Ugir the Wyrmeater

Among the colonies of the Dragonkin Empire of old was an archipelago in the east of the great island chain of Torcelin Istriv, later known as the Lost Isles. Called Maru Toba, this island cluster was ruled by an Ogryn warlord and former Dragonkin auxiliary named Ugir, but was subject to the directives of the Dragon Emperor. Ugir’s tribe provided manpower for the Empire in exchange for their semi-independence. Dragonkin rule had always sat ill with Ugir and his people, but the relationship soured further as the Emperor made ever-greater demands. Imperial forces were mobilizing for an expedition through the newly constructed Brimstone Gate, and more of Ugir’s people were being conscripted. All complaints were ignored, and the Dragonkin began to employ force. That was their first mistake. After hearing about Ogryn being kidnapped and enslaved, Ugir took action. He killed and skinned one Dragonkin overseer and wrenched the horns from another. He ordered him to return to his Emperor and tell him Maru Toba would serve no longer. The response was predictable. A Dragonkin fleet arrived, transporting an imperial army to quash Maru Toba’s rebellion. Ugir’s people were outnumbered, but the odds did not concern the Ogryn. His time in the imperial legions had taught him the Dragonkin’s tactics well. The Dragonkin thought of Ogryn as brutal and simplistic, and expected to engage in a pitched battle where their superior tactics and numbers would see them victorious. Their landing was uncontested, something they assumed would merely be the first of a host of tactical blunders made by their unsophisticated foes. But as they advanced into the jungles covering the interior, they found themselves ambushed by Ogryn again and again, who cut off and massacred advance parties, using the attacks to lure in reserves who they in turn encircled and crushed. Dragonkin casualties mounted. Ugir’s Ogryn also employed terror tactics, leaving severed heads and skinned, reptilian hides along the paths being used by the invaders. Ugir himself accentuated his armor with skins and the bony horns and crests of the Dragonkin he killed, and crafting a jagged bone ax from their remains. His greatest victory came when slew the expedition’s commander during a daring raid. Later in that same battle, Ugir was beset by the great, reptilian demi-wyrm the commander often rode into battle, but the Ogryn met the beast head on, wrestling it down and cutting its gullet with a vicious slash of his ax. He later devoured its carcass. In doing so he claimed to have consumed the very spirit of the monster, and earned himself the name ‘Wyrmeater’. While the Ogryn’s resistance was great, their defiance could not endure forever. A new Dragonkin commander was appointed. He adopted a more meticulous strategy, using his superior numbers to strangle resistance. His fleet cut off one island at a time. Dragonkin took to felling the jungle, restricting the areas in which the Ogryn could employ their devastating tactics. Ugir and his warriors were eventually isolated on the last free island of Maru Toba, where they prepared for one more stand. But a valiant death at the hands of the Dragonkin Empire was not the Wyrmeater’s destiny. Wider events intervened in the war for Maru Toba. Siroth’s forces in Anathraad had defeated the Dragonkin incursion and were now spilling into Teleria, assaulting every part of the Empire. Ugir was horrified by the twisted Demonic newcomers with their warped Dragonkin forms, and the terrible slaughter they inflicted, but held a quiet hope he could take advantage of their invasion. It granted him and his warriors a welcome reprieve. He also agreed to a cautious, temporary alliance with the leader of the Anathraad forces sent to Maru Toba, Kravakz. The Dragonkin, already thrown into disarray by desperate orders from the Emperor to return to defend the fleet-city of Twinrift, were easy prey to the combined might of Demonspawn and Ogryn. For Ugir, the victory was short-lived. Kravakz claimed Maru Toba in the name of the Shadow God. Ugir had been preparing for such an eventuality however, hoarding captured Dragonkin ships, and striking up a pact with Dragonkin prisoners, agreeing to free and arm them if they would wreak vengeance on the Demonspawn. The efforts of the Empire to drive out the Ogryn had been moderate compared to what the Demonspawn unleashed when Ugir refused to submit. Monstrosities rampaged through the remaining jungle, and Kravakz conjured Demonic fires to sear away both forest and Ogryn alike. Still, Ugir fought on. It was no longer a battle for freedom but a fight for survival. He led from the front, and his experience in hit-and-run tactics was bolstered by the bitter resistance offered by the surviving Dragonkin. Ultimately the wider Demonic invasion of Teleria failed. Kravakz and his legion were forced to withdraw. They left behind ravaged islands, but inhabitants who were free. Though few Ogryn had survived, their legacy would endure, thanks to the ceaseless leadership, strength, and brute determination of Ugir the Wyrmeater.