Nraz'gagr

Accroupé dans l'épaisse forêt entourant le lac, le Wildhorn regarda et attendit. Il était difficile pour un monstre comme Nraz'gagr de se cacher n'importe où, mais dans les bois c'était presque comme s'il était une partie naturelle de la forêt. Sa fourrure brun foncé était tapissée de boue et les longues tresses de sa barbe étaient teintées de rouge avec le sang de son dernier repas. Mais aujourd'hui, il se souciait peu de son apparence ou de ses impressions. La seule chose dont il se souciait, c'était ce qui mentait sur le pont au-dessus de l'eau pâle, ce qui mentait dans Moonlake Keep.
La lettre était vague, inquiétante, discutable. Il a été écrit par la main humaine, sur le papier humain, si petits étaient les mots qu'il avait besoin d'une bête moindre pour le lire à haute voix pour lui. Ce n'était pas le contenu qui l'intéressait, parler obscurement d'un ordre de Chevaliers. Mais le nom Lancelot jeté dans le désordre des mots a tout changé. Peu importe à quel point vous étiez puissant, Lancelot l'était davantage. L'ancien Chevalier de la Table Ronde avait détruit Camelot presque seul, et maintenant ce donjon imposant avait jailli de sa ruine. Comment Lancelot l'avait trouvé, et pourquoi il l'avait convoqué, avait amené le Wildhorn à la table plus que les convocations réelles.
Le Hordefather avait traîné ses hommes à travers le pays, un voyage d'une semaine et demie, marchant sur des terres riches et ruinées, pillant et pillant au fur et à mesure qu'ils allaient. Ils étaient déjà là depuis un jour. Nraz'gagr avait envoyé des bandes de ses parents pour établir des camps dans les bois autour du lac, l'entourant, caché dans la forêt et rapportant tout ce qui semblait hors de l'ordinaire. Nraz'gagr avait personnellement campé à quelques centaines de mètres du pont, dans une clairière densément entourée, avec quelques dizaines de ses guerriers les plus féroces, utilisant les dons de son seigneur Ghadur pour cacher ses hommes de vue. Ils avaient regardé depuis l'arrivée, mais ce n'est que dans les dernières heures que quelqu'un a commencé à arriver.
La première était une femme. En fait, la plupart des nouveaux arrivants l'ont été. C'était difficile à voir de cette distance, mais ses cheveux étaient noirs et ses vêtements rouges. Pour Nraz'gagr tous les humains étaient petits, mais celui-ci n'était pas sensiblement minuscule ou grand. La seconde était exceptionnellement courte, argentée de cheveux, une couleur étrange pour les humains, pensait Nraz'gagr. Au moins jusqu'à ce qu'il voie le suivant, portant aussi de longs cheveux argentés. Trois femmes d'affilée mènent le Wildhorn à la question. D'après son expérience, de ceux qu'il avait massacrés, les hommes se sont battus, et les femmes se sont enfuies. Mais il est clair qu'il ne s'agissait pas de femmes ordinaires. Si Lancelot les avait cherchés, ils avaient clairement des compétences et des pouvoirs qu'il désirait. Des blindages lourds couvraient le quatrième, apparemment mâle de la forme de lui, mais de cette distance il aurait pu facilement être l'un ou l'autre. Et deux autres, voyageant ensemble, une petite femme et un grand homme blindé, apparemment une sorte de garde du corps. Ils avaient laissé une petite bande d'hommes près du pont, un mouvement que le Wildhorn respectait.
Il en avait assez vu. Six humains étaient déjà entrés dans le Keep, et le Wildhorn était impatient. Il se tenait debout, les branches se cassaient alors que son énorme cadre poussait à travers eux. Il grogne, signal à ses hommes de s'assembler, avant de prononcer dans la langue de la bête pour qu'ils restent ici et protègent le campement. Il s'égara du pinceau, ses pieds enroulés se mêlant contre le sol pendant qu'il marchait. Émergé des arbres vers le début du pont, il s'inquiétait de savoir si le pont allait soutenir son poids considérable. Les hommes sur le pont ne se tenaient pas en travers de son chemin; leurs visages une galerie d'émotions allant de l'horreur à l'inconfort extrême à l'épouvantail total. Le pont était long, illuminé par des centaines de minuscules torches clignotantes. Il a déplacé ses épaules pour sentir le poids de sa hache sur son dos, rassurer qu'il était armé et prêt si c'était un piège après tout.
Il pouvait voir le couloir à la fin. Une longue table d'étirement, chargée de nourriture et faiblement éclairée. Se préparant pour le pire, le Wildhorn s'enfuit légèrement sous la porte arquée, s'assurant que ses longues cornes pointées ne s'attraperaient pas sur la pierre et le faisaient paraître maladroit ou oafish, et dans une salle spacieuse. Les six humains qu'il avait déjà vus étaient présents. Certains assis et certains debout, apparemment enveloppés dans une conversation triviale. Ses petits yeux de bête scannaient la pièce, observant les fenêtres à motifs, la table sculptée, les gens étranges. La figure blindée de plus tôt était en effet un homme maintenant qu'il pouvait voir de près, et tous avaient l'air encore plus petit quand il se tenait à deux de leur taille. Il s'est barré les dents, montrant la mamelle d'aiguilles pointues comme des dents comme un avertissement peut-être pas si subtil, avant de tourner autour de la table. Ses sabots ont fait un bruit comme le tonnerre quand il les a fait descendre sur le sol. Le Hordefather a examiné la table, à la recherche de quoi que ce soit à manger. Ce n'était que des collations de taille humaine pour une créature de sa taille, mais ça ne l'empêchait pas de s'aider. Il grogne, sans se soucier si les autres le regardaient, avant de se lancer dans la fête, se demandant quand Lancelot se montrerait.
Nraz'gagr the Wildhorn
Grand Chieftain, King of the Beastkin, the Hordefather


