> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh > [![[Codex/Assets/Characters/Dread_General_Gerard_Blackmarsh_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Codex/Assets/Characters/Dread_General_Gerard_Blackmarsh.webp) > ###### Basic Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Character | > ###### Character Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Creature Type | Undead | > Species | Human | > Gender | Male | > Pronouns | He/Him | > Place | [[Val Noren]] | > Connections | [[Valtorran Empire\|The Empire]]<br>[[Empress Morganna Eventide]]<br>[[General Korvas]]<br>[[Marcelle the Broken]] | > Profession | Dread General<br>Death Knight | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Deceased | **Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh** was a human warlord and Death Knight who served as the supreme military commander of [[Empress Morganna Eventide]]'s conquering forces on the Valtorran mainland. The first soldier of consequence to fall beneath her sway when she landed on the eastern shores of [[Valtorran Empire|Valtorra]], he was the instrument through which she took her first city — and the snowball that became an empire-wide conflagration. In recognition of his indispensability, she killed him and raised him as a Death Knight, binding him to her will for eternity and arming him with the cursed blade [[Dread's Hunger]]. ## Description #### Appearance Blackmarsh is built like a siege engine — vast, immovable, and designed entirely to make other people feel small. He wears black plate armour of Imperial make, heavily embellished beyond the standard-issue kit of a [[Hand of The Empire|Hand of the Empire]], with enormous pauldrons and a long red cloak that mirrors the order's colours while exceeding them in menace. A horned helmet completes the silhouette. His short black beard and piercing black irises are the only features visible beneath it all, and neither offers any warmth. His face does not change expression; not from composure or discipline, but because it genuinely seems not to occur to him to have one. #### Personality Blackmarsh does not negotiate, persuade, or threaten. He arrives, and things stop existing. People, barriers, furniture — they occupy the same category in his assessment, and he destroys them with the same indifferent efficiency when they are inconvenient. There is no cruelty in it, no performance of domination; he is simply a man for whom other beings are not quite real enough to warrant feeling. The Death Knight transformation appears to have changed very little about him in this regard, except to give his presence a literal necrotic weight — those who stand in his aura describe a bone-deep chill and a sense that the warmth has been pulled from the air. ## Biography #### Background Gerard Blackmarsh was already a commander of exceptional capability when [[Empress Morganna Eventide]] made landfall on the eastern shores of [[Valtorran Empire|Valtorra]]. Whatever forces he commanded before that moment, he redirected without hesitation to her banner — whether through persuasion, awe, or something more coercive, history does not record. What it does record is that the first town fell quickly, and after that, so did the next, and the next. He was the opening move in a campaign that swept across the continent like fire through dry grass. When the Empress concluded that he was too useful to risk losing, she made the only logical decision available to her: she killed him herself and raised him as a Death Knight, ensuring his loyalty and service would outlast any battlefield wound. She gave him [[Dread's Hunger]], a greatsword of malevolent necrotic power, and returned him to the field — now impossible to kill by conventional means and radiating an aura of dread that could break morale before a blade was ever drawn. He served as the commander of the siege of [[Val Noren]], overseeing the occupation of the city and coordinating with the mysterious [[The Red Priests]] on a timeline of escalating horror. ### [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 33 - A Camp Alight]] An Imperial Commander, speaking to [[Vaeleran]], mentioned that "General Gerard" was leading the assault on [[Val Noren]] and would be eager to see his old comrade [[General Korvas]] — the first indication the party had of the Dread General's presence at the siege. #### [[Session 36 - General Korvas]] The party infiltrated the besieged streets of [[Val Noren]] under cover of darkness. Their quiet approach was shattered when Blackmarsh — a towering figure in black armour — sensed them hiding in a building and destroyed the wall with a gesture, dropping them into the street. He recognised [[Vaeleran]] not as a rebel but as a lost asset: [[General Korvas]], a loyal servant of the Empire. A crushed purple jewel released a wave of magical energy that appeared to restore Korvas's suppressed memories and loyalties. Blackmarsh departed without breaking stride, ordering Korvas and his subordinate [[Marcelle the Broken]] to deal with the rest of the party. #### [[Session 37 - March of the Dead]] [[Berberis]], scouting in weasel form, observed Blackmarsh receiving reports of chaos at Point Blackrock and Hobgoblin attacks on his reinforcement columns. Enraged by the delays, the Dread General decapitated the reporting Captain on the spot, then ordered word sent to the [[The Red Priests]] to accelerate their timeline. #### [[Session 39 - The Stoneheart]] The party infiltrated [[The Stoneheart]] and witnessed a meeting between Blackmarsh, [[General Korvas]], and a coven of five [[The Red Priests|Red Priests]] from a concealed balcony above the cathedral chamber. Blackmarsh dispatched Korvas to [[The Darkwood]] and remained with the single Red Priest left behind, taking the captive [[King Marius Noren]] into the catacombs below. When the party emerged from the crypts at the session's end, they found him waiting for them in the centre of the chamber. "Well he was right then," he said. "How interesting." #### [[Session 40 - General Blackmarsh]] The battle in [[The Stoneheart]]'s main cathedral was brutal. Alongside [[Marcelle the Broken]] and a host of undead hidden in the pews, Blackmarsh proved nearly impossible to put down — his destructive wave of necrotic energy knocked several party members unconscious and his aura radiated a supernatural chill that taxed even [[Kai]]'s Twilight Sanctuary. [[Marcelle the Broken|Marcelle]] was neutralised first by [[Berberis]] and [[Ryo]]'s combined efforts. In the final moments, [[Dondar]] unleashed a volley of Magic Missiles targeted at the General's exposed joints, severing his arm and ending his existence. His last words were a curse: *"She will come for you all. Your lands will wither."* The party beheaded him and stored the head as proof of death; [[Ryo]] later claimed [[Dread's Hunger]] from the corpse. #### [[Session 41 - Reclaim the Reclaimer]] In the immediate aftermath, the party looted Blackmarsh's armour — non-magical plate, but radiating a profound historical evil that caused [[The Ashen Forge|Helda]] to recoil from touching it. The blade [[Dread's Hunger]] was identified as a cursed weapon that consumes the wielder's life force to power its necrotic strikes and reanimate the dead. The party chose to stow it away. #### [[Session 43 - The Shield of the North]] [[Kai]] visited [[Illaris Sharin]] to have a wound inflicted by Blackmarsh checked; it was healing cleanly. #### [[Session 49 - The Silver Sage]] A vision granted by an ancient dragon revealed to [[Ryo]] the memory he had never consciously accessed: his father [[Ratha Silmara]] holding his wounded mother [[Rhennaya Silmara]] as Blackmarsh stepped in with [[Dread's Hunger]] and ran both through with a single thrust. The vision confirmed what had long been suspected — Blackmarsh was the killer of Ryo's parents. ## Trivia - Session 40 bears Blackmarsh's name as its title — a distinction that marks him as one of the campaign's most significant antagonists. He is one of very few characters to have an entire session named after their defeat. - His armour's evil was so potent that [[The Ashen Forge|Helda the smith]] at the Ashen Forge could not bring herself to work with it for materials. [[Kai]] paid her the full commission fee anyway, moving her to tears. The armour's metal was later purified through a spiritual ordeal in the Astral Plane and reborn as a moon-touched shield. - Blackmarsh is directly responsible for the deaths of [[Ryo]]'s parents — a connection the party did not learn until Session 49, long after his defeat.