Idunn Laars History

Idunn's Family

Family History:
The Laars family was originally a poor Vesten family toiling under a uncaring Lord who regularly took the best of harvest for himself and his warriors. The Lord doubled taxes in the same year that Boff Laars got married to a beautiful Vesten maid, but alas he could not afford to pay the taxes. The Lord then told Boff Laars that he could sell him his beautiful bride instead of paying the taxes or join him on a raid along the Avalon coast. Knowing that Laars would not survive the raid, the Lord had a bridal suite prepared for Laar's wife and then set off on the voyage. Boff Laars did indeed not survive the raid and was felled by an axe blow whilst the village was being looted. Having fore-seen that her husband would not return, Elg Laars (his new
bride) travelled to the a nearby village to stay with her family. She sought to hire some mercenaries to avenge the death of her husband, but they deserted her when the Lord came to confront her. However, the Lord miscalculated the encounter and Elg Laars shot the Lord before he could lay a finger on her. Elg Laars set up business smuggling in guns for other Vesten to stand up to their oppressors as well as finding reliable Eisen mercenaries for hire. She married again and kept her first husbands name. Her second husband was a former blacksmith who travelled abroad to learn the art of gun-smithing. With his newfound skills and wife's brilliant mind the two built a thriving business empire and raised five beautfil daughters. The daughters married Vendel men and some kept their maiden names. The women continued to play a crucial role in the family business and bore their husbands more sons and daughters. During the War of the Cross in Eisen the Laars contacts with Eisen mercenaries and gun manufacturing capabilities brought in a great deal of wealth. The Laars family now has a seat in the Vendel League and is one of the rising stars of Vendel Society. Recently the Laars family suffered a tragic loss when a Vesten slaughtered a few of the Laars family and set fire to the farm. Fortunately the man was eventually caught and hung for his crimes.

Family Currently:
Idunn is one of seven siblings, all of whom are girls. She has numerouns cousins, boys and girls, and is the fourth child to be born to her parents. Idunn's mother and father play a very active role in the running of the family business and hence Idunn and her sisters were raised by numerous servants, tutors and cousins. During their schooling they learned a variety of subjects such as languages (which Idunn was superb at), music, writing, history, geography and religious education. Despite the fact that Idunn's mother is a staunch Objectionist, they did hire a Vaticcine priest briefly to teach the girls. However, like most tutors he did not last more than a few months and soon moved on to safer teaching jobs. The record for the shortest amount of time that a tutor stayed to teach the girls was three hours. The Laars family is based mostly around Kirk and owns several townhouses inside the city and farms nearby. The family workshop is inside the town and although all of the family members are encouraged to learn gun-smithing, few of them actually do so for a living. However with the high level of education bought by the parents, those Laars who do take up the craft are exceptioannly good at what they do.

Idunn:
As a child Idunn was the one who came up with the grand schemes and was often at the centre of play with her sisters. She encouraged the others to learn of all the routes through the house and the schedules that the servants kept. In later years her sisters realised the value of such knowledge and used it to their advantages. Idunn was the first to befriend the Vesten maid working in the kitchen and convinced the Innish tutor to teach them tavern drinking songs. It was not until several years later that Idunn actually found out what the songs meant. Having gone through the high level of education commen to the Laars family and learned the family trade, Idunn was all set to be matched with a suitable Vendel gentlemen by her parents and then marry. However, it was on the way to visit her cousins that she learned of how they had been horribly killed and her world changed forever. In a single moment the warm and nurturing environment that her parents had sought to build was torn down. Idunn saw with her own eyes the evil that men coud do and promised to herself that justice would be served. When she mentioned to a (different) cousin that she wanted to leave Vendel to bring the criminal to justice he laughed at her and said: “But you're just a girl, go back to your dresses and talk of fashion from Charouse.” This angered her so greatly that she bid her father and sisters farewell that very day and set sail for Montaigne.