Gorak M'Zhendu

Gorak M'Zhendu's tale is one etched in the frost of Chalornok and imbued with the stark traditions of the Alcedoc clan. This soft-spoken son of the High North, once brushed by death's cold hand in his fevered youth, emerged not with the expected strength of his people but with a quiet resilience that set him apart. The Alcedoc, staunch guardians of Farang Paganism, viewed the encroaching mercantile influence of The Iron Lords as an erosion of their proud heritage—a heritage that Gorak, by dint of his perceived frailty and inner turmoil, never fully embraced.

by midjourney

Life grew especially difficult between son and father, and one day Gorak, son of Gothrak, left the wilderness where his people lived and made out for the humble town of Brelisk, where finally Gorak found a measure of freedom, if the rigid expectations of Vylmöt manhood hung yet heavy in the air. He was 16 years old when he arrived and planted down roots, and paid his keep by working in a carpenter's workshop, as woodworking was a skill no Alcedoc could do without, a sacred practice resounding with the Old Ways every bit as much as a practicality. It was there his path intersected with that of Neu̯rt Jesräät, a golden-haired youth from somewhere in Bimmentok. Presumably his family had business in the area, though its nature was never quite illuminated, which only made this foreigner more fascinating to Gorak. The two struck up a friendship, and before long they were inseparable. Gorak helped Neu̯rt, who was wealthy relative to the area, deal with the boredom of rustic existence, while Neu̯rt gave our quiet friend his first ever window to something beyond the small, cold world he'd grown up in - a lifeline whose imagined possibilities provided Gorak motivation to keep on going, and perhaps even form new plans to get out here one day and explore new horizons. Especially enrapturing was Neu̯rt's obsession with The Legend of Batah Biy, a pirate of ancient times whose tale is told often throughout the High North, his lost treasure rumoured to reside at the icy bottom of the Cithwes Ocean, near the island of Kvennaut. It was the first time Gorak had heard the story, but however provoking it was, it was Neu̯rt's zeal to chase his ghost across the waves that truly intrigued. Wherever Neu̯rt decided to go, Gorak would follow; and soon enough the two of them clambered into an old dingy and set out in search of the fabled hoard.

by midjourney

The two barely got to Kvennaut when a fierce storm arose. Winds howled, waves crashed, and their dimintuitive boat, rightly too rickety to brave such weather, overturned. Neu̯rt drowned, while Gorak somehow made it to shore. The years that followed brought haunting guilt for having survived. The calamitous end of Neu̯rt's quest carved a chasm of grief within Gorak, leaving him with unanswered questions about the loss that pierced him so deeply. Yet, from the icy grip of sorrow, Gorak's resolve only hardened. He vowed then and there to make Neu̯rt's death meaningful, and took on his sweet friend's obsession with Batah Biy, learning all he could, picking up every bit of discarded lore he could find; quizzing locals across Bimmentok, which he toured extensively, for any scrap of relevant oral history; and plunging himself into the most remote and perilous of locations reputed to have any connection to the pirate of old. For years this search bore no fruit, and Gorak, exhausted, stood on the verge of giving up. Just then, in Ret, he chanced upon an ice cavern with a remarkable tale to tell, its contents so inspiring they led to him taking up the pirate life in full. Particulars are shrouded in mystery, insomuch as Gorak, an intensely private soul, has rarely spoken of it save in cryptic terms to his later crew. His obsession with Biy lingers still: these days a Captain of the legendary Big Guns, he commands the 'Pride of Batah,' the name itself a nod to the personal saga that shaped him —a pride taken not in the plunder of a bygone pirate, but the pride of overcoming, of surviving where others have not, and of carrying forth the spirit of a lost companion. This is Gorak M'Zhendu: once a child at death's door, now a Captain whose name whispers across Chalornok like the winter wind—relentless, unyielding, and ever-persistent in his quest to carve a legacy as enduring as the icy peaks of his homeland.