Toren Falric
Toren Falric — “The Iron Wolf”
Race: Human
Origin: Albion, Greywatch Marches
Born: c. 598 PR
Allegiance: House Oswulf of Greywatch
Titles: Ser Toren Falric, the Iron Wolf
Faith: Apotheosic — Vandar (Death and Souls), Zennar (Glory and Duty)
Known For: Breaking the Boneguard at the Cliffs of Mourning during the War of the Wolf (620 PR)
Early Life and Tempering (598–617 PR)
Toren Falric was born to a line of minor knights sworn to House Oswulf, guardians of Albion’s southern coast. His family’s hold, Fenhall, sat between jagged cliffs and wolf-haunted forests—a land of hard winters and harder men. From his youth, Toren was raised in the Oswulf creed: “By fang and flame.”
His father, Ser Corren Falric, died fighting pirates of the Blood Channel when Toren was nine. His mother, a healer of Zennar’s temple, taught him discipline and reverence for duty. By sixteen, he was squire to Lord Garric Oswulf, and by eighteen, one of the youngest knights in Greywatch’s retinue.
In battle, Toren gained the moniker “Iron Wolf” for his relentlessness—his shield-work and endurance unmatched even among the Wolf Lords. He was said to fight in silence, his breath misting through his visor like smoke from a forge.
The War of the Wolf (620 PR)
When Lord Aldric Oswulf raised the Greywatch Host to avenge his parents’ poisoning and invade Nev-Tisk-Is, Toren was among his most trusted captains. He commanded the vanguard in what became the Ash March—the brutal land campaign across the island’s blackglass shores.
“The land bled, and the wolves fed.”
For three days, his company fought through storms and ambushes against the Boneguard of the Old Gods, fanatics sworn to Morrag and Settis. At the Cliffs of Mourning, Toren led a charge that shattered the Boneguard lines and drove them into the sea. The feat won him renown across Albion and earned him his epithet’s second meaning: not only forged of iron, but the one who breaks it.
Aldric himself slew the cult’s high priest atop a blood-black altar, and Toren stood beside him when the crimson banners of the Old Gods were torn down.
Siege of Navor Keep and the Iron Oath
When Aldric laid siege to Navor Keep, Toren commanded the siege lines. He held the southern trenches for six nights under volleys of bone-fire and curse-arrows. On the seventh night, when the gates were betrayed from within, he led the breach—his armour scorched, his voice raw from shouting orders through smoke.
In the aftermath, Aldric knighted him before the fallen altar, cutting his palm and pressing it to the Wolf Lord’s own—a blood oath to guard the Oswulf line until death.
Later Life and Legacy
After the War of the Wolf, Toren remained on Greyfang Isle as captain of the Wolf Guard, training a new generation of knights to defend Albion’s southern frontier. Legends say he refused titles or lands, choosing to remain Aldric’s shadow, saying only:
“A wolf without a pack is just hunger. Let me be the fangs that guard the pack.”
He fought again during the Fenraith Uprising (623–625 PR) and was last recorded in 628 PR, leading a defense of Greyfang Keep against corsairs from Devil Island. His fate afterward is uncertain—some say he died defending the walls; others whisper he was taken by the sea, his armour sinking like an anchor into the blood-red tides of the south.
Appearance and Character
Tall, broad-shouldered, with frost-white scars across his jaw. His hair dark as iron, his eyes pale grey.
He was known to speak little but strike true—an ideal Oswulf knight: loyal, grim, incorruptible.
Those who knew him said:
“Toren Falric was not born of wolves. He was what the wolves pray to be.”
Legacy
In Albion’s later chronicles, Ser Toren’s name appears in oaths sworn by Oswulf knights:
“By the Iron Wolf’s oath, we stand.”
Greyfang’s forge-priests still temper blades in his name, dipping them in seawater mixed with ash and oil, believing it grants them the same unbreakable will their first captain carried into legend.
Summary:
Ser Toren Falric, the Iron Wolf, was the iron heart of Aldric Oswulf’s conquest—the soldier who broke the cult of Morrag on the cliffs of Nev-Tisk-Is, ensuring Albion’s dominance in the south. His story is sung among the Greywatch wolves as a parable of loyalty, endurance, and the steel that does not rust in blood.
