Claxton Pollard
INTRODUCTION
Claxton William Pollard is a Fondalian Hero from the War with Archia in 4631 4p. During the latter days of the war, when Archia first occupied the free state island of Cizmark, Pollard earned his legendary status in Fondalar by single handedly sailing a ship into the impossibly defended port of Cizmark City. While a mighty general and fierce warrior, Pollard never married, stating his aloneness as his pride and joy and his servitude to Loscin for all the bloodshed he had on his hands. Pollard is the reminder of a time when Fondalar strictly followed her religion and took pride in being a Loscinite nation.
EARLY LIFE
In 4503, an Archian Knight of Trouffen, Sir Thomas Pollard, and a servant girl of the Lord Lyrin, Halfwin, conceived a little boy who they named Claxton. However, Thomas would've been shamed by his Archian Overlords if they knew, so Halfwin and Claxton left for the free island of Cizmark, leaving Archia behind them. Claxton was taught in the newly founded schools in the city, and taught about freedom, history, and fighting skills. Like all Cizmarkians, he spent years as a lumberjack, cutting timber in the L'ars Wood.
TENSIONS RISING
In 4577, tensions began to rise in the north province of Archia, already named by many 'Fondalar'. The free island of Cizmark (modern day Northsward and Cizmark) was under extreme pressure to join Archian Fondalar. All soldiers were recalled to Cizmark city in the late days of Jylon 4579, including the young lumberjack, Claxton Pollard. Cizmark declared itself a sovereign nation and within thirty days, an Archian Army arrived in warships outside the port city. The ensuing battle destroyed the free armies of Fondalar, and Archia took control of the massive fortress capital. Pollard narrowly survived an arrow to the chest, fighting a major infection for months following the battle. Once he had healed, he was delivered to Trouffen to be imprisoned. To Claxton's surprise, his father Thomas Pollard had become the Lord of the City. But because of his shameful birth, Claxton was treated as a traitor. The night before his execution, Claxton was rescued by a Cizmarkian Officer, named Oldrik. A council of Trouffen and Cizmark met in Romma Wood in secret, and a plan was hatched to retake the two cities. However, morale and money were short, and the five heads of the rebellion disbanded.
THE REBELLION
By Jylon 4630, Claxton had gathered a following of four hundred soldiers, a veritable army with which he ruled the roads running through Romma. Finally, on the last day of the month, Commander Pollard received a message from Lord Oldrik to attack Trouffen City and retake the Steel Hills in the West of Trouffen. With his troop, Claxton outmaneuvered the Archian Army and took the fortress with little resistance. Claxton swiftly then moved to take the iron mines to the west, and supplied thirty caches of armaments to the resistance center in Northsward. Before the end of the month, Lord King of Archia, Sephtis I, and his army of twenty-five thousand infantry stormed the castle at Kristar, seizing the gateway to Fondalar. The rebellion in Fondalar quickly reeled and retreated to Northsward once more. Alone and completely outnumbered, being the leader of Trouffen, Claxton called for an army to come forth from the lands. On Atember 31, Sephtis marched to Trouffen City and was met with fierce resistance. But after six days, Claxton and his decimated troop left the castle and fled to Riship. By this point, the rebellion had grown in number and support. When Pollard reached the city, he found three captains there: Oldrik and Bramwell of Cizmark, and Dolion of Adorea. On the first day of Silvercrest 4361, an army of sixteen thousand Archian infantry marched across the shivering lands of Romma. Totally unprepared for the cold climate, they quickly found themselves in the middle of an open plain in foreign territory, and a gripping doom took them. Twenty thousand Fondalian infantry arrived on a hilltop near Riship, led by the new commander of the rebellion: Claxton Pollard. In the defining battle of the war, Sephtis I and his infantry were routed and sent back to Trouffen. Elsewhere, in Farburgh, Captain Oldrik annihilated the secondary Archian army at the Battle of Rocky Glen, swinging all momentum in the war toward the Fondalian rebellion. The Battle of Westeron, as it was later called by historians, is revered as the turning point of the Archian Empire, effectively damning it to downfall, which occurred 154 years later in the Third Magic War of Abeon.
THE LEGENDARY FONDALIAN NAVY
Although Pollard's military feats were already numerous and legendary, he achieved the status of folk hero and military genius during his next two battles, which determined the end of the Fondalian Rebellion. Immediately following the Battle of Westeron, Claxton marched his troops straight through Trouffen, against the orders of all three of the other leaders. In the third battle at Trouffen during the rebellion, Claxton contended in one-on-one combat with Sephtis, after making a daring landing on the shores of the Kristar River, a notoriously dangerous strait that ran through the Fondalian Penninsula. Another great feat of Claxton's Navy was the infiltration of the Archian controlled Cizmark city in Atember of 4631, one of the final blows which crushed the Archian resistance.
AFTER THE WAR
Claxton controlled Trouffen for almost 13 years after the end of The Great Northern Revolution, before he was assassinated in his sleep by John Dolion.
Relationships
The Post-War Era
Following the independence Fondalar gained from their Archian overlords, there was a brief time of confusion and disorder. Anarchy ran rampant in the streets of the major cities, and all the commanders of the war met in Cizmark to discuss how to set up a government- all except Claxton Pollard. Pollard and his ragtag group of followers took to the streets to make order through military action. Before long, he had taken the entirety of Trouffen and Kristar, and the west half of Adorea. Bramwell, Oldrik, and the other captains worried he would try to crown himself king, so they jumped into action. Historians debate the rest of the story, but to a bold few, it appears clear. Bramwell sent the ambitious young captain, John Dolion, to get rid of Pollard, promising to make him Lord of Adorea if he completed the mission. On Seolos 13, 4644, Claxton Pollard was sleeping soundly in his bed in Trouffen, when he was stabbed violently, over fourteen times. By the early morning the following day, he was found by his servants, long dead, a pool of blood around the base of his bed. The entire affair was quickly swept under the rug by the council and the Confederation of Fondalar was set up less than a month later.
Species
Age
141
Date of Birth
Firstelli 44
Date of Death
Seolos 13
Life
4503
4644
141 years old
Spouses
Lainney Pollard
(Wife)
Siblings
Children
Hair
Short, brown, wavy
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