Rulers

## **Current Rulers**

### **Edward Robert Kensak XIV (Rupert Rogers, Former King of Falfarron)**

Born to the second daughter of King Kensak IV, his father went against family tradition and secretly named his only son using the Rogers tradition, not the Kensak tradition. He never told his wife or his son about this and this change doomed the lad. An accomplished wizard in his youth, Kensak XIV excelled in his studies and was spoiled by his mother and father. As he grew up, he chose to adventure, but found it tedious and boring, so he threw himself into his magical studies instead. During the time of King Bife, he escaped the purge of the Kensak family by living on an island at sea, well away from Bife's prying gaze and plotted on how to get rid of the lich so he could ascend the family throne. Since all of his family, mother and father included, had been slain by Bife's men, he felt the throne belonged to him and he plotted to retake it one day. Unfortunately, his cousin, Samantha Kensak, beat him to it and this spawned the feud between the two that lasted for nearly one hundred years.

After a chance meeting with King Christopher of Greyfeather in 901, he was given the opportunity to tame and claim Falfarron, known then as the Dread Isle. Crawling with demons, he systematically cleansed the island of the foul inhabitants and was granted the island for his troubles. He renamed it Falfarron. He ruled there for over one hundred years and lifted it from a nearly dead island into a lush farming community. In 1012, he was approached by Hope Caldwell, a paladin who was on a quest to place a Kensak on the throne once again. Though he was happy with his island nation, the idea of finally sitting up on the family throne was more appealing and he accepted her pledge to place him there. At the end of 1012, King Debren (Basquel the Red) was overthrown and Kensak XIV ascended. He is still the monarch.

### **Delilah Morningstar, Queen of Elvenwood**

Delilah was born Delinarra Blackthorn in the Elvenwood
Forest, the only heir to one of the lesser noble houses. She showed an early
aptitude for magic, which her father indulged to some degree because she was
spoiled and pampered in every way. However, her father made it clear to her as
she was growing up that her only goal should be to marry into one of the more
important families in Elvenwood. Delilah had no such wish and wanted to attend
the wizard’s college, which her father strictly prohibited.

Her father began to negotiate her engagement to the only son
of house Windsong.  One day, Delilah
completely lost her temper and told her parents she would leave Elvenwood
before she would marry, and then stormed out of the house. As she was stomping
down the path she nearly ran headlong into her soon-to-be fiancé, who asked her
what was wrong and tried to embrace her. Delilah snapped and lashed out with
the only real spell she knew at the time, shocking grasp, and left him lying in
the path while she stormed off.

Once she calmed a bit she returned to her parents’ house to
pack her things, only to discover the authorities were there to arrest her for
murder as her fiancé had died. Delilah fled the forest with only the clothes on
her back. She traveled around for some time, stealing food and clothing, or
convincing the unsuspecting to give her what she wanted. One day she came upon
a group of traveling performers and convinced them to allow her to join their
troupe. She proved herself to be a capable actress and changed her name to
Delilah Morningstar. Her thirst for magic had not been sated, however, and
whenever they were in a town she searched out the local wizard to learn what
she could from them.

One day while her acting troupe was in Reslin she was
recruited by a member of the Dark Alliance.
She and her companions quickly rose to trusted lieutenants, recruiting
others to the Dark Alliance and transforming towns from small villages to
thriving communities built with the Dark Alliances’ money.  They reported directly to Debren the Dark, a
powerful wizard, who eventually told them that their goal was to put Lord
Vecter on the throne.   As her power
grew, Delilah became adept at persuasion and magical enchantment, using both
aid them in achieving their goal.

With the help of her companions, Delilah returned to
Elvenwood for revenge, killing every noble, including her parents, who she
burned alive in their homes.  However,
she was also successful in persuading the general population that the nobles
were a cancer that needed to be removed, and they supported her eventual
ascension to the throne. She declared that there would be no more nobility and
that everything in the forest would be shared equally; no one would go hungry
and there would be work for all.  She
built a strong Guard comprised of the former noble guardsmen and the forest patrols,
ensuring that the forest would be safe for everyone.

When the time came, Vecter was taken to the heavens as a god
and Debren took the throne.  Delilah then
returned to Elvenwood and essentially cut ties with Debren, focusing all of her
attention on the Elvenwood Forest.  She
has completely broken away from the Dark Alliance but remains close to her
former companions; Razor, the mayor of Port Agaron and Mahalian, a merchant who
lives in the Aspenleaf Forest.  However,
she has no contact with Debren, believing him to be a terrible ruler who has
done nothing for the people of Greyfeather.

Since Delilah has taken the throne Elvenwood has prospered
and all of the elves there are well taken care of.  Anyone with an aptitude for combat is
recruited into the guard, and any with a magical aptitude are enrolled in the
wizard’s college that Delilah had built.
They have trade relations with almost every nation, including Falfarren.
She is known as a fair and thoughtful ruler who cares about her people and is respected
by them.

### **Hasrenel D’arten, King of Ironwood**

Hasrenel
was the eldest of six children, born to King Xavis D’arten and
Queen Loreli D’arten of the Ty’larenthar elves. From the time he
could read and write, the boy was groomed to become the next king of
the Ty’larenthar elves and rule it as his father had. Having lived
underground all his life, Hasrenel didn’t like surface dwellers and
wanted nothing more than to wipe out those who lives on the surface
so his people could finally live under the stars, as they had so many
years ago. It was driven into his mind that this was to be his
ultimate goal, to wipe out all surface dwelling creatures.

