Brekhan

Brekhan HéBrekhan is a dwarf mercenary who has lived over a hundred years in exile from his home in Radezhka. A student of many martial philosophies, Brekhan combines the cunning of a skirmisher, the brute force of a barbarian, and style of fighter into a terrifying combination that leaves few who can match him in conventional combat.

Character Abilities

Brekhan is a wiley old mercenary of over a hundred years, in which time he has fought in countless battles with various people in various conditions. While he has almost no formal education aside from the basic training he received as a boy he is very cunning, and has learned his lessons through trial and error. Brekhan is a master with various types of ranged and melee combat, and is an experienced leader and and unparalleled scout. He also possesses a quickness that is uncommon in most dwarves as well as their robust constitution and bull headed stubbornness. All in all, he's one of the best mercenaries in Polesia and his services are highly sought after.

Character History

In the city of Radezhka, which is situated in the remaining territory of the Kadazhem Empire beneath the Kalladian Mountains, Brekhan HéBrekhan was born one of the middle children to Brekhan HéAmerakh and Adazha HaMadi. His family was of modest standing, crafters and soldiers mostly, with few ever advancing beyond simple management (in short, very well to do peasants).

Brekhan like many other dwarven youths was comfortable with the axe and the shield before he was fifteen, and as he got older he learned to be deadly with the crossbow and was noted for his ability as a sniper and skirmisher. He fought in many campaigns against goblins, orcs, humans, and horrors of the deep world, winning honor for his family and distinguishing himself from his peers, particularly during Radezhka’s 18th crusade to retake the southern caverns near Dor-Imekeh.

These outstanding actions brought attention from certain shadowy elements of the community, who brought Brekhan into the world of high dwarven politics. While he never truly held any considerable political power, he became a valuable tool both on the battlefield and in the back alleys, using multiple talents to accomplish his missions and advance his faction’s goals, murdering several powerful dwarven politicians do so. Brekhan was firm in his political beliefs and never questioned the orders given him, viewing his actions as the will of the dwarven ancestors. However, real or imagined, their blessings did not shelter him forever.

Twenty years into his political involvement, Brekhan made a mistake, or rather was outmaneuvered, and he was identified. Because of his connections, the penalty was not death even though the man murdered was above Brekhan’s station. Instead he was marked and cast out of his community, a fate that most devout dwarves considered little better than death. In accordance with tradition Brekhan’s name was stricken from local records, which to the dwarves meant that he didn’t exist and had in fact never been born. No one would acknowledge his existence and no dwarf within the mountains was to aid or do any sort of business with him.

Disgraced, Brekhan left to find his fortunes elsewhere. He adventured for years, working both as a mercenary and as a bounty hunter for whoever could pay him. Over that time he made various acquaintances and a few friends throughout most of the continent and a few that were actually native to Asashiro, but the best acquisition was a young puppy that Brekhan rescued in Lacaeta from a group of drunken boys who were trying to drown her in a sack. Brekhan actually killed one of them and fled with the dog before he could be identified. He learned later that the dog was actually an awakened creature, from a strain of the legendary Freedland Mosslers that were highly utilized by certain barbarian tribes in the north, and she became one of his most valuable allies in battle, as he trained her well for combat and stealth.

Brekhan currently seeks his fortunes wherever he can, he’s long since surpassed the role of starving mercenary and now takes only jobs that interest him as well as pay a nominal fee. He’s become infamous throughout the continent and often uses his reputation to his advantage. He can never go home but he’s long since lost the desire to do so.

Notable Weapons

Maraim

Brekhan obtained this weapon fighting as a mercenary in one of the many wars of conquest in the Freedlands. While scouting for his employers he and his unit were discovered by the enemy vanguard led by a particularly viscous dwarf barbarian named Arakh the Manslayer. Brekhan was an outcast but even so Arakh was still an abomination in his eyes: wild, uncouth, and rumored to be a cannibal who dined on the heart and brains of his enemies in order to obtain their strength and cunning. The two dwarves fought an intense battle, which Brekhan finally won by planting a quarrel into the other’s head. At first he kept the weapon as a trophy, not realizing that the sloppily scrawled runes actually marked the weapon as magical.

