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Mahtnahan dan Jakel is the most famous saint of the Stranglers throughout the long history of their cult. He is a murky figure of the distant past of the homeworld, predating by centuries even the arrival first Free Companies of Khatovar. His most famous deed was murdering Rhaydreynak, the emperor of what is now Taglios and the Shadowlands, who had persecuted the Stranglers to near extinction. He strangled Rhaydreynak with a silver rumel.

Importantly, Mahtnahan dan Jakel was the only known cultist to earn the silver-colored rumel, meaning he strangled at least one thousand people.

Modern Stranglers like Narayan Singh held Mahtnahan dan Jakel in the highest esteem. Narayan, the greatest Strangler jamadar during the time of the modern Annals of the Black Company, shared the story about Mahtnahan dan Jakel to Lady in Dreams of Steel.

Dating Mahtnahan dan Jakel chronologically is uncertain, but a tentative statement from Murgen in Water Sleeps may supply the best and only estimate:

Near as I’ve been able to find out, when the first Free Company came off the plain, almost six hundred years ago, that event marked the first time our Shadowgate had been used in at least eight centuries.

If Murgen was correct – and if the story about the ancient Stranglers depositing the Books of the Dead beneath the fortress with no name during the lifetimes of Rhaydreynak and Mahtnahan dan Jakel is also true – then Mahtnahan dan Jakel lived ~1,400 years before the modern Annals.

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