Conomor the Cursed
Penntiern (Prince) Conomor Fourtongue (a.k.a. "The Black Dog")
Conomor The Cursed
Kroashent - Conomor the Cursed
by
Valentine
Conomor the Cursed, 10th High King of Letha
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Conomor was physically imposing, tall and broadly built, with muscles pushed to their limit by physical labour and constant training and fighting. Conomor's speed, strength and stamina was above those of a normal Bediz, propelled by his supernatural abilities.
Facial Features
Conomor sported a full beard and moustache, covering most of his face. His long hair, a bluish-black, hung down past his shoulders, with a long braid on the side.
Conomor's ears were larger than those of a Bediz, following the normal morphology, but tapering to a sharp point. Likewise, his teeth are sharply pointed fangs, while his fingers and toes are tipped with sharp claws.
Identifying Characteristics
Conomor is often heavily painted in the Sign of the Hunt, an elaborate spiraling warpaint of woad dye.
Special abilities
Conomor drew his power from the Ere-Hud of the Garwaf, which granted him supernatural abilities. He was significantly stronger than most Bediz, able to bash heavy wooden doors into splinters or rip arms off enemy soldiers. His speed was matched only by the swiftest archers and fastest runners. Wounds suffered would heal quickly.
Apparel & Accessories
Conomor dressed in the style of his father's raider, adopting the blue and yellow tartan of Kernev as his personal colours. Conomor often went bare-chested with pauldrons and a heavy wolfskin cloak draped over his shoulders. Wearing a kilt or deerskin pants, his feet were protected by heavy boots. Conomor regularly wore decorative armor and a twisted golden torque, worn around his neck.
Specialized Equipment
Conomor has several legendary items associated with him.
Diflemmañ - The Sword of Conomor, a fearsome Manchais-style blade made from the fang of a sea monster.
The Torque of the Hunter - Symbolizing the pact between Conomor and Hellequin, this twisted gold torque was stored in the Forbidden Room, and worn into battle by Conomor.
The ships of the Sea Dogs were made of blackened wood, capped with figureheads of wolves with burning eyes. The pirates became as feared as Conomor himself, continuing to raid the coastlines of Alvez for the 30 years after his death.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Early Life
Conomor was born the son of Jonas Fourtongue, a Viking Chieftain, and a Lethan woman from Hennbont. Jonas had arrived in Letha from La Manche, sailing up the Blavezh River from Hennbont, raiding the riverside villages and abbeys before establishing a settlement at Pont-Ivi, constructing a wooden palisade and a motte-and-bailey keep overlooking the river bend. After serveral decades of war, Jonas made peace with his Lethan neighbors, offering a yearly tribute of flax, honey and a dozen suckling pigs to the Rí Buiden of Gwened, in exchange for the title of Kont of Roc'han. Penntiern Conomor grew up in the keep at Pont-Ivi and the surrounding Brekilien Forest. The young Prince gained a reputation for cruelty and brutality, unleashing his hunting dogs to tear a villager to shreds if his hunting in the deep forest did not bear fruit. Additionally. the Prince was headstrong and ambitious, having heard stories of the Elder Fourtongue's bloody conquest of the Blavezh River Valley. He saw the tribute to Gwened, and by extension, to the more powerful King of Kernev and Dumnonia, as nothing short of a humiliation of subservience. Conomor accompanied his father to Gwened for the tributes, where he met the Rí Buiden of Gwened, Waroch I. Eager to see the city outside of the formal constraints of the tribute party, Conomor traveled in disguise to see a Gouel Eost Tournament. There, he spied Tréphine, the beautiful daughter of Waroch, and vowed to win her hand. At the Tribute a week later, he revealed himself and demanded Tréphine's hand in marriage. Waroch and his daughter declined, concerned with the Penntiern's reputation for violent cruelty. Conomor surged forwards in rage, but was stopped by Muldumarec Artegall, the wandering Eladan Champion who had won the Goeul Eost Tournament. Overcome with rage at the humiliation of the tournament, the tribute and the rejection, Conomor vowed revenge. He led a violent rebellion against Jonas, aided by his hunting party, but it was defeated, his followers killed, imprisoned and exiled. Conomor escaped a beheading, but was outlawed, exiled to the inhospitable Val Sans Retour deep in the Forest. His hounds were killed and he was stripped of title and possessions in abstentia.The Pact of the Torque
