Sven Langbard
Sven Langbard, (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, "Role Playing the Adventure" [+]Part of The Legions of Death game), Loading...{"namedpart":"Role Playing the Adventure","1":"The Legions of Death game)"}) also sometimes modernised as Sven Longbeard, ((GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) was an 11th century Viking who became a companion of the Renegade Time Lord known as the Colonel after helping him to defeat a Sontaran. He may have been involved in the Colonel's battle against the War Chief in 1st century Britain. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"])
Biography
Origins
Sven Langbard was born in 975 AD in Norway. He was a "fairly typical Viking warrior, interested in pillage and plunder" until one day, with Sven nearing 30, his longship crossed paths with a crashed Sontaran scout-ship. The Sontaran officer had survived the crash and single-handedly took command of Sven's band of Vikings; with no way to contact his people, the Sontaran hoped to become a local overlord and eventually take over the whole of the Earth in the name of the Sontaran Empire. The Celestial Intervention Agency dispatched the Colonel to investigate; Sven, who disliked his new leader, assisted the Time Lord. Awed by the Gallifreyan's supernatural powers, Sven regarded him as "a kind of god" and decided to stow away on the Colonel's TARDIS, hoping to "get a glimpse of Valhalla", and was reluctantly accepted as an ongoing companion by the Colonel thereafter.
On one occasion, Sven "picked up a Dalek and used it to knock down three others", which meant he was severely disappointed in the aliens' combat prowess and reverted to hoping to someday meet a Sontaran in one-on-one combat ad his greatest hoped; despite "the vast physical strength of the Sontarans", several of his fellow TARDIS-travellers "[we]re betting on Sven to win such a fight". (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
In Roman Britain
Seven may have been among the Colonel and-or his daughter Leora's party of companions when, (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) while in flight in the Time Vortex, they detected the energy signature of an unauthorised TARDIS stationed in Britain in 43 A.D. and decided to investigate. (GAME: "Temporal Anomaly" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Temporal Anomaly","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) The Third Doctor and one or more of his companions may also have been involved. (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) With their TARDIS (or TARDISes) locking them out after they ventured out, the time-travellers had no choice but to join up with the remainders of a Roman scouting party which had been ambushed by unexpected, anachronistic Briton forces. (GAME: "Field of Battle" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Field of Battle","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, "Falco's Story" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Falco's Story","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) Their subsequent misadventures may have split the party as some of them were captured, (GAME: "Player Options" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Player Options","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) ending up, either way, with some of them being taken to the Britons' camp to be interrogated by Cunovellasus (GAME: "In the Briton camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Briton camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) while others reached the Roman camp, (GAME: "In the Roman camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Roman camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) If he found himself among the Britons, Sven would understand their mindset better than the others, and be an asset in negotiating with them. On the other hand, at the Roman camp, his barbarian-like demeanour would contribute to Lucius Geta and Posides's suspicions that the travellers were Briton spies. (GAME: "Role Playing the Adventure" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Role Playing the Adventure","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
The time-travellers eventually discovered that the culprit was the War Chief, posing as the "war god" of the Sacred Wood, who had been interfering with the Roman conquest of Britain as part of a scheme to take over the entire Roman Empire from within by hypnotising Emperor Claudius. (GAME: "The War Chief" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"The War Chief","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) With the help of Roman Tribune Marcus Cornelius Falco and Briton Princess Branimandua, they eventually managed to foil his operation by smashing his Processing Machines, but in all likelihood he managed to escape. Falco, Branimandua or both may then have joined the group of time-travellers as additional companions. (GAME: "Escape" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Escape","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, "Ending the Adventure" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Ending the Adventure","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Physical appearance
Sven was a broad, muscular man of "gigantic" height with long, dirty-blond hair and an unkempt beard. He was said to look "every inch a Viking even" even when he adopted "more civilised clothing" than his typical hairy breeches, scale-armour hauberk, and conical helmet. He was also rarely seen without a "small arsenal of edged weapons" on his belt. (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Personality
Sven had a "friendly and cheerful" disposition but was largely amoral; he followed the Colonel into battle for love of a "good fight" and thirst for glory, as well as because he believed the Colonel to be a [(god]], rather than because of an inner drive do protect the innocent. He was, nevertheless, "hearty and good-natured, a good friend" and a "loyal comrade"; indeed, even to his foes, he was "a cheerful enemy who [fought] for fun, not for hate". He disliked bathing and dressing up in modern outfits, also "def[ying] anyone to rim his hair or beard".
Despite his coarse manner, he was not unintelligent, where practical matters were concerned, but had little head for anything beyond combat: "architecture he evaluate[d] for defensibility, artefacts for value as plunder, people for usefulness as fighters or as slaves". (GAME: "Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
