Rulers

Basquel the Red/Debren the Dark, King of Greyfeather
Originally from Faerun (The Forgotten Realms), Basquel The Red set himself apart from other wizards immediately upon arriving in Greyfeather. His reasons for being here are unknown and it’s doubtful that anyone will ever know why he left Faerun to come to Greyfeather, but his arrival came with much fanfare. He arrived in Greyfeather City, but instantly took a dislike to the metropolis and left, going north. He found a suitable location for a wizard’s tower just west of Eventhil (then known as Port North) and the tower just seemed to appear overnight (according to eyewitness accounts). Word began to spread around the north about his amazingly powerful archmage, all within a few days of his arrival.

Basquel was a powerful mage, but he had a hobby...archaeology. For years, he would travel around the realm, digging up ancient artifacts and then donating them to the Greyfeather Historical Society. He would spend days reading up on a particular event, then he and his crew would start digging. He wrote many books on the subject of archaeology and was a high standing member of the Historical Society. He was also a guest professor at the Wizard College for many years. He was made Dean of the college for a short time, but he stepped down once a suitable replacement was found so he could go back to his own pursuits.

In the Year 900, when King Christopher came to the land, he recruited Basquel as a traveling companion, traveling the land and exploring ancient dungeons that had long been forgotten. The two became close friends for a long time and Basquel helped Christopher with many of his progressive projects for the land. In the Year 952, the two had a falling out and stopped speaking, though Christopher tried to reach out to his old friend. It would be many more years before Christopher would learn that Basquel The Red had changed sides and changed his name.

Basquel abandoned his tower in the Year 952 and moved to Eventhil to go to work for Lord Vecter who had started the Dark Alliance, a force of mostly evil people seeking to overthrow the Greyfeather monarchy. Basquel The Red became Debren The Dark. He was the chief lieutenant of Vecter and helped coordinate recruits to missions that were better suited to their skill sets. He was also Vecter’s conscience. When Vecter would get angry and want to just sack Greyfeather City, Basquel was the calming voice who held him check and this is why Vecter liked him so much.

Eventually, the Dark Alliance succeeded in advancing on the throne, but when Vecter was prepared to become king, Dragokar (formerly King Christopher) pulled him away to become the God of Death and handed the throne to Basquel. Though it’s never bothered him if someone found out who he really was, he did his best to hide this fact from the masses, preferring that they hate Debren The Dark and not Basquel The Red.

Now Basquel is the King of Greyfeather.

Delilah Morningstar, Queen of Elvenwood
Delilah was born Delinarra Blackthorn in the Elvenwood Forest, the only heir to one of the lesser noble houses. She showed an early aptitude for magic, which her father indulged to some degree because she was spoiled and pampered in every way. However, her father made it clear to her as she was growing up that her only goal should be to marry into one of the more important families in Elvenwood. Delilah had no such wish and wanted to attend the wizard’s college, which her father strictly prohibited.

Her father began to negotiate her engagement to the only son of house Windsong. One day, Delilah completely lost her temper and told her parents she would leave Elvenwood before she would marry, and then stormed out of the house. As she was stomping down the path she nearly ran headlong into her soon-to-be fiancé, who asked her what was wrong and tried to embrace her. Delilah snapped and lashed out with the only real spell she knew at the time, shocking grasp, and left him lying in the path while she stormed off.

Once she calmed a bit she returned to her parents’ house to pack her things, only to discover the authorities were there to arrest her for murder as her fiancé had died. Delilah fled the forest with only the clothes on her back. She traveled around for some time, stealing food and clothing, or convincing the unsuspecting to give her what she wanted. One day she came upon a group of traveling performers and convinced them to allow her to join their troupe. She proved herself to be a capable actress and changed her name to Delilah Morningstar. Her thirst for magic had not been sated, however, and whenever they were in a town she searched out the local wizard to learn what she could from them.

One day while her acting troupe was in Reslin she was recruited by a member of the Dark Alliance. She and her companions quickly rose to trusted lieutenants, recruiting others to the Dark Alliance and transforming towns from small villages to thriving communities built with the Dark Alliances’ money. They reported directly to Debren the Dark, a powerful wizard, who eventually told them that their goal was to put Lord Vecter on the throne. As her power grew, Delilah became adept at persuasion and magical enchantment, using both aid them in achieving their goal.

With the help of her companions, Delilah returned to Elvenwood for revenge, killing every noble, including her parents, who she burned alive in their homes. However, she was also successful in persuading the general population that the nobles were a cancer that needed to be removed, and they supported her eventual ascension to the throne. She declared that there would be no more nobility and that everything in the forest would be shared equally; no one would go hungry and there would be work for all. She built a strong Guard comprised of the former noble guardsmen and the forest patrols, ensuring that the forest would be safe for everyone.

When the time came, Vecter was taken to the heavens as a god and Debren took the throne. Delilah then returned to Elvenwood and essentially cut ties with Debren, focusing all of her attention on the Elvenwood Forest. She has completely broken away from the Dark Alliance but remains close to her former companions; Razor, the mayor of Port Agaron and Mahalian, a merchant who lives in the Aspenleaf Forest. However, she has no contact with Debren, believing him to be a terrible ruler who has done nothing for the people of Greyfeather.

