CordwoodTriumverate
The Triumvirs[edit]
The Thanatope, Lord of Cromlech, Master of Magic, Mad Necromancer
The Thanatope was once a wizard of considerable learning and power, renowned for his wisdom as well as his mastery of the arcane arts. An inventor and alchemist as well as a magician, he is generally credited with being the one who crafted the Churming Shroud, the magical barrier that has protected Eschaton from the Emptiness since the days of the Last Morning. When he was subsequently elevated to the status of Triumvir, he helped to solve most of the logistical problems of the isolation caused by the Shroud, producing artificial sunlight from the Canescence Engine, survivable crops such as hadder, and keeping air and heat flowing via elaborate caliducts. As with his fellow triumvirs, however, he eventually grew less interested in public welfare and more concerned with his personal survival and expansion of power. After helping the Philanthropist and Polemarch in the Purge of the Syndicate 200 years ago, he chose the district now known as the Cromlech to be his own Shard.
Fascinated by the magical discoveries that had come from defeating the Deadborn, he shut himself up in his palace and began increasingly dire experiments with necromancy, tephramancy, and other black arts. It was this experimentation that the surviving gods objected to most strongly, and it was the power he gained from it that allowed him and his two triumvir associates to slay them a century ago. Focusing on elevating himself to godhood and total immortality, he has since spiralled into a mad obsession with overcoming the forces of the Emptiness and making the universe over for his own whims. He is now considered the high priest of the Triumverate as well as its primary philosopher, and he demands ritualistic tribute from his minions.
The Polemarch, Lord of the Fastness, Master of War, Brutal Tyrant
The Polemarch was once a great warrior who aided the other two triumvirs in beating back the Deadborn and securing the safety of Eschaton. He was rewarded with a posting as a military officer serving the Syndicate, and he served faithfully in that capacity for a century. Gifted with a brilliant strategic mind but cursed with the same ambition that haunts his fellow triumvirs, he was the main architect of the Purge of the Syndicate and the creation of the Shards. By crushing the power of his political enemies in carefully prepared ambushes and raids, he was able to become the Supreme Commander of the Vergent City military and the primary enforcer of the Triumverate's rule. When he was discontent with the performance of the city's old militia, he created the Order of Capistrates, soldiers who underwent a secret initiation and training regimen that turned them into his fantatical servants.
Armed with the Capistrates, he later set about a miniature campaign of conquest around the borders of the Fastness, his chosen Shard. This resulted in the brief War of the Triumverate, a bloody and bitter struggle with the Thanatope and Philanthropist which he ultimately lost after three months. Control of the Capistrates and the secrets of their order was now shared between the Triumverate rather than resting with him alone, a concession he made after several costly but ultimately futile assassination attempts made against his rivals failed. After stewing over this humiliation for some five decades, the Polemarch helped his former enemies plot out his most recent triumph, the massacre of the few remaining gods still troubling them with divine concerns. He has since turned his attention more closely to the running of affairs in the Fastness, enforcing increasingly draconian measures on its inhabitants and shoring up its defenses. Whether this is the result of foreknowledge of some coming plot or paranoia is currently unknown.
The Philanthropist, Lady of the Rookery, Mistress of Cunning, Corrupted Slavemaster
The Philanthropist was once a citizen of the slums of Eschaton who helped the Polemarch and Thanatope in fighting the Deadborn. When the city was saved and she was suddenly elevated to the rank of triumvir, she turned her attention immediately to trying to help the less fortunate and the incoming flood of refugees. Using her old contacts in the city's criminal underworld, she established a number of guilds and charitable organizations that were intended to provide a secure and welcoming home to every starving immigrant and pauper on the street. While initially successful, the Philanthropist's social experiments grew more elaborate and costly as time went on, forcing her to make more and more concessions to the Syndicate, the merchant houses, and her lawless associates. After an unspecified incident that most suspect to have been a failed assassination attempt, she talked her fellow triumvirs into ridding themselves of their rivals for power in the city. The Purge of the Syndicate followed, but this more public atrocity was accompanied by quieter, subtler maneuverings that ended the political careers and lives of many others - maneuverings orchestrated by a hardened and more ruthless Philanthropist.
In the 200 years since the Purge, the Philanthropist gathered up control of the underworld and many guilds and merchant houses, deciding that she ultimately knew what was best for her people. Using her extensive influence to garner the largest share of the city when picking her Shard, she established the Rookery and began new plans for an open and trade-friendly district. Using inventions loaned to her by the increasingly disinterested Thanatope, she created an industrial center in the Rookery that was powered by elements of still found in Eschaton. She little suspected at the time that the Thanatope had foreseen the health hazards caused by the machinery's pollution and purposefully given her the devices to weaken her power base. A blood disease known as Cachaemia soon ravaged the citizens of the Rookery and caused the frustrated Philanthropist to take drastic steps to prevent its spread and the protests of her subjects. After a campaign of cutthroat efficiency to eliminate the leaders of dissent, she decided ultimately to create a class of slaves and laborers who would work the machines and spare the rest of the Rookery its effects. After some of the more merciful gods objected, she helped her fellow triumvirs in slaying them and turned back to her work. She has since discarded numerous other ideals she once held sacred, enforcing her will in the squalid district through her crooked Capistrate officers, slavemasters, and criminal hirelings.
