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"Ironhide is the strongest trollkin leader to arise in four centuries. We cannot suffer him to live"
―Omnipotent Ergonus of the Circle, now deceased

Even as Madrak reached a pinnacle as the greatest leader in the history of the eastern trollkin, his life was recently darkened by ill omens and setbacks that would crush the sprit of a lesser chief. He has endured assassination attempts, his people have been forced from their ancestral home, and his blood brother has betrayed his trust. Somehow Madrak finds the strength to fight on and hopes to lead his people to a safer path.[1]

As a youth, Madrak earned renown for his ability to outfight his peers atop the kuor dueling platform in contests of arms or brawn, for such skill weapons was unprecedented in an albino trollkin sorcerer. He pushed his limits exploring the ominous Thornwood Forest until one day a band of Tharn ambushed the young trollkin. Hopelessly outnumbered, he drew his axes and screamed the battle cry of his kriel. In this moment of doom, a crackle of thunder split the air, and lightning consumed the leading Tharn. Madrak's unlikely saviors were Cygnarans led by a young human bearing the Cygnus. Back at his kriel, Madrak honored the youth at a feast and evoked a ceremony called the kulgat that made them blood brothers for life. In later decades this prince became King Leto, the ruler of Cygnar.[1]

Madrak demonstrated an ability to unite his fellow kin by fostering fellow chiefs and warriors, but full war between Khador and Cygnar fell on the Thornwood like darkness and interrupted his efforts. Bloodshed tore kriels apart as hundreds of innocents died in the crossfire. The situation reached a crisis when the horrors from Cryx invaded the forest and slaughtered entire villages in the paths of their advance. The displaced tribes turned to Chief Ironhide begging for help.[1]

In late 605 AR Madrak reluctantly undertook a pilgrimage to a special kuor serving as the resting place for an ancient weapon, the axe Rathrok originally wielded by Horfar Grimmr of the Molgur. Its name means "World Ender." Legends proclaimed that this weapons was so mighty that if it were wielded, a dire crisis would fall upon the world to herald the end of days and unleash the Devourer Wurm. Knowing his people faced annihilation, Ironhide grasped at its hilt and brought the weapon forth against the darkness invading the forest.[2]

Even with Rathrok's power, Madrak slowly lost ground against the inexhaustible reserves of the enemy. Desperate, he sought audience with King Leto, his blood brother, and negotiated what he thought would be the salvation of his people. King Leto encouraged Madrak to move into the unused lands east of the Black River and swore to gran substantial fertile lands if Madrak protected the border. Torn between abandoning his ancestral homeland and offering his people a new chance at survival, the chief ultimately concluded that accepting the king's offer was his people's best hope. With a heavy heart, he convinced his people to abandon their homes and move east.[2]

Leaving the forest unwittingly put Madrak's people directly in the path of the invading skorne. After a bloody season of countless battles dutifully fulfilling his obligation to protect Cygnar's eastern border, Madrak returned to King Leto to demand the land promised of his kriels. Swayed by the aristocracy claiming that land, Leto made excuses. Returning to his people with only failure to show, Ironhide was greeted by a vicious assassination attempt at the hands of not only his long time allies, the Druids of Orboros, but trusted kriel kin as well. Betrayed on all sides, the strongest trollking chief of his age turned his anger to the battlefield, desperately hoping that with the last drops of blood, his people might once again find solace. In a final act of resolve that cost the chief more pain as any mortal wound, Madrak swore binding pacts with Hoarluk Doomshaper to carve a safe place for the kriels even if it unleashes a river of bloodshed and invokes the doom of the World Ender.[2]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hordes: Primal, (Seattle, Privateer Press, 2006), 78
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Hordes: Primal, (Seattle, Privateer Press, 2006), 79.
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