Bregate

The city of Bregate was the capital of the kingdom of the same name, which later became a duchy under reign of Kingdom of Noslith. Bregate was ruled by House Gardner from Elden Fortress before the city's destruction in the Deluge. In 5E.1522, the city was ruled by Duke Duncan Gardner from Elden Fortress; Duncan Gardner later called himself the King of the Yellow Rose and rose up in rebellion against Noslith. Although it was founded by an Acheiran, the city and kingdom of Bregate were both deeply founded on Valennian culture and sought to reflect the legendary kingdom of Valen in much of its art and architecture. Many crusaders and former slaves who believed they were of Valennian bloodlines founded villages across the ancient land. In truth, Bregate was built closer to Acheiris than the old Valennian capital of Caer Lune, although the lands near Caer Lune would eventually be incorporated by Bregate as the King's River Valley, but nonetheless, the terms Bregatian and Valennian soon became synonymous, as did their cultures, even after the Conquest and under the reign of House Arvendon of Noslith. Bregate was considered likewise to have a deeper sense of faith or a more religious culture than Agrawel, likely due to its closeness to Caer Sól. Nonetheless, the Conquest brought an even deeper sense of resentment for the conquerers and longing for the days of the "old country" that never was; this was manifested most deeply in the Yellow Rose, a rebel order that lasted throughout Noslith's reign and even had a hand in the kingdom's fall.

The city itself was known for its high white walls and its three districts, dominated by its poor slum district Lowport, along with the religious district of Godsgrove and the small, secure and private Highcrest district where the nobility resided. Bregate sat at the meeting of the Cold River and Lake Loinnir and was known to ferry travelers from the Bay of Stars upriver to Lake Loinnir and across to Caer Sól. Reflecting the city's sense of slumbering rebellion, Godsgrove never rebuilt nor destroyed the crumbling ruins of St. Arathir's Cathedral, leaving it standing forlorn in its lot not far from the resplendent and well-maintained Cathedral of St. Cadogan, built after the Conquest to honor King Ardal Arvendon's fallen friend. After Aeron's Pact, the city harbored a dangerous underground with a burgeoning Infernal Pact presence from the city's dark heart of Caer Cythraul, a literal underground stronghold. Although Bregate was lost in the Deluge, the future ruler of Noslith would still call himself the King of Bregate and the Hinterlands, and the city's ruin would stand as a memorial to the lost House Gardner.

Although the realm grew to encompass the King's River Valley to the south, the land known as Bregate typically encompassed the land north of the Savage Mountains, east of the Cold River and west of the Ethereal Mountains, south of Lake Loinnir. Much of that land was the former Andarian Fields, which was turned to arable farmland ruled by Bregatian barons, although Bregate also technically ruled over the Swampland, known also as the Great Swamp of Valen, along with the Wosswood, the valleys of the Black River and the rocky passes of the Ethereal Mountains that lead to Caer Sól. Before the fall of the Mithral Mines, many Bregatian families made their wealth from mining precious metals in the Ethereal range.

Bregate was also a diocese under the leadership of its Bishop. At the time of the Half-Moon Heresy, in 5E.1498, the then-Bishop Yorath revealed himself as a betrayer against the Church of Sol and was ousted from his position. Father Aeron, Hudde Glyn, and the future Black Cardinal, Cahir, failed in their attempt to slay Yorath, which ended in the death of the adventurer Hudde and the excommunication of Cahir. During the second outbreak of the Rasping Pox, in 5E.1521, the disease first struck Bregate rather than Agrawel as part of a conspiracy that also targeted then-Bishop Niall of Bregate for assassination. Niall was successfully assassinated, and Father Anselm of Bregate took his place. Later, Anselm ascended to become Archbishop of Carmarthen, and the bishopric was given to the brother of the Duke of Bregate in spite of the fact that Lord Cillian had already married.

After Bregate's destruction and the rise of the Empire of Izevel, the territory was largely split between the Prince of Kingsfall, the Duke of Shadowmarch, and the Count of Vinwall, although House Thrussell nominally ruled Bregate from Westmoor.

