Dukom Bozi: The Hero of The End
The End is a small, but ancient human settlement in the arid Shamo Wasteland, directly east of the Great Dune Sea, and directly south of The End of The Gorge, from which the town derives it's name. No ordinary canyon, The Gorge was formed when an eldritch god from the Far Realms was summoned to the material plane and set loose to devour everything in it's path, stopping just short of the town. Many scholars disagree on the subject of how this monster was eventually dispatched, but the locals of The End will tell you with absolute certainty that the monster was banished thanks to the efforts of a long forgotten hero, who stopped the monster before it could do any further harm. The End is filled with statues of this hero, and any person on the street would happily tell you the entire story of his victory. What they wont tell you is that this hero was an orc.
A Family Lost
During the never-ending horror that was the Nightmare War, Dukom Bozi and his tribe were among the last to join the Shadow Accord, a desperate attempt at organization between mindflayers, Drow, and most of the rest of the orcs on Ikar, a mere 6 weeks before the mindflayers launched their betrayal of the other races. The coup was launched quietly, over the course of several hours, to allow the illithids to quietly quell the minds of their guests in short bursts, so that the orcs, drow and sentient undead that made up the rest of the Shadow Accord hardly realized they were being enslaved, rather than joining a coalition. Ordinarily, mindflayers relegate roughly one eighth of a captured group of sentient creatures to be used for reproduction, and using the rest for sustenance, but during the Nightmare War, advantage needed to be taken from a population surge like this, and so the Shamo Fist was marked for ceremorphosis, the process of becoming a mindflayer.
The orcs of Dukoms tribe were taken separately from their chieftain, as Dukom had begun the journey into the Underdark a few days after his kinsmen to from recover from an injury. By the time he'd arrived after his comrades, the transformation from orc to illithid was already well underway, so several elder illithids accompanied the half dead orcs when they went to greet Dukom at the entrance to the Hive, to cover their hideously warped features with illusion magic until he was near enough to be entranced. Unfortunately for the mind flayers, they hadn't taken into account the level of intelligence an orc needs to be a chieftain for anywhere near as long as Dukom the Ancient had been. Dukom saw through the illusion almost as soon as he'd walked into the Hive, but unfortunately, the 30 or so mindflayers and orc/mindflayer hybrids in the room were more than enough to overpower the middle-aged orc, and quickly they begun the process of removing Dukom's mind and making him a part of the food supply.
It wasn't until Dukom was mere feet away from being psychically led to the illithid livestock pens that his intense concentration finally cleared his mind, and he could think again. Dukom quickly snatched an old rusted sword, previously thrown carelessly aside by the guards of the pens, and turned to hack his way back to the entrance of the Hive. The sword he'd found, an ordinary human longsword, was dull and rusted with age, and did not slice clean through flesh. After several close calls where his sword would stick in a shriveled mindflayer bone, or a thick piece of cloth, Dukom developed a savage, overpowered swing, using the saw like blade to literally tear through skin and faces. The faces of his friends and family, the orc men, women and children of his former tribe. Though he knew his people had long since suffered a horrific death, still the mutated vestiges of bodies that Dukom tore apart were those of people he had known and loved. After a prolonged, vicious struggle, Dukom staggered out of the mouth of the Hive, his skin shimmering in the low light of the Underdark with the blood of mindflayer and orc alike. Without stopping for rest along the way, Dukom Bozi climbed back to the surface, and walked all the way home to the Shamo Wasteland, where he intended to die alone as the last living orc of the material plane.
