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Expanding Iomandra: Sea King Valkroi
One of the exciting bits of lore in Iomandra are the Sea Kings, independent warlords who govern trade across the Dragon Sea. Here’s how they are introduced in the fan made document:
The Sea Kings are a group of independent warlords who govern trade on the Dragon Sea. Each Sea King commands their private armada of ships. Some Sea Kings are legitimate traders and merchants; others are privateers, freebooters, and bounty hunters in the service of the Dragovar. The rest are self-employed explorers, slavers, or pirates.
Thirty-three Sea Kings currently ply the waves, and their goals seldom align. Bitter rivalries among the Sea Kings have been known to escalate into major conflicts on the high seas, impacting trade across the entire world.
The document goes on to describe in little words a few of the Sea Kings (allowing room for DMs to create their own). I went ahead and picked a few of the existing ones to focus on and include in my game in some way, expanding their lore a bit.
Since my campaign focuses on the Shan Qabal’s goals of harnessing elemental power for the Dragovar fleet, I found that Sea King Valkroi’s journey to the Elemental Chaos an interesting thread I could pull from and create immediate tension with. Here’s how the document describes Valkroi:
A fair but brutal Sea King endorsed by the Thunder Lords, Valkroi claims to have sailed his flagship to the Elemental Chaos and back.
Okay. That’s not a lot! I created lore around her and put her in immediate conflict with the Empire, as they both seek to harness elemental power. The Shan Qabal is currently an antagonist for the PCs, so Valkroi and the PCs have a common cause, so to speak.
Here’s my expanded version of Valkroi for my Iomandra campaign:
Sea King Valkroi – Dragonborn (blue) Female
Sigil: Kraken tentacle covered in lightning and wrapped around a lighthouse
Sea King Valkroi is a ruthless and disciplined admiral whose reputation spans all across the Dragon Sea. Endorsed by the Thunder Lords —elemental giants who hold dominion over the Eye of Io — Valkroi commands one of the most reliable and feared fleets operating under imperial charter. She is both a warlord and a logistician, known for crushing her opponents and safeguarding (in her view) commerce with a mercenary’s pragmatism and a war captain’s precision.
What elevates Valkroi beyond her peers is her storied expedition to the Elemental Chaos, a voyage few have dared and fewer have survived. Though her fleet suffered greatly, Valkroi returned with hard-won knowledge of the raw elemental forces that shape the world. The journey changed her — not through mystical power, but through conviction. She now believes the future of naval supremacy lies in harnessing those primal energies, and she has poured coin and influence into studying how elemental power might be bound to vessels or weapons. So far, this remains an aspiration. Her current fleet is formidable, but entirely mundane in construction.
Valkroi keeps a close eye on the Dragovar Empire’s own research into elemental-bound technologies and knows she’s in a race she cannot afford to lose. Though not a scholar herself, Valkroi surrounds herself with learned advisors — artificers, sages, and defectors from imperial workshops — all tasked with one goal: unlock the elemental secrets before the Empire perfects them.
Behind the stern discipline of her command lies a cunning political mind. Valkroi has made many enemies, not least of whom is Sea King Zekh’r, a rival who accuses her of betraying pirate ideals for legitimacy. Yet Valkroi remains steadfast. She does not seek titles for their own sake, but control — over trade, knowledge, and the future of the seas.
Oh yeah… that’s enough for my campaign and a nice NPC for the PCs to eventually either align with, or come to odds with. I’m loving Iomandra!
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