Count Elitrion the Flayed
That the Stygian are a scourge upon the lands of Chronopia is no secret. To most they are a source of terror and fear. For others they are myth and fiction. For one elven noble, they are a nightmare from which he cannot awaken.
Calabria was a small elven city off the eastern shores of the Inner Sea. It thrived largely for its prominent ports which were a common stopping point for traders from all over the Inner Sea. It also served as the eyes of the Obsidian Court to the actions of its neighbors. Those eyes are now blind, a painful scar that the Elven Courts will not soon forgive. Eight years ago as the humans measure time, Calabria was raised to the ground and every elf slain the the last; every elf save one.
Count Elithrion was a noble elf stationed in Calabria. He was also a Dragonskull Warrior, thrice decorated. When the Stygian came to Calabria they erupted from beneath the city in the dark of night, the sturdy walls all but impotent to protect the community within. Though they fought hard and with desperation, they would lose the battle. It took nearly two full days but in the end the city lie in flames and ruin. It was with great surprise that when the Elves came to Calabria, they found as they gathered their dead a horribly mutilated warrior who actually survived.
Elithrion was felled in battle by the sickles of the a dread Flayer. There, broken and unable to move, his friends being butchered about him, the Flayer set about earning its grizzly name. After the Stygian removed his face, Elithrion knew only blackness and a pain more stinging than any he had known before.
After spending nearly a year recuperating, Elithrion was a changed elf. His normal bitterness and rage had been amplified and though he left the Dragonskull Warriors´ ranks, he remained a tireless military leader. Elithrion has spent years serving his Duke and requested to be sent to any conflict the noble House engaged in. He even led three sorties into the Stygian haunted deserts to hunt the wretched beasts.
Elithrion bares the scars he received at Calabria to this day, his face a ravaged, skull-like visage. It is an unnerving sight to behold, even for the most hardened warriors. While he proudly shows his face in battle, he otherwise keeps it concealed beneath a cloth drawn from the hide of a fallen Stygian Flayer, a type of irony he finds comforting. As he has lost his left eye in Calabria, he allows the hide mask to drape over it and down across his face.
Today, Elithrion has been accorded the title of Warmaster and has been given leave to shape the armies of the Obsidian House. Under his vengeful and grim direction, the Obsidian House readies itself for a very bloody war.
Count Elitrion the Flayed, Obsidian Warmaster
© 2004 Excelsior Entertainment