The City of Bregate
The city of Bregate was notorious for its expansive slums, cyclically rebuilt and destroyed in the shadow of its massive churches, priories, and noble estates. Bregate was surrounded by high walls and split into three districts: the northern slums of Lowport, the western estates of Highcrest, and the eastern temple district of Godsgrove. Bregate sat on the shores of Lake Loinnir and the banks of the Cold River. It was defended by the Order of the Goldsworn, an increasingly corrupt order that also served as the town guard for numerous baronies across Bregate. A great bridge with gates on either side extended over the Cold River to the northwest where it joined the lake, entering Lowport, while three separate gates lead southwest, southeast, and directly east from Godsgrove. The gates lead out of the city to Kerry, Smokeshield, Wallow, and Vinwall, respectively. Highcrest sat slightly elevated above the other districts and thus was least destroyed in the Deluge.

Godsgrove
The eastern religious district of Godsgrove was nominally its temple district and served most of its clergy, although many of the people that lived in Godsgrove were secular. Godsgrove was dominated by the Arcane Academy of Bregate, the largest place of magical learning in Noslith, a monolithic and seemingly windowless building where the wizarding students both learned and boarded. Godsgrove also had its own university, simply called Godsgrove University. The favored drinking hole and resting place of Godsgrove was called the Crusader's Rest Inn, where travelers and residents alike shared food and wine. Godsgrove was also host to St. Arathir's Cathedral, the original seat of the bishopric of Bregate before its destruction by the forces of Ardal Arvendon during the Conquest. The ruins of the cathedral remain, yet are overshadowed by St. Cadogan's Cathedral, a structure nearly as large as the Arcane Academy and one of the largest chapels in Noslith. Many locals believed that St. Arathir's Cathedral was haunted, but in truth, it was the home of an Infernal Pact cell that was later raided by the Fifth Crusade.

In a slum of Godsgrove, the White Rose and the Inquisition maintained a sanctuary from behind the front of the Broken Sword, a dilapidated old tavern. The sanctuary was lead by Dame Solveig and Banys Cindershield in 5E.1521 and was dedicated to fighting the Infernal Pact; it was abandoned when the Fifth Crusade began.

Highcrest
The western noble district of Highcrest was elite and closed off, supreme from its higher elevation and filled with rich and beautiful estates and manors. The residents of Highcrest favored the Lonely Nymph Lodge, a wealthy and opulent inn and a dancing hall on warm nights. Within Highcrest, the former royal seat of Elden Fortress could be found. House Thorne also maintained an estate in Highcrest that secretly had a Chapel of Dispater lying in its depths. House Cyrill also maintained a large estate in Highcrest. Many other noble houses had estates in Highcrest throughout the history of Bregate: House Antenor, House Beldrec, House Coccinelle, House Marcel, House Meirion, House Proudfoot, House Rayne, House Smokeshield, House Souriant and House Thrussell maintained townhouses, while House Arvendon, House Cafard, House Denholm, House Giffard, House Mirth, House Monahan, House Norwood, House Ravier, House Taggart, and House Tilly all had estates, incomparable to the large manors of House Cyrill, House Malvern, and House Thorne, which would have dominated the skyline of Highcrest if not for the presence of Elden Fortress.

The Royal Academy had a university in Highcrest.

Lowport
The northern slum district of Lowport was known for both its docks and its brothels, the Sleeping Dragon chief among them. Lowport was host to a large Priory that trained monks for the Solist Church. Not far from the Sleeping Dragon was the Bleeding Dragon Tavern, a rough-and-tumble alehouse once host to almost daily brawls. Lowport was also the home of the Band of the Rat, one of the oldest thieves' guilds in Bregate, supposedly with the power to turn into wererats. The Band ruled from the Rat Warrens and had connections to the Infernal Pact. There was a university in Lowport, commonly referred to as the Lake School, in contrast to the River School of Newport.

