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Personae

Page history last edited by Hal! 5 years, 1 month ago Saved with comment

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Kings and Potentates

 

Mordamund

late Archon of Vision.

mordamund sketchmordamund toon

Mordamund served on the Council of Archons for over two centuries as its senior member, and was the last whose date and manner of death have been conclusively documented. The chief of the Council was stabbed to death in his own observatory, murdered by parties unknown. His protégé Kedrick, the Archon of Concord, was last seen alive on that same day and in Mordamund’s presence; he is alternately blamed for his mentor’s death or regarded as a victim of the same party’s bloodlust, though some few maintain that he managed to escape and remains at large to this day, two decades later. A noted oracle, astrologer and prophet, Mordamund predicted his own demise and that his order would fall, but also that the Council of Archons would return in glory and provided signs by which they would be known. Unfortunately, no complete copies of this prophecy are known to be extant.

 

Of late, as the Church leadership has been claiming that there shall be no new archons there has also been a growing movement for the official canonization of the late Mordamund and certain other of his contemporaries in the Council. Prayers to him for intercession and veneration of his relics are already under way though they do not yet have formal authorization from the Great Sunedrion. Interestingly, Church authorities have spent the generation since Mordamund's demise steadily declaring many of the writings attributed to Mordamund to be apocryphal, unverifiable or forgeries and have busily censored and destroyed many of these same. Now, it is certain that there have been many false writings that claimed to come from his hand, but this programme seems to include a number of his writings that were previously considered genuine.

 

Gustavus Hochzollern von Zachsen

King of Zachsen

King Gustavus von Zachsen

Gustavus' father was an avid prosecutor of the Successor Wars, and succeeded in absorbing a number of his smaller neighbors by threat or force in the chaos of the conflicts and claimed to be supporting the ailing Hohensturm dynasty even as he undercut their authority. What he failed in, however, was claiming the throne when the last of the Hohensturms died, and then he was killed by a stray arquebus shot during a minor battle leaving his own throne to his then-untested son. Gustavus intends to rectify this failure. He has spent the past couple of years mostly consolidating his power in his own domain and solidifying his hold on the newer territories that his father had acquired, but now he is beginning to look outward.

 

Young, aggressive and acquisitive, Gustavus hopes to soon style himself as emperor rather than merely king. Gustavus is the current head of the House of Hochzollern and a distant cousin to the now-extinct Hohensturm line. He uses this as part of the basis for his claims that the empire should be restored with himself as emperor. The other part is widely understood to be his large and powerful kingdom with its large and powerful military.

 

Oswald Aran von Ostrobach

Grand Duke of Ostrobach

oswald portrait sketch

A mighty, aging warlord and former Yenisarius, Oswald has battled beside and/or against virtually every significant power in Occida at one time or another. As a young man and second son, he was sworn into the Yenisarii and renounced any claim to the ducal crown of Ostrobach partly because he was devout and partly because his father wanted to avoid any dynastic disputes. When both father and older brother were killed, the Archons themselves ruled that Oswald should be discharged from the order and take his father's place. In fact, Oswald was the last ruler crowned by Mordamund before that venerable Archon's decease and is one of only two surviving rulers to have had this honor.

 

He did so reluctantly, but has served his people wisely and well through years of peace as well as the interminable Successor Wars. In these wars he stood primarily to prop up the failing Hohensturms, to break up religious warfare and stop the forces of Zachsen and Bourge in their attempts to control the Dachs and claim the Imperial crown. He was an important part in forging the series of tentative peace agreements that seem to be holding for now. In the ensuing years it has become clear that Oswald himself has no interest in becoming emperor and is content with his dominion, but that if there is ever to be another emperor then the road to the crown shall have to pass through Ostrobach.

 

The duke strongly objected to the excommunication and dissolution of his former order, and in fact mobilized his armies to come to their defense when they were besieged. He was too late to save his erstwhile fellows, however, and after a series of skirmishes settled an uneasy peace with the powers responsible for their destruction. It is rumored that to this day he is offering sanctuary to escaped former Yenisarii, and the Archbishop has publically expressed distress at these rumors though Oswald himself has never bothered to respond to them. He is generally assumed to be a supporter of the Archonic Restorationist movement, though he has avoided issuing many public statements on religious matters in recent years.

