Axel Kolanthe

Axel Kolanthe is one of the sworn protectors of the kingdom of Stormhand's prince, Ferdinand Gerreth, alongside Lars. He has sworn his very life to protect the kingdom's only heir.

Appearance
Axel Korlanthe has dark skin, his family having originated in the southern regions of the kingdom along the planet's equator, where his people had initially crossed the sea and settled, having initially lived in a great desert known as the Badlands.

He wears shiny metal armor and a long, flowing red cape embroidered with gold trim, indicating his connection to the royal family; however, during missions where they must remain undetected, he also has a suit of brushed steel armor and a dark gray cape. Both of these armor sets are secretly built to allow great expansion to allow him to properly transform between Human and Greater Werewolf forms, although he typically removes his armor before his transformation except in the most dire of circumstances.

Abilities
Axel is excellent at swordplay and is usually second to none, but should worse come to worse, he can forcefully transform himself into a Greater Werewolf. No foe who meets him in this form is let to survive, so that this secret may be kept.

Relationships
Axel has a great personal friendship with both his fellow bodyguard, Lars, and his kingdom's heir, Ferdinand. This is due to the king, Alonsus Gerreth, purposefully allowing the children of two of his best and most loyal knights to be raised as Ferdinand's friends. Gerreth encouraged this friendship and kept his ulterior motives secret, and the three became so close that they jumped at the opportunity to serve as his bodyguards once given the opportunity.

Because King Gerreth saved him from lunacy in an uncontrolled werewolf form, Axel greatly trusts his king.

Background History
As with Lars, Axel is a childhood friend of Ferdinand, which was done on purpose by the prince's father King Gerreth, who meant to greatly increase the likelihood of him doing his job of protecting the prince due to such a long history together. Also like Lars, Axel was caught unawares in the outskirts of Stormhand on a mission to find the prince after a supposed kidnapping. In Axel's case, he was attacked by a pack of werewolves and although he survived the encounter, he suffered several bites, leading to his secret of being transformed into one himself.

Luckily for his home kingdom, his loyalty to the prince was far stronger than his newly acquired taste for blood, and he was able to for the most part overcome this bloodlust during his "recovery time". Currently, only two other people know Axel's secret—Lars, who suffered a similar fate; and King Gerreth, who discovered his secret and used his magical artifacts' powers to help calm the savage beast within and save his personal plans from being for naught.

Due to the multiple bites from multiple lycanthropes combined with the time spent in such close proximity to the strengthening aura of King Gerreth's artifact clothes, Axel was quickly altered into the Greater Werewolf form, allowing him to transform at will instead of only at night. With this ability, whenever worse comes to worse in protecting his prince and friend, he and Lars will shoo the prince away "for his safety" (which is true although the full truth behind why is kept from him) and each will transform and tilt the battle towards their favor. Ferdinand is always surprised but elated when the two return no worse for wear, with their multitude of enemies defeated.

Trivia

 * Axel was originally used in customized Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars maps which were used to help Somarinoa express his ideas about his own fantasy world through the use of in-game map editors. Axel used the hero icon for Lord Corlagon.  His werewolf secret would not be created until later.