Prince Conrad

Prince Conrad is the crown prince of The Empire in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign. His father, the Emperor, sent him to put down a rebellion, with his old tutor Frederich Barnas at his side. His grandfather is remembered as Conrad the Conqueror, and should he come to the throne he would be the third Conrad.^{1 2}

The heir

By tradition the heir to the Empire governs the city and province of the Marble Seat while the Emperor rules the realm, and once he is old enough to wield a sword he takes command of the Gladio Heredite, the nobly born cavalry of the heir, while his mentor trains him in war. Conrad's guard cavalry, marked with a white eagle, was quartered at the fortress of Riverguard, and his tutor Frederich commanded it.^{3 4 5}

The guests at Riverguard were told that the crown prince held no rule of his own apart from the Emperor's, and that he would expect the respect due to a high-ranking commander rather than heavy court ceremony. His tutor described him as clever and not given to violence, but young and ready to do anything to prove himself to his father; the Emperor had sent the old tutor along so that his son would come home a good ruler.^{6 7}

He is guarded by Alachar, a dragonborn of the Throneguard clan, very large and armoured in blue and white, who looks coldly on strangers. Alachar helped the prince out of his mud-stained travelling armour and checked the bags and pasts of Katherine and Ephorus before they were admitted, allowing Kemp Corvus a single sword.^{8 9 10}

A travelling dwarf merchant on the river had heard that the Emperor's third child, newly born, was a girl. Conrad himself said he had missed his sister's birth because he was on campaign, and wanted to get back to his family quickly.^{11 12}

The inquiry

At Riverguard Kemp offered Conrad his service in the name of House Corvus and argued for talks before force. The prince thought of going to the rebels himself with a guide, but his tutor and guard gently held him back, and he agreed to stay with the army while the company investigated. He first offered Kemp a hundred men; on his tutor's advice the force became thirty. He promised that the service would not go unrewarded.^{2 13 14}

During the siege of Sarpyar the commander of a relieving force reported that, according to a woman wizard, the main enemy host was moving on the place where the heir was, and his tired cavalry rode back at a gallop to protect him. The nobles in the castle were horrified at the thought of what the Emperor would do to the whole province if his heir died.^{15 16 17}

In Tal'gard Frederich and the spy Foltest disagreed over what the prince's first mission should teach him. Frederich did not want him to learn the habit of bloody suppression; Foltest held that the prince would look weak if the rebellion dragged on.^{18 19}

The settlement

As the rebellion broke up, the prince declared that he would hunt down those still under arms with his army, and the last of them fled east. He came to Tal'gard with the legion and largely confirmed the terms Frederich had agreed in his name with the nobles, issuing a decree of pardon and of fair trial for the rebels who had borne arms.^{20 21 22}

Spoiler: The rebel leader's bodyGösterAçık ettiği: Sürgün Günlükleri #24 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

By his decree the body of the rebel leader Rainer Karga was cut apart: the head was set at the entrance of Tal'gard and the limbs hung in other towns with warning signs, left to rot.²³

He praised Katherine's power in battle, Ephorus's usefulness and Kemp's plan, arguing that their show of strength had shrunk the rising to a band of outlaws before full war could break out. He touched Kemp's shoulders with a sword and raised him as Sir Kemp Corvus, a knighthood from his own hand, and said he would write to Kemp's family and hoped to count on their service in future. He then asked the three to ride with him to see the victory through, a request that was in effect an order.^{24 25 26 27}

On the march east, captives judged to be no fighters, such as youths, cooks and camp workers, were pardoned, while those thought to have seen battle were hanged after quick camp trials. When the rebel captain Marcus Boldvar asked that those who had not fought be let go, the prince and his counsellors refused, and Conrad kept Kemp back from the fighting because he valued him.^{28 29}

The battle of Düz Vadi

When a large, disciplined hobgoblin host came out of the trees above both armies, Conrad first ordered his men to make ready, then, after the rebels turned to face the hobgoblins, ordered the legion to intervene to defend the Empire's lands and sent the Gladio Heredite into the charge. Ephorus stayed at his side with his bow as his guard. After the victory Ephorus urged mercy, and Conrad gave no order to pursue the scattering rebels; their deaths, he said, could count as a punishment but not as atonement for the rebellion, and he had it recorded that the rebellion was formally at an end.^{30 31 32 33}

At the war camp he gave parting gifts: to Ephorus, a wooden token of the kind given in the colosseum to those who win their freedom; to Kemp, a ring of purple stone bearing his family's arms; and to Katherine, a telescope from his own collection, a keepsake of the nights when, as a child, he had learned the stars with the chief wizard. He released Frederich from his service, saying that the old tutor would now return to his estate, his castle and his grandchildren.^{34 35 36}