InFamous Easterlings: Yûmruk, the Black Scorpion of Khand
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EARLY DAYS
Yumrûk was born in the city of Laôrki, in the land of Khand, in the year 2986 of the Third Age. His parents were wealthy merchants of Khand, owners of large lands, near the Gap of Khand, east of Nûrn. His father was a native Variag, so that he was considered one too, but actually his blood was mixed, as his mother was of Magriag offspring, descendant from the Pultai dynasty of Kýkuryan Kýn, at east of the Sea of Rhûn, and his bloodline to the ancient Balchoth was very strong.
His family enjoyed a high social status in Khand by trading with the tribes surrounding the South and East coasts of the Sea of Rhûn and east of the Ered Harmal and the River Talathrant, in Nûrad, Relmether and Chey Sart. Yumrûk spent more time with his mother than his father. She was the principal in charge of handling the family business since his father was an Ôsvoda; a member of the council of the Khudriag of Khand, which at that time was Ôvatha IX.
Several times these merchant caravans took him to Mistrand, the big city and capital of the Great Khaganate, on the southeastern shore of the Sea of Rhûn. There was a leather tanner named Ulzag, who was one of the best customers of his parents. Ulzag had a son named Margöz, who was descendant from the northern Logath tribe. The Variag and the Logath that was only 3 years older than him soon became good friends. They shared many things together, whether it was sailing in the sea, exchanging knowledge about their native languages, riding and hunting. They had a common ideal: that all the tribes east of the great river are united once again.
TRIBAL BLOOD
Yumrûk inherited a very different attitude, both from his mother and his father's. He hated bureaucracy and commerce, had little patience for things, while he was not of giving up easily. He rode away for weeks and returned only when he had no alternative. He was like one of the fiercest Balchoth and had little mercy for the weak, whether animal or human. At the age of 10 years he killed for first time. The victim was a Haradrim farmer from Chelkar who had been wounded by some other group of mercenaries from the south, and begged for water and a doctor to attend to his horrific injuries. "I'll be your best medicine" were the words of Yumrûk before his axe blew off the skull splinters of the farmer.
At the age of 13 his father tried to instruct him in bureaucracy and commerce, but refused to learn, saying he had better things to do than spend all day locked in a palace. After the discussion, he took his horse and rode westward; farther than he ever had been, reaching the limits of Harondor, a land disputed by the Haradrim and the Kingdom of Gondor. There he lived for a time in solitude, under the shadow of the Ephel Duath, but an unfortunate night heading north he was intercepted by Ithilien rangers. They wore embroidered a white tree in their doublet, and made a torture of the night of the young Variag: he was taken prisoner; they killed his horse, made him starve and get cold, only because he belonged to a different ethnicity. The wars between the West against the South and the East had never entirely ceased. Once bored of their prey, the rangers left him stranded in the middle of the steep land of Harondor to die of hunger. Luckily, a few miles south, was Haradrim camp where some soldiers gave him some food. Since that day, he hated Gondor with all his soul, and the very sight of the white tree, made him want to sow death.
He returned to Khand only to meet again with the scolding from his father, so he fled to Rhûn, to Mistrand. His friend Margöz had married a maid of Kugavod, a town in the north, called Markîz, beautiful and slender as a snake, she became pregnant soon after. Tigkîz, the daughter Margöz and Markîz was to Yumrûk the closest thing to a niece that he could ever had, because he had no siblings, and Tigkîz adopted him as an uncle with over the years. He instructed her in the art of riding and fighting with polearm, and archery.
REBLOODLUTION
In the year 3003 of the Third Age, died the Lôke-Khan of Rhûn, Borthand. Borthand was the second consecutive Lôke-Khan of the Logath tribe. The immediate past was the Lôke-Khan Zôr. Since the Logath tribe ruled the tribes of Rhûn, the Eastern Empire had done nothing but grow, something both the Lôke-Khan Yuktîr and the Lôke-Khan Bountîg "the golden", had also done, but in a lesser extent, with much more gore and less diplomacy. It was so, a new Lôke-Khan was elected; the fifth of them, and the third of the Logath tribe in instant succession: Margöz his friend, who was part of the Order of the Dragons since a few years. This enraged the Khudriag Ôvatha IX of Khand, who thought the Logath tribe had gone too far, taking three consecutive supreme rulers. The Khaganate of Rhûn, lost a powerful ally.
Margöz was reserved; preferring not to take hasty actions, because he just had assumed the throne and it would not be seen with good eyes the outbreak of a new war between tribes so soon. He tried to use diplomacy, but little did Ôvatha hear it. It was so that Yumrûk recalled that his father was a member of the council of the Khudriag. He traveled to Sturlurtza Khand, capital of the Khudriagate of Khand to meet him. For the first time, he and his father were in agreement: The disolution of Khand from the Khaganate would bring trouble between the tribes, and an enormous commercial damage. The riches that Yumrûk's father had achieved throughout his life would be greatly affected, and he could lose it all.
It was then that his father opposed the wishes of the Khudriag Ôvatha IX. He began to talk against all his decisions, and the Khudriag enraged and expelled him from the council. But Yumrûk’s father foresaw that his fortune would go to ruin if things not returned to be like before, so he hired an assassin from Nûrn to assassinate the Khudriag. The crush went wrong, as a mercenary is sold to the highest bidder, and once discovered, the assassin sold the intentions of Yumrûk's father to the Khudriag, and he went for his head. Thus Yumrûk's father died in his halls of Sturlutza Khand, and Yumrûk escaped with his mother to Laôrki, swearing revenge.
