The Charlatan War

As transcribed in the year 5019 by the historian Elezias Rosh

The Prelude

In order to understand the Charlatan War, one must understand the events leading up to it. 

For long the scion of the House of Eldstone sat upon the throne and ruled over the Empire. An unbroken line of succession stretched back over a thousand years, and the tombs beneath the palace held the remains of Emperors who were little more than dust and their names. Emperors both great and terrible had held the throne.

But it was with tragedy that the eldest of Hiram Eldstone fell to a wasting illness while his youngest was across the sea. His son Percival was entombed less than a fortnight before word arrived that the ship carrying Arthur had met with terrible fate in a terrible storm. Darkness descended upon the palace.

Hiram became little more than a shell of his former self, and his court wizard became a puppeteer. Hiram signed and sealed documents that slowly ceded more and more power to Vaerlys until he finally had no more use for the Emperor, and thus in the year 4999, Emperor Hiram Eldstone coughed his life out in a crimson stain upon the palace floor, a victim of treacherous poison.

A Time of Darkness

The Warlock King Vaerlys, as he had become known as, ruled from the shadows of the palace. He managed to seclude himself in unlit halls, and rarely was seen by anyone other than an inner circle of attendants and generals through whom he dictated his will. During the early days of his reign, several nobles suffered misfortune. Lord Drugan fell off his horse during a hunt and broke his skull open, and the only witness was his squire, whom was never seen again after his testimony. Lady Evane was attacked in the dark of the night by a tongueless assassin who carried poisoned blades. Half of the ships under command of Lord Karsov caught fire while they were in port, and he ceased his claims for a vote by the lords to impeach the Warlock. Several other Lords and Ladies simply went missing during their trips abroad, with claims of bandits overtaking well-trained guards and armored contingents.

From his stolen throne, the Warlock King directed the laborers of nearby towns to construct for him a grand tower crafted of dark basalt and granite. It is said that the plans for his tower were etched on parchment made of the flayed skins of prisoners. For six long years a hundred thousand people toiled over the construction of the tower, and during the construction whispers of people being taken from the labor camps in the middle of the night became rampant. Some believed that their blood and bones were mixed into the mortar, while others said that they were tasked with digging labyrinthine dungeons below the tower’s foundation. None were permitted to leave, and those that attempted were never seen again.

When the Ebon Tower was finally complete, it appeared as a great black spire that tore at the bellies of clouds, and cast a shadow that reached miles. The walls near the base had been inlaid with seals and glyphs made of silver that filled men with dread. Upon laying the last stone, Vaerlys and his dark followers began a ritual at the topmost chambers. His voice boomed across the plains, in a tongue that was unknown but known to the secret darkness within. Those that remained near the tower either fell to agony as their insides boiled, or they lashed out with terrible rage, tearing at the flesh of those they once considered friend. Those that survived had been far removed from the tower, but still close enough to witness the horror that befell their fellows.

While the construction of the Ebon Tower was a display of the utmost horror, what was occurring elsewhere in the Empire was equally abhorrent. Rain had stopped falling, and creeks dried while lakes were drank empty. A terrible famine gripped the realm as crops withered from lack of rainfall. Even more terrible were the enforcers that were employed by the Warlock King. His dark clad soldiers seemed to be everywhere, taking what they wished from the common folk and enforcing draconian laws. Those that dared speak against the Warlock found themselves enduring harsh punishments, such as the stockades or being forced into grueling labor, while whispers of other dissidents simply disappearing in the middle of the night became rampant.

Rise of the Rebellion

In the east rumors spread of a man called Arthur the True, who claimed to be the long-lost younger child of Hiram Eldstone. Common folk rejoiced that their savior had appeared, and plotting became rampant among the lesser lords. 

Among the first of the Houses to flock to Arthur’s banner were House Atynos, House Derent, and House Nereas. A small host of Ar-Nura archers also followed him, claiming they did so to put an end to the horror that was leaking forth from the Ebon Tower. 

A meeting with House Macarda met with near disaster, as Lord Macarda wanted Arthur to marry his daughter before agreeing to support the rebellion with his two hundred men. When Arthur refused, Lord Macarda turned on him and attempted to imprison Arthur and his commanders. However, the rebels managed to fight their way to freedom, leaving Lord Macarda mortally wounded in their wake.

