Tharon'ai

The **Tharon'ai** (meaning 'Those of the Stronghold' in Dreki) are among the deadliest fighters vaunted by the ice trolls, able to rival the Drakkari dragonriders of old. They serve as the protectors, champions and executioners of the Frost King's will.

Only twelve trolls at any given time may be chosen as Tharon'ai, and only death may release them from their service.

Their patron is the dragon god Tharon'ja, Protector of Zul'Drak.

## Powers, Training and Equipment

### Ascension and Teachings

When a position among the Tharon'ai is made vacant, the priests of Drak'Tharon enter a period of consultation, among themselves and their prophet, beseeching the guidance of their patron god. During this time, the priesthood's aim is to find a newborn male child chosen by divine appointment to grow and be reared to fulfill the role of a new Tharon'ai. This process may take months, or even years, while the priests visit mothers across Northrend, seeking a successor. When a child is found to be of suitable strength and health, it is brought to Drak'Tharon and placed in a cradle over an altar of silver upon the north tower of the stronghold, known as *Tor'Urma*, and there the babe is lain for twelve hours under the open sky. If the weather sours and kills the child, or a sickness falls upon him, the child is considered to have been discarded by the gods, but if by the twelfth hour the sky roars with thunder and lightning strikes the altar, the child will live and be blessed by Tharon'ja's hand.

Such a show of divine will forever bestows the power of Tharon'ja within the Tharon'ai, scarring the flesh but bolstering the soul. Though at first it is wild and untamed, the priests are well-versed in mastering this benediction through many years of meticulous training. Once such a strenuous teaching is brought to its conclusion, a Tharon'ai is able to exhibit incredible feats of magic, by channeling lightning through his body he can incinerate entire hosts of foes, form shields of raw energy, slay a person with but a touch as the spark of life that powers organs is quenched, or otherwise resuscitate the dead by returning that same life-giving spark.

They are taught from a young age to read, speak and understand all forms of the Dreki language, in all its dialects and variants, so that they may understand all orders that are given to them, and recognise an insult if it is spoken aloud against their King.

### Arsenal

From the ice seers of Gundrak and with the aid of the priests of Mam'toth, they are gifted mighty, double-edged polearms called the *utibar*, the blades of which are forged in solid, enchanted frost able to slice through the finest gaps in plates of armour. These blades' touch is deadly, for the things they cut rapidly wither due to an inner chill, preventing the sealing of wounds and spreading frostbite. Using the utibar, the Tharon'ai follow a technique known as the *Spear-dance of Jul'thak*, allowing them to bewilder their opponents through a series of feints and rapid movements, evading the reach of enemy blades as they whittle down a foe by inflicting small, but numerous lacerations, that quickly spread the frost of the utibar until all the strength of an enemy is sapped to naught. Despite favouring the utibar as their main weapon, a Tharon'ai is trained to use bows, as well as axes, swords, maces, daggers, javellins, staves and, of course, even their bare hands should it so be needed.

A Tharon'ai's reflexes and senses are duly sharpened to their greatest extents, and the witch doctors of Quetz'lun further provide them with an array of potions, draughts, talismans and elixirs to enhance their abilities to yet mightier form. The *fai'rak* is a gruel bottled in a gourd that when smeared under the tongue allows the Tharon'ai to breathe out the blue fire of dragons, something they use in various ceremonies beyond battle. The *lakana* is instead a potion that quickens the innate ability of ice trolls to regenerate, undoing wounds at unparalleled velocity. Talismans for their part entail many rings, bands, collars, bracelets, piercings and rods (called the *ramags*), fastened below their clothing against their naked skin. These are all crafted from copper, though a few of the greatest Tharon'ai wear them in silver, or gold. Their purpose is to strengthen the coursing of lightning through, by and from their bodies as it is believed that these metals are conduits of Tharon'ja's thunder.

### Armour

Lastly, the Tharon'ai are clad in hauberks of blue dragonskin scales. These are finely worked and are light, yet impervious to harm, shielding them both against physical assaults as well as magical ones. Below these hauberks they don a gambeson of tanned magnataur leather, breeches of tuskarr hide, caribou leather boots and soft gloves of white bear fur, preserving their warmth in any of Northrend's regions. Above all these, they wear upon their face a hood and a mask, that although fashioned in the likeness of a snarling dragon skull, richly painted and ornamented, it is only carven thornwood timber worked to resemble true bone.