PCs:Rhissaerk Jalesh
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Dresk's Hundred
Rhissaerk Jalesh was hatched in a small village that bordered T'Nanshi, originally known as T'kesslas. However, a few generations back the Boyar changed the name of the town to Jalesh and had issued an odd edict that all hatched in this town would have Jalesh as a surname. Rhissaerk's youth was unexceptional, for a Shaahesk. He spent the first year and a half being raised by his birthmother before being inducted into the warrior caste and being sent to raid nearby elf settlements for slaves. Years passed, and things changed for the young lizard warrior.
An exceptionally wealthy slave trader named Dresk paid the Boyar of Jalesh to purchase soldiers for his own private interests. The Boyar agreed, and Dresk went through the village and hand picked a small number of Shaahesk, Rhissaerk among them. He'd done the same in other villages, and had assembled an army of young Shaahesk whose abilities suited his needs.
It wasn't long before these Shaahesk were armed with many magical trinkets and weapons, and inducted into a lifestyle of wealth and privilege in Shaah Sulehagh. Dresk arranged for them to have some of the best trainers in the country, and in the coming years Dresk's plan came to fruition. An army of exactly 100 well equipped, well trained Shaahesk who knew each other's abilities and personalities inside and out, and kept loyal by the mere fact that no one trusted the others to lead as well as Dresk could. None wished for this lifestyle to end.
Dresk put them to work, acting as his private army. He could conduct his own private raids and it was easy for him to acquire rare and exotic slaves and supplies. The small army became known as Dresk's Hundred, and was well known in southern Shaah Sulehagh. The hundred Shaahesk revelled in the lifestyle of wealth and blood, a barbaric paradise they wished could go on forever. But Dresk aged, and as he became weaker, he could see the gleam of betrayal in his subject's eyes. Rather then have his legacy tarnished, he had those who remained after their roughly 10 years of service transferred to the Voivode's Army, and disappeared.
The Army confiscated all the magical equipment that Dresk had given his soldiers, and they were separated into different units and locations. Those who grew up as one of Dresk's Hundred remember their youth fondly.
While Rhissaerk may have done little to stand out as an individual in the past, it certainly shaped his personality. He was exceptionally arrogant on account of the life he'd grown up with, feeling he was one of Shaah Sulehagh's finest. He spoke in third person like Dresk used to do, and he had dreams of becoming a Boyar and recreating the luxurious lifestyle of blood and wealth. Although not picked up from anyone in particular, Rhissaerk also seemed to have a glaring…flaw. While in battle he was graceful, skilled and precise, outside of it he was completely clumsy. A few more years passed, and the time came when Shaah Sulehagh entered the war between M'Chek and T'Nanshi. Many soldiers were assigned to the south, grudgingly going to fight alongside those deemed pathetic lesser races. Rhissaerk was one such soldier and found himself in the human City of Mikona, a far cry from where he had hoped to end up.
M'Chek
Rhissaerk was initially quite uncomfortable away from home. The place had a completely different atmosphere. The streets were lined with the starving and the dieing, yet they weren't slaves. He failed to understand why they didn't just kill off these beggars and weaklings, but he wasn't there to reshape their society, just to kill elves. He resolved that he would impress his people and his country from here, no matter what it took.
While he had a difficult start, much changed when he met a small Halfling bard by the name of Raen. Raen was very polite and sang a song that reminded Rhissaerk of home. This did much to help make him relax. Afterwards, she took him to a bar and introduced him to a few others. Nikki Tanner, Harbesh Lohensun, Smeec, and Gracie Dane. He got drunk and enjoyed the revelry with these individuals, and that night still stands out as one of his best in his minds.
More time passed, and while most of Mikona was initially hostile to Rhissaerk, his bizarre mix of arrogance, klutziness and enthusiasm for battle eventually won many over to actually enjoying his company. He made quite a few more friends, but seemed to get along especially well with Harbesh. He fought alongside many whose power surprised him, the warmbloods were not as weak as he had expected. While their ways and culture confused him to no end, he found they were not so insufferable to be around as he had expected, and even grew to enjoy their presence somewhat.
Eventually, a clan of bugbears performed a raid on the eastern village outside of Mikona. Nikki Tanner came and got Rhissaerk and a few others for aid, and they tracked the bugbears to their cave. They had been raiding for slaves, to sell to an unnamed buyer. Rhissaerk had a hunch who the buyer was, and following the leads they gained from interrogation, he found he was right. Shaahesk were the buyers. He saw a golden opportunity here. These slavers endangered the M'Chek and Drotid alliance, by thwarting them he would win favour back home as well as aid the war effort. He set his sights on doing so.
He pursued many leads, and as he did, he quickly found out Mikona was no dull place. Demon invasions, dracoliches, bizarre undead little boys, a strange monster called "The Gentlemen", and the ever present Sereg all kept the gates of the city covered in blood. The battles honed his skills, and Rhissaerk grew in power and befriended more of the populace. He fought on the warfront as he was ordered alongside the other Shaahesk and the M'Chekian Army, and his skills quickly showed themselves as he cut through elf after elf. Eventually his investigations into the slavers paid off, and the skills he acquired while waiting for them to do so came in handy as they did.
The slavers had an arrangement, they paid the ogres and bugbears in diamonds to raid the nearby settlements for slaves and deliver them along the shore. Rhissaerk and a hand picked party of individuals made their own visit to this slaver camp, and while they managed to disrupt it, the ship with the information they truly needed, the name of this slaver group and proof of their activity, got away. Or so it seemed. Rhissaerk stole a boat from the M'Chek Navy and his haphazard crew attempted to sail after them. But they were not sailors, and they could not catch the ship. However, they did learn something…and that something was all Rhissaerk needed to locate this group of slavers real base of operations.
