Sargen

"Confront them with annihilation, and they will survive. Plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will live. Victory against my kin lies in the non-obvious solution -- you must save the oppressor."

- Sargen the Silent

At a Glance
Sargen the Silent was once a Deurgar, a cousin-race to the Dwarves, and the man responsible for both the unification of his fractious clan and their cultural doom. Thrust into the role of king during the decades-long Deurgar civil war in The Steelsands, Sargen decided that only an external threat would bring his subjects together. Declaring war on his nation's Dwarven neighbours, Sargen quelled the bloody wars of independence but it soon became apparent that Sargen had underestimated the Dwarves and that defeat at their hands was inevitable. As a second wave of secessionist wars erupted, an inventor known as Bhilgen the Bold offered Sargen the means to achieve unity, immortality, and victory over the Dwarves: by transferring his people's minds into living metal bodies. Hastily accepting, Sargen realized too late that the process had consumed his people's memories and souls.

As the newly christened "Warforged" marched out, they turned their unimaginable powers on their neighbours, driving them to the brink of annihilation. Burdened by his actions, Sargen used what limited power he had to dominate the wills of the Warforged and entombed them in a long-slumber, hoping that the mortal plane would advance in the decades to come and be able to match them. As the Warforged went into stasis, Sargen mysteriously disappeared, presumed dead by the Dwarves (who believed he committed suicide out of guilt).

In truth, Sargen had secretly become involved in the founding of the new Dwarven kingdom of Silverspear and for 67 generations had maintained an elaborate guise where he installed himself as "The Scholar", the reclusive (and unreachable) anti-mechanus theocratic ruler of the kingdom. His motive for doing this was to keep the Dwarves from making the same mistakes he had regarding technology and, should the Warforged ever awaken, find a way to save both races.

Age of Adventure
During the Age of Adventure, the Warforged tombs had begun to emerge from the earth, found empty or in a state of malfunction with Warforged waking up with serious mental damage or personality quirks. More worrisome, however, were those which had emerged inact -- remembering the time before The Great Sleep, and remembering their protocol to wage war across the globe once more. Becoming involved in their re-emergence, Sargen's actions included:
 * Ruling the kingdom of Silverspear under the guise of "The Scholar", Sargen attempted to control the Dwarves of the city and guide them away from illicit uses of technology. During this, he was inadvertently exposed by a group of adventurers who were successful in overcoming three colossal Warforged who threatened the city. Exposed, Sargen was destroyed by Khoraldrum Pureshield... or so it was believed.
 * The Resurrection Gate of Orikan captured Sargen's signal, reanimating him inside a new body at the heart of the Warforged war machine. Disillusioned with his attempt at helping the Dwarves, he altered his plan for peace, pledging to "Save the Oppressor" as there was no hope in saving the Dwarves.
 * Realigning himself with his Warforged-kin, Sargen determined that if he could accelerate the Dwarves' genocide, thereby robbing the Warforged of purpose, he could force them into a shut-down mode and thereby "Quiet the fury" of his people and at last give them peace. Activating the forges in Orikan, the Warforged war-machine accelerated its efforts and within weeks an army of machines stood ready to descend upon The Steelsands.