Witcher Dealings

== Overview ==
The Witcher Dealings was a short period involving House Witcher being indirectly manipulated to discredit House Vaude under the pretence that they had plotted to oust Witcher from the duchy of The Opialands. In actuality, the mysterious Unidentified Presence were acting through House Euphratuman to keep House Witcher's secretive habitation of Ivar Grexciss around the time of the Unified Retaliation out of wider knowledge, as this would threaten to destabilise Opian hierarchy permanently. In doing so, House Witcher became inadvertently indebted to the Unidentified Presence, thereby tightening their influence on the workings of The Continent. As a result of the affair, Vern Vaude was murdered at the request of House Witcher so as to contain the revelation that they had provided shelter to such a common enemy years prior.
== Timeline ==
=== Prelude ===
During the Unified Retaliation, House Witcher had taken into their care Ivar Grexciss stragglers after having learned the truth behind their assault of The Continent. Sympathising with them, the Witchers forged a deal with House Vaude to both take in such refugees. The two agreed to not share the information with any others for fear of disgracing their delicate position in Opian hierarchy. Within House Witcher, House Vaude's own involvement and knowledge of House Witcher's habitation of some Ivar Grexciss had faded, with only their own habitation still known, albeit as a tightly-guarded secret.
=== The Rise of Vern Vaude ===
In October of 103 AG, the Lord of Watchkeep, Layan Vaude, died after a short illness. His heir, regarded to view Opian tradition with a sense of flippancy, promptly inherited his father's style and fortress. In-keeping with his unruly reputation, the heir, Vern Vaude, wished to cause chaos to the Opialands, resenting its hierarchy on grounds that it sustained hypocrisies so deep that they undermined any sense of a coherent cultural fabric to be meaningfully attached to the Opialands. It was his knowledge of House Witcher's habitation of the Ivar Grexciss, passed down to him by his father, which sat at the core of this view; the sworn enemy and adversary was shown mercy and saw to their continued survival in spite of this. 
The young Watchkeep lord, now in a position to unfurl a scheme to this end, began by setting out to raise his profile among the other Opian houses. This, he hoped, would lend far more credibility to such a bold charge as the one he was planning to level against House Witcher, at the apex of this hierarchy. Accordingly, he met the foremost Opian lords in banquets and other celebratory events under the initial pretence of introducing his lordship over the Watchkeep. By early 104 AG, such profile-raising activity had raised eyebrows.
=== An Opportunity Sighted ===
While the young Vaude was enchanting the upper echelons of Opian society, the mysterious Unidentified Presence, who by means unknown knew of Opian Ivar Grexciss habitation, had began to conceive of a plan that would see their grip on the politics of the Opialands tighten, specifically by indebting the ruling House Witcher to them, albeit inadvertently and in a distanced manner; their preferred modus operandi. Nielore Euphratuman, known Capital aristocrat, had an undetermined yet assuredly close connection to the presence for some time by the beginning of the 100 AGs. As a result, he was an ideal candidate insofar as he was a trusted, respected, and importantly, newly attractive, trade partner in the eyes of many Opian houses. 
Specifically, House Darengal, an Opian house on the rise and seeking to increase their closeness to Capital aristocrats such as Euphratuman himself, was selected by the presence to be informed by Nielore that Vern Vaude's recent efforts to raise his profile were due to a treasonous desire to usurp House Witcher from the duchy of the kingdom, allowing Vaude to claim the duchy for himself. In addition to this expectation, Nielore also informed House Darengal that the informant who had passed this information to him had gone silent, last known to be around the the territory overseen by the Watchkeep, and recommended a search by Darengal's rangers to ascertain the truth. Such a search revealed a dead body clutching further 'information' about Vaude's plans and pierced with an arrow bearing no less than the insignia of House Vaude. 
