The Pale Rider

From the East he comes. From beyond the wastes of rust and ash. Where even fire is choked by dust and darkness.

— Varnul Metalbringer, Shaman of the Iron Horse

Few things are as certain as that violence is the law of the Fury Wastes. It's rust covered plains and ashen touched ruins rarely know more than anger and bloodshed. But once every ten years they know another feeling. For on the first night of that year's Scorch Season, the Pale Rider rules the wastes.

To Know Fear

Neither his size nor his form are particularly impressive. He is no titan like the monstrous Mammoth Tanks of the Iron Horde or the Walking Abominations of the Roatan Ethnarchs. He is a lone man on a single bike, yet his mere presence is enough to scare even the vilest of wasteland dwellers away. He never stops or slows down and never sways from the straight line he seems to follow.
One thing that seems sure is that human he cannot be. For even the oldest of men still alive in the wastes remember being warned about him by their parents and grandparents. Entire nations and tribes have risen and fallen and yet the Pale Rider continues on his way. His name is not just due to the colour of his clothes and skin, however, although both are always described as pale grey or white.
His night is one of only two times a year when the moon changes from its usual putrid yellowy green colour. For on that night it turns pale white. Some say it does so to match what the Rider does to all those it encounters. No one he meets leaves alive. Four decades ago, the great warlord Amaruq Ironwolf sought to best the rider and was crushed wholesale alongside his entire armada.

Demon or God?

The people of the wastes have found a number of explanations for the Pale Rider and his journey. Most see him as an avatar of death or even death itself. Others claim him as a god on a procession. And some whisper about the Warmachines of the Old World, the impossible killers of the Green Age.

All who see him perish, indeed. All but one. You heard that right. Someone out there survived a ride with the Pale Rider. Can't really decide if I should call him lucky or not.

— Red Bull, Wasteland Ranger

by Antonio J. Manzanedo

The Boy Who Lived

In the entire known history of the wastes, only one person has survived a direct encounter with the Pale Rider. A boy named Dot, a lowly peasant born among the Green Hills, was chased by a band of slavers directly into the path of the Rider. Only he survived.
Much has been made of this event and Dot has gained great prominence as a result. Not all of it being positive. The people of the Wastes are a superstitious lot. Many see him as cursed, as an omen of worse to come. Others see him as a source of power. One such person is the The Dragon Queen of Shayatan, who has recently captured him for unknown purposes.

by Denstarsk8