Maknor Wildfyr

Maknor Wildfyr is an ancient Yngarian hero from around the 8th century BIF. Most of his tale has been gathered from the sagas and stories of the men of Yngar , combined with a healthy amount of historical guesswork, pieced together in Penelli's Giantkiller. A controversial figure, Maknor earned his moniker through acts of arson that decimated the western Aelder Wood, destroying over a fifth of the south's woodland. He continues to be celebrated, however, in his hometown of Yngar, and its surrounding townsteads.
During the first few decades after Yngar's foundation, its citizens enjoyed complicated relationships with with the Aelder Wood and its denizens. The native Aeldrin had earned an almost mythical reputation as the fae guardians of the trees, often shooting arrows at the townsmen who wandered too close to their groves and villages. Encounter with the Forest Giants were even more strange - some were quick to pick up the Jarnish language, and many strange friendships and even relationships blossomed between individual Giants and the Yngarians. Yet, many others guarded their territory fiercely, murdering any who crossed their invisble borders. The expansion of the Yngarians was severely restricted, as new townsteads and villages were frequently destroyed and their peoples slaughtered. In the face of such hostility, the Yngarians learned to fight back. They mastered the art of luring the Giants into chases, and slowly bleeding them to death over the course of several days, in Gianthunts. Just a few generations after their arrival in the woodland, the Yngarian settlers had become highly militaristic.
By the time of Maknor's birth, Gianthunters had become respected and revered above all others, and skill at battle prized above all else. Maknor thrived in such an environment, quickly earning a reputation among the fighters of Yngar. By the age of 13 he had already landed a killing blow on Dajag, a giant who had menaced some of the northern townsteads. By 22, Maknor had a dozen successful Gianthunts to his name, most of them under his leadership. Some legends suggest that Maknor's gifts of strength and athleticism came from his own Giantish blood - an early Goliath who escaped condemnation by his town. Regardless, Maknor's legendary feats are well established.
It should come as no surprise that Maknor would rise to become chieftain of the town at the age of 25, slaying his predecessor in a wrestling match that lasted for three full days. Indeed, Maknor's reputation was so fierce that he quickly cowed the surrounding towns, making examples of those few townsteads who refused his rule. Maknor bent the united Yngarian forces to the focussed task of hunting Giantkin, aiming to expand his kingdom across the western woodlands. As a result, his warriors earned the enmity of the Aeldrin tribes, who sought to protect their own homes, and the forest's creatures, from the brutish Yngarians. Maknor's warriors were few in number, and their prowess at hunting Giants offered no use when fighting hidden Aeldrin archers. As a result, Maknor's ambitious campaign drew to a halt.
Yet Maknor remained determined. Two years after his campaign had begun, Maknor had hit upon a more permanent solution to his troubles. Maknor's warriors descended upon the forest armed with torches and oil, and set the trees ablaze. A recent dry season had left the woodland little more than kindling, and with Yngarian encouragement, the blaze swept across the forest in no time at all, halted only at the banks of the Wannib river, which Maknor used to shelter his people. A week after the sparks were lit, fires raged across the western woods, from the Wannib to the site of modern day Thrane.
Maknor was ultimately successful. The blazes decimated the Forest Giant population, allowing them to be hunted to extinction over the course of the following decades. Many hundreds of Aeldrin also died in the flames, including the Qai-Tara, a sect of Aeldrin druid-priests who guarded the sacred grove of Daqi trees, which were also lost. Maknor's ambitions brought about the greatest loss to the Aelder Woods since the world's birth.
Maknor's kingdom did see some expansion, further townsteads being founded across the west, yet he was little able to enjoy it. Just a year after his great victory, Maknor was gored by a wild boar on a hunt, and succumbed to infection. He left behind two wives and fourteen children, whose infighting tore the Yngarians apart into many petty fiefdoms.
Maknor lives on, however, in legend. Even today, tales of Maknor's adventures can be heard in taverns across the south-west, from Thrane to Yngar. Maknor has even entered into the shared legend of the wider Volodarian populace, often invoked by drunken brawlers as a paragon of strength and brutality.