Athelan Battlegrounds character bios

Zordan

Zordan is more myth than man. Everything there is to know about him is conjecture; he is perhaps the closest thing the Athelan Battlegrounds has to the boogeyman.

It’s rumoured he hails from a place called Yang Ghaib, where an atmosphere in constant flux on the quantum level created beings who experience periodic intangibility and non-corporeality. (That’s a fancy way of saying they sometimes exist and sometimes don’t, sometimes without solid bodies.)

The story goes that most of Yang Ghaib couldn’t control it and blinked in and out of existence at random. But Zordan was a breed apart: he mastered his ability and immediately put it to work as a contract killer.

It turns out a hitman who can be invisible and phase through physical security defences is going to be in high demand, and Zordan made a fortune. As for what he does with all his money and what incentivised him to become an assassin in the first place, your guess is as good as anyone’s.

Eliminating Ming’s parents was an assignment like any other. Knife goes in, knife goes out, and Zordan teleports away before the noble blood starts gushing. They had guards and gates, a household full of people, their daughter right there with them when it happened, and still nobody could explain how they died or name a culprit!

After all, how are you supposed to catch a killer with no mention in any government database? No recorded place of birth, no medical records, no listed accomplices? A killer you’re unable to see?

What Zordan didn’t initially realise, however, was that Ming had seen. It was only for an instant, and she briefly wondered if she had imagined it in her hysteria, but she had seen his face. And she would never forget it.

Zordan got wind that Ming was training with magicians, finding ways to bring him down. Then came those blasted cosmic law enforcers, whom he’d evaded for so many years. They had the full force of the Veyrathi behind them, so despite the void of information about him, and all his hidden wealth and tricks, they finally nabbed him.

The punishment was typical: A life sentence as a performing monkey in the Athelan Battlegrounds. His fellow assassins there did not impress him. A crazy dancing man and some purple woman. It was all a drag until he heard that Ming had actually volunteered to commit herself to the arena in exchange for her planet’s continued safety.

Well, that was one motivation, anyway. Zordan was the other. She’d been told he was apprehended, she understood where he was, and she wanted to take her shot at him. She wanted vengeance for her parents more than her next breath.

This, thought Zordan, was interesting. It felt interesting to be remembered.

This, he thought, might give being stuck here a little colour.