The Lord Commander was a male Gelfling who was the captain of the Royal Guard during the Age of Power. He was one of the Stewards of the Crystal alongside the Crystalline Eminence.
Role in the comic[]
The Royal Guard discovered a fiery creature entering the Castle of the Crystal. Upon seeing her use her powers to keep them at bay, the Lord Commander ordered his troops to fetch water. They found her at the Pilgrim's Gate, where they subdued her by throwing water on her. They brought her to the Crystal Chamber, where Lord Jen and Lady Kira had awoken from their trance of peace. The Fireling identified herself as Thurma and they ask her why she had come. She begged to save her people by sharing the light of the Crystal, which she intended to do by shattering it to obtain a shard.
The Crystalline Eminence branded Thurma a heretic and ordered the guards to seize her. The acolyte Kensho entered and the Commander ordered him to seize her, with the Eminence reasoning that it would have been of small consequence since he was already scarred from the blight. Jen and Kira demanded to know what had happened since they last woke, and the Commander backed up the Eminence by telling them that the Crystal merely needed more offerings, the lands were bounteous and the clans flourished. Kensho challenged this claim and the Commander chided him for addressing the Great Elders of Thra, but was silenced by Fizzgig's angry barks and Kira's order that Kensho be allowed to speak. The Eminence suggested that Kensho be disciplined and Thurma angrily protested, causing the Commander to threaten her with more water if she would not be silent. Jen ordered that they be treated with leniency and Aughra demanded to speak with Thurma. Thurma insisted that Kensho come with her and the Commander forbade it, but Aughra overruled him and allowed it.
The Commander and the Eminence later found Thurma and Kensho in a room filled with relics from when the Skeksis ruled. When Kensho challenged his claim that the daily offerings were vital to prevent their return, the Eminence accused him of heresy. The Commander told Kensho that they had had enough of his insubordination and attempted to humiliate them before the Great Elders and punished him by reassigning him to the catacombs to shovel tumbleoth dung for the next three trine. Angered by this, Thurma burned through the wall and headed for the Crystal Chamber, where she shattered the Crystal, causing a second Great Division and the reappearance of the UrRu and the Skeksis.
Once he reached the Crystal Chamber, the Commander ordered his troops to protect Jen and Kira. The Skeksis attacked and he ordered that they be kept busy and that Thurma be found. In the ensuing fight, he managed to wound skekNa the Slave-Master, but was knocked off his feet in retaliation. The Skeksis gained the upper hand, but Jen entered the Chamber with the Scepter of Office and summoned a Garthim, which subdued the Skeksis and allowed the Gelfling to imprison them in a cell.[4] He later departed the Castle of the Crystal with Jen, other members of the Royal Guard and several scouts to search for Thurma and Kensho and retrieve the shard.[5]
The company located Kensho at a cliff and the Commander ordered him to surrender, as he had no escape. Kensho continued to defy Jen and the Commander ordered the scouts to seize him. Kensho fell from the cliff but was rescued by Bohrtog. The Commander was frustrated that Kensho had escaped and asked Jen if he recognised the creature that had rescued him. Jen replied that he did not, but knew that it was something wondrous.
As the company travelled through a burned forest, Jen recalled that in his youth his mentor urSu the Master had told him of the Shrookil, a creature that was known to sing s it died, and remarked that all of Thra was now singing that song. The Commander admitted that he heard it too, but insisted that all was not yet lost. They encountered the Podling Letzig along with his wife and infant daughter and asked if they had seen Thurma or Kensho. The Podlings replied that they had not and defended Kensho, who had given up his birthstone to save their daughter from death, and Thurma, who had cured the forest of the blight. They then stated that the only monsters were the Garthim that Jen and several of the soldiers were riding. Jen apologized to the Podlings for their troubles and allowed them to go in peace and the company continued on their path.
Once they reached Mount Thranir, the company located two scouts tied up, having confronted Thurma and Kensho. The scouts reported that due treated their wounds after subduing them, causing Jen to comment that they did not seem as villainous as the Commander was making them out to be. They finally found Thurma and Kensho at the entrance to Mithra, where Jen's Garthim did not hault as ordered and attacked Kensho. Jen attempted to reason with Thurma by dropping the Scepter of Office and assuring her that he wanted to save both worlds. Upon seeing that their hearts are true, Jen promises not to interfere and allows them to continue onwards, despite the Commander's protests that they must not leave without the shard.
To their surprise and confusion, the water in the tunnel began to rise. SkekSil the Chamberlain, who had been following the company and used rocks to divert the flow of water, attacks the guards. As Thurma and Kensho fled, Jen and the guards attempted to defeat skekSil, but he grabbed the Scepter of Office and ordered the Garthim to attack them. They managed to destroy several of the Garthim, but Jen was knocked unconscious, the Commander was mortally wounded and the rest of the guards and scouts were killed.[1]
As the Chamberlain went after Thurma and Kensho, the Commander used what little strength he had left to revive Jen. He admitted that they should never have used the weapons of their enemies, that their fear made them blind. Jen offered to help him, but the Commander stated that he was beyond even his help and insisted that he must return to Kira and the others at the Castle. He pointed to Bohrtog, who had arrived nearby, as proof that even when broken, the light of the Crystal was with Jen. Jen departed on the creature and made for the Castle and the Commander succumbed to his wounds.
