Background: Freja was born to a savage tribe of Kellids that lived on the outskirts of Torch. Her strange coloring and the indefinable, yet palpable, sense of difference that lingered about her was enough to make the primitive, and suspicious, tribespeople regard her with mistrust. Even her own family tended to treat her with a cool distance, causing her to seek the solitude of the wilderness from a very young age. When she became lost as a small child, after wandering much further than she ever had before, no rescue party was mounted to find her, and her family wrote her off as one less mouth to feed and one less potential problem to solve. Barely four years old, Freja was alone and frightened in the harsh wilderness of Numeria, suffering the bitterly cold nights of early spring and the hollow feeling of an empty stomach.
The quiet, whimpering sounds she made as she huddled in the roots of a tree for shelter, drew the attention of a nearby bear, who followed the sounds to the child. Freja was terrified, at first, of the large, wild animal as it stuck its snout into the hole to sniff at her curiously. However, she swiftly lost her fear and crawled out of her hole to cling to the warmth and protection the beast offered. After guiding the child up onto its back, it lumbered back the way it had come, returning to the trio of cubs it had left behind in a nearby cave when it went to explore the unfamiliar sounds. From that day, forward, Freja was considered one of the family, and she found her adopted family far more loving and accepting than her birth family had ever been.
As she grew, Freja learned to fight and hunt, swim and climb, from her brothers and sisters. Her connection with them, and with the natural world, made it easy for her to communicate, even if only in a rudimentary and instinctual manner, with her animal kin. As a result, when she experienced her first change in the midst of a hunt, while chasing an elk, she and her kin thought nothing of it. It seemed only natural that a child raised by bears would find herself turning into one, at least in part.
Her first encounter with civilization, aside from the occasional hunter or traveler who wandered too close to their cave, came when she encountered something metal half-buried beneath the earth while exploring one day. She and her brother, one of many, dug up the contraption out of curiosity, only to have it suddenly begin flashing lights and making a strange, high-pitched sound that hurt their ears. When her brother swiped at it out of anger, it responded violently and it took both Freja and her brother a long time to bring it down, eventually tearing it to pieces. Unfortunately, her brother was deeply wounded by the machine's attack, and Freja carried him home, but there was nothing anyone could do to save his life and he died in the night. Deeply affected by this development, Freja decided that she had to find the metal beasts and destroy them, not only for her brother's sake, but for the sake of the wild she loved so dearly.
Hunting down these beasts meant leaving her home and returning to the humans who had abandoned her, but she considered her mission to be of the utmost importance. Her remaining brother, and dearest friend, was determined to accompany her on her journey and she little recourse to stop him. After a few days, however, she found herself glad of his company, even if his grumbling and stubbornness sometimes drove her crazy. They returned to Torch, and set up camp on the outskirts, some distance from the Kellid tribes, and Freja's home. She understood that her time among the bears had left her with little ability to communicate or socialize with humans. So, she began trading with the Kellid tribespeople, bartering the pelts and meat from her kills, and using the interactions to relearn even their primitive manner of human socialization.
It was during this process that the light from Torch was extinguished, and then, she learned of the expedition beneath the city and the metal beast that was found. This led her to finally enter the town proper, looking to join the next trip underground, in the hopes of finding and destroying any more of the metal beasts that might lie beneath.
Personality: Freja has a difficult time socializing with others, at least those who aren't furry and befanged, and her awkwardness could be seen as a deliberate attempt to keep others at arms length. Her closeness with Valdr, and the ease with which she interacts with him, makes it clear that the stiffness and distance is only reserved for other humanoids. While it might be taken for a dislike, and despite her history with her tribe, she genuinely holds no ill-feeling for more civilized people. Her social skills are severely lacking, and her time away from civilization has left her feeling wildly out of place and out of touch with human society. She is focused on her mission, but she also wants to relearn to fit into civilized society, so that she can once more feel whole.
Gender & Orientation: Freja is neither male nor female. She appears female, but anyone who catches her undressed would find her dual nature extends beyond the combination of beast and man. She's a virgin, but her nature leads her to consider any sentient being a potential partner, regardless of gender or race.
