The king
A ruler with a secret
Erik is the hereditary king of Roo. Beneath the crown, however, his power is not absolute: jarls and clans control their own territories, some loyal and some increasingly willing to question royal authority. Resgar Vasa's rebellion in the Dales has made that weakness impossible to ignore.
What almost nobody knows is that Erik understands more about Roo's ancient ruins than most people alive. During earlier exploration he discovered a still-functioning Vanir chamber capable of showing fragments of the past. Erik does not understand it as technology. To him, the chamber gives visions.
Those visions showed him fragments of the catastrophe that devastated the ancient world. He does not know the full cause, and he does not possess a complete history. But he knows the disaster was real — and that the stories accepted by ordinary people are incomplete.
That knowledge has become fear. Erik worries that whatever destroyed the old world could return and destroy the present one as well.
Why outsiders worry him
The ruins are no longer only Roo's secret
A powerful fleet from Varren has reached Roo. Publicly, the visit can look like diplomacy, conversation and trade. Privately, Varren is searching for ancient knowledge, functioning ruins and signs of the Drianor bloodline.
For Erik, this is not merely a question of foreign influence. He has seen enough of the past to believe ancient forces are dangerous even when nobody fully understands them. That makes outsiders searching Roo's ruins especially threatening.
His fear is grounded in knowledge, but his knowledge is incomplete. The true nature of the Vanir, the Aesir and the ancient catastrophe remains unresolved.