General Description

Race
Beastkin Demonspawn
Age
50 years
Size
While the Beastkin vary massively in their sizes, the Wildhorn towers above all. Standing around 12 feet tall and weighing around 1000lbs, his stature gives him an exceptionally terrifying appearance, especially combined with the multitude of long, curved horns sprouting wildly form his head.
Gender
Male
Sexuality
Heterosexual, although the Wildhorn breeds frequently and almost exclusively in order to spawn more Beastkin rather than for sexual pleasure.
Religion
The Wildhorn is a loyal servant of his dark master, a powerful satyr demon named Ghadur. It is through meticulous dark sacrifice and ritual that Nraz'gagr gains the favour of his master and is granted dark magical powers. Ghadur has several champions scattered throughout the world, but none have been favoured as strongly as the Wildhorn and have such either come to follow him or are left fading into obscurity and weakness.
Job
As the skilled commander of a huge and varied army, Lancelot has appointed the Wildhorn as a Centurion, charged with fighting on the front lines in any battle that arises. He is charged with protecting any fellow Knights of Evil should they join him in battle, and will be held personally responsible for any casualties should they be suffered.


Personality
The Hordefather is as brutish as they come, unfeeling and ruthless. Nraz'gagr destroys humanity not out of hatred, however, but out of a sense of duty and purpose. An inspiring commander, the Wildhorn has successfully gathered and created armies to help him in his conquest, and as a result numerous scattered Beastkin herds now follow him under a single united banner. He is far from intelligent; quite the opposite really, not possessing any real knowledge of the world except that which his masters feed him. devout above all else, the Grand Chieftain lives his life by the dark omens and visions delivered unto him by demonic father, acting solely upon their wishes, almost autonomously. As a result, he has never really had allies or associates, acting on an independent basis in the interest of maintaining and growing his followers into a formidable and destructive machine.
Nraz'gagr is cruel and primitive, with bestial instincts and thoughts, prioritising survival as the next most important thing after destroying mankind. He possesses a crude and dry sense of humour, and often holds great feasts after victory, revelling in his holy glory and success. Having interacted scarcely outside of the confines of his own horde, he is lacking in people skills, and is quick to speak his mind with very little thought about what he is saying, leading to frequent offence. Vulgar habits and a tongue faster than his brain combine poorly to leave many seeing him as nothing but an ill-natured, unintelligent beast. While partly true, there is much more to the Wildhorn than many think at first glance.

