Gallord

Illustration by I-GUYJIN-I [1]

Aftermath

**Gallord** was a human Danuri and a member of the Order of the Shield. Even though he had a planeswalker spark, he gave it up in order to save Khaliz-Dorahn from extinction and died in the process.

## Birth and Early Years

Gallord was born in the city of Gaalia, in the country of Danuria. His father was a soldier and his mother a healer. Gallord spent his early years in his mother's care, seeing his father only a total of ten weeks a year. When Gallord was eight, his father died in combat with the Fellors. He couldn't mourn the loss since his father had never been an active part of his life and most of the things he knew about him where what his mother told him.

A few weeks later, Gallord and his mother were sent to the city of Lumia by decree of Leem (although this was unknown to them) and Gallord began being schooled to become a member of the Order of the Shield.

## Merkurio

By the time he was sixteen, Gallord was already a member of the Order of the Shield. Even though his job required him to run errand through all Danuri settlements, he was the only messenger who was not allowed into Fellorie.

As he was headed towards a town on the edge of Danuria, he passed through a forest where he was attacked by a wild lion. He fainted after being injured, but before the creature could kill him, the planeswalker Merkurio found him and saved him. When Gallord woke up he saw Merkurio and recognized him as a Lafterii, immediately trying to kill him. The planeswalker simply put him to sleep and took him to his secret hut, since he could sense a strange and alluring aura surrounding Gallord.

Gallord woke up and once again attacked Merkurio. The planeswalker made him note he'd tended his wounds and saved his life, and Gallord retaliated how he'd also kidnapped him. Something about that interaction made both of them laugh. As if destined to meet and befriend each other, they actually started talking about their lives.

Merkurio helped Gallord return to Danuria without anybody knowing of their secret friendship. Gallord asked Merkurio to convince Dorthos II, the Lafterii Magistrate, to agree to peace talks, but Merkurio refused, claiming that Dorthos would never listen to him and would go out of his way to turn things against him. However, Merkurio did promise he'd return to Khaliz-Dorahn more frequently to check on the state of things and, when the time was right, help restore the relationship between Danuri and Lafterii to what it once was.

## The War of the Shield

For the next sixteen years, Gallord dilligently obeyed the Order of the Shield and rose in rank, directly interacting with the Danuri Triumvirate themselves.

However, he kept a close relationship with Merkurio in his free time, and secretly trained archery since he'd always felt attracted to it (unbeknownst to him, his father had as well).

In the year 1635 NKY, after Gallord informed the Triumvirate about how the last Fellor attack seemed much more deadly and precise, he asked for a leave of absence and paid Merkurio a visit. The planeswalker gave him a theory regarding the powers of the Evil One and how his black mana was merging with the white mana of the Shield, possibly creating an alluring link with the red and white mana the Fellors wielded. As Gallord returned to Danuria pondering Merkurio's words, he was ambushed and kidnapped by a Fellor party commanded by Rallios.

As he was dragged to New Fellorie, Gallord tried using a telepathic spell Merkurio had taught him to try to reach him through the Eternities, but by the time Merkurio received it, Gallord was already in the center of Fellor territory. There, he was brought to Elspeth Tirel, quickly figuring out she was a planeswalker who'd allied with the Fellors and was the one behind their sudden improvement in combat and strategy.

For many days, Gallord was held captive in a tent, where Elspeth constantly questioned him to figure out what he knew about the Shield and the plans of the Order, and what he was doing in Lafterwal the day he was captured. Despite her casting a spell and him being willing to cooperate, Rallios was secretly controlling Gallord to stop him from speaking and revealing the truth about the Evil One. This process was tortuous to Gallord, and it chipped away at both his physical and mental integrity.

However, two months after his kidnapping, Merkurio came to rescue him with a Lafterii army. Gallord was released in exchange for Merkurio's captivity and him and the Lafterii were teleported back to Lafterwal, where Gallord was shackled with special manacles that would confine him to Lafterwal. He spent the next month speaking to the Lafterii to learn more about their culture and traversing the continent to study its geography, while at the same time teaching the Lafterii about Danuri customs.

A month after his arrival at Lafterwal, Logayr (the Lafterii Magistrate) revealed he'd been studying Gallord this whole time yet despite his natural talent to understand the thoughts and personality of whoever he spoke to. Gallord seemed to have a way to bypass this ability, while at the same time having an unexplainable charm which was affecting Logayr the same way it had affected Merkurio sixteen years ago.

When Logayr mentioned Leem still being alive, Gallord concocted a plan: he'd go to Leem, convince him to form an alliance between Danuri and Lafterii, go rescue Merkurio and stop the Fellors once and for all. He also planned on killing Elspeth in the process since he loathed the woman.

After a debate, Logayr agreed to this, since something in the conversation had stirred Gallord's passion and, for the briefest of moments, the Magistrate finally understood the nature of Gallord's charm, although he kept it to himself.

Gallord returned to Danuria and had an audience with Leem. The Danuri leader, however, considered him a traitor, and Gallord was banished, threatened to be killed if he ever returned to Danuria. Despite Logayr's oders to return to Lafterwal, Gallord convinced the captain of his Lafterii escort to head to New Fellorie to help the Danuri who'd been sent there to rescue Gallord from captivity.

