestor's way of life and beliefs. He studied their language in his spare time even though languages are not his strong suit.

Because I don't know where else to put it I might as well mention here that he has phantom pain in his missing arm. Poor thang.

After becoming a resident of the Hecadian castle, Sigurd eventually gained a bizarre tendency to suddenly “know” things that turn out to be true. As he became acutely aware of the fragility of his mortality and that there are many people who would want to take it away, he confines himself to the Hecadian castle and is left to imagine whatever might occur outside of it-- which he can do with startling accuracy. Whether it’s extraordinary guessing, some form of astral projection, a bizarre trauma-induced psychosis, or a result of Sigurd subconsciously reweaving the fabric of reality itself to become an omnipotent narrator is unclear.

Relationships:

Katariina Tomasson/Karin Gunnvor:

Sigurd's mother. She's very protective of him because of the whole changeling thing (and the whole being her child thing as well I guess) which resulted in a childish frustration from Sigurd who didn't take it seriously and found joy in giving her a heart attack by doing "dangerous" things such as running with scissors and burning his mouth on hot food.

After his dad went missing, the tone between the two became a lot more solemn and he stopped teasing her. She became even more protective, so Sigurd would often lie to her in order to alleviate her worries, such as lying about heading to the shop with Lene when really he was going alone.

Naturally, he didn't tell his mom about the forgery business. Both because he didn't want her to worry and because he knew she would be disappointed in him that he was making money using dishonest means, even if he was supporting her in the process. He often got her gifts, thinking that being nice to her would "cancel out" all the times he had to lie to her which he feels bad about.

When Elias made him join his group, Sigurd went missing which naturally made her extremely upset. When Halfdan managed to get him to safety, Alaric told Sigurd that he should lay low for a while but he insisted that his mom at least be informed that he's still alive and he wrote her a letter informing her of everything that led to his current circumstances. Well, technically he got Alaric to write it for him. In response he got a letter basically saying "I'm just glad you're alive".

Aulius Tomasson:

Sigurd's father. Although he would leave for months at a time to pursue business opportunities in Ferroburgh, Sigurd still cherished his time with him, and would often wait in excitement for him to come back so he could show him all the progress he made on his artwork. As an architect, Aulius had a lot of art supplies available that he allowed Sigurd to use.

Aulius would often tell Sigurd about the importance of keeping his changeling status a secret, and that he should only tell someone if he wants to marry them-- far off in the future. Sigurd did not heed these warnings and told a couple of close friends because he didn't think anything would happen.

Although Aulius was adamant about Sigurd keeping his changeling status a secret, he wasn't nearly as protective in general as his mother. It was him who told Katariina to lighten up and allow Sigurd to do mildly dangerous things because he thought that part of being a boy was getting into scraps and learning from your mistakes the hard way.

After Aulius's death, instead of becoming afraid of danger, Aulius's mentality stayed with him and he did still yearn to "get into scraps". In moments where he would doubt himself, he would think he doesn't want to dissapoint his father which gave him bursts of courage. It was unhealthy in a way, and felt guilty whenever he felt sensible and human fear. It was also a way for him to turn his grief into something productive which is its own can of snakes. He threw away his self-preservation and called it courage.

After losing his arm, he thought "damn dad was right, I really did learn from my mistakes the hard way", and decided to never put himself in danger ever again. As he grew older, his memories of his father grew more and more foggy and distant, his face becoming blurry and his distinct voice becoming generic. Since Aulius's death where his true self left the world, Sigurd was left with an idealized memory that grew further and further from that true self as time passed on and continued to separate them.

When Ceres told Sigurd about Aulius's second family in Ferroburgh, Sigurd abruptly realized that he never knew his father's true self in the first place, and that his memory was a mere second derivative-- a distortion not even of his true self but of the act he put on around them. Sigurd was left to wonder how much of it was an act. Was it possible for his father to still love his mother despite betraying her in the worst way? Under different circumstances, would his father have abandoned him and his mother in order to be with his second family? Between the Aulius Sigurd knew and the Aulius Ceres knew, which one was real? Was there such thing as a true self, or were there only the many faces you showed to different people? Was the Sigurd who doted on his mother the same Sigurd who hid a profitable forgery business from her? How many Sigurds were there, across all the pairs of eyes that have ever seen him? How many Aulius's? How many Katariinas? How many Ceres's, how many Alarics? If he could add up all of them across time and space, would he finally be able to see someone for who they truly are?

