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Background: The tale of Ardoiwn began with an artist. Gathana was a young, beautiful woman with an aspiration to create, living a peaceful and pleasant life, if not always an easy one, in the city of Tautom. She did what she needed to survive, creating beautiful works of metal and glass, while selling her body when her art alone could not sustain her.

It was due to this work that she became pregnant, and due to circumstances not entirely under her control the woman was forced from her home, chased out by enemies she never intended to make. Fleeing for her life, and for the life growing inside her, she made her way south. Buying passage on a ship with the last of her funds she found herself in the lands of the Lamperts.

Alone, scared, with nothing to her name and no knowledge of the lands she now walked Gathana set out. She knew not where she was going, nor what her plan was. Thankfully she was accosted by bandits. The bandits in questions were also desperate and crazed, they would have to be to attack someone with so little, but none the less the sounds of Gathana’s shrieks grabbed the attention of her soon to be rescuer.

Theodaxus Theodorn, Gastald of the King was travelling across the countryside, on a mission from his liege. When he heard the sounds of distress he rallied his cohorts and charged along until he found the source of the screams. Running down the bandits Theodaxus gazed upon the woman he had rescued. He found her beautiful, even in her dirty, malnourished state, and despite the advanced state of her pregnancy.

The Gastald took the woman as his wife, Gathana simply grateful to be alive. Ardoiwn was born, raised to believe Theodaxus his father and brought up in the Lampertei fashion. Theodaxus raised the boy as his own, and Ardoiwn lived a happy childhood growing in the village that Theodaxus managed in his liege’s name.

Ardoiwn made friends of most of the other children in the village, indeed it was expected that he would one day lead them into battle. The values of brothership and loyalty were ingrained into the young man as he led his friends into many adventures. The children learned of combat from the greatest warrior in the village and Ardoiwn, as the son of the Gastald, was given special attention in training. The spear and pike spoke out to the growing man and before long he had no equal in their use in his village.

His life was not all merry days spent with friends and hard but uplifting training, a handful of the other children were not so quickly charmed by Ardoiwn, mocking him for many things but mostly how different he looked from his father. It was at this point that Ardoiwn questioned his heritage, and having no convenient lies his parents told the young man the truth. While this may have vindicated the bullies to some degree Ardoiwn thought nothing of it, Theodaxus still raised him, and Ardoiwn was still as much a Lampert as any other in the village. This early chapter in the man’s life ended with Theodaxus’ death, sickness taking the Gastald in the night.

Ardoiwn was still young, however his skill with his chosen weapon and the loyalty he held from nearly the entire village was enough to earn him the rank of his father. While he was not a Lampert by blood his devotion to his lord and his hatred of god was enough to earn him a seat near Dalgiserius. Carrying out small missions for the king Ardoiwn awaits the chance to perform something truly important for his liege, something to banish any doubts of his loyalty from the other Gastalds.

Name: Lord Captain Leofric

Appearance: Leofric stands at an even six feet in height, with short golden blond hair and dark green eyes. Despite being in his early thirties (thirty-two to be precise), he has the look of a man in his mid-twenties, with the handsome and refined features usually associated with men of noble birth. Unfortunately, he is not perfect; his nose is slightly misshapen after being broken in the past, and there is a scar running from under his left eye to the bottom of his cheek. His face is completely clean shaven, save for some short, neat sideburns.

Aboard his flagship, Leofric can usually be identified by his bright red coat, black leather gloves, a rather large captain's hat, accompanied by a pair of brown pants and black leather boots. He makes sure to keep both his boots and his hat in pristine condition. However, he also keeps a suit of steel chainmail, which he ensures is well-maintained and combat-ready at all times.

Leofric's primary weapon is a longsword which he keeps sheathed at his left hip. The weapon is made from high quality steel, with a gilded crossguard and a hilt wrapped in fine leather. As back-ups he also keeps a cutlass sheathed at his right hip, and a dirk secured to a sheathe on his right boot.

Kingdom Allegiance: Syrome

Tribe: Eodaen

Background: Leofric's family faithfully served the monarchs of Eodaland for centuries, and can trace their lineage all the way back to the Kingdom's foundation. They had a history of producing some of the finest naval commanders the Kingdom had to offer, and owned one of the largest shipyards, as well as multiple key sources of lumber.

As the heir, Leofric was naturally expected to follow in his ancestors' footsteps, and was groomed for naval command from a young age. He took to his studies with enthusiasm, drawn in by tales of glorious battle and the thrill of adventure. When he reached the age of adulthood, he was granted a post onboard his uncle's ship, acting as his uncle's second-in-command. They were meant to patrol a minor trade route, until they were unexpectedly set upon by pirates. When his uncle fell in battle, Leofric took charge and rallied the men to drive the corsairs off his ship, before taking the fight to the enemy's own ship and putting them all to the sword.

