Elidal Dhenin
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Elidal delivered the news that Spensor Caulfield had passed and his funeral would be at the edge of Wyrdeep along with Breshon Caulfield's coronation as Baron of Bourth in the late summer of 5122.
Later in 5122, he was announced to become the first Baron of the new Barony of Darkstone.
Description
You see Lord Elidal Dhenin. He appears to be a Human. He is tall and has a muscular build. He appears to be young and robust. He has sharp indigo blue eyes and tanned skin. He has short, silky strawberry blonde hair. He has an angular and chiseled face, a thin nose and a smattering of light stubble along his face. He is in good shape. He is wearing a lacquered fireleaf locket, a single-shoulder cape of cream wool lined with silk, a folded leather satchel, a sleeveless coffee leather jerkin secured up the front with gold buckles over an open-necked viridian linen shirt, a woven black and white ring, a tooled cognac leather scabbard, a small slashed leather pouch, some fitted beige buckskin pants, and a pair of knee-high bronze oiled leather boots.
Background
Elidal Dhenin is the noble who has been chosen by Earl Jovery to be invested as the Baron of the Barony of Darkstone. Elidal is the son of a wealthy river trade magnate named Ferwin Dhenin, as well his mother Wintora Dhenin, who grew up with the Baroness of Riverwood in Helt. Their business largely owned the river and were the transporters for most goods through the Barony, as well as importing and exporting to other imperial provinces. Elidal has a socially awkward identical twin brother, Magister Enisius Dhenin of the Hall of Mages. Elidal is the older brother by seconds. While the Dhenin family are from the Barony of Riverwood, Elidal and Enisius were split up when they were ten years old, after an expensive accident when Enisius catastrophically attempted to make their ships more buoyant with magic. Enisius was sent to Nydds, while Elidal was sent to Gallardshold.
Elidal is close childhood friends with Baron Breshon Caulfield of Bourth, who was for a time around 5118 the acting commander of the Hendoran Outpost near Wehnimer's Landing. His favorite season is spring, and he is fluent in Elven. He is also the subject of a crush by Breshon's younger sister Larsya Caulfield. Elidal instead has eyes for Aronia, a Green Sister from Talador, who he knows from his time in Bourth. Elidal spent around three years in the city of Lolle in North Hendor in the court of Earl Eddric Jovery. He is known to have had two romantic interests. One was brief and "made him a man", according to his father, and the other involved a woman called the "Weaver Widow". She was the widow of a very wealthy and powerful weaver merchant in South Hendor, and after his death, sold his business and lived in luxury in the courts of Lolle. Their relationship ended for unknown reasons, and Elidal returned to Riverwood. When the Prelate Chaston Griffin invaded Lolle in 5116, this woman is said to have perished.
Elidal is a young and inexperienced ruler, and has made some bad decisions. Where his brother Enisius has found a niche in magic, Elidal is restless in avoiding settling into one thing, and prone to trying to be all things to all people. His mother worries he will spend his whole life chasing the unobtainable while missing everything else along the way. Earl Jovery had advised him that he will be a leader, but people will want him to be savior, and that he cannot be both. Elidal does not truly believe it. The sylvan seer Iliyaas has said Elidal will be shaped for good or ill by tribulations that have not happened yet.
Barony of Darkstone
Earl Jovery chose Elidal around 5120 or 5121, and Elidal spent over a year studying the region, as the Barony of Darkstone was not announced until late 5122. Though Elidal himself is not entirely certain why the Earl nominated him out of everyone who could have been Baron. The Barony of Darkstone had been a partial goal for some years, but it was eased and enabled by various recent conditions, such as the loss of land in Talador and its refugees. Some of the settlers to the Barony of Darkstone are refugees from Talador, which was at war with Wehnimer's Landing in 5114 after the assassination of Kuligar, as well as when Talador was under the control of Prelate Chaston Griffin in 5116. Elidal does not intend to have a coronation and formally become Baron until the Barony is firmly settled, where he and his brother had originally intended to cleanse and refurbish Darkstone Castle for themselves. He has said he would rather not have a "fancy" hat when crowned.