It was quite by accident that he discovered this when his unit was later attacked by more barbarians, mostly human this time. Brekhan was asleep when the attack began and in his haste to get into the battle he grabbed the wrong waraxe. He could tell as soon as he began fighting that the axe was more than a match for the weapon he’d previously wielded and when it glowed and nearly eviscerated a human he was engaged with, he realized its potential.

When the battle was over, he took it to the unit’s bard, Conric Planter, (the wizard assigned with them had been killed) and asked him to identify it. After some careful examinations and an identify spell, the bard informed him that the weapon had been subjected to a particularly savage ritual and anointed with the blood of multiple humans to awaken a dark hunger in the blade that matched its former wielder’s hatred against them. Brekhan renamed the weapon inscribing the dwarf script for Maraim, a woman he had loved long ago. In the years since acquiring the weapon Brekhan has had it enhanced and it has become an easily recognized symbol to many soldiers that he’s fought for and against.

Torzha

Brekhan didn’t win this weapon in battle, though he still endured a great ordeal to get it, almost more than it was worth. While travelling with his old acquaintance Conric Planter newly trained pup, Dazheah (or Daisy as Conric had nicknamed her), through Lattanis, Brekhan became aware of a novel new weapon that was starting to sweep through the southern part of Antanides, the repeating crossbow. Having used a crossbow for more than a century he was intent on gaining one of these new contraptions. He commissioned to have one built by a fairly well respected weapons smith, and then contracted a wizard to enhance even further. The weapon took nearly three weeks in its making and another two in its enchanting.

However, on the night before Brekhan was to claim it from the wizard, a local gang broke into the man’s shop and stole most of his merchandise, including the crossbow. When Brekhan came in the next morning, rather than getting his weapon, he instead found an unexpected and unwanted job. The wizard offered him his crossbow at a fraction of the cost if he could track down the gang and return what they stole. Breakhan knew a few people in the district and with their help and Conric’s they managed to take out the men who stole the crossbow. This however attracted the attention of Antonias DeFerrenti, a man who had been organizing the local gangs and had essentially become a local kingpin for the district. He sent some of his best slayers after Brekhan.

No sooner had Brekhan returned the stolen merchandise and claimed his new crossbow when he found himself using it for the first time in combat. He was still unaccustomed to how it worked but he managed a few lucky shots before he drew Maraim and cut the last of them down. Because of the trouble he had faced for the weapon he named it Torzha after his younger sister, who had also caused him a great deal of trouble throughout his childhood and whose stormy personality matched the magic set in the crossbow.

Notable Conflicts

(963-968 CA) Radezhka’s 18th Crusade: Another attempt by Radezhka to push further below ground and reclaim part of the lost territory of the Kadazhem Empire where the dwarves were trying to retake the deeper caverns several miles south of Kalladian Mountains. Brekhan was young at the time and part of a dwarf foot patrol that scouted for the famous general Marakal HéBroazh. Originally the dwarves thought the region only held by an army of goblins, but it turned out that they were slaves to the creatures that had first driven the dwarves from the area. Brekhan and his team were routed and nearly slaughtered by yallith, degenerate mind flayers that had long ago descended into barbarism and mysticism. Thanks greatly to his actions, however, they managed to fight their way through enemy lines and regroup with the bulk of the army. Brekhan claimed several yallith that day as well as a score of their deformed goblin slaves. The crusade ended rather successfully and resulted in the garrison that currently guards the crossways near the ruins of Dor-Imekeh.

