Matislaff the Mighty

**Early Life**

Born in 577 JC in the village of Prošket (4 kilometers southwest of Mibram), Matišlaff (family name unknown) is first mentioned in a Hetzbukarn census in the year 601. During this time, he lived in the town of Sudald, not far from his birthplace. He is, by this time, a footsoldier for the Jehnidy garrison at Hrad Elmott. In 612, it had become apparent that the that the Joran civil war would begin, and it is at this time that Matišlaff becomes of interest to modern archeologists.

**Background**

The Great family of Jehnidy opposed the new duke's, Albrecht an Taepe, illegitimate seizure of the throne. Albrecht's well-known reformist attitude threatened to undo the social fabric that the Jehnidy relied on to keep their vast wealth and influence across the west marches, and so joined many of the other gpowerful families in opposing the new duke. The Jehnidy would fight even after their ally, House Hôrak, capitulated at Túlmar,leaving them to resist on their own. Jehnidy-aligned forces fought Albrecht's White Army at the great castle of Kradov (Kredewe) and the city of Nabom, and even attempted counteroffensives at Nizada and Podecy hill, but to no avail. By the winter of 614-615, the white army was close to the gates of Mibram, the Jehnidy capital, and one last offensive began.

**The Winter War**

Ładis z Jehnidy, the current head of house Jehnidy sent one last attempt to stop Albrecht. Thousands of levied soldiers from a plethora of vassals in the west marches were sent forth to capture Kradov and cut Albrecht's supply lines, thus forcing him out of the region. Matišlaff was one of these common infantrymen. The armies of the Jehnidy forces faced the White Army at Trobom and were soundly defeated, with Matišlaff dying on the field.

**Matišlaff the Mighty**

The intrigue appears when records from the 580's are examined. During this time, during the second return the great sorcerer Basamund returned for to wreak havoc on Joraje, he was slain by a legendary saint named Matišlaff. This saint was also born in Prošket, and would also die at Trobom, but that time during the *Battle of a Thousand Colours,* where he killed the sorcerer Basamund before being cursed to crumble to dust himself. When the chronicler Jichim of Achaulitz, writing about the Second Battle of Trobom in the 610's, saw the similarity of the two Matišlaff's, he decreed that the saint was reincarnated under the same name. And thus sprang myths and legends about the footman, Matišlaff the Mighty, killing hundreds in a rampage during the battle of Trobom. Beliefs about the reincarnation of a mighty saint soon reached the Jehnidy officials, who, seeking to appeal to the masses and have a saint tied to their family, posthumously adopted Matišlaff the Mighty into their very influential family.

**Modern Evidence**

4 pieces of evidence show the existence of the two Matišlaffs. One is a tapestry made in Arryet abbey, depicting a footman holding a giant axe and wearing Jehnidy colours killing Albrecht's troops. Secondly is a letter sent by a quartermaster of the White Army to Mordibau, regarding a berserker footman killing dozens of his men before being shot dead by a crossbow bolt. Thirdly is a census made by the Hetzbukarn in 549, recording the birth of a Matišlaff of Prošket, and a census from 581 recording a man of the same name. However most importantly is the evidence that has shunned Juhnvechtese archeologists for decades, and that is the grave of Matišlaff.

**The Grave**

Matišlaff's grave is a ornamental tomb in the private catacombs of the Jehnidy family. This fascinating contrast between the burial of great nobles and a footman can be explained through the tablet carved into Matišlaff's tomb. It reads:

"Here lies Saint Matišlaff the Mighty. Born unto flesh by Werry above, Matišlaff defended truth till the end, martyred for a true cause. His good soul ascends yet here lie his hallowed bones, ready to be robed in skin once more, our good soldier does rest. Though born a pauper, he dies a lord, and shall return again to scalp the evil from this earth!"