From that moment onward, Leofric was granted command of a ship of his own... and soon proved that he was not quite ready for such an appointment. More often than not, the pirates he was meant to be keeping an eye out for had managed to evade him. When he did catch them, he usually bested them quite handily, but overall it was clear that his promotion had been premature. Still, he did learn a great deal from the experience. After four years he had noticeably improved, and was well on his way to living up to his family's reputation.

Then his father died. With a heavy heart, Leofric was forced to return home to attend the funeral. After that, he was to travel to the capital, to take up his title and swear an oath of fealty to the King. Upon his arrival at court, he immediately fell under the influence of Badastan's magic, issuing false praise alongside the rest of the toadies, and praying to the Squirrel-Demon, which he had previously found laughable.

After a few months at court, it was time to leave and see to his lands. Not too long after he departed, the spell began to fade. He remembered the King who had not been so impressive, yet Leofric had worshiped him like a minor god. He remembered kneeling at the shrines to the Demon Squirrel, with a downright embarrassing and uncharacteristic level of reverence.

At first, the thought made him nervous. Then, he became sickened. Then, he became enraged. For years everyone had been eating out of the King's hand, and buying into the King's teachings. The King had enslaved him and his countrymen. No, it was worse than that - even a slave's constraints were only physical. Either the King knew of Badastan's abiltiies and allowed it, or the King himself was under Badastan's control. Either way, this could not be allowed to stand.

Unfortunately, Leofric lacked the ability to free the King from Badastan's control, and couldn't kill Badastan himself. But there were still other ways to fight.

So he gathered his most loyal men, whom he could trust, and left managing the land in the hands of his capable brother. Then, he set off with his family's six best ships, including their flag ship, The Storm's Herald. He had gone off to become a pirate lord, like so many other Eodaen nobles had done before him, but this time he had something on his mind other than personal profit.

Over the next several years, Leofric plundered and pillaged his way through the Sea of Tears, becoming an infamous pirate. He expanded his fleet with captured vessels, and he earned a reputation as a fair and cunning leader, which caused the ranks of his ships to swell with eager recruits. It wasn't just Eodeans he took in, however; he also took in foreigners from other nations. In addition to this, he banned all worship of the Squirrel-Demon within his fleet, punishing anyone who dared whisper a prayer to the false god. All this was done with the intention of assembling a force that could strike against the King's interests: if Leofric could not depose the tyrant, he would at least be a thorn in the King's side.

Despite his plans, while he has attacked the occasional Eodaen ship, he has yet to go to open war against the Kingdom itself. Instead, he has continued to bide his time and build up his forces. Eventually, his fleet would grow to include a dozen ships and nearly a thousand men to crew them.

A year ago, an envoy from Syrome somehow managed to track down Leofric's fleet and offered him a deal - what was effectively a loose, secret alliance, and the only serious condition was that he would cease his attacks on Syrome ships. In return, he would be granted safe access to Syroman ports. Over the years, his infamous reputation had dramatically reduced the ports of call available to him, thus making resupply and recruitment increasingly difficult, so that was something he desperately needed. Furthermore, the additional news that Badastan had finally seized power for himself had made Leofric's ultimate goal that much more difficult. Although he did not relish the idea of serving a foreign power, he felt he had little choice but to accept the terms.

So far, he has kept his word and held true to the agreement, but who is to say that won't change?

And with the news of many Eodeans being exiled for their rejection of Badastan and his Squirrel-Demon, Leofric may be able to expand his army even further.

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Name: Gundiberga (Pronounced Gun-da-perga)

Appearance: The many years of weilding her halberd have left Gundiberga's body well muscled and without much softness to it. She keeps her pale hair cropped short and the lines on her face give away her age of thirty eight years. Her eyes are so dark they almost appear black and only truly light up when her enemies are screaming in terror.

Kingdom Allegiance: Lampertei

Tribe: Lampert

Background: Gundiberga spent the first decade of her fighting career as a sellsword, guarding merchant caravans and the like as long as they payed her well enough. It wasn't long before the woman developed a reputation for the manic glee she took in slaying god-fearing Chlotar raiders and Xeaxaenot loving Eodaen swindlers alike. This joy in her work was what caught the eyes of someone higher up in King Dalgiserius' court and she was recruited to assist in the desecration of the temples that had begun cropping up on their borders.

Gundiberga was ruthless in this endeavor as well, her mania and bloodthirst only made more intense by her proximity to the king's own madness. After five years of tearing down temples and painting the walls with their worshiper's blood she was recruited for another assignment. She was to be shield maiden to King Dalgiserius' adopted daughter, Antonia, and aid her in assignments to the city of Udos and wherever else the king saw fit to send them.

The older woman wasn't impressed at first with the king's newest Gastald. Antonia didn't have the first clue about diplomacy or the intricacies of warfare, and as far as Gundiberga could tell the girl had never swung an axe a day in her life. But what she lacked in practice the girl made up for in sheer force of will and after three years of being stuck together, she found the young gastald almost tolerable.