Catadar I of Great Skull

***“**Gern was meant to be our first king, not me. While I may not have been the first choice, I hope to be the first one to set the right example.**”***
— Catadar I
**Catadar I of Great Skull**, sometimes called **Catadar the Eunuch**, personal name **Catadar Kirne** (formerly **Catadar Freeman**), was a major Human slave revolt leader, warlord, and founding king of Great Skull. He was a lieutenant and supporter of the martyred Gern the Skullbearer and was instrumental in bringing down the Freehold of Kainiya.

## Biography

Born in bondage on a farm just outside Kainiya, the capital of the Freehold bearing the same name, Catadar was separated from his parents and moved to a different farm near the town of Kyrn. Here, he would grow up working on the farms while carrying out backbreaking work for his Hyllidan masters. Catadar, like many other enslaved Humans, became fascinated by tales of the Human Rebellions and the Kingdom of Humanity of old. Kainiya was a remnant of the Old Freeholds, its already stagnant economy relying entirely on slavery. With the Nytalyrians turning a blind eye, it was up to the Humans to free themselves.

In the late 190s, Catadar was caught trying to steal a shovel to turn into a makeshift weapon. He was subsequently transported to a prison farm near Kainiya, where his captors turned him into a eunuch: a common punishment for rebellious slaves. Unintentionally, however, this same prison farm acted as a hotbed for dissenters, and Catadar would go on to meet many other disgruntled slaves over the next decade. One, in particular, who acted as a local leader was a slave by the name of Gern.

For the next decade, calls for uprising grew under Gern, with the slaves covertly arming themselves right under the noses of their captors. Finally, in the year 209 AW, the slave rebellion broke out under the leadership of Gern. The farm was rapidly taken over and its meagrely Hyllidan garrison was killed, as Gern's followers took over other farms in the area. However, a march on Kainiya ultimately failed, with the revolt being defeated on the open battlefield. Many rebels were killed, while Gern was captured and later beheaded. His head was put on a stake outside Kainiya as a warning: though Gern "the Skullbearer" had effectively become a martyr for the rebels.

Catadar was one of the surviving lieutenants of Gern's rebellion and fled west to Kyrn where he still had old contacts. Other minor leaders did the same, scattering across the territory of the Freehold. Further local slave rebellions followed as the Kainiyan military failed to suppress the widespread chaos. Gern's rebellion, while starting as an isolated event, had consumed the Freehold. By the year 210 AW, Kainiya effectively seized to exist after being completely overrun by their own slaves. Catadar spent the uprising taking the town of Kyrn, which was renamed Cnoc Kirne in accordance with the local Human language, and took the last name Kirne, laying foundations for his noble house. By the end of it, he had cemented himself as one of the major leaders of the rebellion, and an influential figure domestically.

While certainly influential, Catadar was not quite king just yet. What followed was a sequence of events which to outsiders may seem odd, but one that, to the Great Skull people and their descendants, makes perfect sense. Catadar dispatched a scouting party to Kainiya, now little more than a ruin, and recovered the skull of Gern. Gern's skull gave Catadar more authority over the other warlords that arose from the Freehold's downfall, cementing his path to power. The skull of Gern would actually remain around for some time after Catadar, becoming a relic to the Kirne monarchy until it was lost in 366 AW. With the other warlords rallying behind Catadar as their monarch, he proclaimed the birth of Great Skull in 212 AW, named after their martyr.

Catadar's actual reign wasn't very noteworthy, not because he was a poor monarch, but because he was a rather constant and moderate one. Most of his reign was spent quietly in the background repairing the damage of the slave revolts, forming a government and noble class and, most important of all, letting the people enjoy their newfound freedom. Catadar did not wish to replace one tyrant with another and opted for a relatively decentralised government, one which would mark the nature of Great Skull's monarchy and pave the eventual way for House Kirne's replacement by House Annuhin.

With Catadar entering his final years, a question of succession arose. With his lack of manhood resulting in an obvious lack of heirs (a common problem for many other revolt leaders), Catadar turned to one of his own trusted lieutenants by the name of Eor. Eor was able to produce heirs and had already done so in the past which presented a safe choice for future stability. Catadar adopted Eor as his son in the late 230s before dying in the year 238 AW. Eor's succession was generally met with apathy, as he promised more of the same yet saw his reign gripped with chaos and infighting. While Catadar's bloodline biologically came to an end with himself, Eor would carry on the rule of House Kirne in an increasingly unstable Great Skull.

## Relationships

* **Family**
	+ Eor I of Great Skull (adopted son)
* **Allies**
	+ Gern the Skullbearer
	+ Eor I of Great Skull