Exiled and outlawed, the disgraced Penntiern wandered the misty forest of the Val sans Retour and the Brekilien, living off the land as a robber, occasionally raiding remote hamlets or slaying unlucky travelers. Despite his brutality, he found the favour of the Korrigan, themselves living in exile since the Fall of Ys, becoming an ally of convenience against Bediz authority. Conomor's fortunes changed when he made a pact with the Horned King, Hellequin, Lord of the Hunt. Conomor took on the Ere-Hud of the Garwaf, becoming the first of the creatures that would terrorize the world in the centuries since. With the powers of the Wyld at his command, Conomor turned his sights on his father's keep in Pont-Ivi. A cold wind blew over the remote settlement as Blood red moon appeared in the night sky. Howls and horns filled the darkness of the forest as sentries rushed to the walls, battered by dark shadows. With a great crash, the doors splintered and the dread prince entered, a bloody wolf's pelt slung across his shoulders and a pack of spectral black hounds with glowing red eyes dogging his steps. Conomor slew many who stood in his way, and slaughtered many who did not, as he massacred his way through the town to the gates of the keep. He tore down the great oak doors with his bare hands and slew Jonas, placing his father's head on a spike outside the palisade as the town burned. He crowned himself King of Poher and Roc'han, forcing his father's second wife into marriage, using her Sovereignty to establish a claim on the neighboring county. He moved his capital to Kastell Finans, constructing his red keep with the aid of his allies. His army grew as his former allies joined his cause, his numbers burgeoned by disaffected Korrigan and others who had heard of his demonstration of power at Pont-Ivi. The Black Dog ruled his lands with an iron fist, personally leading expeditions to punish revolts, real and imagined, setting monasteries, churches and villages aflame, amassing more wealth and power. But his insatiable bloodlust only grew, unable to be quenched. Conomor would regularly lash out at those who displeased him and it is thought that at least four of his wives were killed by his own hand before his war with Gwened.Chanao and Macliau
Back in Gwened, things had taken a dark turn, entering a period of political turmoil. Waroch's sons ousted the Rí Buiden and imprisoned him. The eldest son, Chanao I poisoned his co-conspirators, intending to seize the throne for himself. Only one of his brothers, Macliau, Archperfect of Gwened, survived, fleeing the city for Conomor's Court in Ker-Ahes. When Chanao's envoys arrived, Conomor explained he had killed the Archperfect, going so far as to burying his ally alive. With news of Macliau's death riding South, Conomor exhumed the shaken clergyman and the two began to plot against Chanao. As Chanao hunted his brother in Poher, Waroch was restored to the throne by Muldumarec Artegall and his allies, saved from the execution block in a daring rescue. Conomor and his envoys returned to find Chanao imprisoned. Conomor, seeing an opportunity, claimed he had returned with Macliau to oust Chanao himself to reinstate his sworn leige, Waroch to the throne. He again professed his love to Tréphine and asked for her hand in marriage. Seeing Conomor's host at the gates to her city, still in chaos from the coup, and knowing her father was shaken badly by his ordeal, she assented, over Muldumarec's heartfelt warnings. Conomor and Tréphine were married in a lavish ceremony 9 days later in a great feast on the fields before the city gate, with the treacherous Macliau performing the ceremony. Prepared by the Kriores of Ker-Malastred, the feast served 9,000 guests and lasted for three days, with the remains of the feast served to the poor by the newly married couple. Muldumarec gave the princess a parting gift, a milk white ring that would turn as black as a raven's wing when her life was threatened. The couple returned to Kastell Finans.Tréphine
Life at Kastell Finans turned out better than expected, as Conomor, secure in his quest to be seen as an equal to the man his father had served, was briefly content, his anger seemingly sated. His bouts of rage lessened, and executions in the Kingdom slowed. At the Feast of Emwalc'h, Conomor was summoned by Budig II to Roazhon to attend the Estates of Letha, a regular parliamentary gathering mandated to all nobles of stature in the Kingdom. As is custom, he granted Tréphine the rank of Castellan and granted her all the keys of the castle, but forbidding her to enter a single room in the chapel. While Conomor was away, the castle grew dark and lonely, the wind moaning through the empty hallways and the shadows growing darker. Silvery spectres began to appear in the corner of her eye, becoming increasingly visible and apparent to her, four female Envorad taking shape. One night, Tréphine had had enough and she followed the spectral procession to the chapel, where the four spirits stood silently around the forbidden door. Tréphine turned away and ran, but each night, the procession repeated, until she could bear it no longer. She inserted the silver key and opened the door... What she found inside brought her to her knees, finding the corpses of the four brides, each brutally sacrificed to the horned effigy carved in shimmering Blackstone. On a stone pedestal in the center of the room sat a golden torque. Tréphine slammed the stone door and rushed off. Finding her ring had turned black, Tréphine fell into despair, awaiting Conomor's return. It