Ferrel Bree

Ferrel Bree was the Duke of Nord in Varen. His title was largely ceremonial; as a result of the Nordin Rebellion, all ducal business was generally assumed to actually be conducted at the behest of Lanak and his advisors.

History
Ferrel Bree was the son of Duke Anvar Bree and Duchess Qila Bree of the Duchy of Nord. After his father attempted to secede from Varen in the Nordin Rebellion, Nord made an alliance with the City State of Thess, using the Church of Zilchus as an intermediary. As part of this agreement, Ferrel was engaged to Honeysuckle Holly, daughter of a high-ranking church official.

Unfortunately for the Duke, the rebellion ended in failure. In 2930, Nord surrendered. Ferrel's parents were both executed for treason, and Ferrel was installed as Duke. The position was in name only, however; the king and his advisors were the true governing power in Nord.

In 2945, Honeysuckle was smuggled into Nord and married to Ferrel. She bore him a son, but was forced to flee the country several years later after a failed assassination attempt. It was believed that King Lanak Iskarr was behind the attempt on her life.

Though outwardly giving the appearance of meekly accepting his role, Ferrel despised the king and secretly plotted his revenge. Even his wife, with whom he exchanged the occasional coded letter, was not made aware of his plans. Adopting the alias Stormfront (as he described it, "the leading edge of a new storm"), he spent years manipulating various nobles to do his bidding. He enticed them with both promises of wealth and threats of violence, and was not above making good on his threats and having people killed; in his mind, no lengths were too far to achieve his vengeance. None of these nobles knew the full extent of his operation. Among his victims were the family of lawman Drake Roxley, implicating noble Neff Willowrush in the crime. Ferrel hoped that Drake would kill Neff in revenge, removing both a rival and an investigator who could possibly uncover his plans. Instead, Neff was arrested in disgrace and Drake left the country; Ferrel sill considered this an acceptable outcome.

In 2966 he began working with the wizard Elias Bartherin, convincing him to take on the identity of the villainous Black Wizard. For the next three years, Elias sowed chaos throughout Varen under Ferrel's orders in order to weaken Lanak's rule.

His plans came to a conclusion in 2969. Having installed agents throughout Varen who would support him, and knowing that many of the royal guard were secretly loyal to him, Ferrel entered the throne room leading a squadron of mercenaries wearing the armor of the city guard and demanded that the king surrender the throne immediately.

Unfortunately, Ferrel Bree had badly underestimated the king. Lanak briefly feigned obeisance, but instead of handing over the crown he struck Ferrel dead with a bolt of magical lightning.