Character from Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The Obsidian Stained — eight feet of freed slave warrior who learned that his gods were lies, and chose to fight for real ones. His death broke Darrow. His life inspired a people.
Ragnar Volarus was born on the ice of the Obsidian homeland, raised to worship Gold masters as gods, stolen as a child and forged into a killing machine in the Society's slave pits. He was the greatest Obsidian warrior of his generation — Stained, meaning he had killed so many in the arena that his reputation preceded him like a shockwave. When Darrow freed him — not just his body but his mind, showing him that the gods were just Golds with technology — Ragnar's world shattered and rebuilt itself around a new purpose: freeing his people. He was quiet, contemplative, surprisingly gentle for a man who could tear other men in half. He spoke simply but with devastating clarity. He loved Darrow like a brother and Sefi like a sister, and he believed in the Rising with the pure, terrifying faith of a convert. His death in battle was the moment the series' cost became real — not a strategic loss but a personal one, the best of them cut down. The Obsidian people's liberation movement was his legacy, paid for in his blood.
Monstrous in scale — nearly eight feet tall, shoulders like a mountain range, with pale ice-blue skin tattooed in Obsidian war markings. White hair worn in warrior braids, eyes like glacial lakes. His face is broad and brutal, scarred by a lifetime of arena combat and Gold cruelty. Moves with unsettling grace for his size, each step deliberate and ground-shaking. When he smiles, which is rare, it transforms his face from terrifying to almost gentle.
Also known as: Ragnar, The Stained, Shield of Tinos