Sigurd was born 24 years ago in the spring, most sailors say that they are born on a ship. Sigurd can take this literally, he was together with his twin sister born when they sailed on the high seas. Sigurd is a bit older than his twin-sister Helga. His older brother Magni was born 2 years before him and his other brother Harald was born 3 years after Sigurd and Helga. His father owns his own business in trading precious metals and gems. So they didn't have a normal ship that you could associate with most traders, but they did own more of a fast warship to keep out of the hands of pirates. When Sigurd was 6 years old he moved to his uncle Sveyn and his aunt Hilda's farm, he was just as old as his nephew Ubbe and they played a lot together. The two couldn't be more different, Sigurd was already quite big at this age and was often mistaken for being a few years older. Ubbe however was a small and quite fragile boy, for this reason Sveyn and Hilda often favored Sigurd before their own son. Sigurd loved being at their farm but didn't really like the work, the only time he enjoyed working on the farm was when he was taking care of the chickens. When Sigurd was 11 he was held responsible for taking care of the chickens, although this wouldn't last long. When Sigurd was 12 years old he got his first real job at the local shipyard, you had to be at least 16 if you wanted to work there. Sigurd just simply lied about his age, as by this point even his parents would doubt that he was just 12. He was already taller than some men, as he was now 1,70m and still growing. Sigurd was quickly a useful help at the shipyard, where he mostly helped a man named Horik with building fast and agile warships. Horik was also the man that helped building his fathers ship and Sigurd wanted to learn the job from Horik. When Sigurd was 17 they found out that he had been lying about his age, when his sister Helga (who most people thought was at least 2 years younger that Sigurd) accidentally said that they were twins. So Sigurd was fired from the shipyard and he started working on his father's ship as a deckhand, although he was quickly promoted to second in command. This was not a decision by his father but by the crew, as most of them voted for him. By this point Sigurd was already well trained in fighting with an axe, he learned this from his brother Magni and the mercenary's that were on the ship. He often sparred with them when they had some free time, and Sigurd quickly became with a lot of training the best on the ship. This was mostly due to Sigurd strength as he was now almost as strong as two other men, he also was quicker than you think for a man of that size. Sigurd was always chosen to haul supplies on to the ship and to unload them. By this time Sigurd has grown to 2,10m and was also easily the biggest on the ship, with only his father coming second at 2,03m. Business was going well and soon his father ordered Sigurd to make a new ship for him. Sigurd has done this before but he wanted to get it absolutely right this time, as his father promised Sigurd that he would be the captain of this ship when it was finished. Sigurd has never been so proud of himself, and when people heard the news most of them didn't believe it. Sigurd was a respected leader but he was still quite young at the age of 18, and people that didn't know him didn't take him seriously at first. When Sigurd was only captain of his ship for one year he heard the devastating news that his father ship was sunk when he was in a big storm. His mother and brother Harald also were on that ship. With the sinking of his father's ship Sigurd become the new owner of his business, but they were in serious financial trouble. Sigurd didn't carry anything of worth on his ship, and his father has taken one of the biggest cargoes that they have done so far. So when the ship sunk the business was in serious debt, Sigurd managed by a miracle to keep his business running for another year. Only after this time the debt had become so big so he declared bankruptcy. He was able to keep his ship though, although the bank needed a bit from "conviction" Sigurd, Magni and the recently joined Ubbe they were quite "convincing". They travelled the world for a while mostly as hire as mercenary's to escort trading ships and hunting down the occasional pirate.
