My forum name, like most names I use for toons and our guild names, comes from the Black Company books. My husband's been into them forever and once I read them I totally fell in love. In the books, there is The Black Company, a band of mercenaries who hire out to whoever will pay them. They know next to nothing about thier beginnings, only that they are the last of The Free Companies of Khatovar, a land that is beyond a place called The Glittering Plane. The plane itself is a collection of gateways to 16 worlds, and in the center is a fortress that imprisions a demon goddess called Kina {or Khadi, Khatovar translates to "Khadi's Gate"}, and the golem Shivetya who stands guard over the Plain to prevent Kina from escaping.

There is also The Ten Who Were Taken, a collection of the world's most potent sorcerors and sorceresses who served under The Dominator. The Dominator used them to create a vast empire that peaked about the time The Black Company first left Khatovar. The Taken were created through torture, death and resurrection, leaving them more beaten into submission than loyal. Most of them are power-hungry, conniving and brutal, with little concern for any one or any thing that does not constitute a tool they can use to further thier own goals.

I just love using the characters as templates for my teams. :P

My icon is just a graphic I created for one of my websites ages ago.