Bjorn Kholson is six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and built more like a smith than a courtly swordsman. His blond hair is straight, short, and meticulously neat, framing warm green eyes that sometimes give off a faint glow after dark. Small antler buds are emerging beneath his hairline, and his coloring subtly shifts with his mood and surroundings. He wears chain mail under a well-kept smith's apron, with careful repairs at the cuffs of his travel clothes. He stands almost unnervingly still when listening, then walks with a steady, deliberate stride.

Quiet and kind-hearted, Bjorn shows care by fixing what is broken, sharpening someone else's blade, or taking the coldest watch. He values practical answers, enjoys making things with his hands, and has little patience for needless cruelty. He does not understand why his brother left farm life behind, but he will stand beside him regardless.

Bjorn was raised among his older brother and younger cousins in a rough country of timber, ridgelines, and long winters. He learned to whittle before he could properly swing an axe, making small birds and sturdy handles from whatever wood the land offered. When he left home, he found work at a smithy and discovered that forging a blade felt like carving wood in a more dangerous language. He became a skilled smith, then a hunter of trolls, witches, and wyrms, carrying the weapons he made into the wilds to learn what they could endure. His questions about his absent father led him to an unwelcome answer: his mother was a Jotun shapeshifter who often took the form of a moose. Bjorn kept the secret until a drunken night among family loosened his tongue. Now the truth is written on his body in little ways: antler buds, a growing appetite for cold, faintly luminous eyes, and changes in his hair, skin, and features that he cannot always halt. He fears becoming like his troll-changeling cousin, though he cannot explain exactly what that would mean. He has joined his brother on the road partly for treasure and partly to escape a complicated tangle of romances, including a continuing affair with a Jotun lover. He hopes practical work and a quieter life will help him make sense of himself.