Myrgos

Myrgos (d. 657 C.E.) was a infamous male Santorillan corsair who operated in the waters around the Constant Sea on a long, low-slung black ship named Vulture, plaguing the settlements around the area. Known across the area as a scourge of their seas, Myrgos's many acts of cruelty for his sadistic amusement gained him notorious reputation as a pitiless evil of a man. He eventually captured and held the young Emperor Constantus of Byzantos to ransom for a period of three months before the young heir to the Byzantos Empire was rescued by his bodyguard, Olaf, and The Heron brotherband. He died after he was knocked out after trying to attack Ingvar, falling into the sea and drowning.

History[]

Myrgos and his crew plagued the area around the Constant Sea

At some point in time, Myrgos, an experienced sailor, became a pirate corsair and took command of a black galley named Vulture, which he crewed with fellow buccaneers. Myrgos and his crew eventually took up headquarters on Santorillos, an island that's dormant volcano formed a natural lagoon. Mooring his ship against the base of the range of clifftops that made up the island's east side, Myrgos eventually acquired or constructed a fortified villa at the cliffs top, which could be reach with a lifting device constructed to transport the pirates up the sheer drop. Myrgos and his crew enjoyed a cooperative relationship with the Santorillans who inhabited the island's western side, with the islanders supplying meat, vegetables and fish to the pirates, who, in return, protected the village from attacks by their roving confederates, causing the pirate captain to become the isle's unofficial ruler. Myrgos would use the island as a base for his summer 'cruises', which ranged from two to three months depending on the quality and amount of the booty the pirates acquired. Taking fifty of his best crew with him while having his twenty other henchmen remain to guard their compound, Myrgos began his cruises by ranging around the Adrios Sea and up to the edge of the Golden Reach before swinging south to observe the current events of the Dan River, although, due to his rivalry with the pirates of Raguza, he made sure to remain out to sea. Finally, Myrgos made his way through the small islands that are scattered across the Constant Sea, sinking and burning any ship that came into his sight. Myrgos also took sadistic pleasure in attacking small fishing boats, which he sunk not for money, but simply out of fiendish amusement, causing him to become a loathed figure among the fishermen of his territory such as Kostas. After completing his cruise, Myrgos returned to his caldera base.
Myrgos eventually began breeding dogs for fighting, teaching them to kill. In order to train them, Myrgos purchased or stole large and powerful dogs that lacked the killing instincts of his own, but who would put up a fight.

The Caldera[]

Myrgos has kidnapped Constantus, the young Emperor-in-waiting of Byzantos, and demands 300,000 reels of silver from Constantus's mother, Regent Empress Justina, in return for his release.
Waiting until the young Emperor traveled from Byzantos to a small coastal village before he struck, Myrgos (who had possibly been informed of Constantus's movement) scouted out the location with his pirates before leading them in a raid on the village, attacking and overwhelming the young Imperial's bodyguards (who's leader, Olaf, was currently in a weakened state, having just thrown off a fever) and kidnapped Constantus, who Myrgos imprisoned within his Santorillan villa. Before the week following the heir of the Byzantos Empire's kidnapping was out, Myrgos sent Constantus's mother, Justina, a ransom note demanding 300,000 reels to be delivered to him by the end of nine months. The reason for the long reason period was due to Myrgos, who, despite his merciless, murdering ways, was essentially a businessman, knowing that it would take Justina some time to gather up the ransom amount.

