Hog Marluf

Hog Marluf, the Simpleton by Choice.

On the farms around here, they call him good old Hog, with the smile people save for simple folk, and he does everything he can to keep it that way. A former private, cannon fodder at the very bottom of the ranks, he saw so much war that he came back in love with life. No one here knows where he came back from. Every evening, he holds out a hand for someone to help him up from his bench, he who could lift the table.

Describe him

A deep, slow voice that laughs before the end of its own sentences. He shakes hands warmly and grinds your fingers without noticing, too strong for a mere farmhand, then apologizes at once, flustered. On his forearm, a badly placed tattoo, half faded, that almost no one can read. Whoever can recognizes the colors of the Fargian empire, and suddenly looks at this big oaf differently.

Play him

Play him huge and jovial: he laughs first, never offended, never stung. The more harmless you play him, the harder the turn will land. At the first gratuitous violence against the weak, good old Hog goes out all at once and something calm and terrible takes his place: no shout, he simply stands, and the table hears the laughter stop. He gives up the peace he chose only to protect someone smaller than himself.

What he says (rarely)

"Go on, mock me. I've laughed under worse than you. But put your hand down, son."
"Good old Hog, that's right. Not the cleverest beaver at the dam."
(very low, the laugh gone out) "Set it down. Now."