Janta Queensbane

''"NO! This is MY fight!" - Janta to Niriley, during his showdown with Glitterfang.''

''"We will meet again, in this world or the next." - Janta to Niriley, before their final stand against the Drow.''

Janta Queensbane was an NPC during the Shadows Over Elderain campaign. He is a chieftain of the Glimmerwood's most prominent werewolf clan, alongside Niriley Deathjaw.

Description
Janta is a large, burly werewolf standing at 8 feet tall, with thick, dark (but graying) fur and gold eyes. He is a gruff, upstanding warrior with a strong sense of loyalty and justice. For decades it has been mostly his influence that keeps his werewolf community from giving in to their hunger and instinct; he is living proof that the negative effects of the werewolves’ curse can be overcome through sheer force of will, and many of his tribe look up to him for it.

He is generally wary of outsiders and does not trust new people quickly. However, he is a good judge of character, and won’t be unreasonably distrustful if one proves that they will not harm him or his tribe.

Prior to the War of Shadows
Little is known about Janta's life before he was afflicted with lycanthropy; most only know that he worked as a lumberjack in a little logging village in the Glimmerwood. Few, if any, know that he also left behind a young daughter, who he still watches over and tries to ensure the safety of as best he can. Yet in the beginning, she was a major motivation for him to fully master his condition, as he knew he would only be able to meet her again one day if he had a near-human-like state of consciousness.

Life as a lycanthrope was difficult in the beginning for Janta: he spent a long time in solitude, wishing to stay far away from those who he did not intend to hurt, and choosing not to be led astray by any of the Evil-inclined werewolves at the time. He held onto the belief during this time that the forests would be a safer place if a werewolf with good intentions could lead all of the other werewolves, and keep them from giving in to their hunger and instinct. This motivated him to improve his skill in fighting to the point where he could challenge the chieftain of the largest (but still small) werewolf clan that existed at this time: this was Josiah Greyfang, the werewolf who was also responsible for Janta's condition in the first place. After killing him and obtaining influence over a small pack of werewolves, Janta sought to expand his influence, welcoming many werewolves into his rapidly developing clan. This was an ambitious project, which he struggled with at times, but he was not without help: soon after being named chieftain of the Glimmerwood werewolves, he met the druid Niriley, who became a respected ally of his in being a local source of healing magic, and providing guidance to the werewolves when needed. Thus, Janta was a successful chieftain for the better part of two decades before the War of Shadows.

The War of Shadows
This all came to an abrupt halt when Niriley received a dubious call from the spirits of the land to leave the forest and become involved in a political plot, in the nearby kingdom of Elderain. Janta thought little of this at the time, simply scoffing at Niriley finally going to get involved in some “human business.” He should not have been so quick to dismiss this. After two decades of successful leadership of a good-aligned werewolf clan, it may have been easy to see how Janta was so confident in the position he’d achieved among other werewolves – his clan was feared and reviled by other evil lycanthropes, and he himself had only been challenged a few times for leadership of his clan, only rarely managing to defeat his opponents without completely humiliating them. However, one such opponent from some years prior to Niriley leaving - a young, brash werewolf known as Glitterfang - returned, strengthened by dark magic given to him by the dryad Dymera, winning an absolute victory over Janta in a contest for leadership. Glitterfang had every intention of taking Janta's clan in a more evil direction to before; Janta, being a werewolf of honor, protested against this, but Glitterfang (and those now loyal to him) fought back harder, and left him to die near Duskdell.

After having his life narrowly saved by Jacob Astley, he was found by Niriley and the team that she had been travelling with. The party helped to devise a plan to get Janta back in charge of his werewolves and, after helping him to recover, he travelled with them, the whole party in disguise, through Lost Light Valley to accomplish this - Janta had suspected that Glitterfang would take his werewolves in that direction, to bring destruction to the humanoid communities in the valley. The party was unfortunately too late to save Lost Light from the clutches of Glitterfang’s werewolves, and despite Janta and Niriley’s best efforts, Glitterfang did not die in battle. A new plan was then formed: Janta and the party entered Yarburg (where, much to Janta's disgust, he was only allowed in after being bound), where the refugees from Lost Light were staying. After some manipulation of Yarburg's nobility by Niri and Aura, the King’s Guard was enlisted to bring Glitterfang there to be executed by Janta in single combat. In a tense battle in the town square, Janta faced Glitterfang in single combat and won by tearing out his magical fang and stabbing him in the heart with it – but not before sustaining severe injuries, and having his right hand bitten entirely off. Before being treated for his injuries by the clerics of Yarburg, he gave Niri the glittering tooth that he tore out of Glitterfang’s mouth, as an act of gratitude.

