Hekaton

Hekaton (), also known as the Storm King, was the ruler of the storm giants―and in fact all of giantkind―until sometime after the War of the Silver Marches in the late 15 century DR. As his glorious reign came to an end, Hekaton suffered great indignities in his final years. The Storm King was slain, transformed into an undead monstrosity, and tortured in the Nine Hells, before finally finding peace in the afterlife of Stormhold.
==Personality==
King Hekaton wielded respect and fear as his primary means to uphold the ordning―the social structure of all giantkind―and keep the lesser giant races in line. His command over them were bolstered by the numerous powerful artifacts he wielded.
He was not without doubt or introspection however. In his final years, Hekaton lost his connection with the members of the giant pantheon and most importantly their patriarch, Annam All-Father. Hekaton came to the belief that the era of the giants were at an end, and the 'small folk' (as giants called them) were set to inherit the Realms of Faerûn. While his outlook was shaken to its core in life, the soul of the beleaguered king suffered even worse fate in undeath.
==Abilities==
While Hekaton the king of storm giants was a commanding figure, he gained even more terrible powers in undeath. As a death giant, Hekaton became highly resistant to magic, could not be turned by normal means, and could not be transported to any other plane of existence without his master's approval. Hekaton could still teleport himself in with a crack of thunder and conjure great storms to bring crashing down upon his foes.
==Possessions==
As the king of the storm giants, Hekaton's symbol of office was the Korolnor Scepter.
Hekaton was for a time the proud owner of the Wyrmskull Throne, a dwarven artifact from the long-lost kingdom of Shanatar. He also boasted one of the dwarves' Ruling Scepters, which along with the throne, were gifted to him by his wife Neri.
==Relationships==
Hekaton did not much like the small folk of the Realms, though Queen Neri was quite fond of them. While Hekaton initially disapproved of Neri's forays into the world of the small folk, he became more tolerant of them as time went on. He even accompanied her on a few of these visits, and collaborated with them in time of need.
The king did not fully trust his elder daughters Mirran and Nym, believing them unfit to lead the storm giants. Beyond Niri, he only trusted his youngest daughter, Princess Serissa, and his younger brother, Imperator Uthor.
Along with his daughters, King Hekaton raised the young storm giant Thellan as his own ward.
==History==
===Ruler of the Giants===
On Tarsakh 17 the , King Hekaton and his brother Uthor sailed back to their home of Maelstrom from a diplomatic meeting, when their ship was attacked by three leviathans. During the battle, Hekaton channeled the power of the Wyrmskull Throne within his vessel and summoned a spectral blue dragon to turn the gargantuan elementals away.
Hekaton ruled over the storm giants directly, but asserted his authority over all races of giants. At some point during the late 15 century DR, the gods of the giants no longer answered Hekaton's prayers and the king came to believe that storm giants no longere deserved their position at the top of the ordning. Hekaton was shaken by this stark and dramatic change, but his wife Neri reassured him that the future was then in the hands of the small folk.
Thank to Neri's belief and several omens that had arose, Hekaton decided to appoint Serissa as ruler of the storm giants. Serissa agreed with her mother's belief that the time of the giants was over. This appointment however angered Hekaton and Neri's older daughters, Mirran and Nym.
Some time circa the late 1480s DR, Neri's dead body was found on a small isle on the western coast of Faerûn. Hekaton exploded in rage and was only barely calmed by his daughter Serissa. He nearly launched a war against all the small folk of the Sword Coast, but settled on vowing to find Neri's killer. The storm giant court suffered a second disaster when the ordning was finally shattered by Annam All-Father.
Unfortunately the distraught king was deceived by his elder daughters, Mirran and Nym, along with their new ally: the blue dragon Iymrith, who masqueraded as a fellow storm giant.
