Androniki Demos
Androniki Demos’ body was not hard to find in the narrow gorge where her Bright Company died. Even amid the snow, her sun-coppered skin had glowed like ichor - the blood of the gods - when the trembling fingers of torchlight fell upon the ruined forms of the Bright Company. The rest of the rescue party’s efforts were in vain as they counted the dead. Bright, young men with ice snared in their barely begun beards like flies in a spider’s web stared up from the ground with unseeing eyes into the meaningless black and white swirl of night and snow - and those were the ones who still had their eyes. Even when she fell - the darkness taking her - Androniki could hear the decimation come down around her. The orcish roars of ambush, the dull crack of bones, the rending of flesh and the hellish songs that maul and sword draw from men’s throats howled in the empty spaces where courage and resolve died in un-witnessed horror in the desolate, narrow gorge.
Awakening in the healing center of Eadása - spirited a hundred miles away from the place where her Bright Company died - Androniki walked quiet halls with healers and magistrates as the unfortunate and lonely survivor of the massacre. Her burly mane of dark curls could do little to veil the emptiness in her soul or the unrest in her mind’s eye where images of the Pale Orc who had ravaged her forces - with blue-white skin as jagged as the frost and eyes glowing like twin snarling rubies - lurked in her memories. As soon as her body was able (some would argue it was before she was ready), Androniki buried herself in hours of martial training at the Castle Outrock, determined to never fail in such a way again, slaughtering a hundred practice dummies in lieu of the grey orcs who stole her Bright Company and the pale giant who crushed her.
Until now she had been an unstoppable success story, rising like the sun from a cruel childhood on the Moktåharran Reservation near the Bronze Valley in Barrassett to dominate in martial prowess at the prestigious Garrison Military Academy. She has yet to be more forthcoming about her life between Perrendon and waking up in Jzhienti, but she has spoken vaguely about her company’s fateful transfer to Yuden - to the front lines of the Grey Orc conflicts at the kingdom’s northernmost and most brutal border.
On his way to take her place at the front, Androniki’s brother - Dymek - visited the recovering captain in Eadása to encourage her to rest and extract a promise from his battle-hungry sister: that she would not try to return to the North. Now that she has made a similar vow to Rün of Irontree - the Lord of Eadása - to stay within the bounds of Castle Outrock, Androniki has severely narrowed her options, but perhaps it is of little consequence to the humbled warrior. For as she herself said:
“I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
Other Party Members
