Gerun Eberict

Gerun Eberict was a Finadd in the Letherii Palace Guard. His flat, scarred face with thin eyebrows was known to virtually every citizen of Letheras.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.126 His signature trait was a whistling sound that came from a gap in his front teeth when he breathed.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.127
Four years before the start of Midnight Tides, Gerun Eberict had interrupted an attempted assassination of King Ezgara Diskanar in the king's private chambers. A knife thrust from one of the assassins' blades had led to the gap in his teeth. For his heroic deed, Gerun was granted "the King's Leave." Thereafter, he was free to break any law and commit any crime he wished, so long as it was not against the royal family. For the next four years, Gerun used his immunity to wage his own personal crusade, murdering at least thirty-one citizens, including two wealthy, highly respected, and politically powerful merchants.
Consequently, he became the most feared man in Letheras and made himself rich in the process. He maintained a list of those who displeased him.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.130
==Gerun's estate==
The Finadd lived in an estate that was a veritable fortress. The estate's grounds were surrounded by a wall of ochre stone twice the height of man and etched with protective wards. At least eight armoured guards patrolled the streets outside the wall's wood and bronze gate. The wall's top was studded with shards of razor-sharp iron.Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.198Midnight Tides, Chapter 10, US SFBC p.326-328
The estate's main house was three stories tall. Broad steps led to the front double doors where four guards were stationed. The first floor windows were all shuttered. The second floor featured balconies with small doors warded against entry. The third floor consisted of three A-frame rooms facing front, their peaked roofs tiled in slate. The remainder of the roof was flat and low walled, and forested with potted plants and stunted trees. Four guards armed with javelins were hidden among the plants at the roof's corners. A single covered walkway nineteen strides in length linked the house to a barracks.
Inside, Eberict had decorated his reception hall with frescos depicting his foiling of the king's assassination. Another chamber was modelled in the fashion of a throne room with an ornate, highbacked chair placed at the head of a long table. Doors throughout were protected by alarmed tripwires and arcane sigils. Eberict's private quarters on one of the upper floors featured an office and a "love-making room". His servants lived on the ground floor in curtained cells along a narrow hallway.Midnight Tides, Chapter 10, US SFBC p.328-332 
==In Midnight Tides==
Gerun Eberict was assigned to accompany the Letherii entourage to the Great Meeting with the Tiste Edur Warlock King, Hannan Mosag. Brys Beddict worried what Eberict would do there to his brother, Hull Beddict, who had turned on his own people. Brys met with the Finadd at The Drownings where Eberict won a large bet on Ublala Pung. Gerun assured Brys that Hull was an old friend and had not made his list. However, Brys was disturbed by the Finadd's probing questions concerning his other brother, Tehol Beddict.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.125-133
Tehol saw the Finadd's interest as a threat and moved to bring him down. Through his own investigations, he knew Eberict had orchestrated the king's assassination attempt precisely to obtain the privilege of the King's Leave, though his accomplices had fought back at the last moment resulting in his disfigurement.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.129 First, Tehol helped the money-lender, Turble, escape with Gerun's winnings.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.136-137Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.195 Then he hired the undead thief, Shurq Elalle, to rob the Eberict estate while Gerun was away at the Great Meeting.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.145-146 During the robbery, Shurq discovered the Finadd had killed his own brother, Harlest Eberict, and had him changed to an undead form with a curse. Thereafter, he used his brother as a guard in his estate's office until Shurq took Harlest away.Midnight Tides, Chapter 10, US SFBC p.328-332
Tehol soon determined that the Finadd had been quietly killing thousands of people since receiving the King's Leave. At least two to three thousand people in the last year and possibly more than seven thousand.Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.435Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.367-368 Gerun and his men killed ten to fifteen people a day, and the bed of the Quillas Canal was piled deep with their bodies.Midnight Tides, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.524Midnight Tides, Chapter 10, US SFBC p.320-321 As far as the investigators of the Rat Catchers' Guild could determine, the Finadd "just likes killing people".Midnight Tides, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.435
When Gerun returned to find his estate plundered, he was outraged and murdered the captain of his own guard.Midnight Tides, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.598-600 He became even more reckless than normal, sending his men to kill rioters in the street and even slaughtering crowds of the king's supporters who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.Midnight Tides, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.618Midnight Tides, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.666-667 Brys was forced to intervene when the Finadd thought to slay the seemingly brain addled Ceda Kuru Qan in an act of self-described mercy.Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.693 When the conquering Edur armies approached Letheras, the Finadd made clear he had no intention of dying for his kingdom.Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.693-694 
Gerun quickly settled on Tehol as the culprit in his estate's theft.Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.693 As the Edur sacked Letheras, Eberict took advantage of Brys' sense of duty to pursue Tehol while the King's Champion guarded the king in the Eternal Domicile. He abandoned his own post, assembled his best killers, and quickly made for Tehol's home. They murdered one of the Shavankrats, Tehol's bodyguards, before crossing paths with the Edur noblewoman Mayen. Gerun and his thugs decided to "enjoy her before killing her", but Mayen took her own life as Gerun grabbed hold of her. Before the Finadd could react, he himself was seized from behind by the half-Tarthenal Unn and slowly beaten to death in revenge for the murder of Urusan. Gerun died with no recognition of his assailant.Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.719-722
==In Reaper's Gale==
After his death, Gerun Eberict's estate remained abandoned with its ownership tied up in a tangle of legal claims. His wealth was similarly in limbo. The estate was visited by the Errant, who moved ghost-like into the ground where existed the remnants of a forgotten seven thousand-year-old temple to Mael underneath the foundations of the main Eberict house. The squat temple had once been surrounded on three sides by running water, but was now largely collapsed and filled with mud and silt. But the altar remained consecrated, allowing the Errant to perform a Magic ritual to enchain the Elder God. The Errant thought it ironic that Eberict had fallen at the hands of a half-Tarthenal--a people with a strong connection to Mael's worship.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 18, US HC p.540-541
Tanal Yathvanar greatly admired Gerun's handiwork at ridding Letheras of thousands of thieves, thugs, and wastrels. The city had fewer beggars, pickpockets, and homeless during Gerun's time. As an aide to Karos Invictad, commander of the Patriotists, and a sadistic murderer himself, Tanal vowed that the Letherii secret police would capture the man's killer one day.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1, US HC p.47 It was later revealed, that Venitt Sathad had identified Gerun's half-blood murderer and sent him away with a chest full of coins--a fact known and kept quiet by the Patriotist Orbyn Truthfinder.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 19, US HC p.577
==Notes and references==
Category:Finadds
Category:Letherii
Category:Males