As he waited for the ransom to be delivered, Myrgos began his ‘summer cruise’ and docked on the island of Cypra (a town he regularly visited). One day, Myrgos was tipped off to the presence of the arrival of a crew lead by a young Skandian boy who had in their possession a huge dog that could provide a good training for Myrgos’s fighting dogs. That night, Myrgos, accompanied by his henchman, Demos, entered the Blue Lizard Tavern the Herons were dining in. Scanning the interior, Myrgos catches sight of the Skandians and turns to mutter to Demos, who nods in reply. With a gesture, Myrgos and Demos make their way towards The Herons' table, shoving their way roughly through the crowd, only pausing once for Myrgos to utter a brief word to a man who had remonstrated loudly over wine that had been spilled over his shirt because of the pirates’ forceful passing, instantly cowing the man before stopping a metre away from the seated Sea Wolves, their proximity issuing an unmistakable threat and challenge. Introducing himself and Demos, indicating the latter with a jerk of his hand, Myrgos allowed his eyes to roam the table and assess the crew. As Hal greets the pirate without giving his own name, Myrgos quickly scans the table in search of any amusement from the crew before looking back at Hal, reaching into his leather jerkin to produce a coin-laden purse which he proceeds to drop on the table. Commenting on the handsomeness of Kloof, Myrgos bluntly informs the Skirl he wanted to by her, only for Hal to evenly inform him he had no intention of selling his dog, holding Myrgos’s purse out to the corsair, who makes no move to take, intend remarking that he could simply take Kloof, allowing his hand to fall to the hilt of his sword while his eyes dart to Thorn comments that he could try. However, before Myrgos can make any move, Thorn swiftly locks Myrgos’s sword hand in a solid grip with his wooden hook while Stig holds Demos at Saxe point. Rising casually from his seat, Hal places a hand against Myrgos’s chest, pushing him back a pace, causing the furious and humiliated plunderer to savagely swear to kill the crew and take Kloof by force, only to let a low grunt of pain escape as Thorn applies pressure to Myrgos’s trapped wrist and forearm, causing several of the pirate’s smaller bones to grate together. As Hal and the crew leave, Thorn releases Myrgos from his grip and shoves him back, forcing Myrgos and Demos, faces black with rage, to back towards the entrance. As they reach the door, Myrgos calls across the silent room to the Skandians that he would kill all of them, only to flinch violently as a metre-long dart thrown by Lydia slams into the door jamb next to Myrgos’s head. Looking at the quivering missile, Myrgos pales and hurries out, followed by Demos.
The next day, Myrgos and Demos complained to the Citizen’ Defence Committee and, using his and his crew’s influence as regular visitors that spent a lot of gold at Cypra, Myrgos had the Heron brotherband driven out of Cypra before beginning to pursue the Wolfship. Slowly gaining on Heron after leaving port, Myrgos makes an attempt to cut the corner and pick up ground on his prey as Heron turns starboard, aiming to intercept his humiliators by swinging further right, outlining an invisible triangle of sea between the hunter and the hunted, near-immediately gaining ground across the triangle, only for Heron to fly forwards and away from Vulture, the galley slowing even further as it ran on a beam reach even as it tried to cut down the distance between the vessels. As the winds died, Myrgos sets his sailors to work, intending to us his larger numbers to catch up with the wolfship through manpower, bearing down on Hal’s ship, who’s rowers seemed only to be delaying the inevitable, only for the smaller ship to catch a wind and accelerate forwards, though Vulture continues to close in. Myrgos and his crew, however, once again falls behind as Heron catches the first gust of a nearby wind and the corsair captain, comprehending that he had relied on his oars for to long, begins bellowing for the sail to be raised, his frantic shouts travelling across the waves to Hal’s ears. The ships continue their chase, ploughing on through a pair of violent squalls, shoving clear of the downpour of the second minutes after Heron. But it was these minutes that were a crucial role in the race. Night falls seconds later, leaving the black Vulture a mere shadow and the deep green Heron near invisible to anyone watching, Myrgos among them. The ships at again hit by the rains of a squall, but as Vulture, still on its first course, bursts out of the gale of wind and water, the criminal captain and crew, after several minutes of desperate searching the horizon, sight the indistinct Heron slipping over the horizon and Myrgos, now at the tiller, attempts to pull his galley to starboard, striving to imitate the Heron and tack across the winds. But Myrgos, like many