General’s Family: The End is Near

STARILASKUR, BRELAND—A fall from a horse has badly injured Hallorek the Black, last of Cyre’s Sorcerer-Generals. A younger cousin has told the Sharn Inquisitive on Far that family members are gathering at his bedside in New Cyre because “the end is near.”

Hallorek, 92, was known for personally augmenting the siege engines under his command with powerful magic during Cyre’s incursions into Karrnath in the 960s. He was stationed only a few miles beyond the devastation on the Day of Mourning and eloquently described the firestorms in the letter that resigned his commission. The letter was reprinted in handbill form and widely disseminated throughout Cyran refugee camps.

After the war’s end, Hallorek was a common sight in those refugee camps, using magic to construct shelters and otherwise ease the plight of what he once called, “my countrymen, bound forever by memory and tears.”

Healers from the nearby temple to the Sovereign Host have been summoned to Hallorek’s bedside, but his advanced age prevents healing magic from functioning.

Chenni Nilsanza, a cousin of Hallorek’s, said that the general sleeps most of the day but is lucid when awake. She said that upon regaining consciousness after the fall, he expressed surprise to still be alive and noted the irony of dying in an equestrian accident.

During the Last War, Hallorek eschewed an officer’s steed, instead electing to use his magic to fly from place to place. An expert in both the offensive and defensive aspects of siege warfare, he once said that cavalry was “no damn good in a siege, unless it lasts long enough that you have to eat the horses.”