Legate Teox

The struggles of Legate Teox and his rag-tag legion of survivors, known as the Tattered Dream, have become emblematic of the downfall of the Dragonkin Empire – of loyal subjects clinging on to their dignity and identity as the imperial dominion dissolves around them. Legate Teox was a distinguished commander with years of experience. Before the Sin of Dragons, he was dispatched with his legion to the isles of Maru Toba, where the Ogryn vassal tribe of Ugir the Wyrmeater had risen in rebellion. Teox had scarcely established his first camp when a courier ship arrived delivering a dire warning: a disaster was unfolding in the heartland, an invasion of otherworldly monstrosities wearing the warped bodies of Dragonkin. All legions were to withdraw to core Imperial territories. Teox was alarmed, but chafed at the demand, for his loyal troops were eager to battle the rebel Ogryn and had just spent many exhausting weeks at sea. He knew his duty but, fearing the Ogryn might attack during the withdrawal, was slow to embark his troops. When they finally set sail, they soon saw immense clouds of ash turn day into night and encountered Dragonkin vessels packed with refugees. They bore the dark news that the great metropoles of Allreach and Twinrift had been lost. The legate decided to head for the satrapy of Velyzar. His fleet and any refugees they found hopped from island to island to forage. Before they could reach their destination however, they were attacked by Demonspawn, led by one Kravakz. Dragonkin were ripped apart by massive clawed monstrosities, crushed to death with barbed tentacles, and pulverized by creatures with mauls for arms. Scores of ships were sunk, many more scattered. The legate desperately tried to regroup his soldiers and save civilians but the sea was thick with their corpses, all being picked over by scavengers. His desire for vengeance burned. The remnants of Teox’s legion could find no safe harbor. Demonspawn were everywhere, and they were powerful and ruthless in ways he had never seen before. Having lost so many warriors, and being so seriously outnumbered, he had no choice but to develop new tactics. Teox and his troops conducted lightning raids and guerrilla warfare, anchoring their ships in secret island coves and venturing into the jungles to hunt and kill Demonspawn slaughter-packs. Battle after battle dulled their weapons and degraded their armor, but never blunted their resolve. Relying on improvised repairs using scraps of leather and fibrous tropical plants, Teox and his legion were a far cry from the glorious Imperial force they once were – yet they lived. The Demonspawn called them wretched cowards and pathetic vermin, but among the rest of the Dragonkin holdouts, Teox’s legion earned the name by which they became famous, the ‘Tattered Dream’: ragged and exhausted, but resolute. Wherever they went the Tattered Dream found their slaughtered people, or saw them bound to what was surely some horrific fate. Teox showed no mercy in battle. He ripped Demonspawn apart and left their remains as infuriating bait to draw out more. He led from the front without regard for his safety, hacking and slashing with a massive battleax he had fashioned from the spine of a slain Demonspawn and a huge, razor-sharp knife made from a claw of an infernal war-beast. His rage was so intense even his own companion-honor guard gave him space. Whirling his huge weapon in a storm of gore, he would not stop until he had turned his foe into little more than a grotesque slurry of Demonic ichor. Even then it took time before the frenzy left him. The Tattered Dream battled isolated pockets of Demonspawn for several long years, even after their first invasion was driven back elsewhere. In all that time Teox pieced together what had happened in gruesome interrogations of captured Demonspawn. They spat and taunted that it was the Emperor's actions that 'allowed them to return'. Teox hardly believed it, but their stories all matched. Soon, his ire for the imperial family was almost as great as it was for the monsters destroying the Empire. When Teox and his legion finally reached Velyzar, he wept and kissed the ground. But this joy was short-lived. The Imperial prince Ramantu Drakesblood was there, rallying troops for what became known as the First Great War. Teox unleashed his years of rage on the prince in a torrent of invective. Ramantu calmly accepted all the legate's accusations of arrogance and hubris, and asked him to fight alongside him. It wasn't just the Empire that needed him, all of Teleria did. Teox reluctantly agreed but declared when the war was over, he and Ramantu would have a reckoning. Ramantu nodded. Neither expected that the Arbiter would offer the Tattered Dream a way to fight on after their horrendous campaigns.