Sebastiaan Kenven

Sebastiaan Kenven in 1230 AW

**Sebastiaan Kenven**, also known as the **Boss**, is a Crestian former mercenary, fighter, and criminal who acts as the seventeenth and current leader of the Dogs of Whitecrest. He also serves as a major leader within the Crestian Syndicate.

A former mercenary of the Second Army, Kenven was kidnapped and forced to fight to the death, though he came out victorious each time. He subsequently enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks of the Dogs of Whitecrest, challenging the boss at the time, Fisherman, in 1197 AW. Kenven killed Fisherman in the subsequent duel, becoming the new leader of the gang.

He is by far the longest-ruling boss of the Dogs since the death of Joachim Barclove, having ruled over the organisation for a staggering 33 years. Despite many challenges for the title of boss, Kenven has never lost a duel to any of them, even as he ages.

## Biography

### Early Life

Sebastiaan Kenven was born to Frederick Kenven in 1179 AW. His father was a minor officer in one of the various mercenary companies that made up the Crestian Second Army. Subsequently, Sebastiaan began training to become a Second Army mercenary himself, aiming to one day join the elite First Army.

He was enlisted into his father's unit at the age of sixteen, where he entered regular guard duty from 1195 AW onwards. However, he had hoped for more action as his duties involved little more than dealing with petty criminals. He ultimately requested to be transferred to a post closer to the bridges between the Western and Eastern Districts, where criminal activity was higher. However, this move would put a drastic end to his legitimate military career.

### Abduction and Rise to Power

In 1196 AW, Sebastiaan Kenven was ambushed and abducted by members of the Dogs of Whitecrest. He was subsequently smuggled into the Eastern Districts by the Bridgekeepers and imprisoned under the Dog Pit. As was a gruesome tradition, Crestian mercenaries working for the League of Whitecrest would be captured instead of killed and forced to fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the Dogs. The winner could either walk away with their freedom or join the Dogs themselves.

Kenven ended up as a participant in one of these fights, being matched up against fifteen other prisoners. They were granted no weapons and were told by Fisherman, the boss of the Dogs at the time, to beat each other to death with their bare hands. At first, there was doubt and uncertainty, with some mercenaries refusing to fight. However, when the first punch was thrown, all morals were thrown out the window. Kenven would win this fight, powered forward through bloodlust and sheer strength alone.

Bloodied and beaten but alive, Kenven was dragged before Fisherman, who offered him the choice of freedom or membership. Kenven took membership and promised Fisherman that he would one day kill him. Laughing it off, they gave him the nickname "Rooke" after Steven Rooke, the reformer and paragon of the Second Army.

Kenven intended to make good on his promise. He remained undefeated in a battle and rapidly became one of the Dogs' most feared and respected members. In 1197 AW, he challenged Fisherman to a traditional duel to the death for leadership over the Dogs. Reluctant but without a choice, Fisherman accepted. During the duel, Kenven got the upper hand. Injured and desperate, the downed Fisherman pulled out a hidden pistol and shot Kenven in the chest, breaking the rules of the duel. However, the bullet didn't stop Kenven. Instead, it only enraged him further and he subsequently crushed Fisherman's skull under his boot. Henceforth, Kenven was the new boss of the Dogs of Whitecrest.

### Syndicate and Orchestra

Taking the leadership over the Dogs, Kenven sought to modernise the Dogs. In his eyes, their violence wasn't an issue, yet their unwillingness to cooperate with anyone was. When he received an offer by Edmond Heyer, the leader of the Dirtcloaks, to join forces with the Red Serfs and Sons of Innyria, Kenven eagerly accepted, though many Dogs were reluctant.

A hardliner faction under Fylkir Timper broke off and founded the Common District Fighters, sparking a long-time rivalry and gang war between the two groups. While it reduced the number of Dogs, it allowed more internal unity, as many of Kenven's opponents had simply left. He consolidated his power, earning the respect and loyalty of many of his men. The number of Dogs challenging him to duels drastically decreased, and his nickname began to shift from Rooke to Boss.