===Captured and Recaptured===
King Hekaton was lured into a trap devised by members of the Kraken Society. Posing as agents of the Lords' Alliance, they captured the storm giant ruler and bound him with enchanted chains that kept him in a state of stasis. They set him adrift in the Trackless Sea aboard a shielded squid ship called the Morkoth.
Eventually, King Hekaton was set free from his captors by a band of adventurers and returned to assume the Wyrmskull Throne in Maelstrom. He thanked his liberators for their intervention and directed his forces to take revenge upon Iymrith at her lair in the Anauroch desert.
Some time later, Hekaton invited the mercenary Zehira Deryan to Maelstrom, to discuss how the recently-acquired Iltkazar Scepter could be used to awaken powers of the Wyrmskull Throne. By the time Zehira and her allies arrived the king had once again been captured, and both he and the throne were taken from Maelstrom. The perpetrators of this second abduction were agents of the restored Cult of the Dragon, as directed by an figure from the Hells.
===Raised as Undead===
King Hekaton was killed outright some time during his abduction. The Cult of the Dragon held onto his body for a short time, as the Red Wizards intercepted their group and transported the king's body to the eastern realm of Thay. After his corpse was dreadfully paraded around Eltabbar, Hekaton was raised as an enormous death knight at the Citadel in Thaymount, in service to the lich-king Szass Tam.
In Hekaton's absence, Princess Serissa emerged as the new leader of the storm giants. She devoted herself to uncovering the truth of her father's disappearance and recover the Wyrmskull Throne. Meanwhile the undead Hekaton employed a group known as the Ebon Wings and eventually recovered the throne himself at the Tower of Skulls in the city of Ormath in the Shining Plains.
Hekaton then traveled to a hidden fortress in the Thunder Peaks, where the Red Wizards were attempting to bring back the first dracolich Shargrailar. A group of intrepid adventurers defeated the Red Wizards, destroyed the undead Shargrailar once again, and put an end to the death knight Hekaton. Unfortunately, the Storm King's soul languished within an infernal prison in Kostchtchie's Maw on Avernus, the 1 plane of the Nine Hells. During his imprisonment, Hekaton routinely tortured by the pit fiend called Duracles. His soul was left a mere shadow of its form during the king's life.
After being employed by Princess Serissa to uncover the whereabouts of Hekaton's soul, the adventurers that stopped the undead king then ventured into his mindscape and learned much about his life. When they finally encountered Hekaton's consciousness, the group saw him enveloped in a black whirlpool of self-loathing and overwhelming fear. Serissa's heroes spoke to the Storm King and reminded him of his glorious past. Just as they convinced him of his worthiness of an afterlife in Stormhold, the entire group were pulled out of Hekaton's mindscape to the citadel of Malsheem in Nessus the 9 layer of the Nine Hells.
Hekaton appeared again in Avernus, held in bondage by Asmodeus the Lord of the Nine. The mortal adventurers that had come so far to liberate the Storm King signed an infernal contract with Asmodeus, guaranteeing the release of his soul from the Hells. Hekaton then ascended upwards from the Lower Planes to Stormhold, with both his existence on the Prime Material plane and his suffering finally at an end.
==Appendix==
===Gallery===
Hekaton.jpg|King Hekaton standing alongside his wife Neri.
===Appearances===
:;Adventures
::Storm King's Thunder
::
::Candlekeep Mysteries
;;Card Games
::
:;Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
::Moment of Peace • The Harrowing of Hell • Wings of Death
::
::Dreams of the Red Wizards (Foreign Affairs • Uncertain Scrutiny • Thimblerigging)
===References===
Category:Storm giants
Category:Death giants
Category:Death knights
Category:Kings
Category:Inhabitants of Maelstrom
Category:Inhabitants of the Trackless Sea
Category:Inhabitants of Northwest Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of the Citadel
Category:Inhabitants of Thaymount
Category:Inhabitants of Thay
Category:Inhabitants of the Unapproachable East
Category:Inhabitants of East Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril
Category:Inhabitants