Skoglar Twice-Cursed (pronounced SKO-glar) is a jarl of Rothurland. Skoglar came to power after accepting a contract with a fey, making a deal to gain great strength at the cost of becoming afflicted with a curse.
Though Skoglar was suspicious of the fey at first, he could not tell the precise nature of the curse, and rapidly used his newfound prowess to consolidate control of northern Rothurland under his rule. Slowly, however, the curse became evident, as he began to lose his vision. It took years to progress, but when his eyesight became cloudy and no magic could heal it, Skoglar sought out the same fey again. His affliction could be lifted, he was told, only if he hunted down and destroyed a legendary linnorm known as the Demon of the Frigid Waves. Even knowing that the linnorm would inevitably curse him itself as it died, Skoglar pursued the creature. In a great fight in the fjords north of Kantele's Song he defeated the Demon, which as expected cursed him, this time to suffer the bitter cold of his realm especially harshly. Greatly injured, Skoglar's companions quickly brought him back to Vardiholm to heal, leaving the corpse of the linnorm behind. Yet his original curse did not lift. Skoglar sought the fey once more, who jeeringly explained that while he had killed the Demon, he had not destroyed it. Returning to the site of their battle, Skoglar found the creature missing. After searching across his realm and even farther afield, Skoglar found his answer in the rumors of the fishers of the far north, who told of a massive skeletal linnorm that had suddenly begun to attack ships out at sea. With his vision now effectively entirely gone, and under the belief that his hearing is starting to vanish as well, Skoglar now relentlessly pursues every report of the creature brought to him, desperately trying to clear his first curse before its too late.
As jarl, Skoglar controls much of the frigid and sparsely-populated northern reaches of Rothurland. Though his longhouse is in Vardiholm, on the volcanic Svell Islands, most of Skoglar's territory and subjects are in the fjords of the mainland to the southeast. Raudan, Haltiat, and Kantele's Song are the largest settlements in this area. He has little interest in the other jarls' constant struggles for control, and is broadly content to let his southern neighbor, Jarl Ladgerda, have her territory in peace. For their part, the jarls and contenders for the thrones do not attempt to usurp or undermine Skoglar either, as his northern realm is seen as a pale shadow of the richer, more populated land to the south.