Story so far
Volsung Fá made himself the messiah-king of the Volk and Ascomanni by conquest, ritual, and the terror of his enormous armored body. His feast on the Nixian Isles was meant to make Volga complicit in that order, but her refusal to kill Lyria opened the way for Darrow's assault and ashvar challenge. Darrow's new blade-work stripped away Fá's panoply and forced the supposedly divine victor into a public flight across his own islands.
Cornered on Hades, Fá confesses that he was born Vagnar Hefga, a Valkyrie Spires slaveknight who served Atlas au Raa in Cohors Nihil and was raised among the Ascomanni to become the weapon that would break the Rim and prepare a savior's arrival. He will not reveal Atlas's position, and he tries to poison the future with the claim that Volk and Ascomanni will devour one another without a master. Darrow denies him a king-making death and leaves judgment to Volga under the Law of the Ice. She rips out his heart and calls him unworthy. Fá is dead; his leaderless followers and the systems of fear he built remain dangerously alive.
Appearance
An enormous Obsidian man with a titanium-repaired, severely scarred face and dark calculating eyes. His blue-painted duel armor lies discarded after the hunt; his final wounds and death are not his canonical living appearance.
Role
Fá was the manufactured messiah whose war enslaved Europa and distorted the Volk's traditions into an instrument of Atlas's long campaign.
Relationships
Volga — Volga is Fá's granddaughter and the woman he tried to shape into his heir; she becomes the judge who executes him.
Darrow — Darrow defeats Fá's body and public myth, but intentionally refuses to take the killing blow or Fá's crown.
Atlas au Raa — Atlas au Raa was Fá's commander, ideological master, and the architect of the persona that made him useful to the Society.
Lyria — Lyria survives the ritual murder Fá ordered, and her survival helps break Volga's obedience to him.
Sources — 12 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 37
- The Obsidian warlord reveals a far larger ambition by uniting the Ascomanni and Volk in an assault that destroys Ilium's guard and threatens the Rim itself.
Chapter 41
- Fá's Volk and mysterious Ascomanni fleet defeats the Ilium Guard and attacks Jupiter's moons, forcing the Raa armadas from Mars and opening a perilous path for Darrow.
Chapter 49
- Fá is revealed as Vagnar Hefga, Atlas's former Gorgon brother and a manufactured Obsidian messiah whose Ascomanni-Volk invasion is the weapon of the Rim's planned destruction.
Chapter 51
- The invading messiah is revealed in private as Vagnar Hefga, Atlas's brilliant former Gorgon brother whose cultivated barbarism now destroys the Garter and Sungrave.
Chapter 70
- Fá celebrates Europa's fall at the Nixian Isles, exposes his awareness of Darrow's Deep trap, and turns Volga's mercy into a public test.
Chapter 71
- Fá kills Cyaxares as Europa's king, then demands Volga prove her lineage by ripping out the hearts of twelve prisoners.
Chapter 72
- Fá's ritual of domination falters when Volga spares Lyria and Darrow's hidden assault party bursts from Cyaxares's butchered body.
Chapter 73
- Fá is forced by the Law of the Ice and his own religious theater to accept Darrow's ashvar, choosing a full-metal dome fight to reclaim advantage.
Chapter 74
- Fá makes ashvar a rigged contest of armor, gravBoots, warsaw, and poison, wounding Darrow and claiming the challenger is already dead.
Chapter 75
- Darrow's new flow breaks Fá's armor and authority; exposed before Volk and Ascomanni alike, the wounded warlord abandons ashvar and flees for Pandora.
Chapter 76
- Fá's retreat becomes a humiliating island-to-island hunt as his frightened calls for help fail before the witnesses he ruled through terror.
Chapter 78
- The false Allfather is exposed as Atlas's slaveknight and executed by Volga after his ashvar defeat destroys his claim to rule.