⚔️ Lord-Vigilant Nareth Umbraforged
Wielder of the Hollow Flame. Master of Shadefang. Lord of the Silent Ones.
Few names stir such dread and awe in whispered recollection as Nareth Umbraforged, the revenant commander known as The Hollow Flame.
Once a rising figure among the Anvils of the Heldenhammer, Nareth’s pursuit of forbidden knowledge to better combat Chaos led him to clash with those even within his own order. It is said he hunted creatures of shadow and flame across the Mortal Realms, growing grim and silent as he peered too long into the abyss. When he recovered the cursed blade now known as Gloombrand, an ancient relic said to burn not with fire but with the cold vengeance of lost souls, the whispers around him deepened.
During a covert crusade into the Shadrigh Mountains—a continent-spanning range riddled with lost ruins and mineral veins warped by raw magic—Nareth and his command vanished. Unbeknownst to the realms above, they had fallen victim to the Black Scale Coil, a heretical drake-worshipping syndicate of mortal sorcerers, smelters, and shadowbinders. Seeing Nareth as a dangerous relic of Azyr’s order, they sealed him in a geomantically locked vault, where the very stone pulsed with suppressive magic. His Gryph-stalker, Shadefang, a beast bred in the gloam-wilds of Ulgu, was chained beside him—its mind filled with nightmares, its hunger barely kept at bay.
For decades, Nareth endured. He did not age. He did not sleep. In his silence, he became something more than Lord-Vigilant—he became myth.
It was only during theBattle for the Rocky Hollow, an obsidian-choked pass deep within the Shadrighs, that the sealed vault was finally disturbed. Obsidian Watch, guided by the auguries of Halrik Duskwisper, descended into the hollow to uncover what the mountains had entombed. They faced elven geomancers, elemental spirits, and the echoing traps of the Coil, but at the end of their descent, they shattered the seal—and the vault’s ancient stone groaned open.
Nareth stood waiting.
His armor was dimmed, etched with silent runes of warding. His blade, Gloombrand, ignited as the air touched it—its flames spectral and silent, a heatless fire that whispered in forgotten tongues. At his side stood Shadefang, now grown monstrous, eyes burning with unnatural patience and wrath.
The Silent Ones—Stormcast Reclusians who had taken vows of silence in reverence of the unknowable—fell to their knees. In Nareth, they saw prophecy made flesh. They named him their commander, their exemplar, their wraithlord.
Now, Nareth Umbraforged leads The Silent Ones on grim expeditions across the realms. His voice is rarely heard. His presence is omen enough. With Shadefang at his side and Gloombrand in hand, he seeks to unearth ancient weapons and truths buried beneath lies, stone, and time.