The Sorrows of Neptarch Feldan Foxglove

This is an article on the History of Feyworld
Years: 301 NC to 560 NC
Age: The Third Age of Man
Continent: Duria
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The History of Neptaris
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The Rule of the Neptarchs	The Fall of the Neptarchs

Neptarch Beran of Neptaris did not have the impressive physique of his brother or the diplomatic skills of his father. He quickly broke most of the treaties his father had established and turned his attention to the city itself. Some of the nobles of the city, led by Agripo of House Perrenor, planned to assassinate the Neptarch and succeeded in entering the ruler's quarters at night and poisoning him in 315 NC. Beran did not die as a result of the poison, however, though he was incapacitated by it. The Archbishop of Betshaba, a cousin to Agripo, appointed the latter to the position of Regnant for the duration of the Neptarch's illness. One of the priests of the city, Bishop Darius of Aridnus, suspected Agripo's treachery and the Archbishop's compliance in that treachery. Darius started an investigation that would last for twelve years before he was finally able to prove that Agripo had not only poisoned the Neptarch, but also had been feeding him doses of that poison to keep him from regaining his seat. When Darius went to the Archbishop of Betshaba with this information (as he was required by the laws of the city at the time), he was declared a heretic and chased from the Church. Darius went into hiding for a brief time before again appearing on the steps of the Temple to Betshaba. In the early morning hours before service, he nailed his thirty-two-page doctrine, the Evidences of Deceit, on the temple doors. When the people read the Evidences, they began to riot in the streets. The Temple of Betshaba was burned to the ground and Castle Zepharos was overcome. Agripo was found cowering in his quarters, dragged into the street and torn limb from limb by the mob. Somehow, during the month of riots that followed, Neptarch Beran was murdered by unknown hands.

Darius of Aridnus, however, quickly took control of the mob upon news of the Neptarch's murder and was appointed Archbishop of Neptaris by popular acclaim in 328 NC. As Beran had no male heirs, Archbishop Darius appointed Feldan Foxglove of House Arisan to the position of Neptarch. Feldan Foxglove was a half-elf and one of the descendants of the Arisan elves who had migrated to the city a century before. The early years of Feldan's reign were troubled, with periodic uprisings amongst the nobles of the city who sought to place a purebred human on the throne. Most prominent of these Rebel Knights, as they came to be called, were Tivan Yan of House Kraegar and Largan of House Rimman. These two luminaries joined forces in 340 NC with the intention of removing Feldan from office. It is notable that the Archbishop Darius had died the previous year, and Odaneb of Betshaba, a supporter of the human majority, was chosen as his successor.

Tivan Yan and Largan found much support for their claims of rulership in the Churches of Neptaris (with the exception of the Church of Aridnus, of course) and riots again began plaguing the office of Neptarch. Feldan, at first, attempted to negotiate with the Rebel Knights, but Tivan Yan and Largan refused any bargain that did not put one of them on the throne. Entering through the same secret entrance used by Agripo decades before and captured the Neptarch and his supporters in 348 NC. Feldan himself was exiled, while his supporters were staked and hung from the walls of Castle Zepharos for all to see.

The Rebel Knights immediately began fighting amongst themselves as to who should take the throne. The Church of Aridnus decried them all as heretics, but the Archbishop of Betshaba rescinded that edict as quickly as it had been issued. The Fourth Ecumenical Council was called to settle the matter. On the third day of deliberation, however, Tivan Yan and Largan met in a field near Skulldug Rock, just south of the city, their armies ready for battle. The Battle of Dry Tears lasted for almost a week as the combatants fought in the fields surrounding the city, within the city itself, and even in Castle Zepharos itself. Splinter groups constantly broke off from the Rebel Knights and reformed as alliances were broken and sealed and broken again, often in the same day. After six days of fighting, the combatants had to join forces to fight a great fire that was threatening to destroy the entire city. The Fourth Ecumenical Council reconvened, but the Archbishop of Betshaba died after a week of intense deliberation. The Council was again halted while the priests voted on a new Archbishop and the Rebel Knights returned to open warfare in what was left of the city. The priests, torn between electing a new Archbishop and assisting the beleaguered populace (or their favored pretender to the throne), took six months to deliberate their choice. Finally Ardan of Betshaba, a member of House Perrenos, was raised as Archbishop of Neptaris. In a surprise move, Ardan chose Tivan Yan of House Kraegar as Neptarch in 349 NC. Largan, feeling betrayed by the choice, threw himself on his own sword during a worship service in the Temple of Betshaba.

