Episode 59: Berserker
Written By Karl White
Family is life. Kinship, whether born of love or conflict, defines who we are, and more importantly, who we become. It is the first bond we know, and often the one that shapes us most completely.
Primitive life offered challenges few could fathom. Existence was sustainable, but never comfortable. Survival was a daily struggle, and death waited patiently at the margins. Sem’s family was small, only he and his father. His mother and a sister had succumbed to illness shortly after his birth, leaving father and son alone in the world, but bound tightly to one another.
Sem’s father, Khon, was a capable provider, a competent hunter, but not quite the kingfish he saw himself as. Physically smaller and politically isolated, he held no true power within the Atooga. Any attempt to assert influence was swiftly dismissed, by leaders like Jakk, who rose naturally to chieftain, or by voices like Brot’s, louder and more respected within the tribe.
Sem’s father, Khon - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
Khon tried repeatedly to elevate his standing, but something from his past shadowed him. An incident no one spoke of openly had rendered him a pariah. He denied wrongdoing to his son, insisting the tribe’s prejudice was born of fear, not truth. Sem believed him.
But as Sem grew, his body filled out, and he became the embodiment of a warrior, strong, fast, relentless. Those in power took notice. Favor followed. Influence grew. Soon, Sem possessed the standing needed to challenge Jakk for leadership. Youth replaced age, with Khon working quietly from the shadows, guiding his son. Despite the tribe’s view of his father, Sem revered him, and did what his father advised him to...as among the Atooga, dishonoring family was an unforgivable sin.
When Jakk and Brot were exiled, Khon watched his son claim everything he had ever wanted. Sem felt his father’s pride and admiration, and it filled his soul. Neither man knew what waited beyond the village, as Jakk and Brot, still alive, were plotting, armed now with the curse of the werewolf.
The attack came swiftly, in the dead of night. The monstrous duo descended upon the village, slaughtering everyone. Sem, wounded and fading, watched as Brot tore his father apart. The image burned into his psyche. When Sem realized he’d survived, infected by the curse, it ignited a rage that would fuel his hunt for centuries. His father, the only family he had, meant the world to him. And he wouldn’t be satisfied until enough blood had been spilled.
With Jakk dead, Sem turned his full fury toward Brot…The hunt continued for Sem, following any information he could collect. Acting on his hunches, using his developed senses to lead him ever closer. But it would take nearly 500 years...
As Sem made his way across the Canadian wilderness, stories began to filter, circulating from far away tribes and settlements, tales of a hairy beast terrorizing those who traveled alone. At first, Sem believed he was onto something, a direct path to Brot. But as time and distance proved, the stories were recycled, past down through generations, rippling outward like a drop of water in a pond.
Still, Sem painstakingly tracked each tale back to its source hoping it’d lead him to vengeance. The stories were accounts of the Úlfhéðnar or Berserker, a vicious creature, appearing to be a creation of the east, where pale skinned sailors were said to have encountered the beast centuries before.
Viking wood carving of the Berserker - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
It moved through the spruce forests and rocky highlands like a living storm. A blood-thirsty spirit bound of flesh and fur, stalking Viking scouts and European settlers who strayed too far inland. By day, it left only signs, shattered camps, bodies ripped apart with unnatural strength, weapons bent and discarded as if useless. By night, its howls and shrieks rolled down from the hills, echoing across the fog-choked coastline.
To those who survived, it was a wrathful embodiment of the land itself, punishing intruders who believed steel and sail granted them dominion. One constant in the tales, was the creatures use and manipulation of Sound. It could mimic any human voice, any animal call, or silence all noise entirely, even the screams of those caught in its powerful jaws. Described as an upright walking wolf who could tear a man apart if given the chance, the Berserker was a feared legend -- As Sem followed more detailed accounts, the picture of its origin would slowly reveal itself as a direct interpretation of a werewolf.
In 925, a Norse sailor, who had seen the creature with his own two eyes, pointed Sem to the Northern coast of Nova Scotia. There, Sem spotted the elusive Brot, living out his days in a seaside cave. Sem could not contain his desire to even the score, deciding to strike in broad daylight, as Brot walked along the sandy shore.
Brot walking along the overcast beach - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
A quick note, while werewolves can live a long time, they can still die from external causes. Most vulnerable when they are human. In their beastly form, the most effective means of death is destruction of the brain or removal of the heart. However, there’s evidence that even interacting with the blood of a dead werewolf can pass along the curse. For this reason, burning the body after death is considered the safest way to prevent further transmission.
Sem had waited what seemed like an eternity for the moment, leaving Brot no time to defend himself. Using a Dane axe, acquired through trade with Viking raiders, he buried it in Brot's heart...Sem stood over his dying enemy. Basking in the glory of the swift revenge, Sem did not expect to hear a long-held secret that the elder revealed...Pulling him close, Brot confessed the two were in fact not mortal enemies, but blood relatives...
BROT: Your father, was my younger brother.
He spoke of the betrayal that had shattered their family. Telling Sem the source of the estrangement between brothers and the reason Khon was generally despised within the Atooga. When Khon was young, making a play for power, he poisoned a friend and mentor, who stood in the way of his path to chiefdom. Brot shielded his brother from retribution, but the damage from what Khon had done, made him an outcast among the rest of the tribe.
With Sem’s own rise to power, Brot objected that the brother he stood long in odds with, was pulling the strings from the shadows, as a way to play leader...and before anything else could be said on the matter, Brot took his final breath.
The revelation clouded Sem's mind. His father, who he grew up idolizing, was the villain. Khon had raised his son to believe it was them, versus everyone else...Sem’s life, his choices, the outcomes, all could have been different, had he only known.
Reeling over the admission, Sem was equally stunned, when from Brot’s cave dwelling emerged a wife and child. In that moment, Sem understood he was no better than Khon. And his blind revenge had created two more innocent victims, bound to loss. Something fractured within Sem. A dam holding back lifetimes of misplaced love and anger finally broke. Sem fled, spiraling into a deep state of depression.
Brot’s wife and child witness tragedy - © 2026 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC
On that overcast shore, the truths he learned and the blood he spilled would scar him forever, setting him on a reckless, hollow, and inconsolable path. For the first time, he truly felt his wild, irrational werewolf side was a curse that he wanted to be free of. And he would spend the rest of his life desperately trying to shed his skin, his past, and his self, by any means necessary.
TO BE CONTINUED…