was then that she was visited by the Envorad of Conomor's four wives. Following the specters, she gathered four items to aid her escape: The poison that killed the first, slipping into the food of the Blatant Beast, Conomor's Cŵn Annwn pack leader. The cord that hung the second to escape over the wall. The white-hot fairy fire that burned the third to light the way through the Feth Fiada of the Forest. Last was the staff that crushed the skull of the fourth, which would take her on the straightest path to Gwened. Conomor returned and found Tréphine missing, the ward of the forbidden door cracked. Flying into a rage, he set off with his hunters and hounds in pursuit. Warned by her ring, Tréphine was able to evade Conomor's hunt as she fled southwards.The Alliance of the Brekilien
Since their first encounter with Conomor, Muldumarec had been working against the Black Dog's machinations, and those of his patron, the Horned Hunter. To this end, he had collected a company of like-minded allies, thwarting Conomor's machinations from Gwened to Dol. As Conomor's power grew in the North, Muldumarec realized that a base of operations and patronage would be required to stem the threat. Muldumarec, Britomart, Talus and Armel Guyon arrived in Gwened to learn that Waroch had been ousted. They mounted a daring operation to rescue the Rí Buiden from the executioner's block and returned him to the throne. Their numbers swelled as they were joined by the Knights of Gwened and Naoned. With Tréphine's return to Gwened, preparations for Conomor's attack began in earnest. Waroch and the Alliance moved to secure Gwened and its Southern colony, Naoned, reinforcing the city walls with sharpened logs and earthworks including a large defensive earthwork in what is now Naoned's Faubourg de Marchix. The vassals of Gwened and Naoned were called for the defense of the Petty Kingdom, the levies armed and the knights summoned from the countryside. Word was sent to Ard Rí Budig II in Kemper to come to Waroch's aid. As the alliance prepared, so to did Conomor, his territory now stretching as far as the Marais de Dol. He secured the support of the Kriores Troupes de Gargantua in Ker-Malastred, the Kornikaned of the Brekilien, the Poulpiquet of the Kastellin Basin and the Hoseguéannets of the Northern Coasts. But his Kriores allies paled in comparison to his true weapon that would be unleashed on Waroch's Realm. Soon enough, Conomor, flanked by his Ambaxtoi arrived, demanding Tréphine and the capitulation of Waroch to Conomor's command. Muldumarec, acting on Waroch's behalf, refused and cast out the warlord's party. Once outside the walls, Conomor held aloft a bundle of dried grass and lit it. As the embers spread over the city, carried by a black wind, he swore so to would his rage cover the city, filling the streets with ash and the skies with smoke when he returned.The Bloodmoon
The defenders awaited the clash, with the Alliance taking point in defending both Gwened and Naoned. Muldumarec, Britomart and Talus stood guard in Gwened, while Guyon and Roland of Gwitreg defended the Southern flank. The majority of Conomor's Korrigan allies were amassed in the Landes be Lanvaux, and the attack was expected to arrive from the North. As the armies massed, the sky grew dark as a Red Wind blew over the Mor Bihan as the Bloodmoon rose in the sky and all hell broke loose. Conomor's armies of Garwaf were unleashed upon the city, the Drez stimiying the defender's attempts to fight back Prior to the Bloodmoon, three of Conomor's Similherez, Ate, Duessa and Acrasia Beldam had smuggled items infected with the Foyson of the Garwaf into both cities. As the moon rose, defenders and civilians transformed into fearsome beasts, discipline breaking down entirely. In Naoned, the Sea Dogs, a fleet of Garwaf Vikings, attacked on longships, led by Conomor's generals Cymochles and Pyrochles. Roland held off the worst of the invaders, but was killed in the battle. At the end of the battle, Waroch's domain had fallen. He was dragged before Conomor and made to swear an oath of fealty. Tréphine was beheaded and the surviving members of Muldumarec's supporters were outlawed. The Alliance was shattered.The Kernev Campaign
With Gwened and Naoned fallen, all that remained were Roazhon and the Penn-ar-Bed. Knowing that Budig's power lay in the West, Conomor turned his attention to Kernev, Dumnonia and Leon. Conomor and his Sea Dogs sacked territories along the Mor Breizh, seizing Kermaria, Sant-Brioc and Montroulez with ease. In the meantime, the shattered Alliance regrouped. Muldumarec, captured by opportunistic slavers, was rescued by Britomart, and the pair reactivated Talus, then sought out to regroup with their allies. Conomor's greatest victory would prove his undoing, as the ferocity and cruelty of his attack angered many of his Korrigan allies. Britomart had saved Queen Amoretta of the Garenne Troupe from a deranged Busirane during the Bloodmoon, and earned the favour of Belphoebe, the snatcherhead of the troupe. The Kornikaned switched sides, joining with the alliance. The Kornikaned had kidnapped Tréphine and swapped