"A bad peace is worse than a good war."
"When I go more than ten miles out of the city, the love and loyalty of friends comes to an end."
"All citizens must place the common good before the private good."
- Quotes misattributed to Ghazi Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud
Name: Ghazi Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud
Age: 41
Race: Sarifen
Nationality: Sarifen
Allegiance: Himself
Religion: Akbari Zendricaanist
Appearance: Standing about 5'10'' tall, one can say that Korkud's personality is reflected on his appearance - grim. His skin has a somewhat pale and rugged complexion, dented everywhere thanks to years spent in the mountains. His head is oval in shape, his nose somewhat crooked and large, his forehead slightly wrinkled. His green eyes are sunken, yet wide open, and his eyelids are burnt, thanks to an unfortunate turn of events. He has a mole on his left cheek, below his eye. There's a diagonal scar on his face that starts just below the left part of his hairline, goes down through the edge of his left brow and ends on his right cheek. His mouth is somewhat covered by his large handlebar mustache, which is complimented by a short, stubble-like, unkempt beard. His expression is a fixed one reeking of caution, his gaze unnerving. His teeth are almost always clenched.
He is quite barrel chested, his body naturally thick, his shoulders broad, but years of squalor in the mountains has reduced his mass, with not much but somewhat of a pot belly left, his ribs visible. His form is usually well hidden beneath his clothing, which, while changing from time to time, usually consists of a white shirt with vertical blue stripes, with buttons made of bone, voluminous pants tucked inside his knee-high leather boots, a buffcoat kaftan, a thick, embroidered, mail-and-plate lined dark yellow coat, and a purple and red sash worn on top of them. His forearms are covered by vambraces that extend up to his elbows, his hands covered by mail-lined mittens, and most of his head is covered by a red, pleated cap with fur lining, covering an iron helmet reinforced with a wide nasal bar, which is supplemented by a mail aventail. During times of battle, he covers his face by pulling the nasal bar's visor down. For when using a gunpowder weapon, he has a small cartridge box on top of his clothing, covering his chest, attached to a shoulder strap. Thanks to the heavy weight of his usual clothing, Korkud walks with a slight hunch.
Profession: Once a wealthy prince, Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud is now the leader of a warband, and also the head of the tribes of Candar and Teke.
Biography: Considered to be an individual fit for being a king by some, believed to be a vengeful and paranoid sociopath by most, and known to be a ruthless, martial military man by everyone that knows about him, Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud has a somewhat notorious reputation amongst the higher circles of the Sarifen nobility for having a personality that betrays that of an usual noble, with unwanted traits such as being just, pragmatic, and quite able to act on his words. Born to the wealthy noble Shah Khusraw, he was the youngest of three brothers, and also the one that was essentially forgotten. His father Ghazi Khusraw was a patron of the arts and nothing else - while his older brothers were drunkards. Underneath Shah Khusraw's rule, the small town of Bilecik enjoyed a short-lived fame for housing a large amount of painters and poets. Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud was receiving education during this time. Underneath his teacher, mentor and lover Ghazi Darya's guidance, he learned how to use the sword, the pen, and how to be a just and effective ruler.
Heavily saddened upon the death of his father, he found solace in religion, and for a while, ignored the political events around him and devoted himself to learning more about inner workings of Zendricaanism, and perhaps also due to Ghazi Darya's heavy influence over him, joined the Akbari sect of Zendricaanism, and became an ascetic, moving to a monastery in Korkuteli with Ghazi Darya. During this time, Bilecik was the centre of a conflict between his brothers Jan-Quli and Nasir. Thanks to their mutual incompetence, the conflict turned out to be an unending one, and their commanders, tired of the constant and pointless fighting between the brothers, eventually wanted to attract the attention of an outside element that could end the conflict, that element being Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud, now bearing the title of Ghazi thanks to his time spent as an ascetic and oath of submission. Upon learning of how the commons were suffering, Ghazi Korkud immediately rode to Bilecik, and took over the city unarmored and only with the help of 40 men, imprisoning his brother Nasir secretly. A week later, he ambushed the hunting party of his brother Jan-Quli, again unarmored and only with a handful of men, and also imprisoned him. With the conflict now over and the populace rooting for him, he became the lord of Bilecik. During this time, his brother Jan-Quli asked to become an ascetic as he was, and was freed by Korkud and left for lands unknown.
