As I mentioned in another post quite recently, Pyschopanda is the name bestowed by Kazímir Skharnov on a mute Minkutian berserker that routinely harried his forces. This berserker wore a panda skin and many bits of uncured rawhide that stank like a dead bear, and fought with legendary ferocity matched only by Kazímir himself. Thus, Psychopanda's name was well earned.
In case you can't tell from the face, Psychopanda is a lavkin, and a rather fat one at that. He wields a dadao-like cleaver, normally a two-handed weapon, in each hand, allowing him to cut through soldiers with ease. Despite the fact that he wore no proper armour, covered only in hide and fur, Psychopanda was able to shrug off numerous cuts and spear thrusts that Skharan warriors delivered as if no blade had actually pierced him.
Kazímir first heard of Psychopanda when a scout returned to his camp, the rest of his party having been cut down in a Minkutian village by the massive berserker. A few days later, a group of berserkers raided Kazímir's camp, killing a hundred soldiers and a dozen elite warriors. All were eventually killed during the fighting, save for one, which managed to escape as arrows began to find their mark. The berserker in black and white fled with his back resembling a pin cushion.
Kazímir's army kept marching, and about a month later, a lone berserker struck the camp. Having dealt with various raiding attempts by that point, the Skharans were much better prepared, though a single warrior still had a greater chance of slipping through the perimeter than a large party. The berserker in black and white made it fairly deep into the camp before he drew his weapons and began slaughtering Kazímir's men again, this time beginning with a group of elite warriors sitting round a cooking fire. Some nearby soldiers rushed over, and while the berserker was able to deflect most of the incoming blows, a few spears made their way into his back and belly. Undaunted, the berserker kept fighting, and more soldiers and warriors joined in, attempting to cut him down.
Eventually, Kazímir himself joined in, riding through the camp to see what all the commotion was, and shot the berserker in the upper chest. the berserker began to flee, and Kazímir gave chase, driving his spear into the berserker's back twice before he escaped again, swerving to and fro the cut down as many of Kazímir's soldiers as he could before reaching the edge of the camp. From that day forth, Kazímir referred to the berserker as "Psychopanda," or some variation thereof.
Psychopanda made many more raids against Kazímir's camp as the army continued to advance deeper into Minkutian territory. Sometimes he was alone, sometimes not, and while any companions he had with him never survived, Psychopanda himself always managed to escape after sustaining injuries that should have killed him. Kazímir himself lost nearly three hundred arrows in Psychopanda's body and one spearhead. The last raid on Kazímir's camp was a few months before he reached Sing-Yat-San, the Minkutian capital. During that raid, Kazímir managed to cut off Psychopanda's right hand, and Psychopanda immediately ran away.
Psychopanda hopped on the back of a pony-like dostrop (not quite a horse, but similar enough that I could use the pony model in Hero Forge), and disappeared yet again. At this point, Kazímir was beyond annoyed. "That psychotic panda has wriggled his way from my grasp like a greased little pig for the last time," he exclaimed, "if I ever see him again, I will drive my THUMBS into his greasy eye pits!"
Kazímir finally met Psychopanda again in the upper levels of Sing-Yat-San, as he pushed his way up the mountain and into the heart of the city. Psychopanda had a sword mounted on his right arm, where there was once a hand. "At least you can't grow limbs back," Kazímir taunted, "not that there's anywhere left for you to run this time!" Psychopanda was already surrounded by Kazimir's soldiers, with several spears stuck in him from all round, but he managed to kill most of them before Kazímir closed the distance. As Kazímir ran Psychopanda through from the back of his sleipnus, he was pulled down and lost his helmet. The fight was brutal, as Kazímir tore off Psychopanda's sword arm with a swift kick before ending up on his back with Psychopanda on top of him. Psychopanda tried pushing in Kazímir's eyes before he got a dagger in one of his own, sending the berserker reeling back in pain. Still, even with a dagger lodged in his eye socket, all the way through his skull, Psychopanda still stood, and still fought. Kazímir made his way to his spear, and with a great sweeping motion, cut through Psychopanda's throat, yet still the berserker tried to fight, shoving the bloody stump of his right arm into the gaping cut in his neck, while trying to inflict some sort of damage onto Kazímir with his remaining hand. Kazímir succeeded in stabbing out Psychopanda's other eye, at which point the berserker began flailing wildly in all directions, knocking over anyone and anything that got too close. Kazímir had gotten hit in the head quite badly, and also took a stray arrow in his thigh at some point, though not noticing right away. Realising that he had already lost so much blood that he was going to die in that battle anyway, Kazímir charged at Psychopanda with his spear, running him through the chest and off the city wall.
In the aftermath, Kazímir's elite warriors prepared a shrine, which was later relocated to the very centre of Castle Holgar. The skull of Psychopanda, with Kazímir's dagger still inside, with the panda skull on top of it, stuck on top of Kazímir's spear, was surrounded by the traditional Skharan armour display, itself sat upon an empty chest of great significance taken from Sing-Yat-San. Even at the time of The Nine Empires, which takes place eight centuries after Skhara's fall, the ghostly shrine still sits, largely intact, inside the ruins of Castle Holgar.
