Ingolf Arud

Ingolf Arud is the CEO of JotenCraft. With a shining public image, his company spreads across the entire world with many different industries. However, he is secretly a member of the Illuminati, and is suggested to be not quite as innocent as he appears.

Appearance
Ingolf is a handsome man of impressive stature and build. While not exactly threatening, he is a bit intimidating at first glance. His short hair is white as snow for reasons unknown, kept combed to the left a bit messily, but intentionally styled so to appear more approachable. His eyes are an icy blue color and a bit small. His face is a bit slim with a solid chin and a pointed nose. He is often smiling. He has a faint scar across the bridge of his nose.

Expensive two button suits (usually in the several thousand dollar range) are his normal wear. Blues and grays are the most frequent colors, often with a vest to go with it. Each suit has been specially made for him alone so as to fit as comfortable as possible, as well as having his initials on the inside of the collar. Collared shirts of white or a blue lighter than the suit go best, as does a similarly colored tie. Leather dress shoes made in Italy, often of a black color (though he does own two pairs of light blue), are worn on his feet over dual-toned blue and black socks. He fastens his pants with a black belt, nothing particularly special about it. On fancier occasions, he may wear white dress gloves.

Personality
Ingolf is a proud man: Proud of his heritage, proud of his company, and proud of himself. Growing up in Norway, he was told the stories of the Norse pantheon of gods, giants, and mystical beasts, hoping to model himself after the heroes of such epic battles and wars. This led to his present view on running his company, that being to assimilate all competition for a “complete victory” to the metaphorical “war” waged by companies. So far, he has been quite successful, having expanded into thousands of different kinds of products and stores.

Having acquired a taste for the finer things, Ingolf prefers not to dirty his hands with anything that can be seen as “grunt work.” He delegates most of the work he does to other people, spending his time wooing potential clients or researching new businesses to buy out. Other than golf and the occasional game of tennis, his physical activity is limited to a five mile run in the morning and an hour of weight training once a week. Surprisingly, he has exceptional skill at carving and creating with wood.

He enjoys fish quite a bit. Steak is also a favorite. Really, anything made of meat. Despite his refined taste for things such as wine and other “rich person” foods, any kind of meat will do. Regardless of how much or how little it is cooked, what it is seasoned with, or how it is presented, he will eat it.

Though often controlled, he has an angry streak. Though it is often whispered of in the office, few have actually seen or heard it in person. Once, however, there was what seemed to be a strange, unearthly noise coming from his office on a particularly rough day (a client he had attended to for months had turned down the offer to sell their company), some describing it as almost a howl. However, none would actually desire to question their boss about it.

History
Much of Ingolf’s past is kept off the books. Few people claim to even remember him in his hometown, a similar story from those at his schools and other places of interest. However, he was most certainly born in Norway in a small town. Along with his mother (a rather large woman) and father (a smaller but rather intelligent man), he was raised among a large cast of extended family. All praised him for his strength and clever aptitude in youth, often taking him on hunting trips with the other men, even as a boy. School was a non-factor, being from such a small town, meaning education came almost exclusively from his family. Norse myth was the favored way of teaching him about life, his favorite figure coming to be Fenrir the wolf.

As the years passed and Ingolf rapidly approached manhood, he continued to hunt and learn woodsman skills from his male family. On one trip, however, a very unfortunate accident happened. Shooting at what he thought to be a bear, he had actually shot his cousin. Though not dead, his hand would be amputated. A lack of regret (Ingolf firmly believed he should have stayed closer to the rest of them and out of his line of fire) coupled with his maturity forced his family to banish him. He still refuses to speak of them.

He exiled himself to the forests for some years after this, living off the land as he had been taught. Eventually, however, on a trip into town for some supplies, he was approached by the owner of a small furniture store. Having heard of his reputation as a hunter and woodsman, he wanted to strike a deal with Ingolf to provide him wood for his store. Not one to be fooled, however, Ingolf rejected the offer, correctly deducing that the store was in a state of near-bankruptcy, and the amount he was willing to pay for wood was far less than he would need to spend at a store or lumber mill. For this perceived insult to his intelligence, he would occasionally sell tress he had drug into town to other people, such as the general store, just to spite the man.

