Aziza

Aziza is a female human NPC in the Om campaign.

Aziza is the rightful queen of the native Umani on Socortia, though her rule was immediately opposed by her cousin, Akembe, who claimed the throne and allied with the Brotherhood of the Coast to fight against her for control. Aziza ultimately signed an alliance with Gildorn to counter Akembe and the Brotherhood and their allies the Orleseans.

## Background

Aziza is the daughter of the previous king of Socortia and slated to take his position upon his death. However when he died Akembe claimed he should rule and raised an army against her, allying with the pirates of the Brotherhood of the Coast to bolster his might. Akembe and the pirates would raid villages loyal to Aziza and enslave the populations so to work in the emerald mines for the pirates.

With the civil war ongoing, and her shaman, Wyzad, captured by Akembe Aziza was unable to have the ritual to reinforce the barrier between Socortia and the fae realm performed. Aziza did her best to fight against Akembe but with the pirates backing him they were outnumbered.

## Help from Afar

On the 23rd of Dragon, 465, the Royal Explorers, accompanied by an Umani named Jubal who had backed Akembe, arrived in Aziza's capital, Zaros. They claimed they sought to parlay on behalf of the Kingdom of Gildorn. For his part Jubal claimed he had seen the horror of what Akembe and the Brotherhood of the Coast perpetrated and wanted nothing more to do with them and sought to fight for Aziza.

Making matters more complicated was that one of Aziza's warchiefs, Zayeek, claimed to have encountered the Explorers days ago, and he claimed they attacked him unprovoked and that one of their number, Fynn, had burned his face leaving him scarred and maimed.

Aziza left the matter to the elders to decide and they decreed that if Jubal and Fynn prevailed in a trial by combat, that it meant the gods had deemed them forgiven for their crimes. Jubal agreed and since Fynn was prevented from using his magic in such a contest, he was allowed to have Wu Xen act as his champion.

Jubal and Wu were successful in the trial and forgiven, though this only enraged Zayeek further. Nonetheless, Aziza agreed to grant them an audience. They claimed that they had already dealt the Brotherhood of the Coast a severe blow by burning part of their city, freeing many of their prisoners, stealing their flagship and burning the rest of their ships in port. They further argued that they wished to help Aziza be rid of them, but warned that the pirates were soon to secure an alliance with the Kingdom of Orlesea, which would all but doom Aziza's faction and secure the island for Akembe.

Aziza agreed to accept their help, and explained that she was already preparing an attack on the emerald mines to free many captured Umani and her shaman, Wyzad, to perform the needed ritual to keep the fae at bay. She agreed to allow some of the Royal Explorers to accompany the expedition. Meanwhile the rest would meet with the Orlesean delegation being sent to treat with the pirates and deal with them.

## Readying the Attack

Aziza informed the Royal Explorers that the ritual to keep the fae at bay needed to be performed at the Temple of Shadow and Light, but that there were also tales of a powerful weapon within the temple that, if claimed, could help her defeat Akembe and drive the pirates of the Brotherhood of the Coast off Socortia.

Aziza dispatched a war party under the command of warchief Tariik and accompanied by Fern, Noel Gorehammer, Wu Xen, and Jubal. Their mission was to go to the emerald mines and free Wyzad and the prisoners there. Meanwhile Jasper Conroy, Leandra and Fynn would take their captured pirate ship, the *Scourge*, to deal with the Orleseans that were coming to Socortia to sign an alliance with the pirates.

## The Battle at the Temple of Shadow and Light

The missions Aziza dispatched were almost entirely successful. The Royal Explorers and makeshift crew of the *Scourge* were able to fight back the Orleseans, delaying their contact with the pirates. Meanwhile Tariik's war party was able to free the Umani prisoners as well as those from various ships the pirates had captured. Among the rescued was Wyzad.

The two forces reunited at the Temple of Shadow and Light and met up with a small force of centaurs brought here by the centaur Atrayu. Unfortunately this move seemed anticipated by Akembe as a large force of his Umani and pirates had gathered there to prevent access to the temple. A large battle broke out, during witch Wyzad, Jubal and the Royal Explorers were able to sneak to the Temple of Shadow and Light and perform the needed ritual.

With the ritual complete, Wyzad held off a force of pirates led by a minotaur named Zarrilak while the Royal Explorers entered the temple and secured the fabled weapon. It turned out that the weapon was five golems that were controlled by a magical circlet. With control of these Akembe and his forces were swiftly routed.

The Royal Explorers departed Socortia at that point, however they arranged for a crewman from one of the captured Gildornian ships, "Barnacle Brain" Bob Youngin and Atrayu to deliver the golems and the control circlet to Aziza.

## Alliance with Gildorn

With the golems in hand, and the momentum of the victory at the Battle at the Temple of Shadow and Light, Aziza was able to defeat Akembe and the pirates in a number of small engagements and push them ever closer to Darsah, the pirate stronghold.

However, as time went by the golems became more difficult to control and two of them had ceased to function altogether. Worse, by this time a large force of Orleseans had arrived, reinforcing Akembe and the Brotherhood of the Coast, allowing most of Aziza's successes to be rapidly nullified in the enemy counterattacks.

Things were looking dim again for Aziza and her rule, when help came in the form of some familiar faces. In late Gatekeeper of 465 Jubal and Leandra returned to Zaros again. Jubal had been made Gildorn's ambassador to Socortia and he explained that Gildorn had a squadron of ships ready to destroy the Orlesean ships that had arrived and troops to help kill Aziza's enemies, however in order to do this Aziza would have to sign an alliance with Gildorn.

Left with little choice, she quickly did so. The resulting Battle of Socortia saw the Gildornian squadron soundly defeating the Orlesean ships and landing men to mop up the now stranded Orlesean and pirate land forces on the island. Though there was still some of the enemy hiding in the jungle and continuing to fight, Socortia seemed to be in Aziza's control at last.

Aziza agreed to allow the Gildornians to fortify Darsah for their own use and to build an embassy on the island.