While Kenven welcomed the cooperation with other gangs, he was a firm opponent to the Great Orchestra joining the Syndicate in 1200 AW, deeming them honourless terrorists and excluding cooperation between the two. While allies with the Orchestra and Floris Gill on paper, Kenven despised them and skirmishes between the Dogs and the Orchestra began to break out with increasing frequency. When Floris Gill's killing of Margaret, Hannah, and Hope Gill sparked the Second Purge of Whitecrest in 1203 AW, Edmond Heyer would be arrested and the Eastern Districts were torn apart. When Sebastiaan's father, still a Second Army captain, was killed by the Orchestra during the Second Purge, he reached the limit of his patience. With the Syndicate disunited and Heyer temporarily out of the picture, nothing was stopping Kenven from launching an all-out attack against the Orchestra and he did do so shortly after, sparking the Dog-Orchestral War.

The Dog-Orchestral war was an isolated conflict at first, but the rest of the Syndicate began to blame the Orchestra too for the Second Purge. They were subsequently booted from the alliance and the Dogs were reinforced by many gangs who had their own bones to pick with Floris Gill. Sebastiaan would find an unlikely ally at this time too, when Rhia Gill, the last living child of Fabian Gill, the Head of the League of Whitecrest, stumbled into the Dog Pit. Though there was some confusion as to her intentions, it became clear that she was on her own revenge-fueled warpath in a hunt for Floris. What resulted was an unlikely alliance between a Crestian gang leader and the daughter of the Syndicate's greatest enemy.

Rhia proved herself ten times over, however, fighting alongside the Dogs and taking out dozens of Orchestra members. With the pressure mounting, the Orchestra ultimately split in two in 1206 AW, with moderate elements under Melody Rowen forming the Redcloaks. While Kenven called for the Redcloaks to be treated as an enemy, too, they ultimately found protection under the Red Serfs. Kenven had to settle for just Floris Gill, who had since fled the Eastern Districts entirely and moved to a hideout in the Western Districts. They were snuffed out by Rhia Gill, who fed their whereabouts back to Kenven. Kenven and his most trusted fighters stormed the position, killing Floris Gill and destroying the Orchestra for good.

Expecting their alliance to be over, Kenven offered Floris' head to Rhia to take it back to her father to claim the massive bounty on his head. However, Rhia ultimately refused, and Floris' body was burnt. Instead of returning to a lavish life in the League's Palace, Rhia raised some eyebrows when she asked to become a Dog. While many officers were unsure as to what to do with the request, Kenven recognised the same fight lust that he had as a young mercenary, and gladly accepted. The "loss" of his final family member would ultimately drive Fabian Gill to suicide.

### The War for Whitecrest and Present Day

With the Orchestra quelled in 1206 AW, the Syndicate entered a more stable period. Herman van Corberg, leader of the Red Serfs, was elected as temporary leader of the alliance until Edmond Heyer could be freed from his imprisonment in Greihill Keep. Under van Corberg, the War for Whitecrest continued slowly, with sabotage and skirmishes being used to soften up the League of Whitecrest's grip over the city. In 1207 AW, Kenven also made peace with the Common District Fighters. While their relations didn't become cordial, at the very least it was non-violent.

By 1214 AW, the League was severely weakened enough for a full-scale attack to be organised. A collection of gangs prepared their forces and attacked in 1215 AW, rapidly capturing the Temple District, Market District, and finally, the Military District which housed Greihill Keep. A coalition of gang leaders, including Sebastiaan Kenven, freed Edmond Heyer, who was reinstated as leader of the Syndicate. The War for Whitecrest would have ended soon after, without foreign interference. Yet, Armin Oligel, the successor to Fabian Gill, enlisted the aid of the Republic of Fühlgart, who deployed their Second Army under Albert Schmied to beat back the city. The Fühlgartian Second Army was a step up from the League's demotivated and unprofessional mercenaries, and the Syndicate was rapidly driven back into the Eastern Districts and forced underground as Schmied's forces occupied the East.

