Dragon_tainted

Created by Lord Vorgoroth, these once-human, dragon-tainted creatures are among his trusted servants.

They are cunning and malicious, and their human-like intelligence has been twisted and corrupted by the draconic blood forced in their veins. Their nature is well evident in the mutantions they bear, in the pitch black darkness of their eyes and the moonlight paleness of their skin.

This profile is still absolutely a work in progress, and it is mostly to be intended as an extension of Vorgoroth's itself.
Anyway, I wanted a little space where to post some more in-depth description of his more human-like, cruel and vicious servants! So, more info to come soon!

Vorgoroth has created at least a dozen dragon-tainted; the three displayed - Syress, Anghor and Eirin - are just the most notable of the group; more information about them will be added soon!

About the Dragon-tainted
The Dragon-tainted gain their name from their origin; they're not natural creatures, rather the result of experiments performed by Lord Vorgoroth and other Edaxors over humans, elves and other humanoids.
THe process combines alchemy, dark magic and dragon blood, and more often than not, a thorough process of ... re-education.

These privileged servants of Vorogoroth must be first of all broken, then raised from darkness and oblivion with a gentle and firm hand, and admitted to their new role in life - executors of the will of the Dark Lord.

A dragon-tainted retains human features mixed with these typical of the Dragonspawn. Their skin is extremely pale, they lose all hair and their body undergoes several grotesque mutations - often including the growth of claws and talons, spikes on some parts of the body, horns and spikes, and so on. Despite that, whatever remains of human in their appearence is often beautiful and statuesque.

Dragon-tainted retain their human intelligence, but it is twisted by cruelty and perversion, and they lose every morality and every emphaty for the mortal races. Their intelligence, creativity and relative independence is one of the most important assets their creators are looking for, so often these creatures become lieutenants, counselors, strategists, or at least have coordinative and organizative roles. Their considerable agility and stealthiness makes them excellent spies and infiltrators as well.

Their strength, agility and speed are superhuman thanks to the dragon-blood and the considerable expense of magic that they're exposed to during their creation. A dragon-tainted will easily overpower a common human, and often an almost disarmed dragon-tainted will be able to defeat a heavily armored knight without too much effort. Of course, some of them are better at this than others...

Dragon-tainted in Stonethorn
There are about a dozen dragon-tainted in Stonethorn, and they all have important roles in the logistics of the fortress. Some of them are involved in the treatment of prisoners, others assist Vorgoroth in his laboratory, others are his librarians and archivists or simply oversee all these complex tasks involving numbers and lists that goblins aren't so good at.
Nonetheless, almost all of them are perfectly prepared to become unit leaders, infiltrators, assassins or ambassadors if required.


Syress
Syress is a well known figure in Stonethorn. She's a factotum of sorts and is pretty well used to command over goblins and gnolls to guide them in their tasks.
She's particularly active when it comes to taking care of prisoners.
When there's a good lot of fresh captives, she's often the one in charge of their examination. She's the one to decide which ones are good for work, which ones should be taken for other purposes, and which ones have to become food.
And among these ... which sould be fodder for the beasts, and which should be awarded to the troops; and which are intead for the Lord's table.
She takes great pleasure in teaching discipline to the future slaves, or meals, of the fortress; punishment and humiliation are her favourite activities.
Sometimes she's also called to perform her duties in the kitchen when there's an important banquet to prepare - since she cooks considerably better than any goblin...

Syress was once called Rachel, and she was a noble paladin sent to defeat the legion under Vorgoroth's command during the Wyrm Wars. She fell in his clutches even before his ascension as the Lord of Stonethorn. Breaking her took a long time, but she repaid her lord with countless satisfactions. Her fiery and brave personality has been replaced by this cruel, sadistic and perverse monster...