Folstag Flag Bearer

The Folstag Flag Bearer is a unit that is exclusive to the Fall of the Trident campaign of Age of Mythology. He is a Norseman that bears a flag, supposedly belonging to old man Skult's village.

Overview
Generally speaking, both missions involving the Flag Bearer are escort missions, as he must be kept alive at all costs, lest the player loses the game, especially as the Flag Bearer lacks an attack.

Nonetheless, this unit is very tough, regenerates like a Hero, and also has surprisingly high Line of Sight, meaning that he can be used a scout (especially useful in the twenty-fourth mission).

Not From Around Here
The Folstag Flag Bearer first appears in the twenty-fourth mission of the Fall of the Trident campaign. Skult meets the heroes in a canyon filled with Giants, as they travel through Midgard to pursuit Gargarensis and offers them a way to stop the local clans from infighting, enough so that they may convince them to fight back against the Giants and Gargarensis. He offers them with a flag that he claims to belong to his village, that can be used to draw their attention from fighting. A Huskarl immediately grabs the flag and the mission begins.

Welcoming Commitee
The second and last appearence of the Flag Bearer is in the twenty-fifth mission. After they manage to clear a boulder blockade and to escape from an enormous army of Giants, the heroes try to approach three clans that happen to fight with each other on top of a frozen lake. The Flag Bearer waves the flag, and indeed, manages to draw their attention. They cease fighting, with three Norse warriors, each from a prominent clan of the region, approaching him. Bewildered, they comment on Folstag, and enraged, they quickly turn on the player. In this mission, the Flag Bearer also has in-game utility. The player must kill three enemy chieftains (represented by Hersirs), each inside a walled village. As they or their clansmen won't go on the offensive without provocation, the Flag Bearer must be used to lure them outside the walls, where they can be ambushed in the central hill. When a chieftain dies, their clansmen immediately join the player in recognition of the heroes' might.

After the mission
Once this mission is completed, Arkantos tries to ask Skult about the reason the infighting clansmen hated his flag, only for Skult (who turns out to be a form of the trickster god Loki) to burst into laughter, mock the heroes and scatter in the form of Ravens. After that, Reginleif, a Valkyrie heroine, arrives to explain to the heroes about Loki's manipulations; the flag belonged to Folstag, a Frost Giant warlord who terrorised the human inhabitants in the region. This was just one of many machinations of Loki, to keep the Norse scattered and fighting with each other.

Mythology
"This Norseman carries the flag of Skult's village. Severed hands and eyes decorate the flag and on the whole it is quite gruesome. When asked abut the flag's grisly imagery Skult said, "Well the Norse are a violent people." The infamous raiding, or viking, that the Norse are known for started late in the 8th century AD, though it is likely that the raids started within their own waters before extending to England, Ireland and Europe."

- In-game mythology section