Tymahe Hunter-Seer Mermmeney was a wood elven noble, military commander, and patriarch in the Elvish Empire. He was notorious for his rule as Patriarch Golden Antler.

Personality

In his youth, Tymahe was described as a kind, ambitious, and determined individual. He had an iron will and would usually try again when he failed. He spent seven years of his youth repeatedly attempting to learn tree-magic before finally giving up. Despite his ambition, he was not the most cunning politician; several people described him as crass and inelegant, and his personal charm was lacking. He was also less perspicacious than most, being occasionally called "boring" or even "dull" behind his back.

Despite his limitations, Tymahe turned out to be relatively capable in logistics and organization. He was able to properly control food and material stocks in the small Mermmeney village where he served as Master of the Chambers, and often had a good feeling for both trade and the required manpower to achieve given tasks. This made him extremely practical and straightforward, but effective at his job.

Tymahe's ambition should not be underestimated. Several times, he tried climbing beyond the lowest rungs of Mermmeney's nobility, but was always rejected because someone else was better, because he was male, or someone else outmaneuvered him politically. This made him increasingly bitter, and in one occasion, he punched a family member in rage.

Madness

Reportedly, Tymahe changed completely when he became Mystraleth's lackey. However, this perceived change in personality happened primarily because of his addiction to embermoss, and because he was consumed by power. As patriarch, Tymahe routinely ordered excessive violence and other brutal acts against his next of kin, and did not bat an eye when his family was executed; this can be attributed to his earlier antisocial tendencies, and embermoss-induced stupor. He also indulged carnal desires, often keeping an entourage of concubines and engaging in sexual activity.

The taste of power and narcotics gradually corrupted the elf. He derived pleasure from exercising control over his realm and house, but his ambition constantly drove him to seek more. He owned villages, so he sought to extract taxes and force people to move to exercise and feel this power. He owned slaves, so he exercised his physical power over them. And he owned soldiers, so he exercised his powers by ordering them to kill. In the final years of his reign, Tymahe most likely went completely mad from his embermoss consumption, and he rarely left his palace after that.

History

Tymahe was born in 4'273 b. OW, as a low-ranking noble son of House Mermmeney. He received a normal education with others his age, and displayed exceptional determination and high goals already as a young elf.

Mermmeney Nobility

He was formally given a noble title by his matron in 4'196 b. OW, but he did not enjoy much success in the house's political scene. As a result, he found himself apprenticed to the Master of Chambers of a small, isolated village. Soon after, he took the role himself, and was relatively successful in this job. With time, he slowly worked his way up the ranks of the house, but only by working hard and receiving job-based promotions rather than weaving his way up socially like everyone else. In 4'169, he requested to be made Master of Chambers of the Mossy-Green Grove itself, an extremely esteemed position shared between three houses and a big move up for him. But a high-born Mermmeney daughter instead took the title, dashing Tymahe's hopes and publicly ridiculing him.

Thereafter, Tymahe failed several times to garner any title of importance in his house, and was several times refused in favor of less capable, but better-connected, people. He got so frustrated by it all that one day in 4'161, when a noble rejected his bid to become Hunt Master of a small village, he punched the man unconscious. This caused a minor scandal and Tymahe was made Master of Chambers in an insignificant, far-away village.

Military Service

When the Elvish Wars broke out, Tymahe decided to flee his village, fearing drow raids. He sought refuge in Mossy-Green Grove and decided to join the city's small defensive militia as a quartermaster. Shortly after, Mystraleth soldiers arrived and established a military regime. When they raised an auxiliary force to support their troops, Tymahe volunteered as an officer, pointing to his experience in the militia (he had never fought or commanded soldiers) for justification. He was recruited as a Principo, given command of sixty levies - two-thirds of which had been forcefully enlisted - and began serving.

It was during his service as a Mystraleth auxiliary that Tymahe was introduced to embermoss, and he quickly developed an addiction to the substance.

Tymahe showed absolutely no compunctions as a soldier. Through lucky circumstance, his squad fought a fleeing Black Spider element once and won, giving Tymahe good renown. He obeyed orders to the letter, ruthlessly disciplining his soldiers - using the more loyal ones to punish and suppress the less loyal ones - and efficiently carrying out orders to track down and execute traitors in villages. Thanks to his perfect track record, noble line, and fabricated combat experience, he was promoted to replace a captain who deserted and put in command of an entire maniple. He continued to serve loyally, carrying out genocidal orders, properly suppressing any kind of resistance from his own people, and efficiently training and using reticent new levies. Tymahe's ability to use dynamics of power between soldiers to make the follow orders and obediently kill their own kin was respected among the Mystraleth commanders.

The Golden Antler foundation ceremony.

Lord Protector and Patriarch

Due to necessity in the overarching civil war, Mystraleth had to pull out its forces from the Woodland Greens in 4'154. They needed to find a way to keep their power in the area, and Tymahe was the perfect candidate. He was the best Auxiliary Captain, had demonstrated good ability to keep people in line, and was of noble local blood. So the upper echelons of all three Woodland Greens houses were executed - Tymahe's own soldiers participated in the murder of his family - and Tymahe was pronounced Lord Protector of the Woodland Greens, with full command over the auxiliary troops and 100 Mystraleth soldiers. He was also named Lord Urbarch of Mossy-Green Grove.

Tymahe enjoyed the control he had suddenly gained over not only his own house, but two other houses as well. He had military command, but his ambition demanded total control. Thus, he decided to unite the three Woodland Greens houses into a single new house, which he called Golden Antler. To legitimize this, he held an opulent ceremony in Mossy-Green Grove featuring hundreds of troops in brilliant armor and three beautiful young daughters of the three wood elven houses bowing to him and presenting him with a large golden stag skull.

The Patriarch decided to rule in a ruthless manner. The auxiliaries, now remade into the Stag Guard, were put to use suppressing the population and making sure they could all be ruled centrally from Mossy-Green Grove. Many villagers were forcibly relocated into newly built, high-elf-style farming villages, where the Guard could easily keep an eye on the people, keep a registry of all Tymahe's subjects, and easily find and kill whoever was labeled a traitor.

Tymahe wanted to exercise his power in all ways possible; his ambition demanded this of him. He ordered the renovation of the Grove's community hall into an opulent palace, and decorated the building with rich purple silk and stylized golden adornments. He built a large throne for himself, and ordered the finest stag-inspired armor made for him. And he was constantly searching for new exotic ways of living out his power; increasing consumption of embermoss was one such way.

A group of thanor mercenaries caught Tymahe's attention. Being unaligned drow, they had kept a low profile in the war until now, but they were capable fighters. Tymahe was allured by their exoticness and hired them. The pale white elves became as much his elite fighters, serving as his bodyguard and assassins, as the prime demonstration of his power. He often used them visually, to impress and instill fear in visitors to the Purple Palace, and delighted in his control over what was becoming known as the White Devils.

Tymahe's eccentrics started getting out of hand in 4'145, when he began ordering full-on extermination of villages. He also started to keep personal slaves as concubines, in part because it gave him pleasure to exert direct physical control over an individual, and in part out of embermoss-driven sexual desire.

By 4'141, Tymahe had fully succumbed to madness, indulging in drug-infused orgies in his palace and losing his connection to the world around him. A year later, he grew bored of even his regime in the Woodland Greens, and ordered his small army to invade the neighboring moon elven House Suuyne. But, in the One Antler War, his forces were routed. The Mystraleth soldiers abandoned him, and his own White Devils turned against him when the Purple Palace came under siege. They bought their mercy in exchange for Tymahe's head.