Hasrenel
was an intelligent lad with a love of different languages. Before he
was an adult, he knew eight different languages other than his own
and he was always seeking tutors to teach him new ones. By chance,
he met a sage who was a scholar of languages and he was taught the
Common language of surface dwellers. Hasrenel loved it. At first,
it sounded guttural to him, but over time, he found a fondness for it
and chose to speak it whenever he could. Though his parents weren’t
pleased with this, they humored him on it.

Once
he became an adult, he was sent to school to learn magic and he fell
in love with that as well. He met a fellow dark elf by the name of
Vexi’molar, and they two became good friends. Vex was born to a
poor family who had to work off his school debt, and once Hasrenel
heard about that, he paid for Vex’s schooling to spare his family.
It angered his parents that he did that, but he refused to bow to
them on that. It was his coins and he chose to do it. It almost
cost him the crown in the end.

His
sister, who was just two years younger than he was, had impressed
upon their father that Hasrenel was too “soft hearted” to rule,
and that she should be the Queen. Xavis was very close to agreeing
with that argument as he neared his time to pass, but Hasrenel got
wind of her plot and reminded his father that there had never been a
female ruler of the Ty’larenthar elves and this would be going
against tradition. Luckily for Hasrenel, his father sided with him,
and when he passed, Hasrenel was crowned the new king. He had his
sister executed the day after his father’s funeral.

He
ruled his people very well, even though he was a bit more soft
hearted than his father was. He wanted to improve conditions within
his underground realm and he did all he could to manage that. He
sent dark elf diplomats to giant tribes on the surface, high in the
mountains, to develop a trade network that will give the dark elves a
wider variety of goods. He sent diplomats to the Highlanders on the
other side of the land to develop trade for food and vegetables,
things they couldn’t get underground. These trade networks
improved the quality of life for the dark elves and made Hasrenel a
hero.

In
the Year 855, he received the strangest missive he’d ever seen.
The Queen of Greyfeather, Samantha Kensak, wanted a meeting with him,
in Ul’tarth, the capital city of the dark elves. It was to be a
peaceful meeting and he was all for it. He had wanted to converse in
Common for so long and now he would get his chance. The meeting went
so well that the two of them wanted to meet again and discuss trade
between them. After three meetings, a treaty was signed between the
two monarchs that would open trade between them, to include
knowledge, which Hasrenel was always seeking. That treaty is still
in effect, though the current human monarch, King Debren, doesn’t
even realize it.

In
1006, during a visit from the Dark Alliance, Hasrenel pulled off his
biggest coup. They wanted his support for Lord Vecter to be the new
King of Greyfeather and asked what he wanted in return. He told them
that he wanted their old forest back. Their forest had been burned
down before King Kensak I ever took the throne and all that existed
of it was a small, haunted grove just north of the Swamp of the Dead.
 Surprisingly, they were able to enlist the power of the Mad Druid to
grow the old forest back overnight, thus fulfilling their end of the
bargain. Hasrenel didn’t like the Dark Alliance and he never
believed they could do something that drastic, so when he got what he
wanted, he magically sealed his borders and turned his back on the
Dark Alliance.

Hasrenel
is getting older now and he feels that his time is growing to a close
as the monarch. He has a son, Hayden D’arten, who he has been
grooming to take his place, but Hasrenel still has his hand in every
facet of his kingdom. His hatred of surface dwellers waned after
meeting with Queen Samantha Kensak and now he welcomes outsiders into
his kingdom, more to show them the culture that the dark elves have
developed over the centuries.

### **Mechanectrik, King of the Gnomes**

Mechanectrik
was a tinkerer who lived in the small gnome village of Underhill.
Born during the reign of King Bife, he did all he could to avoid
politics and just focused on his creations, clockwork robots that
could do anything from clean your hovel to fetch something for you
without having to get up. A very intelligent man, Mechanectrik much
preferred to tinker than to leave his shop, but the oppression
brought by the Lich King was becoming unbearable to the people,
especially his own.

The
current king of the gnomes, Wexardostrus, hired Mechanectrik to build
clockwork soldiers, to defend the gnome cities from Bife’s undead
minions, who came around on a regular basis to make sure the King’s
edicts were being followed and to take tax coins back to their liege.
 Wex, as he was known to all, was tired of the hard earned gold
leaving his people, so he wanted soldiers who could fight without
sacrificing gnome citizens.

Taking
up this challenge, Mechanectrik began to work on a prototype
immediately. It only took him two years to develop the warrior
clockwork, and with the help of some other tinkerers, built more than
fifty of them to protect the gnomes. The clockworks were so advanced
and so precise that Bife’s undead soldiers couldn’t defeat them.
Mechanectrik found a way to instruct the soldiers to only kill what
was not alive, which meant that the soldiers wouldn’t harm innocent
gnomes. Eventually, the Lich King’s men stopped coming around and
the gnomes were saved.

When
Wexardostrus died, his final wishes were for Mechanectrik to take
over as the new king of the gnomes. He had never led anyone before,
but he couldn’t very well turn down the former king’s final
request. He was surprised at how the gnomish people accepted this
rise to power from simple tinkerer to monarch. He wanted to do right
by them and to make their lives better, and this is what drove him as
the king. He never makes a snap decision when it comes to this
people and he surrounds himself with others who give him sound
advice.

