Richal was an human adventurer who fought against tyrannical empires in the human lands centuries after the GreatWar. She was said to have wielded a flail with which she often disarmed and subdued her enemies, rather than killing them. Richal lived at roughly the same time period as Bergis (Bargorwis in older texts), and both adventured primarily in the Twingate region, although most of Richal's exploits take place in lands south of Twingate, while Bergis adventured primarily in the north.

Richal carries with her a many-layered tradition of stories and tales. Some of them -- her outwitting of a young white dragon to gain her flail, for example -- have a likely basis in fact. Others are based primarily on propaganda and a bard taking more than appropriate artistic license with the facts. Her use of a "magic song" to defeat the Ironmen ignores the fact that golems (the "Iron men") are impervious to most forms of magic, and her eventual demise at the hands of a Cloak of Shadows seems more in keeping with the horrific tales of the CryptLord's Rising than with the exploits of an adventurer.

Most famous in respected circles is the tale of Richal and Gorhil, the legendary dwarven hero. Though many versions exist, the most historically direct is the sextet version, reprinted below. Later version are more understandable when one remembers the influence of non-dwarven scholars, who with spurious evidence have attempted to twist the meanings of the text, implying something more than friendship between the two. The notion that a dwarven hero of that time period would indulge in pleasures with a non-dwarf, even of heroic stature, is absurd, and historical recountings of allies bathing together to wash away the scent of battles is much more credible. The "sage" Elharion's belief that the dark-kin's different shape being only a metaphor smacks of elven racism, an insult to Gorhil by implying that he would draw the blood of another dwarf, and to Richal by implying that she would somehow ensorcell him for this purpose.

No, any strong reading of the text shows firmly that Richal and Gorhil were heroic figures who treated each other with the respect of allies. Gorhil's appreciation for Richal's removal of the dark-kin's illusion caused him to allow the non-dwarven hero to bathe in the magical fountains, and they bathed together, as heroes do, washing away the blood from their battles as friends and comrades-in-arms. It is a tribue to the ability of different races to fight against the darkness together.

Richal and the Fountains of Gorhil