Zolan

Zolan is the founder whose name the mercenary Followers of Zolan carry, in the campaign Raphael Efsanesi ("The Legend of Raphael"). Those who speak of him call him undying, but the stories told about his origin do not agree with one another.¹

Legends of the founder

The company's local leader Fazon gave several accounts. In the first, the founder, Immortal Zolan, was cursed by a powerful wizard who misspoke the curse: instead of "may you never die in peace" he said "may you never die at home", and Zolan has not returned home since. Fazon put his age at about a hundred and fifty, said he does not grow old, and placed him at the company's training camp in the forest.¹

On another occasion Fazon described Zolan as a warrior of several millennia ago, the first mortal to kill a god, who then sat in the empty seat. Later still he said plainly that Zolan is not a god, and spoke of his power taking human form or the form of an avatar.^{2 3}

The being that guards the inner gate of his tomb told a third story. According to it, Zolan fought against the dark one in the first great war, on the first Victory Day, and died on the back of a dragon. Honoured by the gods, he passed trials of courage, knowledge and strength and made a pact, after which he became almost divine.⁴

Wider legends tell that mortals have seized the divinity and domain of an Auxigon through dangerous rituals and extraordinary power, and some scholars hold that certain Auxigons were once mortals, an idea that can count as heresy even to discuss. None of these legends names Zolan.⁵

His reach

Zolan's followers treat him as the judge of their rules. When one of them was killed by his partner on a job, Fazon invoked him through the company's rule book and said that Zolan would speak with the dead warrior's spirit to learn how he died.⁶

Fazon also kept amulets that hide their wearer when Zolan searches for someone to question. When the founder's attention fell on Raphael's inn, the building filled with silence, shaking, white light and a crushing pressure on the mind, until Fazon shielded Raphael with his own body.^{7 8}

The tomb

Fazon told Raphael that he must go to the tomb and make an offering, which, in Fazon's experience, may be an object, a task or a trial. The tomb lies in a desert in the middle of a forest; Fazon said every living thing there died on Victory Day in the great war of old.^{3 9}

A band of centaurs whose leader gave his name as Tark Kasak guard the place. They told Raphael that the map shows the only safe path through a forest where the dead walk, and that the ground ahead is hot by day and by night. The main gate announces a visitor's arrival to Zolan and leads to the avatar that guards the tomb, while a side tunnel skirts the first part of the shrine and at first hides the visitor from him. The avatar, they said, does not carry all of Zolan's knowledge.^{10 11 12}

Raphael chose the main gate. In the hall the torches lit themselves, and a winged knight in armour that hid its face came down through the ceiling. It took Raphael's head in its hands, searched his mind with a burning touch, said it did not like his way of fighting, and declared him guiltless of breaking his contract with the dead warrior.¹³

Behind the last door lay a coffin and a small fire. When Raphael touched the door, its metal became a human face and then two figures, one glowing white and one red, who merged into a single robed body and spoke with each other. They said they were neither Zolan nor the winged guardian, and could be called the Trader. They let Raphael turn back, but would not let him pass without a bargain, offering changes of body and mind in exchange for different prices.^{14 15}

At the altar Raphael was told in the common tongue to throw something precious into the fire. Saying that the most precious thing he had was himself, he put his finger into the flame; it hurt, but left no burn.¹⁶

When orcs and hooded attackers ambushed Raphael outside the tomb, the winged avatar rose from it and fought them alongside the centaurs and Fazon's men, then vanished in light.^{17 18}