He
has been ruling the gnomes since the Year 805, and though he is
almost 400 years old, he is still just as mentally sharp as he ever
was.

## **Former Rulers**

### **Argonnes, King of Blackstone**

*Former God*

When Arzeen chose to step down as the King of Blackstone, he
didn’t want to just hand the crown to anyone.
He wanted someone he could trust to do right by the realm, so he chose
his nephew, Argonnes, a ranger/druid who was protecting the largest forest in
Blackstone.  Argonnes was not like his
uncle, though.  Where Arzeen was brash
and bold, Argonnes was subtler and kinder.
Where Arzeen took risks, Argonnes played things more safely.  But when it came to their love of their
realm, they were on the same level of caring.

Arzeen left the throne to his nephew and set out to see some
of the world again and Argonnes took the throne with thoughts of improving what
his uncle had started.  The first thing
he did was to write a royal decree making the government a true monarchy, by
succession only.  Then he started a
project to expand the forests and natural wonders of the land, protecting them
from harm.  Being a ranger/druid, his
love of wildlife carried over to his reign.
It wasn’t unheard of to see animals roaming freely about the royal
palace.

King Kensak IV was still ruling Greyfeather, the neighboring
realm, and he dealt with this newcomer as he had his predecessor, by taking him
under his wing.  He introduced Argonnes
to Lorn, the new king of Kietus and the two struck up a good friendship, often
traveling together on many adventures.
Argonnes was the King of Blacksone at the time when Bife stole the
throne of Greyfeather and closed his borders to prevent the Lich King from
invading his homeland.  Being a druid, he
didn’t age and held the throne for several centuries, under the Great Sundering
destroyed his beloved Blackstone. Argonnes chose to stay with Blackstone instead of escaping
to Greyfeather Island, and perished in the destruction of his realm.  The Overseer then asked him to join the
pantheon of Neutrality in the heavens as the God of Nature, which Argonnes
gratefully accepted.

In the Year 855,
when the Overseer removed the gods from the heavens, Argonnes made his way to
the northern most islands above Greyfeather Island and remained there for many
years.  In the Year 1005, he was
kidnapped by a rogue and his entourage to use his power to take control of the
islands, but a group working for the Dark Alliance liberated the druid/ranger
and he vanished to avoid that ever happening again.  To this day, no one knows where Argonnes is.

### **Arlan II, King of Elvenwood**

*Former God*

Arlan II was the only son of King Arlan, the King of the
Elvenwood elves.  Arlan II wanted to be a
wizard, which angered his father, as he wanted his son to stay at home and
learn to rule as the future king, which Arlan II wanted nothing to do
with.  He felt that sitting in a palace
was boring and longed for a life on the road.
He joined a traveling group out of the Wizard College and began to see
more of the land than he ever thought possible.

His best friend was a halfling by the name of Jelan and
eventually, it was just the two of them traveling the land together.  King Kensak IV received word that the people
of the Elvenwood Forest had rebelled against the monarchy and King Arlan was
removed from the throne, but now they had no ruler.  Kensak located Arlan II and Jelan in the
mountains, preparing to go into a dungeon and told him of the situation in his
homeland.  Arlan II gave up his life on
the road to return to save his people, instead.

Once he got the people calmed down, they coronated him as
their new king.  He thought about how he
would make life better for his people and he came up with the idea to build a
fabulous city that they would see as a cultural and artistic center of the
forest, Elvenwood.  Using his own wealth,
he hired elven artisans, dwarven stonemasons and thousands of laborers to build
the huge city right in the middle of the Elvenwood Forest.  It took them five years to complete, but the
end result was just what he hoped to accomplish.

The elven people didn’t quite know how to handle this
city.  They felt it was a bit too fancy
and arrogant for them and most avoided going there for that reason.  This caused Arlan II to become upset with his
people, then his creation.  He felt they
didn’t appreciate what he was doing for them, and since he refused to speak to
the people about it, he carried this feeling with him.  After one year and very few visitors, Arlan
II’s anger turned to rage and he chose to destroy the city, rather than allow
it to stand empty.  Using his powerful
magic, he sank the city into the earth, taking him with it.

Arlan II was approached by the Overseer after his death
about becoming a god in the Evil pantheon.
This was supposed to be a wake up call to the elf, but Arlan II took it
as a compliment and accepted this position.
In the Year 855, when the Overseer removed the gods from the heavens,
Arlan II went right back to his bellowed City of Elvenwood, 800 feet below
ground, to live out his days in his former palace there.  He remained there until 1016, when Lyrith went there and ultimately destroyed the Lost City as the behest of Arlan II.

### **Arzeen, King of Blackstone**

*Former God*

Arzeen was raised in an orphanage, never knowing who his
parents were, but he didn’t let his lack of parentage dissuade him from making
a name for himself.  Growing up on the
streets for the most part, he learned how to steal, hide and lie his way out of
just about anything, but his ambitions were more toward adventure than being a
local cutpurse.  When he reached
adulthood, Arzeen took himself off the streets and began to study swordsmanship
and wizardry so that he could become an adventurer.