Ceres Hortensia:

Born "Ceres Vibiana", she was later adopted by the noble Hortensia family, and is Sigurd's half-sister on his father's side. He had no idea she existed until quite a ways into the story. Unbeknownst to him, she's the reason his father was killed. When prince Marcius of Ferroburgh-- who she was friends with-- fell ill, she told him about their father's changeling status in order to both save Marcus and have their father killed because she hated him and blamed him for her mother going insane and almost killing her, permanently disfiguring her voice in the process. She had no idea she had a half-brother who would also be in danger by putting his dad on Ferroburgh's radar.

Childhood friends:

The friends Sigurd spent time with during his time in Singeva until he had to move away at the age of 12. Something they liked to do was "play lists", where they would take turns giving someone a list, like "name all capital cities", and they would try listing as many as they could. One of the most prominent friends from this era in Sigurd's life was Mimmi, who joined the squad when he was 10 who he had a crush on. He told her about him being a changeling in case she ever wanted him to do a test for her or something in school. Additionally, there's Kurt, who came up with "playing lists" and is a real hard-ass about it too, and insists you do it "in order", whatever that might look like to him. He also told Kurt about being a changeling because he's been his closest friend for years and felt weird keeping it from him.

Lene:

Sigurd's first friend he made after moving to Salbalis. They initially bonded over a shared interest in art, though he struggles to see the appeal in some of the art Lene makes (which is anime boys kissing). Nevertheless, she encouraged him to puruse his own passion which he appreciates and they'd sometimes paint side-by-side. She developped a crush on him and did a good enough job hiding it that Sigurd never seriously thought about the possibility of dating her, although he did casually entertain it to which he concluded "eh, I won't bother".

Worth mentioning is an incident where a male classmate had an interest in her and was weird and manipulative about it. Lene couldn't bring herself to give him a hard 'no', which caused Sigurd to intervene and very bluntly shame him. While Sigurd would like to believe he did it out of kindness with pure intentions, deep down he was partially motivated by a nonsensical possesiveness triggered by another guy making a move on a girl who liked him-- even though he had no intentions of dating her himself.

Karsten:

Sigurd's closest friend during his art school days. Being two dudes in a female-dominated academy, they gravitated towards each other and got along well. Considering Karsten his closest friend, and knowing he wasn't averse to illegal activity (Karsten had told him about using stimulants to do lots of work in one sitting), Sigurd invited him to forge art with him to which Karsten happily joined in.

Their business flourished at first and it helped that Karsten was already connected with shadier circles. As much as Sigurd liked to think of himself as a sigma male or whatever he genuinely enjoyed the time he spent painting with Karsten and even found himself slacking off to focus more on their conversation. Bonding through illegal activities was strangely just the thing Sigurd needed to call someone a friend.

However, after Karsten started dating Roselyn, he started prioritizing their business less and less, much to Sigurd's frustration. Sigurd's anger was gradual and built up over a long time and he tried lots of gentle persuasion since he thought it would be cringe to "make a big deal out of it" but his petty side managed to take over more than he would have liked. He occasionally tried suggesting he break up with Roselyn whenever Karsten had a mild complaint about her but Karsten never reacted to that well. Karsten frustrates Sigurd in a lot of ways, such as with his habit of slacking off and generally being cringe sometimes. Sigurd also didn't like his use of stimulants, thinking of them as "cheating". These frustrates grew as time went on, and Karsten started getting annoyed with Sigurd's attitude and the two spent a while in a limbo of drifting apart and getting back together. With Curio's offer, Sigurd took a chance to be successful without him. Their joint business on pause, they tried being normal friends during art class again, which worked somewhat-- but Sigurd skipping to spend more time in Curio's studio meant they didn't talk as much as they should.