Biography
The Hordefather was spawned almost instantly after Camelot's destruction. The power vacuum left by its fall created a wealth of opportunities for lesser beings to establish themselves as potent dark forces. One such being was a powerful satyr demon named Ghadur. Ghadur was a greedy and ambitious being, wanting nothing but power and notoriety. As such, he went about stamping his mark upon the broken world by spawning a mighty champion to represent him in the mortal plane. After several attempts were met with unsatisfactory levels of success, one of Ghadur's dark rituals finally gave birth to the abomination that is Nraz'gagr. The demon Ghadur shaped him as a more terrifying exaggeration of his own visage; a ghastly fusion of man and beast, rippling with muscles, resembling a demonic ram.
Ghadur favoured the Wildhorn above all his previous creations, and gave him the power to channel his demonic powers into the mortal plane through a variety of often bloody rituals and sacrifice. The wealth of power placed in his champion's hands was staggering; but only provided that he continued to make offerings to his master, and continue to serve his purpose. Perhaps the most important ability bestowed upon the Wildhorn was that which allowed him to expand his horde, by transforming both human and nonhuman victims into horrifying, twisted fusions of man and beast known as Beastkin.
Over the coming decades, the Grand Chieftain of the Beastkin preyed upon human settlements, taking their women as breeding stock to spawn more of Ghadur's horrifying creations, and turning their children into mindless Beastkin thralls to serve the Wildhorn's will. Over the years the Hordefather earned his title, giving birth to a teeming and ever-growing horde of twisted demonic beasts of all shapes, forms and sizes, ranging from living artillery beasts, the flying monsters, to small skirmishers. More recently some of the newly formed Beastkin have had mechanical mutations, allowing parts of their body to be transformed into new weaponry. Despite his previously fierce devotion to his master, Nraz'gagr has become aware that his master's ambitions are far from lofty, and while he continues to serve faithfully for the meantime, he ahs begun to wonder at what point he will be able to challenge Ghadur and free himself from his reliance on his master for power.
The Wildhorn has never communicated with the former knight of the round table, Lancelot. While he has heard of his allegedly immense power and capabilities, he has never dealt directly or indirectly with him until now. The Hordefather has no real interest in serving him as such unless it gives him a better chance of carrying out Ghadur's commands. If anyone, Nraz'gagr would like to see Ghadur become the Dark Lord, but is aware that his master would never be able to destroy Lancelot.



The Wildhorn is terrifying to behold. Somewhat resembling a mixture of a ram and a human, he has several distinct features that mark him out as a demonic entity. His fur is a dark brown colour, matted and messy. His mouth is lined with sharp needle-like teeth, ideal for ripping flesh from his victims. His eyes are blood red in colouration like his master Ghadur's. He has a mess of lighter brown hair hanging from his jaw that resembles a beard, often braided and decorated with small metal rings. Two long horns grow backwards from the crest of his skull, while two more grow from the sides of his head, curving like that of a goat. His entire body is covered in fur. At the end of each arm is a human hand, with long, sharp nails, while at the ends of his legs are two cloven hooves, allowing him to run at startling pace while also being dextrous.



The Wildhorn stands at a thoroughly intimidating 12 feet tall and is approximately a tonne in weight. Most of this is muscle it requires to carry his considerable frame and bulk, as well as a strong, thick skeleton. While he does wear some armour into battle, his skin is thick and leathery, providing a basic level of protection against small threats like human swords and arrows. In the place of armour, he oftentimes decorates his hide with jewellery and bone charms fashioned from the corpses of both his own people and his victims, as well as runes and tattoos painted in blood.




Here the Hordefather can be seen in battle, wearing a light armour covering on his lower half, and adorning his top half with a necklace of skulls and teeth. His abdomen is painted with demonic markings. Tattered cloth draped over his head gives him a startling and frightening appearance as he bellows curses and ushers his warriors into battle.


Traits and Equipment

It is difficult to judge what traits are typical of this form of Demonspawn when they are so few and far between. Apart from possessing incredible strength and size, the Hordefather is able to breed with human females in a gruesome and fatal process that sees their mangled corpses used as incubators for more Demonspawn. As well as this, Nraz'gagr possesses a strong affinity for magic due to the demon's blood within him, but this is certainly not typical of all Beastkin.



 Summon Plague
Nraz'gagr can channel the powers of pestilence and famine to devastate his foes and their settlements. A range of dreadful diseases can be called upon, not always entirely under the Wildhorn's control. Some are fatal, some kill livestock and crops, and others cause mental conditions like paranoia. In a few cases, the Hordefather afflicted entire besieged settlements with insomnia, and within a few days was able to breach the settlement and slaughter the fatigued garrison with minimal resistance.
 Call of the Forest
The Wildhorn can call upon the powers of nature, using the woods themselves as both defences and weapons. He can manipulate the foliage to provide cover and protection to his men, and also to ensnare and disorientate the enemy, as well as calling upon the beasts of the forest to attack his foes.
 Earthen Barrier
The Wildhorn can erect a temporary and far from indestructible barrier from the earth, particularly useful to provide cover on a charge over open ground, or the allow time to rally his troops in the case that they are caught off guard or ambushed.
 Demonic Possession
The Wildhorn can target enemies and open their souls to be overtaken by lesser demons, turning them against their allies and ultimately transforming the victim into a thrall for the Hordefather's armies.
 Bloodbomb
Primarily a scare tactic, the Grand Chieftain can take hold of a victim by the throat, and channel dark energy into them, effectively boiling a victim's blood to the point at which their body explodes. While this explosion is harmless, it coats the foes surrounding the victim in their ally's blood and innards, often greatly damaging opposition morale and causing less experienced soldiers to flee in terror.




