House Djevak

The Djevaks of Mold Marsh have a sinister reputation – part of this rises from their murky fief and its narcotic foliage, and part of it comes from their deep, almost inborn knowledge of espionage. Their spies are rumored to have infiltrated every Noble House, and their keep is said to house an entire library of blackmail, which is faithfully updated every single day. They have proved useful to their fellow nobles in the past, but everyone fears their velvet fist. Will that fear be enough to clear their way to power?

## House Djevak

An artistic version of House Djevak's sigil.

### Members

Amon Djevak, Tengur Djevak, Liber Djevak, Avram Djevak, Levan Djevak, Iakov Djevak

### Strengths

Espionage, narcotics, chemistry, reanimation.

### Fief

Mold Marsh.

House Djevak controls Mold Marsh through their three vassals, Houses Hassan, Grenling, and Cedwen. Their victory over Zvarak the Conqueror has expanded their territory considerably, while securing them against attack. They rule from the Nascondus, a powerful fortress buried in the toxic muck of the swamp.

## Members

#### Liber Djevak

The Lord of House Djevak is reclusive and paranoid. He rarely leaves the safety of the Nascondus, preferring to have his minions execute his complex plans on his behalf. He is rarely parted from the mysterious mask he discovered during the war with Zvarak, a mask some say gives him the power to control the dead. He was succeeded by his son Levan upon his abrupt death.

#### Avram Djevak

The younger brother of Lord Liber, Avram is outgoing and eloquent where his brother is antisocial and terse. He typically represents House Djevak in foreign matters, acting as a diplomat on his brother's behalf. Near the end of the Great Interregnum, he began a theological moment within Ascensionism emphasizing the blessings of material prosperity that Crom could bring to believers.

#### Levan Djevak

The son of Liber Djevak, who inherited his powerful position upon the abrupt and somewhat mysterious death of Lord Liber. He has continued in his father's footsteps, ruling almost exactly as his father did: allowing his people whatever freedom and luxury they desired, while himself keeping to a strictly spartan lifestyle. Killed in a rebellion by House Hassan.

#### Iakov Djevak

The eldest son of Levan Djevak, who inherited lordship of Mold Marsh upon the death of his father in AR 561.

## History

### Origins

House Djevak was created in 1478 BC by Saint Dorith, one of his last acts before perishing in the Mold Marsh Crusade. As such, the family have been at least publicly devout Ascensionists throughout their history, though the personal religious convictions of many members of the House have been regularly doubted.

### Decline

Though House Djevak was originally a powerful family, the increasing influx of barbarian factions in Mold Marsh forced them to abandon slightly under half of their territory, including Castle Lonepoint, Castle Redan, the Wrekrin expanse, and the whole region of the Lowlands Marsh. Two of Djevak's vassal families, House Edirne and House Temar, were wiped out during this lengthy period of decline, in the years 23 BC and AR 30 respectively.

These losses cost House Djevak a great deal of influence. They were no longer able to retain the large forces of Knights they relied upon in their glory days, and instead began to resort to guerilla warfare and espionage to keep their enemies at bay. Over the next few centuries, Djevak developed a highly advanced, professional spy network. They used blackmail and information brokering to maintain a steady stream of favors from the other Houses, allowing them to maintain the forces they needed to hold on to their remaining territory.

This era of decline came to a hard-fought but abrupt end under the reign of Lord Liber Djevak, who took the seat of rule in AR 490.

### The Lowlands War

In AR 500, House Djevak began to come under increasing attack from the Lowland Mutant Clans. Their initial investigations into this trend revealed that a warlord called Zvarak the Conqueror had begun to unite the Lowland Clans by force, and was preparing to invade Djevak territory.

#### First Lowlands Expedition

To put an end to the mutant attacks, Lord Djevak assembled a force to invade the Lowlands. Hiring Lord Davion Redmond to oversee the expedition, he convinced Houses Kendar and Leibowitz to send some minor forces to his aid, and together their army numbered about fifteen companies in size. This allied force marched to the ruins of Castle Redan, former home of House Temar, and established a small outpost there, before attacking a mutant settlement further into the Lowlands. They learned from the prisoners they captured there that Zvarak's army was much larger than they believed, and that he was currently at war with the last independent mutant faction. Realizing they did not have the forces to challenge the mutants, the allied force retreated and disbanded.