Fate intervened, however.
Before he was able to graduate from those two schools, he happened upon
a man who claimed that he knew of a good deal of treasure and that Arzeen was
the perfect guy for the job.  All he had
to do was sneak into this building and steal something for the man, and he
would get a big payday.  Arzeen didn’t
realize he was sneaking into the royal palace of Blackstone to steal the crown
from the current king.  He made his way
to the crown and picked it up just as soldiers were about to grab him for the
theft.  To try to make a getaway, Arzeen
put the crown on his head so he could run with his hands free and suddenly, the
soldiers just stopped and then knelt before him.  According to Blackstone royal law, the one in
possession of the crown was the king, regardless of how it was obtained.  Inadvertently, he had just become the king of
Blackstone.

Now the newly crowned king, Arzeen found himself way over
his head.  He had no idea how to be a
king and those around him who served the king were just trying to find a way to
unseat him, so he contacted the kingdom to the south of him, to speak to the
monarch there, King Kensak IV of Greyfeather.
Kensak IV took him under his wing and taught him how to rule his people
fairly and justly, and the two became very good friends.  The one he bonded with the most was King
Draco of Kietus.

Arzeen proved to be a very quick study as the monarch,
improving living conditions for the lesser fortunate people and making
Blackstone a much nicer place to live, but his strong desire to adventure took
him from his kingdom for long stretches of time.  Eventually, he handed the throne to his
nephew, Argonnes, so that he could devote all of his free time to
traveling.  Before his death, the
Overseer asked him to come to the heavens to be a god in the Neutral pantheon,
which Arzeen considered a step up, so he agreed.

In the Year 855, the Overseer removed all of the gods from
the heavens, sending them back to live out their days as a mortal.  Arzeen retired to a tropical island north of
Greyfeather Island and lived out his days in peace and solitude until his final
passing in the Year 967.

### **Basquel the Red/Debren the Dark, King of Greyfeather**

Originally from Faerun (The Forgotten Realms), Basquel The
Red set himself apart from other wizards immediately upon arriving in
Greyfeather.  His reasons for being here
are unknown and it’s doubtful that anyone will ever know why he left Faerun to
come to Greyfeather, but his arrival came with much fanfare.  He arrived in Greyfeather City, but instantly
took a dislike to the metropolis and left, going north.  He found a suitable location for a wizard’s
tower just west of Eventhil (then known as Port North) and the tower just
seemed to appear overnight (according to eyewitness accounts).  Word began to spread around the north about
his amazingly powerful archmage, all within a few days of his arrival.

Basquel was a powerful mage, but he had a
hobby...archaeology.  For years, he would
travel around the realm, digging up ancient artifacts and then donating them to
the Greyfeather Historical Society.  He
would spend days reading up on a particular event, then he and his crew would
start digging.  He wrote many books on
the subject of archaeology and was a high standing member of the Historical
Society.  He was also a guest professor
at the Wizard College for many years.  He
was made Dean of the college for a short time, but he stepped down once a suitable
replacement was found so he could go back to his own pursuits.

In the Year 900, when King Christopher came to the land, he
recruited Basquel as a traveling companion, traveling the land and exploring
ancient dungeons that had long been forgotten.
The two became close friends for a long time and Basquel helped
Christopher with many of his progressive projects for the land.  In the Year 952, the two had a falling out
and stopped speaking, though Christopher tried to reach out to his old
friend.  It would be many more years
before Christopher would learn that Basquel The Red had changed sides and
changed his name.

Basquel abandoned his tower in the Year 952 and moved to
Eventhil to go to work for Lord Vecter who had started the Dark Alliance, a
force of mostly evil people seeking to overthrow the Greyfeather monarchy.  Basquel The Red became Debren The Dark.  He was the chief lieutenant of Vecter and
helped coordinate recruits to missions that were better suited to their skill
sets.  He was also Vecter’s
conscience.  When Vecter would get angry
and want to just sack Greyfeather City, Basquel was the calming voice who held
him check and this is why Vecter liked him so much.

Eventually, the Dark Alliance succeeded in advancing on the
throne, but when Vecter was prepared to become king, Dragokar (formerly King
Christopher) pulled him away to become the God of Death and handed the throne
to Basquel.  Though it’s never bothered
him if someone found out who he really was, he did his best to hide this fact
from the masses, preferring that they hate Debren The Dark and not Basquel The
Red.

Basquel served as King from 1007 through 1012 before disappearing, giving up the throne in favor of King Kensak XIV.

### **Cyntina, Queen of Greyfeather**

*Former God*

Cyntina was born in the realm of Tar-Stone, on the continent
north of Greyfeather Island in the Year 73, to the monarch of Tar-Stone, King
Franklin LeMond, though he was known by his people as King Blackheart.  Her father was an overbearing man who ruled
with an iron fist and had an unnatural hatred of the monarchy of Greyfeather
Island, though no one knows why.  She was
an only child and favored her mother in appearance.  She had long red hair, clear blue eyes and a
figure that made most men covet her.
Mild mannered for the most part, she did her best to shield herself from
the edicts of her father, keeping to herself and learning magic at a
prestigious school in Tar-Stone.

