Odin

Link to DeviantArt

name: Odin
gender: Stallion
age: 10 years 4 months
sexuality: Heterosexual
breed: Gypsy Vanner x Shire x Clydesdale
build: Drafty
store items: Here
height: 18 hh
coloration: Bay roan tobiano
genetics: Ee/Aa/nR/nT
markings: Roan, tobiano, stockings, wide blaze
mane: Black/ombre gray and white
tail: White and tied in a knot
hooves: White
eyes: Brown
scars None
physical health: 100%
traits: He is quiet, reclusive, and thoughtful. He thinks before speaking though he's quick to act on instinct. He's the type of guy that always trusts what his gut is telling him. He's been through too much not to trust that gut feeling telling him that something needs to be done. Quick to anger but not really one to raise his voice, Odin is more likely to cut you to pieces with calmly spoken words than he is to yell and scream at you. He does not like to have his trust broken or to be made a fool. To make him your enemy is to make an enemy for life. Odin very easily holds grudges. He does not forgive easily, nor does he forget. He has a photographic memory and has never gotten a name or a face before. Or a place. He sees it as both a burden/curse and a good thing. He will never forget a friendly face... but he'll also never be able to let go of those that had wronged him. Slow to trust in the first place, breaking that trust is not something that you should do. He's very much the type to confront you about it. He's not afraid of confrontation, be they with words or with an actual fight. He does not go out seeking fights, however. He much prefers to keep his skills to himself so that he can unleash his wrath on unsuspecting enemies.
mental health: 100%

history: Odin grew up in a land full of mountains and treacherous landscapes. He was born into a nomadic herd of mostly draft-built equines like himself. He was not the son of any high-ranked individuals. He was merely just a herd member, born to two gathers in the herd. His parents were humble and loyal and instilled in him the same sense of humbleness and loyalty. Odin knows that he is strong and handsome, but he does not go out showing off and never has. Growing up, he was very introverted and quiet. Born to two gatherers meant he was destined to become a gatherer himself but when he started to grow older and spent more time watching the warriors of the herd train, the elders of the herd decided that he should become a warrior himself. He was unsure at first, if only because he didn't want to upset his parents by becoming something more than they ever would become, but when they encouraged him to begin training at two-years-old with the other trainees, he became excited. He worked hard to become a good warrior for the herd and to make his parents proud. He was not the best student, honestly. It took time for him to figure out how to move his body and use it to not only defend but to attack. He was clumsy at first. It took nearly a year for him to become proficient enough to graduate into a fully-fledged warrior when the rest of his class had done it in half of the time. But he was persistent and never once gave up. He kept training, kept trying to better himself, and when he was five-years-old, that training would become very important.

The herd was moving closer to the mountains when they were attacked by another herd. Bandits that came to steal the women and slaughter the men. Odin did not hesitate to throw himself into the battle, biting and kicking and trumpeting his war cry until, at long last, he and the other warriors were able to fight off the bandits. There were some casualties; sadly, one was his father. Odin was heartbroken. For the first time in his life, he felt absolute rage. He requested from the elders to be able to take some warriors with him to go hunt the bandits down and kill them. He was denied. Furious, the young brute began to scream at the council of elders. He wanted a reason why he shouldn't be allowed to go out and avenge his father's death. The elders all watched him calmly and when he finished screaming, one of them, the oldest of the elders, blind and nearly deaf, spoke to him. "You cannot go about killing everyone who hurts you, or you will eventually have to kill someone you love." The words didn't make sense to Odin at the time and he very nearly started another screaming fit but his mother, who had been injured but thankfully survived, approached him and talked him down from his rage. Odin went to sleep that night and his dreams were full of blood and war.

Time passed and Odin allowed himself to grieve, never forgiving nor forgetting what the bandits had done. But it did get easier. Life went on. He got older and wiser. He became one of the most trusted warriors of the herd, helping to train the new recruits when the time came. It was when he reached the seventh year that he began to court one of the mares in the herd. She was a year younger than him and one of the healers. It was not uncommon for a warrior to take a healer as their mate, as the two groups interacted most often with one another. Odin found her to be fascinating. She was an outsider that had joined the herd, her frame petite, though she was long-legged, standing only a few inches shorter than himself. Her name was Juda. Their courtship lasted three months, at which time she agreed to become his mate. There was a ceremony for the two of them. Another few months later, and Juda was pregnant. Odin was over the moon with joy and he thought that Juda was, too. She seemed to like it, at first. She seemed happy. Odin always told her that she was glowing.

But as her belly started to grow and she lost her petiteness, she didn't seem to glow as much. She became bitter and angry. Odin just assumed it was hormones from pregnancy. He ignored his friends trying to explain to him that it was not her hormones but her vanity that was making her this was. He was blinded by his love for her. He could not wait for the day to raise a son or daughter with her. That day, however, never came.

In the middle of the night one night, well into Juda's pregnancy, Odin awoke to find her no longer beside him. Worried, he followed her scent trail. He found her about an hour's walk away from where the herd was sleeping that night. She smelled of blood. Alarmed, Odin rushed forward - and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the lifeless form of a baby, their child, at her feet. "Juda, my love, what have you done?" he asked her, his voice wavering. She looked at him and he will never forget the cold, dead look in her eyes as she explained she had been secretly consuming an herb she knew of that would cause her to have a stillborn or a miscarriage. She said she had never wanted children, had never wanted her body to look "ugly" from pregnancy. She told Odin that he had ruined her. She said she no longer loved him. Striken with grief, the mighty warrior watched the mare who owned his heart walk off into the night, leaving behind the stillborn child. Odin curled up beside the cold, bloodied body that had never even been given the chance to live. He was found by a search party that was sent out for him and Juda in the morning. He explained what had happened between sobs.

The child was never given a name as the filly had never been given a chance to live, and it was their custom not to give names to the dead. She was laid to rest at the base of a large apple tree. Odin stayed with his herd for about two weeks after the betrayal of his mate, but he just could not bare to continue life as he had known it. Everything felt wrong now. He requested to be allowed to leave, to start a new life somewhere far away from where tragedy seemed to always find him. The elders debated. They did not want to lose their greatest warrior, but they also knew it would be unethical to expect him to remain after all he had been through. He left with the blessing of the elders, which now included his mother among them, and set off to venture away from all he had ever known.
parents:
Mother: Bay Roan - Ee/Aa/nR
Father: Bay Tobiano - Ee/Aa/nT
siblings: None
extended family: None
children:
Unnamed Stillborn Filly
herd: None
rank: None

mate: None
interactions:
Juda: His former mate who broke his heart, resulting in him leaving his homeland.
actions: FFDEAD
voice: FDF5E6
muse: Medium
playlist: None
pictures:
Reference by JackKira (DA)
Manip by Khalysa