The Siege of Belagor

In the early days of the rebellion, Arthur’s leadership was almost cut short. The army, consisting of less than three hundred troops from Houses Atynos and Derent had entered the walled town of Belagor, and occupied the taverns and courtyards. They had planned on departing in short order, waiting for the arrival of five hundred troops from House Nereas. 

Early on the second morning, horns blared, and instead of the banners of House Nereas, Arthur was met with Imperial banners and a sizable force cresting the hill. They quickly barred the gates and took up defensive positions… and waited.

For nearly a week the Imperials surrounded the town, occasionally making a halfhearted attempt to batter down the main gate. The Imperial General Marlaster had not brought siege machinery and had anticipated the rebels surrendering almost immediately, or being able to catch them on the open plains after they had left the town. The catapults that they built with what little wood they could scrounge lacked sufficient strength to do little more than fling small stones over the walls.

Finally seeing how the town’s food stores were nearly depleted, and not wishing for the townsfolk to continue suffering, Arthur hatched a plan.

The sun rose to reveal the walls had been left unmanned, and the main gate thrown wide. Assuming that Arthur was surrendering, General Marlaster entered along with his bodyguard force, amidst fanfare and trumpets. Once the small force had entered, the rebels revealed themselves, as their archers had taken up positions atop nearby buildings, and they poured arrows down upon the General and his guard. Some tried to flee but were cut down, and when the General’s horse emerged from the town gate with the arrow-filled corpse astride it, the Imperials panicked. They quickly assembled their remaining leadership to determine their next course of action. 

Meanwhile, in the confusion, five messengers emerged from their hiding place in the moat and made an attempt to slip through emerging gaps in the Imperials’s line. Three were caught, but two others managed to slip free, with one heading to Lord Cadwall, and the other heading to Lord Sterein, both to plead for assistance.

Lord Sterein was the cousin of Hiram Eldstone and they had been friends in their youth. While he had heard of Arthur’s rise among a few smaller Lords, he was originally skeptical and assumed Arthur was an imposter. However, when presented with a letter penned by Arthur and bearing the Eldstone seal, he was convinced and immediately dispatched his forces to provide aid.

The Imperial troops were in the midst of assaulting the walls of Belagor when Arthur’s salvation arrived in the form of a combined force from House Nereas and House Sterein. The main gate was being battered and the Imperials had managed to secure several ladders that were allowing them to storm over the parapets. Seeing that they were hopelessly outnumbered, the Imperials scattered or surrendered upon realizing their position.

Lord Sterein would go on to ride with Arthur’s forces later in the war and was believed to be in camp when Arthur took the Ebon Tower.

Battle of Talder Wood

One of the most decisive victories of the Rebellion came as they passed through Talder Wood. Several lords and knights had encouraged Arthur to go around the forest, which would have taken the better part of a week, and later was what the path that the Imperial Generals had expected him to take, which was why Imperial forces were later unprepared at the Battle of Red Crossing. However, upon learning that he had chosen for a more direct route, the Imperials sent a small skirmishing force to meet him in the wood, and had sent word to Lord Valgrave to commit his house’s meager forces to sweep down out of the nearby mountains and attack Arthur from the rear.

The skirmishing forces set up within the wood in an attempt to ambush Arthur’s forward troops, ideally to hit the flanks of the army as it snaked down a road that was only wide enough for a pair of horses or a single wagon. They assumed Lord Valgrave would come thundering up from behind and cleave through the supply wagons and take Arthur and his commanders, thus ending the Rebellion in the forest. 

The Imperials sprung their trap, sending several volleys down at the passing troops, before rushing down to engage in a grand melee. The initial confusion gave them the advantage, and many unprepared Rebel in the front of the column were cut down. However, the tide quickly turned as the Imperials were outnumbered. 

Lord Valgrave had simply refused to commit his forces. Apparently for those that knew him, it came at no surprise, as he was renowned for being a headstrong and reserved old man. He was once heard to comment that anything beyond sight of his keep’s watchtowers was of no concern to him. Thus, when he received a message to commit his forces, it is believed that he promptly tossed the message into the fire, and kept his forces within his walls.