The commanders (and nobles who had shady business in Bilecik), however, were unhappy with the fact that Korkud was not easy to manipulate and was rooting out their corruption, and plotted to overthrow him, free his brother Nasir from prison and make him lord instead. Engaging in a false flag operation, they raided and burnt the villages around Bilecik, leaving traces that led to the lord of Hayrabolu, Barlas Shah. When unable to get the reaction they wanted from Korkud, they hired thugs to cut through the market square. This one was successful, and Korkud started moving his troops. At the same time, one of the commanders, named Abbas-Quli, had the idea of sending an insulting letter to Barlas Shah and use Korkud's seal. Leading 1000 troops out of Bilecik, Korkud marched to Hayrabolu to ask what was happening. Barlas Shah, already alerted by the letter, ordered his troops to charge upon seeing Korkud marching with his men. Confident in his faith, Korkud charged alongside his troops unarmored, armed only with a sabre. During the battle, he was shot in the arm, and got thrown off his horse when Barlas Shah's artillery started firing on the battlefield, smiting foe and friend alike. After this horrendous loss, he and the remainder of his men retreated back to Bilecik, with Barlas Shah in close pursuit.
Entering the city walls and ordering his men to bar the doors, Korkud went to the palace with the remainder of his retinue, and warned the city commanders about what was happening. Learning of the news, the city commanders immediately ordered the guards to restrain him. Enraged, Korkud pulled out his saber once more, and fighting broke out between the guards, loyal members of his retinue, the commanders themselves and defectors. During this fight, Abbas-Quli struck Korkud in the chest with a mace, causing him to spit blood. With the wind knocked out of him, the guards were able to cut through his routed men, and the last thing he saw before getting knocked out was the mace that struck his chest, and an engraving on it - the seal of Baqi Shah, the lord of Ereฤli. He spent a week in prison, and learned that everyone believed the story of Abbas-Quli, which claimed that Ghazi Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud was a psychotic ruler, deluded by the teachings of the Akbari sect, bound to get the 'greatest of punishments' for his sins of heresy, damaging the realm and the prestige of the nation, and warmongering. He also learned that Ghazi Darya was executed because of her apparent heresy. Feeling something break inside him, he vowed to get revenge.
A day later, as he was sleeping, a group of men led by Abbas-Quli forcibly took him out of his room to the castle forge. There he was greeted by his brother Nasir Shah, who claimed that, for the sake of the lands' stability, he had to be taken out of the equation. But as he was his brother, he had mercy for him, and thus, was going to merely blind him. He was forced on his knees by the men of Abbas-Quli, and the castle smith stuck two red-hot iron rods into his eyes as he closed his eyes shut. His eyelids burnt beyond recognition and with him roaring and sobbing in pain, with blood running down his cheeks, the deed was believed to be successful, and he was taken to a small house, at the inner district of town which was built upon a rocky hill. Doctors visited him daily to relieve him of his pain and make sure he did not die of any complications. He spent a few weeks blind. Eventually, possibly due to the incompetence of the smith, his eyesight started coming back, though his eyelids were irrevocably damaged. Hiding this, he started planning his escape. Spending about three months in house arrest, he learned that underneath Nasir's rule, the town had fallen to debauchery, with no enforcement of the law. He also learned that amongst the lower classes, the people were deeply sad that Korkud was blinded. Mustering enough courage to escape, he eventually escaped the house at night and climbed down the steep hills of the inner district. During his escape, many of the locals started giving gifts to him, including a horse that he rode out of the city with. Near the outer gates, he was spotted by a group of guards. As he prepared himself for what he believed to be the last battle of his life, he was surprised to see that the guards offered their loyalty to him. He accepted, and escaped the city with stolen equipment from the armory (a parting gift from the populace), and about 200 men, most of them just adventurous lads and frustrated commoners. Before leaving, he promised the folk that he would return.
Now with a small warband, Korkud started thinking on long-term plans. Yes, he had soldiers, but he could not loot, as that would lessen the populace's support for him. He could not fight either, for the lords' armies were much bigger than those of his. One thing that his followers learned was that he was much more ruthless than he was before, having cut down a bunch of his own men for looting farmers. They also realized that he was incredibly distrustful of people and kept his armor on at all times. He had even lied to his men about where he was sleeping, setting up a decoy tent and sleeping inside a crevice instead. This notably affected the morale of his men, with some asking to leave service. He let them go. After their leave, he started making investments about the future of the warband - they did not have much food, and they couldn't stay up in the mountains during winter without freezing to death. He started negotiating with farmers living near the mountains and tribesmen of the mountain ranges, settling amongst the tribes in the summer and going down to the plains in winter. Around this time, the War of Sarifen Aggression began.