The Rebel Knights, however, did not dissolve; neither did the ambitions of House Rimman. Paenoth of House Rimman, Largan's successor, quickly took the reigns of control within the Rebel Knights and renamed them the Knights of the Purple Sash. The Purple Sash worked secretly for years to undermine the power of Neptarch Tivan Yan, who quickly discovered that his activities during the Battle of Dry Tears had left him few allies in the city. Eventually, Tivan Yan was found dead in his chambers, strangled to death by a common prostitute. As Tivan Yan's only heir had died a year earlier from a childhood illness, Archbishop Ardan called the Fifth Ecumenical Council to determine who should rule. The Knights of the Purple Sash, however, surrounded the Pantheon, where the Council was being held, and burned it to the ground with most of the priests of the city inside. Archbishop Ardan, badly burned by his experience, escaped the mass theocide and fled aboard a ship into the Maroshan Sea. He was never seen again.

Paenoth of House Rimman crowned himself Neptarch in 362 NC, the first to assume the title without the direct permission of the Church. He quickly removed Tivan Yan's supporters from any position of authority (often through assassination and trumped-up charges of treason) and replaced them with his own Knights of the Purple Sash. He then began systematically removing many of the basic rights of the citizens that they had enjoyed since the city's foundation. Among his most hated edicts included the institution of slavery as a means of criminal punishment, the right of the Neptarch to lie with any woman on her wedding night and the required service of each citizen in the army. The Knights of the Purple Sash, which had become Paenoth's personal secret police force, betrayed those who disobeyed his edicts or attempted to foment rebellion. Fear began to grip the citizens of Neptaris, who were helpless for over twenty years under his tyrannical rule.

During the Summer Festival of 385 NC, however, a combatant known only as the Green Knight appeared to fight in the tournaments. After besting all of his opponents, including a number of Paenoth's most experienced Knights, the Green Knight approached the Neptarch to receive his reward. The Neptarch demanded that the Green Knight remove his helm to honor him and the Green Knight initially refused the request. Paenoth had his guards drag the Green Knight before him to remove the helmet himself and, strangely, the Knight did not resist this rough treatment. When the helm was removed, it was revealed that the Green Knight was actually Feldan Foxglove, the exiled Neptarch. In a moment of shock, the guards released their grip on Feldan and he lunged at the Neptarch Paenoth. Feldan ran Paenoth through with his unarmored shield hand, pulling his still-beating heart from the tyrant's body. The Guard was so shocked by this display of brutality, as well as the cheers of the people in attendance, that they quickly fled back into hiding with their fellow Knights of the Purple Sash.

Feldan returned to Castle Zepharos and was recrowned by a young priest of Betshaba (there had not been an Archbishop during Paenoth's rule). The newly reestablished Neptarch called for a new election from the priests of the city and they elected Mandrake of Cthos, the only living priest to have survived the Great Fire that had sent his predecessor into flight. This selection shocked and outraged many of the people of the city, as Mandrake was not only a member of House Arisan, but also a full-blooded elf, old enough to remember the migration from the Arisan forest.

Archbishop Mandrake quickly became a thorn in the side of Neptarch Feldan, who he considered weak because of his "thin", half-human blood. Feldan had become a very different man since his exile. Though he revoked many of Paenoth's more tyrannical laws, he established a new secret police force to root out dissention in the city. Naming them the Warders of Neptaris, this secret society quickly found willing participants in the city's merchant class, who remembered well the activities of the Knights of the Purple Sash. Neptarch Feldan gave the Warders the right to execute any citizen found to be plotting against the city or the crown, something traditionally reserved for the Church of Cthos and then only after a trial by members of the Church of Aridnus. The priests of Neptaris felt betrayed, and the Archbishop Mandrake was the voice for their concerns. Mandrake spoke vehemently on the pulpit about the evils of the Warders, but stopped short of directly attacking the Neptarch himself.

After nearly a decade of political hostilities between the civil and ecclesiastical leaders of Neptaris, the political war seemed about to turn martial when five Warders attempted to assassinate the Archbishop Mandrake in his quarters in 394 NC. They were defeated by the powerful Archbishop, despite his guards having all been slain. When the Neptarch found out about the attack, he recalled all of his troops and Warders to the castle and prepared for a siege. The next morning, however, the Archbishop Mandrake preached his typical sermon and performed his duties as if nothing had happened. It is said that Feldan went mad with suspicion, trying to figure out the Archbishop's plan and kept his castle on defense status for the rest of the week. The Archbishop, of course, was only presenting a calm façade to his enemy... he had a plan that would end the rule of the Neptarchs forever.

The Archbishop Mandrake sent letters to his brothers in every Temple of Cthos in the north and as far away as the Zetian Republic. He requested of his fellow ecclesiasts loyal but discrete members of the Makatielites, a sect of grim guardians dedicated to Cthos, to come to his aid. After some number had flocked to his banner, he formed the Guardians of the Scythe in 402 NC, his own secret society that would counteract the Neptarch's Warders and report only to him. The Guardians of the Scythe began to slowly infiltrate Neptaran society at its very base…the slaves and poor of the city. Over the next half-century, the Archbishop and the Neptarch fought a shadow war where each side attempted to discretely remove agents of the other side, while gaining trusted converts of their own.

