Freeman Mongrelborn

Freeman Mongrelborn was a High Captain of Port Skaug and a powerful admiral in the Skaugan Main during the third century Valanthe II. His true name, was he ever given one, and his parentage are lost to history; any records that detailed such information surely burned with the sugar plantation that birthed him. The product of both the desperate couplings of plantation slaves and the experimental “husbandry” of the slavemasters, he had no recognizable race. According to a contemporary pamphlet extolling his deeds,

"On the plantation, he was simply called a mongrel. One might see at one glance the bulk of the orc in his frame, at another, the gleam of the elf in his keen eyes, the alacrity of the halfling in his surprisingly delicate hands, the staunchness of the dwarf in the set of his jaw, the decidedly goblinoid sharpness of his teeth – perhaps even something celestial or demonic in the pale, lichen-green hue of his skin. When, one blessed day, he slew his masters and set fire to their plantation, he left his slave name in the flames, sardonically choosing as his nom de guerre the slur by which he was so often referred."

— "Join the Mongrels - See the World!"

After escaping the sugar plantations, Mongrelborn slew a slave-ship captain, freed its captives, and set upon a years-long campaign against the slave merchants of the Skaugan archipelago. Because slavery was illegal or at least frowned upon by most of the region’s powers, he largely avoided censure by the governments of the Main, though he made many enemies among those who directly and indirectly profited from the slave trade.

At the climactic Battle of Carmos Narrows, Captain Mongrelborn crushed the assembled navies of several slave cartels and captured a massive slave galleon which he christened The Emancipator and adopted as his flagship. Crewed by his devoted following of freed slaves, The Emancipator was one of the mightiest fully-rigged ships of its day, its crew complement rivaling the size of some armies.

Though neither a handsome nor a friendly man, Freeman Mongrelborn’s intense personality and unyielding purpose inspired adoration in his supporters. He was a folk hero in Port Skaug, unrivaled in popularity among the lower classes, but many of the less scrupulous High Captains and Merchant Princes considered his crusade a diplomatic and economic liability, and his popularity a threat. His position on the council was continually in jeopardy.