Gargura

*"Awake O Dead, for there can be no rest for ye beneath the earth. Let the splintered bones burrow from the grave pall. Let cold fingers grip time-worn blades, and unseeing eyes survey the fields of slaughter. For your time has come once more. And the dead shall walk."*

-Gargura

## History

Unfathomably old, kept vigorous by necromantic magic. Gargura outlived her husband, a great warlord, and raised him as an undead. Both a priest and a mage, she is a worshiper of the god Nomog-Geaya. She led a warband of Hobgoblins in the mountains of the Final Empire, who venerated the undead. Her husband had been the leader of the band, and his moldering corpse was its figurehead. Gargura was principled in never raising enemies as undead, but only targeting the corpses of her fighters. She was one of many Hobgoblin warlords in the mountains near Sarindel, and a longtime foe of Sarindel's great warchief, Warrizek.

After the fall of the Final Empire, Gargura allied herself with Farcraft for nebulous reasons, though her stated reason was that he was the most powerful and worthy warrior in the land. She maintained her guerrilla war with Warrizek, and was Farcraft's emissary to Fang Gorm, the gnoll blademaster who ruled Gorm's Bastion. She convinced him to storm Sarindel, which proved folly when Warrizek turned the tide and pushed on to sack Gorm's Bastion. Gargura changed sides and became one of the highest captains in Warrizek's new kingdom. Whether her defection was genuine or fake remained a complete mystery, but when Warrizek went to war with Brennen's Phoenix Blacks, she contacted Brennen secretly and orchestrated the betrayal that would lead to the fall of Sarindel and the surrender of Warrizek to Brennen. By now, Gargura counted herself one of the most powerful of Farcraft's rebels, but got along poorly with others and never earned their trust. It was for this reason that she, along with the similarly reviled Arras, followed Brennen to the Northern Dome. In a twist of fate, she was once again subordinate to Warrizek of Sarindel.

## Personality

Bitter and acerbic, Gargura was dour and unflappable. She bore no goodwill for any god or mortal; nor did she feel that she owed anyone loyalty. She treated the men under her command well, but grudgingly so. It was said that she preferred the company of the dead to the living, and her allies often joked that they preferred to have her as an enemy. She was nonetheless a talented warlord and arcanist, who had chosen her path and knew it would lead to a grim end.

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

Gargura led the 3rd Company in the Northern Imperial Army. This was the second time she had been a subordinate to Warrizek, and she had gone to war with him twice. Though he distrusted her, Brennen appreciated Gargura's necromantic talents, and many observers noted that Captain Gargura, despite her lowly rank, reported to the Twin-Emperor himself. She fought in the Annihilation of Valusia, the Battle of Forester's Town, the Burning of Utgard, being responsible for deploying experimental arcane weaponry and for commanding the undead in the field of battle. Her company fought the Hexenjägers in defense of the Northern Dome, and she herself emerged unscathed. She would subsequently be subjected to the blood eagle by none other then Reise Forrawyn, the highest-ranking imperial mage to undergo that punishment, following the suicides of Brennen and Dar Qhoris. Though some of her soldiers felt that she had been betrayed and sacrificed to appease the Hexenjägers, Warrizek had not forgotten her many betrayals over the years. In his eyes, her end was fitting.