Tor Cai'hne
For mighty mountains never fall
Nor dragons ever truly sleep
From the anvil of the god to the temple of the king
Caledor does stretch from coast to coast defying every sea
And fight we will for Caledor, our home, our land, for peace
- Battle song of the Silver Knights
Caladai Elthraï-é-Ceylàn is the current ruling Count of the lands surrounding the capital city Tor Cai’hne, a city-state on the inner coast of Caledor, in Ulthuan. He inherited the title and lands some 130 years ago, in which time he has returned some of the former glory of Caledor to it, with the population now slowly increasing and the surrounding mountain ranges and passes relatively save from marauding monsters and Druchii. Trained in the White Tower of Hoeth as a swordmaster and later as a white ranger, he has now put behind him the trying life of a wandering swordmaster and settled down in his ancestral home. Following a successful campaign in the south of Lustria, Caladai has recently been ordered on campaign to the old world, where he leads his armies against the many enemies of the humans, dwarfs and Asrai, whether they be foul beastmen, evil skaven or murderous orcs. Campaigning life is hard though, and his men are bloodied and stern veterans of many a battle, tired of war but never willing to surrender to the forces of darkness.
Tor Cai’hne is a small city of some 20.000 elves located in the Dragon’s teeth valley, named so for the half oval shape ringed by sharp teeth-like peaks on three sides. The broadest end of the valley ends at the lake Tryste, a basin for the small river Tyr before it continues to the Inner Sea.
The city sits in the middle of the valley, overlooked by the Elthraï-é-Ceylàn castle, a grim keep that looks like it rises straight out of the side of the tallest mountain of the valley, Dragonback mountain.
View over Lake Tryste from the Tor Cai’hne harbor |
The military structure of Tor Cai’hne is divided into many elements, all with their own roles in protecting the city-state. The first line of defense is the mountain rangers and the reavers, who patrol the surrounding mountains tirelessly in small groups looking for any sign of trouble. The city has it’s own standing military force consisting of the Guardians, highly trained spearelves, and the elite Silver Knights of Tor Cai’hne, as well as Dragon claw bolt thrower batteries and archers, proudly calling themselves sharpshooters. While there is no levy system in Tor Cai’hne, almost all capable members of the populace are army volunteers and are trained to a high degree.
Castle Elthraï-é-Ceylàn itself is always guarded by a contingent of elite blademasters, elves sent to train at the white tower after they have proven their courage in battle. These blademasters are both the bodyguards of the ruling Count, as well as the guardians of the temple of Vaul located inside the castle. Aside from all these forces Tor Cai’hne has a number of war chariots imported from Tiranoc as well as a mutual bond of friendship with the great eagles inhabiting the surrounding mountains. It is even whispered that Lord Caladai can call upon the help of one or more of the ancient dragons resting scattered throughout the Caledorian mountains, but such rumors are only that, rumors.
Character History
Caladai Elthraï-é-Ceylan
(Elthraï-é-Ceylan is roughly translated as Doomblade)
Caladai Doomblade is the lord and ruler of the Elthraï-é-Ceylan estates in the southeast of Caledor, along the coast of the inner sea stretching north from the border with Eataine. The ancestral mountain-fortress near the capital Tor Cai’hne was build during the first war of chaos. It’s a giant castle that looks like it’s cut from a spire surrounded by steep mountains. Today it is once again a lively castle, as is the rest of the estate. The Doomblade’s have spent the last 1000 years furiously working on reversing the dwindling population, and with succes. The Doomblade’s are said to be dragon-princes, and the ancestors of Caladai have ridden the ancient dragons in the past. It’s not known whether they can still acquire the service of these ancient creatures. Some say the dragon riding days of Elthraï-é-Ceylan are over, others still remember the Highborns flying from the towers of Cai’hne castle on the backs of huge dragons.
Caladai was born the son of Mendor Elthraï-é-Ceylan, just hours before his twin brother, Sarathai. He is now close to 550 years old, and about 75 years ago he took over the rule of the estate. At the age of 143 he chose to take the pilgrimage to Saphery, to quest for the White Tower of Hoeth, to earn the right to study there. After 7 years of travelling throughout Ulthuan he found the tower and passed through it’s protective spells, therefore gaining the right to study under the loremasters and swordmasters of the White Tower.