THE BLACK SCORPION
Just six months later, Yumruk’s mother accompanied her deceased husband to the grave, dying of grief committing suicide. Yumrûk then inherited all the land and wealth of his parents in the year 3004 of the Third Age, at the age of 18. Instead of investing their time and work on repairing the economy of his now non-existent family, he chose to sell everything and keep nothing. Big riches obtained Yumrûk for it, and led a wandering life, but he lived with bitterness, and every night his heart again reminded it to him. He vowed to kill the Khudriag of Khand even if it were the last thing he did. But for the moment he could not do anything, he needed allies, and Margöz could not be one of them. His steps led him to a logical place: The Emirate of Lurmsakûm in the South.
Lurmsakûm was one of the many Haruzani kingdoms (a branch of the Haradrim) from the so-called Near Harad. It was located south of Khand, bordered on the west with the Emirate of Pezarsan (another kingdom Haruzani), to the southeast with the Kingdom of Arysis, and southwest to the Great Desert. For centuries, especially in the elderly, when the Nazgul Ûvatha took the throne of Khand, Lurmsakûm was underwent to join Khand, as a province (Sâr-Khand) or as a tributary state. Many times, the Haruzani people of Lurmsakûm had revealed against the hostility of the Khudriags of Khand, returning to independence, to lose it again later. The Emir Shabadhis was now the governor of Lurmsakûm, who remained as a tributary state to Khand.
It was so, Yumrûk lived among the Haruzani for about 6 months. Hiring mercenaries to fight for his cause, thanks to the wealth he had inherited. Soon he was known under the myserious name of "The Black Scorpion" and posed a threat to the Khudriagate of Khand. These mercenaries were not only well paid but had an inflamed and poisoned heart by the multiple offenses that Khand commited over their ancestors, and it was very difficult to be dissuaded to desert or join the ranks of the Variags. It was so Yumrûk marched with a large army of mercenaries to Sturlurtza Khand. He arrived at night and without warning and his forces passed through the streets of the city, and civilians fled in terror. What was seen as an upcoming war in the southeast ended when the axe of Yumrûk severed the head of the Khudriag of Khand and he threw it off the balcony of the palace to the pigpen followed by a fierce cry of rage and anger. So Yumrûk got his revenge.
Upon hearing this, the Lôke-Khan Margöz traveled to the same Khand, and his arrival was greeted with more jubilation than boos among the Variags of Khand. He offered Yumrûk to be the new Khudriag but he responded: "My old friend, my hands were born to wield a weapon, not a scepter." It was so Yumrûk rejected the offer of Margöz, and the Khudriag Ûvatha IV was named Khudriag of Khand and the Great Khaganate could count again with the Variags in their ranks. But the people of Lurmsakûm were released from the embargo, and a business and powerful alliance was born between the two kingdoms.
THE WAR OF THE RING
The following year, again Yumrûk returned to his adventures as a nomad, aimlessly. Much of this time was spent in Mistrand with Margöz and especially with his daughter, Tigkîz, which he instructed as it was already told. In T.A. 3014 Yumrûk joined a group of Haradrim mercenaries with the single excuse to do all the damage he could to Gondor. His heart was still poisoned by that episode in Ithilien during his youth. Together with this group of mercenaries, they wreaked havoc on Harondor, culminating with the fall of Amon Eithel, principal stronghold of Gondor in the Southland. Later, on Third Age 3016, he joined the corsairs of Umbar in the assault on the Watchtower of Gobel Tolfalas, on the Isle of Anduin. Nothing gave him more pleasure than dye in red that white tree.
It was so, Ûvatha IV, the Khudriag of Khand, gathered the hosts of the Variags for war after the alliance between the Great Khaganate and the Dark Lord Sauron. About three-quarters of the army were sent north to serve the Lôke-Khan. One last host was sent to the Pelennor Fields, under the command of Gothmog, lieutenant of Minas Morgul. Yumrûk marched with his eternal friend north, and ravaged Dorwinion, and sprinkled fields with salt and made mountains with the scorched bones of the Dorwinrim. After that, Yumrûk marched to Dale, where took place the biggest of the battles that the north had seen since the days of Smaug the dragon, and once again, the Easterlings were victorious.
Then it began the siege of Erebor. There fell Dain II Ironfoot, King of Durin's Folk, by Margöz's hand, trying to defend the corpse of King Brand of Dale. But the news of the fall of Sauron reached the ears of the Easterlings in the north, and the morale of the Easterlings fell sharply. A lapse in the defense, and the Easterlings were rebuked in a combined attack of the survivors of Rhovanion and the folk of Durin. Thus ended the War of the Ring, and began a new age.
LATER DAYS
Yumrûk, now 33, returned to Khand. He was named captain of the Variags in war by the Khudriag of Khand. The wars against the subjugation of Gondor on the free peoples of the South and East still prevailed. But the ideals of Yumrûk were still intact. So now Yumrûk rides in the east with Tigkîz, who now is 19 years old, and is a slender maiden as her mother, visiting the rebel tribes and clans that have not yet joined to form part of the Lôke-Egleria; the doctrine of The Great Khaganate and the Khudriagate of Khand. If the people of Rhûn and Palisor wanted to remain free, they must unite under the same banner to confront their enemies in the West.