Kenven and his Dogs were one of the main factors for the Fühlgartians abandoning the Eastern Districts in the same fashion as the League had done in 1150 AW. With constant attacks and ambushes, Schmied ordered his forces to retreat across the bridges in 1216 AW. The Eastern Districts would return to Syndicate rule, whereas the Western Districts would fall under Fühlgartian military occupation. Powerless against the might of the Republicans, Heyer told the Syndicate to bide their time, hoping for a Republican defeat in the Great War or some event that would destabilise them.

Kenven took this time to professionalise the Dogs. Besides some irregular skirmishers, most Crestian gangs were highly disorganised, and the Dogs were no exception. Kenven formed the first proper military units with a chain of command and training, creating an organised paramilitary out of the Dogs' ranks. These new Dog units were highly effective compared to their predecessors, and Kenven's reforms were quickly applied by other groups such as the Dirtcloaks and Red Serfs.

The destabilising event that Heyer had hoped for would come in 1227 AW with the death of Jan Luftschwert. The founder of the Republic of Fühlgart and the leader of the Republican alliance was the only thing holding it all together and, without him, the Republic of Fühlgart descended into a second civil war. Ulfric Luftschwert, Jan's brother and successor, recalled the majority of Fühlgart's foreign forces to defend the Republic, including those in Whitecrest. With the League now defenceless, the Syndicate attacked a second time. The League's mercenaries were no match for the new criminal paramilitaries, and by 1228 AW, the League's authority had collapsed. The Syndicate had won the War for Whitecrest.

Present-day, Kenven has gotten a nice share of the spoils of the War for Whitecrest, having expanded his influence across the Old District of Whitecrest. The Dogs make up a majority of the First Army, the Syndicate's attempt at a professional army. Under Kenven, they have become generally less violent, with duels to first blood becoming more common than to the death. Many praise Kenven for modernising the Dogs into a proper paramilitary organisation from a mere gang of savages, and he generally is well-regarded across Whitecrest.

## Career

City-State of Whitecrest

* Mercenary (1195-1196 AW)
* Dogs of Whitecrest
	+ Member (1196-1197 AW)
	+ Boss (1197 AW-)
* Crestian Syndicate
	+ Major Leader (1198 AW-)

## Military Career

* War for Whitecrest
	+ Second Purge of Whitecrest - Defeat
	+ Battle of the Western Districts - Defeat
	+ Battle of the Eastern Districts - Stalemate
	+ Fall of Whitecrest - Victory

## Personality

When one thinks of the leader of a criminal gang of violent fighters, the words "openminded" and "progressive" don't usually come to mind. Yet, Kenven is different from his predecessors. He has spent his whole tenure as boss trying to modernise the Dogs into something greater and trying to achieve a higher standard. Highly meritocratic, he believes that anyone can improve and become great, which reflects in the way he has run the Dogs. For these qualities, many in Whitecrest have come to respect him.

## Relationships

* Rhia Gill - From enemies on papers to the daughter he never had, Rhia is Sebastiaan's greatest friend and ally.
* "Feathers" - A major officer in the Dogs who has supported Sebastiaan for nearly three decades.
* "Dumbass" - A minor officer in the Dogs and Sebastiaan's personal friend and bodyguard.
* Fiona Hijaeli - Sebastiaan's greatest ally within the Syndicate.
* Edmond Heyer - More of a business partner than an ally, though Sebastiaan does respect him.

* Fylkir Timper - Sebastiaan still considers Fylkir Timper a backstabber, despite the current peace between their two gangs.
* Melody Rowen - Sebastiaan considers Rowen a member of the Orchestra that got away, and doesn't care much for her moderate Redcloaks. He'd rather have killed them back in 1206 AW.