Versulf the Grim

Many a bard favors songs of good and just kings whose hearts bleed for the woes of their people. But alas, not every king is worthy of such tales. Such was King Versulf, called the Grim for his lack of humor when he was young – and for darker reasons once he was older. Once, he ruled the Free City of Arnoc, ascending the throne at a young age after his father was killed during the War of the Elves. Versulf was paranoid, temperamental, and hungry for conquest. He pursued aggressive adventures against his neighbors – the newly entrenched Dark Elves of Durham Forest, the nearby Orc and Ogryn clans still clinging on after the Red Crusade, and even his own weaker allies in the Kingdom of Kaerok. To wage these wars, he bled his people dry with taxes and levies. Despite furious protests among peasants, nobles, and burghers alike, Versulf was unmoved. He feared no enemy, whether foreign or domestic. Only one thing scared him – death itself. He had witnessed his father’s long, cruel end suffering from grievously infected wounds. He had heard his mother’s screams as she died giving birth to his stillborn sister. He had watched hangings, beheadings, poisonings, mutilations, and torture. Even peaceful deaths had given Versulf nightmares. He had been forced to stand vigil over the corpse of both his grandfathers in his youth. If there was a way to avoid death – any way – he was very much open to learning more. As Versulf grew older, he traveled to nearby Narbuk – home of the Church of Lumaya – to seek counsel. The High Cleric was useless to him, providing only platitudes and naysaying talk of ‘acceptance’, but Versulf also met with a powerful Sacred Order inquisitor called K'Leth. The inquisitor had answers where all others offered excuses, and he revealed a plan to Versulf that would allow them both to evade death forever – a cycle of endless rebirth. But, K'Leth warned, it would be dangerous, and would require... certain resources. Versulf was only too happy to provide them. In Arnoc, the vanishings began with the poor and the homeless. Only non-Human survivors of the Red Crusade disappeared at first, but that limitation was not in place long. People began to fear ghosts, killers, or even a return of the Skinwalker Plague. Others spoke of masked men who stalked the city streets at night, with carriages waiting nearby to receive their wriggling cargo. It took years for the truth to become suggested, then known. The Night Watch, they were called – the king's flesh thieves. It was only a matter of time before the Sacred Order took note, but certain events plunged the situation over the edge. When the corruption of Narbuk was uncovered and the Lumayan Church fell, a host of the Sacred Order came to the city and razed it. The Mage-Barons that K'Leth called his oldest allies fled in droves, spreading the influence of the Cult of K'Leth around the world. Many of K’Leth’s allies fled to nearby Arnoc, with a now elderly Versulf accepting them with open arms. The Sacred Order was not far behind. The ashes of Narbuk had barely cooled when a Sacred Order army arrived at Arnoc, demanding entry. This gave the impetus for the city’s oppressed people to rise up against the city guard and the Night Watch, and they threw open the gates and broke into the citadel at Arnoc’s heart alongside Order warriors. Versulf's elite soldiers were overwhelmed, and the Sacred Order breached the inner sanctum, only to find their work had been done for them. Versulf and the Mage-Barons lay dead on the floor, of injuries apparently self-inflicted. K'Leth was never found. As for Versulf, K'Leth's promise of eternal rebirth was little more than a promise for many, but not for him. Versulf would never be a king again, but that matters little to him – his soul was transferred to a new body, and when that one aged, he was given a new one as reward for what he did for K’Leth’s Cult. Indeed, as a staunch ally of K’Leth, kingship is little compared to what power he holds now. Knights Revenant and cultists can now be found all over Teleria, and all owe loyalty to Versulf. His reach has never been wider.