Francis Forester

### Relatives

Fearghal Forester (brother), Faustus Forester (nephew) Madeline Forester (wife), the Hyperborean Maiden (lover), Winifred Pembroke (lover), Walter Pembroke (son), Nathan Forester (son), Noemi Forester (daughter), Alphonse Forester (son), the False Hydra (son), Florence Forester (daughter-in-law), Prudence Forester (grand-daughter)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Blue

*“Why do the survivors remain anonymous—as if cursed—while the dead are revered? Why do we cling to what we lose while we ignore what we still hold?”*

-Forester

## History

One of many men psychically enslaved to the First Lord, Francis Forestier lived as a soldier in the Final Empire, scouting and hunting deep behind enemy lines. Hurtled into the past, he turned his blade against bandits and monsters in the forests near the city of Arendur, taming the land and rendering it fit for human habitation. He made a covenant with the fey, mastering the mists and creating way-stones through which he could see and travel, the better to protect the settlers who flocked to his banner. With the elves he made a treaty, vowing to come to their aid in time of need and accepting from them a great bow that harnessed the power of the wind. Now known only as Forester, he was elected the mayor of a town that sprung up in his lands. The town would soon come to bear his name, and grew to become a thriving community of farmers, fishermen, and artisans. After neighboring Arendur lost the Arendur-Ragnarok War, Forester would step in to assist the survivors, making an alliance with the them and exacting a promise of aid from the Illuminated on a future day.

After the return of Tolumvire of Arendur, Forester would be summoned to the city and asked to take the position of Minister of Law. The Emperor knew Forester by reputation, respecting him from afar, but unfortunately for him, Forester knew Tolumvire by reputation as well. Nonetheless, Forester hesitantly accepted the title, but refused to leave his town. This saved his life when Arendur finally met its end, for he and his people were safe, and far away. Troublingly, Forester was presented with the Will and Testament of Tolumvire, which named him his successor as Lord of Arendur. Forester knew that the supposed honor was a poison pill, a lordship over a ruined city and a damned people, the sort of thing that would bring him nothing but enemies. He would hide the Will away in a locked box, but even so, he would remain haunted to his dying day about the legacy that might have been his.

Among the first people that Forester would meet following the destruction of Arendur was a young Flavius Luteus Scaevola, who came to Forester's Town to learn what had happened to his home. Scaevola stayed in the town for a period of time before moving on, and the two men struck up a friendship which would persist for many years.

Not long after, Forester would come across Empress Jang, wandering and adrift after the destruction of Oranor. There, he would briefly find herself at the center of a heated debate over the future of the Empire of Arendur. Forester had been named as Tolumvire's successor, the Lord of Arendur, and there were some, namely among the Forester Town Rangers, who thought that Forester should claim his title. Others, mostly among surviving military officers, were adamant that the delirious and inconsolable Jang was the rightful Empress of Arendur, and should be elevated as a symbol of national unity. Eventually, a compromise plan was floated, in which Forester would divorce his wife Madeline and marry Jang, crowning himself Emperor of Arendur and declaring Forester's Town the capital of a new empire. Forester furiously quashed the plan, dismissing the notion as ridiculous. Arendur was *gone*. He was the lord of nothing. There would be no more foolish schemes. Jang was unwell, in no shape to rule anything, and in danger from those who might seek to use her as a pawn. Forester managed to get into contact with the Illuminated, and asked them to convey Jang to the city of Ragnarok, she she would live in safe, comfortable exile. Grand Master Jotunheim agreed, and posted the Master of the Word, Voidwatcher, to watch over her.

## Personality

Forester always remained distant from the center of Arendurian culture and power. Independent-minded and ethically sound, he saw himself as responsible first and foremost to the people of Forester's Town. When asked to serve in Tolumvire's government, he accepted out of a sense of duty, but grew disgusted with the actions of those in power. He rarely attended meetings, and did nothing to help Tolumvire's plans. He was respected by all, even Tolumvire, who despite their differences considered Forester to be the worthiest successor to lead the Arendurian survivors.

There was an extent, however, to which Forester was a profound hypocrite. Deeply self-righteous, he believed to an extent that the rules did not apply to him, so to speak, and that he knew what was best for others. He never voiced these opinions, but discreetly betrayed his own cherished principles from time to time. As he grew older, and his ethical veneer began to crack, he would display a surprising intolerance to the judgement of others. Worse still, he was unable to reconcile his imperfections with his own self-image, and in time found himself an obsessive, deranged old man, lost in his delusions.

Forester believed he could have stopped the War of the Philosopher-Kings had be fought harder to take his inheritance as Lord of Arendur. Forester still keeps a copy of the Last Will and Testament of Tolumvire of Arendur, and wonders whether he was in fact the true Philosopher-King who abdicated his duty. Was he right to judge Tolumvire? Could he in fact have stopped the carnage?

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

Lord Forester tried to distance himself and his people from the war effort, making clear that he did not consider himself an Arendurian. Nonetheless, Emperor Brennen of the Final Empire knew of the pact between Forester and the Illuminated. Wishing to fight his foes in open battle and leary of laying siege to the Tower, his coalition of the Final Empire, Guilddon, and the Land of the Fey chose Forester's Town as their target to attack. Forester worked closely with Jotunheim, Doctor Curtin, and the summoned Tolumvire to beat back the defenders, although he proved reluctant to commit his troops to a war he did not approve of. As soon as he had the opportunity, he would oversee the evacuation of Forester's Town, only returning to rebuild when the battle had finished.

Though he tried to avoid any associations with the Arendurians, the destruction of the Northern Final Empire would draw Forester forth. At the request of his old friend, Flavius Luteus Scaevola, Forester and his close friend Reese Wilmarth would accompany him north to explore the ruins of the Northern Dome. Though they would stop just short of the sunken city of Thule, they would bring back the seeds of their ruin with them. Forester would meet a degenerate Hyperborean woman originally imprisoned by Brennen. He stayed in the north after the rest of the expedition returned. Two years later Forester returned with a trove of strange artifacts and a child, Alphonse Forester, who he claims to have sired with a daughter of an ice fisherman. He also had a strange thing in a puzzle box. It is in fact his other son, the False Hydra who he once said bore a stronger resemblance to his mother than Alphonse ever did.

## After the War

As the war drew to a close, Forester began to grow sympathetic to the Carcosai, having long ago come to the conclusion that the mages and Philosopher-Kings had brought nothing but grief to the world. He refrained from making any public statements on the matter, for morale was low in New Arendur, and moreover, having once been Tolumvire's Minister of Law, he did not feel it would be ethical to denounce the regime in which he had once served.

As time passed Lord Forester grew increasingly obsessed with his collection of artifacts. He become deranged and started to talk incessantly about an underground city in the north filled with strange wonders. One day he snapped and killed his children Nathan and Noemi, but his youngest son Alphonse shot his father with his own pistol. After the closed casket funerals, Forester’s collection was given to the college to be studied further. This included the puzzle box with the False Hydra. Some of the more mundane items were willed to Walter Pembroke, which inspired his interest in antiques.