Since Delilah has taken the throne Elvenwood has prospered and all of the elves there are well taken care of. Anyone with an aptitude for combat is recruited into the guard, and any with a magical aptitude are enrolled in the wizard’s college that Delilah had built. They have trade relations with almost every nation, including Falfarren. She is known as a fair and thoughtful ruler who cares about her people and is respected by them.

Hasrenel D’arten, King of Ironwood
Hasrenel was the eldest of six children, born to King Xavis D’arten and Queen Loreli D’arten of the Ty’larenthar elves. From the time he could read and write, the boy was groomed to become the next king of the Ty’larenthar elves and rule it as his father had. Having lived underground all his life, Hasrenel didn’t like surface dwellers and wanted nothing more than to wipe out those who lives on the surface so his people could finally live under the stars, as they had so many years ago. It was driven into his mind that this was to be his ultimate goal, to wipe out all surface dwelling creatures.

Hasrenel was an intelligent lad with a love of different languages. Before he was an adult, he knew eight different languages other than his own and he was always seeking tutors to teach him new ones. By chance, he met a sage who was a scholar of languages and he was taught the Common language of surface dwellers. Hasrenel loved it. At first, it sounded guttural to him, but over time, he found a fondness for it and chose to speak it whenever he could. Though his parents weren’t pleased with this, they humored him on it.

Once he became an adult, he was sent to school to learn magic and he fell in love with that as well. He met a fellow dark elf by the name of Vexi’molar, and they two became good friends. Vex was born to a poor family who had to work off his school debt, and once Hasrenel heard about that, he paid for Vex’s schooling to spare his family. It angered his parents that he did that, but he refused to bow to them on that. It was his coins and he chose to do it. It almost cost him the crown in the end.

His sister, who was just two years younger than he was, had impressed upon their father that Hasrenel was too “soft hearted” to rule, and that she should be the Queen. Xavis was very close to agreeing with that argument as he neared his time to pass, but Hasrenel got wind of her plot and reminded his father that there had never been a female ruler of the Ty’larenthar elves and this would be going against tradition. Luckily for Hasrenel, his father sided with him, and when he passed, Hasrenel was crowned the new king. He had his sister executed the day after his father’s funeral.

He ruled his people very well, even though he was a bit more soft hearted than his father was. He wanted to improve conditions within his underground realm and he did all he could to manage that. He sent dark elf diplomats to giant tribes on the surface, high in the mountains, to develop a trade network that will give the dark elves a wider variety of goods. He sent diplomats to the Highlanders on the other side of the land to develop trade for food and vegetables, things they couldn’t get underground. These trade networks improved the quality of life for the dark elves and made Hasrenel a hero.

In the Year 855, he received the strangest missive he’d ever seen. The Queen of Greyfeather, Samantha Kensak, wanted a meeting with him, in Ul’tarth, the capital city of the dark elves. It was to be a peaceful meeting and he was all for it. He had wanted to converse in Common for so long and now he would get his chance. The meeting went so well that the two of them wanted to meet again and discuss trade between them. After three meetings, a treaty was signed between the two monarchs that would open trade between them, to include knowledge, which Hasrenel was always seeking. That treaty is still in effect, though the current human monarch, King Debren, doesn’t even realize it.

In 1006, during a visit from the Dark Alliance, Hasrenel pulled off his biggest coup. They wanted his support for Lord Vecter to be the new King of Greyfeather and asked what he wanted in return. He told them that he wanted their old forest back. Their forest had been burned down before King Kensak I ever took the throne and all that existed of it was a small, haunted grove just north of the Swamp of the Dead. Surprisingly, they were able to enlist the power of the Mad Druid to grow the old forest back overnight, thus fulfilling their end of the bargain. Hasrenel didn’t like the Dark Alliance and he never believed they could do something that drastic, so when he got what he wanted, he magically sealed his borders and turned his back on the Dark Alliance.

Hasrenel is getting older now and he feels that his time is growing to a close as the monarch. He has a son, Hayden D’arten, who he has been grooming to take his place, but Hasrenel still has his hand in every facet of his kingdom. His hatred of surface dwellers waned after meeting with Queen Samantha Kensak and now he welcomes outsiders into his kingdom, more to show them the culture that the dark elves have developed over the centuries.

Mahalian Edgewood, King Regent of Aspenleaf
Mahalian grew up in the Aspenleaf Forest. His father was a wealthy lumber merchant and his mother died giving birth to him. He had an older brother who his father doted on, ignoring Mahalian for the most part. When he was old enough to leave home, he went to his father and told him so, to which his father replied, “Go ahead, I’m leaving it all to your brother anyway”. Mahalian trained to be a rogue who was quick with a sword and stealthy.

