Tamrus

"...a dwarf with fiery red hair, all clad in grey, a gleaming axe in his hand."

An ordinary merchant from the wealthy mountain-country of Heruvnil, Tamrus's travelling lifestyle was violently interrupted when his caravan was attacked on their way home. The assault left his comrades dead and Tamrus on the run with a terrible curse: a deep-seated gnawing hunger than turns him into a monster, stripping away any semblance of control or self. His search for help has taken him across the continent, all the while keeping a low profile to avoid innocents getting hurt should his control over the beast ever fail.

Despite the dire circumstances Tamrus has not lost his kindly spirit nor his trust in others. He's observant, fair, and a good judge of character as any good merchant worth his coin ought to be, never taking people at face value. His years of travelling all across the continent and trading with a variety of peoples from different lands and cultures have left him resourceful and open-minded.

Tamrus is brown-skinned with flaming red hair and beard and with twinkling brown eyes. Short, muscular and sturdily built, he often strikes people as a typical example of dwarven-kind, though only a trained eye would be able to tell something's not quite right with him. For a dwarf he's on the skinnier side, and he keeps his beard cropped short, a style no common dwarf normally wears voluntarily.

Heruvnil

Most of dwarven might in the north is concentrated in the mountainous land of Heruvnil, located close to the lake Anvilmere, the Stonewood, and within trading distance of The Protected Lands. Its location by the Stone Coast makes it an ideal trading hub, and dwarven shipfarers are a common sight all over the continent, transporting their wares wherever the tides take them. Heruvnil is governed by the Council of Nine, a body of high-ranking councillors overseeing all most important facets of life in this unique land.

Hallowdeep, the capital of Heruvnil, might as well be a fortress, for it's a marvel of dwarven engineering set deep within the mountain caves, reaching far into the earth itself through some of the oldest natural cave systems in the known world. The cave networks continue for miles upon miles through residential, industrial and artisanal quarters, and the deepest layers of the old city are so ancient that not even the natives know how far they reach.

Haggard witches

The creatures commonly known as hags are known in folktales all over the world, though very few will ever see them with their own eyes. The name has been coined from the term 'haggard witch', for the beast can vaguely resemble a frail old crone at a distance, luring unsuspecting travellers into approaching. In reality, what's underneath the cloak is no humanoid creature at all, but malignant, corrupt energy given form. Nursery rhymes often suggest that hags form from organic matter, of all things rotten, decaying and dead, which has lead some to associate them with places like marshes and graveyards.

'O haggard, o haggard witch, of roots and mould and ashes' starts an old Kherantharese lullaby, though luckily for the hellnings, hags are rarely spotted up in the north, thanks to the midnight sun in the tundra providing little places to hide.