Gromovol

Fan art of Gromovol by Виталий Стрелец

Gromovol was a young man from the ruling family of the Voroshk world who appeared in Soldiers Live. He was the brother of Sedvod, the son of Nashun the Researcher, and nephew of the family patriarch, the First Father. Throughout Gromovol's time traveling with the Black Company, Croaker the Annalist harshly judged him for his continual arrogance and stubbornness.

Soldiers Live

Gromovol lived a life of immense privilege until his world's Shadowgate was unintentionally blasted open by the family patriarchs. When he, his older brother Sedvod, and other relatives Magadan and Arkana realized that their world would soon be overrun by killer shadows, they chose to flee. They became guests of the Black Company. They all expected to be treated like royalty, and were shocked when Croaker and Tobo educated them about their new status at the bottom rung during an ongoing war. The Company leadership accepted them but demanded that they hand over their priceless shefsepoken (magic robes) and rheitgeistiden (flying posts). This was a difficult deprivation as those items were the primary symbols of their status. Tobo would acquire Gromovol's shefsepoke.

Gromovol's brother Sedvod fell into an inexplicable coma and later died. (This was revealed later to be a kind of curse put in place by the Khadidas). This unexpected and mysterious death caused the other young Voroshk additional stress although they did not mourn him.

Gromovol and the other three teenagers kept a distance from Shukrat, another Voroshk teenager but one who proactively integrated with the Company.

Tobo, a Company wizard of significant magnitude, arranged sorcery duels with Magadan, Arkana, and Gromovol at Gharhawnes to ascertain if any of them could be threats. All three of the Voroshk were handily defeated but unharmed. Tobo reported:

“

They’re frauds. The only power they really have is what they draw from their post and their clothing. Without those even Shukrat isn’t as powerful as One-Eye was at the end. Gromovol is about Uncle Doj’s equal.

”

On the night of the Battle of the Middle Ground, Gromovol, Arkana, and Magadan decided to steal their shefsepoken and rheitgeistiden to flee from their new, dangerous, alien surroundings. The three distracted some Company guards with a primitive disorientation spell, but Gromovol murdered the guards against Magadan's explicit protests. Before the three could make their escape or retrieve their magic artifacts, nearby Company soldiers discovered the murders, raised the alarm, and retaliated. Gromovol was seriously injured, Arkana was raped, and Magadan was killed.

Croaker wrote very disparagingly about Gromovol throughout the rest of the Annals, and he was never forgiven for the murders. The young man was spared execution, but, he would eventually be imprisoned in the Cave of the Ancients beneath Shivetya's fortress. There, he was abandoned in a state of deathlike slumber for the foreseeable future. Both his father Nashun and uncle the First Father would later die in combat with shadows during the Siege of Taglios.