Historical - The Origins of the Horned Society

Historical - The Origins of the Horned Society

Toszar Khan is the name the Rovers of the Barrens give to a Shaman-Chieftain from their distant past. The people of the more civilized southlands know little of him. He united the tribes of the Rovers into a single warband that dominated the central-northern lands of the Flanaess.

That the Rovers discovered a vast city of stone is undisputed. The broken towers and weed-choked streets were half-sunken in the marshy riverland on the banks of the Veng and it is here that the tale of the man Toszar Khan ends and the history of the Horned Society begins.

Within that broken city Toszar Khan found a temple and a passage that lead to a weak point between this world and the Nine Hells. What entered that temple was a man, but that which came forth was no longer Toszar Khan. The horned helm that marked him as chief was now fused to his body and seemingly empty, though the darkness that could be seen through the eye-slits was filled with an evil malevolence.

During the rule of the shaman-king the chieftains of the Rovers were dragged from their tents and adorned with the horned helms of Toszar Khan. These were his warleaders, his strongest guardians and the greatest shame of the Rovers who abandoned Toszar Khan and his city which became Molag the heart of the Horned Society.

The fate of Toszar Khan is unknown. He descened into the temple at the heart of Molag and was never seen again, but three of these horn-helmed chieftains have survived the centuries and the disappearnce of the shaman-king. They are now the guardians of the temple and the gateway to the Nine Hells. What power the present day Hierarchs have over these founders of the Horned Society is unknown but they protect the temple and drag to the Hells any unworthy who would violate its precincts.

Once their had been more than a score of these horn-helmed chieftains but now only three remain.

The Bear, the oldest of the three. His helm is topped with the skull of a bear and his face masked by a cross of bronze, His body is marked with the old symbols of his achievements and power. He was a shaman-king himself and he wields unholy magic as well as martial power. His helm not only animates his cold, dead flesh (as all the helms will do) it allows him to summon the spirits of dead beasts to fight for and serve him,

The Corpse-King, he is seen here between his fellows. The youngest and one of the last chieftains to be taken by Toszar Khan. His flesh is unmarked, though a sickly cold green-blue with the dark-slime that runs through his body instead of blood, the same as his brethren, and his helm is graven with the markings from the old pre-human foundations of the city. His face is masked by the bronzed breast-bones of a man. He is the most skilled with weapons of his brethren fighting with a southern longsword in one hand and a short-sword from the old southern empire in the other. He can summon all those he kills to fight for him though their bodies rot quickly and within a week collapse into a pile of putrid flesh and bones. Animals detest him and flee from him. Animal dead will attack him on sight unless controlled by his brethren.


The Ram. Once a Rover but in the end a Bandit-Lord, he was captured by the Rovers and given to the Shaman-King. His flesh is inscribed with the marks of a chain. Once he was enslaved by the Suel and fought in their arena of death. Somehow he returned to the north and claimed leadership among the outlaws and bandits of the northern mountains. His helm has the skull of a ram upon it and he can summon the elementals of earth and stone to serve him.