When she was In her teens, she felt that her father had
gotten a bad reputation and wanted to spend more time with him, to find out
just how he was outside of the monarchy.
Unfortunately for her, Tar-Stone was embroiled in war with Greyfeather
at the time and the king was on the front lines.  Regardless of this, she insisted she travel
with her father to the front lines and reluctantly, he agreed.  While there, she was led to believe that the
Greyfeather army was led by a maniac who only wanted to conquer Tar-Stone and
enslave the masses, and she believed this to be true.  Then she met Prince Kensak IV and came to
realize that he was not what her father made him out to be.  Kensak had seen her on a scouting mission and
was smitten by her beauty and poise, so he snuck into the camp and slipped into
her tent one night.  The two talked for
hours, about the war, about themselves and about how the saw the future of
mankind.  She found out that her father
had been lying to her.

On a subsequent visit to her tent, Kensak was discovered
there by Cyntina’s father and the king made an attempt on Kensak’s life.  Shockingly, Cyntina killed her own father
during the struggle, choosing Kensak’s side over his.  The war was ended by this and Kensak knew
that her life was in danger, so he took her back to Greyfeather, to protect her
from the masses in the former Tar-Stone.
She had fallen in love with him, but she wasn’t going to blindly follow
him, so they began a courtship that would last for several years.  Upon the death of his father, Kensak II,
Kensak IV was crowned king and he finally asked for her hand in marriage, to
which she agreed.  She bore him six children,
three boys and three girls over the years.
Their eldest, Barona, died from the fever when she was just 18, but the
others grew up healthy and strong.

While Kensak IV wasn’t the type of king to sit on a throne
and rule, Cyntina was not a traveler.
She held court in his many absences and enforced his edicts while he was
away.  She preferred to remain close to
home, not only for their children, but for the realm.  She was a staunch supporter of many of her
own social programs to help the poor and hungry.  She remained with her husband for all 264
years of his reign, but she passed before he did, shortly after he
retired.  She was asked by the Overseer
to be the Goddess of Magic, and when the Overseer removed the gods from the
heavens in the Year 855, she returned to Greyfeather City to live a private
life.

In the Year 899, King Christopher, the Creator, arrived in
the realm, and he chose her to be his royal wizard, which she was until her
death in the Year 930.

### **Draco, King of Kietus**

*Former God*

In a small nation, just south of Greyfeather, on the
continent of Grendoth, a new king was crowned.
King Draco of Kietus.  A warrior
by trade, he was not born of royal blood, nor did he ever believe he would be a
king, but his path to glory took him right to the throne of the country in just
thirty short years of his life.

Born to a farmer and his wife in the Year 182, Draco grew up
learning who to plant crops and tend farm animals, but he always wished he could
learn to swing a sword and he sought adventure.
He got his wish just after his sixteenth birthday, when his parents were
killed in an orc raid that destroyed their family farm and all of their crops.  Draco returned home from the market to find
his life in ruins, but instead of feeling sorrow, he felt a burning rage.  He left his family home and ventured to a
nearby town where he had heard a former swordsman lived, and he begged the
warrior to teach him to fight.  Feeling
for the lad’s plight, he took him in and taught him how to swing a sword so
that he could seek his vengeance on the orcs.

A year later, the strapping lad left his mentor’s home and
went in search of the orc who killed his parents.  Many orcs died at the end of his blade, but
it brought him little solace, as he didn’t know exactly which orcs did the
deed.  As his rage lessened, he began to
take stock of his small nation and how it was so poorly ruled and protected.
The king at the time was more of a despot than a real king and Draco hated how
he did things.  He began to hear
rumblings in his travels about the fate of the land and when the people chose
to rise up against the despot king, Draco led them.

When the king was finally put down, the people chose Draco
to rule them.  Having never been a
monarch before, he sought some expert advice, from the monarch to the land just
north of his own, Greyfeather.  Kensak IV
liked this new ruler of Kietus and took him under his wing, showing him how to
rule and what to avoid.  The two became
excellent friends.  Kensak IV also took
the lad on adventures to distant lands as well as within his own, and helped
him settle disputes within his realm using diplomacy rather than might.

As he aged, Draco decided it would be a good thing to step
down as monarch before he got too old to enjoy retirement, placing his son,
Lorn, on the throne.  Draco retired to a
mountain retreat for much of his remaining years, but a war within the land
brought him out of retirement at the ripe age of 67 years.  Bands of soldiers from Yestari, on the
continent of Grendoth, invaded Whitefeather, and Draco, along with his good
friends, Kensak IV, King Arzeen of Blackstone and King Sindar, joined the
battle against the evil forces.

Draco fought in this war for more than six months before the
spear from one of Yestari’s men took him down.
Arzeen and Kensak IV took his body to the top of the mountains in Kietus
and buried him there, per his last wishes.
Not long after his death, Draco was asked to become a god of the Neutral
pantheon by the Overseer, which Draco gladly agreed to.

In the Year 855, the Overseer removed the gods
from the heavens, sending them down to the land to become mortals again.  Draco retired to the Dragonspire Mountains
where he lived out the remainder of his days living among the Highlanders.

### **Dragokar/Christopher, King of Greyfeather**

*God of Justice*

 Though it might seem strange, Dragokar is the name chosen by
Christopher, former king of Greyfeather from the Year 900 to the Year 945.  Christopher’s backstory is probably the
strangest of them all.  He is not from
Greyfeather, or even Grendoth.  In fact,
the entire realm of Grendoth came from his imagination.  He is from Wellington, Kansas, during a time
when a role playing game was popular, and this is where he got the idea for the
world of Grendoth.  For years, he built
this world from the ground up, but what he didn’t realize is that the world
responded.  The magic of the universe
formed the planet Grendoth, then Greyfeather Island and then the inhabitants of
the planet.