History
Bregate was founded in 4E.732 by King Islwyn Gardner, an old Acheiran hero of the Crusade, conjured out of thin air by miracles worked of Arathir, Islwyn's battle-companion, a powerful sorcerer who was sainted after his death by the Solist church. Islwyn shortly established his royal House Gardner and his reign over much of the land east of the Cold River; he stole away Lady Aeronwen Mirth of Newstone in 4E.740, making her his queen; they had a son shortly after. Then-prince Islwyn II took the throne in 4E.766. Meanwhile, to the south, a rival warlord named Alcine had bound the King’s River Valley to his will. Yet even as a rival to Bregate, newborn Yennes had not been given a consecrated crown by the lofty Cardinals in Caer Sól. This lead to the rumblings of war between Yennes and House Gardner, eventually resolved in a special council held by the Cardinals wherein Alcine was crowned King of Yennes, given the Peregrine Crown and established as separate and independent of Bregate. Ultimately, during the reign of Islwyn II, Alcine would die and his kingdom would be slowly destroyed by the same disease that killed him. Alcine’s heir, the last King of Yennes, Alaric, looked to Bregate for aid, and perhaps to settle the rivalry once and for all, Islwyn II agreed upon one condition: the destruction of the Peregrine Crown. Alaric swore upon Uther’s blade, Caladbolg, and surrendered his throne. Alaric’s descendants would inherit the demoted title of Count of Yennes, keeping their lands but falling into the royal protection of House Gardner; eventually, they would be known by the name House Malvern. Islwyn II would die in 4E.793 and leave the throne to his trueborn son, who would doom the realm. During the reign of Islwyn II's son and heir, King Aeron Gardner, Bregate's early nobility and population were destroyed by the rise of an orc warlord, Ghamorz Dead-Eyes, who declared himself king of all orcs and invaded Bregate, occupying the city and ousting King Aeron in 4E.810. Desperately, King Aeron called upon the Infernal Pact to restore his reign, and Ammon appeared before him. Ammon complied and destroyed the orc army in a wicked ritual in 4E.813. King Aeron had inexorably made a pact with the diabolist cult, who required that he construct an arcane academy in his city, allow them to build an Infernal stronghold beneath its floors, and give them but one soul every year. Aeron's Pact allowed Bregate to reclaim its former glory yet had long-lasting consequences for the culture of the nobility, causing them to become increasingly decadent and more and more interested in diabolism, likely influenced by House Thorne, who came to power during Islwyn II's reign; Aeron's mother, Malia Gardner, was a Lady of House Thorne. At some point, Aeron had a bastard, who rose up and slew the Lord-Regent Caron Cyrill in 4E.829, who took power after Aeron died seemingly without heirs.

The Conquest
Under the reign of King Aeron II, and his successor, King Aeron III, the realm of Bregate knew peace, although the peace was bought with an Infernal coin. Aeron III died in 4E.886 after some fifty years of peace; his son, as King Arthur Gardner, lead the realm to continued prosperity while its neighboring realm of Agrawel fell to the darkness of the Sable Order. In 4E.907, the Sable Order was defeated and House Thrussell was freed by an upstart adventurer named Ardal Arvendon. Ardal forced the abdication of Elric IV, the king who kneeled, and became King of a new kingdom he called Noslith. King Ardal and King Arthur fought a five-year long war called the Conquest that began in 4E.908 and ended in 4E.913 with Arthur's defeat and the reign of Ardal over Agrawel and Bregate. Arthur Gardner, still under Aeron's Pact, used everything he could to maintain control over Bregate, even calling upon the aid of Télesphore, a powerful Infernal sorcerer, whom Arthur named royal spymaster.

Télesphore's strategies, aided by the fierce general, Baron Lothar Thorne, extended the war for years. The most significant battles of the war were fought in the Crossing and around the Western Weald; for the first two years of the war, Ardal and Arthur fought a constant and bitter tug-of-war through a series of fortresses in Ardal's attempt to cross the Cold River and take Bregate. Ardal's strongest ally, Hardred Beldrec, attempted to manuever around the Crossing by leading the northern armies around Lake Loinnir in an attempt to take Fort Denholm at Blackbridge. Baron Wilhelm Mirth and Baron Joffrey Denholm defeated Hardred in a devastating battle that caused the deaths of Baron Eastmund Drake and Baron Jarlath Stenet and a lengthy and harmful retreat. The reaction intensified the tug-of-war; in the harsh winter of 4E.910, King Arthur pushed into Noslith, taking Westmoor and then Cardell Hold and Northwatch Hold. Ardal was forced to reassemble the army after the death of Baron Maldwyn Fox and, in a surprising series of successful sieges, took back Fox Fortress and then the Weald castles, pushing Arthur across the Cold River and slaughtering an entire generation of Malvern nobles. Arthur's position at Bregate was still impossible to take, however, and thus Ardal sought another way to bypass the Cold River by crossing the Bay of Stars with his navy.

The small navy of Lagarde received word of Ardal's coming invasion force and managed to halt them off the coast of Deminster. Télesphore conjured fireballs to burn down half Ardal's ships. Rebuffed, Ardal and Arthur engaged in renewed skirmishes across the Western Moors while they rebuilt their fleets. At the beginning of 4E.911, Gareth Proudfoot and Hardred Beldrec oversaw separate victories in prolonged naval battles off the coast of what would later be known as Hambor and south of the Glass Isles. Their victories allowed Ardal to take Lagarde as the winter returned and he was forced to halt his advance. Arthur responded with three failed sieges against Lagarde. In the summer, Ardal broke free, killing Lothar Thorne and cornering Arthur. Arthur's army was devastated; he pulled all his soldiers back to Bregate in desperate defense of the throne. Télesphore, sensing the coming end, took a specialized group of soldiers to Lagarde to attempt to assassinate Ardal but failed, dying in the attempt; the iron will of the future king of Noslith was unbroken; he would purge Bregate of its infernal corruption at any cost.

