The official history of His Royal Majesty
Jaq I, King of Oshagm by the grace of Teokt, chosen of Ettu, the Luckmaker.
Early Life
Jaq was born to humble parents in the fading years of Oshagm's old kingdom. Those at the time failed to properly interpret the astrological signs left by the gods, and so his birth went by unnoticed by the world at large. In his youth, he heroically liberated the ill-gotten gains of numerous thieves masquerading as shopkeepers and tradesmen, distributing the wealth among the poor. Always devout, he sought refuge in the temple of Ettu as the winters grew longer. Though many fled Sorligien, Jaq stayed behind, even when his parents passed from the Encroaching Cold, and all seemed hopeless. He died in the 763rd year since the Discovery, in an abandoned lighthouse on an island near Oshagm, with his last breaths used to beseech the mercy of the Five.
Against Zalduun
He awoke, restored to life by Ettu, in the year 818. Guided by the voice of Ettu, and wielding a magical dagger, he sailed a small boat by himself to the mainland, and travelled north to the Ciprosian Sea. It was there he met the great heroes Jack Baker and Opiter in 819. With the aid of the Order of the Bronze Claw and the Ulentones and Quidevis noble families of Agrinon, the group sailed the Ciprosian sea, collecting powerful relics from beneath the cities of Hagios, Akrai, and Colosse. With all these items in hand, they assembled from them an ancient construct, capable of defeating a grave threat to the free peoples of the Ciprosian. The Death Knight Zalduun Riteres, who had been a plague on the Ciprosian for 200 years, was scheduled to return once more, half a century since his previous defeat. With the aid of Spyridon (the draconic leader of the Bronze Claw), the assembled champion, and the two noble families, the heroes battled and defeated Zalduun on the island of Ostrum, narrowly besting him when Opiter deceived the Death Knight into thinking he had betrayed the forces of Good, before striking him from behind. With Zalduun subdued, Jaq drove the dagger gifted him by Ettu into the creature's blackened heart, driving him back into the Shadowfell permanently.
In reward for their service, the group were granted a small island and the old castle upon it by the Ulentones family. In shrewd manner, however, they sold the island at once and procured a ship to continue their noble adventures. Hearing word of the discovery of the New World, they at once travelled to Lotium, by means of a secret teleportation portal near Agrinon. In Lotium, they were assaulted by the Mekonite criminal elements that were the rivals of Jack Baker, but foiled them. The party then procured funding from the Esoteric League to travel to the New World, and set sail in a mighty carrack. Unbeknownst to them, the mighty paladin Fulsweith was among their crew, sent covertly by the priesthood of Hagios to investigate the New World.
Into The New World
After a month of sailing, the ship arrived on the shores of Dromundia. There, the party made contact with the goblinoids of the Kingdom of the Sun, and did battle with numerous beasts, including a mighty Tyrant King, and rescued a group of stranded human explorers. For their heroism, the Sapa Prima bestowed upon them many giftsin Grahan-Mullu, before bidding them farewell. They sailed then to the island of Fenulei, where they met the Vedalken people, whom they originally mistook for a new race, though it is well known Jaq himself recognised them at once as fellow humans. In the waters between Fenulei and Teoktia, they were attacked by two vessels belonging to agents of the aboleths, who had been sent to steal the power of the City of Gold and assassinate the chief threat to the aboleths' power: Jaq himself. However, the magic of Jack Baker proved too great, and one of the ships was sunk at once, while the other was siezed by the heroes - now joined by Fulsweith - and their stalwart crew. This would be the first time when the wizard's dangerous power was displayed, but not the last.
The party travelled overland across Teoktia, searching for clues as to the City of Gold's whereabouts. Finding the location, they met up with their ships and ventured onwards, sighting the shore of Bakeria and sailing north. They set off on foot, encountering monsters and giants on their long trek. After many grueling days, the heroes reached the island where the City of Gold was located, and ventured within its caverns. They overcame the many defences left by the giants who built it, and entered the city proper. There they faced down the wizard Bheimund, who had captained the aboleths' ships, as well as his minions. In the heat of the battle, Jaq valiantly slew Bheimund in single combat, likely saving many lives. They then found within the city remnants of the power left behind by the Five's apotheosis, and the truth of their ascension to godhood, which they had left for their faithful to discover when the time was right.
