Nkobe

Nkobe

(Person)

Titles

High King

Ancestry/Species

Mbe'ke dwarf

Homeland

Cloudspire, Mwangi Expanse

Died

3844 AR

Source: The Mwangi Expanse, pg(s). 20, 63

High King Nkobe was the last High King of the Mbe'ke to claim the title by hereditary right, and the most lasting legacy of Nkobe's bloodthirsty rule in the 39th century AR was the establishment of an elected High King by the Assembly of Kings.

History

High King Nkobe was always a deeply suspicious person with a quick temper, and the sudden death of his son and last scion of his hereditary line—who succumbed to a deadly disease in 3841 AR—rapidly amplified the worst facets of his personality.

In his paranoia Nkobe became convinced his son, his royal heir and last scion of his line, had been poisoned. Nkobe began secretly gathering allies and plotting revenge on his imagined foes, and later that year he began a massacre that became known as the Nine Days of Blood. Beginning with the royal doctors, then proceeding with the fellowships of surgeons, barbers, and medicine women, Nkobe's masked enforcers eventually arrested thousands of Cloudspire's dwarven citizens and executed them along its hanging bridges. The Wellspring beneath the city ran red with their blood.

The survivors of King Nkobe's brutal crackdown launched the Mbe'ke civil war that would become known as the War of Split Hearts, which lasted until 3844 AR and was brought to an end only by the intervention of Cykurarreot the Mist and her fellow cloud dragons. By the end of the war, Nkobe and almost all of the Mbe'ke aristocracy lay dead, their power shattered.

Legacy

Nkobe's name became a byword for cruelty, tyranny, and evil; all statues of him were toppled, images of him were defaced, and his name was removed from the list of Mbe'ke kings. To this day, Nkobe's Hall, where High King Nkobe made his final stand, is considered a cursed place avoided by Cloudspire's citizens. Fellowship leaders formed the Assembly of Speakers, and in turn the Assembly of Kings was created to select the new Mbe'ke High King.

However, mundane relics of Nkobe remain sought by collectors and occultists both within and beyond the Terwa Uplands. Some claim to see unnatural aspects in these items, such as faces appearing in gemstones or crowns that cast unusual shadows.

The Bloodmarked fellowship, originally formed from the survivors of the Nine Days of Blood, persist as a modern military fellowship composed of survivors of those killed by war or violence.