Ardal had proven himself to be almost unstoppable in battle but he was thus consumed by his divine vision and commitment to forging a united kingdom. Thus, even though winter's return was at hand, Ardal made a fatal mistake in a costly siege on Bregate's alabaster walls. The lengthy and brutal siege extended the war by another year as Arthur broke the siege and pushed Ardal back to Westmoor, where him and the remainders of the Agrawelite army were forced to fight off Arthur's veterans. They were successful; thus, in 4E.913, the war was decided when Ardal pushed Arthur out of Agrawel once and for all and brought his army to Bregate's door; Arthur conceded to Ardal at once. After the Conquest, Ardal married the daughter of the defeated King, making Vivianna Gardner a queen but making Arthur Gardner a Duke. The Seven Cardinals anointed Ardal king of Agrawel and Bregate, and Noslith was officially formed. Bregate had lost its pride and was forced to capitulate to a foreign house, yet they would rise again.

Gothian's Rebellion
House Gardner and Bregate knelt to the reign of grand Noslith for some two hundred years after the Conquest. That peace was broken after 5E.1107, when King Alastar Arvendon lost his life and passed the crown to his son, Prince Rodric Arvendon, who would become the Mad King. Rodric's early acts proved his madness, like when he tossed Aeledfyr, the ancestral axe of House Arvendon, into the Sea of Saints. The king's insanity was unrestrained and acted on through his power; throughout his reign, he would use the Royal Army to despoil the countryside, murdering men and kidnapping their wives and daughters while reigning as royal hedonist from within Castle Arvendon. The general hatred for the mad King was codified in the publishing the poetical epic, The War of the Orc King, which romanticized King Aeron's defeat of Ghamorz Broken-Tooth. The famous piece of literature restored a sense of rebellious national pride to the conquered kingdom and likely lead to the beginning of Gothian's Rebellion in 5E.1123.

Gothian's Rebellion was a costly and brutal war, lasting five years and mirroring the bloody battles fought around the Cold River and in the forests of the Western Weald during Ardal's Conquest. While Rodric was a veteran of the Third Crusade, Gothian had little military experience and was mostly driven by a desire to see Rodric unseated, and thus Rodric dominated for most of the war. Rodric, having learned from Ardal's example, refused to attempt to cross the Cold River and instead crossed the Bay of Stars with his armies. In 5E.1127, at the end of the war, Rodric had his archers brutally murder the Last Baron of Lagarde and crushed the port underneath his heel, sacking and ruining the town and leaving it little more than a memory. Gothian decided to give up his forward position ahead of the Cold River in order to reinforce Bregate against a possible siege from the south. It was a mistake that cost him the war: when Gothian attempted to retreat from Cardell Hold in the Western Weald, Rodric caught the rebellious Duke by surprise and surrounded his armies, smashing the duke's host and taking the surviving officers as hostages. Gothian finally surrendered, and the Mad King's reign continued, unimpeded, for another 13 years.

In 5E.1140, Rodric's younger brother, Prince Gerwyn Arvendon, who had fought for the royalists during Gothian's Rebellion, married the beautiful Cumbrian bride Lady Maiwen Ward of Winhyrst. Jealous of their love, for Rodric had only ever known lust, the Mad King's jealousy turned to desire. Rodric asked Maiwen to his chambers numerous times; the first time, Carrick, a gentleman of Rodric's court, was so offended that he decided to finally depart the King's side, escaping across the Bay of Stars to found Newport. Rodric asked Maiwen to his chamber a final time and refused to take no for an answer; when Gerwyn heard his wife's screams, he charged into the King's chambers and sunk Tyrung into Rodric's back. Carrick was sainted posthumously for shepherding so many Noslithians into Newport, away from the King's wicked embrace, and his bastard son, Eodred, became the first Baron of Newport and the first patriarch of the line of House Norwood. Newport would bring heavy Acheiran influence to the King's River Valley and create a culture of loyalty to House Arvendon under King Gerwyn I the Virtuous. Gerwyn I's rule was a golden age for Noslith, and Bregate was soon restored after its long war.