During his time with Elias, Sigurd reflected on how he treated Karsten and came to regret a lot of it. He kicked himself for getting too worked up over what he thought to be small things, but a lot of it came from being in a constant state of danger and getting hit with an urge to do the "right thing" and be the bigger person before it was too late. In his letter to his mother, Sigurd also asked her to tell Karsten "I'm sorry for being a dick". In her reply, she included his response, which read "I'm sorry for thinking with mine". Imagining Karsten saying that deadpan to his mother's face after being informed he was alive and well made him both want to smack him and hug him.

Madame Curio:

He does not like her. Next.

Elias:

He does not like him either. It's worth mentioning that Elias started using Sigurd as a therapist because he was being blackmailed and Elias knew he couldn't gossip about any of his problems without putting himself in danger. He told Sigurd that Curio had actually cheated on him and he thanked him for the opportunity to "put that whore in the loony bin" and that she probably "spread an std to half the asylum by now". Sigurd did not enjoy this.

Alaric Zarie II:

Initially, Sigurd could only trust her as far as he could throw her-- which wasn't far since throwing a person one-handed poses quite the challenge. Alaric claimed that they wanted to protect him from Ferroburgh forces and it was a matter of protecting one of their own against an enemy attack. Sigurd thought it made sense but also thought that Hecadia would want to use his changeling abilities-- whether it was the miracle bones or the mimicry for spy purposes. He didn't like these suspicions and desperately wanted them to be wrong so he ignored them.

Time passed, and eventually the castle got word that the son of one of the nobles had fallen gravely ill. Sigurd thought, "oh god, they're gonna fucking take my bones now", but to his surprise that didn't happen. Confused, Sigurd finally asked Alaric "Alright, why aren't you asking me to cut off a fingertip or something to save this guy?" and Alaric just told him "Because we have morals". That didn't make sense to Sigurd at all, and he said that if anything the morally correct thing to do was part with a fingertip if that's what it took to save a person's life, and Alaric said that it might blow his cover if the dude with a lost limb living in the castle just happened to get another injury right when a Hecadian noble was healed. Sigurd still didn't get it, and asked why his cover was so important-- and while he was at it since all his suspicions were violently resurfacing he asked when they were going to make use of his mimicry for spy purposes because why the fuck wouldn't they, he was an infinitely useful secret weapon.

So Alaric let him in on a little secret: she fucking hated Ferroburgh. They were doing fucked up shit behind the scenes and she couldn't say anything about it because there's no hard proof and anyone who thinks so is branded a conspiracy theorist that sided with terrorists. Since Sigurd had already told her about what happened to his dad, she brought him up again and said it was probably Ferroburgh that took him. After all, it was people from Ferroburgh who were looking in Hecadia for some changeling bones who manged to get Sigurd's arm and how would they know a changeling was in Hecadia? Because they already found one there, and he had a son. But it wasn't wise to kill him back then because he was so small, he didn't have much bone in him yet, so they waited for him to grow up and then sniffed him out.

Sigurd's first thought was that she was insane. His second thought was that she might actually be onto something. His third thought, which he vocalized in the form of a question, was: "Wait, how is that relevant to my question? About why you won't use any of my powers, and why my cover is so important."

Alaric answered that if Ferroburgh wants changelings bones so bad, there must be a good reason for it. Someone with influence must be paying good money to hire mercs to go changeling hunting. The idea that someone in Ferroburgh is using her kingdom as a hunting ground makes her sick and she wants to keep their target out of their reach just to spite them. She needs to keep Sigurd safe no matter what which means not doing any risky bullshit.

After that event where Sigurd was finally honest about his suspicions and Alaric was finally honest about her intentions the two went from friendly acquaintances to quite close friends. It felt nice for Alaric to finally talk about her hostility towards Ferroburgh without pretending to want peace with them like she always had to. Convinced that they were involved in his dad's death, he got a grudge against them too. Their mutual dislike of fantasy Italy aside, their introverted natures go well together and they're both content with great amounts of alone time.

Sigurd had initially felt dead inside during his new self-preservation era but Alaric's company made it a lot nicer for him. Alaric's promise to keep him safe, despite coming from a place of spite towards a third party, gave him an unexpectedly pleasant feeling of calmness and peace. It wasn't until she asked him to marry her that he realized his fondness might be romantic in nature.