A Chance for Redemption
Dukom pointedly had not formulated a plan as he wandered the desert, as he'd hoped that he would quickly die of thirst or exposure, and be spared the curse of living with the knowledge of what he'd done. Even the fact that he had considered taking his own life stoked his shame such that he nearly abandoned food and water all together as he entered his former home in the Great Dune Sea, now made lifeless for the lack of orcs. It was not long after he truly had run out of rations that he happened upon an oasis, where he found a djinni, wrapped in chains, though still meditating on a rock near the water. Dukom carefully crept near the air genie, but was noticed as soon as he'd come within a few feet of the water. "Free me from my bonds child," the djinni called out to him, with no hope in it's tone, "And I shall grant you your greatest wish." Visions of a life without the weight of his past shot through Dukom's mind, and the orc roared to life, as he charged towards the djinni, and tore apart the chains with his bare hands. The djinni pulled away, obviously not having expected it's pleas to be answered, let a lone with such vigor, and Dukom knelt before it loudly demanding to have all memory of his past removed. The djinni stared in confusion for a moment, then ceased to exist, dropping a steel box into the sand. Dukom spent several moments making certain he was not hallucinating, and opened the container, which held a small vial of dark green fluid, and a short note, written in orcish, which read as follows:
"I believe we may be of mutual assistance to one another without having to resort to subterfuge. Drink the contents of the vial, and swim down to meet me at the bottom of the pool, and I will take your memories from you" Dukom, while obviously not one so simple as to drink a strange bottle of liquid under most circumstances, he was also not concerned for his own safety in the slightest, as well as mildly suicidal. While he yearned for death for a wide variety of reasons, he was also still suffering lingering aftereffects from the mind control of the mindflayers. The change was very slight, but Dukom found himself apathetic and prone to suggestion, as he learned after giving a random trader all of his water, after the man had joked with him nearly two days before. Dukom swallowed the contents of the vial, willing to gamble that any negative impact this could have on this life, it couldn't possibly be less than he deserved. Dukom dove into the oasis and quickly swam nearly 100 feet down to the bottom, the vial turning out to have been a potion of water breathing, where he came face to face with one of Gadria's last aboleths. The primordial god appeared before Dukom in the form of an enormous eel-like fish, bigger than any whale he'd ever seen, with three bulbous black eyes, four long grasping facial tentacles, and no visible mouth, though Dukom could hear it's words in his mind. The creature asked him why he wished his memories were gone, and what he would offer in return for this wish. Dukom honestly told the aboleth that he would happily pay any price, but he would refuse subjugation by the god, as he saw the only thing worse than his current life would be to relinquish control over his actions for even another moment. Dukom reasoned that he may die as soon as the gods allowed him that mercy, but he would be a free orc when they did. The aboleth told him that these terms were acceptable, before projecting a burst of information directly into Dukom. In his mind, Dukom saw an unimaginably large creature, or perhaps an enormous plant or mound of black goo, covering miles of land on Ikar, slowly dragging itself through the earth, cutting a deep gouge in the land and destroying everything in it's wake. As the image faded, the aboleth explained that this creature was known to the ancient aberrations as N'yoethd'h, or the Endless Maw in their language, and was an aberration born from several gods being merged together. The aboleth claimed this creature was going to be summoned to the material plane at some point in the next century, and something needed to be done to prepare. The aboleth proposed to give Dukom an endless tome of arcane knowledge, so that he may use his intelligence to become a powerful orc wizard, and stand to face N'yoethd'h when the time comes, not as a slave to the aboleth, but as a man with one clear opportunity to right the wrongs of his past. In return, the aboleth would take most of his memories, explaining that Dukom would remember the events that had happened, but he wont feel so strongly about them, so he could remain emotionally stable enough to train as a wizard, and be motivated by the memory of what can happen when things go wrong at the hands of something from the Far Realms. In addition, should Dukom manage to actually kill N'yoethd'h or force it to leave somehow, the aboleth would grant Dukom a quiet peaceful death, with no afterlife, no conscious thought, and no memories. Dukom agreed, and was given a large spike shaped sapphire, which he was told to drive into his skull after agreeing to the aboleths proposal. The book, remembered in legends as The Book of Secrets*, would materialize immediately following the sapphires activation, symbolizing the beginning of a race to become the most powerful wizard possible, as the aboleth had also made it quite clear what it would do to Dukom if he'd agreed, then squandered this opportunity, rather than simply not accepting the proposal. Immediately after returning to the surface, Dukom placed the sapphire squarely on his brow, and with his other hand, dropped a rock the size of his skull on it. Dukom was knocked out cold from the impact, and woke several hours later after the sun had set, finding that he wasn't cold in the night air, and his head felt no lingering pain. In the sand not far from where he'd lay, he found a large black book that seemed to