Hallr has lived in the village of Hallyn for the longest of anyone, about 20 years. A giant of a human, who has been keeping the bar for the majority of his life. The stories he tells claim he was an adventurer and hunter who snuck on to dwarven lands and stole axes or mail. This of course is entirely fake, he simply tells them to keep the stories about him wild, and people guessing. It is Hallr who keeps the city together, making sure that those staying in his inn are forced to spend money in the town, and support his neighbours. Only he remembers the night of blood when a bear attacked the city, killing almost everyone. No one knows how or why the citizens could not fight it off.
No one, of course, except Hallr. The stories of the great bear is a lie. Hallr was a Loup Garou for several months a decade and a half ago. He had found a wolf shrine in the nearby woods and destroyed it out of fear of the wolves attacking the village. This blatant act of disrepect to the spirits caused the wolves to howl his curse into the night. As he listened to the wolf howls, he and his neighbours began to roam out, hunting the wolves, worried they had gotten hungry enough to attack. The massacre of the wolves caused there to be nothing to keep the village safe as Hallr killed everyone over the course of the winter. When the first caravan arrived, Hallr created the story of the enrarged bear.
Hallr feels responsible for the town. He has spent the last decade keeping the inn together, doing most of the repairs himself. His staff is very small, but he often hires some of the peddlers or down and out fortune seekers to cook or wait tables, as well as clean, take care of horses, or break up fights. Of course, the Grey Wolf Inn has a reputation for tossing those causing fights into the woodlands around the foothills, so few try to stand up to Hallr while sober.
Having killed everyone he knew has a young man, Hallr feels indebted to the village he destroyed, and therefore will do anything to protect it and its people. However, he fears something more than all of that. Hallr fears the spirits of the woods. Since he destroyed that shrine, he's heard them whipsering to him. Telling him about the secrets of nature, and about the meaning of creation. Had he lived in one of the great cities with a university or church, Hallr would likely be scholar or priest, speaking all day about the nature of the world, about creation. Instead, he's driven slowly mad by his ability to hear the small voices of every small god, and the immense fear he feels that he may one day anger them again. This fear and penchant for listening to nothing at all make Hallr seem distant and sometimes quite violent in his demands, leaving him isolated. The many times this knowledge of the secrets of the world has managed to find a lost child, broker an important deal, or manage to find meat when it was most needed makes sure Hallr stays the center of the community, but as a distantly admired leader, not a friend and confidant.
During the winter, Hallr goes into the woods in order to listen to the spirits. He has managed to learn the song of his destruction of the wolves, and knows the mourning that Grandfather went through when His children were slaughtered. Hallr sings this song to the trees, rocks, and brooks in hopes that it will let the wolves know it is safe to return. He has also started to learn to sing to the spirits themselves, ask them for favours, and get help in his duties. He still fears their wrath enough he has never done anything noticable by the people, just made small requests and trades.
A Burning Wheel Monster Every Week