Feeling that his brother was getting his inheritance, Mahalian was bitter and less than a kind person. He bore a severe hatred of his father and his brother, and he vowed that one day, he would get even, and his inheritance. He was recruited into the Dark Alliance shortly after this and he spent the next several years traveling around the land, helping the Dark Alliance gain a foothold against the crown. He was an entrepreneur of a sort, seeing good financial opportunities in his travels and procuring businesses that he felt would net him a tidy profit in the end. Two of his favorite businesses to buy or start up were gaming houses and houses of prostitution.

In 1005, he was finally able to fulfill his vow. While on a mission to assassinate the King of the Aspenleaf Forest, he came across his brother, traveling with the king during The Hunt, and saw to it that his brother was among the dead. From there, he and his companions went to his father’s mansion, to finish the job, only to find that his father had passed a short time before. This left him the sole heir to his father’s fortune.

In 1007, when Debren took the throne, Mahalian left the Dark Alliance to return home to run the family business, along with his many other businesses he had started up around the land. Set for life financially, Mahalian began to take note of how the Dark Alliance was using King Caligant Maplebranch, to further its own agenda and he didn’t like how it was being done. The Aspenleaf people were being robbed and oppressed and he had his fill of it. He contacted some of the royal guard that he had made friends with and convinced them to overthrow the elven king and wrestle the power away from them. They listened.

Instead of killing the king and risking King Debren’s ire, they imprisoned Caligant instead, and Mahalian was asked by Lokar Oakenspire, the Hand of the King, to take over the role as King Regent. Together, they would rule the people the way they should and keep Debren out of the mix. Since his arrival, the Aspenleaf people enjoy peace and prosperity, but one day hope that King Debren will be removed so that Mahalian can rule openly.

Mechanectrik, King of the Gnomes
Mechanectrik was a tinkerer who lived in the small gnome village of Underhill. Born during the reign of King Bife, he did all he could to avoid politics and just focused on his creations, clockwork robots that could do anything from clean your hovel to fetch something for you without having to get up. A very intelligent man, Mechanectrik much preferred to tinker than to leave his shop, but the oppression brought by the Lich King was becoming unbearable to the people, especially his own.

The current king of the gnomes, Wexardostrus, hired Mechanectrik to build clockwork soldiers, to defend the gnome cities from Bife’s undead minions, who came around on a regular basis to make sure the King’s edicts were being followed and to take tax coins back to their liege. Wex, as he was known to all, was tired of the hard earned gold leaving his people, so he wanted soldiers who could fight without sacrificing gnome citizens.

Taking up this challenge, Mechanectrik began to work on a prototype immediately. It only took him two years to develop the warrior clockwork, and with the help of some other tinkerers, built more than fifty of them to protect the gnomes. The clockworks were so advanced and so precise that Bife’s undead soldiers couldn’t defeat them. Mechanectrik found a way to instruct the soldiers to only kill what was not alive, which meant that the soldiers wouldn’t harm innocent gnomes. Eventually, the Lich King’s men stopped coming around and the gnomes were saved.

When Wexardostrus died, his final wishes were for Mechanectrik to take over as the new king of the gnomes. He had never led anyone before, but he couldn’t very well turn down the former king’s final request. He was surprised at how the gnomish people accepted this rise to power from simple tinkerer to monarch. He wanted to do right by them and to make their lives better, and this is what drove him as the king. He never makes a snap decision when it comes to this people and he surrounds himself with others who give him sound advice.

He has been ruling the gnomes since the Year 805, and though he is almost 400 years old, he is still just as mentally sharp as he ever was.

Argonnes, King of Blackstone
Former God

When Arzeen chose to step down as the King of Blackstone, he didn’t want to just hand the crown to anyone. He wanted someone he could trust to do right by the realm, so he chose his nephew, Argonnes, a ranger/druid who was protecting the largest forest in Blackstone. Argonnes was not like his uncle, though. Where Arzeen was brash and bold, Argonnes was subtler and kinder. Where Arzeen took risks, Argonnes played things more safely. But when it came to their love of their realm, they were on the same level of caring.

Arzeen left the throne to his nephew and set out to see some of the world again and Argonnes took the throne with thoughts of improving what his uncle had started. The first thing he did was to write a royal decree making the government a true monarchy, by succession only. Then he started a project to expand the forests and natural wonders of the land, protecting them from harm. Being a ranger/druid, his love of wildlife carried over to his reign. It wasn’t unheard of to see animals roaming freely about the royal palace.

King Kensak IV was still ruling Greyfeather, the neighboring realm, and he dealt with this newcomer as he had his predecessor, by taking him under his wing. He introduced Argonnes to Lorn, the new king of Kietus and the two struck up a good friendship, often traveling together on many adventures. Argonnes was the King of Blacksone at the time when Bife stole the throne of Greyfeather and closed his borders to prevent the Lich King from invading his homeland. Being a druid, he didn’t age and held the throne for several centuries, under the Great Sundering destroyed his beloved Blackstone. Argonnes chose to stay with Blackstone instead of escaping to Greyfeather Island, and perished in the destruction of his realm. The Overseer then asked him to join the pantheon of Neutrality in the heavens as the God of Nature, which Argonnes gratefully accepted.