 

Isabelle Meravonne-Artannes

Grand Princess Mother, Regent of Geste

 

Isabelle Meravonne is a royal Feuran princess who married the much older Grand Prince Henri Artannes and endured marriage to him for twelve years. He died of natural causes in RS 1495, but named his 6 year old son Henri as his heir. Grand Princess Isabelle, 28 at the time and with a younger son as well, assumed the regency of her son's principality, and then marshalled armies and fought her brother-in-law, Duc Guy Artannes, for the right to keep it. For most 1496, Guy tried to seize the throne in his own right, and then when support for that waned, to claim the position of regent for himself, until his defeat and capture at Ille in 1497.

 

The young prince, who is ten in 1499, will assume his throne on or just after his 15th birthday. Until then, the Princess Regent rules Geste with the advice and assistance of a privy council of nobles and common people, who serve on the council at her pleasure.

 

The late Grand Prince was known to have Reformist leanings, and fostered the movement in Flessing in a bid for future order and peace, as it appeared the Archons would not return. Isabelle is a devout member of the Sunedrist church and is believed to be a Restorationist,  though she has not taken sides openly, claiming that these are matters she must hold in trust for her son to resolve, as he sees fit, when he takes his throne. Until that time, as Regent she tolerates no open conflict on religious matters within Geste's borders, though she continues to foster debate and scholarship on such ecclesiastical questions at the university in Flessing, much to Archbishop Medecke's oft-voiced displeasure.

 

Isabelle's late husband had no imperial pretensions through the Successor Wars, and he supported the Hohensturms until they died out. A year after the elder Henri's death, King Gustavus of Zachsen proposed a marital alliance with the Gestian regent as a bid to bolster his own imperial ambitions. Her response was to say that any future such alliances were in her son's keeping, and she would not consider another marriage until young Henri was safely on his throne, thus putting herself beyond "the marriage game", as she terms it, until 1505, at least.

 

The Princess Regent is considered to be something of an intellectual (rare enough in a prince, but in a woman!?). She has published pamphlets on advanced mathematics that are discussed and referenced in colleges all over Occida, and her court, like that of her Feuran royal parents, is open to the foremost thinkers and artists of her time. She is also reputed to be a beauty, refined of manner and person, a fiercely protective mother, and a lady of great majesty.

 

Flauren Medecke

Archbishop, Head of the Great Sunedrion and Ruler of the Episcopal Dominion

Archbishop Medecke is the man who would succeed the Archons if he has his way, and he does indeed appear to have gained acceptance across more than half of the Church thus far. His arguments that the Archons' time is past and God has determined that men are now sufficiently enlightened that they will not need such overtly divine appointees henceforth has struck a chord with the powerful and educated, and he has won considerable support through this as well as his own cunning intrigues. He has managed to position the Great Sunedrion as not only the heads of the Church but also the chief spiritual office (with himself as its highest official) in Occida. There are, however a number of thorns in the Archbishop's side as the Church's fragmentation into competing sects looks like it might become permanent without outside intervention. The Holy Father's keen eyes are always alert for means to remove such irritants, and he is prepared to do so without either hesitation or mercy.

 

Delean Laurean

Dynast of Alannáth

Delean

Delean is the ruler of the largest Alan dominion and a neighbor of Zachsen, and finds that to be a difficult position to hold. While he has been tolerant of and relatively welcoming towards the human settlers that have come to his domain in increasing numbers, they are becoming something of a political liability for him. A stern and aloof alan, he requires that they obey his laws, pay his taxes and recognize the traditions of his realm like any other subject, though he also allows them to observe their own cultures so long as there is not a conflict. Delean's own difficult personality has complicated matters in diplomatic dealings with his neighbors and relations with certain prominent settlers as well. Further, he has increasingly come into conflict with the edicts of the Great Sunedrion as he and much of the leadership of his domain are open Restorationists. A land grab against him for the purposes of "protecting" these new settlers and settling religious disputes has already been threatened, and sabers are in process of rattling on all sides. [title him Bey instead?] 

