Askeladd

On the surface, Askeladd is a battle-hardened Viking warlord commanding a hundred-strong mercenary force—but beneath that ruthless exterior lies the blood of Welsh royalty. By orchestrating the death of the legendary warrior Thors, he unwittingly bound himself to young Thorfinn's relentless quest for vengeance, while simultaneously forging the boy into a formidable fighter through years of brutal trials. Though Askeladd despised the savage, bloodthirsty nature of Viking culture, he wielded that very violence as a shield for his ancestral Welsh homeland. In his final act, he engineered his own death as a calculated sacrifice to place Prince Canute on the throne—cementing his legacy as one of anime's most compelling and morally complex antiheroes.