When the Aurum was founded in the Mror Holds centuries ago, it was an act of rebellion. Galifar was then the dominant power in the region, and members of the Aurum believed that House Kundarak had abandoned the dwarves when it allied with the Twelve. Through the Aurum, the lords of the mines would use their wealth and resources to gain power over their rivals. Antus Soldorak was once the youngest member of the Aurum. Today, he is both the chancellor of the Platinum Concord and a member of the Shadow Cabinet, and one step closer to achieving his childhood dream.
Antus’s holdings include gold and platinum mines. Following the secession of the Mror Holds, he founded the Soldorak Mint, and his currency is now commonplace throughout Karrnath and the Lhazaar Principalities. He has invested his wealth across the Five Nations, and could have an interest in any sort of industry that serves the needs of an adventure. He is determined to break the power of the Twelve and stamp out the last vestiges of Galifar, and to this end he searches for new industrial and magical developments—seeking to fund such endeavors and exploit their results before the knowledge can be acquired or destroyed by the Twelve. He has an enormous gilded airship, Chains of Gold, which includes its own speaking stone station and an infirmary with cuttingedge Jorasco facilities . . . all of which are operated by dragonmarked excoriates loyal solely to Soldorak. Soldorak spends most of his time aboard his ship, flying from city to city to oversee local operations. He purchased his noble title from King Kaius III when Karrnath was in desperate financial straits, and takes pleasure in lording over the people who once oppressed his homeland.
Soldorak is an elderly male dwarf. Though he is physically weak, he has an amazing talent for reading motivations and bending people to his will. This talent could be subtle sorcery or psionic power, or just raw skill; whatever its source, he can predict exactly what strings he needs to pull to control someone. If he makes an enemy, he will find out everything he can about that individual, to best assess weaknesses and strengths. His power isn’t physical; it is his ability to wrap his victims in chains of gold, using his wealth to offer them the things they desire—or to threaten the people they can’t defend.
Antus ir’Soldorak can be connected to any sort of scheme that would weaken the nobility or the dragonmarked houses, or increase the power of the Aurum. A couple of ideas:
- Antus ir’Soldorak wants to outfit the characters and provide them with information they need in order to ransack one of House Kundarak’s highsecurity vaults. The vault holds vast wealth, but Soldorak doesn’t want any of it; his only interest is the terrible publicity that the theft will bring to Kundarak. If the heroes are successful, they could find the treasure to be artifacts from Cyrans who were slain during the Mourning; will the characters keep the wealth, or share it with Cyran refugees?
- Soldorak recognizes the talents of a wizard or an artificer character and offers to fund her, allowing her to create items she normally couldn’t afford. However, when Soldorak begins mass-producing this breakthrough, the characters are caught up in a conflict between the Aurum and the Twelve.