Role

Chapter 13

Borkahd was born to the Kahnku clan which consisted of only a few small
families. He was born in Kiadana-Rah and lived there for most of his life.
His father was a strong and cruel man outwardly but within the clan he knew
his own form of loyalty and honor. Borkahd had a good life, for a fire giant.
His clan had a few slaves which he enjoyed greatly. He used them for simple
tasks, to take out his physical and sexual aggression on, and to practice his
torture techniques. His clan was known to be a strong clan which gave them
what appeared to be favor with the rulers of their community and they would
flaunt it often.

His father was the oldest among his clan he believed that his children and
the younger members of the clan were a direct reflection of himself so he
strove to teach them the arts of combat, the benefits of aggression and
cruelty, and confidence. The One Law was all that there was. Weakness was not
an option with his father and was met by a swift and bloody beating. Repeated
shows of weakness were met with slow death. His father had taught them that
long ago a man known only as The Teacher came and taught the giants the ways
of magic. In his view, the use of magic made their bodies weak. Soon some
relied too heavily on magic and without it they were nothing. As his father
always said, take the magic from a mage and they are worthless. Take a blade
from a warrior and he will crush your skull with his bare hands. He held his
disdain for magic openly and had contempt for all of its users.

When Borkahd was ninety years old his father had challenged one of the
Rulers advisors, a dark knight, to a dual. He had made eye contact with his
father and from a mage, that was unacceptable. His father demanded
retribution in blood. The battle was long and bloody but at the end his
father stood over a headless corpse, holding the head high in triumph. At
that moment, other members of the mages clan fell upon him. They uttered the
incantations of dark magic and stole his strength and sight, cursed his body
and poisoned his blood. A countless number of lightning bolts arced towards
him and, already wounded, it was too much for him to take. He fell, dead.
Such a display of weakness was disgusting to Borkahd, their strongest was
killed and in order to defeat his father, who was already wounded, it took
numerous members of their clan. In his clan, if you were not strong enough to
fight for yourself you were killed. The strongest live, the weak die. Had
this other clan forgot the One Law? Why was such weakness permitted by their
Ruler?