Korkud took advantage of the conflicts between mountain tribes, and through use of muskets, tipped the scale in favor of a tribe named the Candar. The leader of the Candar tribe, Ismail Candar, took Korkud in as his son, and after the death of Ismail Candar, Korkud found himself the head of the tribe. He stopped going down to the plains in the summer at this point, and spread false news of his death. He also immediately made the tribe smiths reverse-engineer the muskets of his retinue and engineer a way for muskets to be easily fired from a horse, while taking a bunch of cavalrymen to orchestrate a raid on an expedition of the Karaman tribe, a rival of the Candar. Butchering through them, he ordered the cavalrymen to loot on the equipment and clothing of the Karaman. During this time, he learned that Abbas-Quli was setting out for Valania with his men. After getting reports from the tribe hunters that they were to go through a narrow mountain pass named Ha-Jani to meet the other lords, he immediately mobilized his men, ordered them to put on the equipment looted from the Karaman, and placed them amongst the rocks of Ha-Jani. All the waiting had come to fruition, and as the men of Abbas-Quli started going through the narrow pass, he ordered the musketeers to open fire.
As the troops of Abbas-Quli got torn apart underneath musket fire, he ordered the cavalrymen to cover the base of the hill leading to Ha-Jani, and as Abbas-Quli and his retinue retreated, charged alongside them. In the ensuing fighting, Korkud faced Abbas-Quli himself, who once more struck Korkud in the chest. However, Korkud was heavily armored, and after seeing that his strike had dealt almost no damage, Abbas-Quli attempted to run away, which Korkud stopped by striking his leg with his sabre. After having the survivors executed, he personally gouged out the eyes of Abbas-Quli, and then ordered him fastened to four horses, which were then made to charge to rip Abbas-Quli apart. Satisfied, he ordered his men to gather any equipment that did not indicate to the Karaman (and loot the soldiers of Abbas-Quli, of course), and once more, retreated to the mountains, waiting for his brother to learn of how Abbas-Quli was killed by 'Karaman' tribesmen and strike back.
It happened soon enough, and soon the town of Bilecik was almost freed of a garrison as Nasir Shah led his men towards the mountains where the Karaman were located. After learning that Nasir Shah and the Karaman were lodged in a battle, he immediately mobilized his newly-developed swivel cavalry and arrived at first as relief to the Karaman, flanking Nasir Shah's men and shredding them with swivel gun fire as the Karaman charged after witnessing Nasir Shah's men distracted with Korkud's cavalry. After the battle, however, the Karaman realized that Korkud and his men were the ones who had raided their expedition. It was too late for them however, as the swivel cavalry opened fire on them once more. With Nasir Shah captured and the Karaman mostly out of the equation, he ordered his men to take all the equipment, which included small forms of cannons, back to the tribe stronghold.
He had his brother brought to his tent, and told him that, even though he could not set him free, he was free to act as he wanted in the tribe lands. Nasir Shah asked him ''As I want?'', and when Korkud answered yes, he immediately latched onto a sword in the tent and struck at Korkud's face. Unfortunately for Nasir, the strike had fallen short, and had only grazed Korkud's face from left brow to right cheek. Enraged and bleeding, Korkud had his brother restrained, and ordered his men to cut off Nasir's right arm and leg, to make sure he would not be able to do anything that threatened Korkud again. After losing his two limbs, Nasir Shah quickly grew fat and died a few months later, when overdosing on opium macun. During this time, a dispute between Candar and Teke hunters turned into a small conflict. He solved the situation by marrying the daughter of the Teke chieftain Lodi Shah. However, his mother-in-law, a Karaman, attempted to take Korkud's life and stabbed him repeatedly when he was preparing to inspect his men. Thankfully, none of the stabs had pierced through Korkud's armor. Unable to strain his relationship with his wife and his father-in-law, he had the woman put in house arrest. A year later, he had a son, though his wife died during childbirth and the child died after a few months.