Ferrell
An interesting detour that Rhissaerk had pursued, when he had leave and his duties did not require him at the front, was he would often enjoy vacationing in Ferrell. He had stumbled on a group called FEAT, whose light hearted and chaotic nature provided the perfect escape from the ever intense war and the looming background of Drotid politics he pursued. Often referring to Ferrell as "A huge mug of glosht", he would frequently visit and go on all manner of bizarre adventures with his friends from FEAT. He did his best to keep them entirely separate of the war, almost never speaking of it around them, besides of how glorious and magnificent his abilities and victories were. Alongside FEAT, Rhissaerk fought Ifirenia in the Old Woods Tower, and helped defend Ferrell from raids and attacks.
Warmaster Rhissaerk's Shaahesk Elite
By this time, Rhissaerk had also acquired a small following of Shaahesk who happened to be in the south. These Shaahesk acted as his soldiers, and while not massive in number and quite young, they were certainly useful. These soldiers ranged from those who shared a mutual interest in seeing Rhissaerk's goals pursued to those who fanatically worshipped him.
Rhissaerk pursued his leads and with the use of his newfound soldiers managed to disrupt the slavers attacking M'Chek, winning him much of what he desired back home, and the appreciation of the M'Chekian slaves he had freed.
The War with Elysia
The war had taken an interesting twist by this time. Elysia and Drotid had begun fighting, causing Elysia and T'Nanshi to enter into an alliance against the Shaahesk. The Titanians were the new allies of Drotid, and Rhissaerk was dismayed to learn that right at the beginning of the war their supply depot had already been destroyed, stranding a group of Shaahesk raiders in the Underdark. Grantir, too, had become active, fighting the Shaahesk back within their home. It did not bode well.
Rhissaerk and a few other individuals worked at supplying the Shaahesk base, but it was ultimately futile. The base fell, its tenuous position in the Underdark simply too hard to protect. After the base fell, Rhissaerk executed the Captain, who had seemingly survived the attack, for his incompetence, and took his halberd as a prize.
The Assassination of Vanoviel
Drotid lacked the ability to do much further in regards to Elysia, and Rhissaerk resigned himself to leaving the pathetic Titanians to handling it. However, a group, Sable Cell, contacted him at this point, and recruited him for their endeavours in the war against Elysia. His physical skill and battle prowess proved useful, and he helped raid Elysia and fought alongside this strange group.
As the war progressed, Sable Cell came up with a plan for their greatest act yet, the assassination of Vanoviel. Employing the Titanian forces at their fullest and a powerful demon lord, the plan was enacted, and Rhissaerk found himself face to face with Vanoviel herself. The two fought viciously as her bodyguards were all distracted by the large demon raining fire down on the battlefield, their screams echoing throughout the forest. Tired and scorched by the flames from above, her guard dropped and Rhissaerk's halberd found its mark, plunging into her chest and ending her life. The Titanians stabbed her corpse with a soul stealing dagger afterwards, ensuring she would never return to life. Rhissaerk claimed her ring as a trophy and departed, proud of his victory. He announced his slaying of Vanoviel to the world, and issued a challenge to any of the Elysian radicals who had formed during the war to come for him.
Rhissaerk led one more raid on Elysia, in which he burned down the dock districts. Afterwards, he never heard from Sable Cell again. It would seem as the Titanians stood poised to conquer Elysia, something occurred that caused them and the O'Mans to seek a peace instead. Rhissaerk quietly scoffed at whichever Boyar decided allying with fairies was a good idea. Now Drotid had to face the combined might of Grantir, T'Nanshi, and Elysia on its own. Drotid had little choice but to attempt to sue for peace and cut their losses.
Imprisonment
M'Chek decided that the best course of action was to hand Rhissaerk over to Elysia for the 'crime' of killing Vanoviel. An effort headed by Dala Wennen. While much of Drotid sympathized with Rhissaerk, the higher ups of the country decided that Rhissaerk would make a fine peace offering and agreed to allow this to happen. Rhissaerk was imprisoned and eventually shipped to Elysia, where he stood trial.
He openly and proudly admitted to every attack, raid, and the slaying of Vanoviel. Even the Elysians could see his handover was little more then a political ploy by M'Chek, although it did allow Rhissaerk to announce that Drotid wanted peace and it sparked the beginning of the negotiations to allow Drotid to exit the war. Rhissaerk was sentenced to gather an enormous amount of wood and lumber, to help rebuild the very city he'd worked so hard to destroy. Slave labour by any Shaahesk standard, he was humiliated and ashamed, but took it in stride, blaming the entire situation not on the Elysians, but on Dala Wennen and the M'Chekian upper officials who sold him out.
Freedom
He completed his sentence in time to see Drotid's negotiations finished, a peace treaty signed with the long standing enemies of the Shaahesk. He was decorated and rewarded by Drotid for all of his service to them, and promoted to a Captain in the army. However, his hometown was razed to the ground by the elven and Elysian forces during the war.
Rhissaerk is regarded as a hero in Drotid, and M'Chek's handing him over to Elysia exemplifies what many Shaahesk feel M'Chek did to their country. In M'Chek, he is viewed more dubiously. Some, such as the slaves he freed, viewing him as a hero, while others still consider him a monster. He is viewed as a vile villain by most of Elysia and T'Nanshi.
With the war over, Rhissaerk has struggled to find work, and he has mostly been wandering around southern Avlis, looking for challenging battles to sate his never ending bloodlust.