Description
Two indifferent black eyes look out from a shroud of vibrant orange hair,
burnished tendrils falling about the face of this looming titan. Wide
shoulders and huge arms give testament to long days spent in hard labour of
some kind, and a long beard covers the upper half of his chest and conceals
much of his lower face. Skin as black as obsidian is stretched across his
ten foot frame, surprisingly free of scars for one of his ilk though his
hands carry the calouses of a warrior. Belted to his hip is a longsword of
polished steel, and a large broad bladed wood axe is strapped across his
broad back. Hanging from a simple leather cord about his neck is a ring of
dark stone, perhaps hematite or onyx.
Role
The protegal son.
Added Sat Jul 10 14:47:19 2021 at level 31:
Zaktai was a pretty lucky giant, all things considered.
In the ruthless kingdom of Kiadana, there were few things worse than
weakness, perceived or real. In many ways, it was not so different to the
dangers of Teth Azeleth; fire giants were just much more honest and up
front about it. The axe, rather than the knife. A split skull rather than a
poisoned cup. Zaktai was born strong, under the sphere of War. A blessed
birth, his priest mother would often claim. One of many children sired by
Drathgar Nacktin-Rah, how could it signify anything else but a love for his
people and of conquest?
Strong, with a strong family. What more could a giant ever want or need?
One did not need the gift of revelation to know what his future would hold.
A life of glory. Triumphant battle after triumphant battle, and an eventual
death atop a pile of corpses of the stormborn wretches. It was all so
simple.
Until that blade of keenest make laid him low, at least. Cut him down
before his story could even begin, and changed the path his feet would walk
ever there after.
Zaktai met his mother's newest student, and it all went tragically,
gloriously wrong.
Young love.
Added Sat Jul 10 14:49:16 2021 at level 31:
Zaktai's first thought on meeting her was how pretty she was.
This would not be an unusual thought for a young male to have about a
female, if not for the fact that the young Shamak was about as far to the
other side of that spectrum as it is possible to be. There were mountains
with fewer crags and edges than her face, and her hair could most kindly be
called lank. The defects in this arena do not end there, but suffice to say
in the eyes of the young Zaktai she was perfect.
She was a good acolyte, too. Zaktai found himself spending more time with
her as a result of her often being under the watchful eye of his mother,
and things began to progress. His studies were the first thing neglected.
Then his training. Then his ambitions. Once the top student of the blade,
he began losing in spars that he even bothered to attend, and losing baddly.
A new fire had been lit in his soul, and the passion for the battle had
guttered out at its coming.
Zaktai's father would not have it.
Once the pride of his loins, Zaktai was embarrassing him at every turn.
Words failed. Blows failed. What more could be done? It was for the boys
own good.
When Shamak told Zaktai she was being sent to finish her training on the
levels above, nearer the frontlines to gain experience one might have
expected him to fly into a rage. The fury of his kin burns swiftly and hot,
and perhaps if it had just been that such would have been the case here.
But when Shamak came to him and he saw her tears, the rage that came upon
him was like the glacial mountains, a cold that suffused him more utterly
than any high working of invocation. Zaktai was no fool. He knew that an
orphan would be expendable to his father, and he knew what this was really
about. If he had the strength, no doubt he would have become a patricide
that very day, one of the few great crimes of violence among the fireborn
giants.
But he did not have the strength, for his father was mighty even among the
mighty. So he promised her he would not let them take her from him; and
that night they crept up and up, abandoning duty and obligation and fled
Mount Kiadana.
And perhaps things could have ended there, and the two giants could've
lived out their days together away from the eternal wars and bloodshed, and
a great evil could have been if not averted, mitigated.
But it was not to be.
Happiness.
Added Sat Jul 10 14:50:29 2021 at level 31:
The next years were the happiest of Zaktai's life.
The crossing of the dragon sea had been hard, but they had made it. The
trip west had been much easier after the dangers of the open waters, and
they had settled in Silverwood.
It was a good life. Shamak was no longer sad, and Zaktai no longer had need
of the sword he had carried with them all this way; the few goblin raiders
that bothered them soon fled when they realised the giants' skin was more
than a match for their blunt spears.
Despite some rather embarrassing initial attempts, Zaktai learned to hunt
the nearby wildlife, and Shamak developed a talent for carving and
construction.
Even through the harsh winters they survived and flourished.