be bound with the skin of some unknown creature. Dukom quickly started a fire there on the shore, and began to read well past sunset the next day. A Sacrifice with a Purpose Dukom the Hermit spend the next 60 years learning the arcane arts from his book, extending his life far beyond the expectancy of most orcs. He travelled the Shamo Wasteland and earned quite a reputation among the settled towns and trade caravans, always helping those who needed it, never accepting any kind of payment in return, other than the occasional hot meal from someone who didn't mind an unwashed orc at their table, even one with perfect table manners. The aging Dukom chose instead to live by simple means, catching most of his own food, sleeping under the stars, and meditating on the nature of the universe, as well as his tragic past. Without the pain of loss tearing at his mind like a wild animal, Dukom was able to recall the events with the mindflayers with more clarity than when he had been consumed by sorrow, and over the years, he gradually learned to forgive himself, and eventually achieved enlightenment while meditating next to an oasis, having found peace in a truly worthwhile purpose. One such town Dukom was sure to find some work for a seat at the table was Krajburg, a human settlement on the eastern edge of the Great Dune Sea. Krajburg was probably one of Dukoms favorite places towards the end of his life, and he saw it as the cruelest joke in a life filled with cruel jokes that it happened to be directly in the path of N'yoethd'h, when the Endless Maw finally manifested. Word had reached Dukom three months after the monster appeared in northern Ikar, and he calculated that he had another seven or eight to prepare before the monster was close, as this was a wiser course than attempting to reach N'yoethd'h where it was now, as he would likely not make very good time. He also needed this time to prepare, little as it may have been. Dukom used the Book to create a powerful catalyst for his spells, a mesquite branch carved to a crook and imbued with the power granted to Dukom by the aboleth, and the power that Dukom had taken himself through his years of training, study and practice in the arcane arts. By the time the Endless Maw reached Krajburg, the townsfolk had been evacuated to an oasis in the desert, leaving Dukom to tear into the monster with over a centuries worth of pent up orc rage, channeled through the serenity of a mind finally at peace. Some Krajburg citizens claimed to have lingered near enough the town to have seen bursts of arcane fire the size of mountains, and heard maddening shrieks of pain from the ancient monster, until all signs of battle came to an abrupt end, and the night was returned to silence and darkness. When the townsfolk returned, they found a massive ravine had been cut very close to the town, but Krajburg itself remained unharmed. No signs of Dukom or the eldritch god were said to be found anywhere, short of the ravine and scorch marks covering the land around it. The town celebrated the victory of the old wizard, calling him Dukom the Hero, Dukom the Savior and Dukom the Redeemed, and commissioned several statues in his likeness. Even to this day, though the Acredian Empire forbids any reverence given to none Acredians, the citizens of Krajburg, renamed The End of the Gorge, still celebrates The Night of The End on the battles yearly anniversary, and shout cheers and prayers of thanks to their "founder", who's statues can still be found throughout the town with a simple mesquite staff in one hand and a rusty longsword in the other, though it is considered polite not to draw attention to the file marks on the teeth and nails.
"I believe we may be of mutual assistance to one another without having to resort to subterfuge. Drink the contents of the vial, and swim down to meet me at the bottom of the pool, and I will take your memories from you" Dukom, while obviously not one so simple as to drink a strange bottle of liquid under most circumstances, he was also not concerned for his own safety in the slightest, as well as mildly suicidal. While he yearned for death for a wide variety of reasons, he was also still suffering lingering aftereffects from the mind control of the mindflayers. The change was very slight, but Dukom found himself apathetic and prone to suggestion, as he learned after giving a random trader all of his water, after the man had joked with him nearly two days before. Dukom swallowed the contents of the vial, willing to gamble that any negative impact this could have on this life, it couldn't possibly be less than he deserved. Dukom dove into the oasis and quickly swam nearly 100 feet down to the bottom, the vial turning out to have been a potion of water breathing, where he came face to face with one of Gadria's last aboleths. The primordial god appeared before Dukom in the form of an enormous eel-like fish, bigger than any whale he'd ever seen, with three bulbous black eyes, four long grasping facial tentacles, and no visible mouth, though Dukom could hear it's words in his mind. The creature asked him why he wished his memories were gone, and what he would offer in return for this wish. Dukom honestly told the aboleth that he would happily pay any price, but he would refuse subjugation by the god, as he saw the only thing worse than his current life would be to relinquish control over his actions for even another moment. Dukom reasoned that he may die as soon as the gods allowed him that mercy, but he would be a free orc when they did. The aboleth told him that these terms were acceptable, before projecting a burst of information directly into Dukom. In his mind, Dukom saw an unimaginably large creature, or perhaps an enormous plant or mound of black goo, covering miles of land on Ikar, slowly dragging itself through the earth, cutting a deep gouge in the land and destroying everything in it's wake. As