Twenty-five years he studied there, gaining the rank of swordmaster and becoming a wanderer, a sword ranger, and a secret agent for the White Tower. He was sent on a number of missions for the White Tower. From infiltrating the Druchii homelands in search of important captives to hunting down a dark sorcerer on a rampage in the southlands. He travelled to distant cities in the old world and Lustria, to talk about trade, and to secretly assassinate important opponents of the Asur. All these missions made him an experience fighter and diplomat.
His most important assignment he got at the age of 390. He was tasked with retrieving “cairn’tyras”, the sword of the fifth Phoenix King, Tethlis of Caledor, also known as Tethlis the Slayer. Tethlis’s son Elthairon inherited the giant blade and used it in spite of his inability and lack of physical strength to wield it properly. The blade was lost in a sea battle near the Fortress of Dawn. The Loremasters had indications that the golden blade of dawn, a relic that supposedly was gifted to the first cathayan emperor by the gods to indicate his divinity and his right to the throne of Cathay. The blade is never shown and only a few people are allowed to look at it, but the loremasters thought that this sword could be “cairn’tyras”. The loremasters felt that the sword belonged to the Asur, and they sent Caladai to get it back. To steal it, so as not to provoke the Cathayans and prevent political implications or suspicions of Asur involvement.
The theft went well, but the escape didn’t. The ship that was supposed to take Caladai away wasn’t allowed to leave the port. The Cathayan guards started to methodically search the city, all but tearing it apart in search of the sword. Foreigners were especially suspected, and Caladai fled the city and went inlands. He was hunted, the Cathayans never knowing for sure that he was the one who stole the blade, but they nonetheless moved heaven and earth to find him. He had to flee further and further inlands, chased by the elite monk-assassins of the emperor. He crossed the border and into the Ogre Kingdoms. Months he travelled through the barren lands of the ogres and the hobgoblin khans.
His travels were dangerous, but hardened his body and mind more than any training could have done. During those long months he learned to handle the long blade that represented his mission, after breaking his own slim blade in a desperate combat with an ogre. The “cairn’tyras” is an exceptionally long single-edge blade, and requires great strength to use properly. It has a double-handed grip, but it really is a single-handed weapon, it’s blade not dissimilar to very long ninjato. It is light, being made from ithilmar, but its length makes its balance different from ordinary swords. Claudia’s swordmaster training helped him to devise a technique for using the sword to it’s full potential, using long sweeping motions and weaving strikes and dodges into an elegant dance of death.
At long last he reached the mountains of mourn, and then the Dawi’zharr lands, the lands of the chaos dwarves. He crossed the dark lands under the cover of darkness, travelling at night and sleeping by day to avoid any patrols. The Dawi’zharr are highly territorial and warlike and would start a massive manhunt if an elf were sighted inside their borders. Finally after months of travel, being hunted and hiding in caves and bushes, he reached the world Edge Mountains. Travelling through them in search of a settlement, allied races, dwarves, humans, halflings, and elves. He came upon a great castle, evidently built by humans. The surrounding lands looked desolate, but Caladai was desperate and decided to enter the castle in the hope of finding a bed to sleep in and a plate of decent food to eat. Finding the place looking deserted he realised that an evil presence inhabited this castle.
Searching for the evil presence, he finally found it where he started, in the main hall. The vampire he met there was centuries old, just like Caladai. The vampire was amused to find one of the ‘fair folk’ in his castle, and tried to charm the elf into dropping his guard. Caladai wasn’t perturbed and attacked the creature head-on. A great fight ensued, the speed and skill of the elf outmatching even the unnatural speed of the vampire. But in the end the power of the vampire and the still somewhat unfamiliar weapon the elf was using proved his undoing and in the end the vampire stood over his wounded body. The vampire was impressed by his opponent and decided to save Caladai’s life by giving him the blood kiss.