When they realised their first child would soon be upon them late one
summer, Zaktai set out to gather provisions for the coming cold.
Stand by my grave and weep.
Added Sat Jul 10 14:53:10 2021 at level 31:
There was no premonition of doom as Zaktai returned home after a week away,
weighed down with supplies. No sense of dread as he approached the small
hut they had built. It was not unnaturally quiet, and it was not an
overcast day. The first moment he realised something was terribly wrong was
when he came to the hut's door and it was hanging from one crude hinge, and
that smell he had turned his back on came to him.
Giant's blood.
The hut was in shambles. Their table that she had carved splintered and
overturned, the crude shelving that had held her carvings smashed. Blood on
the floor and blood on the walls.
She was dead.
Zaktai stared down at the corpse. Still beautiful to him. Still unique.
But empty. Gone. Lacking that vital spark that had been Shamak.
Beautiful mud brown eyes hollow. Craggy face forever locked in a rictus of
pain.
He eased the dagger free. It had driven up beneath her ribs. Undoubtedly
the killing stroke, though by no means the only injury.
His large hands shook so much that he immediately cut himself upon the
weapon, his fire-forged flesh parting like he was a puny softskin. He knew
this knife, by reputation if not by personal experience. Old lessons spoken
by Champion Tohr came back to him even as the weapon dissolved before his
very eyes, fading away into flecks of silver before vanishing entirely.
An old fire, long since extinguished began to smolder, though it could not
warm the block of ice within his chest.
He buried her outside, with the carvings of the animals she had made. Many
had been broken, but he knew she would have wanted them anyway. As he stood
by the freshly turned grave Zaktai allowed himself to weep, for the first
and last time. He could be weak with her, just this once.
Then he turned, hands still shaking, but from an entirely different emotion,
picking up the sword he had not drawn since that day he had thrown it all
away for her. Kiadana-wrought steel shone beneath the last rays of Summer
as blade cleared scabard.
The son of Drathgar Nacktin-Rah tilted back his head and roared his
vengeful promise, a single word that set birds rising from the trees as he
poured out his grief, both oath and accusation as he stood over the ruin of
the life he could have had.
"MARAN!"
Character sheet.
Added Sat Jul 10 14:54:36 2021 at level 31:
Ethos: orderly due to very disciplined upbringing.
Primary motivation: vengeance against the Maran for his lost love and all
that underpins them.
Cabal: Empire. Purely pragmatism for pursuing his goal, not a true believer
or anything (at least initially). Will be big on making the imperial army
strong for this ends, and will try to push them towards hostility with the
fortress (though most likely very clumsily - definitely not skilled at
manipulation).
Religion: I have a few ideas for how to take this, so am going to leave
this open ended for now. The goal would be one of Panmorne, Gaspare, or
Rahsael, though I know I'm out of sphere for two of them.
Class: antipaladin. Has a warrior upbringing, but gravitated to the AP
guild as natural enemies of the Maran. Part of this is also deep resentment
against his father for what he believes as engineering the scenario that
cost him everything, though he would not be able to articulate this himself.
Sphere: Zaktai is sphere war, but he also rejected this sphere in many ways
when he found happiness. He's definitely back under its sway now, but there
might be some deviation situationally.
Querks: takes the heads of the maran/squires he kills and puts them on his
dead lover's grave as a monument. Fire giants, you know.
Possessions: he carries his dead lover's ring on a necklace around his neck,
as a permanent reminder.
War is hard.
Added Thu Jul 22 11:54:07 2021 at level 37:
Zaktai fumed impotently.
The Outlanders really were a problem.
Not a problem quite in the way most problems Zaktai encountered were,
though they were one of them too. Problems that tried to split open your
skull with an axe had pretty simple solutions. You just did it to them
first. Easy.
It was the fact that they were distracting the imperial army so much!
How was the maranling army to be destroyed if these people kept popping out
of trees at every turn to cause issues? It made Zaktai's blood boil.
Unfortunately, Zaktai was starting to worry that the real root of his
problems might be that he just wasn't very good at waging war.
He was good at killing things. He'd taken the souls and skulls to prove it.
He'd thought it would be that easy. A proper general would know how to deal
with the outlander distractions though. His father, as bitter as it made
him to admit it, would know what to do. Zaktai, bravado aside, could not
kill them all. He had to find a solution. Perhaps there was someone out
there who he could learn from?
