Sydax King-Killer

<i>‘Fall back and close ranks. Our dreams will not die with us in the muck here today – it is these arrogant Aravian scum who will fall, choking on mud and blood, trampled by our boots, and perish beneath a foreign sky, their corpses a glut for the beetles.’ – Sydax King-killer, during the Battle of Greenwhorl River</i> * Before he was the King-killer, young Sydax was orphaned by a political assassination and was taken as a slave. Unspeakable hardship made him indomitable in both body and spirit. His strength, cunning, and charisma won him followers, including non-Elf slaves taken from afar. When the time was ripe he led an uprising and massacred his slavemasters. These hardened, desperate souls unanimously chose to ask Sydax to continue leading them. He formed them into a mercenary company, the Horned Band, which became renowned for resilience and brutality. They had an unbreakable bond forged by the shared horrors of their enslavement. Sydax nurtured a dream of ruling as a princeling of Durham or even a new realm all his own, persuading his comrades of his vision. They believed in the ever-growing air of invincibility that followed Sydax, as though his ambitions were fated to come true. Having amassed wealth and put distance between himself and his former slavemasters, Sydax settled his warband near the Aravian border and declared himself a prince. Though he was universally loathed by the other nobles, the first great challenge to his rule came not from his own people, but from an Aravian invasion tearing its way through Sydax’s newly-claimed territory. The expedition was led by King Hatharil of Aravia himself, and Sydax longed to meet him in battle. Sydax was patient, however, allowing the invading High Elves to overextend themselves. Picking their way through twisting mazes of roots, exhausted, diseased, beset by chittering horrors large and small, the Aravians were run ragged. Sydax launched a series of ambushes to provoke the High Elves into an unfavorable battle, with the Aravians finally attacking Sydax’s dug-in forces across the shallow Greenwhorl River. He and his Horned Band held fast through six waves of Aravian assaults, vanquishing their foes despite overwhelming odds. As the Band was pushed back – a maneuver Sydax had expected they would have to do – it only concentrated their fighting strength. Despite being massively outnumbered, their morale never faltered. The Aravian King had no choice but to personally lead the final charge in the hope that his inspiring presence would lift the Aravians to victory and demoralize the Dark Elves. By this time Sydax was already wounded a dozen times, his chitinous armor barely holding together, his shield dented and chipped, his own blood pooling in his boots and leaking wherever he trod. But, showing no signs of fear nor pain, he fought on, methodically, implacably. King Hatharil underestimated Sydax, thinking the Dark Elf was at death’s door. Sydax fed Hatharil’s misplaced confidence, dodging and parrying, offering only weak counterattacks. But when Hatharil grew breathless and sloppy, Sydax pierced the King’s royal breastplate with the horn on his helm, a torrent of blood heralding the High Elves’ defeat. They withdrew in good order, bearing away their King’s body. But within a week the entire expeditionary force was largely destroyed as the survivors picked their way through Durham Forest, the retreat becoming a rout and then a slaughter. Only a few stragglers returned in mournful failure to attend to the ascension of the King’s daughter, <color=#774418>Eva</color>. Sydax stood victorious, and his victory forced even his most committed foes to acknowledge his power and prestige.