High Lord Gehrman Dunwall

Gehrman Dunwall descended from a prominent family of Everhold, one of the strongest towns in the Coalition of Free Cities. Though his family were sworn to House Solomour, they still maintained great influence in the city as a whole, often being trusted to accomplish important tasks in Lord Solomour's stead. Gehrman was exemplary in his work at maintaining alliances and trade routes, quelling bandit uprisings, and fostering morale in the common folk. No matter the task, regardless of if he believed it useful or right, he would do the job thoroughly. As a result, when time came to elect a new High Lord, the House of Dunwall was called upon to take up the responsibility. Now with nobody over him to tell him what to do, Gehrman could use his singular drive and determination to push the Coalition towards his idea of greatness. At first, his changes seemed fair. He intended to create a standardized pantheon for the Coalition with the Pyrelord at zenith of worship, and though this had been commonly practiced among a majority of the western coastal cities for centuries, the further east a person lived the more important the Stormlord became. Voletaria had long abstained from adopting the legal worship of any divines other than their patron deity up until this point, and although the ruling passed with a majority vote on the Council, the young King Adam Eberhardt made clear that his people would not take kindly to such a ruling and he would not enforce it. This act began the deep hatred between Gehrman and Adam that would eventually rage out of control, becoming what is now known as the Turtle Rebellion.   For years, Gehrman passed law after law that chipped away at the cultural identity of each city-state within the Coalition, and Adam ignored them. All members of the Council were to relinquish royal titles of King or Queen, instead taking up the lesser titles of Lord and Lady; the Eberhardts refused, citing their divine mandate to remain staunch Kings of the Mountains. When Gehrman signed the first Snow-Rose Treaty and agreed to use standardized Imperial Drakes as the Coalition's official currency, Voletaria continued to stamp Voletarian Coins out of platinum. Finally, Gehrman began to enforce the more radical ideas of Pyrelord worship, taking the beliefs of sun cultists and codifying them into law. "Sexual Perversion", or all sexual or romantic activities not for the express purpose of procreation were to be banned. For a people like Voletaria, such a practice was unheard of. Khora himself often appeared in many different forms taking on different genders over the centuries, even having a specific cult that worshiped his feminine alter-self Kaliana, and this fluid freedom was integral to much of Voletarian society. Despite this, Gehrman pushed ahead anyway, pulling every favor he could to get it passed through the council. Once he had succeeded, he jailed Adam Eberhardt for violating the laws of sexual perversion with Adam's squire and executed the young man. In his grief, Adam managed to escape his bindings and fled to his homeland where he would begin sewing the seeds of Gehrman's downfall.   With Voletaria off the council, Gehrman once more had a majority vote for whatever laws he deemed important to pass. The worst of them all was a trade alliance with Andros, and the welcoming of the Androsi Slave Trade to Arith's coasts. This practice continued on for many years until a folk hero began to rise up: the Rebel Princess Aristea. Wielding her Chainbreaker Blade and leading an army of freedmen, she began liberating cities one by one. First fell Calyra, then Qempool, then Remnant; none could hold the line against the freedmen at their gates while their own slave population rose up from within. Finally, Adam Eberhardt returned from Voletaria with legions at his back, joining up with the princess and turning his gaze to Gehrman's home of Everhold.   As the Princess Aristea led her men through the streets, Adam and Gehrman dueled in the throne room of the Everhold itself. Adam's Sunspear crackled with energy as he poured his fury and grief into every strike, his raw power only held at bay by the High Lord's decades of combat experience. Eventually, however, the patriarch of House Dunwall fell, and his reign ended in ruin. Adam threw his body from the ramparts of the castle to the city below and cursed the House of Dunwall, sending the living members into exile for the rest of time.