Somehow, he found a portal into this magical world he had
created and met with his most famous creation, King Kensak IV.  Kensak knew who he was and why he was here,
and this is how Christopher was given the crown of Greyfeather.  The prophecies had even foretold of the
Creator coming to the land and ascending the throne.  Christopher struggled with the enormity of
the situation at first, but as he learned and went on, he improved the
conditions of the land and implemented some social programs that improved the
quality of life for the people of Greyfeather.

Loved by the people, but hated by the nobles of the land for
his taxation policies, Christopher ruled his kingdom for forty-five years, but
after marrying Vesah Ly’naira, a priestess of the Overseer, in the Year 906, he
felt he was ready to step down.  Of
course, without an heir, he could not and this caused him some tension.  Vesah did bear him two children, a son and a
daughter, but the fever took their son in the Year 932, and their daughter had
no desire to take the throne, leaving him with few options.  During his early years as king, Christopher
had a relationship with a gnome psionicist named Velmir Emeraldcutter.  She, along with Vesah, were traveling
companions during his adventuring days, and things happened between them,
producing a son for them.  Illegitimate,
Velmir refused to allow their son to attempt to ascend the throne, as she felt
the people wouldn’t allow it.  Not only
was he illegitimate, he was a psionicist.
The people might not have understood having a psionicist on the throne,
so she flatly refused Christopher’s request.

Eventually, Christopher convinced Velmir to allow their son,
Jenek, to try it, but only by using his extraordinary mental powers to conjure
an avatar of Christopher and Vesah to fool the people.  For the next 60 years, Jenek would rule the
land, using his avatars to impersonate, first King Christopher, and then Queen
Samantha.  Unfortunately, he hadn’t
fooled everyone with his trick and ultimately, the Dark Alliance confronted him
with this fact.

In the Year 1000, Christopher was approached by the Overseer
to become the father of the gods.
Unbeknownst to Christopher, he had been slowly taking on god-like
abilities for years since arriving, yet another prophecy he hadn’t been told
about.  He accepted this station and then
went to work on putting gods and goddesses in the heavens that he felt would
serve the people of the land and not take advantage of their positions and
power.  The final piece of this puzzle
was Lord Vecter, just as Jenek’s time ran out as pretend king, but Dragokar
rescued his son, but allowed the Dark Alliance to ascend the throne.

### **Edward Robert Kensak IV, King of Greyfeather**

*Former God*

Born in the Year 43, to Edward Robert Kensak II and his
wife, Yolanda, Edward (commonly known as Kensak or Kensak IV) grew up in a
loving, yet controlled environment.  His
elder brother, Edward Robert Kensak III, was being groomed to be the next king,
making Kensak IV more of a fallback, but he was fine with that.  He had a desire to travel and seek adventure,
so he learned all he could about sword fighting and being able to handle
himself in any situation.  When he was
just 21, he ventured to Oerth, to the land of Greyhawk, to seek his fortune and
to find that adventure he so desperately wanted to find.

The names of the Kensak males came about through a bargain
between King Kensak the First and his patron deity, Thor, God of Thunder.  Thor insisted that each Kensak male be named
Edward Robert Kensak, with the number designator at the end, so that Thor could
instantly recognized as one of his chosen.
Though it was unorthodox, Kensak the First agreed to this, and passed
this down to his only son, who in turn passed it along to his children, and so
on.  This is why all Kensak males are
named as such.

He spent six years in Greyhawk, traveling with a band of
adventurers, amassing a small fortune, but also building a reputation as a
brave and wise warrior.  Upon returning to
Greyfeather, he was informed that his brother, the heir to the throne, had
chosen to join the clergy, which meant that he would have to settle down and
learn to be the future king, something he was not excited about.  After six years on the road, he was a
restless soul, yearning to explore his own land, but that was not what his
father wanted for him.  Being a good son,
he knuckled under and began to learn how to be the future king.

It would be thirty more years before his father suddenly
died, leaving him to be the new king.  He
married Cyntina, the daughter of a former nemesis, and then set about putting
his own mark on the realm.  He was a
progressive ruler who did what he could for the people.  He passed royal laws to protect the weak and
improve living conditions for those less fortunate.  He fathered 6 children during his long
marriage to Cyntina, but his eldest, Barona, died from the fever at the age of

His reign as king spanned 264 years (due to his half-elven
heritage and extending his youth through magic), but eventually, he stepped
down from the throne.  Before stepping
down, he chose his youngest child, Krystal, to be the next Queen, bypassing his
other four children.  She was the most
even tempered and wise of the five, and this is why she was chosen.  He retired to his favorite hideout, known as
Kensak’s Bowl, which was located on the continent of Grendoth, north of
Greyfeather Island.

When the Overseer became the father of the gods, he assigned
Kensak the role of leader of the good pantheon.
His arch-nemesis was Nedora, the Shadow Queen, and the two had many
memorable battles between good and evil over the centuries, as gods.  In 855, the Overseer removed all of the gods
from the heavens, sending Kensak back to Greyfeather as a mortal.  For a short time, after his great grandson
abdicated the throne, he ruled Greyfeather once more as its king.  In his retirement afterward, he built a cabin
in the shadows of the Dragonspire Mountains and moved in with his former enemy,
Neodra. The two shared many years together before his death in the Year 980.