It wasn’t long before the shop was forced to close, at which point Ingolf used the money he had saved to buy it for a fraction of what it was worth. Remembering a few lessons in wood carving from his youth, as well as with help from a man at the general store who had always been grateful for his business and the tress he would supply, he eventually became a skilled craftsman in his own right. Keeping costs low with few employees and supplying lumber by himself from the forest, he managed to turn the business around.

After a few years, he decided to expand, competing with another craftsman in town in what was supposed to be a mock rivalry to drive up both their sales. However, it was anything but a friendly game for Ingolf, undercutting the competition as a way to draw business away from them, forcing them to close after only a few months, at which point he bought the store and expanded his brand.

His success only increasing, he had begun to spread across the rest of the country, under the name “JotenCraft.” Businesses began to notice his success, even successful companies like Ikea feeling that his success may be a bit of a drain on their profits. It wasn’t long before he was receiving offers to buy his stores. He continually refused, making the incredibly bold decision to expand into pottery as an act of defiance. Like his furniture, the clay was procured by him from the resources of the forest, crafted by him and his workers.

His business was expanding now, earning him more money than even he initially expected. Now 25, he felt it was time he finally became known by the world as the important person he knew he could be. Learning German within the year, he set up contracts with various companies in the country to sell his products abroad, with the condition being that his brand be visible. At this point, he began attending various universities with the money he had earned, learning various subjects and expanding knowledge before moving on to another. With his hard work, he graduated a year earlier than expected, all while continuing to run his company, though more hands-off than before.

School had given him the opportunity to expand his repertoire of language, motivating him to expand his company once more. However, rather than contact other companies to sell his product for him, he cut off contact with the German group completely to make his own business. While a small office building in a large Norwegian city was where it began, it quickly grew within the next nine years to be one of the largest furniture and pottery stores in the world. While this was happening, he slowly and quietly began to acquire various failing businesses in different parts of the world, repurposing them and slapping his brand across it. For whatever reason, his hand always seemed to bring success to an otherwise failing endeavor. It wouldn’t be long before he became known among groups like Walmart and Coca-Cola as some of the most prominent and successful brands in the world.

Inheritance, Inc.
One afternoon, Ingolf's Illuminati associate Benjamin Langley called him, informing he had learned some dark secret of Ingolf's that he planned to reveal to it to the other members. Though Ingolf testified that he had no idea what the man could be talking about promptly hung up, he proceeded to call his assistant and inform them that they would need an assassin outside their normal channels to dispose of Langley.

The assassin was John Smith, who killed Langley in his office. Later, after months of negotiation, Ingolf was able to buy out Langley's company, Inheritance, Inc., to carry on his legacy. In reality, this had been a plan of his all along to expand his own influence.

Powers and Abilities
Business Management: Ingolf is the CEO of JotenCraft and, as such, is a brilliant businessman through and through. He has expanded what used to be a simple furniture company into one of the world’s most successful conglomerates. He is also obscenely rich, meaning he can buy practically anything he could need. His desire to continue expanding his company more and more over the years gives him a drive unmatched by many, even the greediest of Fat Cats.

Hunting: As a young man, Ingolf learned to hunt with his family.

Survival: In addition to hunting, Ingolf was taught wilderness survival skills.

Golfing: Ingolf is an exceptional golfer and practices often.

Tennis: He is a proficient tennis player.

Woodworking: As JotenCraft started as a company to produce handmade furniture, Ingolf is a skilled woodworker.

Negotiation: He is a skilled negotiator, honing his skills with other business owners while attempting to buy them out.

Multilingual: Ingolf is fluent in English, High German, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Swahili, Japanese, Russian, and Korean for international purposes, along with his native Norwegian and all dialects and versions of the Sami languages.

Equipment
Ingolf carries no equipment and forces his assistant to keep his personal belongings safe.

Trivia

 * His approved character sheet can be found here.
 * What secrets Langley claims to have uncovered about Ingolf are, currently, unknown.