So Caladai was transformed into a vampire. But not quite. Vampirism was a state of being that protected the body from change through time or injury, and protected the soul from leaving the body. Thereby the ancient priests of Nehekhara artificially created immortality. Because of this the spell requires something in return, kind of a payment. The body craves fresh blood, hence the thirst, and sunlight ‘makes’ the body and soul weaker, or better said, the chaos moon at night makes them stronger. The vampire has a love for it’s creator and is hurt by blessed and holy objects. However, it doesn’t work on an elf like it does on a human. Compared to a human, an elf is immortal, being able to live for thousands of years. Therefore, vampirism doesn’t affect elves like it does humans, it provides much less and therefore requires much less, and so the vampire that turned Caladai found out. The moment Caladai returned to consciousness he attacked his sire, and with his renewed strength he slew the already wounded vampire.
In deep loathing of his own state, he spend weeks in that castle, tearing rooms to pieces in uncontrollable fits of rage, and spending days in deep meditation. Eventually he decided that he was unchanged. He would carry on, fulfilling his mission and his obligations to his people. He could not bring this grief over his family while he still ‘lived’. He had not become evil, for immortality doesn’t hold much promise for an elf. The next night he went out and found a small village in the area, feeding on one of the vile human blood to still his hunger before it would overcome him. At dawn he left, his course set for the nearest friendly settlement, the dwarf hold of Zhufbar.
Finally being amongst allies, Caladai travelled with a dwarven caravan to Kharaz-a-Kharak, the dwarven capital to contact the elven ambassador there. From there the journey home was relatively swift and uneventful. Nobody suspected Caladai’s curse and eventually he reached the White Tower again. There he presented the blade he had come to value so much to the loremasters, who handed it straight back to him. They told him that he was the direct descendant of Elthairon of Caledor, son of Tethlis. Elthairon had only one child, a daughter named Evrielle, who married Imriilon Elthaï-é-Ceylan, the father of Mendor and grandfather of Caladai. Therefore “cairn’tyras” was his right, and the reason why they had sent him to get it back. They hadn’t told him before because they felt he might be inclined to turn down the mission because they feared the blade would mean too little to him.
Caladai stayed a sword ranger no longer, retiring to avoid his curse coming to light. He travelled back to Caledor, to Tor Cai’hne to join his family and enjoy the quiet life at the courts for a while. His twin brother, Sarathai had become an accomplished mage, and was had become a loremaster at the White tower, and his younger brother Elthrai had become a powerful knight and commander in charge of the army of Tor Cai’hne. Caladai became a regular envoy for his father, travelling to different court to take part in the political power play that comes so easily to elven nobles. He didn’t grow to politics easily, his dark mood and increasingly brooding nature coming of as rude and unsophisticated. But then Caledorians aren’t seen as the best politician material, so no suspicion was aroused.
Then Mendor retired, and Caladai being the heir of the house Elthraï-é-Ceylan, he took the position of Lord of Tor Cai’hne. Several years passed, and while everything went well, and the lands prospered, the atmosphere at the castle became dark and grim. Caladai built up the strength of his standing army and seemed even more quiet and reclusive than normal. One day a message from the Phoenix King arrived, requesting his presence in Lothern for an important mission. Caladai and his brother Elthrai travelled to Lothern soon after, wondering what Finubar wanted from them.
Caladai was ordered to take an army to the south of Lustria, to the Citadel of Dusk and embark on a campaign to cleanse the surrounding lands from encroaching enemies, mainly undead from the vampire coast and a dwarven gold hunter expedition. In Lustria Caladai distinguished himself as an able general and great warrior, suffering numerous wounds that would have killed a lesser elf. Or maybe would have killed a living elf. The dwarven expedition was diverted away from the Asur Colonies and the undead forces pushing south were defeated, their vamperic overlords slain and burned. Four years later Lord Caladai returned to Caledor victorious.
After his return home Caladai seemed to become more lively, more open and humorous. The campaign against the vampire kings of Lustria seemed to have exorcised the deamons that had haunted him so in the previous decenia. A few happy decades passed with nothing to disturb the peace. Then another message arrived, sending Caladai on another mission. Caladai suspected some of the other lords of using their influence to send him away, removing him from the courts for some time. He was sent to the old world, to campaign through the old world against the enemies of the Asurian allies. A diplomatic mission of war, to show their allies the ‘good intentions’ of the Asur and secure new alliances and trade contracts. Now Caladai is roaming the old world, always looking for fresh enemies to vent his anger on, his army of dedicated warriors bloodied and tired, but ever strong, behind him.