There is so much more of Kensak IV’s story, ranging from his
time on Oerth and Greyhawk, to his many travels with his friends, to how he
ruled the land, to how he came by Death Blade, the fabled sword he possessed
for more than three centuries.  What
should be known about him was that his heart was always with the people of
Greyfeather and that he did everything he could do for them.

### **Halaster Blackthorn, King of Elvenwood**

Born 1,500 years before the arrival of King Kensak the
First, Halaster Blackthorn was once the king of the Elvenwood elves.  Before Blackthorn, there was no hereditary
rule with the elves, as they chose those who would rule the people wisely and
placed them on the throne, much as a Republic would do.  When Halaster came along, he felt that they
were ripe for overthrow and put himself in a position to be chosen for the
throne, using his considerable magic to enthrall and mentally enslave the
elves.  Once on the throne, he made
certain that his tenure would be long and fruitful, for himself.

He passed royal law, making it a monarchy with hereditary
rule, thus ensuring that Blackthorn or one of his offspring would rule the
forest forever.  If the people began to
complain about his edicts and laws, they just disappeared in the night without
a trace.  When Kensak the First was
chosen by the races of the land to rule Greyfeather, Blackthorn wasn’t pleased
and showed his displeasure by sealing his borders to outsiders.  Diplomatic attempts all failed and eventually
Blackthorn was isolated.  Seeing that he
couldn’t rally the other races to his cause, he dropped his frigid approach
with the human king and sought instead to compromise with him.  He attempted to win this human over in hopes
of exposing some weakness in him, but he quickly found that Kensak I was much
smarter and more pious than anyone he’d ever dealt with.  His efforts to trick or corrupt the paladin
failed.

Sullen over this failure, Blackthorn took his aggression out
on the faerie folk who lived in the deep woods of the Amoratti.  The territory had always been inhabited by
and ruled by the faerie, but Blackthorn hated the faerie and chose to attack
them from time-to-time, just for something to do with his time and troops.  Over the course of several decades, he all
but hunted out most of the wildlife that lived in the Amoratti, thus drawing
the ire of the Faerie King.  Not equipped
for war, the Faerie King only had one choice in the matter and that was to
convene a council to deal with King Blackthorn.
Feeling the pressure at this call for action, Blackthorn invaded the
territory, capturing the Faerie King and Queen and holding them for ransom, but
even this effort failed.  The royal
wizard to the Faerie King placed a curse upon the Amoratti to be barren and lifeless
until such time as the Elvenwood elven king repented and made reparations
toward the faerie folk.  Almost
overnight, the lush woods turned into a lifeless desert.

Angry at this turn of events, Blackthorn lost his grip on
reality and began to perform ritualistic experiments on the Faerie King and
Queen, whom he still held captive.  He
tortured them, and then he slaughtered them, horrifying his family and his own
people.  Agents of the King of
Greyfeather were moving to remove him from his throne when he got wind of this
action and Blackthorn fled the capital city in the dead of night, never to be
heard from again.  To this day, no one
knows what became of Halaster Blackthorn.

Many rumors have surfaced over the centuries about the fate
of Halaster Blackthorn, none of them proven.
Some say he perished during a wizard’s dual with an unknown wizard.  Others venture that he is still alive and
hiding in the Elvenwood Forest, though the forest is well mapped out and no one
has come across him there.  But the most
persistent rumor is that he went underground, building an incredibly complex
dungeon nearly a mile below the surface, where he lives with his minions and
his creations, hoping for some unsuspecting fool to venture into it.  Again, it’s only a rumor.

### **Istan Maplebranch, King of Aspenleaf**

Istan
was born during the reign of King Kensak IV. As the heir to the
throne of the Aspenleaf elves, he was groomed to take the throne one
day and preserve the culture of the elven people, but deep down,
Istan wanted nothing to do with being king one day. He enjoyed the
outdoors, mostly hunting, and fancied himself an archer more than he
did a monarch. Though he would never anger his father, King Astenar
Maplebranch, Istan secretly hoped that he wouldn’t have to rule any
time soon.

On
his one hundred and fifteenth birthday, tragedy struck his family, as
his father died in a “hunting accident”. Istan was suspicious of
the circumstances, but as the new king, he didn’t have to time to
properly investigate his father’s death. Istan did his best to
rule his people, but diplomacy was something he struggled with.
Often times, he would throw a temper tantrum when he didn’t get his
way and close the Aspenleaf borders to all outsiders, to punish them
for not giving him what he wanted. It would take a strong hand to
convince him that this was not the way to conduct himself with other
rulers. It rarely helped, though.

The
only person Istan seemed to like, among all of the monarchs in the
land, was Queen Samantha Kensak. She lacked in diplomacy, like he
did, often just speaking her thoughts without thinking them through,
and he respected that about her. Even when she told him that she was
in negotiations with the Ty’larenthar elves, to open trade with
them, Istan was able to see her methods and come to an agreement that
it would be good for the land to lift those sanctions.

