Helikaeth, the Revenant King
Of all the warriors and kings of old, few were as powerful as King Helikaeth. A giant of man, standing almost seven feet tall, he carved out a kingdom that ranged for thousands of miles in all directions, ranging from the foothills of the Dragon Spine mountains in the west to the Ironskin Mountains in the east. He forced hundreds of chieftains and kings into subservience, and while he was a fair ruler, he was utterly ruthless to any who defied him. He defeated countless invasions, drove the Orc hordes from the Plains of Dust, and forged alliances between men and Dwarfs that still hold, and yet he was dead before he had even seen twenty-three summers, slain by Elven arrows.
Helikaeth was entombed on the high moors of Bloodmire, buried within an immense barrow that took a decade to construct. Dozens of smaller burial mounds were positioned around his own, where his most loyal warriors were entombed. Helikaeth lay undisturbed for six hundred years, surrounded by his earthly wealth and wearing his golden armour.
On a moonless night, Helikaeth’s eternal slumber was ended. Helikaeth and his bodyguard were raised as Revenants by the sorcery of a black-hearted necromancer, their skeletal bodies still encased in the armour they wore in life. Helikaeth’s spirit proved far more formidable than the powerful necromancer had anticipated, however, and hefting his massive, ensorcelled blade, he beheaded the sorcerer.
For a hundred years, few dared to approach the high moors, for rumour of Helikaeth’s return from beyond the grave had spread far and wide. The Revenant King, they called him, and it was said that any who ventured up onto the moors risked incurring the ancient king’s wrath. Several necromancers crept towards the ancient barrow under the cover of darkness, hoping to enslave him to their will, but all failed and had their heads hacked from their shoulders.
Then, almost eight hundred years after his death, Helikaeth left his burial place, marching alongside his long-dead warrior elite. He descended from the high moors and laid waste to the village of Dartcliff, leaving none alive. What drove the Revenant King to commit this atrocity is not known, but since then he has been seen marching alongside the armies of Mhorgoth the Faceless. Standing head and shoulders above his ancient warriors, Helikaeth has, it seems, embarked upon a war against the living, which heralds dark time to come.