Faron - The Breaker of Chains

What words can you find for the man who founded your world? A hero who led mankind to a treasure he was unable to enjoy.

— Arrik the Merciful, 9th High Priest of the Faronite Church (118-141)

Hero of Wind and Storm. Enemy of all Uranians. Destroyer of Empire. The Liberator. Faron is a man of many names and even more titles. Almost every child born on the continent of Uranon learns his name to either praise or despise it. For he is in many ways the very founder of the modern world. A world he built on the corpse of another.

Born a Slave

Like anyone born during the Wind Age, Faron came into the world a slave. His place of birth, a serf village without name somewhere on the eastern coast of Uranon, would not become a holy site like many of the other areas connected to him, for it was burned to the ground by imperial forces, and Faron, in his grief, never spoke of it again. Much of his early life is clouded in a miasma of myth and mystery. Sure is only that he worked on the vast plantations that once covered the region a thousand miles north to south.
Things were changing around him. As the wind returned and grew in strength, so did the Eternal Empire weaken. With the wind, the people's voice returned, and slowly but surely, nearly all of Uranon began to clamour for a life free from imperial rule. It would not take long before someone would answer their call.

Risen a Hero

by Dominik Mayer

If the people of modern-day Uranon were honest, they would acknowledge that they do not know what compelled Faron to rise against the Empire. Many stories have since been spun, some more heroic than others, but none rests on the words of the man himself.
His friends, lovers, enemies and followers have said many things, but fact is only that it was the four-hundred-and-second year of the Wind Age when Faron first drew his blade against the infernal enemy of all mankind.

Faron was neither the first nor the last man to rise against Uranon, but he was the first to hold his rebellion together. Even the gravest defeat could not shatter his resolve. This tenacity turned what could have been just another minor uprising into the death knell of the old order. When his army was cornererd at Narnen Ridge, he led a thousand men and women to victory against the full might of the Eternal Empire.

by Benjamin GILETTI

When rebels in all corners of the continent started to falter, he rushed to their aid. When the rebel coalition nearly broke due to the ambitions of a few, he held them together through sheer force of will.
Wherever the empire looked, it found its forces confronted by Faron, then harassed and finally crushed. The great beast died by a thousand cuts. But each victory was hard fought and came at a horrendous cost.

Fifty years of war finally saw the taint of Uranon broken, if not fully extinguished, and the empire contained in its abominable capital. But Faron was not content so long as a single Uranian drew breath. He vowed to continue his fight until the day that the First City itself was carved from existence. It was with this wish still on his lips and gazing at the flying city itself that he died in the year fifty-one of the Storm Age.

Died a God

When Faron died, many did not believe it to be a mere natural act. To them, it had been a divine reward, the ascension of a human to become the god of a new age. As such, his legacy is split in two:

Faron the Man

The man left behind a family forged by war. His followers knew not who to call upon after their leader had died and quickly fell to infighting. The armies that had gathered to his banner dispersed into the service of warlords as the men who attempted to replace Faron quickly proved lacking. Many of his tribesmen from the eastern coast migrated into the Heartlands, mingling with its people to become the Faroni of later days.

Faron the God

More enduring proved his image as a god. Today, Faron is either the head deity of or at the very least worshipped by almost every known religion. The Faronite Church is the most widespread and powerful faith on the continent. But it is only made in Faron's image, with scripture written by other men and tenets never observed by the great liberator himself. Then again, who is to doubt the men who speak for a god?

The most enduring of Faron's aspects is his hatred for Uranon and all it represents. His army still besieges the great city over two hundred and seventy years later. Those people who sided with the empire during the rebellion are still resented and persecuted with all the violence man is capable of. His great war is not over, and neither is his story if those who whisper about a Hero Reborn prove to be correct in the end.

What is a warrior without war? What is a leader without a cause? A general without an enemy? Perhaps it was a blessing that Faron died when his war was pretty much won.

— Menerik, High Lord of Faranon (28 - 102 SA)

Date of Birth
Year 382 of the Wind Age
Date of Death
Year 51 of the Storm Age (Aged 71)
Cause of Death
Died peacefully in his sleep.
Ethnicity
Garani
Title/s
Eternal Enemy of all Uranians
Grand General of the Army of Liberation

by David Frasheski

A Hero's Lineage
While Faron had many wives over the years, there are no records of him ever producing any children. At least, if one follows the official position of the Church. Other voices whisper of the murder of his family at the hands of the other Liberators in an attempt to remove threats to their power.
Several rebels, kings and preachers have claimed to be descendants of Faron. The royal line of Lacaenai claims descent from him through his lover Anatea the Ikonai. All have been declared fraudulent by the Church and many hunted down by its armed forces.

by Dominik Mayer