sailors of the square sail that had pursued the triangular-sailed ship before him, discovered that the instinctive action to follow Heron brought him not success, but grief as the wind, catching Vulture’s square main rigging, driving the sail against the mast and sending the galley to a sudden halt before beginning to gather sternway as the shrouds and mast began creaking ominously. Screaming furious orders for the sail to be reset and the oars to be again employed, tasks that could only be carried out quickly due to the large number of pirates under him. Recovering from his mistake with the swift expertise of an experienced sailor, Myrgos set off after Heron, which was approaching yet another squall, angling Vulture right just as the squall hit. However, Myrgos, having noticed the Heron’s slight port angle to his own vessel, outguessed his opponent and making the logical assessment that the young Skirl would continue left, going back to the starboard tack with the wind coursing over his starboard side. Subsequently, while the Vulture was hidden from the brotherband’s eyesight, Myrgos swung the ship to a 270-degree right arc, thus putting the wind to her starboard side once more, resulting in the two ships being at the same tack and Vulture making up some distance to boot, growing 100 metres closer to his target, only for the hunter and the hunted to diverge in their courses as Myrgos found himself unable to retain the same heading that Heron maintained and fell away to port. Racing on, though now on slightly altered course, the Vulture and the Heron. However, as another squall passes over Myrgos’s prey, the pirate makes a too clever move, turning Vulture left and throwing her well off course. Anxious not to make a third mistake, Myrgos, who’s voice again rang across the water, began shouting orders, though this time in an unspecified language, electing to continue his course, bringing him close to the silent, unmoving Heron – near invisible in the dark – as the sea criminals once again scanned the sea but fail to see their target. Myrgos pass through the nearby squall when he believes his foes had proceeded into, still shrieking orders, passing by his targets and vanishing into the darkness, unaware that his prey was lying so nearby.
After loosing sight of The Heron in the squalls and darkness, Myrgos entered a heated argument with Demos, who believed The Heron to have doubled back on them. Eventually, however, Myrgos’s viewpoint – as it often did – prevailed, and the corsairs dismissed The Heron as a passing concern and returned to raiding, spotting a trading ship on the horizon soon after noon and running it down after less than an hour. Once Vulture had caught the trader, Myrgos attacked without mercy or preamble, bringing down the sail and having his crew run out the oars, sweeping in on an oblique angle from the ship’s starboard quarter. In a desperate attempt to avoid collision, the helmsman of the trader attempted to avoid Vulture’s ram, only for Myrgos, ready for such a manoeuvre, to heave on the tiller and swing Vulture to starboard, regaining his original attacking angle and swinging back to port, sending Vulture’s ram crushing into their quarry. Myrgos proceeds to order his men to fasten the ships together in order to keep the ram plugging the hole smashed into the hull by the ram and allow the pirates to search and strip the trader of anything of value. After a brief skirmish with the trader ship’s crew and Myrgos’s cronies, Myrgos orders his men leave the three survivors alive and a cruel smile transfixing his face at this order, set the ship alight, while Myrgos, armed with the knowledge that even with the ram buried deep in the trader’s vitals, it would only be a matter of time before the vessel was underwater, stepped across the gap between the two ship’s hulls and strides to the shipmaster’s quarters in search of the strongbox. Shoving the cabin’s cot aside, Myrgos catches sight of the trapdoor below, which he hauls open and peers into, being rewarded by the sight of an ironbound box. Lifting the considerably heavy strongbox from it’s hiding box, Myrgos places his find on the shipmaster’s table and, glancing around, catches sight of an iron spike which he jams into the strongbox’s crude padlock and successfully opens after three attempts. Easing the strongbox’s lid back, Myrgos lets a satisfied smile spread across his face as he sees the gleaming gold and silver within, thinking that even without the ship’s cargo, the wealth found in the strongbox would have made the attack worthwhile before slamming the storage box shut, closing the hasp and hoisting the chest under one arm which he walked back into the sunlight. Nodding to Demos with a smile of confirmation as his henchman silently questioned if Myrgos had found the ship’s wealth, Myrgos, slapping the metal box, informs Demos that they had captured a small fortune gained either by profitable trade or due to