It is with great sadness that the first official communication from the County of Derinan to the Council is unfortunate both in timing and in news. Our loyal, though absentminded Thrain Barath Mur has officially passed.
I say officially, because he had been missing for some time. As far as we can tell from the county coroners, he died sometime around the decade of the 470’s AI. We however, did not wish to alert the Empire at large, because as is our County’s tradition, we prefer to keep things within our own Kingdom as to not cause distress to our allies.
The Thrain had left from his winter command of Ft. Quarilel, and was on his way to visit the Kingdom of Dawnstar on a diplomatic envoy to inquire about a trade deal for horses. However, after waiting for almost 2 weeks, we had heard nothing from either he, or our allies to the north. We set out on an exploratory mission to see what we could find out. Having our best military detectives on the case, it still took quite some time to find him.
We found the body of Thrain Barath in the nether, his horse beside him. He was outside the nether line, some 10 meters below the line. He appears to have died from blunt trauma, however we are unsure of the nature of his death, whether he somehow fell through the line or if he was attacked by the foul pigmen there. There were no breaches in the line for as many meters as we could see, and had to construct a scaffolding down to even reach him.
We don’t officially suspect foul play at this time. We do however find it curious that while Barath died from trauma, his horse that lay next to him appears to have died of starvation and not some sort of fall. We will continue our internal investigation until a suitable cause has been found. We also have collected funds within the county to erect a memorial in the nether where his body was found, to serve as a grave and as a reminder that the dangers of our Empire are always closer the minute we lower our guard.
In official news, as Thrain Barath had no heirs, I, Favian II, Barath’s former steward protector of the county, will be taking his position as is county law. I hope that I can fill the void he has left, and that I will make this county proud.
With great sadness, and yet great optimism,
Favian II
_________________ Thrain Di'Derinan Favian II Visual Scribe of Hermertia Minister of Local Affairs and Protector of Derinan, Count of Pyrencia
|