Kaedric Rongeur

⚜️ Ser Kaedric Rongeur

“The Iron Tide”
Heir of House Rongeur • Captain of the Corsair Fleet • Marshal of the Iron Coast
Born 591 PR, Leadenport Keep, Tudor Empire
Titles: Lord-Heir of Leadenport, Commander of the Corsair Fleet, Warden-Designate of the Iron Coast
Sigil: A black rat over a golden anchor, crossed by a crimson chain.
Motto: “By Ash We Rise.”
Faith: Nominally Tudor Faith; privately, Drevrena the Shadowed Dream and faint devotion to Zonid.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (with ruthless pragmatism)
Appearance:
Lean, and sea-weathered. Pale olive skin, dark hair streaked silver early, and steel-grey eyes like his father’s. His favoured weapon, a naval sabre named Tidebreaker.

Birth in the Wake of Fire (591–599 PR)

Kaedric was born the same year his father, Merthin, seized the Lower Ports. Leadenport burned with riots and guild feuds; his birth was seen as a “sign the tide had turned.”

Raised in the high tower of Leadenport Keep, Kaedric’s cradle overlooked the harbour where a hundred wrecked ships were rebuilt to serve his father’s fleet. His nursemaids were assassins from the Greybranch line—bastard cousins who swore to raise him in caution, not comfort.

His earliest tutors were alchemists and sailors. At four, he learned how to coil rope faster than he could write his name. At six, he was forced to watch the hanging of a traitor-harbormaster as lesson: “Mercy is for the drowned.”

He grew up on the smell of tar, salt, and secrets. Every lullaby was a tide-chant warning of betrayal.

The Alchemist’s Ward (600–607 PR)

When he turned nine, Kaedric was sent inland to Dinkawal, under the protection of House Vipère—an old pact between Merthin Rongeur and Lord Lucien Vipère IV.
There, among the moor-fog and alchemical gardens, Kaedric studied:

• Alchemy and Anatomy under Magister Orran Maulden (formerly Lucien’s mentor).
• Court Diplomacy from Lady Cyranel Voss Vipère, who called him “the polite plague.”
• Swordsmanship from Ser Noél Vipère, whose venom-blades could kill with a scratch.

It was in Embermoor that Kaedric met Lady Veyra Vipère, his father’s distant cousin and an agent of the Council of Thorns. Veyra saw the boy’s quick mind and colder heart. She whispered:

“Your father rules with fear. You must learn to rule with fascination.”

She became his mentor—and, years later, his secret lover. Their correspondence still continues, written in ciphered ink invisible until warmed over candle smoke.

At fifteen, Kaedric was recalled to Leadenport bearing Vipère refinement and poisoner’s wit. His father looked at him once and said only, “The blood remembers.”

The Iron Coast Wars (608–613 PR)

Kaedric’s first command came early. During the War of Salt and Smoke, he captained the frigate Ashwing, leading three privateer squadrons against Paratel’s guild fleets.

He proved ruthless and inventive:

• Used burn-oil mines disguised as floating debris to ignite enemy harbours.
• Boarded enemy ships under white-flag parley, then detonated concealed powder kegs once aboard.
• Personally slew Admiral Vannor Fex during the Battle of the Black Shoals, earning the epithet “Iron Tide.”

The war ended with Paratel’s fleet destroyed and Kaedric knighted by proxy through the Emperor’s decree—though all knew it was his father’s doing.

When questioned about his methods by the Tudor Council, Kaedric simply replied:

“The sea keeps no record of honour. Only survivors.”

The Corsair Dominion (614–615 PR)

After the war, Merthin entrusted Kaedric with command of the Corsair Fleet, Tudor’s largest private navy—officially sanctioned pirates bound by Rongeur law.

He restructured them into a disciplined force:

• Divided the fleet into Tide Wings (patrol), Storm Wings (raiders), and Anchor Guard (defence).
• Established the Code of Salt—a brutal maritime law where mutiny was punished by drowning in molten lead.
• Created the Leaden Cartographers, sailors-turned-spies who mapped both trade currents and political tides.

Under Kaedric, piracy became statecraft. Within five years, he tripled his father’s income and made Leadenport the beating heart of Tudor’s maritime economy.

But the victories were not without shadow. His crew whispered that Kaedric never aged a day at sea, and that on moonless nights, his reflection lagged behind him like Merthin’s.

Blood, Betrayal, and the Shadow of Vipère (616–620 PR)

Kaedric’s affair with Lady Veyra Vipère deepened into conspiracy. Through her, he accessed the Council of Thorns, where Vipère and Rongeur interests overlapped. Together they sought to control the empire’s narcotic and venom trade routes from Embermoor to Leadenport.

When the Council discovered their liaison, Lucien Vipère did not punish them. Instead, he offered Kaedric a choice—ally with him fully or watch his fleet burn. Kaedric chose alliance.

This decision marked the Silent Compact of 619 PR, joining House Rongeur’s naval dominance with House Vipère’s alchemical monopoly. It was the birth of what scholars call the Shadow-Throne Alliance.

Merthin approved publicly, but privately warned:

“Never forget, son—the vipers bite even when they kiss.”

The warning proved prophetic. In 620 PR, the Vipère emissary Ser Noél vanished aboard Kaedric’s flagship; his body later washed ashore with blackened veins. The alliance held, but the trust did not.

The Dreaming War and the Mirror of Zonid (620 PR – Present)

By 620 PR, Kaedric had inherited command of all Rongeur military holdings while his father turned increasingly to occult studies. To stabilize their rule, Kaedric began courting the Church of Drevrena, sponsoring Dream-Oracles who recorded visions of the sea.

One such oracle described him thus:

“He walks with the mirror’s ghost behind him. One day he will look within—and not see himself.”

In 620 PR (the current year), Kaedric led an expedition known as The Deep Tide—an attempt to locate Ysmera Rongeur’s lost relic, the Mirror of Zonid’s Tide, believed sunken off the Fenraith coast. Only half his ships returned, and every survivor spoke of time folding upon itself and Kaedric standing untouched amid storm and ruin.

Since that voyage, he has become quieter, colder. Some claim he speaks with his reflection before issuing orders, and that the mirror’s influence now guides his decisions.

Character and Reputation

Personality:

• Disciplined Pragmatist – Kaedric values results above appearances; “the tide favours those who move first.”
• Cautiously Devout – believes gods are useful but not sacred; admires Drevrena’s secrecy and Zonid’s inevitability.
• Loyal yet Ambitious – obeys his father outwardly but cultivates his own network of captains and spies.

Public Image:
Among Tudor’s nobles, he is considered a hero of the Iron Coast—a naval prodigy whose victories keep the empire’s coffers full. Among sailors, he is feared; they whisper that his ship’s bell rings by itself before storms.

Legacy and Prophecy

Within House Rongeur, Kaedric is the bridge between the old and new orders: his father’s shadow-empire of ash and his own vision of a maritime dominion that answers to no crown.

Prophets of Drevrena call him “The Second Tide”—the wave that follows the first and sweeps clean what remains.
If Merthin is the Black Anchor that holds Tudor steady, Kaedric is the surge that will one day tear it loose.

Final Reflection

Ser Kaedric Rongeur stands poised to inherit not only the wealth and power of his father, but the curse that shadows their bloodline.
He has seen what the Mirror of Zonid can do—and unlike Merthin, he may not fear it.

Where his father built an empire that endures, Kaedric dreams of one that cannot die, even if it must sink beneath the waves to be reborn.

“Every dynasty is a ship.
My father built it.
I will teach it to sail through time.”
— Kaedric Rongeur, Letters to Veyra Vipère, 620 PR.