Saxon

Saxon is a Fire Giant who rules The Lost City of Saxon. Hidden behind perilous rapids on Jotun's North Sea, his city appears to be a futuristic utopia where Geit and Fire Giant live together in harmony. However, the quality of life that Saxon's technology affords its Geit is a mere ruse to conceal a darker reality--that the fire giants rule Saxon and the Geit citizens (whether they are aware or not) are little more than slaves who scavenge the north pole for nectar and artifacts to appease their Fire Giant overlords. From his throne, Saxon is slowly amassing resources to take over The Forge and then conquer the spheres themselves.

An Orphan of War

Like his Fire Giant kin, Saxon was created by the Forger after he created the spheres in order to populate them with life. As one of the first generations of Fire Giants, Saxon grew up being promised not only the world--but all the worlds. However, the Fire Giants' inheritance came into question when natural life emerged on the spheres, eventually growing in complexity until the Geit civilization emerged. The Forger initially fought back against the organics alongside his Fire Giant children, believing them pests who would usurp his chosen heirs' birthright.
However, the Geit rallied against the Forger's genocidal efforts and united under the banner of a hero named Olaf to beat back the machine threat. Together, they captured The Forge and imprisoned the Forger. While the Geit did not answer their enemies' attempted genocide in kind, they treated with the Forger to create a compromise that would give them access to The Forge's powers in exchange for sacrificial rites. The most gruesome of these--at least from Saxon's perspective--was the rite of Olaf, which entailed sacrificing baby Fire Giants so their hearts could be used to warm Geit cities.
Saxon viewed the Forger's capitulation to these demands as a betrayal. Like many of his bretheren, he broke away from The Forge to hold onto his free will and ensure his children would never be slaughtered like sacrificial lambs. Without The Forge's power, many of his kind soon starved. A few, however, managed to eke out an existence drinking nectar form other machines that were destroyed in The Saints' War and raiding trading vessels carrying the fuel.

A New Home

For millenia, the Forger and his kind wandered the tops of Jotun's glaciers. Since competition for nectar was fierce, many fire giants chose to wander alone--becoming little more than animals scavenging the icy sphere for their next meal. However, Saxon held on to the promise his father made to his people. While he could no longer count on the Forger to make good on that promise after his betrayal, Saxon was determined to hold on to the Fire Giant's identity as a species and see them one day inherit their destiny as rulers of the spheres.
Saxon led a large herd of fire giants, leveraging strength in their numbers to attack larger settlements with bountiful nectar reserves. Still, he lost many of his brothers and sisters to battle and starvation, and life was harsh for his people. But things took an unexpected turn for the better when dissension from within the Geit brought their civilization to its knees. A rebel named Shrike sought to take control of The Forge himself and sent a powerful storm called the Shrikevind through all the Geit cities, killing many and scattering most of the survivors across time.
Suddenly, Saxon and his fire giants found themselves to once again becoming the dominant faction on Jotun. Seizing the opportunity, they raided what was left of the Geit cities. Taking a lesson from the organics, he did not kill the few remaining Geit he came across. Rather, he imprisoned them, breeding them like livestock to do the bidding of the herd. The use of organic slaves allowed Saxon to establish a permanent settlement on Jotun. Rather than have his herd wander the sphere, they could send scouting teams of organics to locate artifacts and nectar. With no other civilizations to provide them warmth and shelter, there was little risk of them running away. Eventually, Saxon's herd grew into a large and prosperous city, establishing themselves near Jotun's north pole where salvage remained plentiful from the wreckage of The Saints' War.
He used the Shaper artifacts he came across to enahnce his abilities and those of his fellow fire giants. They gathered enough nectar that they no longer needed to scavenge for their own survival. Instead, they created a giant core battery that powered all the necessary functions of the city. This both ensured that Saxon's people would survive should they encounter lean times, as well as acting as a check against potential rebellion since all citizens of the city would rely on the core for energy.
Throughout the expansion of his city, Saxon continued to work toward the goal of capturing The Forge, still held by that troublesome Olaf. But Saxon had no intention of freeing his traitourous father. Instead, he would take The Forge himself and use its power to mold the spheres into a paradise for the Fire Giants. However, despite his growing power Saxon approached his goal at a cautious pace. Despite the blow they'd taken, many Shapers loyal to Olaf remained inside the Forge--and Saxon had learned the hard way not to underestimate them.
His caution proved wise, in the end, as new powers soon emerged on Jotun. Advanced civilizations rose on other spheres, and over time, Saxon saw his home invaded by the likes of the Illithid, Ifrit, and Erryl. Rather than take on these opponents head on, Saxon hid his city from their notice--biding time and scavenging technology they left behind to further improve the city. Saxon knew that organic civilizations had a propensity for self destruction, and time and time again his patient methods bore fruit.