The Battle of Red Crossing

Following the Battle of Talder Wood, Arthur’s army swept down the plains with startling rapidity. The Imperial Generals had planned on meeting Arthur on the other side of the River Aldrein, and less than half of their forces had arrived on the far bank and were setting up encampments and hasty fortifications when the banners of Arthur’s Lords crested the rise. Seeing the unprepared enemy, Arthur quickly made the tactical decision to make a quick assault, despite a few protests that such an attack was not chivalrous or honorable. 

The cavalry swept down upon the unprepared Imperials, and in a single charge they shattered their army and their resolve. Imperials attempted to flee along the banks but were quickly ridden down. Imperial infantry that were in the midst of crossing at the shallow fords were caught in a difficult position, and could not adequately defend themselves against mounted foes. While a few overzealous Rebels were slain as they attempted to carry the fight across the river and met with hastily organized archers, the Battle was a decided loss for the Imperials, who left a small detachment to defend the crossing and pulled the bulk of their forces back to a nearby hill.

While Arthur saw that his army could easily overrun the Imperial detachment, he recognized that he would be unable to assemble his already exhausted forces on the other side of the river before being assaulted. Thus the Rebels camped for three days, which not only allowed the troops to gain some much-needed respite after a long march but also allowed the forces of Lady Ysmirra and a detachment of Stoneborn engineers to join Arthur’s army.

During the respite, it was also learned that General Kerask of the Imperial Army had been wounded in the battle, and trapped on the side of the river with the Rebels. He had fled to a nearby townhouse and was attempting to hide with a few of his soldiers. Arthur himself led a small detachment and when they arrived at the house, the Imperial soldiers emerged and surrendered, and General Kerask’s body was found within. Different accountings speak of his cause of death, with some claiming that he simply perished of his wounds, while others say that his troops murdered him, and another accounting even speaks of Arthur shooting him as he emerged from the house while attempting to surrender.

With the loss of General Kerask, and the brutal loss of so many soldiers, it is believed that the campaign was decided on the banks of the River Aldrein. While several other battles would occur before Arthur and his ever-growing army would reach the Ebon Tower, none appear to be as important.

The Siege of the Ebon Tower

At long last Arthur the True and his forces stood outside the walls of the Ebon Tower. The banners of those who had rallied to him were numerous, and thousands of spears shone reflected the campfires. 

Arthur stood before his legions and issued a demand to the hidden host behind the walls. For a tense minute, the world was silent, the wind did not blow, and the soldiers could hear their own hearts beating in their chests. Then they heard it, a sound that echoed across the plain, a sound that began as a deep rumble beneath their feet and then rose as a fevered pitch, the sound of mad laughter as the master of the Tower responded to the threats of a mere mortal.

The battle which ensued was monumental. The forces of the True Rebellion fought with spear and sword and matched sorcery with dark things which poured forth from the Tower. Black fog seeped from hidden fissures in the ground and where it touched flesh turned putrescent and bubbled off. Overhead, monstrous winged shapes flew on great bat wings, diving down to snatch soldiers from the battlefield, and were only finally brought down by ensorcelled ballista. Great beasts that seemed to be a horrid memory of a tiger and scorpion leapt through the ranks, rending armor and flesh with great and terrible claws. 

At long last, the defenders of the Tower lay still, and Arthur sundered the Gate.

What occurred within the Tower is mostly speculation, as none that entered have ever relayed their tales, as far as I can surmise. I have heard many wild claims, that Arthur and a brave collection of knights fought their way up a thousand winding steps, with each horror worse than the last, until finally Arthur and Vaerlys faced off, sword and bullet versus sorcery and darkness. However, I have no verified accounting from someone who was actually within the Tower.

The Aftermath

That which came after the siege is well known to all of us who have suffered through it for the past decade. Cities were engulfed in clouds of darkness, creatures of unimaginable horror were birthed from fog and earth, crops withered and died, and plagues befell those that survived. 

Our only hope seemed to flee to the West, out to the Frontier, where those of us who survived have managed to find our place in scattered villages or establish new settlements.

