King Merridan

King Merridan claims divine rule over the city of Fountainhead by his right of controlling the Great Temple of Marak. He is a strong-willed leader that demands the respect of his soldiery and subjects alike.

• Occupation: Noble Ruler
• Nationality: Fountainhead
• Family: Kar-omak (M) and Oroun (F)
• Lifetime: 407 AH -
• Religion: none
• Ethnicity: Ogrekin

Merridan was born and raised in the town of Rovołon along the Collo D'oca River. He was always bigger and more physically athletic than the other boys in town, but he never became a bully. Instead the other kids naturally gravitated to him - looked up to him - wanted to know his plans. He became the King of Mull Hill, which was a craggy hill outside of town. The kids even worked to build their king his own castle. It was a charmed childhood for Merridan.

His father was a charcoaler and Merridan was expected to continue in his father's trade. It would have been a good trade, but Merridan had other plans. He was enamored by the mercenaries and sell-swords that passed through the town. They would spin tales of far-away lands and battles fought. Drink hard and live hard for Tomorrow you will die was their life - and he wanted it. He left home in the night to join up with a mercenary band that left the night before. Merridan never returned to his home.

In a few years he was blooded and fell in with Warsh's Blades, a mercenary company that worked in the southlands. Unlike his childhood he did not quickly rise to the top. Mercenaries respect strength, skill, and luck. Merridan had luck, but was a passable axman and showed little natural skill as a tactician. It was five years before he lead his own squad in independent action against a goblin tribe. His squad was nearly wiped out as their intelligence was faulty about the number of goblins who crossed the river. It was a hard three years for his squad against the Oluhlaza, but he learned his lessons.

After ten years with the Blades he was promoted to the rank of Company Knight. There are three Knights in the Blades and each one of them had sole control of a company - including recruitment and job selection. Merridan stayed in the south, only returning to Theodova to fill his losses. In personal battle he improved, but his natural leadership - finely polished by years of experience - brought him the respect of his subordinates.

In his early forties Merridan retired from the Blades handing control over his company to his chosen successor. He spent his fortune one women, booze, and the men of his company. He never intended to leave the Blades, but he felt a strange and persistent calling. Something drove him southeast until he reached the outkirts of Fountainhead.

Far more experienced that when he first joined the Blades, Merridan walked through the city and immediately began to draw attention. He turned this attention into a small inner circle of loyalists. Together they cleared out the Great Temple of Marak at the peak of the shelf. No other building was as grand or position so lofty in the city. They drove off the squatters and tried to clean out the caves beneath the temple, but the creatures there simply slipped away in the darkness and returned after he left. Instead he uses it for a punishment.