her with a Changeling, who was killed in her place, their first act of rebellion against the Black Dog. Armel Guyon, Belphoebe and Sieur Calidore trekked deep into the Brekilien to destroy the Bower of Bliss, a Poulpiquet stronghold, slaying the Blatant Beast and the witches Ate and Duessa. Meanwhile Muldumarec sought out the clergyman Gweltas, Waroch's advisor, exiled to a remote monastery in the Lordship of Rhuys. The two, previously at odds in the Court of Waroch, made an alliance and together made their case to Clovis I, King of Gallia. Seeing the threat to Roazhon and the Liger River, Gallia threw its support to the embattled Budig. The united armies met Conomor's host near Relec, in the Meneziou Are. Armel Guyon slew Conomor, ending the reign of the Black Dog.Conomor's Legacy
An envorad is said to appear in Conomor's likeness as a spectral ferryman beneath the ruins of Kastell Finans on the Blavezh River. Any who ride with him do not make it to the other side.Sexuality
Heterosexual. Conomor is known to have had at least 5 wives, all slain by his hand. It is unknown if he had mistresses or consorts, but it has been theorized that he did. Conomor did not have any surviving children, save for Tremeur, killing them and their mothers when he discovered their pregnancies.
Education
Conomor lacked a formal education, instead training with his father's Ambaxtoi as befitting a princeling. He was skilled in many methods of combat, including riding, chariot driving and tactics.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Conomor's life is one of conquest and brutality, rising from the disgraced prince of an insignificant backwater to conquering nearly the entirety of the Armorican Pensinsula.
Conomor's legacy is a lasting one. Siding with the Korrigan, disgruntled after being cast out following the Fall of Ys, joined forces with him in the early campaigns, while others sided against him as part of the Alliance of the Brekilien, proving crucial to both campaigns. The Korrigan were shown as a force that could not be ignored, bringing the Fae and the Bediz closer. The Contract of Gargantua was reaffirmed between Tewdr Mawr and the Kriores of the Gargantua Troupe. The Kornikaned of the Garenne Troupe took up permanent residence in Gwened, the first troupe to formally join a Bediz settlement.
Conomor also unleashed the curse of the Garwaf on Alvez, continuing to this day. The Bloodmoon Bleed, not recorded prior to his reign, is also considered to have arisen under his power.
Mental Trauma
The Ere-hud of the Garwaf, and his own insatiable bloodlust drove Conomor into a deep psychosis, making him paranoid, violent and sadistic, taking pleasure from his many murders.
Morality & Philosophy
Conomor had very little interest in philosophy or formal morality, instead living on a "might makes right" mentality for all his life.
Taboos
Conomor lived under the Ere-Hud of the Garwaf, and it is likely that he lived under the same restrictions and boons that affect those with the condition today, although it seems his resistances to some weaknesses, such as silversteel, were stronger than those of his spiritual descendants. Conomor had a minor, but not debilitatingm allergy to cold iron
Conomor seems to have been under a unique ere-hud concerning the forbidden room, flying into a rage and seeming to know when it was opened, even if resealed. The exact nature of the ere-hud is unknown, but probable, based on his strong reactions to the opening of the room.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Conomor was obsessed with becoming the High King of the Bretoned, his life defined by a constant stream of invasions, wars and massacres as he slaughtered his way across the Armorican Peninsula. As he descended into madness, his campaigns became more and more brutal.
Hygiene
Conomor's personal grooming shifted dramatically over the course of his reign, going from a well-groomed nobleman to a disheveled madman as his rage rose and fell. Towards the end of his reign, his disinterest in personal hygiene grew as he devoted himself entirely to bloodshed. All but his own Ambaxtoi, under the ere-hud of the Garwaf as well, avoided him out of fear and he sequestered himself in his keep, only leaving to hunt or lead a raid. In his last days, he grew a long, unkempt beard, tangled with detritus and spotted with matted blood.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Ar Chase Gouez
Conomor made a pact with Hellequin, the Lord of the Hunt, to gain power in the form of the Curse of the Garwaf, and continually served his patron throughout his reign. He was assisted directly by several Ki-Hemolc'h of the Hunt:Conomor's Ambaxtoi
Other Allies
Family Ties
Conomor's father, Jonas Fourtongue, was the head of the household and Lord of Pont-ivi in the Penntiern's youth, a once great warrior and raider settled down into the mundanity of stable rule. The relationship soured, ending in a failed coup and exile of Conomor. When Conomor returned, he slew Jonas and places his head on a spike. He preserved it as a macabre trophy of war, keeping it in a jar of cedar oil in the Forbidden Room.