Gallord and the army arrived at New Fellorie a week later. Seeing Gallord out of captivity was more than enough for the Danuri sentinels to allow him and his companions an order with the Triumvirate. Gallord spoke to Zadrim and Omenn (Mutren had been injured and sent back to Danuria) and convinced them to accept the Lafterii fighters into their forces.

Gallord joined the fray and fought alongside the Danuri and Lafterii soldiers to press into Fellor territory. He was almost killed by a Fellor warrior but was saved at the last second by Leem, who'd decided to pardon him and agree to the alliance. The Fellors were finally subdued and Gallord reached Merkurio.

He saw his friend completely famished and exhausted and, bitter with the purposeless war, gave a speech to the three Khalizor races, explaining how they should all be fighting for the same purpose: the protection of the Shield. His innate charm was enough to overwrite the Evil One's influence over the Fellors, and even they joined forces with the Danuri and Lafterii and headed back to Fellorie to try and stop Rallios.

On the way back, Gallord crossed paths with Elspeth, who'd been defeated and immobilized by Rallios. Realizing she'd been just a puppet all along as well, his murderous desires vanished, and he instead asked her to fight with them. When the army arrived at Fellorie, Rallios was almost about to destroy the Shield.

Gallord shot and killed Rallios, thinking the nightmare was finally over. However, Rallios's blood reached the Shield and destroyed it, libreating the Evil One.

## The Evil One Returns

After the Evil One was released and began trying to reconquer Khaliz-Dorahn and since Mutren was dead, Gallord was asked to join the Triumvirate as its third member. He reluctantly agreed and he also became a part of the New Order. Together, they coordinated an attack to ambush and defeat the Evil One in the Darklands before it recovered its full power.

The plan failed, however, and Gallord was bitten by a minion of the Evil One, which infected his arm with an unknown poison. Not only did his arm go numb, but as the disease progressed he realized it was also tainting his mind and tearing its defenses against the Evil One.

After realizing he almost tried to kill Merkurio (who was in a comma after failing to kill the Evil One), Gallord went to Omenn. Omenn managed to contain the disease and slow it down to prevent it from spreading, but only Pandora was able to cure it completely once she returned to Khaliz-Dorahn. Despite Gallord's disease being cured, Leem's infection had advanced beyond the turning point. After Pandora helped Merkurio out of his comma and he revealed Leem was a sleeper agent of the Evil One, Gallord had him arrested and agreed to be the one to kill him in order to fuel a spell that could kill the Evil One Itself.

Saddened by the circumstances but doing what he needed to, Gallord killed Leem and channeled his essence into a spell Elspeth turned into a weapon, eradicating the Evil One. However, the spell tore reality itself, and Khaliz-Dorahn began to tear apart.

## The Aftermath

Gallord fled the main continents with the rest of the Khalizors and headed towards the Unknown Continent. There, they met the planeswalker Allagras and his people, and despite Pandora being antagonistic, Gallord prevented a potential catastrophe by intervening and convincing both sides they were fighting for the same cause. Despite Allagras being a foreigner, Gallord's charm was also working on him.

After receiving a tour through Allagras's Domains, the group got to Endris-Dorahn, where Pandora was confronted by the Endrisons and banished by Merkurio. However, during this interaction, Gallord's guilt for killing Leem resurfaced, and he began feeling uneasy, but someone spoke inside his head: Logayr. Before his death, the Lafterii Magistrate managed to leave an imprint of his consciousness in Gallord's mind to guide him, since he knew what his true full potential was and was trying to help him reach it.

As the group headed north through treacherous countries to avoid the reality clashes that had reached the continent, one of the clashes resurrected Rallios. Once again the grim feelings reached Gallord as, in Rallios, he saw his failure to stop him from destroying the Shield, but Logayr's voice helped him stay strong and keep going.

In the Battle of Subturgia, where the Khalizors faced Tharyen, the vampire lord, and his forces, Gallord was left to confronted Tharyen himself after seeing him kill Tharanos. Gallord faced the vampire but was soon overwhelmed by his superior strength, speed and combat dexterity. Unable to even scratch Tharyen, Gallord was easily and effortlessly pinned to the ground, and Tharyen bit his neck and began drinking his blood. However, the vampire soon started screaming in pain as Gallord felt a strange warmth surge through his body. Gallord seized the opportunity and killed Tharyen while the vampire was incapacitated.

## Death

As Tharyen died, Logayr's voice spoke one last time, revealing that Gallord was a planeswalker, that his spark was triggering and that now was the time for him to save the world. The reason every Khalizor felt the charming aura surrounding Gallord was that Khaliz-Dorahn itself knew that he was meant to save the world some day.

As Gallord was being dragged into the Blind Eternities, he instead focused on using the energy coursing through his body and channel it into the world itself. The power of his spark igniting spread through Khaliz-Dorahn instead of through him, and the tears in reality became undone as the world began a healing process. This effort, however, took all of the lifeforce out of him, and he died knowing he'd been successful.

The Khalizors agreed that, as their savior, Gallord deserved to be buried with higher honors than any other Khalizor. The leader of each nation helped carry his body to Prosania, where he was buried a hero.

## Trivia

* The etimology of the name "Gallord" comes from the Ancient Khalizor word "Gaal", meaning "healer" or "savior", synonyms back in the day since primitive societies had no need for a distinction between both words. When both words developed different meanings, "healer" remained as "gaal" but "savior" was changed to "gall". In Ancient Khalizor, Gallord literally means "the savior".