Orumpyle, the Undead Paladin

Orumpyle Elronis was a Paladin who lived during the Necromanic Wars. He was captured by Grey Temple necromancers and unwillingly turned into a lich.

Life

Orumpyle was born the second son of Rukiraa, a paladin of significant fame. His elder brother chose to pursue a secular life, but Orumpyle was from earliest childhood a devout believer. He was dedicated to the Tabernacle of the Perennial Colonnade at the age of 10, and confirmed as a paladin at just 27. Contemporaries described him as one of the few paladins devout enough to be a warrior monk.

Indeed, Orumpyle blended elements of both traditional paladin devotions and martial fighting in his style. He armed himself with Echo, an orichalcum dragon hammer. He had the shaft shortened and wielded it one-handed, allowing him to fight with hammer and shield. His Cordosa Sword was famed as one of the brightest ever seen. Orumpyle was also known for his magical abilities, blending elements of traditional sorcery with faith and devotion-fueled spellcasting.

In the Necromanic Wars he was a true force to be reckoned with, fighting both conventional armies and hordes of undead with equal ease. His only failing came when confronted with mechanized modern troops, of which many saw combat on all sides. Undaunted, Orumpyle would fall back and, as he put it, "let the professionals have at it".

His personal life was taken up largely training, he had few close friends though was said to be open and personable with anyone who met him. Many soldiers who fought beside him described him as "A force of personality". He came to be highly regarded, the sort of man everyone told stories about, and became the most feared paladin in the entire theater.

Views on Necromancy

Many later historians would attempt to paint Orumpyle as a horrible racist who hated the necromancer people. Indeed he was very vocal about his distain for the undead and that he believed the practice of animating corpses and raising up shades was a vile and despicable act.

However, many Green Temple necromancers met him face to face during his life and described him as "remarkably kind and polite". Though Orumpyle was not much for speeches or journaling, the general consensus holds that while he condemned the workings of undead among the necromancers, he did not view members of the community as inherently wicked.

The necromancers even tell a(probably apocryphal) story about Orumpyle's youth, when he befriended a necromancer boy from the nearby temple. Thousands of years later, this same story would be elevated to the status of a sacred text.

Personal Equipment

Echo, Orumpyle's hammer, was made for him by The Craftsmen to his express requirements. His also carried a kite shield called Eltonguard supposed to date back to the Mage Wars. While he was fairly cavalier with the hammer, sometimes loaning it to other paladins and often allowing acquaintances to hold it, he was said to be exceptionally protective and possessive of the shield.

In his life he also wore enchanted silver ringmail armor, and was said to be in talks to acquire a suit of adamantium, normally a feat only achievable by a Slayer Dragon. His personal equipment was said to be on par with that of the Slayer Dragons.

In addition he carried a ring enchanted to give him additional stamina and a necklace with a powerful sigil of protection.

Capture and Death

In A.Y. 3375, Orumpyle traveled to Arindell to attend the annointment of Lal Soratami as Pendragon. Orumpyle was around 40 years old at the time, and many suspected Lal was to make him a Slayer Dragon. The exact events are unclear, but Grey Temple Necromancers infiltrated Arindell during the festivities and captured Orumpyle. It is believed they murdered him shortly after the kidnapping so his body could be smuggled out of the city.

According to later confessions by some of the necromancers involved, Orumpyle had become such a feared figure within the First File that the necromancers truly believed he could not be defeated. The only way to stop Orumpyle, they believed, was to turn him into the thing he hated most. Orumpyle was murdered, most likely by suffocation, and his body carefully prepared so that he could be raised again as a litch under the necromancer's control.

Undeath

Orumpyle was not merely turned into a shambling zombie. His flesh was dried, his joints reinforced with leather, and his organs replaced with funerary totems. He was wrapped in layers of linen bandages inscribed with necromancer prayers, with enchanted jewelry placed in the layers. Each layer of fabric was coated with resin to make it strong.

After the preparations were complete, ten thousand grey temple necromancers joined together and carried out a three-day ritual to empower him as a litch. This was different from the normal practice of creating litches in several ways, and used only by the Grey Temple to create so-called Battle Litches to lead their armies.

According to later captured and subsequently executed necromancers, the goal was to be able to control Orumpyle. However, in order for the litching process to "take", they had to equip him with his most treasured possessions. His shield, his hammer, his necklace, and his ring. As they had planned to make him an especially powerful undead minion, he was also given plate armor stitched to his body.

But when Orumpyle was raised up, he took up the hammer and immediately slew fifty necromancers. Hundreds of others involved in the ritual fled, and a few tried to exert control over him. One survivor recounted how he laid waste to the entire temple with savagery. The litching process had given him access to necromanic magics which he somehow blended with his own powers. The high priest, and most powerful necromancer in attendance, stood alone against him, putting up a desperate defense while trying every command he knew.

According to the necromancers, only a single command worked, one that made Orumpyle return to his sarcophagus. An undead as powerful a they had made him could not be destroyed by any conventional means. Instead, the coffin was bound with enchanted chains, and the necromancers made plans to cast it into the sea.

Before this could be achieved, the war was ended, and the Grey Temple defeated forever.

Fate

Orumpyle fate is unknown. The necromancers who participated in transforming him into a litch would not reveal exactly which temple it happened at, and many did not know what was done to the sarcophagus after it was sealed. Only that, logistically, it could not have been transported to the ocean before the temple fell, and it is most likely hidden somewhere.

There are two main stories about what happened to him.

The first is that the coffin was secretly captured by the Church of the Cardinal Star, who found a way to purify Orumpyle's body and allow it to achieve a final rest. Though, if this were true, it raises the question of why the church would keep it a secret.

The other is that the coffin fell into the hands of the Slayer Dragons. It was secreted away to Valley Gail Keep where Pendragon Soratami kept it in case the necromancers rose up in revolt.

Neither of these stories has ever been proven true, and the most likely answer is it lies in some forgotten crypt.

Later Developments

In the time after the Necromanic Wars, Orumpyle was largely forgotten by the general public, though he remained a revered figure and martyr within the church. A chapel in Arindell was named for him and stood for over a thousand years.

New Day

Orumpyle's story lived longer within the Necromancer community. Passed down through the generations, when the necromancers were eventually freed at the end of the Sixth Age, he began to be talked about again. Being forcibly turned into a litch the way he was came to be seen as one of the great sins of the Grey Temple, and a cautionary tale for all good necromancers. He became a revered figure within necromancy, and though no physical trace of him had ever been found, shrines and altars were built in his honor. He had dozens of books written about him in the neoclasical style, with the story of him befriending a necromancer boy in his youth being committed fully to Endu and achieving the status of a pseudo-sacred text.

This continued throughout the Long Night. And while Orumpyle never achieved the level of Rubiceye or Isolia, by the New Day period, he became known to necromancers more often than even historians.