Black Company Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Black Company Wiki
What happened before the Voroshk does not signify.

Nashun the Researcher, Soldiers Live

The Voroshk – also called the Family – are a clan of sorcerers who had taken over the world that would come to bear their name. The first of their line came into power around the time that the Shadowmasters took over Hsien. This Voroshk male had dozens of children, most of whom inherited his abilities with sorcery to greater or lesser degrees. At the time that the Black Company entered the Voroshk world generations later, there were hundreds of living Voroshk, most of whom had limited ability with sorcery. They wore priceless black robes, called shefsepoken, which responds to its wearer's thoughts, protecting them from many types of bodily harm. And they ussed flying posts called rheitgeistiden for aerial transportation.

Croaker hated the Voroshk for their extreme arrogance, their sense of entitlement, and their suppression of history (namely Khatovar) that took place before the rise of their clan.

Before Soldiers Live

Alliance with the forvalaka

The Voroshk were ruled for many years by a mysterious man called simply the Old One. At some point after the closing events of She Is the Darkness, the Voroshk leadership created an alliance with Lisa Daele Bowalk, who had entered their world as a fearsome forvalaka but was unable to return to her original human form. Two of the chief Voroshk princes, the First Father and Nashun the Researcher, learned the rudiments of her language (the homeworld tongue of Juniper) and were able to help her temporarily return to human form.

When the forvalaka entered the Voroshk world, she tore a hole in the bubble-like sorcery of the shadowgate and some killer shadows followed her inside. These entities killed everything they could find until they were wiped out by the Voroshk's fiery spells. The Voroshk captured and tamed a small handful of the remaining shadows using sorcery, much like the unrelated Shadowmasters had done in different worlds. (Some of these tamed shadows would later kill Spiff and JoJo.)

Soldiers Live

The First Father became the leader of the Family when the Old One died unexpectedly. This occurred roughly the same time as the Black Company departed Hsien and entered the glittering plain en masse).

Destruction of their shadowgate

The Voroshk leaders aided Lisa Daele Bowalk in her revenge killing of One-Eye (who had been responsible for dispatching her master, Shapeshifter, many years ago during the Battle of Dejagore). Bowalk's assassination of One-Eye drew Croaker and other Black Company members and allies to the Voroshk world for retribution. The Voroshk's tamed shadows killed Spiff and JoJo but were wiped out in return. Then, 3 airborne Voroshk sorcerers and Lisa Bowalk attacked. The Black Company captured one young member of the Voroshk clan (Shukrat) after killing Lisa Bowalk, and then tricked the Family into blowing up their own shadowgate. The Voroshk realized they would be unable to prevent an onslaught of killer shadows from pouring out of the glittering plain, which sent the entire clan into a panic.

Seven Voroshk enter the homeworld

Four young members of the Family – Sedvod, Arkana, Gromovol, and Magadan – willingly surrendered to the Company to escape the impending devastation of their world. Sedvod died shortly after accompanying the group from a secret curse placed on him by the Khadidas. Later Gromovol led a murderous, failed escape attempt and was captured; during this event, Magadan was killed and Arkana was raped. Over time, Shukrat and even Arkana became members of the Black Company, and Shukrat fell in love with Tobo.

The First Father and Nashun the Researcher abandoned their world and did not fight alongside their kinsmen against the shadows. The pair cowered for a time in the fortress with no name. They both later became allies of the Company and were permitted to enter the homeworld. Despite their cowardly flight from the shadows, they were both killed by shadows alongside Murgen and the Howler during the Siege of Taglios.

Armageddon of shadows

Most of the Voroshk remaining in their world were wiped out alongside their peasant subjects in the cataclysmic destruction wrought by the shadows. A handful of the "more courageous members of the clan" valiantly fought against the onslaught of shadows, annihilating millions of the nightmarish entities with fiery sorcery. Ultimately, by the close of the Annals, there are only about 15 or 16 survivors of the Voroshk Family, including the two youngest Tologev brothers. They are split up between the fortresses of Rhuknavr, Drasivrad, and Junkledesag.

Advertisement