Character from The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
The northern king who united the clans through cunning and Logen's violence — a schemer who used the Bloody-Nine as a weapon and then discovered you can't put that weapon down.
Bethod is the North's great exception — a man who conquered through strategy rather than strength. He united the clans by playing them against each other, using Logen as his enforcer and discarding him when the Bloody-Nine became more liability than asset. His fall came from the same ambition that made him rise — pushing south against the Union, overreaching, and finding that the wider world has bigger players than any northern king. Bayaz, in particular, doesn't tolerate rivals he hasn't personally installed.
More politician than warrior — sharp-featured, calculating, dressed better than a Northman has any right to. His crown sits on a head built for plotting rather than fighting. He looks like what he is: the man who figured out that brains beat axes.
Also known as: Bethod, King Bethod