Post by Al on Apr 18, 2008 3:08:51 GMT -5
This is a Char who was never tested in Alyss' game in the LWRPG
Althorn the Slave
The concept of a family name was foreign to Althorn, for growing up as a child slave working the mines of Ogia, the closest thing he had to a family was his fellow slaves, who lived and died working beside him, instead he was simply known as Althorn and, with the rest of his fellow child-slaves, his life was one of drudgery and fear, working for the dreaded Giak slave-drivers deep in the blacksteel mines of Ogia.
Althorn the child slave did not know of the wider world beyond the mines, nor of the battles waged between the forces of good and evil, of the gods above using mortals as soldiers in their eternal war. Al Althorn knew was two things; the feel of the pickaxe in his hand as he dug deeper and deeper into the earth and the feel of a Giak’s whip on his back to offer him encouragement to dig faster.
Since he was old enough to walk, his Giak masters had him working in the mines. His small body able to go places the larger youths unable to, and when he grew, and he did grow massively; they used his strong arms to wield a pick axe.
Through this digging, Althorn and his fellow slaves grew strong in arm, which attracted the attention of the giak overseers who took great pleasure in forcing battles between the slaves. Althorn hated these battles, for even with his limited experiences, he instinctively knew the difference between right and wrong; and fighting for the pleasure of these foul creatures was wrong. Unfortunately for Althorn, the Giaks had ways around this, for every slave that refused to fight for their pleasure; three were killed to show the slaves that they had no choices, even in this. Althorn was forced to fight, and kill, his friends in order to save his fellows from even worse deprivations at the hands of the Giaks.
Althorn the Gladiator
Another thing that young Althorn did not know was of the gladiator contests between the different Giak and Drakkar units in Ogia, were they forced their toughest slaves to fight with each other. These contests would attract the attention of the highest ranking commanders, and the owners of the champions would be the beneficiaries of great rewards.
He was only about 12 summers old when his masters started to make him fight for their enjoyment, and 13 summers when they decided to enter him in the tournaments. Here he did well, fighting the slave-champions of other Giak bands before being entered in one of the major tournaments.
While Althorn was born with an instinctive sense of right and wrong, to his shame he started to take pleasure in the fighting. For the first time in his life, he was being given the smallest degree of respect from his masters, and rewarded with better food and medical attention, which made him feel powerful and important; feelings that the great masses of slaves of Ogia never felt.
Althorn, then, was destined to fight and die for the pleasure of his Giak owners. Fate, though, intervened. Be it Ishir, Kai, maybe even Alyss paving the way for the future, yet it was most likely just plain chance, that intervened and turned his life around.
Althorn did not know of the raids into neighbouring territories that produced the great quantities of slaves for the mines, all he knew of was Ogia and to him, and to him, that was all of the world. He did not know that to the south lay countries were freedom was prized, that people could have choices, learn to read and when they fought, it was for a higher purpose, not for the pleasure of others.
It was on his way to fight at the regional championship that Althorn’s life was to change, for as he and his Giak owners made their way through the mountains, that a combined force of Telestrian Knights and Palmyrion Knights of the Shield attacked his caravan.
At first Althorn was scared, as he watched the human archers decimate the giak ranks, then the human infantry attack en mass, but his fear soon turned to anger. Not anger against his attackers, but at his owners. Althorn watched the humans, with their shining swords and armour, their colourful cloaks and uniforms, attack the dullness of the Giaks with the precision known only to fully trained and disciplined soldiers of the freelands.
With a mighty roar Althorn raised his shackled hands and wrapped the chain around an unsuspecting Giaks neck, twisting it until he heard it snap. Then, picking up the giaks sword, he then raced towards the leader of the giak tribe; his owner and the one who made him kill the only friends he knew for his own personal pleasure. In hand to hand combat with the leader of the Knights of the Shield, the Giak did not see Althorn come, he only saw the blade protrude through his chest and hear the boy whisper in his ear “I fight for you no longer.”