the ship not having spent its money so far. When questioned by Demos what he wanted done with the crew, Myrgos, in a good mood because of the wealth found in the storage box, orders Demos to let the crew drown. However, as Demos questioned whether Myrgos wanted any of the hostage crew taken hostage, he suddenly exclaims “he was the commander of the guard”. Turning puzzled back to Demos, Myrgos questions who he’s henchman was talking about, being unable to follow his minion’s train of though. As Demos mentions the older of the Skandian crew, Myrgos, who had hardly noticed Olaf, questions whether Demos meant Thorn (who he describes as “the one-armed man”), only for Demos to emphatically deny this and remind his captain of Olaf, although Myrgos remains only faintly interested until Demos remains him of their sighting of Olaf as the scouted the seaside village where they had capture Constantus, prompting Myrgos to ask what Olaf was doing in Cypra, exchanging a long glance with Demos until they simultaneously realise that Olaf and the crew were heading for Santorillos to rescue Constantus. Myrgos voicing this realisation and being reminded by a furious Demos that the pirate had told Myrgos The Heron might have backtracked it’s course. Uttering a curse as he realised how he had been duped, Myrgos rushes back to Vulture, clutching the stolen storage box to his chest and leaping awkwardly over the space between the two crafts, staggering as the strongbox unbalances him and wildly shouting to his puzzled crew to reboard their own vessel and cut the lines connecting the two ships, announcing that they were returning to Santorillos as he frantically points at the grappling lines. As the ship in unbound from the trader, it is briefly jammed before the crew, prompted by a screaming Myrgos, redouble their efforts. Paying no attention to the three surviving sailors of the trader’s cries of fear, Myrgos continues to issue orders for Vulture to turn south-west for Santorillos.
Vulture returns to Santorillos just in time to find The Heron making the move to escape with the released Constantus and blocks the Wolfship’s path to the open sea before proceeding to plough towards the would-be rescuers as Hal turns his ship starboard, only to reverse the turn, sending the ship sailing across Vulture’s path and speeding away, though not before several of the rowers are taken out by Lydia and Vulture is damaged by the Mangler. Learning from his past mistake, Myrgos makes no attempt to tack Vulture’s square rigger across the wind, instead yelling a series of orders for his rowers to reverse one bank of oars and go forwards with another. Once again, however, Hal’s ingenuity allows The Heron to surge past Myrgos’s galley and towards the exit to the vast lagoon the two ships floated within, although Vulture quickly sets of in pursuit, gradually eating up the distance between the ships. However, just as Vulture bears down on The Heron, a monstrous mound of water created by a volcanic earthquake erupts from the lagoon and crashes down, causes a massive circular wave. With the wave dead astern of Vulture, Myrgos, standing at the tiller, screams orders at his crew and the corsairs make a futile attempt to outrun the incoming wall of water. However, the pirates desperate escape attempt ends in failure and the wave picks up Vulture, which, having never been designed to hold her weight, snaps, its rear breaking, leaving its hull, with Myrgos and his crew still on it, to be swallowed by the wave.
Miraculously however, unlike a vast collection of his crew, who go down with the ship, Myrgos survives both the destruction of his ship and the eruption of the Santorillan volcano, clinging to a broken spar to remain above the water, and, as The Heron searches for survivors, Lydia sights the pirate captain, who, despite the corsair’s hair and beard being plastered down by water and features are half-obscured by ash and dirt, the Herons’ instantly recognise as Myrgos upon sighting the criminal’s snarling mouth and glaring eyes. As The Heron draws next to Myrgos’s lifeline, Ingvar lifts the captain bodily onto the ship and sets him down next to the rail, which Myrgos, eyes alive with hate and features contorted with rage, slumps against. Reaching behind his back, Myrgos draws a long knife from a sheath and slashing at his saviour, catching the Skandian a glancing blow on his left forearm, which Ingvar reacts instinctively to, grabbing Myrgos by a handful of the corsair’s shirtfront before Myrgos could recover from his first wild stroke and pitching Myrgos over the railing and into the water. As he lands, Myrgos’s head makes solid contact with the spar that had saved his life and lets lose a grunt of surprise and pain. Eyes glazing over, Myrgos slides off the spar and into the scum-covered water, where he proceeds to drown within the very waters he had found sanctuary in so many times before, ending his cruel reign of terror.