In the Year 855, when the Overseer removed the gods from the heavens, Argonnes made his way to the northern most islands above Greyfeather Island and remained there for many years. In the Year 1005, he was kidnapped by a rogue and his entourage to use his power to take control of the islands, but a group working for the Dark Alliance liberated the druid/ranger and he vanished to avoid that ever happening again. To this day, no one knows where Argonnes is.

Arlan II, King of Elvenwood
Former God

Arlan II was the only son of King Arlan, the King of the Elvenwood elves. Arlan II wanted to be a wizard, which angered his father, as he wanted his son to stay at home and learn to rule as the future king, which Arlan II wanted nothing to do with. He felt that sitting in a palace was boring and longed for a life on the road. He joined a traveling group out of the Wizard College and began to see more of the land than he ever thought possible.

His best friend was a halfling by the name of Jelan and eventually, it was just the two of them traveling the land together. King Kensak IV received word that the people of the Elvenwood Forest had rebelled against the monarchy and King Arlan was removed from the throne, but now they had no ruler. Kensak located Arlan II and Jelan in the mountains, preparing to go into a dungeon and told him of the situation in his homeland. Arlan II gave up his life on the road to return to save his people, instead.

Once he got the people calmed down, they coronated him as their new king. He thought about how he would make life better for his people and he came up with the idea to build a fabulous city that they would see as a cultural and artistic center of the forest, Elvenwood. Using his own wealth, he hired elven artisans, dwarven stonemasons and thousands of laborers to build the huge city right in the middle of the Elvenwood Forest. It took them five years to complete, but the end result was just what he hoped to accomplish.

The elven people didn’t quite know how to handle this city. They felt it was a bit too fancy and arrogant for them and most avoided going there for that reason. This caused Arlan II to become upset with his people, then his creation. He felt they didn’t appreciate what he was doing for them, and since he refused to speak to the people about it, he carried this feeling with him. After one year and very few visitors, Arlan II’s anger turned to rage and he chose to destroy the city, rather than allow it to stand empty. Using his powerful magic, he sank the city into the earth, taking him with it.

Arlan II was approached by the Overseer after his death about becoming a god in the Evil pantheon. This was supposed to be a wake up call to the elf, but Arlan II took it as a compliment and accepted this position. In the Year 855, when the Overseer removed the gods from the heavens, Arlan II went right back to his bellowed City of Elvenwood, 800 feet below ground, to live out his days in his former palace there. He is still there.

Arzeen, King of Blackstone
Former God

Arzeen was raised in an orphanage, never knowing who his parents were, but he didn’t let his lack of parentage dissuade him from making a name for himself. Growing up on the streets for the most part, he learned how to steal, hide and lie his way out of just about anything, but his ambitions were more toward adventure than being a local cutpurse. When he reached adulthood, Arzeen took himself off the streets and began to study swordsmanship and wizardry so that he could become an adventurer.

Fate intervened, however. Before he was able to graduate from those two schools, he happened upon a man who claimed that he knew of a good deal of treasure and that Arzeen was the perfect guy for the job. All he had to do was sneak into this building and steal something for the man, and he would get a big payday. Arzeen didn’t realize he was sneaking into the royal palace of Blackstone to steal the crown from the current king. He made his way to the crown and picked it up just as soldiers were about to grab him for the theft. To try to make a getaway, Arzeen put the crown on his head so he could run with his hands free and suddenly, the soldiers just stopped and then knelt before him. According to Blackstone royal law, the one in possession of the crown was the king, regardless of how it was obtained. Inadvertently, he had just become the king of Blackstone.

Now the newly crowned king, Arzeen found himself way over his head. He had no idea how to be a king and those around him who served the king were just trying to find a way to unseat him, so he contacted the kingdom to the south of him, to speak to the monarch there, King Kensak IV of Greyfeather. Kensak IV took him under his wing and taught him how to rule his people fairly and justly, and the two became very good friends. The one he bonded with the most was King Draco of Kietus.

Arzeen proved to be a very quick study as the monarch, improving living conditions for the lesser fortunate people and making Blackstone a much nicer place to live, but his strong desire to adventure took him from his kingdom for long stretches of time. Eventually, he handed the throne to his nephew, Argonnes, so that he could devote all of his free time to traveling. Before his death, the Overseer asked him to come to the heavens to be a god in the Neutral pantheon, which Arzeen considered a step up, so he agreed.

In the Year 855, the Overseer removed all of the gods from the heavens, sending them back to live out their days as a mortal. Arzeen retired to a tropical island north of Greyfeather Island and lived out his days in peace and solitude until his final passing in the Year 967.

Cyntina, Queen of Greyfeather
Former God

Cyntina was born in the realm of Tar-Stone, on the continent north of Greyfeather Island in the Year 73, to the monarch of Tar-Stone, King Franklin LeMond, though he was known by his people as King Blackheart. Her father was an overbearing man who ruled with an iron fist and had an unnatural hatred of the monarchy of Greyfeather Island, though no one knows why. She was an only child and favored her mother in appearance. She had long red hair, clear blue eyes and a figure that made most men covet her. Mild mannered for the most part, she did her best to shield herself from the edicts of her father, keeping to herself and learning magic at a prestigious school in Tar-Stone.

