Azaersi

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Azaersi

(Person)

Titles

General

Alignment

Lawful evil

Ancestry/Species

Hobgoblin

Class

Swashbuckler 20

Gender

Female

Homeland

Oprak

Organization

Ironfang Legion

Companion(s)

Zanathura

Images of Azaersi

Source: Vault of the Onyx Citadel, pg(s). 56f.

The banner of Oprak.

General Azaersi is the hobgoblin leader of the Ironfang Legion, and a visionary who has carved out a new nation for her people that she now rules: Oprak. She continues working to secure not only Oprak for her people, but also the resources of the Onyx Vault.

Background

Azaersi, whose name in the Goblin language means "Aza the Immortal", was born in Isger and came of age during the Goblinblood Wars. When she was still a child, her outpost was overrun by Eagle Knights, and her gut pierced by a human spear. She was thrown into a mass grave but awakened several hours later, too stubborn to die. While the humans were celebrating, Azaersi fled under the cover of the night to Molthune, carrying with her a fervent hatred of humans. In Molthune, she met others hobgoblins in the Menador Mountains who saw her as a promising leader.

Azaersi became a bandit lord operating out the Shrikewood, attracting numerous followers due to her charisma despite never fully recovering from her injury. When Molthune sent a regiment of soldiers to put an end to Azaersi's banditry, her outnumbered, ill-equipped band nonetheless prevailed. The Molthuni commander, Vetrigan Sebine, made her an offer: Molthune needed soldiers in their war against neighboring Nirmathas, soldiers whose actions could be denied by the state. Molthune would be willing to arm, equip, and unleash such a force, and when Azaersi agreed, the Ironfang Legion was born.

With new contacts and information, Azaersi began to plan a scheme of domination and a homeland for the hobgoblins denied by the Goblinblood Wars. When she discovered the Onyx Key and the dark naga Zanathura, Azaersi led the Ironfang Legion into the Vault of the Onyx Citadel, recruited many of its elemental denizens, and conquered the vault from the xiomorn Ziguch the Seventh Facet. With the Onyx Citadel and its extraplanar Stone Roads under her control, Azaersi could launch attacks without warning and disengage without obstacle. The latter, however, was possible only with the sardonyx shard, a removable piece of the Onyx Key.

Azaersi later sent her spymaster Taurgreth to the Fangwood in search of an alliance with the forest's blighted fey. Distrustful of the fey, Taurgreth borrowed Azaersi's sardonyx shard as an emergency escape mechanism, without realising that the fey's magic prevented planar travel. With the sardonyx shard in Arlantia's hands, the Ironfang Legion lost the ability to return to the Vault of the Onyx Citadel unaided.

In 4717 AR, the Ironfang Legion launched a simultaneous invasion of Molthune and Nirmathas that took much of the southwestern region of the latter nation. A group of Nirmathi adventurers raised a militia against them and eventually convinced Azaersi that warmongering would bring nothing but ruin to her people. Azaersi, exhausted by war herself, decided to withdraw into the Mindspin Mountains and established Oprak as a nation that hobgoblins and other "monsters" could call home.

Leader of Oprak

General Azaersi has maintained her Ironfang Legion as Oprak's army, but has shifted her focus to economic development and currently seeks to avoid war. Due to the nature of the Onyx Vault, Oprak is relatively safe from the threat of the Whispering Tyrant. She is assisted in ruling the country by the Enclave Council, who advised her not to claim the nearby dwarven city-state of Kraggodan for fear of antagonizing them.

Azaersi is well aware that despite her military triumphs, the nation may well collapse if stability is not achieved, and stability requires nation-building and diplomacy. She nevertheless maintains a fairly aggressive posture towards most other nations, practically daring them to contest Oprak's independence. Immediately after Oprak's foundation, representatives of the Umbral Court, the mysterious rulers of neighboring Nidal, recognised its independence and agreed to a three-year non-aggression pact. Nirmathas' Forest Marshal Dardinna Yallis then followed, and agreed to four years of peace, in the hope that the hobgoblins would look to Nidal first for military conquests.

In 4720 AR, Azaersi established diplomatic relations with the Pathfinder Society, a globally established organisation in the hopes that they would be a useful ally. A group of hobgoblins were selected to travel to Absalom for evaluation and training while the Society hopes to learn more about the hobgoblins' goals and culture.

Associates

Azaersi views the dark naga Zanathura as a kindred spirit, and has begun to trust her even more than fellow hobgoblins, but is unaware of the subtle magic that Zanathura uses to influence her. Her spymaster is Taurgreth, whom she sent to forge an alliance with Arlantia, but who only ended up being imprisoned by the blighted fey. Henra, Azaersi's personal trainer and a member of the Ironfang Legion's command staff, has known her since she was a child.

Possessions

Azaersi wields a magical falcata known as Truth, and a dagger enchanted with the ability to return to her when thrown.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.