Althorn and the Knight just stared at each other, and the look that Althorn saw in the Knight’s eye was something he was not familiar with, it was a look of sadness and despair. As the Knight looked at Althorn, he immediately thought of his own children, his eldest boy who was studying to become a Brother of the Crystal Star, and his second son, who two months prior had started his basic training with the Knights. As he looked upon Althorn he realized that the boy standing in front of him and his son were about the same age, but that Athorn’s eyes had seen things that no boy his age should have.
As the Knight reached out to Althorn, the warrior-slave instinctively pulled away and started muttering words unintelligible to the Knight, but who soon realized that it was Giak that the boy was speaking. One of the Telystrians, though, was able to speak Giak and the Knight was able to talk to him through this interpreter, and it was here, on this battlefield in Ogia that a freeman took pity upon a slave boy who reminded him of his own son, and decided to give that slave boy the same chances as his own son, a chance to go to Palmyrion and join the Knights of the Shield.
Althorn the Knight
His voyage to Palmyrion was one that Althorn never forgot, his new mentor, Sir Rodgar Helmfist was a kindly man, and showed extreme patience with the former slave, slowly teaching him how to speak Palmyrion and introducing him to the world of free men. Upon reaching Palmyrion, Sir Rodgar took young Althorn to his home first, giving him the clothing he would need upon his arrival at the Knights training camp. His wife, Gwynovia, doted upon Althorn, showing the same remorse and sadness towards the boy that her husband had demonstrated on the battlefield.
When he arrived at the training camp, he was immediately welcomed into one of the training companies to begin his training, and the two years he spent studying to be a knight was always a period he would look back later in life with a smile. The Knight instructors were demanding, but took great pride in their charged, molding them into the soldiers of the finest fighting force in all of Magnamund.
Both his instructors and his peers were amazed not only with the skill at arms demonstrated by Althorn, which given his background they expected, but by the sheer strength of the lad. Already as strong as the strongest instructors there when he started his training, by the time he was done he was generally considered the strongest knight of his time, and perhaps one of the strongest knights ever; high praise in an organization which prides itself in unsurpassed feats of strength and endurance.
During this time his fellow recruits and the Helmfists became as second families to Althorn, and through this he learned compassion and caring, lessons one never received in the slave pits of Ogia, but ones which melded with his natural sense of right and wrong and molded him into an honourable young man. He became good frinds with Sir Rodgar’s son, who was one season ahead of him at the academy. Rodgar the Younger had the same sense of natural justice as him parents, and ensured that none of the other lads picked upon young Althorn, although it soon became apparent that Althorn needed no protection!
It was also during this time that the young Althorn was introduced to the gods of good, and he quickly became a follower of one of the local cults of the God Kai. Yet throughout all of his time training, he never once forgot about the fellows he left behind, suffering and dying under the brutal hands of the giak overlords.
His graduation into the ranks of the Knights of the Shield was the single happiest day of his life, a day made only happier by the gift bestowed on him by Sir Rodgar and his family. Sir Rodgar had kept the sword that Althorn used to kill his giak master, and gain is freedom, and upon his return to Palmyrion had a master craftsman melt the blacksteel sword of giak design down and use the metal to produce an exquisite sword of Palmyrion design. Made of the darksteel, it was etched with the crest of Palmyrion on one side of the hilt, and with the crest of Althorn’s adopted family, the Helmfists on the other.
Following a brief period of leave after his graduation, Althorn immediately returned to the ranks of the Knights, upon which he volunteered for as many missions as he could. His superiors recognized him as a natural warrior and intended for him to get as much experience as possible. He travelled the world with detachments of knights, where the government of Palmyrion felt their interests lay. He spent much time with their closest allies, the NAME, and even received special underground warfare training with the Dwarfs of Bor in and around Mount Stonefist. Through all of this, he quickly rose in rank, becoming a leader of Knights.
It was after over a decade of service, though, that the governments of many of the nations surrounding Ogia grew weary of the constant border skirmishes and raids and decided to eliminate the threat once and for all. As a senior commander, and one who had intimate knowledge of Ogia, Althorn became one of the senior allied commanders in this venture, and it was with great pride and determination that he intended to liberate his fellow slaves.
