Mirrortail Royal Family

Argentfort Family Crest, created by Bee

The Argentfort family are a lineage of humans who rule the large city-state of Mirrortail on the Isle of Glass as a monarchy. Whilst Mirrortail is a relatively new city compared to many of the others in Caldera, the family line of Argentfort has origins and ties to the city of Riven and can be traced back to Riven's earliest settlers.

The family crest of the Argentfort family is a golden double-headed phoenix holding two rapier swords in its talons.

At least one family heirloom exists, in the form of a rapier sword carried by Prince Vanden.

## **Known Members of the Argentfort Family**

### Immediate Family Members

* King Gerrit du Argentfort
* The Queen (first name unknown)
* Crown Prince Theun II du Argentfort
* Prince Mattijn du Argentfort
* Prince Vanden du Argentfort

### Other Family Members

* Lord Dorian Marques II of Riven, a distant cousin removed from the situation in Mirrortail. Vanden uses Lord Marques' name as a disguise when arriving at Shadebourne, so that he may still use his family signet ring as leverage.

## **Known Associations**

### Associated People

* Captain Jocelyn D'Fabron, commander of the Mirrortail Royal Guard
* A man known as Lockwood, of unknown rank or title

### Associated Factions

* The East Caldera Company, a conglomerate company of privateers and trade with a unique placement in Caldera, owned by the Argentfort family.
* Wardens of Caldera, a collective of nominated wardens from across the continent charged with protecting it from the threat of war, of which Prince Vanden is the elected Warden of the Eastern Shores.
* Mirrortail Royal Guard, charged with protecting the royal family and their home at the Palace of Mirrortail, known as the Silver Fortress.
* Mirrortail Navy, a separate but cooperative naval force to the privateers of the East Caldera Company, charged with protecting the Isle of Glass, of which Aerenthias Van Wymarck was once an employee.

### Political Allies

* Arakhis
* Farrelstadt
* Lakeside

### Enemies

* The Weeping Eye, a mercenary company out of the mountain city of Shadebourne who were contracted to attack the palace of Mirrortail four months prior to the start of the series.

## **In the Series**

At the start of the series when the party is still in Mirrortail, it is noted on a public noticeboard that a member of the royal family is missing.

Unbeknownst to the other members of the party, they are travelling with this missing person, as it is later revealed that the masked mercenary Renard is actually Prince Vanden, the youngest member of the Argentfort family. Later when Vanden is reunited with Captain Jocelyn, they discover the truth of his identity, and the story of how he came to be with them on the road.

Four months prior to the series starting, a mercenary company called the Weeping Eye were contracted to attack the palace of Mirrortail by an unknown party. By distracting the royal guard with a separate attack on the front gates of the palace, the Weeping Eye were able to infiltrate over the cliffside and quickly eliminate a number of the people inside the building.

Vanden and Jocelyn provided conflicting accounts of the whereabouts of the other members of the royal family, but were able to later confirm that among those killed were Vanden's mother, the Queen, who had her neck 'snapped like a twig' by Kahnym Whitehide, and his father King Gerrit, who was fed to the Weeping Eye's hyena scouts, transforming them into gnolls.

The whereabouts of Prince Theun are still unknown. Prince Mattijn was on a political trip to Arakhis at the time with one-third of the Royal Guard, but returned to Mirrortail after also being attacked and injured by the Weeping Eye at sea.

Finding Vanden entirely uninjured on his return - and the sole survivor of the family in the palace - Mattijn ordered the surviving members of the guard to arrest him, accusing him of orchestrating the attack and imprisoning him in the dungeons beneath the palace for crimes of high treason.

Vanden's whereabouts were kept secret, as was the truth about the attack. Mirrortail remained The palace was closed to visitors, and all rumours silenced immediately. As far as Jocelyn had been made aware the King, Queen and Crown Prince were all recovering from serious injuries in their chambers. Mattijn was occasionally seen about the castle in a state of grief in the following months, recovering from his own injury and refusing to give an audience to anyone.

Vanden remained in the dungeons for three months, sentenced to immurement for his apparent crimes, until his escape was aided by several members of the household staff a month before the start of the series, where he headed to Farrelstadt in search of answers about who was behind the attack. In order to not raise awareness of what had happened, posters around Mirrortail stated that Vanden was 'missing', rather than 'wanted'.

Captain Jocelyn sustained serious injuries during the attack but set off from the palace without permission in search of Vanden as soon as she was told he was missing. The two were reunited in Lakeside by coincidence, with the aid of the privateer Aerenthias.

After facing a third of the Weeping Eye's forces in a ruined abbey north of Lakeside and learning about the King's dreadful fate, Jocelyn and Vanden parted ways once again. Vanden headed towards Shadebourne to find the "Charnel House", headquarters of the Weeping Eye, and the truth about who organised the attack. Jocelyn headed back towards Mirrortail with instructions to tell Mattijn that she had found him dead, with Vanden's heirloom sword in her possession as proof.

In Shadebourne, Vanden and the party began a tactical espionage on the Charnel House, and after several days of gathering information, put together a plan to infiltrate and retrieve the contract taken out against the Argentfort family. Although they were caught and drawn into a fight, they ultimately retrieved the contract and discovered the identity of the person who'd ordered the attack: Mattijn du Argentfort. His reasons remain unknown.