The open wound of Elle’s life is the painfully forced assimilation process. Returning to her birthplace forces her to reverse-engineer what caused it.
When the story starts, Elle is an unethical police officer with a developing drug problem. She is sent to Lapland as a special agent to infiltrate the native clans and find their hidden commander. She poses as the CEO of a rich development fund that has been set up to lure the clans.
Elle is thirty years old, and witty, and exudes confidence and stubbornness. Free designer clothing, a perk of her role as CEO, makes heads turn wherever she goes. In the course of the series, Elle’s personality goes through a massive change as she transforms into the fiercest fighter for the clans’ cause.
To all appearances, Karen is a ghostly fool working as a cleaner at the police station. Karen looks no one in the eye, says nothing, and obeys all the orders given to her. She is skinny and rheumatic. Karen cannot hide the bruises on her arms.
She wears a work coat that looks like it was bought at one of the most sordid flea markets in Murmansk. Nevertheless, she has chosen it partly to comply with the rules of the Laestadian Lutheran Church concerning dressing as an honourable woman. Karen is the mother of Juha and Matti. She is about sixty years old and the grand matriarch of the family. She is the mainstay of the family, and the biased police authority regards her as a victim. In reality, she is the one person who has always known what is required when the family’s survival is at stake. Karen is in fact the hidden commander – the Fist of God – of the United Clans of the Arctic. Not even the closest family members know about her secret role.
At twenty-three years of age, Juha is teased by his uncles as being an “unpolished diamond”. The reindeer skin clothing that Juha inherited from his father is still too big for him. Juha’s father’s sudden death came as a shock and led to everything going wrong. Juha’s strength is his creativity. He solves many problems with unorthodox, unique methods. He is an idealistic dreamer possessing an excess of empathy. Juha wants to help the troubled members of the Pike family to find peace and inner balance through mediation, and he insists that they should see the bigger picture before making any rushed decisions. Juha hates lies and does not live up to the omertà culture of the clan. Instead, he speaks openly about their secrets. Friends, enemies, and self-appointed candidates for clan leader are waiting for his failure – or the best moment to stab him in the back.
Matti is twenty-nine years old. He is fair-haired and looks like an office clerk compared to the other clan members. He likes to shoot from the hip and ask questions later. Matti is a ruthless pragmatist with few moral qualms when it comes to getting the job done. Nomadic law is on his side since he is the oldest son.
According to this unwritten law, Matti should have been the one to become the new patriarch, but evil rumours claim he was born out of wedlock. Long ago, during a road building project, many strangers to the local community were living in barracks. Matti’s mother worked there as a chambermaid for the construction company. When she married his father, Ant-Ovla, Matti was already a few years old. Matti and his brother Juha are like fire and ice. The question is, whether you can trust a bastard when the Tepee is burning. Blood is always thicker than water.
Regardless, Ant-Ovla always treated Matti as his own true son. The clan members call him “The Dentist”. He knows that the most serious disgrace for a nomad is to have to eat soup like a peasant. Strong teeth are essential for meat-eaters.