The Wars with Traewyn and Wraemore
King Gerwyn I's son and heir, King Alastar II Arvendon, took the throne in 5E.1166 after his father's death. Just eight years after his crowning, Dragomir V, Emperor of Traewyn, invaded Noslith in 5E.1184, betraying House Arvendon after they helped Dragomir's ancestor, Dragomir III the Black, conquer the eastern kingdoms of the Shrinelands during the Third Crusade. Three years into the invasion, Dragomir V conquered Bregate and established it as his forward base. He took then-Duke Arwyn Gardner hostage, along with his wife, the Duchess Julianna Gardner née Arvendon, and their two sons and three daughters. The Emperor was not unkind to the conquered family and even attempted to seek a marriage arrangement with House Gardner. Duke Arwyn might have agreed based on the old wounds of Gothian's Rebellion, yet his wife, the former Princess of Noslith, kept his blade on the side of the crown, and the Duke stayed loyal to House Arvendon throughout the occupation.

Dragomir V turned his eye towards Newport, yet his invasion was halted again and again by the newly arisen Marquess Lanford Norwood, while King Alastar II's own sieges to attempt to regain the occupied duchy failed. Alastar II and Lanford cooperated on a final attack strategy; ships would sail up the Cold River filled with soldiers of the Royal Army and of House Norwood. Alastar and Lanford thus finally took Elden Fortress by surprise with their small host and ousted Dragomir from the city in 5E.1188. Dragomir fled to Castle Cawdor, seat of Vinwall, and managed to break the King's advance. The emperor slew Lanford and Arwyn, and by 5E.1190, he retook Bregate. With no other options, Alastar II ordered his spymaster, a vengeful riverfolk nobleman named Kirk Sartre, to assassinate Dragomir. Kirk easily entered Elden Fortress undetected and killed the despotic emperor with a single blow to the heart, rescuing the Duchess of Bregate and her children. Since Dragomir V had no heirs, his empire was in danger of falling apart, and the Imperial Army pulled out of Noslith; meanwhile, six years later, Kirk Sartre was awarded with the barony of Laceau for his deeds of valor in the name of the kingdom, and the position of Royal Spymaster became one traditionally associated with their line. Bregate, meanwhile, spent years rebuilding, with its pride wounded by the occupation while the wounds of Gothian's Rebellion were seemingly mended.

Later, Noslith would go to war with Traewyn again to the defense of the then-nascent nation of Wraemore; Bregate and House Gardner would readily join in vengeance for the death of Duke Arwyn. However, the second war with Traewyn would only breed more conflict. The son of King Didacus I would invade Noslith, just as the Emperor of Traewyn had centuries before. The war with Wraemore began thus in 5E.1320, when King Didacus lead his armies north to conquer Noslith. In 5E.1324, in an attempt to overwhelm the kingdom with arcane supremacy, Wraemore invaded the duchy and attacked Bregate, taking the city and nearly destroying the Arcane Academy of Bregate. For three years after, the fields of Bregate were scourged by the War, while the city suffered further damage. The destructive battles of both Bregate and Newport saw a great period of rebuilding after Didacus II's surrender; the Arcane Academy survived, but many trinkets, valuables, and ancestral items were lost while many ancient buildings were destroyed. Bregate and Newport survived, but changed; the cities had begun to resemble equals, while the valley of the King's River began to seem further independent from the Bregatian duchy. Bregate would fight again in the Andarian Wars under King Robert I against King Aneurin of Oed Dinas. The Andarians were a savage race of proto-Noslithians who had not known a king for many years; when Aneurin was crowned, the barbarian lord gathered all the tribes of the Andarian fields, leading to skirmishes with the barons under the Duke of Bregate, and eventually battle with the Duke of Bregate himself, soon leading to all-out-war. The Andarians were defeated, and King Aneurin was slain, yet the King of Noslith died of poison soon after. The Andarian wars were the last war to wound Bregate, and it was met by growing prosperity along with the rest of the kingdom throughout the 15th century.