It was so hard to think. Things were easy when it came to the killing. He
could vent his ever-simmering wrath in those moments, and for a time feel
like he had made a difference. That he had brought some degree of blood
price for his loss.
He had to do better, though. He had to learn.
He had to find a guide.
A potential blunder.
Added Thu Jul 29 16:42:35 2021 at level 39:
"The Blade shows strength, the Black shows cunning."
The Shadow Lord's whispered words as he put the finishing touches on the
blood reckoning the council had ordered he participate in stuck with Zaktai.
He did not understand the politics behind the brief and bloody conflict.
Some lingering enmity between the War Master and Dread Lord, perhaps? Maybe
the War Master had liked his underlings chances against Zaktai better than
his own against the Dread Lord, and this had been the proxy?
It didn't matter, much. Zaktai had been losing at first. He was strong, but
the blade had been strong too. It had reminded him of his father. Never
quite good enough. A disappointment. He had decided in that moment he would
not lose to this giant, and so he had wove his sorcery and brute force had
been no match.
But cunning? Zaktai had never thought of himself as cunning before the
Shadow Lord's observation. What kind of giant needed cunning?
And yet... cunning had brought him victory, then, and in the days after.
When the maranling god Eino had appeared as if from nowhere to pluck his
victim from the jaws of defeat, there had been a moment when Zaktai had
thought to scream his impotent rage in the face of the god, price be damned.
He'd ran, instead. Unthinkable only a few years ago, and yet that casual
observation of the most mysterious of the council had served him well again.
He was still here. Unbroken.
But strength had got him where he was too. Strength had been the thing he'd
clung to in the absence of all else.
Perhaps he needed both? Could he show strength, and be cunning? Was cunning
better hidden?
Zaktai supposed he'd find out soon enough if he was cunning enough: for the
War Master was dead, and the giant Zaktai had humiliated would be the new
War Master post haste.
This, he decided, might get... bad.
The Warlord.
Added Sat Jul 31 01:34:09 2021 at level 39:
Zaktai had heard of the savage god of the icy wastes before, but only in
tales. Two things seemed universally agreed upon though: one did not offer
slight, and that he was both mighty and without mercy.
Zaktai blamed the maranlings for him missing the titan's approach. He was
sure he'd got some of Elokhi's blood in his eyes the last time he'd hewed
his head from his shoulders. It was the only explanation for how he'd
overlooked something quite so large. However, Lord Jormyr must have dealt
with maranling blood in his eyes before too, as he'd not chopped Zak in
half for it. Small blessings.
What had followed had been a very strange conversation. It was odd. Two
centuries had passed, and yet so few had actually asked Zak why, and those
that had did not really understand. How do you explain to a softskin that
each life taken in the quest for vengeance did not balance the scales, it
just fanned the fire? How did you explain that the blood price was not a
thing that could be settled? Only when Zak himself finally broke would the
end to the claiming of skulls and souls come, and then only by necessity.
Zak had never thought much on faith before. Faith had not saved Shamak. He
could not wield faith as a sword or axe to cleave his foes asunder. Faith
would not turn aside a lightforged blade or poisoned arrow.
But had he been looking at it wrong?
A spark, Jormyr had called it. A beginning. Zak had never considered the
raging fury that burned in his chest a spark before, but what if it was?
What if he was just a shadow of what he could be, and his vengeance just a
pale immitation of the terrible devastation he could unleash upon the
fortress and theirs? Could he grow beyond what he was? Could faith guide
him?
Choose, the lord of giants had said.
Zak did not need to think on it long.
If he was to put his faith in a higher power to show him the way, who
better than the warlord among warlords?
