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Krul is one of my favorite heroes, but lorewise, he lacks the depth of some others (ahem, Ardan and family, Catherine), so I have decided to write an origin story for this dastardly draugr:

Kalbo Rulan was a warrior of great reknown. People from miles around came to his village to do him homage, or to challenge him in combat. The latter he slew, for it was said that neither man nor beast could best him in combat. Then, in Kalbo's twenty-eighth year, tragedy struck; Skaarfangandr, already a name of legend in Kalbo's lifetime, descended upon his village. Helpless, the great Kalbo was forced to watch as his village went up in flame. As he stood, horrorstruck, in the center of the inferno that had been his village, he was approached by Rahn Zhalk, the wise man. Rahn was hideously burned, and bleeding through many wounds where his skin had burst. It was a miracle he could walk, albeit with a pronounced limp. He collapsed in front of Kalbo, and said with his dying breath "The cycle is come again. Greatest among men and greatest among beasts must do battle, for the sake of the world." By then the dragon had flown off, to where Kalbo knew not. What he did know, was that he must confront the beast, and slay him. He went off to find his house (burned to cinders, obviously), and found his armaments miraculously unscathed. His family, however, had not been so lucky; his wife, once so beautiful, was now a charred ruin of her former self. Two of his sons suffered a similar fate, though his eldest was strangely absent. So with a heavy heart he set off, with spear, sword, and shield, to face his destiny.
Though he did not know where the beast was going, he could follow his path of destruction; vast fields blackened, villages reduced to rubble, forests reduced to cinders. At last he came upon what could only be the dragon's lair; an immense opening in the side of a mountain, the surrounding land charred, the grisly remains of past feasts littering the ground. Coming from inside, Kalbo heard a loud grunting, and peered inside, ever so cautiously, to find Skaarfangandr, the mighty wyrm, asleep. He approached to stab it in the eye when suddenly, as if alerted by the very motion of his spear, the beast awoke. It let out a terrible roar, and charged for the opening, Kalbo just barely getting himself out of the way. The dragon then turned to incinerate, Kalbo, but he was ready; he leapt to the side just in time, plunging hismspear into the beast's eye as he did so. As the dragon let out a horrendous cry of agony, Kalbo scaled its neck, drawing his sword. Skaarfangandr attempted to take wing, but when Kalbo plunged his sword into the beast's remaining eye, he plunged back down, blinded, the spear still stuck in his eye, the sword retrieved. The damage had been done, and Skaarfangandr, scourge of humanity, king among beasts, curled up to slowly bleed out and die.
Kalbo cleaned his sword and attempted to reclaim his spear, a futile task, as it was caught in a mass of dead dragon. As he turned away from his prize, Kalbo was surprised to see a bush, one of the few not incinerated by the now-deceased dragon, stir. A few seconds later, a hideous creature came lumbering out; it looked to be a walking corpse. In life, he would have been almost handsome, a young man, barely more than a youth, with a thin, high-cheeked face, wearing scraps of armor, the majority of which had long since rusted away. The most obvious detail, however, was a beautiful blade, glowing with a blue light, ornamented with fine gold scrollwork, impaled in the corpse's chest. The wight descended to one knee, head bowed, as if in fealty to Kalbo, and then promptly disintegrated, leaving only the sword. Kalbo approached the weapon, and picked it up. Upon doing so, he heard a voice, seemingly coming from everywhere, and yet nowhere at the same time. "Ah, a new champion", it said,"You have slain my cousin, and my mortal enemy, as have two before you. I can grant you immortality, and powers greater than you can imagine. But only if you want them. Do you accept?" Kalbo immediately agreed, never knowing the downsides to the agreement. The sword began to levitate, hoving just in front of him, point aligned with his solar plexus. Too late did he understand what was happening, and he had only time to let loose a horrible, inhuman scream before he was impaled, as his predecessor had been.
Rah Slolk was a fisherman from a humble, unnamed village. One day, as he was out by the river, he noticed a bush swaying, when there was no wind. He drew a small knife he kept for gutting fish and asked "Who's there?" Then, from the bush came a horrifying creature, a walking corpse. The monster replied with "Am... K... Rul..." And then let out a cry of pure rage. The monster lunged at the fisherman at inhuman speeds, grasping his neck with inhumanly strong fingers, and crushed the life out of him. Thus began the horror that is Krul.
Every thousand years, Krul was tasked with witnessing the death of Skaarfangandr, each time at the hands of the mightiest warrior alive. Each time, Krul waited in that same bush, and each time he rushed out to bow before the victor. Krul didn't know why, perhaps he had some hint of compassion left, but each time he would warn the champion of the sword's offer. "Decline..." He would groan, and each time the warrior declined the sword's offer, and the terrible fate of undeath. And each time Krul would be forced to kill them. When two gods battle, the only loser is man.

And for the skin I mentioned in the title, it would harken back to Krul's early days as the living dead; he would have full armor, with his signature horned helmet, and he would look like a fresher corpse, with more skin and more color. His facial hair would be black instead of white.

Fun fact: Tommy Krul is the co-founder and CTO of SEMC. Does this have to with the character krul?