The Black Duke - Summary

Honestly not sure how to title this.

The Black Duke is one of my favorite D&D creations and easily ties with Saren Kollmer for the character I most explore in detail. I will start with a quick summary of his history in-game, then out-of-game, and then see where I go from there.

In-Game

Mikhail Romnov was born in the Dragon Kingdoms but his family moved to a small farming town in the west of Ispan (now the Free City Region) when he was still young. His father taught him to bow hunt to supplement the family's meager harvest and they made their arrows from a species of black-wooded tree that grew in the forests near them. He joined the militia as an archer as soon as he was of age to escape the bitter, dreary life on their pitiful farm and to secure better pay and food. It was in the militia that Mikhail earned the nickname Blackshaft, for the black wood of his arrows. After skirmishing against incursions from the Westlands and being called up to support the army in the first throes of the rebellion, Mikhail left the militia to seek adventure. His exploits were many but the most important details are that he recovered a soul-drinker sword from a dungeon (though he did not know it at the time), trained as an Order of the Bow Initiate with master archers, accidentally stumbled into Mahuul Maakh (the forest and, amazingly, the city) and befriended the elves, and, through Karla's machinations, came to possess the Black Crown of Horde.

Mikhail slowly attuned to the crown, at first feeling emotional impulses that slowly developed into wordless ideas. The influence of the Crown and the recent rebellion establishing the Free City Region led to much distress. Horde was not yet reborn but his godhood trembled at the deposition of the nobility. Mikhail was subtly influenced by the Crown and Karla to gather the dispossessed mercenaries and lead them north to wage war on the Dragon Kingdoms under the banner of the Black Fist of Horde. The brutal, grinding war left tens of thousands dead and the countryside devastated. Stories abound of the future Black Duke's cruelty, his lack of concern life; it is often said that he would send a thousand men to die with a smile on his face. Devils and the undead replaced his losses as they marched north on the capitol. Mikhail slayed Geldrynonth with the soul-drinking sword and trapped his spirit within. The war ended with the Dragon King dead at the foot of his throne. Mikhail declared that the Dragon Kingdoms were no more and that the ancient king of these lands had returned to take his throne, and Mikhail would serve as his regent. With that, the Dead God was reborn; however, it would take time for even a god to recover from a millennium of death. An ancient high priest of Horde, the last to die after the god's own death, was exhumed and animated to coronate Mikhail as the Black Duke and rebuild Horde's church.

Mikhail kept the servants of the Dragon King who were loyal to the land and the people as part of his government, though many others left to follow the Dragon Prince in exile. He also granted the Dragon Queen clemency and married her. They had one child, a daughter, whom Mikhail sent away from the Duchy as soon as possible to avoid her befalling any of Horde's ill influence. She has grown to become a terrible thorn in her father's side as she mostly knows him as an evil tyrant.

Horde continues to speak to Mikhail through the Crown. His mind is dulled and foggy, and Mikhail quickly realized that, left unchecked, the rebirth of Horde would spell doom for his people. He began to manipulate the god, leading him away from particularly evil plans. As an example, Horde was greatly impressed by the undead legions during the war. They were perfect soldiers: obeying even self-destructive commands; never needing food, water, shelter, or rest; easily replaceable. Horde would have slain the Duchy's entire remaining army to raise as undead if not for the intervention of Mikhail, who convinced him that a living army would serve the god better in the long run. Perhaps the army could be supplemented with existing undead but if all his subjects were so transformed, no further people, no further worship could be had. Horde's clergy and, especially, his lich-priest are suspicious of the Duke but, in keeping with their faith, they must defer to his leadership until they are able to entrap him before Lord Tyrant.

Mikhail relocated the capital to a newly built castle up in the mountains. He had previously discovered a clan of dwarves who had tended to Horde's Tablet since the god's death. The Tablet is a huge stone carved with some of Horde's precepts. Anyone within miles of the Tablet is unable to break these laws. Locating the capital and the Tablet far to the northern mountains would minimize the effects of the Tablet on the populace; to Horde, Mikhail explained the defensive benefits of the mountain stronghold, especially in light of how he had taken the previous capital in the war.

