Belkjan Ujk

Belkhan Ujk is the semi-mythical conquerer of the Westwater Isles and messiah of the Temple of the Red Wolf. All information here is Temple doctrine.

Childhood
Very little is known about Ujk's childhood. A major shrine and site of pilgrimage is built at his supposed birthplace on Dahkzi, the northernmost major isle in the Westwater chain, though the village in question has no records of the Ujk name prior to Belkjan's campaign. As Ujk means "Wolf" in Njerëtar, it seems likely that Belkjan came up with the name to fit with his messianic image. Said records also could have been destroyed in a series of barbarian attacks in Ujk's teenage years.

The Red Wolf
Temple doctrine holds that Ujk became the Red Wolf at the age of 16, when a nearby barbarian tribe attacked his village. Their leader raped and killed his entire family. Young Ujk barely escaped. He wandered the northern wastes for TIME HERE, passing a number of trials and coming at last to a small cave where he met an exhausted, tired bloodwolf. Ujk, exhausted, collapsed at the foot of the cave. The she-wolf devoured him, but Ujk's force was so great that he passed through the wolf unharmed and was birthed two days later. In this process, he linked his own spirit with the wolf's, trading some of his rationality and humanity for some of the cunning and gluttony of the beast. The wolf thanked him for bringing it a mind and pledged itself to him, asking him for a name. Ujk thought awhile, and called her Dhëmbëkuri ("Iron Teeth"). Saddling Dhëmbëkuri, Ujk rode to the barbarian camp and slew their leader in single combat. Claiming his right, by their laws, as their new leader, he began conquering nearby tribes, quickly becoming the dominant force on Dahkzi.

Slaying the Beasts
Conquering Dahkzi, Ujk left his tribes and traveled the Westwater. He and Dhëmbëkuri spent ten years killing the "serpents" which had, till that point, caused great suffering for the people of the Westwater. Finally, he came to the great southern marsh. There, in the deepest depths where no light penetrates, he fought the mother-snake Hekunazë, who knocked Dhëmbëkuri unconscious with a single swipe of her mammoth tail. After four days of wrestling in the dank mud, Ujk killed her by tying her own body around her throat. Slitting her open, he found in her belly the bloodshard and swallowed it whole. Protected by Dhëmbëkuri, he spent three mooncycles in agony, fighting the sickness, but finally emerged knowing the secrets of blood magic. He wove his own blood into a long black knife, harder than steel and sharper than a bloodwolf's tooth, and called it Dhëmbëz ("Black Tooth"), in honor of his friend.

The Great Unifier
Returning to his tribe at Dahkzi, now powerful and strong, Ujk declared his plan to unite the Isles. Astride Dhëmbëkuri, with his signature bloodwolf pelt cape, Ujk led an army whose numbers range by account from several hundred to ten thousand south, leaving a wake of ruin everywhere he went. Surviving reports from the era speak of the "Half-wolf" in hushed tones, describing him as capable of destroying entire companies of soldiers singlehandedly. Though he had conquered the vast majority of the Isles by 487, the Siege of Nënqytet lasted another two years. Legend states that Ujk ended the Siege by capturing and catapulting dozens of bloodwolves into the city, and then simply waiting for the city to fling open its gates and beg him for salvation.

An unknown poet describes Ujk's campaign:

Belkjan Ujk came in red, with corded

arms and swollen jaw and eyes like newborn

stars. I saw him, loping on three limbs like

a hunting jackal, driving jagged flames

up the fortress walls of cowering lords.

The shield Berod-kelos gleamed upon

his back, and in his naked hand he held

the silver spear whose name is never spoke.

Behind aways, but hardly needed, marched

his former foes, made allies by the sword.

Wounded still from battle with the marsh-wyrm,

the snarling steed, the wolf of blood called iron

tooth and steel jaw, Dhëmbëkuri, dragged

himself behind his master’s blazing tide.

Despite the flames, the castle stood aloof;

no boiling oil tumbled from that peak,

no rain of whistling arrows cut the sun

from its lofted perch, no host of thousands

issued from that fire-blackened gate and

stood with sword aloft to slow the despot

crown. Now, sitting slow in the morning mist,

the wolf-king watches, waiting for a sign.

Death
At the end of his life, having conquered the entire Westwater and ruled it for a century from the High Throne at Nënqytet, Dhëmbëkuri laid at his feet and closed his eyes for good. Ujk knew it was his time -- as he was linked to the wolf, he must die with him. So he stood up, walked out into the fields, and let himself be devoured by a pack of his favored creatures. A mooncycle later, he returned, seemingly 16 years old, with a young Dhëmbëkuri at his side. The Temple holds that this cycle repeats itself every 150 years, and that each new heir to the Ujk throne is a reincarnation of Belkjan. Even after Kehlmeig's execution of the last of the direct descendants of Ujk, the Temple claims that his reincarnation still holds the throne.