Calaban
 Calaban
Grave Walker | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | Gatorman | |
| Gender | Male | |
| Weapons | Carcass Heart Stopper | |
| Birth | Unknown | |
History
Calaban was one of the first bokors to join Bloody Barnabas when he started his efforts to unite the gatormen under his rule and lead them toward carnage.[1]
Soon, Calaban approached his longtime rival, Maelok, a bokor in the Bloodsmeath Marsh, to persuade him to put aside their differences to defeat Barnabas, clearly the greater threat. Unaware that Calaban has already joined Barnabas' service, Maelok accepted the truce and began a ritual to summon powerful spirits of the dead to assail their foe. Calaban struck in the midst of the rite, siphoning its great power for himself. Even channelling the power of the ceremony, Calaban was barely able to defeat Maelok, but eventually he stood triumphant. Calaban immediately captured Maelok's soul and bounded it to him, then used his power to animate Maelok's corpse as a undead slave tightly leashed by ropes of will.[2]
With Barnabas' unification of many local gatorman tribes, the tide of the age-old battle between them and the local bog trogs quickly shifted. Rask, one of the most powerful bog trog chieftains, approached Barnabas and Calaban and offered to fight alongside them, in exchange for survival of his tribe.[3]
Before Barnabas could complete a wholesale slaughter of the bog trogs, Calaban intervened and proposed a better solution: spare the bog trogs in exchange for service in the Congregation. Due to Calaban's efforts, many gatormen tribes in the Fenn Marsh begin pushing past their ancient boundaries and claiming new territory. He gathers a sizable contingent of local warriors and delivers them to the Blindwater Congregation, joining southern and northern gatormen into a single alliance. Since Barnabas' grand designs require an attention to detail for which he has little patience, he has appointed Calaban to minister to the more esoteric aspects of his ascension.[1]
In 608 AR, after the flight of two dragons over the Bloodstone Marches stirred the local spirits, Calaban decides to head to the Fenn Marsh to conduct a ritual to awaken an ancient reptilian spirit and bind it to his will. However, when asking Barnabas for permission, he only reveals the ritual to be one that requires the slaughter of many humans.[1]
Calaban begins his ritual after the gatormen fall on a private riverboat and slaughtering it to a man. Though a gatorman warrior warns him he's interloping on farrow territory controlled by an unusually strong chief, Calaban only orders him to prepare for the defence of the ritual while he waits for more ships.[1]
Soon enough Barnabas tells Calaban to return to Blindwater: Calaban has finished what he requested to do, while Barnabas is concerned that the slaughter of the ship will attract more human armies. Calaban tries his best to convince Barnabas to let him stay for a longer time, and Barnabas, despite finding Calaban's ritual well-prepared, ornate and unfamiliar to him, eventually decides to indulge him.[1]
Calaban is deep in trance, his mind at once with the malevolent spirits enslaved to his will, when the farrow launch their attack. Barnabas again orders him to leave the place, though Calaban again succeeds at convincing him, this time to lure the farrow to his position - all he needs is a few more deaths.[1]
As the fight rages around him, Calaban keeps chanting, and the reptilian spirit rises over the swamp. Calaban immediately engages in a mental struggle against it. He is initially successful and orders it to incapacitate the farrow, who get stuck in the mud and water, with swines wrapping around their neck; however, later, when the spirit gains the upper hand, the gatormen and bog trogs start fighting each other, opening a way for the farrow chieftain Lord Carver. Carver fires a bullet straight at Calaban, interrupting his concentration.[1]
As the farrow start rallying and firing at the maddened gatormen and bog trogs, Calaban's blood drips over, and his pact with the spirit solidifies. By sheer strength of will, Calaban forces it to give up its manifested form and sink into his crystal skull. Barnabas drags Calaban away, and he assures his master that the losses they've suffered does not matter compared to what they've gained. Together the two bokors and the rest of their army swim back to Blindwater.[1]
In early 609 AR, the bokor Jaga-Jaga comes to the Blindwater Congregation to meet Bloody Barnabas. Calaban predicts Barnabas would destroy her, though to his amazement, he brings Jaga-Jaga into his fold. Ever since she arrives, Calaban has resented how Barnabas would listen to her.[4]
When Jaga-Jaga describes her visions sent to her by Kossk to Barnabas - a great site of carnage with gatormen, farrow and trollkin slaughtering eachother upon blood-red sands; and Barnabas flanked by sacral vaults and standing upon a mountain of corpses, his chest split but his heart still beating, his posture full of triumph - Barnabas consults Calaban his thoughts on them. Calaban thinks it's a warning, though he doesn't understand the reason to go into the Bloodstone Desert and considers it a fate easily avoided. Barnabas, enraged, threatens to kill Calaban the moment he becomes an obstacle, and Calaban submissively admits his mistake. Barnabas then turns to Jaga-Jaga, who considers it a glimpse of a future aligned with what she thought. Barnabas, pleased, orders Calaban to gather their forces and head into the desert. He shoots Jaga-Jaga a spiteful look before backing away.[4]
Personality
Calaban is cold, calculating and pragmatic while Barnabas is ruthlessly ambitious. Though he willingly aids Barnabas in his mad goals, Calaban has no intention to let his own life fuel the warlord's ambitions. While other bokors of his power would seize power over dozens of tribes, he doesn't see himself as a chief, instead preferring to be the voice of counsel to the greatest chieftains of his people.[1]
Calaban wishes to see his people grow beyond a collection of tribes scattered across the wetlands of western Immoren. He sees the work started by Barnabas as the first step toward a larger unification of gatormen. Calaban envisions a day the swamps belong to the gatormen alone, and all who enter the depths must pay tribute or feed the gatormen their flesh. In the short term Barnabas will succeed and ascend or be destroyed; in either event it will be Calaban who chooses the next figurehead and who will truly control the united gatormen.[1]