 

Zuchetto the Unstable

Grand Doge of Florentia

Zuchetto has been for many years the leader of the city state of Florentia in Latium. Being a political leader in a contentious, fractured region has seemed to unhinge him slightly (although he argues that the rest of the world is mad around him, and he's one of the few sane men). He, however, is by no means an insane ruler in the mode of some emperors of old who would name their favorite horse to a high position in government, or insist they were champion gladiators. Instead, he combines the strategy of a chess grandmaster with the unpredictibility of a lunatic, keeping all his enemies, foreign and domestic, off their guard. He has been known to shuffle around positions in the Civic Council, of which he is head, sometimes giving key posts, such as the Lord Mayor's position, to the local tavernkeeper, or having all authors in town arrested and all ink banned. No one is sure how much of his madness is real, and how much is feigned as a bluff. The citizenry, 10 years ago, began to call him "Zuchetto the Unstable" behind his back, and liking it, he adoped it as his title.  


Wizards

 

Aquila the Pilgrim

Concordian wizard

Aquila

Aquila is an itinerant sage and philosopher offering counsel, mediating disputes and providing a bit of magical assistance to peasant and potentate alike along the way.  The weatherworn traveler has earned some renown, and is a lean and wolfish figure that is sought out and yet often seen as a bit of a stormcrow, for his arrival tends to presage disasters and perplexities, whether he has set them in motion or not.

 

Conrad Haagen

Defrocked Priest and Reformist Theologian

Professor Haagen was once a priest of the Great Church, but his strident cirticisms and calls for reform led to his being declared a heretic and stripped of his rank. Now, the argumentative doctrinarian is a professor of the Trivium and a fierce supporter of the Reformist movement. It is rumored that the incident that finally led to the difficult man's excommunication was a particularly heated debate between himself and another theologian that ended when he struck his opponent down with lightning by way of rebuttal.

 

Imrian Yeváliis

Alan Sorceror

imrian

Imrian is an experienced and capable theurgist, and one of Occida's leading authorities on spirits and the Otherworlds. It is his gift with dimensional exploration that has earned him his surname Yeváliis, which translates into "Shadow-Gazer." A restless soul, he has delved to dangerous depths in his studies and spent time as a court advisor and mystic to a number of different powers over the years. Most recently he has returned to serve his homeland of Alannáth.


Churchmen

 

Bertolt Brecht

Episcopal Witch-Hunter

bertoltbrecht

The Church has for some time maintained an order of witch-hunters based out of the Episcopal Dominion tasked with the persecution of black magic and Autumnal threats. More recently and with the rise of reform movements and splintering of the Church, this body has been tasked with assisting the Church's inquisitions in helping to apprehend and prosecute nonmagical heretics as well since the inquisitions themselves are not directly authorized to employ either torture or the force of arms. Bertolt is one of the most aggressive and successful of the Episcopal witch-hunters, and is known for his fiery devotion and unyielding determination in bringing the enemies of the Church to justice as well as for having a rigid black-and-white view of the world. He has at times been censured for being overzealous in his duties and thus inadvertently overstepping the bounds of his authority, but he remains one of the Great Sunedrion's most senior and valued agents.

 

Roland D'Turon

Ferexine Bishop

Bishop D'Turon is a member of the Ferexine order and the lord of an ecclesiastical fief in the Grand Principality of Geste, subordinate to one the the prince's most powerful ducs. He is a passionate, doctrinaire and bellicose man known for his great concern for justice and righteousness. Unlike many warlike Lord-Bishops, he is known to be as kind as he is fierce and as compassionate as he is forceful. While the good bishop makes a point of traveling with able bodyguards, soldiers and supporters, he is more than capable of calling down literal fires of divine retribution upon the wicked and will not hesitate to do so should he feel that calling such might to bear is both urgent and justified.