A day later, Janta woke up in Yarburg’s infirmary, nearly completely healed except for his missing hand. He asked after Niri and her party, but a cleric told him that she had already made her way to Cair Vanta. Recognizing that he had much work to do with his own people, he went through every prison cell in Yarburg where werewolves were held, introducing himself to newly-turned werewolves, and explaining the current situation to ones he’d recognized. He found one who was newly turned, who he had not seen kill any human in battle – this werewolf, as well as several others, confirmed this to be true. This was Ethan Bloodmaw, who Janta appointed as his new lieutenant. Once this had been done, Janta bid farewell to Yarburg’s leaders, saying that he had business to attend to in Lost Light Valley.

Very luckily for the werewolves, Janta happened to hear that a Drow invasion was planned for further down Lost Light Valley, so Janta made plans to sneak through the northern mountains to pass into an area of Lost Light Valley, from which he could safely gather up any remaining werewolves. Following some initial discussion between Janta, Ethan, and Nuna, cursory plans were made to fight against the Drow attacking Elderain; this was because the prospect of the Drow invading the Glimmerwood when they were finished with the Kingdom of Elderain needed to be avoided at all costs. When the three presented these plans to the whole clan, though, opinions were mixed: not everyone was willing to lay down their lives for a kingdom that treated them as badly as they had done. Janta tried to assert his authority over those who dissented, and much loud arguing followed. In the end, it was decided that those few who did not wish to fight, or were unable to, would be escorted back to the Glimmerwood, and they would still have a place in the pack when the rest returned (although those who did choose to fight might look down on them). Thankfully, Janta’s passionately presented case for fighting the Drow touched the hearts of most of the werewolves, so they travelled into the northern mountains once more.

As the werewolves approached the southwestern foothills, Janta found a lone Drow for interrogation. The Drow turned out to be Sessil Thar’vok, who had escaped imprisonment in Yarburg and was making his way northward to where the Drow stronghold was – in the Vale of Ashbury, far to the north. Janta further found out that the Prince’s Army was marching up towards Ashbury from the south (in Gottsbruck) – the enemy knew this, and the Forsaken Legion were planning an attack on this army from behind. Unfortunately, Janta was unable to find out the location of Niri and her party; for all either of them knew, they could be heading in the same direction. Janta ended the interrogation by slitting the Drow’s throat and moving with a greater sense of urgency.

The trek was long and difficult, and some of Janta’s people were beginning to lose hope. However, they did eventually manage to catch up to the Forsaken Legion, after a massive glacier that had been blocking their path magically and serendipitously disappeared. They silently followed the army of undead men into the early hours of the morning, when they staged their attack at the precise moment before the Forsaken Legion were planning to stage theirs. The werewolves and the Forsaken Legion appeared evenly matched in strength, but the advantage of surprise that the werewolves had was enough to ensure their victory. Once Janta had killed their leader, Duke Attoir, he rolled his head over to the feet of the Prince, who was watching from afar, before stepping forward into view. Once he and the Prince exchanged their formalities, a familiar face ran into view: this was Niriley, who, confusingly, was excessively overjoyed that Janta was alive and had not been killed by some “Atramedes.” Once the initial confusion had cleared up and Ethan had been introduced to Niri's party, Niriley took Janta and some of their mutual allies aside to catch each other up on what they had seen following the battle at Yarburg.