By 460 NC, the Neptarch Feldan had had enough of this shadow war. In a move intended to solidify his power over the priesthoods of the city, he called for the impeachment of the Archbishop. There was no precedent for this sort of edict, but the Bishop of Betshaba, Elizabet II, an ally of the Neptarch, agreed and called the Ninth Ecumenical Council to try the Archbishop Mandrake for dereliction of his duty. For two years the Council tried Mandrake, who insisted on speaking in his native tongue. The Council finally decided only that it did not have the power to impeach an Archbishop and concluded without a verdict. The Neptarch was incensed. He immediately issued a declaration that the Archbishop Mandrake was guilty of the charges brought against him and appointed Elizabet II Archbishop of Neptaris. Furthermore, he exiled Mandrake from the city forever.

Mandrake departed for Marosh, which was an island of pirates and brigands even then. He established a church-in-exile there and began converting the pirates from the worship of Taltos to the worship of Cthos. As Feldan's laws became more and more hostile towards the priests of the city, more and more of the city's priests fled to join Mandrake. Without their spiritual leaders, the people of Neptaris became restless and riots again began to erupt in the streets, partially due to the influence of the Guardians of the Scythe who remained in the city to act as Mandrake's eyes and ears while he was away.

In 482 NC, Mandrake finally decided that he had strong enough support to depose Feldan once and for all. He sailed a fleet of one hundred vessels into Krios Bay and landed on the shores beneath Neptaris. The Army of the Sea-Queen, as his troops became known, besieged Neptaris, though they did not have the land-based experience they needed to take the city itself. Neptaris held out for six months before the people revolted against Feldan and opened the gates to the Army. As Mandrake marched his troops towards Castle Zepharos, Feldan and Archbishop Elizabet II fled the city by way of the sewers. Believing his enemy defeated, the Archbishop Mandrake declared an end to the Neptarchy and established himself as ruler of the city.

Mandrake's rule was one of oppressive reform intended to empower the Church and remove secular rulership altogether. Many of the city's Mayors and secular bureaucrats were executed for not revolting against Feldan and were replaced with ecclesiasts, many of whom were followers of Cthos. The city's complex bureaucracy began to break down under the unskilled hands of these priests and crime rose dramatically. Even so, Mandrake's reforms kept him in power for twenty-seven years.

By 509 NC, the people were at their breaking point. Thomas of House Kraegar assembled his fellow nobles and founded the Brotherhood of the Blood, an organization that supported the return of secular rulership to the city. Each of nobles houses joined the Brotherhood, including Mandrake's own House Arisan. They drew up the Petition of Natural Law and presented it to the Archbishop. Mandrake declared them all heretics and had the heads of each noble house put on a stake and hung from the walls of the city to die. The body of the head of House Arisan was given a special place beneath the privy of the Archbishop.

Almost immediately, open revolt started to rage through the streets of Neptaris. Unfortunately, few could agree as to which noble house to flock to for protection and each wanted to have its say in who should rule the city. The Archbishop tried to use his Guardians to encourage the division in the Brotherhood's ranks. He was successful in keeping them fighting amongst themselves (though some suggest that his job was pretty easy) until 516 NC, when the people of Neptaris marched on Castle Zepharos and demanded the surrender of the Archbishop. Confused as to what was going on, the Archbishop agreed to speak with a single representative of the Brotherhood in the hopes of discovering just which noble had succeeded in suddenly uniting the people against him. A cloaked figure entered his throne room with a small contingent of advisors and two guards. When he removed his cloak, he revealed the green-tinted armor beneath and attacked the Archbishop. Feldan Foxglove had returned, and he wanted the blood of Mandrake. Feldan and his men fought valiantly against the powerful Archbishop and eventually Mandrake escaped, but not after the Archbishop had lost his left arm to Feldan's sword. The Archbishop again took to the seas, swearing never again to return to Neptaris.

Feldan, the Twice-Shamed, again assumed his throne as Neptarch of the city and the people briefly rejoiced his return. The Archbishop Elizabet II, now quite aged, was reinstated in her old post and replaced Mandrake's many supporters in the clergy with priests who supported the Neptarchy. Feldan contacted his Warders and reestablished their rights, this time with the full support of the clergy. The city became peaceful, even prosperous, over the next half century. Even Feldan's legendary paranoia began to calm with age, and he disbanded his Warders in 552 NC. Suddenly, in 560 NC, Feldan died at his dinner table. A piece of mandrake root was found in his wine.