Ulric

Ulric is the warlord who has done what Nadir prophecy promised for centuries: joined the feuding tribes of the steppes into one people. When Legend opens he has already carved an empire out of the north, and his army, said to be half a million strong, is marching on Dros Delnoch, the fortress that stands between him and the Drenai heartlands. Gemmell keeps him well clear of the cartoon barbarian. Ulric is patient and clever, honourable by his own lights, aware of what the siege is costing his people, and more openly respectful of Druss than some of the fortress's own defenders. The Legend of Deathwalker goes back a generation to the steppes before unification, when the tribes are still waiting on the prophecy and Druss is drawn into a Nadir fight; readers who know Legend will enjoy watching who emerges from that book. In The King Beyond the Gate, a century on, Ulric has become a presence in the spirit world, taking a close interest in his descendant Tenaka Khan.

Appears in

1. 1Legend (1984)In Gemmell's first novel, an ageing axeman and a reluctant soldier help hold a six-walled fortress against a Nadir army half a million strong.
2. 2The King Beyond the Gate (1985)A century after Legend, a half-Nadir exile comes home to kill a mad emperor, and finds himself leading a rebellion instead.