High King Caladog
"Our dear old beloved King Uthelhain, a wonderful man but with a heart perhaps just a might too tender, did not wish for us to go off to war. But then he disappeared and I, his son-in-law, ascended to the kingship. The clans cried out for war! They had a thousand years of crimes against them to avenge. I, a father to my people, gave them what they wanted.
Now, the Empire uses tricks and traps in war. No Battanian fears to meet an imperial soldier, man-to-man, but we thought it would be a good laugh to use their tricks against them. So we laid an ambush, on both sides of a wooded pass, and wouldn't you know? They marched right into it.
They turned and twisted as our arrows rained down upon them, like fish going frantic in a pond as you draw the net tighter. Then, when they were greatly discomfited, we took up our falxes and swords and reaped the harvest. Oh, there was some unpleasantness, but what a grand old day it was!"
The current High King of Battania is Caladog, a brilliant war captain adopted by the prior king, Uthelhain, who then died in mysterious circumstances. Despite the doubts around his succession, Caladog has made himself popular among the lesser clans of the land who admire him, a man of no great lineage, for having discomfited the Battanians’ traditional clan hierarchy. His clan is the fen Gruffendoc, a formerly obscure family now swollen with his comrades-in-arms with whom he has made marriage alliances.
Caladog is described as being a fun and humorous character, but can be harsh when it comes to war.
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