After learning of his daughter's death, Lodi Shah became melancholic and started consuming alcohol. During a drinking session with his friends, he fell off a cliff while drunk and died, leaving the spot for his elder son, Iskandar, now titled Iskandar Shah. Korkud and Iskandar Shah's relationship was an uneasy one, as Iskandar Shah was an incredibly selfish and rude individual and was acting unjustly against his tribe, and more importantly, Korkud's. This tension eventually erupted into a fight between the two after a joint raid on a smaller tribe, which ended with Korkud defeating Iskandar Shah. This caused Iskandar Shah to fall in the eyes of his subordinates, and make his hatred for Korkud grow even larger. Later, during a visit to Teke lands because of Iskandar Shah's marriage ceremony, Korkud would be secretly informed by Iskandar Shah's brother Ghazi Dilawar, an Akbari like him, that Iskandar Shah was planning to have him killed. Thanking Dilawar, he moved back to his tribe's stronghold and decided to lure Iskandar out by making a mock hunting party and sending news of it to Teke lands through Ghazi Dilawar. Sending a bunch of Candar hunters as his retinue and one of the guardsmen that left Bilecik with him dressed as Korkud himself, Korkud and about three dozens of swivel cavalry lay in wait near their hunting area. Iskandar took the bait and led about a hundred tribesmen, charging at the head of the cavalry. Korkud's cavalry immediately charged out and started firing upon Iskandar's men, and ended up killing most of them and routing the rest. Iskandar Shah had died in battle.
Now the eldest 'son' of Lodi Shah, Korkud was leader of the Teke by tradition. However, knowing that his relationship with Teke higher-ups, who thrived during Iskandar's days of corruption, was uneasy, he made Ghazi Dilawar his vassal after an oath of loyalty and placed him as chieftain instead. In charge of one of possibly the largest mountain tribe in Sarife, and the overlord of another, Korkud believed that now he could initiate the last part of his quest for revenge - retaking Bilecik and slaying Baqi Shah. He set up camp near Ereฤli multiple times, kidnapping burghers and traders and interrogating them, calling himself Bahram Isfendiyar to divert attention from him. During this time, his smiths were finally able to produce forms of cannons and artillery, having successfully reverse engineered Nasir Shah's cannons. Knowing that he'd attract too much attention if he were to attack Baqi Shah with no allies and possibly even get an army chasing him, he put some spies inside Ereฤli to learn if there were any higher-ups who weren't satisfied with his rule. He learned that Baqi Shah had insulted a commander named Rumi-Quli and denied him reinforcements during an offensive, causing him to be captured during battle, only to be freed later during another offensive on Valanian troops. He contacted Rumi-Quli as Bahram Isfendiyar, claiming that he could help regain his lost honor if he made sure that other nobles would turn a blind eye if something were to happen to Baqi Shah. Getting a positive response, he immediately Ghazi Dilawar's cavalry and started patrolling the plains around Ereฤli, waiting for Baqi Shah to leave.
The chance to strike appeared when Baqi Shah hosted a hunting party in honor of his son's recent marriage. His men rode out with lances and lassos (usage of swivel guns could have a smart noble piece together that Bahram Isfendiyar was the man who had united the tribes), and after ambushing and cutting through a group of nobles, caught Baqi Shah, Korkud personally lassoing him and dragging him to the mountains. Back at the tribe stronghold, he had Baqi Shah flayed alive, decapitated, and torn to pieces afterwards. His skin was filled with straw and grass, with clothing put on backwards, and was put on a horse alongside his limbs stuffed in a bag and sent back to Ereฤli, while his skull was stuffed with gold coins and shot at Bilecik. Thanks to Rumi-Quli giving the court a false lead about the attack, he was able to get away with it, with the death of Baqi Shah attributed to Valanian assassins or bandits. He is now consolidating his tribes and training them while reinforcing the mountains, hoping that he'll get back what's rightfully his.
Notable skills/abilities: Ghazi Isfendiyar Bayqara Korkud is an excellent fighter, to a point that only a few in Carcassonne would count as a fair fight against him. He's also a shooting enthusiast, but doesn't have a lot of natural skill. However, he shines primarily in leading armies and psychological warfare. He is prepared for almost everything and has drilled the unruly tribes under his rule to such an extent that they could easily count as a professional army. He recognizes the strength of gunpowder and uses it extensively, having developed a system of musket fire in which there are only two rows of shooters, with the remaining soldiers loading the muskets as the front rows fire. He has also engineered metal rotating bipods that can act as bayonets and bardiches (and scythes, too!), alleviating the need for pikemen alongside his musketeers. He's also well educated, especially about theology and theosophy.
Other Notes: Suffers from restless legs syndrome and insomnia.
