Kael Rongeur

⚜️ Kael Rongeur

“The Lord of Smoke and Coin”
Founder of the Emberport Line · Master of the Smuggler Guilds · Alchemist of the Grey Flame

Born 565 PR
Titles: Lord of Emberport, Master of the Red Docks, Keeper of the Ash Vaults
Faith: Drevrena the Shadowed Dream; reverence for Zonid in secret
Sigil (personal): A rat of smoke curling around a silver coin aflame.
Motto: “Gold burns slower than men.”

The Ash Lord’s Second Son (565–580 PR)

Kael was born in Grindton Citadel after the Fire Years that made his father infamous.
Where Ysmera inherited Efram’s intellect and mysticism, Kael inherited his instinct for profit.
He grew up amid soot and forge-smoke, fascinated not by war but by trade — how even ruins could be sold if melted down properly.

When Efram rebuilt the family’s fortunes, Kael was sent to Leadenport to learn the art of commerce. He watched merchants cheat priests, nobles buy confessions, and rats survive every purge.
At fifteen he declared,

“Gold is the only god that always resurrects.”

His father scolded him; Ysmera smiled — she saw in him a different kind of genius.

The Merchant of the Red Docks (580–590 PR)

By his mid-twenties Kael had purchased his first fleet — five ships, all stolen legally.
He specialized in contraband the crown could not openly tax: rare alchemical reagents, blackpowder from Fenraith raiders, and curiosities dredged from drowned temples.

He founded the Guild of the Red Docks, a consortium of merchants, smugglers, and pirates operating under one code: pay the Rat, sail free.
Emberport — then a struggling harbour city on Tudor’s volcanic coast — became his base.
He built Ember Hall, a fortress-manor carved into the cliffside, its vents exhaling smoke night and day.

His success was scandalous: nobles despised his vulgarity, but they all borrowed his coin.

The Alliance of Ash and Venom (591–596 PR)

Seeking legitimacy, Kael courted House Vipère of Embermoor.
He negotiated directly with Keyra Vipère, a cousin of Lucien II, renowned alchemist and widow twice over.
Their arrangement was equal parts marriage and merger: Vipère supplied poison, Rongeur supplied ships.
Together they monopolized Tudor’s trade in alchemical tinctures — curatives and toxins both.

Court poets mocked the union as “when the rat kissed the viper.”
Kael answered by gifting the Emperor a vial of sun-venom and the antidote, both sold at profit.
The Emperor laughed — and signed the charter naming Kael Lord of Emberport.

The Smuggler-King (596–599 PR)

Kael’s fleets expanded across the western sea. He created secret harbours, underwater caches, and a ciphered route map known as the Smoke Ledger, whose copies were burned yearly and rewritten from memory.

Under his command, Emberport became Tudor’s “shadow capital.”

• The Red Docks handled more coin than Leadenport’s royal harbourmaster.
• The Ash Vaults beneath Ember Hall stored contraband for half the empire’s nobles.
• He instituted the Coin-Burning Oath: every captain burned one gold piece before sailing, “so that greed never outweighs loyalty.”

Despite his wealth, Kael despised court ceremony. He appeared at audiences in salt-stained coats, a pipe between his teeth, and out-argued senators with drunken wit.
They called him “The Lord of Smoke and Coin.”

The War of Tithes (599–600 PR)

When the Imperial Treasury demanded back-taxes from the Guild of the Red Docks, Kael refused.
The Empire seized his ships; he answered by blockading his own harbour, preventing any export from leaving Tudor’s west coast.

For six weeks trade froze, and famine threatened the capital.
Rather than risk revolt, the Emperor negotiated. Kael paid half the tithe — in counterfeit coins of his own mint — and was granted autonomy over Emberport.

Legacy of the Ember Line

Kael has one known heir: “The sea breeds strange kin.”

• The Coin-Burning Oath survives as ritual among Leadenport captains.
• The Smoke Ledger inspired the encrypted trade books of the modern Lower Ports.
• His pact with the Vipères endures — now the most powerful shadow-alliance in Tudor.