Personality and Traits[]

Myrgos was described by many to be a sadistic and cruel swine of a man who possessed no empathy or conscience and was, as a corsair, greedy, ruthless and obviously willing to hurt and kill innocents if it served his own purpose. He cared little for human lives and is a being who can truly be described as evil, finding fiendish amusement in the screams of his victims as he left them to perish and cares nothing for the lives of animals, who he no doubt views as being beneath him, managing dog fighters to turn innocent creatures into mindless killing machines. He seemed to indulge in suffering, leaving a trading ship crew to face death by flame or sea instead of simply killing them, preferring to prolong their suffering. Unlike some of his leading cutthroat profession, like Philip 'Bloodyhand', Myrgos is also a cunning and cautious individual, scouting out the intended area he intended to raid instead of mindlessly leading his pirates in storming the settlement without a thought and, underneath his black-hearted ways, was essentially a businessman when it came to gold, with Olaf believing that should Justina fail to pay his ransom for Constantus in the time limit, Myrgos would simply increase the demand rather than simply kill the young emperor. He also was willing to protect the people of Santorillos from roving corsairs in return for supplies and a base on their island, showing that he realised that it would be far more profitable if his crew enjoyed a cooperative relationship with the Santorillans rather than an antagonistic one. Furthermore, he was willing to generally buy Kloof from Hal, although, as soon as his offer of gold was rejected, he proceeded on to more threatening means.
Like most captains, Myrgos appears to enjoy the feel of his galley and is a experienced helmsman who is capable of adjusting to a change in situation. By this, he is slightly like Hal in leadership skill, as well as in ingenuity, as it was presumably Myrgos himself who designed the lift that the corsairs of Vulture used to transport themselves from the waters of the caldera to Myrgos's villa. Myrgos, however, as has been stated, is twisted and evil, as well as vengeful, the latter of which will occasionally cloud his caution and which resulted eventually in his demise after he furiously attempted to attack Ingvar.

Physical Appearance[]

Myrgos was a barrel-chested, broad shouldered man with a height of barely a meter sixty in height, although his powerful physique makes up for his diminutive stature. He possesses unnaturally long arms and a mass of unruly grey-black hair that grows in all directions, falling past his thick neck, down his shoulders and down the back of his neck. Myrgos's face, which is framed by a beard of grey-back wild hair of matched volume and unruliness to his hair, is broad, with flat cheekbones and a large hooked nose that is mentioned to have obviously been broken, set, then re-broken, several times. Myrgos's untrimmed beard also framed his mouth, which is filled with discoloured, misshapen teeth. Myrgos's most striking physical feature are his eyes, which, set under wildly growing eyebrows, are so dark obsidian that they are on the verge of black and are wide-open and staring, giving Myrgos a manic, unpredictable look.
Myrgos dresses in black leather, wearing a sleeveless belted vest over a stained white shirt and black leather trousers shoved into knee-high boots of the same material. Myrgos also keeps a long, slightly curved sword kept in a scabbard adorned with silver facings and decoration.

Trivia[]

Myrgos is the fourth corsair/pirate to be a major antagonist in the Brotherband Chronicles, the others being Zavac, Tursgud and Philip 'Bloodyhand'.