Hrogar Kharan

Born some time between 1339 and 1346 AS Hrogar Kharan was a great warlord and scourge of the settled lands in the west of Amallon. Among his descendants he is remembered as a legendary chief, founder of the tribes of the people that bear his name, and ally of powerful spirits. Among the peoples of western Amallon his reputation is that of a powerful though cruel and merciless warrior, often the villain in tales told to frighten children. In fact Hrogar's sense of justice was indeed often brutally punitive but even his detractors grudgingly acknowledged his deep sense of fair play and dislike of deception and double-dealing. Today his offspring are legion, as each of his sons went on to found one of the clans of the Hrogar, who dominate much of the Northern Wastes.
Hrogar Kharan came to power through strength and courage, gaining a reputation for courage and valour that became legendary among the brave. Gathering together a strong following among the nomadic peoples of Kozurg Hrogar amassed a small fortune raiding caravans travelling along the Golden Road but passed over the mountains into the Northern Wastes when armed resistance became too fierce. From the wilderness he struck into the settled, fertile lands of western Amallon, ultimately forming a powerful though disorganized army that brought terror to the people of the lands. By the time of his death in 1415 AS Hrogar's nomadic horde ruled over a large swath of northern Amallon. Following his passing, Hrongar's ten sons narrowly avoided falling into open war and instead divided the lands of their father among them. Today each Hrogar tribe, descended from one of these sons, continues to live within the lands accorded them in that agreement.
Today the clans remember Hrogar as a mighty and common ancestor, uniting all the tribes ultimately through the power of his blood and the wisdom of the ways he left behind him.
===Early Life===
There are few reliable sources concerning Hrogar's early life, and those accounts often conflict with each other. Even his place of borth and lineage are disputed but it is generally agreed that he possessed some measure of Kozataran blood. He was raised among the pastoral peoples of Kozurg for a time, but at some point made his way to Matlisan where he lived for a time. There he learned some of the languages of the western peoples and something of military tactics. As a young man he returned to the Koza-Tar and took a wife, Arigh. All accounts also mention a brother, named Kaldur. However Hrogar used that term to refer to close comrades-in-arms as well and it is not known if there was blood kinship between them.
In 1368 AS a twin-pronged plague of locusts and wildfires devastated the patches of arable land that sustained the people of Kozurg. Much hardship followed but they lacked any real valuables with which to trade with their neighbours for food. By late that year Hrogar gathered a few men together and began raiding caravans passing along the Golden Road to the eastern lands. Gaining not only food and provisions but also silks, spices and other valuables, Hrogar and his men continued their raids, which increased in frequency throughout the next year and a half. Success brought more men to his command and soon Hrogar led a horde of a thousand men. By 1370 AS the collected merchant concerns of the Inlands had raised and mounted enough resistance to the raiders to begin pursuing them to their homes. Some time in late 1371 AS one of Hrogar's followers betrayed his location to the pursuing army and he was nearly captured. Making his escape with Kaldur the pair made their way toward the small village where Arigh and Kaldur's family waited their arrival. The next morning news arrived of a massacre at the brothers' former hideout. Between the heavily pregnant Arigh and Kaldur's urging, the two convinced Hrogar to flee northwards over the mountains and into the wider lands beyond.
===Raids on Western Amallon===
After the arduous journey into the Wastes Hrogar and his companions found shelter from the coming winter within a small village of nomads. Arigh gave birth to Guram, their first son, soon after. By the spring of 1372 AS Hrogar had decided to make his way westward, towards the gentler climates and richer lands of western Amallon. Little survives concerning the next few years, save that he fathered two more sons, Haret and Sulou, and began to earn a reputation as a mighty warrior and hunter. As in Kozurg, his reputation, fairness, generosity and charisma began to gather followers around him. By 1377 AS he had amassed a small army of a few thousand horsemen and began to raid into the lands of
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Rythe. Perhaps driven with anger at the unavenged massacre of his friends in Kozurg, Hrogar's tactics were far more brutal than before. He quickly became known as a leader who would not tolerate dissent, disloyalty, or resistance. Whole villages were put to fire and the sword for the defiance of a single arrow from a lone bowman. The armies of Rythe were ineffective against the fast-moving, highly dynamic forces under Hrogar's command. By 1379 AS Hrogar's followers had established small, hidden settlements throughout the area and began to coordinate simultaneous attacks on different towns and villages. Finally, in 1382 AS, the people of Rythe had begun openly murmuring of rebellion, frustrated with their rulers' inability to stem the tide of raids. In 1384 AS an assassin was captured in Hrogar's camp; confused by their similar appearance, he had slipped a knife between the ribs of a sleeping Kaldur. Hrogar was furious and, after obtaining the identity of the assassin's employers, throttled him bare-handed and mounted his head on a pike. Mere days later Hrogar had mustered his entire horde, numbering almost five thousand horsemen, and lanced south into Rythe, burning and slaughtering everything in his path. By early 1385 AS Hrogar's army had surrounded the capital and devastated the rest of the kingdom. They soon captured the ruling elite of Rythe, dragged them out before the assmebled people, and beheaded them. With the kingdom crushed and its people scattered as refugees, Hrogar's horde returned home.
===Hrogar as Chieftan===
With his enemies scattered and his people satisfied, Hrogar turned his attention to organizing his warriors, their families, and the local scattered villages into a loosely organized chiefdom. Hailed unanimously as chief, Hrogar began constructing a code of honour and behaviour for his people, that became codified into his law. Hrogar sought to instill the spirit of his law, not its literal wording, into his lieutenants. At the mouth of the river now called Hrogar's Run he established a small capital from which he ruled, living in relative peace with Arigh and their growing brood of children--the last, a daughter named for her mother, was born in 1401 AS.
As lawgiver, Hrogar accepted the presence of many religious and spiritual practices among his people. His tolerance was renowned, so long as his law was obeyed without question. At the same time he also enjoyed the lively debates and arguments that erupted on occassion among his counsellors, who quickly found out that while their opinions were enjoyed, only Hrogar's mattered in the end.
As chieftan, Hrogar did not remain content to rule from a throne. He continued occassional raids further south past the lands of Rythe while concentrating on consolidating the alliances that sustained his power at home. While he became, in the end, a capable and just ruler, his legacy remained tied to his martial prowess and terrible revenge.
As he neared the end of his life, Hrogar refused the advice of his counsellors to appoint his eldest son his heir. To Hrogar, leadership was a prize to be won, not inherited. Arigh feared this stance would lead to war between her sons on the death of their father, but was unable to soften his heart on the matter.
When Hrogar died in 1415 AS his sons nearly did fall into war. The counsel of their mother was, in the end, the water that cooled the flame, and the brothers agreed to take lands seperately, settling their families there. Their tradition--and it remains today--was to rule their people but to gather once a year at the grave of their father to take counsel together, and determine the course of mutual advantage.
Category:Historical Figures