Althorn the King
Upon calling a meeting of the General Staff, the commanders of the allied armies that were spearheading the invasion of Ogia, Althorn had devised a plan that he was sure would catch the minions of the Darklords off guard. Instead of waging direct war against the Darklords, Althorn and a selected group of Knights of the Sheild and Telestrian Knights would infiltrate Ogia and foster rebellion amongst the slaves. The Allied armies were to hold fast for another year, so as not to give away their intentions, It was only when the slave rebellion was in full swing, and the powers in Ogia distracted by this, would Althorn send word to the Allies who would swoop in and eliminate the presence of the Darklords once and for all from Ogia.
The plan was a complete success.
Upon their arrival in Ogia, Althorn and his men immediate started a guerrilla campaign against the overlords of Ogia, freeing slaves and growing a large number of followers. Those he was unable to free he instilled that which the Darklords had denied them for so long; hope.
It was these slaves that carried the message through the mines and tunnels of Ogia. As ore was passed so was word of Althron, until he reached near mythical proportions. Try as they might, the Giaks and Drakkar overseers could not stop the spread of rebellion. Indeed, by increasing the punishments meted out, they only increased the desire of the slaves to be free.
It was then, in MS 3986 that the Allies struck. In complete disarray due to the rebellions, and caught completely off guard by the surprise attack, the Giaks and Drakkar armies quickly fled into the thousands of miles of caves and mines that were bored into the mountain ranges of Ogia. There, they waited and plotted.
For the Allies, unaware at the extent of the armies of the Darklords that escaped them, they rejoiced, for they thought that Ogia was free. In the ruins of the capital city of Xanar, the surviving slave population rejoiced as the liberators and the free-slave army of Althorn freed them from their shackles.
This is were Althorn and the allies made their one and only strategic mistake. Thinking that they had routed the Dark Army, they decided to leave the ruins of Xanar and the blasted lands of Ogia; their mission, after all, was complete.
The freed slaves of Ogia, though, many of whom who were bred there, had no place to go, and instead decided to remain in Xanar and build their homes there. Without the minions of the Darklord, they reasoned, they would be able to turn Ogia into a profitable venture. Althorn, who was seen as their liberator, was propositioned to remain and become king of the Free Kingdom of Ogia, as the country would be henceforth known as. Seeking permission from the King of Palmyrion, Althorn was granted indefinite leave from the Knights of the Shield, and was invested as the first King of the Free Kingdom. In honour of the many tens of thousands of slaves who had died at the hands of the servants of Naar, he took upon him as his title Althorn, King of Slaves. It was at this point he also married one of the freed slaves, a woman who was his right hand commander during the uprising and who nursed him back to health when the poisons of a heldeghast assassin nearly killed him. Upon their marriage she became Myrinda, Queen of the Free. A heavily tattooed warrior slave, she was not conventionally beautiful, but earned the respect of all around her through her bravery and dedication to the people of Ogia.
While not the greatest military or political mind of his day, Althorn none the less knew that while he was a king, and the Free Kingdom nominally independent, that he was not much more of a vassal of Palmyrion and Telystria, and it would take many years, even generations, before the Free Kingdom would stand shoulder to shoulder with the other free nations of Magnamund.
Althorn quickly convened a council of ministers and set about rebuilding his new kingdom. For the first few years of the Free Kingdom, the rebuilding went slowly, and as the allied armies pulled out, the rebuilding went even slower. While Althorn was a great warrior and commander of armies, he lacked the training in politics and administration that nobles would have. His ministers were even worse. Freed slaves all of them, many did not share his honour and intuitive sense of right and wrong, and soon corruption was the norm in the Free Kingdom, as ministers attempted to build up their own wealth at the expense of the population.
Althorn moved quickly and decisively against the corruption, but his moves were a mere dent in a system that was quickly spiralling out of control. All the while, from the caves and mines in the mountains, the survivors of Ogia’s last regime watched and waited.
It was in the fall of MS 3992 that they began making their moves. At firs, Althorn did not recognize the attacks for what they were, thinking that they were mere bandits preying on his people, but once he realized that it was an infiltration by his enemies, he quickly raised an army of freed slaves and sent messengers to his allies. Unfortunately, as he had no wizards or the like in his court, he had to send his messengers by foot and horse, and unbeknownst to him, all the passages were completely cut off. Not a single messenger made it through.