A note from Dacius Rhane, former General of the Imperial Army

How the rebels like to exaggerate how wicked and near-Divine in power that the Warlock King was. The truth is, Vaerlys was a decrepit old man who had served his Emperor faithfully for a number of years, until tragedy left the throne vacant and someone had to keep the Realm from falling apart. He was little more than a feeble elder by the time of the Rebellion, and a charlatan managed to trick a handful of nobles into following a self-righteous cause. What befell us all wasn’t a final curse laid down by a sorcerer of immense power, spoken in his dying breath, but instead the breaking of a seal which prevented the Outer Darkness from entering the Realm.

The False Arthur, a tale told by Carse Milleus

Don’t believe the lies, I was there. Arthur never made it into the Ebon Tower. He took an arrow to the shoulder during the first day, and spent the next three nights wasting away in his tent as the terrible poison coursed through his veins. Despite all the healers and spellcasters, and a few prayers to the Divines, he perished before the gate fell. Someone else was wearing his armor when they breached the Tower, and unleashed the darkness upon us all.

What of Lord Cadwall? A note by Anton Gionas 

Those who recall might have heard that Arthur sent messengers to two nearby Lords, both Sterein and Cadwall, during the Siege of Belagor. While some speculate that neither Lord was really needed, as the five hundred of House Nereas would have been enough to splinter the Imperial forces, the banners of House Sterein were a welcome addition and likely prompted some of the Imperials to simply throw down their weapons and surrender on the spot. 

But what was House Cadwall doing during this time, and why did they not send aid? As the story goes, Lord Cadwall had disavowed the rebellion early on, and was doing little more than biding his time and hoping to wait out the war in his keep. When the messenger arrived, he had them imprisoned, and sent word to the Imperials of what was transpiring. It is likely the messenger remained imprisoned until the end of the war, or was traded to the Empire.

While there have been a few personal accounts of House Cadwall’s banners being seen on the Imperial side during the Battle of Red Crossing, it’s just as likely that Lord Cadwall tried to sit out the war without committing to either side. A few other Houses also chose to sit on the fence, most notably House Enasra and House Murrel. It’s likely they all met with the same fate when the Curse fell upon the Realm, and they are likely to be no more.

Footnotes by Kardan Verigio, circa 5023

Scions

The Line of Eldstone was not unbroken for a thousand years. Obviously Rosh forgets the War of Three when one scion ended up dead and another in exile. Additionally, the Claim of the Bastard when Astor Eldstone was usurped by the Bastard Reynard and the Claim never has been sufficiently proven.

Workers

A hundred thousand people? Preposterous. So many towns would need to be emptied just to supply the workforce, not counting the sheer amount of food that would need to be carted in daily, in the midst of a famine. A tenth of that would be believable. Certainly I am not trying to doubt that such things occurred at the behest of Vaerlys, but the claims of the sheer size of such projects and atrocities committed at his command seem to be overly inflated. 

Multiple Arthurs

Another thing that Rosh fails to even mention in his work is that there were multiple people claiming to be Arthur Eldstone in the years after his ship disappeared at sea. I know of at least three. 

The first was what I call the Brave Arthur, bedecked in expensive armor and riding a massive steed he approached the palace walls not a year after the death of Hiram. He called out the Warlock King, demanding a trial by combat. He camped nearby awaiting the response, and his attendants found his twisted and withered corpse the next morning, so they fled. The dark clad soldiers took his remains and hung them from the palace walls for all to see.

Then there was the Boy Arthur, a lad no older than ten, obviously propped up by a few Lords thinking they could generate enough support to overthrow Vaerlys through popular opinion. For almost two years the Boy was paraded around the realm as they tried to generate support, before being caught near the town of Breckings by a legion of soldiers. The horrid fate of those Lords and the Boy I won’t detail. 

Lastly there was Old Arthur. Some would regard him as just a madman who doddled his way up to the gates of the Ebon Tower not long after construction was complete. He had a small retinue of elderly Lords and Ladies who had mostly passed their seats on to their children, and one wonders why they made the sacrifice. Their heads ended up adorning the walls near the main gate.

Player History Restriction

Characters are able to have been involved in the War of the Charlatan in their personal histories, serving on either side of the conflict (or neither). However, the following restrictions apply:

• No character may have entered the Ebon Tower during the final siege.
• No character may have been a high-ranking member of either force.