When she was In her teens, she felt that her father had gotten a bad reputation and wanted to spend more time with him, to find out just how he was outside of the monarchy. Unfortunately for her, Tar-Stone was embroiled in war with Greyfeather at the time and the king was on the front lines. Regardless of this, she insisted she travel with her father to the front lines and reluctantly, he agreed. While there, she was led to believe that the Greyfeather army was led by a maniac who only wanted to conquer Tar-Stone and enslave the masses, and she believed this to be true. Then she met Prince Kensak IV and came to realize that he was not what her father made him out to be. Kensak had seen her on a scouting mission and was smitten by her beauty and poise, so he snuck into the camp and slipped into her tent one night. The two talked for hours, about the war, about themselves and about how the saw the future of mankind. She found out that her father had been lying to her.

On a subsequent visit to her tent, Kensak was discovered there by Cyntina’s father and the king made an attempt on Kensak’s life. Shockingly, Cyntina killed her own father during the struggle, choosing Kensak’s side over his. The war was ended by this and Kensak knew that her life was in danger, so he took her back to Greyfeather, to protect her from the masses in the former Tar-Stone. She had fallen in love with him, but she wasn’t going to blindly follow him, so they began a courtship that would last for several years. Upon the death of his father, Kensak II, Kensak IV was crowned king and he finally asked for her hand in marriage, to which she agreed. She bore him six children, three boys and three girls over the years. Their eldest, Barona, died from the fever when she was just 18, but the others grew up healthy and strong.

While Kensak IV wasn’t the type of king to sit on a throne and rule, Cyntina was not a traveler. She held court in his many absences and enforced his edicts while he was away. She preferred to remain close to home, not only for their children, but for the realm. She was a staunch supporter of many of her own social programs to help the poor and hungry. She remained with her husband for all 264 years of his reign, but she passed before he did, shortly after he retired. She was asked by the Overseer to be the Goddess of Magic, and when the Overseer removed the gods from the heavens in the Year 855, she returned to Greyfeather City to live a private life.

In the Year 899, King Christopher, the Creator, arrived in the realm, and he chose her to be his royal wizard, which she was until her death in the Year 930.

Draco, King of Kietus
Former God

In a small nation, just south of Greyfeather, on the continent of Grendoth, a new king was crowned. King Draco of Kietus. A warrior by trade, he was not born of royal blood, nor did he ever believe he would be a king, but his path to glory took him right to the throne of the country in just thirty short years of his life.

Born to a farmer and his wife in the Year 182, Draco grew up learning who to plant crops and tend farm animals, but he always wished he could learn to swing a sword and he sought adventure. He got his wish just after his sixteenth birthday, when his parents were killed in an orc raid that destroyed their family farm and all of their crops. Draco returned home from the market to find his life in ruins, but instead of feeling sorrow, he felt a burning rage. He left his family home and ventured to a nearby town where he had heard a former swordsman lived, and he begged the warrior to teach him to fight. Feeling for the lad’s plight, he took him in and taught him how to swing a sword so that he could seek his vengeance on the orcs.

A year later, the strapping lad left his mentor’s home and went in search of the orc who killed his parents. Many orcs died at the end of his blade, but it brought him little solace, as he didn’t know exactly which orcs did the deed. As his rage lessened, he began to take stock of his small nation and how it was so poorly ruled and protected. The king at the time was more of a despot than a real king and Draco hated how he did things. He began to hear rumblings in his travels about the fate of the land and when the people chose to rise up against the despot king, Draco led them.

When the king was finally put down, the people chose Draco to rule them. Having never been a monarch before, he sought some expert advice, from the monarch to the land just north of his own, Greyfeather. Kensak IV liked this new ruler of Kietus and took him under his wing, showing him how to rule and what to avoid. The two became excellent friends. Kensak IV also took the lad on adventures to distant lands as well as within his own, and helped him settle disputes within his realm using diplomacy rather than might.

As he aged, Draco decided it would be a good thing to step down as monarch before he got too old to enjoy retirement, placing his son, Lorn, on the throne. Draco retired to a mountain retreat for much of his remaining years, but a war within the land brought him out of retirement at the ripe age of 67 years. Bands of soldiers from Yestari, on the continent of Grendoth, invaded Whitefeather, and Draco, along with his good friends, Kensak IV, King Arzeen of Blackstone and King Sindar, joined the battle against the evil forces.

Draco fought in this war for more than six months before the spear from one of Yestari’s men took him down. Arzeen and Kensak IV took his body to the top of the mountains in Kietus and buried him there, per his last wishes. Not long after his death, Draco was asked to become a god of the Neutral pantheon by the Overseer, which Draco gladly agreed to.

In the Year 855, the Overseer removed the gods from the heavens, sending them down to the land to become mortals again. Draco retired to the Dragonspire Mountains where he lived out the remainder of his days living among the Highlanders.