Conomor took at least five wives during his reign, with most ending in the woman's death. His first wife was his father's second wife, widowed by Conomor's murder. She was forced to marry the Penntiern to secure his control over Poher, kept prisoner until she attempted to escape to Gallia. Conomor poisoned her drink on the eve of her attempted escape and hunted down her conspirators as they attempted to flee. His next wives were hung, burned alive and beaten. His final wife was Princess Tréphine of Gwened, who escaped with her life. Tréphine bore Conomor a son, the only who survived to adolescence, Tremeur. Tremeur was hidden away in a monastery at Rhuys by Gweltas, remaining there for the rest of his days as a monk. Conomor is believed to have fathered dozens of bastard children between his marriages, but, convinced his end would come "from the Blood of Conomor", the source of his Garwaf power, he killed them all, and their mothers.
Religious Views
Conomor had a deep disdain for the Faith, but maintained an amiable relationship with the Church during his rise to power, even conspiring with Macliau, Archperfect of Gwened. However, he also became known, especially during the Kernev Campaign, for the sacking of churches and monasteries, putting the Clergy to sword and flame. Conomor's frenzied Fangpacks also regularly attacked Nemeton and Druids during the late stages of his conquests, when his strategy and political maneuvers devolved into feral carnage.
Conomor was regularly opposed by Gweltas, a cleric of Gwened, who rallied the Faithful to form an army to oppose Conomor. After a minor victory at Gwengamp, Gweltas led an ecclesiastic trial, condemning Conomor in abstentia and excommunicating him.
While Conomor seems to have favoured and even inadvertently championed the Druidic faith, at least compared to the Southern Church, he never made any expressions of devotion or support to any meaningful degree.
Social Aptitude
Conomor began his reign as a confident and charismatic leader, capable of charm and guile. His political maneuvering against Chanao and Waroch, and the complex attack on the well defended cities of the Alliance evidence a cunning tactical mind and skilled politician. Conomor managed to convince the Korrigan of the Ar Goat to join in his campaign and secured the aid, through diplomacy and force, of the noble houses of the same.
But the Penntiern always had a streak of rage, regularly lashing out in fits of occasionally homicidal anger. While this was tempered by marriage or a successful hunt, the rage was ever-present, exacerbated by the ere-hud of the Garwaf. When Tréphine broke the seal of the forbidden room and survived, Conomor's condition worsened, his actions becoming increasingly violent and erratic. The Sacking of Gwened beneath the Bloodmoon was the first and most brutal of an series of frenzied attacks that would define the Kernev Campaign that would lead to Conomor's defeat. By the time of the Battle of Relec, Conomor was avoided by all but his most loyal followers of like-minded beserkers, barely speaking or observing any form of diplomatic decorum.
Hobbies & Pets
Conomor was an active hunter, regularly riding out into the forests, even on campaign, for regular hunts. If he failed to capture a prize, he was known to unleash his hounds on an unlucky bystander to sate his bloodlust and quench his rage.
In battle, Conomor rode astride a Nightmare.
Relationships
Wealth & Financial state
Conomor's conquests led him to amass great wealthy from both tribute and plunder, lifting Poher from a rural backwater to a political powerhouse. Conomor's forces sacked cities from Dol to Kemper, seizing treasuries of kings and clerics. In addition to his terrestrial conquests, Conomor's pirate fleet, the Sea Dogs, ravaged coastlines and shipping of Akitania, Albia and La Manche. The vast majority of the wealth went directly to Conomor and his inner circle. Some was used to pay for mercenaries and defenses, such as the red keep of Kastell Finans and Ker-Ahes, but much went into the vaults Conomor hid around the peninsula, the largest of which is still missing to this day
Current Location
Species
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Ard Rí of the Lethaned, Ri Benn of Dumonia and Kernev, Prince of Poher and Roc'han and Protector of Gwened and the Mor Breizh.
Date of Birth
30 Kler
Life
368 SI
405 SI
37 years old
Circumstances of Death
Conomor was beheaded by Armel Guyon at the Battle of Relec
Birthplace
Pont-Ivi (Ivybridge)
Place of Death
Relec, Barony of Dardoup
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Sex
Male
Gender
Male
Presentation
Masculine
Eyes
Yellow, with a feral intensity.
Hair
Dark bluish-black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Weathered, Wind-Pocked
Height
195 Cm
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Comments