Cordell

Cordell is a great general who conquered much of Maztica for Amn. He formed the Golden Legion as a consolidation of his previous adventuring companies. He slowly trained these remnants into a sole military unit. Corell's lover was an albino elf mage named Darien who accompanied him on his Maztican voyage.

Pirate war
Cordell's Golden Legion defeated a pirate army led by Akbet-Khrul in a great battle within Amn. The victory re-opened trade routes between Amn and other cities on the Sword Coast.

Maztican Expedition
Cordell's legion won the gratitude of the Council of Six and sponsorship for their now legendary expedition to Maztica. Cordell's original goal was to reach Kara-Tur by sailing westward across the Trackless Sea. The barbarian Horde blocked the overland route to Kara-Tur and Amn needed to find an alternative trade route. Cordell's fleet set sail for Kara-Tur in 1361 DR with 15 ships and 500 legionnaires. After approximately forty days at sea they made landfall on the outer islands of Maztica where they encountered primative natives. Several days later, they landed on the Maztican mainland in Payit and began exploring the jungle.

Payit Campaign
Relations with the natives were peaceful until a misunderstanding resulted in a brief war between the Legion and Payit. One of the shore parties led by a young calvalry officer named Halloran was attacked by the mentally disturbed high priest of Zaltec (Mixtal). Halloran and the daughter of a Helmite bishop (Domincus) were captured by the natives. Mixtal, who had been ensorcelled by a couatl, believed the bishop's daughter was an escaped priestess intended for sacrifice to Zaltec. Mixtal cut out the woman's heart and offered it to Zaltec at a pyramid on top of the Twin Visages. A larger party of legionnaires stumbled upon the sacrifice and attempted to rescue Halloran but were driven off after killing a large number of native warriors. Halloran and the dwarf officer in charge of the second party were rescued by the couatl that had enspelled Mixtal.

When news of his daughter's death reached Domincus, he demanded that Cordell punish the natives. Cordell was unable to restrain his bishop's desire for vengence so he landed the Legion on the shore a short distance from Ulatos. The five hundred strong Legion was met on a grassy plain by nearly 20,000 native warriors from Ulatos and surrounding villages. Although the natives had superior numbers, Amnian steel, Darien's magic and a well timed calvalry charge routed the native army and many thousands of warriors were slain by the Legion. Numerous native bystanders who had come out to watch the battle were also killed by overly zealous Legionnaires.

After the battle, Cordell marched the Legion into Ulatos and demanded all the gold in the city as tribute. The total haul was equivalent to over 1 million pieces of gold. Cordell banned the practice of human sacrifice and branded the most troublesome Jaguar Knights on the cheek with the eye of Helm.

Cordell immediately put the Legion to work constructing a fort on the shore known as Helmsport to use as a base of operations. In order to head off a mutiny encouraged by the Council of Six's representative, Cordell ordered all ships in the fleet scuttled so that the expedition would be forced to remain in Maztica.

Kultakan Campaign
The natives of Ulatos told Cordell of the riches of Nexala and Cordell decided to make that city his next target. Shortly after subduing Ulatos the Golden Legion set out for Nexala with most of the Legion's men and 5,000 allied Payit warriors. Their march took them through the land of Kultaka which was the only major kingdom in Maztica never conquered by the Nexalans. The ruler of Kultaka had heard of Ulato's defeat at the hand of the Legion and decided he would fight Cordell's force on uneven, forested ground rather than in the open as Ulatos had.

The two armies met on a hillside outside the capital and, despite having the advantage of superior numbers and the high ground, the Kultakans were defeated with minimal losses to the Golden Legion. Kultaka had little wealth and thus was not of much interest to Cordell. The proud Kultakan warriors were shamed by their defeat but Cordell offered them redemption with the chance to attack their old enemy Nexala.

Nexalan Campaign
Cordell left Kultaka with his Legion, Payit allies and 20,000 Kultakan warriors. The most direct route to Nexala led through the village of Palul. The Nexalan ruler, Naltecona, decided that the only way to defeat the Golden Legion was through trickery so he decided to ambush the Legion during a feast in their honor in Palul. The entire Nexalan army marched to Palul before Cordell arrived and hid in houses and the surrounding forest. Several Nexalan generals who had been sent by Naltecona met Cordell in Palul and informed him of the feast. The Kultakans were not allowed to entire the town on the pretense that they were the ancient enemies of Nexala and that their presence would lead to conflict.

The mage Darien scouted around the town and was able to uncover the Nexalan plot by charming a Nexalan warrior. After her warning the Legion attacked the Nexalans pre-emptively with Cordell personally killed both Nexalan generals and Darien slaughtering hundreds of Nexalans in the town square in the opening minutes of the battle. The Kultakan warriors pounced on the Nexalan forces hidden in the hills above the town and routed them.