The Return to Colossia
Laden now with much gold, Jaq and his company returned to their ships. They made a brief excursion to the island of Ettuania, named so by Jaq himself, before setting sail back to Colossia. Returning to Lotium, they found the city occupied by the Nicilians, who by this time had begun marching on Hagios. The heroes at once set out to warn the Ciprosian of the coming invasion, vowing to return and liberate Lotium at a later date. They warned the defenders of Hagios of the coming attack, and stayed in the city to help defend it. The heroes did not leave the city during this time, and played no role in the treacherous destruction of the Akraian docks as some have claimed, nor were they involved in the destruction of any Teghneist relics during the Nicilians' march on Hagios. When the armies of Nicilia and their allies arrived, beginning the Ciprosian War of 820, the party saw action countering enemy sappers in mines beneath the walls, before the Hierarchs received a vision from the Five. They were instructed that the time to free Sorligien was drawing near, and that Jaq and his companions were the ones to accomplish this feat. The Hierarchs sent the heroes, with the aid of Vard Gerard the Bard, through a tunnel to the Underdark discovered during counter-sapping efforts, which would lead them to their destination undetected.
The Liberation of Oshagm
Making their way through twisting caverns, the heroes bested a Purple Worm and a Boneclaw, before meeting King Boris of Sudogrod, though only Jaq discerned his identity at that time. Together, they made their way along an underground river that passed through the infamous Lich Alley and the territory of the Lolthite Hegemony. While there, the heroes freed numerous Svifneblin slaves from the clutches of the Drow, sparking an uprising that crippled the Hegemony for years to come. After weeks of traveling, rescuing Vlad the flumph, and slaying a mighty Albino Lagiacrus, they surfaced in Sudogrod, where King Boris pledged his support to the liberation of Sorligien.
The party sailed first to Estvatch, which they were surprised to find still inhabited, and liberated it from the Chuul minions of the Aboleths. From there they waged a campaign of liberation, gaining allies as they went, including the Treants of the south, and the valiant Dwarves of Bierg-Sorlig, who were still fighting the Aboleths decades after the surface had fallen. After weeks of campaigning and gathering allies (including the Dwarf Gunnerth, a former ally of Bheimund and the Aboleths), the heroes marched on Oshagm itself, with the aid of a mighty Dwarven siege weapon. The allies quickly breached the walls and stormed the city, while the heroes raced to the very lighthouse where Jaq first died, to face the Aboleth leader. They quickly defeated the first Aboleth, but were then faced with a monstrosity of colossal proportions: an abominable hybrid between a Kraken and an Aboleth. When all hope seemed lost, however, the Five themselves appeared to do battle with the hybrid monstrosity. With the aid of the gods, the heroes slew the monster, bringing the lighthouse down upon it. With the Aboleths soundly defeated and Oshagm, and indeed all of Sorligien, liberated, Jaq was at once proclaimed king by unanimous acclamation of the people.
The Second Ciprosian War
Jaq remained in Oshagm, and ruled his people justly, while the rest of the heroes returned north. Sorligien was restored to its old temperate climate by intervention of the Five, and the lands of Jaq I began to prosper. Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes returned to Lotium where, with the help of a Nicilian named Oberon Bashir, they utilised the Nicilians' code of honour against them, forcing them to depart the city when Barry O'abam was elected Doge. They also swiftly arranged for the leader of the Mekonite criminals to be arrested, simultaneously liberating the city from internal and external oppressors.
With their supply line weakened by the loss of Lotium, the Nicilians were forced to assault Hagios directly, as they could no longer sustain a siege. The heroes joined the defence, and were even forced to battle their erstwhile ally Oberon Bashir. In the midst of the assault, however, portals to the very depths of the Abyss opened throughout the city, as the demonic forces of Orcus sought to destroy all the armies of Colossia in one decisive action. With both sides now forced to joined together, the heroes, once more joined by Oberon, ventured into one of these portals, battled and slew a mighty Balor, and closed it from within, barely escaping before they would be trapped in the Abyss. This resulted in all the portals throughout the city closing at once, and the Nicilians agreed to withdraw, seeing now that their invasion was the will of evil forces.
