[tab]Fear has no place in a dwarves heart, and many dwarves consider Maros, who was to be their greatest champion, their greatest disappointment. His father was the Umberguard, the keeper of keys, Micah the King of Stone. He was never beat in battle, and his honor remained untarnished until the day he died.
[tab]But he did die. The Underdark is a cruel place and only the most cruel can hope to survive there. For centuries the hold of the dwarves had been surrounded by wild cities of deep goblins. Together they could have overrun the dwarves but they were never coordinated enough to launch any serious threat. Then they came flooding through the gates. The dwarves stood to defend, they slaughtered hundreds of goblins many of which didn’t even defend themselves. They weren’t attacking, they were running.
[tab]The following day a demon approached the dwarven city gates. Flush and crocked the demon picked at the goblin corpses still laying outside. When it finally hailed the city it offered a deal, instead of a war between the demons and dwarves they should settle it with honor. A battle between their champions, if the demons win the dwarves abandon their city, if the dwarves win then the demons will leave them be.
[tab]Micah accepted and a thrall was brought forward to fight on the demons behalf. The thrall looked to have once been a Svartalfar, now possessed by something darker. Unwilling to leave the city a small side gate was opened and the thrall entered, bringing with it only a ill-fitting chain shirt and thin sword. The fight was brief and fierce, but by the end King Micah was again victorious. The thrall had managed only a few minor cuts before falling under Micah’s powerful hammer.
[tab]That night Micah died, the thrall blade had been poisoned. Maros’s uncle was crowned King and he made another deal with the demons. He claimed Micah was a hero, that the demons had been underhanded but they must now honor their pact, they had lost the deal and they must leave the dwarves be because of it. And that seemed to be what they did.
[tab]But Maros didn’t believe it. He warned his people about the demons treachery, told them that the demons must be fought not compromised with, that his Uncle wasn’t a dwarven hero, he was a demonic pawn. Then he left the underdark and enlisted in the Order.
[tab]He was supposed to be king one day, it is said that the Umberguard is to be the champion of Kilmorph when all else has fallen. It is a birthright passed from father to son. Maros is the last of the line, and he will have no children. If there truly is such as a thing as the Umberguard, it dies with him.