Prior to the Battle of Ashbury, Janta was approached by the Prince’s military advisor, Hubert Dubedout, and informed of the strategy that the werewolves should adopt against the Drow: they were to conceal themselves in an elevated, forested area at first, and strike from above. Once this was made clear, Janta addressed his people with a short-but-sweet speech in which they were told to make sure every attack resulted in a kill, so that none of the enemy would end up as one of them. Before this, though, Janta bid farewell to Niriley and her party, assuring her that they would meet again after this finished.

Taking on the Drow from high up in the trees seemed manageable at first – however, they hadn’t accounted for the massive hordes of undead which then marched out of the castle. As they fought, it seemed that hope dwindled with each passing minute, as seemingly werewolf after werewolf was struck down. Then, out from behind the Drow militia, the Drider Queen Mozana marched to the front lines to claim some kills for herself. Prince Vilgon Denas and Janta Gnarlclaw met her together in battle, and thus two noble leaders united under the same cause. Janta fought valiantly against Mozana, however at a critical moment he looked away for too long, to see the sky darkening above him. Despair filled his heart, knowing his friend must have failed in her quest – and this allowed just enough time for Mozana to strike a poison-coated blade into Janta’s neck, which would in time claim his life. Janta then dealt one final, furious blow to Mozana, which was enough to kill her – and, mysteriously, the shadows in the sky stopped spreading soon after. The nearby Drow looked on in confusion and horror, as Janta dealt blow after wild blow at any remaining Drow that he could before collapsing on the ground. He kept an eye on the sky above as he bled out, eventually seeing the shadows shrink back into the tower, and then seeing blindingly beautiful light pour out from the same tower, over the battlefield and as far as the eye could see.

Janta’s final moments were moments of closeness between him and Niriley; he asked his despairing friend to lead his people in his absence, which she accepted. Satisfied that the Glimmerwood would be kept safe from any more threats such as the Drow or Glitterfang, he passed away shortly after - only to be quickly reincarnated by Niriley, into the same, young-adult, two-handed human form that he had before he ever contracted lycanthropy. Niri offered him the bite again, which he accepted, as he felt that a part of him was missing without his werewolf form. So, Niri gave him what was without a doubt the shittiest werewolf bite ever given, ensuring that when he transformed, he would have a visible, elf-teeth-shaped scar where she had bitten him. In the aftermath of the War of Shadows, despite Janta being reincarnated, he did not revoke the offer of clan leadership to Niri – instead, it was decided that they would be co-chieftains of the same tribe (partly because the pack at least tripled in size after the battle for Lost Light, so having two chieftains would make things easier to handle). The Prince of Elderain offered royal protection to the Glimmerwood, ensuring that no hunting parties would come after Janta’s and Niri’s werewolf clan ever again. However, after this offer was received, both Janta and Niriley decided that their business dealing with humans was over; they led their clan down through the mountains and back to the Glimmerwood, saying their goodbyes to people they’d met along the way.

Thirty Years of Turmoil and the Sundering of Elderain
Note: The text in this section assumes knowledge of the "Thirty Years of Turmoil" section of Niriley's Wiki page.

Following his re-incarnation after the War of Shadows, Janta was recognized for his killing of Mozana by the other werewolves, and he earned his current title "Queensbane." Then, after a brief period (lasting 3 months) in which Janta helped Niriley to adjust into her new role as a lycanthropic chieftain of his people, Janta re-assumed his role as a joint-chieftain, having equal power to Niriley. He always remained loyal to her through the difficult times they had initially - such as the splitting of their tribe in two, and the lack of faith that some werewolves had had in Niriley from the start. However, he struggled to adapt to life after having been through a reincarnation (suddenly appearing decades younger than he was, having seen what lies in wait after death, etc). In addition, when the extraplanar portal in the Glimmerwood opened, the ever-changing laws of space and time made it impossible to even know the whereabouts of his now-adult daughter, let alone protect her; this caused him a great deal of distress that he had to keep private, lest Niri's political enemies (or even worse, the Fey) capture her for ransom or otherwise use her as a tool against him. Yet through all this, Janta remained one of the two strongest werewolves in all the Glimmerwood: in fact, when Niriley was nearly killed by a magic-immune demon who was posing a threat to their sanctuary, he was the one to successfully kill it (having had the advantage of not needing to rely on magic anyway).

