Matriarch Zarguna Champion Lore
Matriarch Zarguna was born in the rugged foothills of the Redspike Mountains, a descendant of survivors of the Gaellen War. Thrice she married and bore children, but each husband perished at a young age. To cope with the grief, Zarguna threw herself into martial training, believing she had to grow strong to protect herself and her offspring from further woe. She also attended to the duties of clan leadership, rising in status and prestige, all while raising her children single handedly. It was many years before she could bear to think of once again becoming a wife and mother.
The one who overcame Zarguna’s reticence was Karnthan, leader of an Orc mercenary band called the Usurpers. Karnthan’s freewheeling life appealed to her, and his charm captured her affections. With her children now older, she announced that she would become his consort and travel with him, and though her clan would sorely miss her guidance, they respected her desire to follow her heart. Her cycle of tragedy was not yet finished, however.
Zarguna and Karnthan had a daughter, Zargala, the last of Zarguna’s children. Some twenty years of travel, battle, and adventure ensued. But after this long remission, misfortune befell Zarguna once more when an ill-fated contract with the Banner Lord Sir Marston saw the Usurpers annihilated. Knights impaled Karnthan upon their lances as Zarguna and Zargala watched in horror. As the massacre unfolded, Zargala was knocked unconscious. Her friend Grengar defended her until he, too, was struck down, driving Zarguna into an unthinking fugue. Surviving knights told tales of a hulking female Orc whose warpaint was washed away by blood, swinging an enormous ax-hammer studded with the teeth of beasts and hurling Humans in full plate armor through the air with each blow. When she regained her senses, she found she had been driven to the edge of the battlefield, bearing dozens of seeping wounds, while Marston’s troops scoured the field, looting the dead and killing wounded Orcs. The attackers had been dealt heavy losses, but the Usurpers were nigh-eradicated, and Zarguna had no choice but to leave the bodies of her family and friends where they lay.
Zarguna stumbled away. Her limbs were leaden, her gut churned, tears streaked her cheeks, and a pounding heartbeat throbbed behind her eyes. She could not protect anyone, not even her spouse and child. As she nursed her wounds and left Kaerok, she wondered if it had been folly to leave her clan and her children behind, whether they hated her for it. There was only one way to find out, the only place where she could even try to rebuild her life. She returned to her old clan, and was welcomed warmly. But it was plain to all that tragedy had hollowed her, and the celebrations of Zarguna’s return held somber undertones. She reconciled with her children, who now had children of their own. Seeing two generations of her family, now larger than ever, steeled her resolve. She would die before she let another of her loved ones down, and would never again abandon them.
It was only days later when word reached Zarguna that the Orc warlord Artak had called for a great moot. There he proposed a war on Kaerok in revenge for its many wrongdoings to Orc-kind. Zarguna refused to help, but enough others agreed. Artak unleashed his war. Zarguna’s stronghold became a haven for wounded Orc veterans and deserters from Artak’s army. She welcomed them all, maintaining her territory as neutral ground for all in search of refuge from strife. Her highest principle was that Orc strength existed to defend their vulnerable. Both the Banner Lords and Artak’s coalition saw her tolerance and non-alignment as an affront, and attempted to conquer her stronghold. Zarguna crushed these assaults, throwing invaders from the walls and holding the gates against waves of bodies flung against her.
Between interrogations of captives and news from recent arrivals, Zarguna learned Zargala had survived, and even avenged her father. She was struck with guilt and joy, anxiety and longing, dismay at the lost years tempered by hope for more to come. She sent couriers to find her daughter. Days and weeks passed. Every time she heard a knock on the door or saw gates open she wondered if Zargala would walk through, or messengers with grave news. Questions wracked her mind. Would Zargala feel abandoned and estranged? Would she be forced to choose between familial loyalty and the life she had made for herself? Would she want anything to do with her mother? With age telling upon her, Zarguna looked to the future and her succession, and wished to give Zargala a rightful place among her heirs. Zarguna knew only that she had to give her daughter all the facts to inform her future plans.