Thus is Mikhail's life, struggling desperately every day to hold back the ambitions of a god who once conquered the world while maintaining his power in his own kingdom and the world at large. He plays up the character of the evil Black Duke as it serves to inspire fear in the weak and makes it easier to manipulate do-gooders. But his every thought is towards the long-suffering people of the Duchy and the well-being of those he would love but must keep beyond arm's length to safeguard. And, at the very least, he has Geldrynonth to talk to. Maybe it was due to the sword's influence but the dragon really does not hold a grudge.

Out of Game

Mikhail was one of my earliest 3e D&D characters and my first attempt at making an archery focused fighter. Sword and Fist had come out and included the Order of the Bow Initiate prestige class, so I built towards that. One of the first adventures I played with Mikhail was Gorgoldand's Gauntlet, an adventure from Dungeon Magazine that included a magic sword that could animate a pile of coins into a coin dragon. Mikhail got the sword and off he went on further adventures, befriending a pseudodragon, taking the Leadership feat for a half-dragon sorcerer companion, eventually recovering the crown and, in my own denouement, founding his Duchy. The idea of his actions leading to the rebirth of Horde were always part of my vision for the character but were not actually part of the game I was playing (someone else's world).

I looked at an old notebook of mine this morning and, while the pages with Mikhail's original character sheet and write-up are missing, near the middle is a page describing Demitri von Rhinestadt as the Dragon King. Based on what I wrote, the Dragon King ruled over the western reaches of Dragonheart Plain, which apparently pre-dated the Duchy. Mikhail was born there and returned to free his people from the Dragon King's cruel rule, establishing the Duchy in the process. Demitri escaped, formed the Fangs of the Wyrm, and sought to increase his power to return to fight the Duchy and the Church of Horde at a future date (it is unclear from what I wrote, but I entertained that Demitri died during the war and was resurrected by the demon dragon A'con Ai'jon, a malevolent archvillain in the world of Trokair). This obviously changed over time with further developments.

Years later, I got involved with play-by-post games (mostly system-less roleplay, not D&D) on a really cool set of message boards that no longer exist. One of the games had you design a kingdom using its own point-based system and I decided to use Mikhail and his Duchy for mine. This is where I invented or added the Tablet of Horde, Shiba dwarves, Asahina dancers, and Blackened Sky Archers (names stolen from Legend of the Five Rings). I never really fleshed out what is written on the Tablet of Horde, just the vagaries that it served Horde's creed.

Ever since then, I have always kept Mikhail and Horde in mind. I love exploring the implications that there is a ruling class that is actually better than the common people; how someone fights against a god to protect his people; how Mikhail maintains all his various identities without losing himself.

On top of all that, Mikhail's daughter, Rose, ended up as one of my Iconic Bards, representing advocacy and social change. Rose was sent from the Duchy to the Free City Region as a young girl. She was devastated at having to leave her father and mother behind but the years wiped away much of the hurt. She attended the Bardic College in Free City Mask and, while there, heard the terrible stories about her father. She felt they could not possibly be true and returned home to the Duchy to speak with Mikhail and clear it up. Instead, she witnessed the massive changes Horde had imposed on the Duchy, its people, and her father, but, reasonably, believed that it was her father's doing. She confronted him, finding no satisfaction in his answers, and was sent away once more. Animated by the same desire to help her people that once drove her father to overthrow the Dragon Kingdoms, Rose threw herself into gathering a resistance movement to the Duchy, spreading word of the Black Duke's misdeeds and seeking to turn away the Duchy's would-be allies. She has led two failed revolts in the Duchy, causing tremendous trouble for Mikhail in his attempts to keep her alive. Horde does not brook insubordination to the rightful nobility, even from the princess. Mikhail has stayed Lord Tyrant's black fist for now, but should Rose return again, she may leave her father no choice.

The Thorns are a very long-standing resistance movement that troubled Horde prior to his death and has been resurrected along with him. Rose (not her real name) is a member and is helping to grow the organization.