PK Wins
Jul 12, 2021|Lv 36|Fortress of Light|Elokhi vs 1: [36] Zaktai (100%, caustic smash)
Jul 12, 2021|Lv 36|The Imperial Lands|Cicktin vs 1: [36] Zaktai (100%, caustic smash)
Jul 13, 2021|Lv 36|Grinning Skull Village|Zagnarh vs 1: [36] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 14, 2021|Lv 36|The Eastern Road|Usunguui vs 1: [36] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 14, 2021|Lv 36|Forest of Prosimy|Usunguui vs 1: [36] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 14, 2021|Lv 36|Amaranthian Forest|Cicktin vs 1: [36] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 15, 2021|Lv 37|The Eastern Road|Drimbakka vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 15, 2021|Lv 37|The North Road|Karnay vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, caustic smash)
Jul 15, 2021|Lv 37|Mausoleum|Kairuk vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, claw)
Jul 16, 2021|Lv 37|The Imperial Lands|Drimbakka vs 2: [37] Zaktai (95%, iceball), [42] Natrim (4%)
Jul 16, 2021|Lv 37|The Imperial Lands|Drimbakka vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, crush)
Jul 16, 2021|Lv 37|The Ruins of Ostalagiah|Srathil vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, caustic smash)
Jul 16, 2021|Lv 37|The Imperial Lands|Karnay vs 3: [35] Elokhi (3%), [33] Grimthel (0%), [37] Zaktai (96%, burst of energy)
Jul 17, 2021|Lv 37|The Outlander Refuge|Kairuk vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, crush)
Jul 17, 2021|Lv 37|The Outlander Refuge|Wildon vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, crush)
Jul 17, 2021|Lv 37|The Eastern Road|Elandorr vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 18, 2021|Lv 37|The Tower of Sorcery|Feonar vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, bleeding)
Jul 18, 2021|Lv 37|Eil Shaeria|Thormmstein vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, sickness)
Jul 18, 2021|Lv 37|The North Road|Vehrix vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, crush)
Jul 18, 2021|Lv 37|The Eastern Road|Feonar vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 19, 2021|Lv 37|The Eastern Road|Drimbakka vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, caustic smash)
Jul 19, 2021|Lv 37|Feanwyyn Weald|Souhk vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 19, 2021|Lv 37|Blackwater Swamp|Vaemren vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 20, 2021|Lv 37|The Redhorn Mountains|Elokhi vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, pierce)
Jul 20, 2021|Lv 37|The Lower Voralia's Tears|Karnay vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, iceball)
Jul 22, 2021|Lv 37|Graveyard|Llysandra vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, iceball)
Jul 22, 2021|Lv 37|Eil Shaeria|Kalekas vs 1: [37] Zaktai (100%, pierce)
Jul 23, 2021|Lv 38|The Eastern Road|Feonar vs 1: [38] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 23, 2021|Lv 38|The Imperial Palace|Feonar vs 1: [38] Zaktai (100%, crushing force)
Jul 23, 2021|Lv 38|The Imperial Palace|Vanpeera vs 1: [38] Zaktai (100%, downward strike)
Jul 24, 2021|Lv 38|The Wastes of Nonviel|Kalekas vs 1: [38] Zaktai (100%, crushing force)
Jul 24, 2021|Lv 38|The Drogran Hills|Elokhi vs 1: [38] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 26, 2021|Lv 38|Sands of Sorrow|Kalekas vs 1: [38] Zaktai (100%, crushing force)
Jul 26, 2021|Lv 38|Blackclaw Village|Thormmstein vs 1: [38] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 27, 2021|Lv 38|South Sutherspring Road|Gabayru vs 2: [38] Zaktai (25%), [38] Oraru (74%, burst of energy)
Jul 28, 2021|Lv 39|The Eastern Road|Drimbakka vs 1: [39] Zaktai (100%, electrical discharge)
Jul 28, 2021|Lv 39|Kuo-Toa Lair|Gabayru vs 1: [39] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 29, 2021|Lv 39|Outside Hamsah Mu'tazz|Kalekas vs 2: [38] Oraru (22%), [39] Zaktai (77%, black light)
Jul 30, 2021|Lv 39|The Fields of Balator|Raje vs 1: [39] Zaktai (100%, burst of energy)
Jul 31, 2021|Lv 39|The Eastern Road|Vyn vs 1: [39] Zaktai (100%, pummeling blow)
Jul 31, 2021|Lv 39|Udgaard|Kiatta vs 2: [48] Marbu (33%, savage feeding), [39] Zaktai (66%)
Aug 1, 2021 |Lv 39|The Eastern Road|Kiatta vs 1: [39] Zaktai (100%, bash)
Aug 1, 2021 |Lv 39|The Spire of the Blood Tribunal|Vyn vs 3: [51] Asaba (22%, crushing hand), [38] Oraru (29%), [39] Zaktai (48%)
Aug 1, 2021 |Lv 39|The Imperial Lands|Vyn vs 2: [39] Zaktai (69%, electrical discharge), [38] Apia (30%)
Aug 2, 2021 |Lv 40|Fortress of Light|Ralthir vs 1: [40] Zaktai (100%, crushing force)