Characters:Dun Barethsol:CHoE
At this point, the CHoE still lacks a few people. I still need to write the Monks into the story and explain their relationships to one another and the outside world, as well as to provide some more details on the Rangers. I have also all but left out Cirades, Sulin, and Risartus. I may also need to expand on the relationships between various Enders. Is there anyone else that I am missing or have not yet mentioned by name?
Historical Background
Fifteen years ago, Albrecht and Ella were involved in a riot the claimed the lives of Marcella's parents, Analis and Eberic dunSayl. Jelom's father Terama and Talan's father Tolian also fought to keep the sisters alive. Ella's husbandman Gareth was slain as well.
Before the fighting, Analis and Eberic gave their daughter into the keeping of Padrig and Merigan Kurwen. Marcella was only 14 months old at the time. Albrecht began to study with Padrig when Marcella was 18 months old. Albrecht noted the young child's strong resemblance to Eberic. Padrig and Marcella, feeling that Albrecht would keep the child's identity a secret, revealed that she was in fact the daughter of Eberic dunSayl.
Over the course of years, Albrecht's determination to prevent any other riots and to understand the Deeper Arts, as he began to call them, began to overrule his determination to see justice done and the right preserved. He forgot the light completely and turned to dark lore. He dismissed Padrig and began to study on his own. On an official visit to Cirdanth, he heard of a book of draconic lore and arranged to have it stolen. Though it took him years to read and understood the Book of Dreicoeur, Albrecht arrived at the conclusion that he had mastered the text, but lacked the skills to complete its instructions. He found another mentor - a Ulfgard Alchemist whose name he never knew - and learned everything he could from him. The Ulfgard, who defied the customs of his people by learning alchemy at all, knew only of alchemy's darker uses - poison, disease, pain, and death. This Ulfgard alchemist also shared his people's legends - including their tradition of geas and the uses it was put to by hunters of monsters and dragons. One day, he disappeared from the Ducal keep, never to be seen again.
In time, he heard of a band of rogue Free Lancers that had been driven out of the country of Aereng. The band was described in official reports from the Queen of Aereng to the Lords of Cirdan and Elgila as consisting of half-a-dozen veteran members, a following of violent rootless mercenaries, and a leader hailing from the human city of Norsheim-on-Forod. They had apparently sold their services to a human king of the northern grasslands who later decided not to pay them. They were driven by force into the relative safety of Fioraen lands.
Recent History
At this point, the complete history of everyone becomes both self-aware and slightly tongue in cheek. After all, I have very little idea of who Coris dunThalen is, other than that he is a very brave, very powerful, and very dead Elvish swordpriest (i.e., paladin). But, on with the show.
During the time that Albrecht spent mastering the Book of Dreicoeur (Possibly Dreiherzbuch or Livre du Trois Coeur in translation. However, I doubt that these translations are of any use, given that my German is poor and my French is probably a crime.) and then killing his master in order to turn him into reagents, and that Alek Endhelm spent fleeing toward Norsheim-on-Forod, then Aerengist, and finally the Southern Hills, the Keepers of the Twofold Tower (Dun Telron) were leading the investigation into the location of a lost Tower of Guard. Albrecht, of course, was informed of these pursuits by the Keeper bands, and began to participate personally. In the midst of these pursuits, he met a strange young Elvish lord with a talent for walking through walls.
In the course of official communications with the ruling families of Elgila and Cirdan, he heard of the existence of the marauding band lead by Endhelm. His surveys of the wilderness had already led him to a derelict Lancer's Camp. Under the pretext of doing his duty as the Champion of his people, he went there with all speed, rightly expecting the marauders to make it their home. Of course, he took along more than twenty loyal retainers, in case the brigands were too proud to realize they were desperate.
After Waste's Edge
One of Alek Endhelm's close associates, Ragmark Blackhorn, was killed in the last skirmish between the Enders and the duplicitous king's henchmen. Endhelm, though otherwise a ruthless killer and a lawless opportunist, had a strong bond of friendship with Blackhorn. Alek, being no fool, realized that he could not match Albrecht's force and threw open the gates of the little Stockade. The two men met in private in the little stone keep, where Albrecht offered quiet leniency to any of Alek's number caught working havoc within the walls of Erinsford and tardy pursuit of those sighted without the walls, if they would agree not to cause undue slaughter and to forswear rape altogether. Albrecht wished his people frighted into greater need of him, not terrorized by rape and pillage. The two men agreed that robberies on the road and burglaries in the town would increase. Albrecht went further, commanding that "blood must not fall without need." For the sake of appearances, Albrecht "captured" one of the Enders, an Uzian axeman named Mored, and carried him back to the Guard's Keep for questioning.
The events of Dun Barethsol began with a pair of accidents - Albrecht's discovery of the Ulfgard geasman and dragonhunter Forenos doDrec and Alek Endhelm's opportunistic theft of the Lady Imoen Silverhair's catseyes. Once Albrecht heard of the dragonhunter and his geas, he realized he could finally put the Dreicoeur Formula to use. He merely needed "blood of the vine" in order to exert control over the dragon. He knew where to find blood of the vine, so he wrote the letter. Mored Uz-axe reported to him when Marcella left Erinsford suddenly. While Mored was still in the room, Albrecht commented that his plan would be easier to bring off if Padrig, his old teacher, was unable to discover it. Mored, seeing that the beginning of the plot brought Albrecht such pleasure, took it upon himself to carry out the Duke's "wish". He broke into Padrig's home, killed him, and rushed back to Albrecht to declare his victory.