That winter was particularly hard on the Free Kingdom, raids and attacks, growing more and more brave and concerted, whittled away at his forces, it was not until early in MS 3993, when the snows were still thick, did the tide turn for Althorn. Taking personal command of his army, he led a full frontal assault against the minions of the darklords, breaking their army and sending them fleeing into the hills once again. Vowing not to make the same mistake twice, he planned to send messengers to his allies once the snow in the passes cleared.
His return to Xanar was a hero’s welcome, once again the people of the Free Kingdom understood why they had chosen him as their leader, and knew that while he was alive nothing would take away their freedom again. Althorn let the people celebrate, walking freely amongst them, sharing their joy and determination to live free. Little did Althorn know that this night was to be his last.
The last memory Althorn, King of Slaves, General of the Knights of the Shield had before leaving this earth was the night of his victory celebrations. In his chambers, as he and his wife toasted their victory over the minions of Naar, he could have sworn that one of her tattoos, a peculiar snake tattoo on her wrist, seemed to writhe and its tongue flicker as he drunk deeply from the glass of wine she poured him.
Legacy of Althorn
The assassination of Althorn came as a demoralizing shock to the free people of Ogia, and as quickly as the news spread, the minions of the darklords re-launched their attacks upon their capitol. Without his leadership the city soon fell, and the darklords re-established their control over Ogia.
When messengers from the freestates attempted to return to Xanon, they could find no trace of the city, for the Darklords had cast powerful wards over it to ensure that it remained safely hidden. The mining of the ore of Ogia was so important to the Second Black Muster that nothing, no one, could stand in its way. While the powerful magic’s costs the darklords dearly, not having access to the ore would have cost them even more. Returning to their leaders, the messengers reported what they found, and for years afterwards, the freelands tried to determine what had happened in Ogia, but they found nothing, and as other matters urgently pressed them, their efforts in finding out what happened in Ogia soon passed. The fate of Althorn, King of Slaves and the Free Kingdom of Ogia is a mystery that has never been solved, but the memory of Althorn lives on amongst the Knights of the Shield.
Death MS 3993
Althorn the Slave
The concept of a family name was foreign to Althorn, for growing up as a child slave working the mines of Ogia, the closest thing he had to a family was his fellow slaves, who lived and died working beside him, instead he was simply known as Althorn and, with the rest of his fellow child-slaves, his life was one of drudgery and fear, working for the dreaded Giak slave-drivers deep in the blacksteel mines of Ogia.
Althorn the child slave did not know of the wider world beyond the mines, nor of the battles waged between the forces of good and evil, of the gods above using mortals as soldiers in their eternal war. Al Althorn knew was two things; the feel of the pickaxe in his hand as he dug deeper and deeper into the earth and the feel of a Giak’s whip on his back to offer him encouragement to dig faster.
Since he was old enough to walk, his Giak masters had him working in the mines. His small body able to go places the larger youths unable to, and when he grew, and he did grow massively; they used his strong arms to wield a pick axe.
Through this digging, Althorn and his fellow slaves grew strong in arm, which attracted the attention of the giak overseers who took great pleasure in forcing battles between the slaves. Althorn hated these battles, for even with his limited experiences, he instinctively knew the difference between right and wrong; and fighting for the pleasure of these foul creatures was wrong. Unfortunately for Althorn, the Giaks had ways around this, for every slave that refused to fight for their pleasure; three were killed to show the slaves that they had no choices, even in this. Althorn was forced to fight, and kill, his friends in order to save his fellows from even worse deprivations at the hands of the Giaks.
Althorn the Gladiator
Another thing that young Althorn did not know was of the gladiator contests between the different Giak and Drakkar units in Ogia, were they forced their toughest slaves to fight with each other. These contests would attract the attention of the highest ranking commanders, and the owners of the champions would be the beneficiaries of great rewards.
He was only about 12 summers old when his masters started to make him fight for their enjoyment, and 13 summers when they decided to enter him in the tournaments. Here he did well, fighting the slave-champions of other Giak bands before being entered in one of the major tournaments.
