Caer Blygoch

**Caer Blygoch** *("Keep of the Red River")* is an old keep where wardens used to be trained in the Manticore Discipline. It is located in the mountains of Hertch in the Kingdom of Bohaem, nestled on an isolated outcrop. Although long-abandoned, some wardens continue to winter there.

## History

### Years of Light & Dark

The keep that would become Caer Blygoch was built during the Years of Light & Dark by an elvish battalion sent from the kingdom of Avarlell; at the time, it was the southernmost fortress of the alders. Its name was derived from the Red River, one of the continent's longest, whose source lay deep below the keep.

During the twilight of the Years, the keep became the home of a powerful elven mage whose experiments saturated the area with magic, making the entire keep a Place of Power.

When the time of elvish dominion came to an end during the Reclamation, the fortress was captured and held by amateran soldiers, who used it as a staging ground for exploration of southern Pydwell.

### Warden Keep

#### Founding

When the Order of Wardens was founded in the Age of Curiosity, Caer Blygoch had long been abandoned but remained saturated with magic, making it a perfect place to train young wardens in the manticore discipline, the warden school of thought that balanced both melee and magical combat. Four wardens who ascribed to such thought journeyed to the keep and established their discipline, which would become the largest of all the warden schools of thought.

#### Growth & Height

The keep's location, nestled in the mountains between Tarv and Bohaem, meant most of its students, and warden work, came from the respective kingdoms. They were welcomed more in Tarv than they were in Bohaem, largely thanks to the influence of the Lŷrian Flame that saw wardens to be blasphemous, and some wardens of Caer Blygoch even became knights of the Tarvan crown.

Wardens of Caer Blygoch were hired to participate in the war against the ancient giants, in which most of Pydwell's nations took part, and were widely commended for their feats. Soon after the end of the war, the Caer Blygoch wardens were approached by the Red Bowman, the last of his race; instead of fighting the wardens, however, the Bowman offered its services as a vanguard, having come to respect the wardens for their triumph over its people, and pledged to stand guard at the keep's front gate until the end of its life. The Red Bowman would become integral to the Trial of Fur when it would try to stop young wardens from returning to the keep, thus acquiring a small amount of revenge with each youngster it slew.

#### Pogrom

By the eighth age, the Order of Wardens had run afoul of most of Pydwell's populace and anti-warden sentiment was rife. Fears of warden conspiracies, while dismissed as stories by most of the ruling class, grew rapidly among the peasantry, resulting in violent protests and, inevitably, pogroms. Just a few months after the griffin discipline at Castle Strzyga was sacked and slaughtered, Caer Blygoch faced its own mob of enraged peasants that breached the walls and committed a massacre; just two of the keep's inhabitants, junior warden Esken St. Raivan and mistress of sorceries Elżbieta of Lŷr, survived.

#### Later Years

The massacre did not mean the end of the wardens, nor an end to the training at Caer Blygoch. Esken and Elżbieta set out to rebuild their order and took in a handful of children, including one from the Glow that had been born premature. The pair trained these youths for the next twenty years; by the end, only four survived: those that would become MacDuff, Hans, Shae and Cullen. When the four finally left Caer Blygoch and Elżbieta succumbed to hallowing, Esken was left at the keep alone, slowly going mad from his own warden enhancements.

In the year 9:0, as north and south waged war, MacDuff returned to the keep with the young Minerva an Kett, a beachwalker, in tow; the girl had been attacked by Ephialtes of the anathema, causing her to perish in a painful loop that would eventually drive her mad. With Esken's help, MacDuff freed the girl of the spell and decided to train her on Caer Blygoch's grounds to prepare her for the battles that were to come.

### Former

#### Wardens

* Cullen
* Hans of Gruber
* Hermoor MacDuff
* Rupt
* Shae

#### Other

* Elżbieta of Lŷr - mistress of sorceries
* Red Bowman