Knil of Tyrsea

*“My waking and sleeping seem mixed together. I’m walking in a dream half the time, and sleeping through reality the other half.”*

-Knil of Tyrsea

## History

Born in Tyrsea, Knil was related to the famed King Valorean Tyrsea. His land was conquered at a young age, and he witnessed his father, a blacksmith, killed in battle defending his family. He still wields a sword forged by his father. His mother and sister survived and holed up in the mountains while he himself looked for a new homeland for other dragonborn survivors to set up a permanent settlement.

During his search for a new homeland, he was radicalized by a halfling named Poley, a paladin of the god Niccolo, who drained him to be a paladin. Knil swore an oath of conquest, not to seek vengeance on those who destroyed his clan, but rather to build a new clan from its ashes and rise even stronger and more honorable then before.

After wandering with little success, down on his luck, Knil needed money and an excuse to do something different, and therefore entered the service of the Hexenjäger Corps, working as a mercenary under the command of Sergeant Jakob Siekert. He came to despise mercenary service in general and Sergeant Siekert in specific, seeking him as a drunken, pathetic leader. He served out his year-long contract resentfully, all the while thinking that he could be a better leader then Siekert. He began to plot, all the while seeking an opportunity to overthrow his hated commander.

## Personality

Knil grew up cherishing honor, and therefore was willing to forgo revenge on his conquerors. His family and clan worshipped Kiri-Jolith, the god of honor and war; in honor of the god, Knil has bison horns painted on the side of his helmet (though he would later spend a few years as an accolyte and student of the god Niccolo).

When Knil set up to find a new homeland, he was met with scorn. He grew bitter but remained determined.

Knil came to absolutely hate his mercenary work. He wanted to be in control, and despised going where others wanted him to go. Thought he wanted control, Knil struggled as a leader, having spent far too much time on his own, and relied on cowing his lessers into fearful obedience.

## The Third Northern Expedition

Knil would betray Sergeant Siekert and join the Third Northern Expedition from Brøndgård to the Northern Administrative Zone Outpost. There, Knil killed the mad Colonel Conrad Kurtz and destroyed the Colour out of Space, willing the allegiance of the Hexenjägers, Leng Folk, and civilians present. Knil was quick to proclaim himself an independent monarch of the newly founded Kingdom of the Naz, that being the acronym for Northern Administrative Zone.

## The Great Awakening

The chaos of the Great Awakening drove many refugees into Knil's fledgling kingdom, as the new monarch and his hardened warriors - veterans of the Plateau of Leng - were one of the few bastions of civilization standing in the north. Knil swiftly claimed Valusia and Leng as part of his kingdom, and affirmed his allegiance to the Godhunter's cause, if not the Godhunter himself - though the two old allies remained on friendly terms and generally trusted one another. His greatest ambition became re-capturing the Northern Dome, taking the Northern Throne, and establishing his capital there. The outpost would always remain strategically important, but was merely a military installation.

Knil would make common cause with another new monarch, Queen Damaris of Ostoria, forming a power block against the alliance between the kingdoms of Utgard and Guilddon. In the chaotic war that followed, Knil's army of Hexenjägers, dragonborn, refugees, and Leng Folk marched on the Reich Nördlich, though their impact was unclear, and they spent more time warring with monstrosities and rival armies in the fog of war.

After the fall of Hauptstadt, Knil would have to contend with the incoming Second Arendurian Great Crusade, which was determined to cleanse the north of unbelievers. Knil remembered the Arendurians as the conquerors of his old homeland, and knew well that the Arendurian Pontiff Leo Calixtus was a follower of the great old ones and a sworn foe of the Godhunter. Choosing a side, therefore, took neither deliberation nor time. The northern power blocs remained fixed, as Queen Damaris was willing to stand with him, and both Utgard and Guilddon quickly threw their lot in with the Arendurians. And so the Long War began.

Indeed, Knil's greatest foes had never been the other post-Reich petty kingdoms, but the great old ones and their servants. In his lands alone, Yig, the Father of Snakes *called Sertrous Prince of Heretics* had awoken, as had the slumbering god of immortality, Rhan-Tegoth. In the coveted Northern Dome, Brennen's Life's Fire had taken on horrifying sentience as Cthugha, the master of the fire vampires, and this was merely what lay within his walls, not the countless horrors at the doorstep.

## Founding of Dragonsmouth

The Godhunter killed the great old ones, but could not heal the devastation they had wrought so long as Rhan-Tegoth lived. The Godhunter scoured every place and every time and destroyed every statue of He of the Ivory Throne, and yet that was not enough to destroy the furious god of immortality. One day, generations later, someone else would build a statue of the god. Perhaps by accident. And that would undo it all. The Long War would have been for nothing.

Knil of Dragonsmouth wanted to end the Long War, so he built a statue of Rhan-Tegoth in the Plaza of the Gods. From the same stone, he built the walls of his city. To guard the statue, he founded the College of Cardinals; to guard the world, he founded the Dragonsmouth Army. No one would ever enter - the fate of his people was to be the guardians of - and sacrifices to - the only deity the Godhunter could not kill.