While Althorn was born with an instinctive sense of right and wrong, to his shame he started to take pleasure in the fighting. For the first time in his life, he was being given the smallest degree of respect from his masters, and rewarded with better food and medical attention, which made him feel powerful and important; feelings that the great masses of slaves of Ogia never felt.
Althorn, then, was destined to fight and die for the pleasure of his Giak owners. Fate, though, intervened. Be it Ishir, Kai, maybe even Alyss paving the way for the future, yet it was most likely just plain chance, that intervened and turned his life around.
Althorn did not know of the raids into neighbouring territories that produced the great quantities of slaves for the mines, all he knew of was Ogia and to him, and to him, that was all of the world. He did not know that to the south lay countries were freedom was prized, that people could have choices, learn to read and when they fought, it was for a higher purpose, not for the pleasure of others.
It was on his way to fight at the regional championship that Althorn’s life was to change, for as he and his Giak owners made their way through the mountains, that a combined force of Telestrian Knights and Palmyrion Knights of the Shield attacked his caravan.
At first Althorn was scared, as he watched the human archers decimate the giak ranks, then the human infantry attack en mass, but his fear soon turned to anger. Not anger against his attackers, but at his owners. Althorn watched the humans, with their shining swords and armour, their colourful cloaks and uniforms, attack the dullness of the Giaks with the precision known only to fully trained and disciplined soldiers of the freelands.
With a mighty roar Althorn raised his shackled hands and wrapped the chain around an unsuspecting Giaks neck, twisting it until he heard it snap. Then, picking up the giaks sword, he then raced towards the leader of the giak tribe; his owner and the one who made him kill the only friends he knew for his own personal pleasure. In hand to hand combat with the leader of the Knights of the Shield, the Giak did not see Althorn come, he only saw the blade protrude through his chest and hear the boy whisper in his ear “I fight for you no longer.”
Althorn and the Knight just stared at each other, and the look that Althorn saw in the Knight’s eye was something he was not familiar with, it was a look of sadness and despair. As the Knight looked at Althorn, he immediately thought of his own children, his eldest boy who was studying to become a Brother of the Crystal Star, and his second son, who two months prior had started his basic training with the Knights. As he looked upon Althorn he realized that the boy standing in front of him and his son were about the same age, but that Athorn’s eyes had seen things that no boy his age should have.
As the Knight reached out to Althorn, the warrior-slave instinctively pulled away and started muttering words unintelligible to the Knight, but who soon realized that it was Giak that the boy was speaking. One of the Telystrians, though, was able to speak Giak and the Knight was able to talk to him through this interpreter, and it was here, on this battlefield in Ogia that a freeman took pity upon a slave boy who reminded him of his own son, and decided to give that slave boy the same chances as his own son, a chance to go to Palmyrion and join the Knights of the Shield.
Althorn the Knight
His voyage to Palmyrion was one that Althorn never forgot, his new mentor, Sir Rodgar Helmfist was a kindly man, and showed extreme patience with the former slave, slowly teaching him how to speak Palmyrion and introducing him to the world of free men. Upon reaching Palmyrion, Sir Rodgar took young Althorn to his home first, giving him the clothing he would need upon his arrival at the Knights training camp. His wife, Gwynovia, doted upon Althorn, showing the same remorse and sadness towards the boy that her husband had demonstrated on the battlefield.
When he arrived at the training camp, he was immediately welcomed into one of the training companies to begin his training, and the two years he spent studying to be a knight was always a period he would look back later in life with a smile. The Knight instructors were demanding, but took great pride in their charged, molding them into the soldiers of the finest fighting force in all of Magnamund.
Both his instructors and his peers were amazed not only with the skill at arms demonstrated by Althorn, which given his background they expected, but by the sheer strength of the lad. Already as strong as the strongest instructors there when he started his training, by the time he was done he was generally considered the strongest knight of his time, and perhaps one of the strongest knights ever; high praise in an organization which prides itself in unsurpassed feats of strength and endurance.