 Demonic Shaman
The Wildhorn can call on a multitude of spells and curses through ritualistic sacrifice to Ghadur, his demon overlord. These powers can be devastating when used appropriately against the enemy.
 Mighty Warrior
The Wildhorn is a formidable foe on the battlefield. His immense strength and surprising swiftness allow him to wield an array of brutal weaponry with ease and skill, cutting down unworthy foes with ease. He generally favours fighting with an axe in one hand and his bladed staff in the other.
 Inspiring Commander
The Hordefather commands a vast army of Beastkin. He is an intelligent and effective battle commander, able to inspire his soldiers to fight to the death for him. Although most are mindless thralls, even the greater beasts would lay down their lives for the Grand Chieftain if that was his wish.
 Natural Protection
Although far from steel plate armour, the Beastkin possess a naturally thick and leather-like hide that protects them from most basic attacks, like human swords and arrows. Of course, more powerful attacks, like a ballista or a weapon wielded by a powerful foe, would penetrate with ease.




Primal Instincts
At his core, Nraz'gagr is a beast, and as such he possesses a beast's instincts. He often reverts to primal behaviour patterns, and demonstrates a lower level of intelligence than can be found in many other powerful beings, except as a battlefield commander.
Inner Conflict
Nraz'gagr is plagued by a crucial internal conflict. he is Ghadur's champion, and it is through Ghadur that much of his power flows. Yet the Wildhorn feels his time as a puppet is coming to an end, and soon he will be strong enough to usurp his master and become a strong independent force in the world. The matter of when, and if, to strike, is all he can think about.
Technophobe
Aside from the black powder cannons that the Wildhorn has begun integrating into his forces, Nraz'gagr despises the advancement of modern technology. Unsure of how to work it, he fears that eventually his methods of 'traditional' battlefield warfare will soon become outdated and ineffective as powerful steam powered vehicles take to the field.
Naivety
Nraz'gagr has very limited experience treating with allies. As a result, he is unaware of much of the common deception and backstabbing that takes place, making him vulnerable to manipulation by a more intelligent, experienced being.
Vulnerable to Silver
As is the case with most demons, contact with silver causes searing burns and greatly weakens his magical prowess. It is rare that human soldiers wield silver weapons, but specialist demon hunter organisations and more powerful foes have the potential to greatly harm the Wildhorn.




The Great Horde
The most powerful tool at the Wildhorn's disposal, the Great Horde is a vast and varied army of Beastkin warriors and shamans that fight loyally for the Hordefather, Nraz'gagr. The horde contains a mix of troop types, from mindless footsoldiers, to flying creatures of varying size, to burrowing creatures that can tunnel under enemy emplacements, to gargantuan siege beasts, serving as living siege towers, battering rams and now cannon platforms. The horde will fight for their father to the last man need be. While overall the Wildhorn despises technology, he has begun to incorporate cannon and handheld throwing bombs into the horde's arsenal.
 Greataxe
The Wildhorn's unnatural strength allows him to wield a brutal greataxe as easily as others may wield a shortwsord. His proficiency with this crude yet effective weapon makes him a true force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.



Ghadur's Malice

Originally gift from Ghadur, bestowed upon the Wildhorn when he was chosen to be the demon's champion. Through this staff he can harness Ghadur's demonic powers to curse and plague his enemies, as well as inspire and protect his own soldiers. Embedded in the base of the staff is a sacrificial knife that Nraz'gagr uses to sacrifice his victims. Only by spilling blood with the staff can it gain the ability to channel Ghadur's powers. Of course, not all of the Wildhorn's powers are dependent upon this staff, but the most powerful and devastating abilities in his arsenal definitely are.
However, since his recruitment by Lancelot, the former knight has made some modifications to the staff. The powers promised to the Wildhorn included greatly strengthening his influential powers over mortals and allowing him to spawn stronger followers. However, what the Wildhorn doesn't know, is that Lancelot has corrupted Ghadur's influence over him, the cause of the Wildhorn's recent internal conflict. Lancelot believes he can turn the Hordefather away from his demonic master and into a puppet of his own.


Relationships
(optional. Unless if you have predefined relationships with other accepted characters that were discussed by both parties, keep this blank and add to it as the IC progresses, giving a brief description have how your character feels about the other characters he/she interacts with.)

Other
I hope to sort of add a guide to a lot of the traits and creatures of the Great Horde here, both to help myself keep track and inform others.