Gabranth Arms

A family-owned and world-renowned firearms manufacturer. Provides the NWTC with most of their guns and cannons.   Unbeknownst to all but the upper echelon of its members, House Gabranth and its business, Gabranth & Sons are all a means for one man to achieve eternal life. Shadreer Gabranth is a human who was born nearly 800 years ago. He made contact with the elves and other Star Children and learnt their ways, becoming well-versed in artifice. He quickly became jealous of their natural long lives and eternal reincarnation and sought to achieve his own immortality at any cost.   Through the use of technology, he was able to create a device that would vastly extend his own life.   When Anum rose to power, Shadreer Gabranth was one of the influential figures that helped them in their war against the Star Children. Unwilling to swallow his pride and become subservient to the demon, Eldar refused to join The Board, instead forming his own organisation with the eventual intent to overthrow the NWTC and place himself at the top of the world.   Over time, Eldar realised that the technology he had used to give himself eternal life was not as eternal as he thought. He needed to routinely replace necrotic tissue and failing organs with fresh ones from donors similar to him. Even this would only be a temporary stopgap, however, and eventually, Eldar would need an entirely new body all his own. Not just any body would do, however. The body needed to not only carry his genes but it would also have to match his own soul in order to avoid rejection. Eldar needed a progeny, an heir that when the time came, he could take their body for his own. To this end, and to gain political power over the Company, he founded Gabranth Arms, a family business responsible for arming the Company's burgeoning naval division.   Within this company, Shadreer encouraged his descendants to prove themselves. When the weapons of the Forgotten Age began to fail due to the passage of time, his scions discovered a cruder yet ingenious replacement - mixing saltpetre and sulphur to create gunpowder and cannons. Over the centuries, these descendants improved their various crafts over time, until at last there came Godrick 'Cleaver' Gabranth.   Godrick was a prodigy when it came to gunsmithing and an even better marksman, but more than that, he had that same drive, pride and underlying rage that Shadreer had had in his youth. He was the perfect new body for the elder, which at that point was struggling to keep his immortal body from falling apart. Unfortunately for him, Godrick learnt of his eventual fate, and that the whole family were nothing more than spare organ donors for him. Godrick fled, vowing to achieve the same greatness that Shardreer had been denied for so long.   When Godrick sired his twin children, Vallar and Leyana, he did so in hopes of having his own progeny that would bring him fame that eclipsed that of his ancestors. In doing so, however, he has inadvertently created two ideal bodies for the undead Gabranth. The two children were conceived by a tabaxi mother during an eclipse, creating part human, part sphinx hybrids with immense magical potential. Of the two, Vallar has the same drive and underlying rage that his father did. When Shadreer learns of the two of them (probably through his connections to Aegis), he will covet Val's body most of all, but the comatose Leyana makes for a good backup. He'll lure Vallar to his manor on Pangea and say that he knows how to bring his sister out of her coma, but it'll require that the young tabaxi sacrifice his flesh to do so and that he may not survive. This is a half-truth. Shardreer probably could awaken Leyana, but he intends to take Vallar's body for his own. If Vallar refuses, then Shardreer will take the next best thing, and take Leyana's body.