Uther's Father

[Havard]

Fant is the Baron. This is actually a somewhat tricky legal question. Fant is baron when he becomes a vampire. He continues to rule as baron afterward and continues to style himself Baron Fant. So, in Fant's eyes Uther is a usurper, even though Uther is legally made baron (presumably by the council of Regents).

Yep. It doesnt seem like there was any Baron of Blackmoor between Fant and Uther. Fant is eventually driven from Castle Blackmoor which is probably vacant for some years before Uther takes over the place.

BTW DOCBM has it that as a young man, Uther was a friend and companion to Fant.

Since Uther most likely is an analogy to Arneson himself, it makes sense that he was a friend of Fant, Svenny etc. Even though he never appeared as a character in the original campaign, Uther was always there in spirit.

-Havard

[Rafael]

Yep. It doesnt seem like there was any Baron of Blackmoor between Fant and Uther. Fant is eventually driven from Castle Blackmoor which is probably vacant for some years before Uther takes over the place.

That's correct. However, don't ask me where I read it.
Uther takes over AFTER the end of the FFC, and a while after the FFC group had returned from Lake Gloomy.

But when exactly... Old Rafe is old.

[Havard]

That's correct. However, don't ask me where I read it.
Uther takes over AFTER the end of the FFC, and a while after the FFC group had returned from Lake Gloomy.

But when exactly... Old Rafe is old.

Aldarron already provided most of these details earlier in the thread.

As per Ross/Zimriel:

998: Fant becomes the vampire known as Lord Fang. He is killed, but returns shortly after this.
1002-1005: Earldom of Vestfold is eliminated. Vestfold remains the center of power in the north, lead by a Council of Regents.
1005: Uther's Father is killed by Skandaharians. Uther becomes the Baron of Blackmoor.


Lord Fang was probably living in the Castle until 1005, although in Blackmoor Town, life seems to have been going on more or less as normal during this time, with the castle probably being simply a place to avoid. Robilar's accounts also refer to Blackmoor Castle as being a 'dark place' in his accounts of the Journey to the City of the Gods.

-Havard

[aldarron]

Alvarez
Alvarez is possibly an Andahar, but maybe not if Ra-All’s promotion to Vestfold meant the entire family moved, as seems likely. Alvarez also does lose his head in a Barbarian raid like Uthers father. But TWC timeline places that in 985 (same year as Uther’s birth) and regardless of timelines Alvarez is pre Fant for sure. The only way around this is to assume that the baron who dies, leading to Uther becoming baron, isn't his biological father, but a step father. Seems a bit too complicated that way.

These days I think the person with the least conflicts is a character mentioned in AiF named Omar the Swordsman - described as a Baron in waiting.

But I wanted to revisit this Alvarez thing because it just seems like too much of a coincidence that Baron Alveraz dies in a Scandaharian raid and Uther's Father dies in a scandaharian raid. I wonder if Arneson wrote that bit with Alvarez in mind. It won't work with the timelines we have now, but it does seem curious.

[Rafael]

FWIW, Alvarez would make sense in the context of Spanish references in Blackmoor: The maternal grandfather of "El Cid" goes by that surname. So, "The Great Svenny" is married to "Ximena" (El Cid's wife) and rides on "Babieca" (El Cid's horse). "Rodrigo Alvarez de Astorga", finally, is the granddad of El Cid.

Not saying that this has any in-game significance: The name was likely borrowed free of any context; the Charlton Heston "Cid" movie was quite popular back in its day, and there were numerous literary treatments of Moorish Spain back in the 1960s and 1970s that Arneson might well have read.

Now, whether Arneson intended to link Uther to the family of the Great Svenny, or whether he wanted to make the Great Svenny and Uther relatives, no idea. - But one could read things this way, for sure, with a few creative liberties.