The Norsemen (Ragnar's Family) | The Saxons | The Franks | The Mediterraneans | The Rus
The Rus
- Decadent Court: Not as deadly as the Mediterranean perhaps, but almost.
- Glorious Mother Russia: Yes, the Rus are portrayed with just as much consideration as you would expect.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The Rus never attempted to conquer Scandinavia and held reasonably friendly relations with their Norse cousins. Things went south first in the middle ages when Scandinavia became Catholic and Russia became Orthodox, and more importantly as their expantions started to collide. Some historians considers this portrayal as the first time the show's artistic license with history became downright offensive.
- Hordes from the East: Yeah, yeah, they're Horny Vikings, but seriously look at their armour, their helmets and the fact that they seem to be immensely skilled horsemen. That's basically the Turko-Mongol empire of the Golden Horde centuries too early. Also, Oleg's primary enforcer is a giant bearded guy with Mongol-style loop braids and a huge furry hat called Ganbaatar.
In Real Life, the Kievan Rus were but one relatively minor Slavic-Norse power in the western edges of the Eurasian Steppe, bordered by far more militarily and economically powerful Turkic states such as the Volga Bulgars, Khazar Khanlig or Pechenag Oghuz. The political context in which they lived actually drove them to adopt many aspects of Turkic political culture as a means to establish themselves as credible peers to these various states, hence why the early Kievan Rus were not ruled by Princes or Kings, but by Khagans. In addition to this, Turkic mercenaries were prized among the early Rus rulers for their combat skills and so it would not have been out of the ordinary at all for Rus rulers to have a contingent of steppe nomads to counter the forces of the Khazars or Bulgars. One example of this would be Sviatoslav's Pecheneg mercenaries during the Rus conquest of Khazaria. That being said, while Turkic/Khazar bodyguards would be perfectly acceptable for this time period, Ganbaatar is a Mongol name (meaning something like 'Steel Hero'), and the Mongols are way, way, way too far east to be known to the Russians at this time. - Translation Convention: On some occasions characters refers to the Rus as "Russia" and "Russians". While it may appear offensive nowadays since Kievan Rus was the ancestral state of Ukraine and Belarus as well, it's not incorrect. "Russia" was originally the Latin rendition of the Kievan Rus, thus indicating the entirety of East Slavs. Only after the Middle Ages it stuck to indicate the Russian state with capital Moscow. The use of the original name "Rus" in modern languages is a convention to make it clear when we're talking about the medieval state rather than the modern one.
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The Princes
Oleg the Prophet
Played By: Danila Kozlovsky
"I feel you and I will have a very special relationship."
The machiavellian and cruel ruler of Kiev.
- Ax-Crazy: Oleg is prone to mood swings and acts of violence whenever he feels someone as failed him. His swings between praise to virulent insults or violence to those who displease him implies he may suffer from borderline personality disorder.
- Bad Boss: He kills the guards watching Dir after Ivar helps him escape and later performs a Stalin-like purge upon his officers after the humiliating defeat and retreat of his army.
- Big Bad: The lead villain of Season 6.
- Churchgoing Villain: Oleg is one of the most religious characters in the show.
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Dyeing for Your Art: Danila Kozlovsky is not fluent in English and learnt much of his dialogue phonetically. The effect is that Kozlovsky sounds quite American, often over emphasizing his pronunciation, presumably because he does not have enough awareness of how his English sounds compared to other people. In other words, realistic broken English. - Evil Regent / Evil Uncle: His brother-in-law Rurik named his the regent and protector of Igor, his nephew. Igor is frightened to death by him, for good reason.
- A God Am I: When at the end of the line, Oleg likens himself to Jesus down to absolving Igor of his sins.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: As stated above, his invasion of Scandinavia is completely made up. As is him killing his first wife for cheating on him and him killing his brother.
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Ho Yay: Barely was the second trailer released and fans started to ship him with Ivar. - Hunk: A rare villainous example.
- Husky Russkie: He is played by Danila Kozlovsky, who is tall, powerfully-built, and very Russian.
- Make Way for the New Villains: Oleg wants to use Ivar, who became the villain of Season 5, as a conscript to his army.
- Race Lift: Oleg was presumably (at least part-) Swedish like Rurik, his name being derived from the Norse Helgi. In the show, his ancestors are Scandinavian but he himself is more of a second- or third generation migrant who is very Rus, but has some connection to his heritage.
- Russia Takes Over the World: Oleg's plot, centuries ahead of the region becoming anything resembling the power house it became.
- That Russian Squat Dance: Oleg does it while Askold dies from poisoning.
Igor
Played By: Oran Glynn O'Donovan
"I own the land and the sky!"
The only child of the departed king Rurik.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: The true prince of Kiev Rus, under the regency of Oleg.
- Morality Chain: To Ivar.
- Puppet King: Like in the Primary Chronicle, he serves this purpose to Oleg in the show.
- Young Future Famous People: The father of Sviatoslav Igorevich, one of the greatest heroes of Slavic history and husband of Olga of Kiev, one of Russia's most famous saints.
Prince Dir
Played By: Lenn Kudrjawizki
Oleg's less unscrouplous brother.
- Dead Pan Snarker
- I Have Your Wife: Oleg has Dir's wife and their nephew, forcing Dir to go along with his schemes.
- Token Good Teammate: In that he is the only of the Rurikids that 1) does not want to invade Scandinavia, 2) actively opposes Oleg on ground of him being utterly amoral, and 3) does not have obvious intentions to use Igor as a puppet.
Princess Katia
Played By: Alicia Agneson
Oleg's mysterious wife.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Alicia Agneson dyed her blonde hair black for the part.
- Identical Stranger: To Freydis, which is why Ivar is both smitten and distraught by her.
- Ms. Fanservice: Spends plenty of screen time walking around in beautiful gowns, or no gown at all.
- Reincarnation Romance: Katia is the spitting image of Freydis, to the point Ivar initially thinks they are the same. Oleg and Katia uses this confusion to have Katia manipulate him, enforcing this trope.
- Sensual Slavs: She's an attractive Rus princess and aware of her sex appeal.
Prince Askold
Oleg's other brother, the prince of Novgorod.
Played By: Blake Kubena
- Evil Uncle: As far as we know, he was not any better than Oleg in his treatment of Igor as a pawn.
- Historical Domain Character: Loosely based on Askold of Kiev that was a Varangian rival to state established by Rurik.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Askold appears and dies within less than 5 minutes after his initial appearance to show how truly ruthless Oleg is.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His death sets off the conflict between Oleg and Dir which continues through the rest of the Rus storyline.
Kiev
Ganbaatar
Played By: Andrei Claude
The captain of Oleg's personal forces.
- Born in the Saddle: A very steppe nomad kind of a guy. It's very ambiguous if he is meant to be a Rus, or some sort of Turkic nomad that got recruited by Oleg. His name is Mongolic, though.
- Hero Killer: Though Bjorn was already dying from being stabbed by Ivar, Ganbaatar gives him the final blow with his bow. He also kills both King Hakon and Amma as well.
- Horse Archer: In the battle between the Norwegian confederation and the Rus, Ganbaatar fights on a horse, using bow and arrow as his primary weapon.
- The Dragon: He is Oleg's primary enforcer.
