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He is a breath breaker. An unfeelin' madman, vile murderer fer whom severin the threads of existence is mere diversion. |  | |
| - Colm Coimeádaí describing Ekerot, pg. 13 Wild Animals (Issue 2) | |||
Ekerot was a jarl of an isle during the 13th century.[1]
Biography[]
Around the time of his son's fourth birthday, the jarl began to notice a disturbing perpetuity for his son to bring in animal corpses and torture them. A year later, an axe was requested and used within the week to violently kill a cow to watch for its reaction. Knowing his son was becoming a psychopath and with no end in sight, the jarl agreed to provide monsters such as drowners for his son to torture and kill. From then, his own bloodlust grew, and he began weekly hunts in which he left his guards near the edge of the woods and hunted a great manner of beasts alone, such as bears to "satiate his bloodlust" according to many.
Sometime later, a guerrilla clan known for viewing all animals as equals formed in the woods near Ekerot's settlement, and he began a long-term campaign to round them up and execute them, bolstered by a reward he offered to the locals for assistance.
Soon after, while in the process of a hunt, he was ambushed by a pack of drowners and quickly overwhelmed. As he screamed to his guards for assistance, the witcher Geralt of Rivia arrived and swiftly held them off, as well as helped Ekerot return to his guards. As a thanks, the jarl invited the witcher to dinner with himself and his son, which quickly turned into a dispute between the two family members when Ekerot had no explanation for his wife's disappearance for their child, and so after, when the two were left to talk, Ekerot told Geralt of Colm Coimeádaí, the leader of the "bandit" guerrilla camp. The witcher disagreed to hunting Colm down though, due to the morality of hunting intelligent beings.
As the witcher left to leave the settlement, Ekerot first led him to the dungeons, where he revealed he had captured a member of the clan to torture for information. After Geralt spoke to him alone, the prisoner agreed to lead them to the clan's hideout and so he, Geralt, and several of the jarl's guards set off.
A day later, a local girl Berit returned with Geralt's unconscious body, having shot him over his refusal to kill Colm Coimeádaí. When the witcher awoke in the dungeon, Ekerot explained he would not kill Geralt as the witcher had earlier saved the jarl's life, though was entrapping him until Colm was dead. The guards then grabbed one of the drowners imprisoned near Geralt to give to Ekerot's son and the jarl set off to finish off Colm. As his guards began to fight the guerrilla leader, Ekerot managed to stab Colm in the back, and as he went finish him off, was knocked out by Geralt. Colm responded by going to kill Ekerot, though this sparked a conflict between the two, and as Ekerot awoke, Colm was run through by the witcher's sword, ending the jarl's recent troubles, albeit with his son's tendencies still unresolved.[1]