Darka

Darka is a friend of the great orc Azbo in the campaign Zincirsiz ("Unchained"), a half-orc chain warden who kept hidden rooms near Azbo's tomb. The shaman Gromak told of a close friend of Azbo from another people who stayed in a hidden underground chamber when visiting the tomb, to guard it, and believed it lay to the south-east, though he had never been there.¹²³

The buried rooms

Following stone markers, with help from the owl Bold and Blink, Jonathan River found the small buried structure, and Olaf dug down to a stair and a door. Inside, a hand-made corridor was lit by candles that burned of themselves, and a hearth in the living quarters burned without smoke. There were racks for armour, swords and chains, a chest and a study. How old the rooms' magic is, is not known.⁴⁵⁶⁷

The chain racks and a portrait of an armoured man in chains led Jonathan to think of the chain wardens. In the chest, its key resting on top, lay a full diary with some passages marked, and in other rooms the owner had left small reminders to himself. Jonathan took the diary, maps and old books. When a woman later came to the rooms with five or six humans, she named them the dwelling of Darka, brother of the great Azbo.⁸⁹¹⁰

The diary

The diary reveals its writer as Darka Borok or Barok, a chain warden of the eyes who mostly travelled alone with his chain. Among the Order of Chain, wardens serve as its eyes, swords or shields according to their wishes and skills, and the eyes watch over dangers from beyond the world that cannot be grasped. The diary records tasks, some finished and some not: a witches' coven, and goblins who summoned a being described as from the Shadowfell. It also holds memories of friends and reminders of where things were hidden.^311121314

Darka writes of Azbo with longing and respect, as the proof that another road was possible beside the god's yoke. He returns again and again to how hard it was to build Azbo's tomb, and to something unnamed that was safe there with Azbo. Of Kirka he writes "our sister", fearing that the road she had chosen would end in disaster and that one day they might have to fight.¹¹¹⁵

Later Jonathan showed the elf commander at Sınır Sapı notes from Darka and the portrait, but kept back the diary itself.¹⁶

Spoiler: In the buried roomsGösterAçık ettiği: Zincirsiz #5; Zincirsiz #24 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

A smoky, chained warrior spirit guarded the threshold of the rooms (see Spirit of the buried rooms). Jonathan told Azbo that they had spoken with the spirit of his brother Darka and read his diary, and Azbo answered that they had met both his siblings, after a fashion. Retelling the tale later, Jonathan made clear that the chain warden had been Azbo's brother, not Azbo himself.¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