Winter 5122 into 5123
His brother Enisius provided the illusion of an imperial caravan while his brother and advisers arrived instead by river, which was a decoy for trolls but potentially also anti-imperial factions such as the Brotherhood of Rooks. There was a backlash soon after the announcement of the Barony from the monstrous races of the mountains, who formed a mountain alliance under Gnul the self-proclaimed stone giant "King of Thanatoph". Gnul would assault caravans of settlers. Aronia was nearly killed in a violent assault by Gnul's forces on imperial wagons, which made Elidal panic and become physically ill at the sight of it. Wagons were temporarily redirected for settlers to winter in Vornavis, having come from various directions such as Mestanir, Jantalar, Seareach, and the edges of Talador. There were outside benefactors behind Gnul who provided him with plinite through the Ulterlain Traders, which was eventually assumed to have been the Wraith, an anti-Turamzzyrian halfling named Theodulph Underhill who idolized the Kannalan Empire and was the string puller behind more violent phases of the Rooks.
Earl Jovery had offered Mayor Thadston Andrews of Wehnimer's Landing the role of Commander of the forces of the Barony of Darkstone. Thadston refused the offer. Consequently Earl Jovery appointed another Hendoran named Sablo Marsh of the Mensyl's Marauders, who has the nickname Monster, with a reputation for brutality against mountain monsters as well as the Blameless crusaders. Thadston and Sablo almost immediately had friction after Sablo used Landing pylons to fire on Thanatoph without permission and setting fires to bait griffins into attacking, for the purpose of destroying their nest with all of their eggs. Elidal at one point threatened to send Sablo off to labor in the mines of Kragsfell for exceeding his authority in his zeal for monster slaying, having been ordered to guard the camp settlement and then disobeying to raid Gnul's forges instead. Elidal had acquiesced to local humanitarian concerns about innocent orc and goblin families being massacred, and Sablo went in regardless to burn out their food supplies. Sablo was also apparently involved with Aronia later. There was in contrast a later instance of a young squire who disobeyed orders, running off to fight the reivers on the other side of the river, with Elidal swearing to posthumously knight him when he becomes Baron and refused to be counseled otherwise on it.
Elidal delivered a letter on behalf of town councilor Vaemyr to Earl Jovery after questions of rescinding the protectorate, and writing himself in support on delineating its rules in specific detail with assurances of protection on its independence and freedom in terms of its local autonomy of government. Earl Jovery was hurt by this as he regards the amical protection of the Landing as friendship and that he has never taken oppressive actions against the town. Previous town councils had generally acquiesced to Earl Jovery in his decisions. In early 5123 the Earl listed out various criteria which all had existing precedent in past events, except that he removed Magister Cordarius Hodges as his unilateral appointment for the Regional Envoy office in the Landing government, with the Landing being permitted to elect two Regional Envoys for making arrangements for the town so long as they do not undermine the Empire or support its enemies. Elidal also spoke with the Black Thorn Resistance after their seeking a referendum to denounce the protectorate, which had been forcefully rejected by Mayor Thadston who had himself first moved to the region in 5115 to enforce the protectorate for Earl Jovery.
Elidal negotiated with the town council of Wehnimer's Landing to have people in the Landing provide settler caravan protection in exchange for the Barony of Darkstone buying 40% of its weapons from Landing smiths for one year. This was renegotiated to 25% for two years with the Barony aiding in providing stone and stoneworking supplies after the newly claimed mountains become safer, as the town councilors wish to upgrade the wooden palisade of the Landing to stone walls. He also refused to give blanket assurances on Rodnay, the Ithzir-human hybrid orphan residing in Melgorehn's Reach, as he is an unknowable potential threat in the future. He was given gifts for settlers including warm clothing from knitters and faewood seeds. Concerning the borders of the Barony of Darkstone, Elidal said those lands are not claimed by civilized creatures, which effectively includes such races as the minotaurs, giants, orcs, trolls, kobolds, goblins, and gnolls. He also warned Councilor Sorlu of Icemule Trace to not destructively meddle in the affairs between Wehnimer's Landing and the Barony of Darkstone. Elidal also interacted with the Obsidian Tower over its territorial claims on Sentoph, with Elidal willing to compromise if the Dhe'nar gave up slavery including voluntary forms, which was ultimately rejected two months later for not treating them as a sovereign power, and with the Obsidian Tower arguing the humans and Elidal himself are the beneficiaries of a history of racial oppression.