Dragokar/Christopher, King of Greyfeather
God of Justice

Though it might seem strange, Dragokar is the name chosen by Christopher, former king of Greyfeather from the Year 900 to the Year 945. Christopher’s backstory is probably the strangest of them all. He is not from Greyfeather, or even Grendoth. In fact, the entire realm of Grendoth came from his imagination. He is from Wellington, Kansas, during a time when a role playing game was popular, and this is where he got the idea for the world of Grendoth. For years, he built this world from the ground up, but what he didn’t realize is that the world responded. The magic of the universe formed the planet Grendoth, then Greyfeather Island and then the inhabitants of the planet.

Somehow, he found a portal into this magical world he had created and met with his most famous creation, King Kensak IV. Kensak knew who he was and why he was here, and this is how Christopher was given the crown of Greyfeather. The prophecies had even foretold of the Creator coming to the land and ascending the throne. Christopher struggled with the enormity of the situation at first, but as he learned and went on, he improved the conditions of the land and implemented some social programs that improved the quality of life for the people of Greyfeather.

Loved by the people, but hated by the nobles of the land for his taxation policies, Christopher ruled his kingdom for forty-five years, but after marrying Vesah Ly’naira, a priestess of the Overseer, in the Year 906, he felt he was ready to step down. Of course, without an heir, he could not and this caused him some tension. Vesah did bear him two children, a son and a daughter, but the fever took their son in the Year 932, and their daughter had no desire to take the throne, leaving him with few options. During his early years as king, Christopher had a relationship with a gnome psionicist named Velmir Emeraldcutter. She, along with Vesah, were traveling companions during his adventuring days, and things happened between them, producing a son for them. Illegitimate, Velmir refused to allow their son to attempt to ascend the throne, as she felt the people wouldn’t allow it. Not only was he illegitimate, he was a psionicist. The people might not have understood having a psionicist on the throne, so she flatly refused Christopher’s request.

Eventually, Christopher convinced Velmir to allow their son, Jenek, to try it, but only by using his extraordinary mental powers to conjure an avatar of Christopher and Vesah to fool the people. For the next 60 years, Jenek would rule the land, using his avatars to impersonate, first King Christopher, and then Queen Samantha. Unfortunately, he hadn’t fooled everyone with his trick and ultimately, the Dark Alliance confronted him with this fact.

In the Year 1000, Christopher was approached by the Overseer to become the father of the gods. Unbeknownst to Christopher, he had been slowly taking on god-like abilities for years since arriving, yet another prophecy he hadn’t been told about. He accepted this station and then went to work on putting gods and goddesses in the heavens that he felt would serve the people of the land and not take advantage of their positions and power. The final piece of this puzzle was Lord Vecter, just as Jenek’s time ran out as pretend king, but Dragokar rescued his son, but allowed the Dark Alliance to ascend the throne.

Edward Robert Kensak IV, King of Greyfeather
Former God

Born in the Year 43, to Edward Robert Kensak II and his wife, Yolanda, Edward (commonly known as Kensak or Kensak IV) grew up in a loving, yet controlled environment. His elder brother, Edward Robert Kensak III, was being groomed to be the next king, making Kensak IV more of a fallback, but he was fine with that. He had a desire to travel and seek adventure, so he learned all he could about sword fighting and being able to handle himself in any situation. When he was just 21, he ventured to Oerth, to the land of Greyhawk, to seek his fortune and to find that adventure he so desperately wanted to find.

The names of the Kensak males came about through a bargain between King Kensak the First and his patron deity, Thor, God of Thunder. Thor insisted that each Kensak male be named Edward Robert Kensak, with the number designator at the end, so that Thor could instantly recognized as one of his chosen. Though it was unorthodox, Kensak the First agreed to this, and passed this down to his only son, who in turn passed it along to his children, and so on. This is why all Kensak males are named as such.

He spent six years in Greyhawk, traveling with a band of adventurers, amassing a small fortune, but also building a reputation as a brave and wise warrior. Upon returning to Greyfeather, he was informed that his brother, the heir to the throne, had chosen to join the clergy, which meant that he would have to settle down and learn to be the future king, something he was not excited about. After six years on the road, he was a restless soul, yearning to explore his own land, but that was not what his father wanted for him. Being a good son, he knuckled under and began to learn how to be the future king.

It would be thirty more years before his father suddenly died, leaving him to be the new king. He married Cyntina, the daughter of a former nemesis, and then set about putting his own mark on the realm. He was a progressive ruler who did what he could for the people. He passed royal laws to protect the weak and improve living conditions for those less fortunate. He fathered 6 children during his long marriage to Cyntina, but his eldest, Barona, died from the fever at the age of 18.

His reign as king spanned 264 years (due to his half-elven heritage and extending his youth through magic), but eventually, he stepped down from the throne. Before stepping down, he chose his youngest child, Krystal, to be the next Queen, bypassing his other four children. She was the most even tempered and wise of the five, and this is why she was chosen. He retired to his favorite hideout, known as Kensak’s Bowl, which was located on the continent of Grendoth, north of Greyfeather Island.