On the night preceding the arrival of the Black Dragon and the Crystal Blight, Niriley had had a premonition (granted by the abilities that Foresight had given her) that she would need to leave their clan in pursuit of a far greater threat, as she was one of the only beings strong enough to do this. Janta understood, and yet was privately devastated by this; he had grown accustomed to leading his people alongside her, and knew that his people - and he - loved her too dearly to imagine never seeing her again. And yet, upon receiving this information he made plans for Nuna Scarbrow to assume Niriley's position once she departed, considering it a wise move to appoint a new leader in case it turned out that he did not have long left to live. The next day, the Black Dragon did indeed arrive in the Glimmerwood, which Niriley left in pursuit of - but not before the dragon let loose a massive wildfire upon the forest, leaving Janta and his people running for their lives. Janta, Nuna, and some other werewolves fortunately survived the initial calamity, but the clan once again sustained heavy losses, and the initial efforts to regain control of their surroundings proved very difficult. The remains of the clan had some respite in discovering that the purple crystals left behind by the Black Dragon seemed to drastically reduce the effects of lycanthropy on the mind: being in the presence of enough crystals could bring even the most aggressive werewolf back to a near-human-like state of consciousness, which brought a significant number of survivors from Aoife Nightrage's clan back to Janta's clan. This allowed them to survive in the Glimmerwood for a short time, but this was not to last...

Janta was eventually contacted by a group of extraplanar beings who called themselves the Divine Crusade: they came bearing the knowledge that the Gods were locked away in the Abyss, and that it was critical to all living beings that the Gods be rescued. To Janta, the choice of what to do was clear: he had experienced death himself, and figured that the presence of Gods was vital to there being any hope for anyone in the afterlife; and with this knowledge, he had loosely worshipped the goddess Selune for most of his years as a werewolf, and knew it was the right thing to attempt to rescue her, which was a sentiment that Nuna luckily agreed with. So, Janta and Nuna led their people to follow the Divine Crusade into the Abyss, to go and rescue the fallen Gods. Since their arrival there, they have already taken part in one major battle in which Selune was outright killed, much to the despair of many werewolves. At the present, Janta and his people have also gotten themselves in a fight to hold back a powerful force in the Abyss, which - if left unchecked - would wreak further, potentially devastating, damage upon Elderain...

Significant Relationships
Niriley Deathjaw: At the beginning of the Shadows Over Elderain campaign, Niriley and Janta had a business-partner-like relationship: while they looked after each other and worked together for the best interests of their people and the forest, they did not know each other particularly well. However, the events of the War of Shadows brought them far closer together than before - even to the point that Niri was Janta's first choice to lead his people after his death. After the War of Shadows, as they led their clan together, the nature of their relationship turned romantic and all who know them personally can attest to the depth of their bond.

Ethan Bloodmaw: Ethan and Janta only met two weeks before the final Battle of Ashbury, during the aftermath of the showdown at Yarburg. Janta immediately recognized all the qualities that he would need in a lieutenant, in Ethan: he was good at heart, in control of his lycanthropy, and wickedly strong. Apart from being trusted allies of each other, the two have developed a close friendship over the years, such that it is even difficult for the Fey to come between them.

The rest of the player characters' party: Janta did not develop significant relationships with any other player character during the Shadows Over Elderain campaign; at best, he maintained a respectful distance from each of them, though he greatly appreciated the help they provided in getting him back to his position as werewolf chieftain.

Prince Vilgon Denas: At first, the Prince carelessly threw slander in Janta's direction after he defeated Glitterfang and disappeared to an as-yet unknown location with his people, calling him a coward; he further would not allow him passage into Yarburg when they first met, without insisting he be bound first. Janta, though, never had any knowledge of the slander. When Janta met the Prince at Ashbury for the final battle, the Prince was quick to change the way he spoke about him; the two leaders further went on to face the Drider Queen Mozana in battle together, cementing their relationship as one of brothers-in-arms. The two hold a great deal of respect for one another, and refer to each other as "brother" when they meet - as Janta seemingly does not know, or care, about the initial harsh words that the Prince had for him.

Trivia

 * Janta's Myers-Briggs type is ESTJ.