In late 5122 Elidal and his brother Enisius planned to research the abnormalities of Melgorehn's Reach, and a way to break the curse on Darkstone Castle and get rid of its mana storm so that the castle could be renovated for themselves. They would decide later in spring 5123 that this was not feasible, and the goal shifted to getting rid of the mana storm and destroying the castle. However, when the device for attempting to move the storm was countered by Grand Magister Octaven with the Talon of Toullaire artifact, a backlash happened and Darkstone Castle unexpectedly got shifted into the Bleaklands and left behind a huge crater.
In early 5123 they began building defense towers and walls with local assistance for their makeshift settlement in the Dragonsclaw. Gnul used gnolls to burrow under the Hendoran Outpost to steal a cache of plinite leftover from Grand Magister Dennet Kestrel, which acting Commander Larsya Caulfield did not know existed, as Grand Magister Octaven had falsely told her brother Breshon Caulfield the plinite was gone. Elidal said that as the Barony grows they may need to revisit the purpose of the Hendoran Outpost and the positions within it. Gnul's forces were also using feras weapons out of a forge under Sentoph, which adventurers destroyed after infiltrating it with kobold impersonators, and burrowing into it with a dwarving mining vessel called "The Badger" in the possession of Amos. Gnul used the plinite to experiment on the mountain allied races, trying to power them up with it and causing their deaths. The minotaurs withdrew because of it. Gnul eventually embedded plinite in himself to make himself a few hundred feet tall, and was destroyed by adventurers climbing up him and breaking his vulnerable points. Elidal allowed the settler caravans to resume after Gnul was defeated.
Spring 5123
In the early spring of 5123 there was an attempt to kidnap Aronia by what seemed like Rooks, where Mother (Casiphia) had promised violence if the imperial settlers did not return south, but which turned out to be a "Remnants" faction led by Ordlyn and controlled by the Wraith. A wounded Casiphia later explained that the civil war with the Knave two years earlier had weakened the Rooks and allowed the Wraith to return his influence, for the sake of undermining Amos, and guarding against the threat of the Silver Kings coming in and replacing the Rooks. Around the same time the reivers of Luinne Bheinn or the "Mountain of Melody" divided with its own "old ways" faction, with sympathy for the dead Hagga, breaking off and forming the Ember Vale settlement. Luinne Bheinn follows its pastor Dikirk, and the Ember Vale nominally followed Haidan who wanted to drive out the imperials, but was really controlled by the shaman Tyeid. Elidal also hosted a feast to lure the rogue Captain Bodohal off his ship "The Shiver", which had an orb with an elemental trapped in it. Bodohal was captured at the feast and held at first in the Hendoran Outpost, and there was a list of his associates, but in the summer Bodohal was killed in vigilante justice upon being released at trial by Judge Manard.