#### Siege of Lonepoint

House Djevak sent spies to the Lowlands, where they discovered that Zvarak was besieging Castle Lonepoint, which housed the apparent descendants of the thought-extinct House Edirne. Djevak began secretly smuggling supplies to House Edirne, hoping that a lengthy siege would wear down Zvarak's army.

#### Second Lowlands Expedition

Convinced that Zvarak's forces were weakened enough to be defeated, House Djevak again called on the other Great Families for aid. Houses Leibowitz and Kendar sent larger armies to their aid this time, and House Redmond also joined the allied forces. The combined army marched into the Lowlands and briefly pursued Zvarak's Horde, only to discover that the force they were pursuing was a diversion. Zvarak had taken the bulk of his forces to Seasedge Keep, the home of House Cedwen.

#### Battle of Seasedge

By the time the allied army arrived at Seasedge, it had fallen to Zvarak. The mutants had lost a large number of troops storming the castle, however, and a concerted deployment of House Leibowitz' and House Djevak's secret weapons weakened and demoralized the defenders. Zvarak agreed to parlay, but attacked the Djevak brothers at the meeting. They escaped with their lives, and launched an all-out assault on the castle. Casualties on both sides were immense, but Djevak deployed a piece of arcane technology that reanimated the dead soldiers. Zvarak's forces attempted to escape by boat, but the Djevaks ignited the Mottled Sea, incinerating the ships and the mutants. Zvarak, however, survived.

#### The Great Betrayal

The coalition that defeated the mutant horde at Seasedge quickly broke apart. Lord Davion Redmond went exploring and ran into the escaped Zvarak near Castle Lonepoint. Zvarak told Lord Redmond of House Djevak's atrocities against the mutants that inspired his resistance, and persuaded Redmond to join his side. Redmond sent word of his decision to Lord Setheus Leibowitz, then his ally and relative by betrothal. Leibowitz had also long distrusted House Djevak, and concocted a plan to destroy them. Lord Redmond declared war openly against Djevak, but Lord Leibowitz continued to pretend to be on Djevak's side, and offered to help... "defend" them from Redmond, planting more units of treacherous troops in the Nascondus. Meanwhile, he dispatched Fraedrik Leibowitz with a larger force to march straight to the Nascondus, break open the Black Library, and conquer Djevak for good.

But the plot to destroy House Djevak proved disastrous for Zvarak, Redmond, and Leibowitz. Zvarak was killed by a Djevak sniper stationed near Castle Lonepoint, as House Edirne had successfully eavesdropped on Redmond and Zvarak and had warned House Djevak. Meanwhile, Redmond's strategy was to target Djevak's vassals, starting with House Hassan at Utor's Tower. However, ever driven by the winds of fickle conscience, Lord Redmond abandoned this attack after Lord Hassan talked him down by denouncing his lack of chivalry in betraying Djevak. Redmond gave up the war and marched home, only to find that House Edirne had seized the opportunity to capture Smelted Keep. Lord Leibowitz spent most of the brief war hovering across Mold Marsh in his Chariot searching for Lord Redmond, so that he could give the signal for the Leibowitz troops embedded in Djevak forces to backstab their supposed comrades. But Hassan had learned of the Leibowitz involvement from Redmond, and promptly warned Djevak, leading Djevak to massacre the treacherous Leibowitz troops before they could execute their scheme. Lord Djevak returned to the Nascondus just in time to intercept Fraedrik's invasion, and Setheus Leibowitz was shot down and captured as he flew in to assist Fraedrik. Complicating things for the Leibowitze even further, Odham Kendar seized the opportunity to march into and occupy Dorith's End, with the compliance of Celvyn Leibowitz. Celvyn, who mistakenly believed both Setheus and Fraedrik to have died in the war, pledged himself as vassal to Lord Kendar.

In deference to his position as High Partaker, Setheus Leibowitz was swiftly released and sent back to Dorith's End, with instructions to give half of House Leibowitz's resources to House Djevak as reparations. But the unexpected Kendar occupation of Dorith's End proved more of an obstacle to House Djevak than they expected.