The Rasping Pox
In 5E.1498, the Half-Moon Heresy raged across Noslith and the Shrinelands. Born in the White Forest, the lycanthrope horde laid waste to many of the baronies of Bregate, especially in the battle of Wallow, when the Bishop of Bregate betrayed Tyffayne and seemingly left her to die. The Half-Moon Heresy was defeated, yet it revealed the cowardice of Duke Jafrelot Gardner when he as well refused to support the war effort, recalling the Goldsworn within his walls to protect himself. The act, along with the fate of the White Rose, deeply affected Duncan Gardner, and even after his ascension to the position of Duke, Duncan rarely left the castle walls. In 5E.1499, the Rasping Pox arrived in Agrawel; many in Bregate were slain by the Pox, and only through wicked purges carried out by the Inquisition did Noslith's population survive. The disease was eliminated; however, in 5E.1521, it reappeared, directly in the streets of Bregate. The slum of Lowport soon fell to the disease, and was quarantined; the people of the slums fought amongst themselves, and by 5E.1522, the quarantine broke after the rise of the Fifth Crusade and the plague entered Godsgrove in full. Although many declared Bregate hopeless at that point, the Duke and his barons stubbornly held onto their castles atop the plaguescourged land.

The return of the disease engendered numerous attempts to cure it, carried out primarily by Tegwen the Enchantress through the Infernal Pact. Sixteen years ago, Duncan Gardner ceased sending souls to the Infernal Pact of Caer Cythraul; this prompted Dulcinea Gardner's kidnapping, along with Tegwen's need for her as a sacrifice to enter the Fell Archives in Ilfaine. Tegwen also likely caused the laudanum operation in Lowport that cost several lives, and the robbery of the stores at the Arcane Academy that secured ingredients necessary to synthesize the cure. Tegwen's cure failed, and when the Infernal Pact's spree of assassinations began, she fled to Agrawel after a furious argument with Lord-Prelate Balder. Balder, meanwhile, sought to consolidate power through any means possible; he sold the cure to the Syndicate, who began to synthesize their own. The Yellow Rose later stole the recipe and began to synthesize an infected version of the cure that would only worsen the disease. At the same time, the Fifth Crusade began to wage its war against the Infernal Pact and the people of Noslith; they terrorized the city of Bregate in the purges they carried out, yet the purges themselves gave Bregate the chance to survive.

During the city's slow death, the Heroes of Blackbridge took up residence in the Broken Sword and adventured within Bregate's streets and alleyways on behalf of Father Anselm and Dame Solveig; having discovered the apparent affiliation of the Infernal Pact to the assassins who had scourged Noslith's clergy, they traced the disappeared Aeron Cyrill and Dulcinea Gardner to Thorne Estate. Within the depths of that estate, they found a Chapel of Dispater, several prisoners in chains, including Aeron Cyrill, and slew Farquhar Thorne. Dulcinea Gardner, meanwhile, had already been secreted away from the underground dungeon by Tegwen the Enchantress. Taken by Horrakis, she was supposedly given to the Shadowmaker himself. Dulcinea later reappeared at Tor Bedivere within the ruins of Flaith with the memories of her former life as the fair-haired gem of Bregate's court locked away. With the help of Sir Elric Thrussell, she regained her memories and came to blame Tegwen for what was taken from her. She soon fell in love with the dark knight, feeling the same darkness within her; in secret, they were married with Duncan's blessing, and Elric was named Duncan's heir. The Dawn's Herald revisited Bregate after the quarantine broke on Lowport by way of Tegwen and her teleportation circle. There, they recruited Raiwen Talethar and Bishop Anselm the Holy, bringing them back to Agrawel.

Unfortunately, the alabaster city missed that chance; the Church of Sol, much of its clergy in Bregate corrupted by Yorath and the Brotherhood of Illusionists, along with Aeronwen, convinced Duke Duncan Gardner and the Bregatian nobility to reforge their vows to the Yellow Rose and rise up in rebellion against House Arvendon. After the Sunscourge Heresy, Duncan did just that; taking the name King Duncan of House Gardner, he attacked and destroyed the villages of Kerry, Westmoor, and Overbrook before sacking Agrawel. The Fall of Agrawel fulfilled Duncan's purpose to Aeronwen, however; thus, the last king of Bregate was twisted by his mistress into the form of the Rasper King, while his city was flooded and destroyed, claimed by the rising waters of the Lake of Darkness. Within the ruins of Elden Fortress, it was said that the Rasper King still held court, acting as the rasping voice of the dread locust empress. The kingdom itself fell into antiquity; only the name Bregate would survive its legacy, along with the blood of Dulcinea Gardner, when Elric V Thrussell declared himself King of Bregate and the Hinterlands and took Dulcinea as his shadowy queen. Their descendants would nominally rule what became of the lands of Bregate, while the realms themselves would be ruled by shadowy figures like the Count of Vinwall and the Duke of Shadowmarch.