Upon hearing Mored's confession, Albrecht exploded with rage and declared an immediate sentence of death. The Duke commanded Mored be carried out to the main square of the town to await his death. There Albrecht declared Mored's crime, his confession, and his punishment. (Under Cirdan law, Mored's announcement of his actions is considered a confession of guilt.) Albrecht exercised his right to personally execute those found or declared guilty of capital crimes. Albrecht chose, of course, to make Mored's death slow and torturous by beating the life out of him with the least battle-worthy mace in the town armoury. It was rusty and pitted, with a cracked handle near to splintering. When Mored was dead, Albrecht ordered the body burned and the remains buried in an earthenware jug, in open defiance of Uzian burial customs. These two deaths all but break the understanding between Alek and Albrecht. Each one feels that he has lost a man to the other's treachery. Alek is particularly sensitive because he has now lost two trusty Uzian axemen to the "treachery of noblemen".
Alek is also wanted by the Seven Lords of Gemcraft, but because of the diplomatically sensitive nature of the crime he committed, they cannot dispatch Zhotul'Uzdun in any numbers. Instead, they send Ynar Hammerhand to Waste's Edge to help recruit Human or Half-Elvish adventurers to hunt Alek down. By the time Marcella reaches Waste's Edge, Albrecht's messenger has been waylaid on the road and killed in retribution for Mored's death, so Marcella finds only Ynar.
Thorig Axehaft, mortified by Bjarn Fingolson's behaviour and having already sent Erek Stonebreaker to the Elves as an Ambassador, decides to send someone with a similar philosophy and openness to the Craftless. Kord Blackhammer – a soldier and an hammersmith by trade – opposes the decision to seek the help of the Craftless, but the tradition of the Seven Lords is old and sacred, so he lends his support and orders his Zhotul'Uzdun to do likewise. Once the decision is made, all the people of Uzdun'kal abide by it.
The People of Waste's Edge
In this milieu, the people of Waste's Edge and Arynsval are almost bystanders. The guardsmen and the Redwyne family have a vested interest in seeing Alek brought to justice, since his behaviour might be seen as a cause for doubting their reputations for efficiency in keeping the peace and in the quality of their hospitality, respectively. But in many ways, their trade goes on unhampered. The Lady Rhayne Frostbloom still comes down from her cottage at Arynsval to trade with the riverboat captains, to hear news of the wider world, and to seek the inspiration of the Tree. Not even the town scoundrels – Elgar Basil, Soko, Nebrin, Reylr, and the Menlad brothers – consider the burglary a reflection on the Redwynes, though the news makes Tinuv Cerfus even more nervous than before. Someone has been waylaying him as he tries to deliver pralines to the Duke in his Hunting Castle. This 'someone' is in fact Orl and Thorn, two cousins from Menlad Crossing who behave as though they were brothers.
The Enders and the Society of the Blade have developed an uneasy business partnership. As a result Orl and Thorn now work for both Elgar Basil and Alek Endhelm with the full knowledge of both and act as intermediaries between the two groups. Secretly, Orl also works for Soko. While it was not immediately apparent when the Enders established their stronghold in the old Bandit Camp, Elgar Basil soon realized that his customers' demands for greater protection were a result of the presence of the band of Northern marauders Orl and Thorn had infiltrated. At this point, he began to actively cultivate the relationship between the two Groups and directed Orl and Thorn to suggest a meeting. If the Enders – particularly their skilled archers – would take a little time out to fire harmlessly at his river skiffs as they moved back and forth between the North Fork and Waste's Edge, he would pass some of the profits on to Alek in the form of money and foodstuffs. Elgar is quietly hoping that Alek – who has confessed his suspicions about Albrecht – will overthrow the Duke, solidify his powerbase in the swamp, take armed control of the surrounding area, and allow Elgar to operate more openly. The Champion Dukes and the Men of the Knife have always been at odds. Even after Albrecht introduced corruption into his own courts, he never did so to the benefit of the Society. Common thugs went unpunished, or were barely punished, because it benefited Albrecht, but the Society of the Blade was always ruthlessly pursued.
But the Society in Waste's Edge is not a united front. Elgar knows Tinuv Cerfus and treats his with careful honestly. Cerfus is a rarety – a Cirdanth wine merchant willing, because of his relationship to Risartus Solmanus, to beat upstream to bring good wines into the wilderness. Neither Tinuv nor Elgar know it, but Soko has been stealing the pralines meant for Albrecht. Soko does it to undercut Elgar's authority. Soko was an ally to the older head of the Society, the one Elgar desposed with the help of Nebrin and Reylyr. The hatred that Soko and Elgar have for one another is easy to discover, once Marcella earns the trust of either man. Soko, however, is more likely to approach Marcella. He is desperately in need of allies and would find the fresh, impressionable newcomer an easy mark.
If Marcella investigates the robberies by speaking to the Enders, she will find that the thief is most certainly not Alek. Albrecht prizes his pralines and Cirdanth Red highly and would take it as a kind of personal invasion if ever the Enders were to molest Cerfus. The Enders themselves, having sampled the pralines, find this particular requirement onerous, because it requires them to have Orl and Thorn buy the pralines for them. By the time Marcella finds Tinuv to talk to him, he has sold all the Pralines he can spare. If the sweets meant for Albrecht are waylaid, the Duke's order will go unfilled.
Sulin Turvale is the village blacksmith. He is fast friends with Cirades Rymon, the village chronicler, and Risartus Solmanus, the village healall. All three men migrated into Waste's Edge, each for his own reasons. Sulin came to be close to the Dwarves of Uzdun'Kal and a steady source of good iron and steel. Cirades travelled from Cirdanth to learn new songs from the Half-Elves and to investigate the legends of an event called Redfall. Ristartus came seeking something possibly related to the pursuits of the two other men - the intersection of three meridians - and the mystical power found in such a place.
Turvale's wife Mina is native to Waste's Edge. She is the daughter of Waste's Edge's resident dairy and pig farmer, Aladan venRhys.