 


The Masses

 

Axe Wolfmar von Tannzenburg

nobleman

A master artificer, engineer and natural-philosopher, this nobleman is at the bleeding edge of Occidan technological development...

 

Albrecht Röter

military officer

Albrecht is a leathery, grizzled soldier that has fought numerous campaigns, a solid and dependable officer with an excellent record and a sharp mind. He is easily recognizable to friend and foe alike for his tanned, lined face and the steel grey that is creeping into his otherwise flaming red hair and moustache, making him look rather like a man that is rusting. Unfortunately for Albrecht, he hired on to a post in Nordmark a few years before the Fomori captured the fief. He survived and was one of the officers that agreed to surrender in exchange for the lives of the citizenry, and has been the captain of the human militia that assist with keeping the peace in that place, but he has also quietly served as a lynchpin in the resistance against Gunderit's oppression. It remains to be seen how long the old soldier can play at games of intrigue under the noses of the Fomori.

 

Casc Tokscen

Durgan Plague Doctor

...

 

Georg Schmidt

Master Metallurgist and Smith

...

 

Jan Paalsen

Master Artificer, Armorer and Inventor

...

 

Siegfried Hohenzeller

Landsknechte Doppelsöldner

...

 


The Damned

 

Octavius Mors Gunderit

Fomorian/Lost Warlord

octavius portraitoctavius sketch

Ondrugh Octavius Mors Gunderit MaghArdaric is probably the most notorious fomor now living, and comes from a long line of fomor heroes that has been the terror of civilised men for generations. His notoriety stems from a lifetime of daring and brutal attacks and raids mixed with harrowing escapes in a constant running battle against the established nations of Occida and Albannia. His most remarkable and ambitious exploit to date has been his successful invasion and conquest of the County of Nordmark in the Dachs region of the former Heiligen Empire. This feat required him to forge alliances subordinating many other fianna to form the assorted warbands into a unified army, and has led the amazed filidhean to brand the powerful rugh with a new title: "ondrugh", meaning high chief or king. Gunderit is a harsh ruler known for his hatred of his human subjects and enemies, but has thus far been able to hold Nordmark against two invasions mounted by neighboring fiefs.

 

Fordagh Corrath MaghTyr

Fomorian Rugh

This baloros fomor chieftain has of late been much discussed among the filidhean, for he has allowed a human witch-woman named Inge to join his fiann. This was apparently precipitated through a remarkable series of events where the woman, fleeing from Episcopal witch-hunters, healed the deathly illness of his daughter Moire, the only child of his deceased mate. All of this amidst betrayals and attempts on his life by his shamanic advisor and his personal champion. The obstinate and strong-headed Fordagh killed his scheming advisor personally. Rumor holds that the sorceress is not only a member of the fiann, but the chief has taken her for his new mate as well.

 

Gottfried Teufel the Lost

Prince of the Damned, Harbinger of Autumn

Gottfried the Lost

Once a mortal man and a Chief Praetor of the Yenisarii, Gottfried has fallen far indeed. Cursed or blessed with immortality by the forces of Winter, Gottfried seeks the destruction of the ancient order and indeed of society, for he seeks to drag down the barriers between the material realm and Autumn to bring the infernal to power over all mortals. Once a Concordian, Gottfried is now the scion of Emptiness, a walking vortex of ambition, hunger and want. In his right hand he bears the sword Famine, and in his left the scepter Ignorance.

 

Rahann

female Fomorian

Rahann colors

"Rahann" is the only name to which this lone fomorian woman will answer, and she claims membership in no fiann. Whatever it was that led her to walk alone, whether she departed of her own accord or she was cast out, she will not speak of it. In any case, she roves the wilderness, drifting from one gathering of her people to another and being drawn into the conflicts and perplexities of the world through the vagaries of Fate. She is a fiery and aggressive woman, and quick to take offense.

 


The Otherworldly

 

For a treatment of the Lords of Winter and other mighty spirit entities, see the Cosmology page.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (1)

Hal! said

at 10:18 am on Jun 4, 2009

To-Do List: Add more setting NPCs from player stuff, plus Count von Auerswald and any others you care to add.

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