(970-976 CA) The Goblin uprising: A series of conflicts between the dwarves of the Kalladian mountains and the goblins being driven up by more sinister threats from even deeper. While the dwarves were able to hold their lines and scatter the goblins, other things for which there is no name arose in multiple caverns and slaughtered all that stood before them. Brekhan was never present for these incidents, but after the dwarves realized what was happening he was part of one of the teams that systematically sealed all connected caverns in hopes of keeping the nameless horrors from advancing further. To this day the tactic seems to have worked.

(980-988 CA) The Bleakwood War (The War of the Undelivered Letter): A tragic war that lasted for nearly ten years, fought by the dwarves of Radezhka and duergar allies from Dar-Talekhem against both the elves of Bleakwood and the men of Adain’s Hollow. Brekhan actually outmaneuvered elven scouts and was one of the few members of his unit that survived under what became called the “Bloody Boughs of Bleakwood” by many of the dwarven veterans. Neither side gained significant ground, and after ten years it was revealed that the war had all been over a misunderstanding. The elven nobles had signed a treaty with the dwarves that had been sent via messenger. When the messenger was waylaid by orcs on his return trip, the dwarves through some misdirection took it to mean that the elves had killed the messenger and rejected the treaty. Some blame did lie with the elves however, who did not explain or negotiate, and the whole affair was a major embarrassment for all sides involved.

(1006-1008 CA) Hrold’s Glory: It took place in a barren piece of shit hillside country, from which the Barbarians of Leafsgate tried to drive out the people of Aldersborough. This sparked a major response from the local barons who sent in troops to crush the barbarians. The initial assault was badly handled and while the barons’ forces technically won, the barbarians entrenched themselves throughout the countryside and began retaliating with guerilla raids. The battle for Aldersborough turned into a two year campaign and depleted so many of the barons’ knights and pike men that they were forced to call in outside help. The final battle, on the hill called Hrold’s Glory, was a five day affair during which the barons lost significantly less men, mostly because there were few of them participating and those that were had long since figured out that listening to the mercenaries over their own officers offered them a better chance of survival.

(1015-1017 CA) Faldor’s Creek: One of many conflicts during the ever raging wars of conquest in the Freedlands.

(1022-1029 CA) The Black Crusade: The drow vampire lord Rhone Tavier rose from the Black Temple in Ep, blanketing the surrounding countryside in a shroud of darkness and raising the dead. He slaughtered thousands as his rapidly growing army marched east and then south, burning town after town and blighting the very ground that they walked upon. Priests and lords alike tried separately to stop him and were crushed beneath his heel, which caused many of the warlords and various faiths to put aside their differences and work together to put down this monster. While at first the Black Crusade was limited to noble men and ecclesiastical warriors, it soon became apparent that even their combined numbers would not be enough to stem the undead tide and so they sought help from whomever they could, bringing in dozens of mercenary companies to help replenish their ranks. Brekhan fought during the last few years of the war and he faced lunatic death cultists more than Rhone’s undead lieutenants. He was however part of the final push to fence in what became known as the Necrolands. When the now sainted Diaclese the Stern, high priest of Erabis, plunged his sacred spear into Rhone, trapping the vampire lord inside of the Black Tomb, Brekhan was fighting the dead in the city streets and nearly lost his life had it not been for the help of an Ashtran novice named Silas Vaetes.

(1042-1045 CA) Avandor’s First War of Conquest (the Taming War): Avandor sent its armies north into the Freedlands to bring them into the fold of their budding society called arrogantly the Holy Erabisian Empire. The campaign was unpopular to say the least so rather than conscript and face probable revolt the nobles simply taxed their subjects and hired mercenaries to augment their armies (augment of course meaning act as meat shields). Brekhan fought in this war very early on and stayed with it for several years, during which time he met Conric Planter and the two became reluctant but good friends, Brekhan finding that Conric was not as useless as he appeared and Conric finding that Brekhan was harsh but goodhearted. Both left the war a year before its conclusion, disgusted by the generals’ brutal tactics and political infighting, that and they both had already made significant money to hold them over for years.