Characters:Dun Barethsol:Albrecht
Wyvernesse is both the name of Albrecht's family and his manor house. Many generations ago, a village called Wvyernesse existed around the manor. It has since faded back into the forest, but the name persists. The family of Wyvernesse progressed from being the lords of the wilderness to being the ruling family of Erinsford. The family has a reputation for justice, fair dealing, and defending the population. Their vassal fiefdom is known in lore and legend as the Champion's Duchy. In the generations since the Wyvernesse family took control of Erinsford, it has prospered, becoming a sort of secondary center of trade. It has none of the grandeur of Elvish Cirdanth, but for a Human city, it is a pretty, cultured place. Perhaps that was why certain, more gregarious members of the Red and Green Sisterhoods decided to settle in Erinsford. It was civilized, but not too civilized. Unfortunately, Erinsford bears out the law of entropy, as does all else.
Erinsford has only begun to fail recently. No more than twenty years ago, it was wonderful place to live and trade. Violent crime was all but unheard of and most of the merchants were fair in their dealings. The races of Men and Half-Elves lived together in relative peace. The settlement was too far from Cirdanth to find many Elves and too far from the eastern mountains for Dwarvish comfort. The absence of the Fairest and the Shortest contributed to the peace, for without the Crafters and the Elvish folk around to pull at the Human and Half-Elvish folk, they were free to deal with one another without distraction.
Things continued that way for generations. The population of 'learned folk', as alchemists, shamans, and Sisters were sometimes called, grew. They were always few in number, but even that small percentage of the population gained the notice of the Magehunters. The conflict between the Magehunters and the 'kindly learned' remained quiet and unspoken. Each group sought to thwart the other, though the 'kindly learned' were more successful. They responded to violence by healing as many as would be healed. The 'learned serpents' took another approach to the problem, fighting back with invisible violence. That was when the trouble began, during the first years of Albrecht's lordship. The Magehunters, frightened and incensed by the deaths of their own people, spread that fear throughout the town. Albrecht, the intelligent, benevolent son of an equally intelligent, benevolent father, did not know how to respond to the troubles. As a result, he did not react strongly until the tension had broken forth into open violence. Albrecht, honoring the traditions of his forebears, fought to defend the Magickers
Guilt-ridden, Albrecht took personal responsibility for the riots within his walls and began to seek out the power to stop something like that from happening. The wisest among the citizens of Erinsford say that the Magick Riots changed everything, including Albrecht.
Albrecht evicted the Magehunters, publicly blaming them for the rioting. He began to court the learned, but most of them had already vanished. He was forced to be discreet, since fear still ruled Erinsford. Not even the Lord Mayor could be seen openly seeking arcane knowledge, even if it was only for the sake of understanding the learned and preventing other such rioting.
His search for arcane knowledge was pure in its motives at first. He found an apothecary named Kurwen who had remained and was willing to teach him something of the deeper arts. Albrecht proved to be an apt pupil, much to the pleasure of his teacher. He learned a great deal about herbal medicine and by extension, herbal poisons, since Kurwen's work often involved countering the ill-effects of a badly chosen dinner ingredient.
Albrecht learnt other things as well. As a close student of Padrig Kurwen, he heard, and took personally, many of the rumors that were spread regarding Padrig and his beloved. He had known before that the people of Erinsford had turned on the learned, more or less from ignorance and fear, but the degree and nature of the turning remained beyond his knowledge until he began to associate with the learned. He became angry with himself, with Erinsford, and with the kindly learned. He had realized that his public acceptance of responsibility had been more appropriate than he had realized at the time at which he took it. Fear and anger soured his investigation of the arcana. He was determined that such tragedies as the Magicker Riots should not happen again. He was even more determined that his own personal weakness should be put aside.
He left his teacher and even more discreetly began looking for a teacher who could instruct him in the arts of power. He hid his search from the people, but also from the Gardeners. A few years after his departure from Padrig's tutelage, it seemed that the two men had never studied together. Albrecht's motives and interests had changed. Padrig was not mentioned, but also not allowed to come to harm.
Albrecht found a willing tutor in the person of a wandering alchemist. The alchemist lived in the Mayoral palace for three years, then vanished without a trace. Only Albrecht knows the fate of his teacher, who taught his noble student too well. He poisoned the alchemist so cunningly that the man was past healing when he realized that Albrecht had chosen to poison him in the simplest way possible. Each knew the abilities of the other, so Albrecht poisoned the man with a simple fungal toxin - too simple to be thought of until other antidotes had failed. Albrecht's benevolence was replaced by greed and cunning.
Albrecht's desire to rule was kept in check only by his understanding that he must rule cunningly. In generations past, the people of Erinsford had known their Lord Mayors to rule by consent, if not by plebiscite. He knew that they would have to choose his tyranny for themselves, so he set out to make it happen. Always presenting a face of civility and concern, he began to allow the slow, marginal corruption of his ruling apparatus. Murders increased. Some of them were never solved. The people accepted more laws and more city guards. Many of the laws did them good, but some simply limited their freedoms. Most of the new guards, like some who now serve in Waste's Edge, were genuinely concerned about the safety of the people and the rising activity levels of the bandits and the Stiletto Killer, as the Men of the Knife were corporately known. Some, however, could be bought. They were bought with money out of the official coffers.
Albrecht maintained his discretion, fearing discovery by his own guards. Tyrants in the past had died at the hands of those assigned to protect them. Albrecht did not want to be added to that list. More than his guards or his hired 'help', Albrecht feared other alchemists and learned folk. Life for the learned was allowed to get increasingly difficult. Most chose simply to leave Erinsford for Cirdanth, the Wilds, or the Human-controlled northern parts of the world.
Quite by accident, Albrecht's brigands waylaid a dragon hunter, badly injuring him before Monks and Rangers come to his rescue. Both sides of the skirmish come away bloodied. The Rangers melt back into the woods, while the Monks took the wounded hunter back to their monastery for treatment. The brigands reported their find.
At this news, Albrecht realized that his time had come. He gave his hirelings free rein, beginning with the destruction of those who had found the dragon hunter. He wrote his letter to Marcella and sent Alek's band out to find the monastery. A month after the failed ambush of the hunter, Padrig was murdered in a 'botched burglary.'