Warden Favne

The ortalian dwarf, siege commander Warden "Ward" Favne is a retired reaver siege engineer inhabiting the fort in Rover Bay. He is credited to be one of the inventors of the first functioning cannon.

History

Early life

Warden was born to the noble family of Favne in Stoccom. As is custom for the Favne family, he was given a military education in Blackhillscastle, and later decided to continue his education by taking on officer training. He then went on to serve as a Green-Cloak lieutenant under general Rupert McBlutered at the Blackhills borderfort, Fort Crane. It was here he developed a love for siege weaponry and the concepts of castle defenses. After working with general McBlutered on projects utilizing explosives for castle defense, he was given a scholarship to study engineering in Abelein.

A new age for siege weaponry

After finishing his studies in Abelein, he was recruited by the reaver organization to work on the defenses of Fort Arbasar in the northern Gorlovoyan wastelands. General McBlutered relocated his explosives-project to the fort, and here the two dwarves finished their cannon experiments.

Shortly after completing their project, a small goblin horde appeared to attack the fort. Warden, being the only one there capable of using the cannon, took swift action and started raining fire upon the goblins long before they were within range of the reavers' blood magic, making for a short and easy battle. The fort's commander, impressed by this new weapon, wanted to combine its immense power with the powers of the reaver, and offered Warden the chance to become one.

Becoming a reaver

The process involved in becoming a reaver is a tightly kept secret. What is known is that it involves heavy training and an amount of ritualistic sacrifices. It is then ended with a prayer to Arbas, similar to Arbas' first words to the legendary hero Ortal. Warden finished his training and went on to become siege commander for Fort Arbasar.

Returning home

Siege commander Favne served in Fort Arbasar for a good 150 year, all while designing new types of cannons to be used by dwarven military, and delivering the designs to general McBlutered, who visited often. His service to the reavers would end, however, after being severly traumatized after meeting Cesciyb, the avatar of Misery. He explains this best himself during a conversation with Scab Grimsaw:

“Did you know there are peaceful goblins? They call themselves Bogles, which in turn led us to call them boglins. They have lots of little tribes scattered around the Nairam mountains. Mostly hunter/gatherer-types. Now what you’ll never hear anywhere else is that the reavers openly trade with these tribes, and they build fully functional little villages near our forts. Curious little buggers.
I served mostly in Fort Arbasar, they’ve changed the name now to Fort McBlutered, after the general, well deserved if you ask me. Either way, through the valley a couple of miles north there was such a village. More like a small town really. Thriving from trade and hunting, they’d become so well developed that they’d even made a sound and solid, albeit primitive, education system for the young’uns, of which there were many. These little boglin kids, when they’re all dressed up in surplus winter clothing from our fort, look so much like dwarven children.
One day we had gotten a caravan from Abelein with brand new cannons. All of us gathered up on the fort walls and shot towards the wastelands, burning through what must have been half of all our blackpowder reserves. All the noise and smoke made it hard for us to see that there was a lot of smoke coming from the north as well, from the boglin village. We didn’t really notice before the smell came running down the valley, and it smelled like burning flesh, instead of powder. McBlutered and I, along with some of the others headed up there to see what was going on.
When you first see the bodies of children hanging from the trees by their own guts, using whatever life’s left in them to form the word “mama” on their lips, you never really get over that. We had to stab every single one of those kids in their hearts to stop their suffering, looking them in their eyes and telling them it would be ok, all while knowing no amount of blood magic could have saved them. We put them in the burning piles where their parents lay.
You would think a burning small town would feel warm. However, as I turned my gaze further north, I saw a creature, and I have never felt so cold. A feminine figure was coming towards us. Elven, with ashen, purple-ish skin, and long, black hair. Blackish eyes even. A drenov. Singing and dancing on her approach, and it was colder than frost magic. She stopped some 30-odd feet before us, put on a wide smile and asked us: “Did you have fun?” Then she started laughing.
The next voice I heard came from inside my head. The voice of a god, my god. Arbas. “Run!” he said. And all of us ran towards the fort. “Where are you going?” the woman said and continued laughing. She didn’t follow. The sounds of the cannons were somewhat comforting. So we didn’t offer it much thought as we hurried back. But then we saw the goblin horde approaching from the south. Seems that our test-firing earlier that day had broken their tunnels, so they had to surface before they made it within our walls.
We made it inside before the horde reached us, and we spent all our fucking powder thinning down their herds of anthelian warbeasts. When all our siege weaponry was spent, and all our bolts had been loosened on the horde, general McBlutered jumped off the walls to fight them head on. Had it been any other day, we would have all stayed and endured the horde, thinning them down over the course of months. But not that day. The ones who had been to the boglin village jumped off first. And we entered a frenzy as we made the blood flow. And then the rest of the people in the fort joined in. Not only the reavers, but the common footsoldiers, the smiths and armorers, the cooks, the cleaning servants, every able-bodied person charged a fucking goblin-horde head on. And the craziest part is that we won.
I haven’t been up there since, I asked for a transfer the very next day, and most of my comrades did the same over the course of the next month. But they say that the soil around Fort McBlutered is still red with all that blood to this day. Still, I would much rather face a thousand goblin hordes face first than ever seeing that drenov woman again. If Misery ever had a face it would be her’s.”

Warden then transferred back to Fort Crane, where he served until the first siege of Blackhills.

Siege of Blackhills

A few years after his transfer back to his home country, a goblin horde emerged from the hills north of Blackhills Castle, the first horde to appear outside of the Gorlovoyan wastelands. Being the only reaver in the area, Warden was summoned to take control of the castle's defenses along with baron Kaggan of Blackhills.

After recieving reaver reinforcements from Gorlovoye two days later, Favne and Kaggan led a charge into the castle to recover the body of the baron's daughter. The charge was successful, and with the additional reavers, they defeated the invaders.

Being the undisputed hero of the siege, Warden was awarded the highest honors, recieving the Medal of Honor by the king of Ortal and the Chosen of Arbas medal from the king of Gorlovoye. He was offered the immediate raise of rank to general, but declined, saying he would much rather retire. He was granted a significant pension and was given an honorable discharge.

Aligned Organization

Reavers