Thorak Fireaxe

Thorak Fireaxe was the leader of the Fireaxe Clan and a follower of the Burning Knight. He was responsible for the destruction of Port Valor.

Appearance
Thorak was an orc who wore an eyepatch over his right eye, chain armor, and a fur coat. He also carried the Fireaxe Clan leader's weapon, a large axe that caught fire when he touched the gem on it.

Personality
Thorak was evidently quite charismatic, quickly amassing a base of supporters with the Fireaxe Clan. He was, however, merciless and cruel. He lacked the sense of honor possessed by some of his clanmates, such as Othurk, ordering his subordinates to ambush defenseless mages and retrieve the most destructive items they could find. Thorak also seemed to revel in chaos, sending orcs into the wreckage of Port Valor with magical devices to wreak extra havoc, even though the vast majority of the town's population was already dead. He was willing to sacrifice children to summon his demonic patron and, in the end, was willing to commit suicide in order to leverage his death into a problem for his foes.

Background
Thorak entered the Fireaxe Clan during a period when most of the orcs in it felt aimless. He was able to take control because he had a strong sense of direction, which appealed to much of the clan. By this point, he was likely already serving the Burning Knight. While his rule was not unanimously accepted, Thorak meted out punishment to Othurk, the loudest dissenter, through demeaning chores, such as cleaning up after Brakk, Thorak's pet aurochs. Thorak began to order the clan to ambush mages traveling from Atemcester to collect their magical belongings, along with mundane valuables. He sacrificed some of the clan's captives with the Everburning Longsword in order to summon and commune with the Burning Knight, alongside his closest followers in the clan.

The Adventure Begins
The group that would become the Pog Champions encountered a group of goblins and an orc in the employ of the Fireaxe Clan who had attacked Balgrus's mine near Port Valor. They first learned Thorak's name from the orc.

Broken Crown Arc
After dealing with the threat posed by Tyrian Vordt, Count Corvus asked the Pog Champions to either investigate him and attempt to confront him or travel to Falas and deliver a letter to the emperor asking for assistance in dealing with the Fireaxe Clan's attacks. The Pog Champions ultimately chose the latter.

Welcome to Falas
Despite the re-emergence of dragons in eastern Lyvernus, Emperor Eurystheos diverted some of the royal guard to Port Valor to deal with Thorak and his clan.

The Fall of Port Valor
Thorak survived an attack on the Fireaxe Clan's abbey base led by Corvus and soldiers from Falas. Soon afterward, he ordered an attack on Port Valor with an anti-life spell taken from the mages of Atemcester. The attack killed almost the entire population of Port Valor. Thorak then entered the Count's palace to retrieve a robe that was, in fact, an Abyssal Crest. Thorak returned to the abbey to celebrate the clan's victory, but left some of his foot soldiers behind to unleash further destructive magical artifacts in the town. He also ordered them to bring any survivors back to the abbey to be used as sacrifices. That night, he sacrificed one of the two survivors taken by the clan and turned the Abyssal Crest over to the Burning Knight. The next day, as he was prepared to sacrifice the other survivor, Thorak was confronted by the Pog Champions. Despite his bravado, Thorak was nearly defeated by Slumberjack but, in response to their taunt that he would become the next sacrifice and seeing that the battle was lost, Thorak stabbed himself in the chest with the Everburning Longsword, killing himself and opening a portal to the Abyss that brought forth the Burning Knight.

Goals
Thorak served the Burning Knight and many of his goals, such as invading Port Valor and taking the Abyssal Crest, were in service to his demonic master. Likewise, Thorak's human sacrifices were motivated by their ability to facilitate communication between himself and the Knight. Overall, Thorak seemed interested in amassing power and wreaking destruction for their own sake.

Abilities
Thorak was skilled with battleaxes, longswords, and likely other weapons. As the leader of the Fireaxe clan, he wielded an enchanted battleaxe that could emit flames when activated. Likewise, the longsword he used for sacrifices was permanently wreathed in flame, but that was a gift from the Burning Knight and would summon the demon upon taking a life. Thorak seemed to possess other abilities based on his connection to the Burning Knight as well. For example, when the Pog Champions began to push him to his limits, a black substance seeped out of his armor and provided him with further protection. Whether this was a property of the armor or an innate ability bestowed by the Knight is unknown.

Thorak and Othurk
Othurk was an early dissenter to Thorak's leadership of the clan. Othurk considered Thorak's strategy of ambushing mages at their most vulnerable deeply dishonorable. As a result of Othurk's defiance, Thorak treated him with disdain and gave him humiliating jobs like shoveling Brakk's dung. When Othurk finally staged a rebellion against Thorak, Thorak called him a "pitiful traitor," although Othurk was the one who survived that encounter. For his part, Othurk was ashamed of his failure to successfully push back against Thorak before the worst of his atrocities were committed.

Quotes

 * "You might be right. Maybe I should be the next sacrifice."

Trivia

 * Thorak was apparently intended to be the party's first major antagonist, but we got distracted for like 40 sessions.