The Accursed Dukes of d’Arthido
Anonymous
The Eleint of 1260 brought with it a raging storm that swept up through the uncharted Shroud to the east. Fishermen caught offshore were drowned ‘gainst the cruel rocks of Ymph, and the Tear rose from its banks and threatened to flood the Forest over. Amidst the din a clipper bound for the Old City is forced to land at Sis Liman. Stepping confidently onto dry land as the rain tore the sail from the mast of his ship, Rofferio d’Arthido first set foot upon the Island Ymph. Lead to Mistlocke by a Caermyn foraging party, within four rides he would have signed the first of his House’s many trade agreements with the Clans.The House of d’Arthido would become an auspicious presence in the Village. Rofferio was a usurer of the sort entertained by the Senuspur family to prevent [...]. The Merchant Hall would soon be constructed with d’Arthido coin, and dissenting villagers driven into the forests by d’Arthido retainers. The Aberdenn were content to brood in silence while the Caermyn grew fat with Amnian gold. The Hall would gain an unsavoury reputation amongst the Village, for amongst the Manchakan spices and Memnon Dark there would be chattel sold now and then by the merchants of Rofferio d’Arthido. The Year 1280 would bring with it the line of d’Arthido’s ennoblement. Styled Duke d’Arthido by the young Prince Angelo Senuspur, Rofferio would jealously protect Mistlocke from influences other than his own. He would install his young son, Thevim, as his personal viceroy in Mistlocke. Such was their tyranny over the village, that Thevim d’Arthido lynched a Wyrm Watcher merely to show all the men of Mistlocke that he could. They watched mutely as the life drained from him.Upon the death of Rofferio in 1304, his wicked son departed Mistlocke to partake in the treasons that blighted the court of Prince Angelo Senuspur. It would be the War of Succession that would see the fortunes of the d’Arthido reach its zenith. When the Prince was murdered by parties unknown, it was Duke Thevim who spoke the most eloquently to his fellow Amnians and convinced them that they had the strength to destroy the gathered arms of the Four Houses. Thus, Duke Thevim addressed the people in the Plaza of Gold, and named Lord Alaric Greywood as the murderer of the unhappy Prince. Civil blood soon followed, and the Houses were driven to Ymph amidst the clashing of steel and thundering of ballistae. The anarchy and dissent that followed the flight of the Houses ruthlessly crushed by Duke Thevim and his wretched kinsmen, culminating in the triumphant d’Arthido founding the “Principia of Old Port”, a round table of oligarch “Princes” each with the style and prestige of a Prince, in cruel mockery of the rule of the Senuspurs. Proclaimed “Warmaster” to the deafening applause of his peers, and set about gathering a low host of sellswords, Amnian bravos and slavers from beyond the Last Gate.
When news of the war came to Mistlocke, the Clans at last were moved. Tendric Aberdenn and his spearmen departed the Village to join the glittering assembly of Tethyran chivalry gathered to the ancient banners of the urbs antiquitus. The venerable Menaster’s strength too departed Mistlocke, tho’ they upheld the long friendship betwixt their Clan and the d’Arthido. Many were the battles of the War of Succession, and it is not the intent of this account to tell of their sorrows- this poor Watcher could do them poor justice. Suffice to say, Caermyn cunning triumphed over Aberdenn steel – and the last terrible battle upon the Plain of Agramant ended with the utter ruin of the Houses Four and the triumph of Amnian usury. Thevim d’Arthido returned to the Old City in glory, accompanied by his Caermyn honour guard. He knew better than to venture into our misted Forest with a host at his back.The vanquished Aberdenn were swift to action. Riding hard for Mistlocke, they fell upon the few men of d’Arthido’s that remained in the dead of night. With bloody brands and burning torch, a full three score men were put to the sword by Donyarth’s vengeful sons ‘ere the moon had waned. Homesteads burned, wives and infants cast out into the harsh wilds and bloated corpses tossed into the Tear. Tyranny had at last been washed from Mistlocke with blood. Fearing the vengeance of the Duke, Tendric and his folk fled deep into the Forests.
In the Old City, the fattened Principists welcomed their conquering Warmaster with laurels and tribute. Great wagons of captives and plunder accompanied Duke Thevim upon his long procession through the City, and Menaster rode at his side garbed in the exquisite fineries of a Tethyran merchant-lord. A month of celebration was declared- for the masses believed in their savior, and many cried upon his passing that the Duke should be crowned Prince in place of the Senuspurs, whose infant heir had vanished at the height of the war. It would be vulgar to catalogue the spectacles of the Old City in that heedy time, save to note that they were manifold and grotesque. Indeed, the inexorable ascent of the House of d’Arthido seemed all but assured. Alas, the ambition of men is ever vexed by the ironies of fate. Exactly two weeks after his glorious return to the Plaza of Gold, Duke Thevim fell dead at a feast called in his honour. Treachery was widely assumed, but it served none (save the enraged Menaster, who slew a man he named as murderer in a dual of honour) to investigate his death: a fallen hero was far more pleasing to the Principists than one with a mind to humble them before the grandeur of his person.
And so the vengeance of House d’Arthido never came for the bloody Aberdenn. Menaster soon departed from the Old City in grief and disgust (though laden with much coin and spoils) and returned to the holdfast of Rhemer. Before long the did the Aberdenn too leave their hidden cabins in the glades of the Forest, and at last did Tendric and Menaster come to sup at the same table once more, in the Shieldmeet of 1320 D.R. Duke Thevim’s fortune was largely divided between the Amnian usurers, his young wife doomed to destitution. It is rumoured that a son was born, who now serves Count Senuspur as a courtier of small renown, tho’ it is reckoned his father’s blood runs thin. Blessed for Ymph that it should be so.- Anonymous, 1370 D.R