the image faded, the aboleth explained that this creature was known to the ancient aberrations as N'yoethd'h, or the Endless Maw in their language, and was an aberration born from several gods being merged together. The aboleth claimed this creature was going to be summoned to the material plane at some point in the next century, and something needed to be done to prepare. The aboleth proposed to give Dukom an endless tome of arcane knowledge, so that he may use his intelligence to become a powerful orc wizard, and stand to face N'yoethd'h when the time comes, not as a slave to the aboleth, but as a man with one clear opportunity to right the wrongs of his past. In return, the aboleth would take most of his memories, explaining that Dukom would remember the events that had happened, but he wont feel so strongly about them, so he could remain emotionally stable enough to train as a wizard, and be motivated by the memory of what can happen when things go wrong at the hands of something from the Far Realms. In addition, should Dukom manage to actually kill N'yoethd'h or force it to leave somehow, the aboleth would grant Dukom a quiet peaceful death, with no afterlife, no conscious thought, and no memories. Dukom agreed, and was given a large spike shaped sapphire, which he was told to drive into his skull after agreeing to the aboleths proposal. The book, remembered in legends as The Book of Secrets*, would materialize immediately following the sapphires activation, symbolizing the beginning of a race to become the most powerful wizard possible, as the aboleth had also made it quite clear what it would do to Dukom if he'd agreed, then squandered this opportunity, rather than simply not accepting the proposal. Immediately after returning to the surface, Dukom placed the sapphire squarely on his brow, and with his other hand, dropped a rock the size of his skull on it. Dukom was knocked out cold from the impact, and woke several hours later after the sun had set, finding that he wasn't cold in the night air, and his head felt no lingering pain. In the sand not far from where he'd lay, he found a large black book that seemed to be bound with the skin of some unknown creature. Dukom quickly started a fire there on the shore, and began to read well past sunset the next day. A Sacrifice with a Purpose Dukom the Hermit spend the next 60 years learning the arcane arts from his book, extending his life far beyond the expectancy of most orcs. He travelled the Shamo Wasteland and earned quite a reputation among the settled towns and trade caravans, always helping those who needed it, never accepting any kind of payment in return, other than the occasional hot meal from someone who didn't mind an unwashed orc at their table, even one with perfect table manners. The aging Dukom chose instead to live by simple means, catching most of his own food, sleeping under the stars, and meditating on the nature of the universe, as well as his tragic past. Without the pain of loss tearing at his mind like a wild animal, Dukom was able to recall the events with the mindflayers with more clarity than when he had been consumed by sorrow, and over the years, he gradually learned to forgive himself, and eventually achieved enlightenment while meditating next to an oasis, having found peace in a truly worthwhile purpose. One such town Dukom was sure to find some work for a seat at the table was Krajburg, a human settlement on the eastern edge of the Great Dune Sea. Krajburg was probably one of Dukoms favorite places towards the end of his life, and he saw it as the cruelest joke in a life filled with cruel jokes that it happened to be directly in the path of N'yoethd'h, when the Endless Maw finally manifested. Word had reached Dukom three months after the monster appeared in northern Ikar, and he calculated that he had another seven or eight to prepare before the monster was close, as this was a wiser course than attempting to reach N'yoethd'h where it was now, as he would likely not make very good time. He also needed this time to prepare, little as it may have been. Dukom used the Book to create a powerful catalyst for his spells, a mesquite branch carved to a crook and imbued with the power granted to Dukom by the aboleth, and the power that Dukom had taken himself through his years of training, study and practice in the arcane arts. By the time the Endless Maw reached Krajburg, the townsfolk had been evacuated to an oasis in the desert, leaving Dukom to tear into the monster with over a centuries worth of pent up orc rage, channeled through the serenity of a mind finally at peace. Some Krajburg citizens claimed to have lingered near enough the town to have seen bursts of arcane fire the size of mountains, and heard maddening shrieks of pain from the ancient monster, until all signs of battle came to an abrupt end, and the night was returned to silence and darkness. When the townsfolk returned, they found a massive ravine had been cut very close to the town, but Krajburg itself remained unharmed. No signs of Dukom or the eldritch god were said to be found anywhere, short of the ravine and scorch marks covering the land around it. The town celebrated the victory of the old wizard, calling him Dukom the Hero, Dukom the Savior and Dukom the Redeemed, and commissioned several statues in his likeness. Even to this day, though the Acredian Empire forbids any reverence given to none Acredians, the citizens of Krajburg, renamed The End of the Gorge, still celebrates The Night of The End on the battles yearly anniversary, and shout cheers and prayers of thanks to their "founder", who's statues can still be found throughout the town with a simple mesquite staff in one hand and a rusty longsword in the other, though it is considered polite not to draw attention to the file marks on the teeth and nails.
Portrait credit: Goblin Makins
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