Moander or Moandor is a minor antagonist from Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death. He was a death knight, one of the commanders of the armies of Deyja.
Biography[]
Moander was once a charismatic knight who fell to the dark path and turned into a lich. Unlike most lichs, he didn't become a powerful spellcaster first, but managed to retain his military experience. He loved military life, the intricacies of battle, strategy, victory and death. His charismatic style also remained and he eagerly recruited and controlled Deyja's lichs. He first appeared in the northern part of Clovergreen with a notorious necromancer named Vidomina. They had two castles, and after collecting undead, they set off to raid continuously. The necromancer and the death knight exterminated the population of an entire village, of which the adults were resurrected as new undead skeletons and zombies, the children and animals were not resurrected, but they were not spared either. However, standing in their way was a famous and powerful sorceress, Gem, who fought during the Succession Wars and the Second War of Enrothian Succession. Moander and Vidomina attacked with large forces, but both were defeated, but the leaders of the undead retreated. Moander only returned later after Finneas Vilmar became the king of Deyja, but the real leader became a famous lich, Sandro. The Death Knight and some of Deyja's other commanders, Charna, Clavius, and Nimbus, attacked a small area of northeastern Erathia not far from the southwestern border of Deyja. Here, barbarians with their two leader clashed against the armies of Deyja. They were the famous Crag Hack and Yog, however, the barbarians were surprised that despite the small area, the enemy attacked with very large forces and were outnumbered three to one. Moander was significantly stronger than in his first battle, and his magical power became much more dangerous. However, the barbarians inflicted a great defeat on the enemy, but the leaders of Deyja successfully retreated. He then reappeared after the barbarians joined forces with Gem and an elf ranger, Gelu, and attacked Deyja together. Besides Moander, almost all the important necromancers and death knights participated in the battles, but in the end the heroes were victorious. After the final defeat, Sandro wanted to take over the world again, but he had other plans, but Vilmar decided to take control for good and needed Moander for his plan. He tricked Sandro into thinking that the death knight, Tamika, a vampire death knight, and a person named Lord Dufus wanted to remove him and he had to stop the conspirators. Sandro defeated Moander and the opponents of the other two, but Vilmar's plot was successful, as he accused him of killing an innocent lord and weakening Deyja's power, so he imprisoned him. After that, Moander didn't get any more serious help, he survived the Reckoning, but he didn't have any importance in Axeoth either.
Personality[]
It is certain that Moander had a typical war like military personality. He loved fighting, glory, strategy and killing. It is likely that he was quite selfish and self-serving, as he easily turned against Sandro, so it is not certain that he cared who he followed, only that he achieved his own goals. Moreover, like Deyja's infamous commanders, he was ruthless, bloodthirsty and cruel, together with Vidomina, they killed almost everyone in the village just to have more undead troops.