Hakkon's Rebellion

Saxon continued to expand his city for centuries, until his progress hit a snag. His scouts reported that the Geit had returned to Jotun and were again taking up roots into the city. Over generations, his scouts seeing their own kind living free and prosperous lives rekindled a sense of self esteem in hope within them that had long been snuffed out. These sentiments fomented into rebellion when one of his scouts named Hakkon led a rebellion against the Fire Giants in the city.
Alone, Hakkon and his rebels were unlikely to unseat Saxon. However, he had gathered enough support to deal a serious blow to the city and perhaps attract unwanted attention from the outside. To Saxon's surprise, Hakkon approached him with terms of surrender. He had sized up the prospects of victory the same way Saxon had, and he would rather win a better life for his people than a valiant death. Hakkon promised that his people would continue to gather artifacts and fuel to support Saxon's ambitions, so long as the fire giants shared their technological advances and let the Geit in the city lead a more comfortable lives than those of chattel slaves.
Saxon chose the pragmatic option, reasoning Hakkon's deal would avoid Fire Giant casualties. Furthermore, so long as the technology he shared was connected to the city's core, he would always have a ripcord he could pull if the Geit forgot their place.

Uneasy Peace

With a treaty in place, Hakkon became the speaker for Saxon and the Fire Giants on behalf of the Geit people. He taught Hakkon the Fire Giant language, using him as the sole point of contact to give orders to his slaves. The tenor of life changed dramatically for the slaves, with Geit wandering free about the city. So long as they continued to meet their quotas under Hakkon's guidance, Saxon didn't much care if they frolicked in their idle hours. To those who didn't know better, their life might seem to be a utopian existence. Indeed, Hakkon kept most of the generations proceeding him ignorant of their people's enslavement.
For the most part, Hakkon pleased his Fire Giant overlords. Improved morale and attachment to family units improved the productivity of his scouts, and having a pipeline of communication allowed his scouts to be better organized and carry out more complex missions. Eventually, even the duties of policing the Geit slaves could be outsourced to the slaves themselves--always kept in check by cybernetics connected to the core that Saxon could shut off at the first whiff of dissent.
One would think that his compromise with Hakkon might have lent Saxon some sympathy for his father's capitulation to Olaf upon his defeat. However, his resolve to conquer The Forge remained steadfast. With a steady supply of artifacts available, Saxon and his inner circle of Fire Giants continued to experiment ways to self improve, including transplanting multiple hearts into fire giants and a failed attempt to imbue themselves with cold phosphorous to create "ice giants."
The new regime did not come wholly without complications. Some of Hakkon's faithful did not take kindly to the new peace he had forged. From the inception of the new city, an insurgency lingered in the shadows. Occasionally, they would sabotage operations or even kill a Fire Giant. Nevertheless, Saxon saw more benefit to the new arrangement than risk, so he continued to entrust Hakkon with the responsibilty of keeping his people in line.

Encounter with the Corsairs

Saxon received shocking news when his scouts reported that Olaf had finally been defeated, not by his own people, but a group of Corsairs from off-world. What's more, they had performed the Rite of Olaf and sacrificed a young Fire Giant to restore a Geit city. The Forger had also gone free and, if reports were to be believed, had renounced his earlier quest to eradicate organic life and were instead helping them restore the worlds they had ruined in their avarice. Having long hated his father, this news didn't come as a surprise to Saxon, but it still enraged him.
He soon found occasion to act on this startling revelations when those same Corsairs found their way into the City--accompanied by a Geit boy named Koba searching for his lost brother Volk, who had washed up in the city some years ago and integrated into its populace as one of its scouts. Hakkon's utopian facade once again bore fruit, as the Corsairs believed the city to be one where Geit and Fire Giants lived together in harmony. Saxon bided his time, closing in on the new arrivals while observing their capabilities in the city. As he watched, Saxon decided that he would add these Corsairs to his scout force--either willingly or unwillingly--installing cybernetics in them to control them. Adopting outsiders into his city's ranks had proven effective in the past, as Volk was one of his best scouts and his younger brother, Koba, whom the Corsairs had brought in appeared to be developing into every bit his equal. Besides, if the Corsairs really had bested Olaf, as his reports indicated, they would make powerful additions to his armies indeed.
Saxon kidnapped the Corsairs and brought them into his throne. However, the growing insurgency within the city chose that moment to strike, freeing them as well as young Koba who was about to receive cybernetic implants that would bind him to the city. Saxon sent his men to chase the escapees. Although Saxon was ready to punish his Geit enforcers for their failures, Hakkon intercepted the Corsairs at the edge of the city. He struck an accord with them to take Koba and Volk back to the city to appease Saxon for the attack and in exchange he would lend them some of the city's resources and services as a patron. While knowing that the Corsairs and his city would eventually come into conflict again, Saxon recognized the wisdom of the deal. He now had another scout at his disposal in the form of Koba who would also double as a hostage to ensure Volk remained loyal. Once again, peaceful relations between the Fire Giants and organics rested on the knife's edge of an uneasy truce.