During this time his fellow recruits and the Helmfists became as second families to Althorn, and through this he learned compassion and caring, lessons one never received in the slave pits of Ogia, but ones which melded with his natural sense of right and wrong and molded him into an honourable young man. He became good frinds with Sir Rodgar’s son, who was one season ahead of him at the academy. Rodgar the Younger had the same sense of natural justice as him parents, and ensured that none of the other lads picked upon young Althorn, although it soon became apparent that Althorn needed no protection!
It was also during this time that the young Althorn was introduced to the gods of good, and he quickly became a follower of one of the local cults of the God Kai. Yet throughout all of his time training, he never once forgot about the fellows he left behind, suffering and dying under the brutal hands of the giak overlords.
His graduation into the ranks of the Knights of the Shield was the single happiest day of his life, a day made only happier by the gift bestowed on him by Sir Rodgar and his family. Sir Rodgar had kept the sword that Althorn used to kill his giak master, and gain is freedom, and upon his return to Palmyrion had a master craftsman melt the blacksteel sword of giak design down and use the metal to produce an exquisite sword of Palmyrion design. Made of the darksteel, it was etched with the crest of Palmyrion on one side of the hilt, and with the crest of Althorn’s adopted family, the Helmfists on the other.
Following a brief period of leave after his graduation, Althorn immediately returned to the ranks of the Knights, upon which he volunteered for as many missions as he could. His superiors recognized him as a natural warrior and intended for him to get as much experience as possible. He travelled the world with detachments of knights, where the government of Palmyrion felt their interests lay. He spent much time with their closest allies, the NAME, and even received special underground warfare training with the Dwarfs of Bor in and around Mount Stonefist. Through all of this, he quickly rose in rank, becoming a leader of Knights.
It was after over a decade of service, though, that the governments of many of the nations surrounding Ogia grew weary of the constant border skirmishes and raids and decided to eliminate the threat once and for all. As a senior commander, and one who had intimate knowledge of Ogia, Althorn became one of the senior allied commanders in this venture, and it was with great pride and determination that he intended to liberate his fellow slaves.
Althorn the King
Upon calling a meeting of the General Staff, the commanders of the allied armies that were spearheading the invasion of Ogia, Althorn had devised a plan that he was sure would catch the minions of the Darklords off guard. Instead of waging direct war against the Darklords, Althorn and a selected group of Knights of the Sheild and Telestrian Knights would infiltrate Ogia and foster rebellion amongst the slaves. The Allied armies were to hold fast for another year, so as not to give away their intentions, It was only when the slave rebellion was in full swing, and the powers in Ogia distracted by this, would Althorn send word to the Allies who would swoop in and eliminate the presence of the Darklords once and for all from Ogia.
The plan was a complete success.
Upon their arrival in Ogia, Althorn and his men immediate started a guerrilla campaign against the overlords of Ogia, freeing slaves and growing a large number of followers. Those he was unable to free he instilled that which the Darklords had denied them for so long; hope.
It was these slaves that carried the message through the mines and tunnels of Ogia. As ore was passed so was word of Althron, until he reached near mythical proportions. Try as they might, the Giaks and Drakkar overseers could not stop the spread of rebellion. Indeed, by increasing the punishments meted out, they only increased the desire of the slaves to be free.
It was then, in MS 3986 that the Allies struck. In complete disarray due to the rebellions, and caught completely off guard by the surprise attack, the Giaks and Drakkar armies quickly fled into the thousands of miles of caves and mines that were bored into the mountain ranges of Ogia. There, they waited and plotted.
For the Allies, unaware at the extent of the armies of the Darklords that escaped them, they rejoiced, for they thought that Ogia was free. In the ruins of the capital city of Xanar, the surviving slave population rejoiced as the liberators and the free-slave army of Althorn freed them from their shackles.
This is were Althorn and the allies made their one and only strategic mistake. Thinking that they had routed the Dark Army, they decided to leave the ruins of Xanar and the blasted lands of Ogia; their mission, after all, was complete.
