Ealdwine Andraste

Ealdwine Andraste was the Royal Spymaster to King Katayun Abizin IX, approximately 200 years before the Kinilan Revolution. He is best known for seeing the country through the crisis commonly known as the Wine Wars and his extravagant reward for his service, but only among House Andraste itself does anyone know the truth of that story. In truth, Ealdwine engineered the entire incident, start to finish, playing all sides against each other.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Ealdwine Andraste grew up the heir of a middling noble house, but always thought House Andraste deserved to be something more. A cunning manipulator even from an early age, he managed to arrange himself an invitation to the Royal Court when he was still a teenager, and soon found his way into the previous Royal Spymaster's inner circle. By the time that spymaster died, he was the clear heir to the position.
After he became Royal Spymaster, he started forming a sect loyal to him, more so than to King Katayun IX, and began developing his grand scheme. The king was quite fond of wine, holding competitions every few years for the position of Royal Vintner, the official provider of wine to the Royal Court, and each event became an increasingly elaborate festival, with several competing lords competing for the title in each event, with ever more pomp and circumstance to go with their wines. Competition was fierce, and Ealdwine saw an opportunity in that.
Thus, the night before the tasting ceremony in one of these events, he arranged to have several of the submitted wines laced with syrup of ipecac, a foul tasting purgative meant to ruin the taste of the wine with no chance of actually poisoning the king. Things went exactly according to his plan: everyone assumed that someone had attempted to poison the king, and accusations started flying. Some blamed the family that had produce the wine that was being tasted, they deflected, and with Ealdwine's help there were soon publicly known leads implicating every house involved in the event.
Relations among the houses devolved into chaos; shipments were stolen by "bandits" who destroyed the product rather than stealing it, raids were mounted on wineries and distilleries, sabotaging the fermenting vats and distillation equipment used to produce the finest wines and brandies in the land. One house went so far as to try to burn an oak forest, seeking to deprive those who used oaken barrels for aging wine of their preferred supply, but fortunately it was late in the year and the autumn rains came early enough to prevent too much damage. It wasn't until a team of mages from one house destroyed the vineyards of another - magically sapping the life from the vines - that King Katayun IX ordered the army to put a stop to this. When he did so, Ealdwine was right there with all the intelligence reports the army needed to put down this civil war - now known as the Wine Wars - as quickly as possible.
The King was so impressed with his Spymaster's excellent service throughout the crisis that he offered Ealdwine Andraste any reward he desired. Ealdwine said it was his pleasure to serve, and asked that his house be considered as a possible successor to the various vineyards that were confiscated by the army. After all, what wondrous wines might one develop if they had access to the full range of grapes and techniques used by the various houses. The King decided this was an excellent idea, and promptly declared Ealdwine ruler of the 8 finest wineries in Kinilan, as well as the associated vineyards and holdings, which launched House Andraste from a position of moderate obscurity to the single richest house in the land, and declared that henceforth, the Lord of House Andraste shall hold the title of Royal Vintner in perpetuity.