When the Overseer became the father of the gods, he assigned Kensak the role of leader of the good pantheon. His arch-nemesis was Nedora, the Shadow Queen, and the two had many memorable battles between good and evil over the centuries, as gods. In 855, the Overseer removed all of the gods from the heavens, sending Kensak back to Greyfeather as a mortal. For a short time, after his great grandson abdicated the throne, he ruled Greyfeather once more as its king. In his retirement afterward, he built a cabin in the shadows of the Dragonspire Mountains and moved in with his former enemy, Neodra. The two shared many years together before his death in the Year 980.

There is so much more of Kensak IV’s story, ranging from his time on Oerth and Greyhawk, to his many travels with his friends, to how he ruled the land, to how he came by Death Blade, the fabled sword he possessed for more than three centuries. What should be known about him was that his heart was always with the people of Greyfeather and that he did everything he could do for them.

Halaster Blackthorn, King of Elvenwood
Born 1,500 years before the arrival of King Kensak the First, Halaster Blackthorn was once the king of the Elvenwood elves. Before Blackthorn, there was no hereditary rule with the elves, as they chose those who would rule the people wisely and placed them on the throne, much as a Republic would do. When Halaster came along, he felt that they were ripe for overthrow and put himself in a position to be chosen for the throne, using his considerable magic to enthrall and mentally enslave the elves. Once on the throne, he made certain that his tenure would be long and fruitful, for himself.

He passed royal law, making it a monarchy with hereditary rule, thus ensuring that Blackthorn or one of his offspring would rule the forest forever. If the people began to complain about his edicts and laws, they just disappeared in the night without a trace. When Kensak the First was chosen by the races of the land to rule Greyfeather, Blackthorn wasn’t pleased and showed his displeasure by sealing his borders to outsiders. Diplomatic attempts all failed and eventually Blackthorn was isolated. Seeing that he couldn’t rally the other races to his cause, he dropped his frigid approach with the human king and sought instead to compromise with him. He attempted to win this human over in hopes of exposing some weakness in him, but he quickly found that Kensak I was much smarter and more pious than anyone he’d ever dealt with. His efforts to trick or corrupt the paladin failed.

Sullen over this failure, Blackthorn took his aggression out on the faerie folk who lived in the deep woods of the Amoratti. The territory had always been inhabited by and ruled by the faerie, but Blackthorn hated the faerie and chose to attack them from time-to-time, just for something to do with his time and troops. Over the course of several decades, he all but hunted out most of the wildlife that lived in the Amoratti, thus drawing the ire of the Faerie King. Not equipped for war, the Faerie King only had one choice in the matter and that was to convene a council to deal with King Blackthorn. Feeling the pressure at this call for action, Blackthorn invaded the territory, capturing the Faerie King and Queen and holding them for ransom, but even this effort failed. The royal wizard to the Faerie King placed a curse upon the Amoratti to be barren and lifeless until such time as the Elvenwood elven king repented and made reparations toward the faerie folk. Almost overnight, the lush woods turned into a lifeless desert.

Angry at this turn of events, Blackthorn lost his grip on reality and began to perform ritualistic experiments on the Faerie King and Queen, whom he still held captive. He tortured them, and then he slaughtered them, horrifying his family and his own people. Agents of the King of Greyfeather were moving to remove him from his throne when he got wind of this action and Blackthorn fled the capital city in the dead of night, never to be heard from again. To this day, no one knows what became of Halaster Blackthorn.

Many rumors have surfaced over the centuries about the fate of Halaster Blackthorn, none of them proven. Some say he perished during a wizard’s dual with an unknown wizard. Others venture that he is still alive and hiding in the Elvenwood Forest, though the forest is well mapped out and no one has come across him there. But the most persistent rumor is that he went underground, building an incredibly complex dungeon nearly a mile below the surface, where he lives with his minions and his creations, hoping for some unsuspecting fool to venture into it. Again, it’s only a rumor.

Istan Maplebranch, King of Aspenleaf
Istan was born during the reign of King Kensak IV. As the heir to the throne of the Aspenleaf elves, he was groomed to take the throne one day and preserve the culture of the elven people, but deep down, Istan wanted nothing to do with being king one day. He enjoyed the outdoors, mostly hunting, and fancied himself an archer more than he did a monarch. Though he would never anger his father, King Astenar Maplebranch, Istan secretly hoped that he wouldn’t have to rule any time soon.

On his one hundred and fifteenth birthday, tragedy struck his family, as his father died in a “hunting accident”. Istan was suspicious of the circumstances, but as the new king, he didn’t have to time to properly investigate his father’s death. Istan did his best to rule his people, but diplomacy was something he struggled with. Often times, he would throw a temper tantrum when he didn’t get his way and close the Aspenleaf borders to all outsiders, to punish them for not giving him what he wanted. It would take a strong hand to convince him that this was not the way to conduct himself with other rulers. It rarely helped, though.

The only person Istan seemed to like, among all of the monarchs in the land, was Queen Samantha Kensak. She lacked in diplomacy, like he did, often just speaking her thoughts without thinking them through, and he respected that about her. Even when she told him that she was in negotiations with the Ty’larenthar elves, to open trade with them, Istan was able to see her methods and come to an agreement that it would be good for the land to lift those sanctions.

