Character Profile: Whisper Norling
Whisper Norling
Nickname: Whisper the Wolf
Ice Dragon Whisperer
Appearance: Brunnette with dark brown eyes and pale skin, high cheekbones and a slightly rounded face. She is usually dressed in warm furs because she spends most of her time in cold places. After having met a Snow Wraith in a friendly manner, she bears the symbol of the mighty Snow Wraith on her belt buckle in commemoration. Not all her meetings with Snow Wraiths were peaceful, though; two scars run across her left eye, a gift from the claws of the Snow Wraith Avalanche, the rival of Whisper's Woolly Howl Winterwind.
Personality: Whisper is quiet and shy around other people and generally polite but standoffish. Though an optimist, she's a very mellow and introverted person and comes off as timid or cold. She's very adventurous and loves to explore but also has a love for books. Her favorite season is winter and loves the cold, and this is in part why one of her favorite sports (besides dragon riding) is skiing! Though not impulsive, she can let her curiosity get the better of her. She is courageous, protective, and clear-minded, and she's almost uncanny in her ability to plan and know the correct course of action, catching every detail in a situation and using it for tactical advantage. However, Whisper has a hard time doing the right thing sometimes. Although she's generally a very empathetic person, she rarely will do the right thing if it has no effect or a negative effect on her friends or family, and if angered, she can use her wit against others to trick them into making poor choices. Loyalty to clan will win out over the need to do the right thing.
Strengths: Patient; book-smart; tactical; kindhearted; courageous; undyingly loyal; clear-minded; protective; hard-working
Flaws/Weaknesses: Introverted, sometimes to the point of apparent coldness; shy; flexible morals; hopeless with just about any weapon; vengeful trickster
Worst Fear: Hurting someone she loves while going berserk
Abilities: Good at puzzles, riddles, and strategy; skilled flyer; handles cold well; is an úlfheðing (a type of berserker)
Weapons: Bladed Gloves, the Chiller, the Icicle, and Groncicle Shield
Whisper's first weapon were gloves with blades on the knuckles. This is because those who go berserk in battle generally fought with their hands. Nonetheless, Whisper hates the Wolf part of her and longed for a weapon that didn't involve her going into a trance.
The Chiller was inspired by Hiccup's Zippleback gas spraycan in his Inferno. The Chiller is a similar can, made of layers of Gronckle Iron and insulted with sponge and rubber supplied by Johann, and instead of holding Zippleback gas, it holds compressed Groncicle liquid nitrogen. Due to how quickly this evaporates even with the insulation, it has to be refilled before battle. Whisper carries the Chiller in a fur-lined sack on the right side of her belt.
The Icicle is a sword. Whisper was always a hopeless swordswoman (and bowswoman, axewoman, and basically any kind of shieldmaiden weapon), but her mother Ylva was a skilled fencer before she was crippled, so she taught Whisper without giving up. While she never became great, Whisper eventually becomes competent with the sword and gets her own Gronckle Iron weapon, the Icicle. This hangs in a wooden sheath on her left hip.
Because she's not that great at fighting, Whisper always believed a shield was a must. Arguably she's used a shield before any other weapon, but recently, the shield has been modified. Though her best friend and mount is a Woolly Howl, the majority of dragons she surrounds herself with are Groncicles, and she is the leading expert on the dragon. As a result, her shield bears the blue symbol of the Groncicle on a white field.
Backstory: Whisper is the result of an illegitimate birth. Her father left the village not long after he found out that Ylva Norling, a woman crippled by a dragon attack years ago, was pregnant with his child. Rather than giving the baby up, Ylva raised the child as her own. Whisper was born in the dead of winter, one of the coldest anyone could remember, which was considered a bad omen. It was said the cold had entered Whisper and that her skin was pale blue and cold to the touch when she was born. It was said that she never warmed all the years after. Between that and her illegitimate conception, others in the village always acted wary with the child, which made her grow up shy and withdrawn. The nickname muttered behind her back growing up was "Whisper the Misborn," which stung once she was old enough to realize what it meant.
Her relationship with her mother is very close; even as a child, she was helping her get around and manage house and they learned to rely on each other early on. Her only other friend growing up was the one child who wasn't afraid to approach her, a bubbly and mischievous boy named Norbert Haugen. Whisper trained to be a shieldmaiden and to train dragons but found she was pretty much a failure at everything, which was not helping her shaky status in the village or her confidence issues. Only when a dragon that seemed non-aggressive but "crazy" (as some said) seemed to click with her did she realize she could be a rider. That dragon was her faithful Woolly Howl, Winterwind. Since then, Whisper's confidence has grown a little, but she still keeps any perkiness she has to her closest friends: her mother, Norbert, the dragons she's befriended, and sometimes her newer friend Colby (though Colby isn't generally one for perkiness).
After taming her dragon, Whisper participated in a battle with Berserkers, where she discovered she was an úlfheðing. An úlfheðing (male úlfheðinn) is a berserker, a person who goes into a crazy trance during battle. This trance allows them to battle like maniacs and prevents them from feeling pain or remembering anything, including their friends, their foes, or themselves. Berserkers are usually associated with taking on the spirit of a bear during battle and will wear a bearskin. However, an úlfheðing takes on the spirit of a wolf rather than a bear, and so Whisper wears the skin of one. It is from this ability that the villagers give her the nickname "Whisper the Wolf." However, she actually hates the Wolf in her; it scares her that she can go into such a trance and still has nightmares of when she almost killed Norbert during her trance. Only Winterwind's howl seems to snap her out of it. Although she hates the Wolf, Whisper took up the wolfskin, bladed gloves, and Wolf nickname in the hopes that her newfound berserker abilities would give her a better status and acceptance on Berk. While it did win her more respect, some now treated Whisper even more warily due to her newfound dangerous power.
To the Norse, the wolf is the animal most associated with winter, and though Whisper tries to reject her totem, she often finds herself a person of the winter season and cannot truly ever part with this animal. Her willingness to bear the wolfskin is symbolic of her accepting her "darker" side. Like her battle with her totem, Whisper is constantly in a battle with herself, what is vicious and what is kind, what is just and what is not, and what is right and what is easy.
When the dragon riders meet the Archeologist, Whisper finally discovers her true passion: ancient history and archeology.
"It's never right to say someone isn't good for anything."
"
"No, I was just going to sit in the corner and try to be invisible, actually."
"Actually, I'm terrified most of the time. But I'm not afraid on Winterwind."