There was a formation of several factions with contrary interests, but negative positions toward the Barony of Darkstone. Dikirk held the position that the Empire was not welcome on the north side of the river. Haidan presented himself as the Son of Hagga, though it was later learned Tyeid was the true son of Hagga. There was an incident where two human settlers wandered north of the river and were killed in Aillidh Brae, and another settler was infested with spiders by Tyeid, which was followed by the Ember Vale reivers raiding the Graendlor Pasture for sheep as war spoils and slew the shepherds. Haidan took the position of the Empire not being welcome here on either side of the river, and criticized the Landing for allying with both the Empire and the krolvin warlord Tyrrax. Then a wagon was destroyed on Old Mine Road and the settler children taken in sacks, but Haidan invited people of the Landing to take the children back, and reiterated the Landing can avoid the violence of their conflict with the Empire by staying inside the town's walls. Elidal had ordered the settlers to stay away from reiver territory, but a young squire named Cain led several settlers to get vengeance, getting them all killed. Tyrrax then offered the Landing to help kill the reivers, not caring to distinguish between clans, and said he was willing to build a bridge of imperial bodies to reach the Deadfall forest (to go after Grishom Stone) which is located in the Barony of Darkstone.
Commander Sablo responded to this situation by staging soldiers inside a caravan and surprising the Ember Vale reivers when they attacked it. Following a bloody fight, Sablo was committed to finding and destroying the Ember Vale, which was shielded with magical warding. When fighting with the Ember Vale reivers later, especially Tyeid himself, Sablo found that they would come back to life several times before staying dead. This is presumed to be related to Tyeid's spiders previously having totally drained Blameless crusaders of Everblood. On the front of the Rooks, Mayor Thadston raided the Mother's Den in the Rusty Cutlass, where Elidal's emissary Samfelt was revealed to be a double agent infiltrator using the false identity of Tolmis. This led to seven Rooks being extrajudicially hanged by Thadston, including members of the town council of Wehnimer's Landing.
In this period Magisters Enisius and Remuliad were researching Melgorehn's Reach. The Reach was acting up with its own mana storming, causing strange "Echoes" manifestations of doppelgangers. Rodnay was inside the mountain and suffering from the mana fires that were used to suppress the "Bleak" blight of Raznel, cryptically saying to "stop her" without it being clear what he meant. By the fall it would become clear that this was Grand Magister Octaven, who at that time resided in the Hendoran Outpost, who was seeking the Eonforge artifact that had been used to create the mountain. The anti-magical fires were being used by her to weaken the Reach so that she could access its temporal pockets to gain entry into the Eonforge. Octaven was also in possession of the Talon of Toullaire artifact and the bleakstone statue of Mayor Lylia which Raznel had used to inflict the blight. There was essentially no understanding of this in the spring of 5123. Notably, the Talon of Toullaire was the artifact sought by Tyrrax for his future invasion, as his ally Quinshon needed it for the fight against Grishom Stone who wields the Star of Khar'ta artifact, which is the true prize sought by Tyrrax.
Summer 5123
The Ember Vale invaded Wehnimer's Landing over its continued meddling in their war with the Barony. Tyeid provided some Everblood augmented reivers, and abducted people with spiders to harvest organs from them. Tyrrax invaded to fight the reivers at the same time, with the Barony's archers firing on both the krolvin and reivers. Tyeid was allied with Drazinoth of the Spider Temple, and was breeding spiders inside reivers as hosts. When the town held parley with Haidan's representative, Rheshay, Commander Sablo (acting on his own rather than directed by Elidal) ambushed it and arrested her with imperial soldiers. This led to more conflicts and Tyeid attempting to cut her out of influence over the Ember Vale, creating the dilemma of whether to release her from the Hendoran Outpost against Tyeid.
Elidal then questioned whether the Landing was now willing to pivot its stance on Tyrrax and the krolvin, since their mutual enemy the Ember Vale accused the Landing of allying with Tyrrax. More generally, siding with slavers. Elidal said he was open to peace with the Ember Vale, but since he seems unable to convince people in the Landing he is not out to steal their land, he questioned whether it is plausible he could convince the reivers of the same thing. His father Ferwin scoffed at the idea of releasing Rheshay and said to return her in a few bags. Ferwin had lost a lot of business and good men to reivers near Riverwood in the past. Elidal pressed the point that the reivers need to perceive the Landing as an enemy of the krolvin, which was met with the points that this would put the Landing as an enemy of both sides of the coming war with Grishom Stone. Elidal said the Barony was enemies of those same factions regardless. This was not long before the Glaoveln volcano erupted, creating refugees, which changed the internal politics of Glaoveln. Mayor Alendrial chose to take in krolvin refugees from Tyrrax on the Black Sands. But she also chose to not assist Tyrrax if he moves against the Barony of Darkstone, wishing to end the cycle of leveraging enemies to defeat other enemies, which was the point of releasing Tyrrax in the first place.
