King Henry

## Conqueror of Saldia

King Henry Montgomery was the Wraith Blade bonded to the simmering soul known as the Wraith King before Connor beat the life out of him and inadvertantly became the new Wraith Blade. According to the stories, the wraith had been at Henry's side for every battle, in every interrogation, and in every courtroom. Some said the wraith corrupted Henry. Other's saw the specter as a blessing from the Fates, given to a worthy man so he could rule the unfit. Everyone agreed that if not for the ghoul, Henry would have remained a merchant.

King Henry had no connection to the throne, royalty or nobility. He was born a merchant, who inexplicably gained the power of the Wraith King, and with the power that bond afforded him, lay waste to Saldia, conquering as he went and claiming the crown of Oakenglen, He murdered at least twenty people in his own family to prevent any of them vying for the throne.

He married Celine Montgomery, a distant relation to the Starlings, who became his queen and rode at his side disguised as the enigmatic bodyguard who never removed their armor or spoke in public known as the Silent Knight. His wife was the daughter of an important man named Lord Charles Jasper, who lived as both a noble lord and as an elite assassin, secretly. Celine was raised and was trained in the ways of assassins.

In the weeks following his coronation, there had been rumors he'd obtained a dark ally who was powerful beyond the mortal world, but no commoner could've guessed the reality of it all. If anyone had known it was the Wraith King who had fought beside him, they would never have charged beneath his banner. By allying with this abomination, he doomed his soul, and lied to the people who served him.

Henry believed himself the Chosen One, who had been chosen by the Fates to ascend to royalty. He had gone through hell to earn his throne. He had also forced kings and queens alike to bow before him, only to slice off their heads as punishment for rebellions against his rule. Even the formidable Lightseers (the self-appointed protectors of Saldia and the people) were forced to bend a knee to his might. He had waged a twelve year campaign across Saldia with the wraith supporting him. Thanks to the unnatural power afforded to him by the wraith, his skill, strength, and unrivaled might which surpassed even the augmented soldiers he'd fought on the battle field.

During his conquest Henry tried to win over Nyx Osana and add Nethervale to list of allies but she refused to bow to him with the declaration "Nethervale bows to no one." She refused to take a knee and as a result the Lightseers who pledged reluctant fealty became the ruling class of Saldia instead of the necromancers.

Entire kingdoms had crumbled beneath Henry's sword, thanks to the phantom fighting at his side. No one knew what the wraith was or where it came from, just that it fought like death.

The wraith could grant untold power through its dark magic. *"He was a beast. A warrior unlike anything Saldia has ever seen. To see him fight was to watch a master, but that's the thing about masters- they never show all their cards. No one knew his limits, maybe not even him." -Sophia Auclair.*

Allegedly the wraith had warped and corrupted Henry's mind, an idea that infuriated his wife and eventually drove her to betray him (in her mind her husband was already lost because of the simmering soul). His queen hated the simmering souls including the one bound to her husband with a vengeance.

It had taken an army to kill King Henry as well as the support of Queen Celine who had attempted to slay her husband with a blade in the back straight to his heart, Unfortunately for Celine he shifted at the last moment and the Bloodbane dagger she was using although gravely injuring Henry did not instantly kill him as she had planned. A noble named Otmund Soulblud, had conspired with the queen to kill Henry. He wanted to take the wraith for himself and tap into the bottomless well of power it afforded its host. Otmund had burned many favors he possessed for the opportunity to catch King Henry off guard.

### Appearance and Attributes

* Henry was known to ride into battle in golden armor astride a Black Unicorn with a ghoulish specter with no name
* His appetite was legendary. He could never eat enough. He needed more of everything- more food, more water, more wine, and more women.
* He possessed enhanced senses and reflexes (he could sense an arrow flying through the air at him and act fast enough to catch it.
* He possessed the wraiths blackfire blades.
* He had become something dark and powerful.
* According to Henry his ghoul was an undead atrocity stitched together from what remained in the graves of powerful necromancers. He had lied and said he had used necromancy to create an undead ghoul, steal the Capital, and conquer the continent. He claimed the ghoul was merely an enchantment with eerily human features. An undead menace with no mind of its own. All lies.
* The Kingdoms of Wildefaire, Dewcrest, Hazeltide, Mossvale, Freymoor, South Haven, and Kirkwall were mostly subdued in Henry's expansion.
* South Haven was the last of the kingdoms to fall. It had nearly been burned to ash as punishment for their eight-year-rebellion against Henry. However, Celine had insisted he keep them alive and instill a heavy tax structure instead (Secretly she did this because their land simply had the best tea and she refused to live without it).
* The people of Westhelm greatly resent the king who pushed them off their lands banishing them from Oakenglen.
* Although the Lightseers could have turned the world against Henry by revealing the identity of his wraith as a simmering soul and the Wraith King, they had as much to lose themselves, revealing the story that they had long ago destroyed all of the simmering souls as a blantant falsehood. It would have been a public relations disaster where the people lost faith in the Lightseers and making them lose power.
* In the war with Henry, Queen Whitney of Wildefaire's father had sacrificed thousands of lives and millions of gold pieces to fight with the Lightseers. Queen Whitney's father (a man known as The Ice King) refused to surrender until Henry kicked down the door and the Ice King subsequently paid with his life.
* Henry's death was hidden from the public by the Starlings to prevent panic and unlawful disorder while they maneuvered to gain the best position to take over his territories.