Gurgoh the Augur

There are stories told between the people of Frostheim of a monstrous Ogryn who lives among the heights of the snow-clad mountains they call home, a stamping, iron-clad brute who commands the winds and the ice, and whose fate is therefore inextricably linked to the very future of those bleak peaks. These tales are sometimes confused with the legendary Ice Golem who, in the ancient stories, wrecked the Winter Hall and slaughtered the kings of old, though in reality they are two very different beings. The Ogryn is Gurgoh the Augur, and the stories all agree that he is the only child of a warrior and a powerful ice sorceress. Not only is he an Ogryn of great intelligence, but he also possesses an instinctive ability to command the forces of the place where he grew up, the gales and snows of the Redspike Mountains. This elemental magic is something even skilled sorcerers struggle to control, but he was taught by his mother to slowly master it, and she scribed the runes of protection and guidance into shards of mountain rock that he still wears around his neck. As he approached adulthood, Gurgoh began to experience unusual dreams that his mother believed to be visions. He witnessed strange lands and cities unknown, but was at a loss to interpret them. Often he saw a great orb of metal, and at other times a lonely hut perched on the edge of a cliff somewhere in the mountains. Perhaps, with time, his mother would have been able to decipher Gurgoh’s prophecies, but she never had the chance, for both of his parents were killed during a rockslide, proof that these peaks are a dangerous place even for those who bear their magical essence in their veins. Distraught at his parents’ death and now viewing the snow-bound slopes of Frostheim as a place of sorrow that he would have to endure alone, Gurgoh chose to set out into the world. He served for many years as a warrior, first among his kind, in Aravia, where he helped to guard Felwin’s Wall and became particularly infamous as an adversary among the Dark Elves, and then as a roving mercenary across Kaerok. During that time he amassed for himself a heavy suit of scrap armor and a small fortune. His visions continued. As they intensified, Gurgoh found himself unable to ignore them any longer. He traveled back to Frostheim, building a cabin for himself high in the most inimical peaks. Having spent much time among the other peoples of Anhelt, he now found value in the solitude he had once known in the mountains, and sought a return to that reclusiveness as he pondered out the meaning of his existence. He expected to find a measure of peace, but instead his prophetic experiences grew even stronger. Images of the metal orb in particular became more and more insistent. The artifact seemed to lie in a desolate ruin that, from the stories his mother had told him, Gurgoh assumed to be the remains of the fabled Winter Hall. He scaled all the way up to the ancient stronghold, evading the Ice Golem at its heart by infiltrating its lower levels. With his magical talents he cast aside the feet-thick snow that covered entrances cracked open by the elements over centuries. Gurgoh discovered the royal treasure of the ancient kings of Frostheim at the heart of the hall’s ice-clad vaults, the great orb among it — a part of a king’s scepter. He returned home and, still guided by his visions, carved runes of snow and sundering into the metallic sphere before forging it into the head great mace, which he named Frost Bearer. For a while Gurgoh’s visions were quelled, but soon he began to experience something even stranger. Despite his isolation, other Ogryn braved the elements and sought him out. They claimed to have seen him in dreams of their own, dreams that foretold that he would one day unite them as a new and mighty Ogryn tribe that would rule the Redspike Mountains. At first Gurgoh refused to entertain such ideas, for he had never sought personal power. Still, he could not deny that his auguries had thus far come true, and that he had recovered an ancient symbol of Frostheim kingship. It was not long before he too saw visions of his future self, ruling over a new kingdom of ice, stone and steel. As more Ogryn are inexplicably drawn to what is rapidly becoming a stronghold high within the Redspike Mountains, the Humans of the kingdom are taking note, many considering the influx a potential threat. What remains unknown even to Gurgoh himself is whether he is in control of events, or whether his fate has already been chosen for him.