Ebon Riders

The Ebon Riders are an elite band of mercenaries, known for their extreme brutality in combat and their reputation to fight for the highest bidder; it is not unknown for them to change sides during a battle if their enemy pays sufficiently well. Their symbol is a black dragon on a crimson field.

The Ebon Riders are led by a bloodthirsty dwarf named Mauglurien, the Black Dragon, who formed them out of a particularly brutal gang of bandits. Eventually some of the mercenaries, feeling that Mauglurien's leadership was too brutal, broke away, taking all but the most loyal of the dwarf's mercenaries with them. Furious at their betrayal, Mauglurien pledged his service to the demon lord Orcus and performed a vile ritual to transform himself into an undead death knight. With his newfound unholy strength, Mauglurien tracked down the mercenaries who had left the Ebon Riders and brutally executed them to a man.

Now a loyal servant of Orcus, Mauglurien built the Ebon Riders back up with a number of liches, death knights, and other undead willing to serve the Demon Prince of Undeath. Though they largely continued to operate as vicious mercenaries, they ultimately followed the will of Orcus.

Now a loyal servant of Orcus, Mauglurien built the Ebon Riders back up with a number of liches, death knights, and other undead willing to serve the Demon Prince of Undeath. Though they largely continued to operate as vicious mercenaries, they ultimately followed the will of Orcus. When the wizard Tephra allied herself with Orcus, Mauglurien led the Ebon Riders to Estorium to fight against the Brightstone Heroes, who had arrived to stop Tephra's plans. The Ebon Riders attacked their outpost in the ruins of Terastra alongside a legion of demons and an avatar of Orcus himself, but were driven back by the Challengers of the Unspeakable. After the battle they quartered themselves within the ruins of a temple of Boccob, where they maintained the portal to the Abyss used to summon the demonic forces. The Challengers followed them there and defeated several of their more prominent members, including the lich Ghovran Akti. Mauglurien himself was even forced to retreat through the Abyssal portal after his axe was taken by the half-orc ranger Harthur Grai.

Harthur later slew Mauglurien within the White Kingdom. With their leader and most of their members dead, it is believed that the Ebon Riders are effectively defunct.