Krag was the child of a human barbarian warrior and orcish witch-doctor, members of a horde raised during the Burnt Priest’s last desperate years. He was born in the midst of a skirmish along the Deadstone Highlands between the ever-changing borders of the Bannor and Ember empires. Upon the forehead of the shrieking impling was the red mark of Xrarog, god of war (Xrarog is the orc name for the fallen angel Aeron, one of the 21 Angels of Creation). As soon as the impling could stand and hold a club (about 2 years of age) he was thrust into battle as a runner and scout. The young Krag proved worthy in the eyes of Xrarog and was allowed to live.

A few years later the Burnt Priest was finally sent to hell by Bannor paladins. The Twisted Men who survived the carnage fled into remote mountain highlands. The orphaned Krag was forced to escape alone through 60 miles of wilderness. Four days later a shrunken, blood-encrusted skeleton staggered into the field camp of Jonas Endain himself, the great Emperor of Embers and high priest of Bhall. Despite playing second fiddle to Bhall, the great Goddess of Fire, worship of Xrarog was popular among the orcs.

Krag joined the ranks of the orcish warrior-priesthood, but like many half-orcs, he yearned for more. At the age of 17, now a trained warrior and priest, Krag slipped across the eastern marches of Ember lands to find employment as a mercenary in the Grigori empire. Only months later, the first pangs came. Neither the doctors of the Ordine Medicos nor traveling clerics could determine the cause of Krag’s plight. Relief came only when Krag traveled east to the port city of Dashar. There Krag took ship for Lanun isles. The curse or geas pushed him onward until finally he reached the southern shores of the Atlantean isles, home of the wizardly Amurites

While searching for employment as a guard, Krag inadvertently became the tool in a covert game of intrigue among members of the Amurite House of Almeriaq. He was summarily captured and thrown into a dungeon beneath the trading fort at Scylia. Now he stares across the cell at a tiny human. Surely not a child? A strange blue symbol hovers over the little man’s head. Obviously magic, but how did the sorcerous Amurites fail to notice so obvious a rune? The little man also stares in wonder at something above Krag’s head. Great Xrarog…do we share the same curse?