Haidan then kidnapped Aronia as leverage to have Rheshay returned. Elidal criticized himself for not being more decisive sooner, that he could have corrected Sablo's action instead of waiting for more leverage. Sablo and Haidan directly fought each other. Haidan was only willing to do a prisoner swap with the Landing people as intermediaries. This was arranged to be done through the Alabaster Spire, which is located in Aillidh Brae outside of both territories and not that far from the Gryphon Hold. This proximity was of concern to Haidan, the Order of the Silver Gryphon was helping train the Darkstonian soldiers. Elidal was willing to discuss peace with Haidan, with the hope that a bridge could be built for the Ember Vale to change for the better. Haidan was not willing to listen to it without seeing they could be trusted with Rheshay first. Elidal a month later considered a proposal from his brother Enisius to use Rheshay as a magical beacon to locate the Ember Vale, but was talked out of using the prisoner exchange that way. Tyeid as expected assaulted the prisoner exchange. Enisius had also been testing his obelisk by shooting red beams over Darkstone Bay from Glatoph, which was intended to be used on the mana storm of Darkstone Castle, but which their father Ferwin was heard calling "the reiver bolt."
In the same period Wehnimer's Landing was struggling with the Remnants faction of the Rooks, which was led by Ordlyn and controlled by the Wraith. Stephos DeArchon had apparent knowledge of the identity and location of the Wraith, but he was incarcerated in the Ironhold prison in Idolone. His wife Mayor Alendrial sought his extradition to the Landing, with word having been sent to Athalia Malwind of Vornavis and the Earl of Estoria. Elidal arranged an escort of Darkstonian soldiers. Sablo led the extradition party, which was assaulted by Remnants, and the plinite pylon ship that Amos had sold the Wraith months earlier. When the island of the Wraith was invaded by local adventurers, it became clear that Ordlyn was a magical artifice, and the Wraith had been pre-emptively murdered by Octaven who took a powerful orb in his possession.
Fall 5123
Tyeid was still assaulting Wehnimer's Landing in the beginning of the fall of 5123. There were mutated red-veined reivers with eight eyes. He continued to abduct people for his cannibalism. Where Tyeid had brought Haidan in as the blood of Hagga, it would turn out that Tyeid was the actual son of Hagga. There was an abduction of hostages into the Ember Vale, some of whom were citizens of Wehnimer's Landing. The town went down into the burrows which ended up in the Ember Vale to rescue them. But with the location of the Ember Vale being known, Ferwin used the Glatoph obelisk as a weapon to fire on the Ember Vale, causing the deaths of people being rescued and destroying the Ember Vale settlement. Only blood relations of Elidal were able to fire the obelisk, and it was obvious that Enisius was covering for their father, which put Elidal is the awkward position of having to punish him for it. Enisius was performing community service teaching magic to orphans.
Grand Magister Octaven at this point started becoming hostile, with adventurers having to fight ice monsters. Octaven was forming an alliance with the ghost of Estrion in Darkstone Castle. Essentially, Estrion wished to kill Sheru using the Talon and replace him as god of nightmares, while Octaven wished to control the Eonforge to carve up the face of the world with it. Octaven possessed this knowledge from studying the research on the Reach when Grand Magister Dennet Kestrel commanded the Hendoran Outpost. Elidal had sent word to Archmagister Naylor concerning Octaven, who had for years been intercepting messages, as well as forging false reports with the name of Magister Raelee Svala. Magister Cordarius then announced that the Hall of Mages was branding Octaven a magic criminal, stripping her of rank, and sending witch hunters to capture her.
