Richard Roslöw

Born in Jardwessen around 945 HC from a wealthy family, Richard was always inclined towards combat and military. He trained under the guards of Lord Jardwessen until he was 16, and served for two years, before becoming an adventurer. He borrowed some of the family's money to recruit and arm some of his friends from the guards and formed his first adventuring party, the Company of the Black Spear. As many adventurers before him, he started by helping cleaning villages from goblins and gnolls, did some scouting for the Grafs to improve the maps, and sometime did some bodyguard work for the dwarves in the long trails between Grevesmühl and Daikhar Zhigun.

Richard got his first important chance in 970 HC, when the Brecht rebellion against the anuireans begun. He and his friends helped overthrown Graf Jardwessen, loyal to the empire, in favour of his cousin. The reward was rich and Richard managed to form a full fledged military unit: his company went from 20 people to 200. Richard saw a sign in this and moved his business to full military activities. In the following years he moved further and further north, following the winds of rebellion. During the siege of Trie in 973 HC he met and fell in love with wizard Katherine Koert, leader of the Brecht rebellion of the northern provinces. After Westriet came under Brecht control, Richard and Katherine married. Katherine pushed Richard towards expanding north the business, which moved Richard into offering the company's service to Grabentod and Drachenward. With the help of Katherine, they managed both to fight battles and live adventures, finding fame and glory.

In 975 HC the company was enlisted to fight back the undead coming from Roaren in Grabentod. Katherine died during a battle with the undead's necromancer leader. Although victorious, Richard fell in grief which led to depression, and decided to retire from active adventuring. He returned in his ancestral home where he founded some permanent holdings of the company, and manage business from there.

In 980 HC Graf Riegon Oevere, first lieutenant of the mad king Harold Ulfer of Ulfer, was facing the social collapse of the northern colonies around the Dwarfhame. The dwarves lost the last two southern provinces due to an orog invasion and wanted to move back to the mountains around the Dwarfhame, which were now inhabited by humans who lived inside the great halls, using them as subterranean households. The provinces of the Dwarfhame were in turmoil but the mad king wouldn't care, as he was more interested in obtaining godhood by exploiting ancient dwarven artifacts than caring about his own people. In classical Brecht spirit, this moved many kings and nobles to form their own armies and tried to separate from the kingdom.

When Oevere's words reached Richard, the idea of fighting another (suspected) necromancer seemingly moved him, as he woke up from his grief and decided to take arms again. Richard used all his knowledge, including his years as a corsair, to help the company enter Ulfer and restore order to chaos. The countless victories and the gratitude of the people seemed to give Richard a new direction and decided to become King. He did so in 985 HC and become king of the northern provinces.

In 989 HC Alisse Ulfer killed her uncle Harold Ulfer and become queen of the southern provinces. This brought both armies to a decisive battle around Mount Edarr. What happens next is something between legend and history. It seems that Sera herself, tired of the turmoil that tormented Brechtür, saw no gain in having two of her own people fight each other. So she asked Laerme to ignite passion in the two leaders, and when they saw each other in the middle of the battlefield, during the diplomatic exchange before the battle, they immediately and hopelessly fell in love with each other. More disillusioned scholars say that they just decided that was a better course of action rather than more years of war, but there are a lot of hints that what happened could have been a miracle for real.

As predicted by the state religion Singing Flame of Laerme, Richard and Alisse had a couple of twins in 992 HC. This inspired them to write the the brörzákon law. After the realm was unified, they left most of the business to Riegon Oevere and the lawkeeping to the Company of the Black Spear, who become the kingdom's army, and lived their life in love and mostly privacy. It is said that they even had some more adventures at the requests of the dwarves in the north, but no tale has survived.

Richard and Alisse died together the 14th day of Faniele in 1001 HC. Their exact cause of death is not know, as the priests ruled out poison or spells. They died in their sleep, hugged to each other, with a serene expression on their face. They were buried together in the same pose in a chapel now lost in the city of Rzhlev.