The Third Ciprosian War
A year after the liberation of Oshagm, during the first annual Festival of Prosperity and Freedom, cultists of Orcus tried and failed to assassinate Jaq and the other heroes. Jack Baker used his eldritch powers to compel one of the cultists to reveal their plans, at which point the heroes learned that Orcus was planning to invade the material plane, using the Colossean Imperium as his puppet. Jaw rejoined the party in the face of this new threat, and they went north to warn Hagios and Agrinon. By this time, Colosse had already begun a war of conquest agains the weakened and isolated Nicilians, and the heroes sought to convince the Hagiosians to go to their former enemy's aid and attack Colosse. However, when they met with the Hierarchs, demonic forces attacked them, and mortally wounded the Hierarch Under Teokt. The party defeated the demons, however, and saved the Exarch and the other four Hierarchs. The dying Hierarch proclaimed Fulsweith and his successor, and the leadership of Hagios vowed to stop Colosse.
There are those who say that while the heroes were in Hagios, they were taken to the very Celestial Keep of Teokt, where they performed an extraplanar quest to heal Ettu of wounds allegedly suffered in his battle with the hybrid monstrosity a year earlier. It is alleged that they went to the Shadowfell, and not only recovered some of the very power of apotheosis used by the Five, but convinced the powerful entity Primus to aid the material plane. These claims are of course fabrications, and can be dismissed as legend.
A coalition was formed to face the new threat, containing Hagios, Agrinon, Oshagm, Lotium, and Sudogrod. The heroes also journeyed to the east, gaining the aid of Mekon by defeating a dangerous monster that they believed was a servant of the evil goddess Ilune, whom they mistakenly believe is of comprarble power to the Five. They also helped to free the Khagan of Nicilia from demonic influence, allowing the Nicilians to fight off the Colossean invasion, and played a pivotal role in dismantling the Akraian League after Akrai sought to align itself with Colosse.
As the armies of the coalition marched on Colosse, the Colosseans launched a surprise naval offensive against Agrinon in preparation for a direct invasion of the Ensolum Peninsula. The heroes themselves foiled this attempt without any assistance, following a cunning plan devised by Jaq. Jack Baker and Vard Gerard used their eldritch wizardry and musical sorcery to transform Fulsweith and Opiter temporarily into great Dragon Turtles. The magicians and polymorphed heroes, under the wise command of Jaq, wreaked havoc on the Colossean armada, forcing it to abandon its attempted invasion.
The heroes returned to the coalition's army as it reached the walls of Colosse, and met up with the Nicilian force, which by now had been bolstered by the Warforged, a new race of living constructs sent (for unknown reasons) by Primus to aid the mortal world. The bulk of the army assaulted the walls of Colosse after preparing siege weapons, while wizards stationed on Jack Baker's floating island (which he had acquired in the year of Jaq's absence from the party) rained down arcane fire from above. Meanwhile, the heroes, along with an elite strike force of 500 soldiers, teleported into the very heart of the city. The soldiers fought their way to the walls to aid the assaulting force, while the heroes made their way directly to the city's citadel, where a portal to the realm of Orcus lay.
The heroes fought through countless warriors and Abyssal monstrosities, with Jaq himself briefly being turned into a frog, before reaching the portal and plunging through it at once. Strengthened by the blessing of the Five, the heroes destroyed wave after wave of undead and demon, even fighting the demon prince Baphomet, before cornering Orcus in his lair. At one stage, Jaq saw Orcus preparing to cast a deadly spell at one of his companions, and threw himself in the way, sacrifing himself to save his friend. However, even death could not stop him, as his spirit transferred to a cloned body prepared by Dave the Magician (long before The Incident) and he rushed back into the fray. With the return of Jaq, Orcus' fate was sealed, and the heroes, wielding their combined might, slew him. They rushed back out through the portal, which now led to Jack Baker's floating island. It was then they realised the wizard's mistake: Orcus had planned to use the island as a weapon by dropping it from the sky and destroying the armies below, opening the way for Orcus' true invasion. Had it not been for Jaq's determination, Orcus may have succeeded in his plot, and all would have been lost.
Following the battle, the Heroes of Sorligien disbanded, and each went their separate way. Fulsweith took his place as Hierarch Under Teokt, and would eventually become Exarch, while Vard returned to his duties as a Hagiosian nobleman. Opiter shortly thereafter disappeared into the New World, while Jack Baker continued manipulating the wizards and nations of Colossia for his inscrutable purposes. Jaq, naturally, returned to Oshagm, where he has reigned as its rightful king ever since.
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