The freed slaves of Ogia, though, many of whom who were bred there, had no place to go, and instead decided to remain in Xanar and build their homes there. Without the minions of the Darklord, they reasoned, they would be able to turn Ogia into a profitable venture. Althorn, who was seen as their liberator, was propositioned to remain and become king of the Free Kingdom of Ogia, as the country would be henceforth known as. Seeking permission from the King of Palmyrion, Althorn was granted indefinite leave from the Knights of the Shield, and was invested as the first King of the Free Kingdom. In honour of the many tens of thousands of slaves who had died at the hands of the servants of Naar, he took upon him as his title Althorn, King of Slaves. It was at this point he also married one of the freed slaves, a woman who was his right hand commander during the uprising and who nursed him back to health when the poisons of a heldeghast assassin nearly killed him. Upon their marriage she became Myrinda, Queen of the Free. A heavily tattooed warrior slave, she was not conventionally beautiful, but earned the respect of all around her through her bravery and dedication to the people of Ogia.
While not the greatest military or political mind of his day, Althorn none the less knew that while he was a king, and the Free Kingdom nominally independent, that he was not much more of a vassal of Palmyrion and Telystria, and it would take many years, even generations, before the Free Kingdom would stand shoulder to shoulder with the other free nations of Magnamund.
Althorn quickly convened a council of ministers and set about rebuilding his new kingdom. For the first few years of the Free Kingdom, the rebuilding went slowly, and as the allied armies pulled out, the rebuilding went even slower. While Althorn was a great warrior and commander of armies, he lacked the training in politics and administration that nobles would have. His ministers were even worse. Freed slaves all of them, many did not share his honour and intuitive sense of right and wrong, and soon corruption was the norm in the Free Kingdom, as ministers attempted to build up their own wealth at the expense of the population.
Althorn moved quickly and decisively against the corruption, but his moves were a mere dent in a system that was quickly spiralling out of control. All the while, from the caves and mines in the mountains, the survivors of Ogia’s last regime watched and waited.
It was in the fall of MS 3992 that they began making their moves. At firs, Althorn did not recognize the attacks for what they were, thinking that they were mere bandits preying on his people, but once he realized that it was an infiltration by his enemies, he quickly raised an army of freed slaves and sent messengers to his allies. Unfortunately, as he had no wizards or the like in his court, he had to send his messengers by foot and horse, and unbeknownst to him, all the passages were completely cut off. Not a single messenger made it through.
That winter was particularly hard on the Free Kingdom, raids and attacks, growing more and more brave and concerted, whittled away at his forces, it was not until early in MS 3993, when the snows were still thick, did the tide turn for Althorn. Taking personal command of his army, he led a full frontal assault against the minions of the darklords, breaking their army and sending them fleeing into the hills once again. Vowing not to make the same mistake twice, he planned to send messengers to his allies once the snow in the passes cleared.
His return to Xanar was a hero’s welcome, once again the people of the Free Kingdom understood why they had chosen him as their leader, and knew that while he was alive nothing would take away their freedom again. Althorn let the people celebrate, walking freely amongst them, sharing their joy and determination to live free. Little did Althorn know that this night was to be his last.
The last memory Althorn, King of Slaves, General of the Knights of the Shield had before leaving this earth was the night of his victory celebrations. In his chambers, as he and his wife toasted their victory over the minions of Naar, he could have sworn that one of her tattoos, a peculiar snake tattoo on her wrist, seemed to writhe and its tongue flicker as he drunk deeply from the glass of wine she poured him.
Legacy of Althorn
The assassination of Althorn came as a demoralizing shock to the free people of Ogia, and as quickly as the news spread, the minions of the darklords re-launched their attacks upon their capitol. Without his leadership the city soon fell, and the darklords re-established their control over Ogia.
When messengers from the freestates attempted to return to Xanon, they could find no trace of the city, for the Darklords had cast powerful wards over it to ensure that it remained safely hidden. The mining of the ore of Ogia was so important to the Second Black Muster that nothing, no one, could stand in its way. While the powerful magic’s costs the darklords dearly, not having access to the ore would have cost them even more. Returning to their leaders, the messengers reported what they found, and for years afterwards, the freelands tried to determine what had happened in Ogia, but they found nothing, and as other matters urgently pressed them, their efforts in finding out what happened in Ogia soon passed. The fate of Althorn, King of Slaves and the Free Kingdom of Ogia is a mystery that has never been solved, but the memory of Althorn lives on amongst the Knights of the Shield.
Death MS 3993
