Eiglaerion
Eiglaerion of the Blood of the Dragon is one of the more important figures to rise from the shadow of Daero Aevalur in the wake of the dissolution of the Ironborn. He was not only a decorated officer in the Ironborn, but also a student of philosophy and his ideas would shape much of the last half century of the organization's existence, not to mention the impact it would go on to have after the Battle of Deathsmog Mountain. If not for Eiglaerion, the Blood of the Dragon would not have existed, and without them the inner circle of the Blackshields Brigade certainly would not have had the ability to exert control over Acrad.
Career in the Ironborn
Eiglaerion's career began with the foundation of the Ironborn—he is rumored to have even participated in the War of the Iron Dragon, but this is likely exaggeration as the first records provably connected with Eiglaerion date to the early 700s. Certainly though, he has a long history with the organization and must have been well acquainted with Daero Aevalur even before the latter elf's usurpation of the role of Iron King. Eiglaerion is in many ways likened to the younger elf, and in addition to ruthlessly efficient martial prowess honed over centuries, he wielded a deep moral sense.The Valentian Years
During Valentius's control over the Ironborn, Eiglaerion was among those who dissented. He argued that under Valentius, the Ironborn were on the path to becoming nothing so much as legbreakers and thugs paid to brutally enforce the rule of tyrants. When Daero, one of Valentius's own honor guards and attack dogs, betrayed and murdered the dragonborn along with the rest of his honor guard, Eiglaerion was among those who heralded the young elf as the new Iron King.
Custodianship
Eiglaerion was also one of the Custodians who took care of the Ironborn when Daero discreetly abandoned it following the Reavemarch Invasion in order to live a more peaceful and anonymous life in the pine forests of Odrad. The Ironborn continued to be successful during this time, but internal conflicts and external politics threatened its position. The Grand Duchy of Acrad had apparently withdrawn from the Regency Tribunal, and there were still those who believed the Ironborn needed a return to the strongman leadership of Valentius's day. Though Daero would eventually return to the fold in 963 SA 5 as Iron King in a nominal capacity and to mixed reception, the management of the Ironborn as an entity remained in the hands of the Custodians as Daero was often in the field.
Last Months of the Ironborn
Eiglaerion was most vocal among the Custodians concerning the Cult of the Chromatic Dragon. Among them, he pushed hardest for Ironborn to be involved in eradicating cult cells as the political climate grew increasingly tense in the final years of the Dragon Crisis. Some in positions of authority and privilege eventually began to doubt the Ironborn's intentions as a result of these efforts and the fact that the mercenaries maintained strongholds across the Regency states, including the by-then-quite-blatantly-mutinous Grand Duchy of Acrad. This would all soon come to a head. As rumors of Ironborn double agents conducting espionage spread, the Custodians did what they could to quell such talk. However, they soon had to lessen their involvement in courtly affairs as another, much more sinister, threat was growing.The Ironborn were among the first people targeted by the Divine Inquisition, which was established to eradicate the corruption at the core of society. Evidence of the use of blasphemous necromantic rites within the Ironborn's ranks was uncovered by the Inquisition. Although it is still unclear how the short-lived Inquisition obtained this information, it inflamed tensions with the nobles, a fair number of whom had already drifted into various attitudes of suspicion toward the Ironborn since Valentius's time.
In an ironic turn of events, the reason any of the Ironborn survived the ensuing eradication attempts at all was precisely because of their spies. In order to bring Ironborn to justice, the Inquisition urged both nobles and peasants to attack and harass them and drive them from their strongholds. By directing the quick evacuation of the keeps under his supervision, Eiglaerion became one of only two Custodians of the Ironborn to survive the purges. In spite of this, it is estimated that during the resulting mobs and sieges, nearly forty percent of the total personnel of the Ironborn were either captured or killed.
Though Daero was the one to save the Ironborn from further persecution by slaying the Inquisition's leadership and then by personally threatening Grand Duke Cathal Badrick into granting reprieve to the scattered Ironborn, it was now Eiglaerion whom those remaining Ironborn followed. When Daero sought to gather the Ironborn together to campaign across Acrad and rendezvous with Otori's assembled forces before Deathsmog Mountain, he was met with more than resistance by the other surviving custodian, Ranmund Darkhaft, who had declared himself Iron King and was seeking to consolidate his own hold over the remnants, going so far as to order Eiglaerion to acknowledge him, something which the elf never did. After Daero renewed his oath to the Ironborn and defeated Ranmund, the ranks of the Ironborn turned to see what Eiglaerion would do for he certainly had the greater force under his command. For his part, Eiglaerion found common cause with the Iron King, and swore his forces to serve Daero's campaign against the Cult of the Chromatic Dragon. Had he hesitated, or even refused Daero entirely, he might have foiled any chance of decisively defeating the cult.
Eiglaerion was second-in-command of the Ironborn for the campaign, and managed the liberation of Acrad. Though he was not personally present at the Battle of Deathsmog Mountain, he arrived shortly afterward, with a small retinue. There, on at the Ironborn camp, on a low hill at the confluence of the Geyserwash and Caldera rivers, Eiglaerion and the present Ironborn received Daero's proclamation that the organization was henceforth disbanded, that they had saved Eabrath, and could now go in peace.
Blood of the Dragon
Daero could not have known the consequences of his grateful relinquishment of the Ironborn's oaths, but for the now ex-Ironborn, there was nowhere to go. They were outlaws in half the known world and had little to no means to travel to new lands or find legitimate gainful employment. Eiglaerion spent a month in contemplation after Daero's proclamation. As the news filtered out, further and further afield, many of the other ex-Ironborn who had been left scattered across Acrad to defend supply lines and hold ground simply seized what they could, following their local commanders in brigandry as a means of securing their survival in the post-war, post-Inquisition world. Still others managed to gather with the nearly two thousand who had survived Deathsmog Mountain. Now, bereft of official leadership and unity, many looked once more to Eiglaerion.Finally, assembling the ex-Ironborn still loyal to him at the same hill where Daero had dismissed them, Eiglaerion recited a poem he wrote during his meditation titled The Dragon Lies Bleeding. He followed this with a declaration to continue to dwell in the Starklands and forge a new future for himself and all who would follow his example. In this, he laid out a vision which would form the basis for a new way of life for those who wanted it: that all people deserve a place to live and work and belong, and that further they need not be governed by hereditary rulers. The Starklands would henceforth be governed by those they elected to the responsibility. As the Custodians had been chosen to represent the Ironborn in the absence of the Iron King, the people would have to vote for their leaders who then made the decisions of governance on their behalf. This new covenant became known as the Blood of the Dragon, and would go on to distinguish itself from other splinter factions of ex-Ironborn in its idealist spirit, republican values, and close association with the Dragonguard in its early years.
The Iron Circle
Eiglaerion had been elected to lead the Blood of the Dragon unanimously and played a key part in negotiating the confederating Acrad and ending the Warlord era following Otori's Purges. During these negotiations, he pushed for an expansion of the Custodianship model the Blood of the Dragon already used. In this, the territory would be divided into administrative divisions known as provinces which were further divided into prefectures and all ultimately governed by a senate of councilors, the first of whom were nobles and warlords who had been involved in the coalition to confederate. Eiglaerion also pushed for the creation of an elite security and law enforcement division whose function was to investigate criminal activity and corruption in government and crossing provincial. The result was the foundation of the Iron Constables, who have authority to investigate and arrest even councilors of the Iron Circle.
Children
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