Khurubra-Ankhiv

Curuband was a renegade Variag whose real name was "Kurubra Ankif' from the land of Khand. He went to seek his fortune in Gondor, and rose to be Chief Interrogator of the King. There he gained the new name ("Skilled Oppressor"), but soon his idle perversity and excessive brutality forced him to flee for his life, eventually reaching Umbar and joining the forces of Evil there. Although not a user of magic by training, Curuband had an incredible innate affinity for the employment of magical devices. This skill had allowed him to rise rapidly in the ranks of the Dark Priesthood.

Curuband had an outfit of cobra-skin that covered him from head to foot; he only removed this while participating in rituals. He was not a scholar and had learned little of the languages of his new lands. Curuband tried to maintain an air of foreboding silence to cover this deficiency; he was more than passing successful in this endeavor.