In the Year 1005, Istan was in the forest, participating in The Hunt, an event that was held each year to start the game hunting season in the forest. It was tradition, dating back to the first year of his reign, for the King to take down the first stag of the season, and this was what he was doing. His hunting party was ambushed by the Dark Alliance, and in the fight, Istan was assassinated. His only son, Caligant, was elevated to King and the Dark Alliance held sway over King Caligant.

Though Istan wasn’t the most beloved king of the Aspenleaf elves, he was one of the longest living kings and the one who improved the lives of those he ruled over.

Lorn, King of Kietus
The nephew of King Draco of Kietus, Lorn grew out on the outer fringes of the monarchy. Lorn enjoyed the outdoors much more than he did being indoors, so he trained in the wildernesses of Kietus. Draco, also more of an outdoorsman, allowed his nephew to do this, but he often joined him so that he could teach the lad how to be a good ruler. Draco never married, so he had no heir, and his younger brother had passed a few years before, so Lorn was to be his heir apparent.

When Draco passed, Lorn was crowned the King of Kietus, but he didn’t like being cooped up in a castle for very long. Often times, his royal advisor would have to hunt him down just to do royal business. He was prone to leaving the palace unannounced and return days to weeks later, wounded from his adventures. The people loved him, but he hated his job.

Eventually, he grew weary of being a king, wanting to return to the outdoors, so he did the one thing that most wouldn’t have imagined him doing, he sold the kingdom. King Kensak IV paid him ten million gold coins, which he promptly gave to the people, and dissolved his kingdom so it could be absorbed by Greyfeather. Lorn then packed up his traveling gear and disappeared, never to be seen again.

Nedora Aspenleaf, Queen of Aspenleaf (The Shadow Queen)
Former God

Born long before the first Kensak ever set foot on Greyfeather Island, Nedora was the Princess of the Aspenleaf elves. She grew up in a house full of servants who waited on her hand and foot, while her parents, the King and Queen of the Aspenleaf elves, went about their day-to-day royal duties. It didn’t take long for Nedora to figure out that she could manipulate and bully the household staff into giving her anything she desired, without cost or punishment. This knowledge would eventually push her toward a darker side.

At the tender age of 140 years (roughly 25 in human years), she had her lover, an elven knight who worked for the royal guard, assassinate her parents so she could be the Queen. Of course, he was blinded by her beauty and her promise to make him her Prince consort, so he committed the deed for her. She instantly betrayed him by telling the royal wizard that it was his idea all along and that she agreed to it because she feared his wrath. The poor lad was executed for his crimes and Nedora ascended the throne.

As Queen, Nedora was not a pleasant person, though she did well by her people. She was a shrewd negotiator and her beauty soothed any feathers that might have been ruffled by anything she had done. She met Prince Kensak IV during a treaty signing when his father, Kensak II, was the King, and she instantly fell in love with him. Not because of his dashing good looks or his wealth, but because he was next in line to the Greyfeather throne. Being Queen of the Aspenleaf elves wasn’t enough for her, she wanted to be the Queen of Greyfeather. He refused her advances for a time, but eventually allowed himself the pleasure of her company, but when she faked a pregnancy, he broke off ties and the two became bitter enemies. When he married Cyntina and became the king, Nedora was furious.

She met her demise not long after Kensak IV became the King of Greyfeather. During a dispute with the current king of the Elvenwood elves, Halaster Blackthorn, he challenged her to a mage duel. Both were powerful wizards, but her overconfidence was her undoing. Halaster defeated her in magical combat, but the royal wizard, who judged the event, ruled that Halaster cheated and was charged formally with murder. He fled the Apenleaf Forest and never returned.

When the Overseer became the supreme god in the heavens, he called upon Nedora to lead the evil pantheon, due to her nature and her deeds on the land when she was alive. She quickly became the biggest troublemaker in the heavens and this put her at odds with Kensak, her former nemesis. She took the title “Shadow Queen” because her massive ego, but in truth, she ruled the heavens much more efficiently than any other god, good, neutral or evil. Though her ethos wasn’t pleasant, it was never a dull moment when she chose to make her presence known.

In 855, the gods were removed from the heavens by the Overseer, and Nedora found herself back in the forest she had once ruled. Rather than try her hand at ruling again, she rushed to her former sanctuary, the Circle of Mages, and began to build an army. She felt the land was ripe for take over and Kensak IV hadn’t shown himself yet. Unfortunately, Nedora was on the losing end of the war and narrowly escaped certain death at the hands of Queen Samantha Kensak, the Queen of Greyfeather at the time.

Nedora hid out in a mountain cave for a short time after the war, licking her wounds and wondering how she would ever survive being mortal again. Then, Kensak IV showed up. For so long, they had been bitter enemies, but over time, his heart had softened toward her and the two found mutual affection for each other. Kensak built them a cabin in the shadows of the Dragonspire Mountains where they retired to, hiding from the outside world. Though the two were once bitter enemies, they found that this friction actually brought them closer together.

Kensak IV passed away in the Year 980, leaving Nedora alone, but she carried fond memories of him with her in the cabin they once shared. She still lives there to this day.