Karatacus Brightshield

Sir Karatacus Brightshield is a Summerling knight and the commander of the prestigious Phoenix Company. He has been in a number of smaller skirmishes over the years, but his first major conflict was the War of the Three Heads, in which he acted more or less as commander of the Summerlund forces. As such, the commanders of the forces of Tavanion, Dalenshire, and Faerinwold largely deferred to him.

Because some of the greatest individual contributions of the war came at the hands of the Fire Wasps, who had been relegated to his subordinate officer Merei Greenspear‘s Owlbear Company, Sir Karatacus simultaneously gained some prestige and some embarrassment. In retrospect, he wished he had not dismissed them as country bumpkins, perhaps using Kidalis Havengard’s noble blood as a reason to bring them into Phoenix Company.

Following the defeat of the Orcs at the Siege of Brokenwall Keep, Karatacus oversaw further battles against the orcs until he was approached by Prince Harbryn Thonwyr, who wished to extend military action in the south to encompass the recapture of Sharbaduk. He oversaw the majority of Phoenix Company relocating to Turtle Cove, where he was joined by further Summerling knights who followed the warrior-prince. To the surprise of all, Klurbok, the commander of the orcish forces, entered a pact with Jorgensturm the Cruel, a Fire Giant king from Jotunheld. This stalled the Summerling forces for some time, until the coming of the Fire Wasps. They were then able to conquer the island and overthrow orcs and giants alike.

Karatacus was present at the Battle of Worldbreaker's Howe as a commander under Lord Steward Harbryn. He is a career soldier and likely to remain so.