Campaign: Kadlin Ottardottir

Character: Kadlin Ottardottir
Game: Sagas of the Icelanders
Episodes: 0
Theme Song: White Foxes by Susanne Sundfør
Keywords: Noble, True, Careless

Kadlin is a shield maiden and middle daughter of the Matriarch, Rannveig. Initially I wanted to play a shield maiden because I was tired of playing caretaker women. Now, upon reflection, I'm noticing this trend of playing really assertive and strong women after playing a lot of women who are sweet and lovely. I go in waves like that.

So after I noticed my swing right, I decided to land somewhere in the middle with Kadlin. She's a shield maiden because she was always a tomboy, and after her father died, she took over doing most of the farm duties at home for her mother. Her older sister was married, and so Kadlin became the one everything rested upon. When Rannveig remarried, she had another child, Oddrin, whom Kadlin didn't really get or understand much. The girl spent most of her time with Soren and his older brother, and eventually became the sparing partner of Soren's brother.

Naturally, Kadlin went viking when her neighbour said he was going to. So Kadlin went off, and came back without him. Larus decided the wrong son had disappeared and proceeded to be a shitty father to his second son, Soren. Soren got a crap piece of land from his father and is now trying to make a go of the farm. Thinking she'd be helping, Kadlin went back viking but did not return before winter.

When I was designing Kadlin, after my "Maybe not a badass" realization, I decided to make her someone who was generally a light in people's lives, even if the light was nontraditional and a little strange. While Kadlin gets womanly duties, she doesn't particularly enjoy them, and would rather go viking or farm than stay in the house and tend to the duties of the day. She generally thinks well of others, and pays them respect, but doesn't necessarily strive to understand people.

I know she's in love with Soren, but is mostly content just loving him from the side, letting him do his own thing. She knows her sister dislikes her, but she can't understand why, and doesn't try to understand it. I think to Kadlin, she sees how things are but doesn't generally question why, and this makes her a poor gossip and generally dull conversationalist. She will about what is, not what may be.

Kadlin is definitely a secondary character in the game, or at least, that's my intention. She is interesting enough to bring in once in awhile to add drama, but isn't a focal point of drama herself. I know I'll end up changing her as we get into play because of wanting to make other people's stories better. It's a habit of mine.

My challenge with Kadlin is to play someone who doesn't see the good or bad in people, she just sees them. I normally play people who have a lot of talking points, who converse a lot, and I think it'll be interesting to play the character who's noble but mostly communicates through a lot of glances or through inaction. It's a normal part of my life to struggle with female, but I don't feel like I've done that to the degree Kadlin will.

I'm excited to see how it shakes out in a few weeks. I can't play until mid-December, but I am eager to see if she's too dull to put on screen and if I'll need to change her to suit the rest of the game, or to add more drama points. For now, I'm envisioning her being somewhat resilient to verbal assault and the kind of person who stands up when needed but otherwise is happy to let others take the reigns. When it's needed though, by Kadlin's definition, is uncertain.