Octaven continued her plan to weaken the Reach, to gain access to the Eonforge, which was making Rodnay sick and killing him. The Reach manifested more "echoes", but Rodnay suppressed them. He blamed it on the "ice witch." Estrion was then threatening people to stop meddling, having possessed a girl who disintegrated into pestilent infection of her surroundings, but it was not clear yet it was him, and he continued with other assaults such as nightmare visions. Octaven slew two of the witch hunters and ripped the mana fire near Darkstone Castle up into the crescent over the Reach. It was clear by this point that Octaven was responsible for mana fire issues with the Reach, and was using the Talon of Toullaire to try to connect the mana storms of the Reach and Darkstone Castle. Thadston at this point had been named the new Northern Sentinel of the Turamzzyrian Empire and said he would direct stronger resources against Octaven.
Winter 5123 into 5124
Elidal at this point acknowledged that it was impractical to claim and renovate Darkstone Castle, and that it was best to destroy it and ends its evil forever. This included using soldiers from the Northern Sentinel, from Hendor and Mestanir and Jantalar, to aid against Estrion and Octaven. As well as the research team attempting to move its mana storm. Though he would not move more settlers in during winter. His relations with the Order of the Silver Gryphon had also become frayed. Elidal had his brother's obelisk disabled, but was under pressure from the town who regarded it as a potential threat to themselves. Elidal was also aware by this time that Aronia potentially has feelings for Sablo rather than him and seemed to be avoiding him.
Tyrrax toured the krolvin refugee settlement on the Black Sands and was open to giving up the Talon of Toullaire after he has acquired the Star of Khar'ta. Local townsfolk attempted to extinguish all but one of the mana fires, so that Octaven would be lured to a known location to try to capture her, since she was using them to try to weaken the Reach. But a Marluvian ritual backfired and the mana fires were all extinguished, blasting the Reach which made its pockets become visible. Remuliad had the research team collect ingredients to construct a crystalline monolith at Lake Eonak to be used against the mana storm of Darkstone Castle.
Spring 5124
By the spring of 5124, this monolith was ready to be used. Grand Magister Octaven had since been learned to truly be a Nalfein elf who was over 800 years old, who had gone under many facial reconstructions over the centuries, with a pathological need to change the faces of others. It was understood she sought the Eonforge to carve up the world. Rodnay was no longer sick with the mana fires, and speaking through others as conduits, explained some of the motivation of Octaven and Estrion. He told everyone he was unable now to intervene himself, as he was evolving into a Pristine of the Ithzir. He explained that Estrion was powering the bleakstone statue, which Octaven was using to peel away the protections that seal off the Eonforge. And that Sheru was ignoring Estrion. He implied there were numerous bleakstone statues and that he could see all of them. Rodnay had been unable to seal up the pockets, with the Talon "shredding" into it, and Estrion repeatedly coming "digging" and "seeking" with the statue having "taken root" in the Reach. He was locating the Eonforge for her as part of their pact.
Octaven also attempted to bribe the townsfolk with her new world order rather than fighting her. When the monolith was used in the attempt to displace the mana storm into the Elemental Confluence, Octaven intervened with the Talon of Toullaire, which ended up shattering and stripping her of magical power. Darkstone Castle unexpectedly was moved with the mana storm, ending up in the Bleaklands, which was probably a complication originating in Octaven's use of the bleakstone statue which had been placed on top of Melgorehn's Reach. Octaven was then captured. While the statue was removed afterwards from the top of the Reach, another cracked version of it was found in the Bleaklands near Darkstone Castle.
Fall 5124
With Darkstone Castle removed from the Lower Dragonsclaw, there was nothing left but a huge crater. Amos made a deal to expand his mining operations into the Barony of Darkstone, with exclusive profits to Wehnimer's Landing, or more specifically his own Darkstone Bay Consortium. There was unrest from some kobolds who threatened, using a horn as an amplifier from the head of the Colossus, that they would do the digging or no one would be digging. Amos claimed he would not be digging in the crater and that would be dangerous.