In
the Year 1005, Istan was in the forest, participating in The Hunt, an
event that was held each year to start the game hunting season in the
forest. It was tradition, dating back to the first year of his
reign, for the King to take down the first stag of the season, and
this was what he was doing. His hunting party was ambushed by the
Dark Alliance, and in the fight, Istan was assassinated. His only
son, Caligant, was elevated to King and the Dark Alliance held sway
over King Caligant.

Though
Istan wasn’t the most beloved king of the Aspenleaf elves, he was
one of the longest living kings and the one who improved the lives of
those he ruled over.

### **Lorn, King of Kietus**

The nephew of King Draco of Kietus, Lorn grew out on the
outer fringes of the monarchy.  Lorn
enjoyed the outdoors much more than he did being indoors, so he trained in the
wildernesses of Kietus.  Draco, also more
of an outdoorsman, allowed his nephew to do this, but he often joined him so
that he could teach the lad how to be a good ruler.  Draco never married, so he had no heir, and
his younger brother had passed a few years before, so Lorn was to be his heir
apparent.

When Draco passed, Lorn was crowned the King of Kietus, but he
didn’t like being cooped up in a castle for very long.  Often times, his royal advisor would have to
hunt him down just to do royal business.
He was prone to leaving the palace unannounced and return days to weeks
later, wounded from his adventures.  The
people loved him, but he hated his job.

Eventually, he grew weary of being a king, wanting to return
to the outdoors, so he did the one thing that most wouldn’t have imagined him
doing, he sold the kingdom.  King Kensak
IV paid him ten million gold coins, which he promptly gave to the people, and
dissolved his kingdom so it could be absorbed by Greyfeather.  Lorn then packed up his traveling gear and
disappeared, never to be seen again.

### **Nedora Aspenleaf, Queen of Aspenleaf (The Shadow Queen)**

*Former God*

Born long before the first Kensak ever set foot on
Greyfeather Island, Nedora was the Princess of the Aspenleaf elves.  She grew up in a house full of servants who
waited on her hand and foot, while her parents, the King and Queen of the
Aspenleaf elves, went about their day-to-day royal duties.  It didn’t take long for Nedora to figure out
that she could manipulate and bully the household staff into giving her
anything she desired, without cost or punishment.  This knowledge would eventually push her
toward a darker side.

At the tender age of 140 years (roughly 25 in human years),
she had her lover, an elven knight who worked for the royal guard, assassinate
her parents so she could be the Queen.
Of course, he was blinded by her beauty and her promise to make him her
Prince consort, so he committed the deed for her.  She instantly betrayed him by telling the
royal wizard that it was his idea all along and that she agreed to it because
she feared his wrath.  The poor lad was
executed for his crimes and Nedora ascended the throne.

As Queen, Nedora was not a pleasant person, though she did
well by her people.  She was a shrewd
negotiator and her beauty soothed any feathers that might have been ruffled by
anything she had done.  She met Prince
Kensak IV during a treaty signing when his father, Kensak II, was the King, and
she instantly fell in love with him.  Not
because of his dashing good looks or his wealth, but because he was next in
line to the Greyfeather throne.  Being
Queen of the Aspenleaf elves wasn’t enough for her, she wanted to be the Queen
of Greyfeather.  He refused her advances
for a time, but eventually allowed himself the pleasure of her company, but
when she faked a pregnancy, he broke off ties and the two became bitter
enemies.  When he married Cyntina and
became the king, Nedora was furious.

She met her demise not long after Kensak IV became the King
of Greyfeather.  During a dispute with
the current king of the Elvenwood elves, Halaster Blackthorn, he challenged her
to a mage duel.  Both were powerful
wizards, but her overconfidence was her undoing.  Halaster defeated her in magical combat, but
the royal wizard, who judged the event, ruled that Halaster cheated and was
charged formally with murder.  He fled
the Apenleaf Forest and never returned.

When the Overseer became the supreme god in the heavens, he
called upon Nedora to lead the evil pantheon, due to her nature and her deeds
on the land when she was alive.  She
quickly became the biggest troublemaker in the heavens and this put her at odds
with Kensak, her former nemesis.  She
took the title “Shadow Queen” because her massive ego, but in truth, she ruled
the heavens much more efficiently than any other god, good, neutral or evil.  Though her ethos wasn’t pleasant, it was
never a dull moment when she chose to make her presence known.

In 855, the gods were removed from the heavens by the
Overseer, and Nedora found herself back in the forest she had once ruled.  Rather than try her hand at ruling again, she
rushed to her former sanctuary, the Circle of Mages, and began to build an
army.  She felt the land was ripe for
take over and Kensak IV hadn’t shown himself yet.  Unfortunately, Nedora was on the losing end
of the war and narrowly escaped certain death at the hands of Queen Samantha
Kensak, the Queen of Greyfeather at the time.

Nedora hid out in a mountain cave for a short time after the
war, licking her wounds and wondering how she would ever survive being mortal
again.  Then, Kensak IV showed up.  For so long, they had been bitter enemies,
but over time, his heart had softened toward her and the two found mutual
affection for each other.  Kensak built
them a cabin in the shadows of the Dragonspire Mountains where they retired to,
hiding from the outside world.  Though
the two were once bitter enemies, they found that this friction actually
brought them closer together.

Kensak IV passed away in the Year 980, leaving Nedora alone,
but she carried fond memories of him with her in the cabin they once
shared.  She still lives there to this
day.