Marhukules the Unassailable

[Marhukules]

Marhukules

Age  28

Gender  Male

Origin  The Kaikias Desert

Occupation  Hand of the Prophet

Zara’jati was considered the most beautiful woman of her tribe. They were a nomadic people who traveled the sands and kept their name amongst themselves so that Takoumba could never know their secrets and so that Westerners and Elves might never know them. Despite their secrets, Zara’jati was known as an elusive wonder of the sands and many Princes desired her hand in marriage, that their descendants might have even a fraction of her splendor.

Sozemzi, the Bejewled offered her many riches. Dagdoban the Brute sought to regale her with tales of battle and conquest. Barakan the Black drew her from her people with black magic. And wander she did across the deserts, whispers of djinn and vile spirits leading her to his black palace. The story varies in what took place once she arrived. Her detractors say that she was enamored by the power gathered about him and submitted to his evil authority. Or that she took his power for herself and became as terrible as she was beautiful. The story that is most accepted is that Nzuri, the Sky Weaver, rained the wrath of the heavens upon the dark wizard’s black fortress and brought it low. So enamored was Nzuri by Zara’jati’s beauty that she took the form of an ethereal male warlord and lay with her. In the following months, Zara’jati would give birth to twins, one that died in childbirth and was buried in the cairn that the black fortress had become. The other was Maruhkules.

In the following years, Zara’jati had begged and stole and become the consort to many a warlord, Prince, and King in the Kaikias in order to survive. For her beauty had never faded and she was still sought after by many. Maruhkules would never know his people as they wandered far and deep into the desert, obscured by the will of Takoumba and desert storms. And so Maruhkules grew up knowing his mother’s sorrow as she would always speak of a home and a people that were long gone. And he would know peace and war. And he would know heartbreak after the passing of Zara’jati, who was buried with many crystals and treasures in her tomb of the desert city of Dash Nai.

Her last husband was Barzabar the Scorpion, who had always been jealous and fearful of the young Maruhkules. For he was a skilled killer and said to be gifted by his divine parentage with strength far surpassing that of his own mortality and a sharp mind for killing. Barzabar sent twenty assassins to claim his life and received twenty corpses in return. After shredding his assailants, Maruhkules escaped into the desert where he became a feral beast.

Godless, he traveled the sands with sword and spear and killed man and beast alike in order to survive. He was a hazard as dangerous as any sandstorm and there were none that dared tread on him. Maruhkules the Unassailable had become a warlord like the many men that raised him. Thieves, cutthroats, and mercenaries gathered about him. He’d become a being of true darkness until the light had found him in the form of a lone traveler.

Nebu was his name and what he said to the Unassailable to turn him away from the darkness is known only to the two of them. It is assumed that Nebu imparted to Maruhkules the undeniable Truth. That Nebu was a prophet that was similarly handed divine gifts and that Miradj’Dah was the light of the world. And when faced with it, there was no other place for the warlord to turn. Others believe that Nebu’s Truth had made Maruhkules know the goodness that was stashed away in his heart.

What is known for certain is that the Unassailable would join his forces with that of Nebu’s in an effort to retake the floating city of Miradj’Dah, which had been claimed for twenty years by a Faamaba that had ruled it as a pretender with an iron fist. Many were the names of the generals that Maruhkules cut down for Nebu and many were the false tongues that he laid before the Starthrone so that Nebu might know his devotion. Miradj’Dah rejoiced as Nebu the Prophet ascended to his ancestral seat, crowned by his chosen Faamaba and leading general, Surraya the Lioness.

For years since, Maruhkules has found a home in Miradj’Dah, where he has served as a Hand of the Prophet and protector of the Greatest City There Is, Was, or Ever Will Be.