Satisfied by the evidence, House Darengal were all but convinced of this entirely fabricated state of affairs. It was never known who played the role of the informant or how they truly came to be killed, however doubtless the presence had planted the individual in such a position in their own way. With the information about a supposed coup at hand, House Darengal approached Coulitte Witcher and informed the shocked Duchess of what he had been told, but very thankful of House Euphratuman for approaching House Darengal about it first so as to not cause too great an upset by informing her first. Witcher's first approach to the situation was to bring forward the commencement of the fourthcoming Royal Gren Championships VII, due to be staged in the Opialands later in the year. This, she hoped, would undermine Vaude's momentum in gaining the sympathy of the other houses. The championships were held as the apprehensious duchess attempted to gauge the impact the event was having on the profile of Vaude. Far from detracting information, Vaude had benefitted slightly from the event, frequenting social events attended by other Opian lords. Realising the necessity of changing tactic, she spent the following 2 months leading up to October considering her options. 
Her advisors pointed her to the extreme option: pursuing the case into the Royal Court, established only 3 years prior. Through initiating a trial, she hoped, the ultimate punishment of execution would be brought to bear on the would-be usurper in Vern Vaude. Little did they know however, that the harshest punishment allowable from the court, life sentence in the dreaded Ensom Citadel prison, had simply not been used thus far in the Court's existence, therefore restricting their expectations of a guilty verdict on charges of treason to be limited to death. This would be significant. To the shock of the Opialands, the trial did commence in November of 104 AG. Vaude, caught off guard, pleaded that he was exposing Ivar Grexciss habitation. The judges of the trial knew this to be a grave accusation, so demanded evidence. Vaude and his defendants could produce none, as he had intended to deliver the revelation to an accommodating audience in the Opian lords. For his scheme, this was both too soon and the wrong setting to reveal the habitation with any credibility, credibility which was shattered when the evidence of the dead informant and the arrow was presented before the court, essentially sealing Vaude's fate in the process. Vaude personally was extremely bewildered, having no recourse to explain in his mind how it could be that House Witcher fabricate such an elaborate story with the aim of discrediting the Watchkeep lord.
The revelation that he knew of their habitation, however, shocked Coulitte Witcher privately. Because she wished to keep this a secret, she dare not correct the record when this was charged or discussed, and was compelled to deny it even though she knew it to be true. For House Witcher, this created a great sense of urgency. When the court unexpectedly sentenced Vaude to life in Ensom Citadel, the first ruling of its kind, Witcher was shocked as she had expected execution. This created a desire to silence the Watchkeep lord in case he knew anything more, even if it meant murdering him before he reached Ensom. Thinking she could rely on Nielore Euphratuman, who she felt enormously indebted towards for averting 2 major crises to House Witcher's continued existence, Nielore supplied the date, time and route of Vaude's journey to Ensom, remaining cunningly vague about asking the duchess what she intended to do with this information, for Nielore knew she wished to have the Watchkeep lord murdered for his knowledge thanks to the presence. 
Worrying, but keen to silence Vaude once and for all, Witcher solicited the services of the seafaring House Hiedlande of Halloran Island to silence him. Her maritime allies agreed to undertake the operation covertly, so that no trace or motive could be identified. To the relief of a nervous Coulitte, House Hiedlande execute the plan flawlessly and halt the transport, killing Vaude in the process during late November of 104 AG. This left Nielore Euphratuman, and by extension, the Unidentified Presence, immensely satisfied, as House Witcher was now indebted to them, with the legitimacy of their rule effectively at the mercy of their wishes, even if Coulitte herself did not realise the extent of their scheme. 
== Impact ==
Beyond immediately indebting House Witcher, the affair troubled Queen of The Continent, Syrell Grenthyx. The Queen was suspicious of the death of Vaude en route to Ensom when he had seemingly paid for his crimes through the worst punishment she had envisaged for the newly founded Royal Court and could not decipher a motive for the clean murder. She suspected more was at play, though she could not tell. In a summary discussion with Rorne Euphratuman, scholar and son of Nielore, the young Euphratuman was nervous and keen to change the subject when she asked of Nielore's involvment, having heard whispers of a closer relationship between House Euphratuman to houses Witcher and Darengal as a result of the dealings. The Queen decided to abandon any hopes of pursuing her queries and keeps them to herself for fear of making unfounded claims against a now hugely popular duchy in House Witcher, enjoying a wave of sympathy from the Opian people. 
Category:Events