Rulers of Blackmoor

[Havard]

In the case of the Dog Duke and the Bloody Duke, I wonder if they were actually Dukes, or that they were instead Barons. If not, we could take it to mean that Blackmoor was reduced to a Barony after the fiasco with the Bloody Duke, with Vestfold (Earldom) becoming the dominant center of the region.

-Havard

Regardless of who these dukes were, I like that idea a lot. It makes sense that Blackmoor is the "old" capital and Vestfold the new. That shift in power could easily be tied to the growth in size, economy, and importance of Vestfold, while Blackmoor remains an out of the way town.

Thanks! It is possible that the bad reputation Blackmoor gained under the Bloody Duke is what lead to Vestfold becoming an economic center. The fact that the Wizards Cabal uses Vestfold as its base of operations might also have drawn others there. Vestfold is probably at its peak when Ra-All the Wise is promoted to Earl of Vestfold, while the power might swing back to Blackmoor (at least a bit) when Uther moves into the Castle.

Regarding the dating of the Bloody Duke, there's a line in ZG's BM Dungeon (area 11-38) that doesn't quite fit your timeline: "Hundreds of years ago they were imprisoned by the "Bloody Duke"..."

Yeah, its stretching it a bit I guess. 200 years isn't exactly the same as hundreds of years ago, but close. The FFC also states that there was more than one ruler nicknamed the Bloody Duke however, so it could have applied to both Raddan and someone else.

Regardless of what you want to make of that, I'm not really feeling that Raddan qualifies as a duke or Baron, as he never had full control of Blackmoor and seems never to have had Imperial support or claim to peerage title in any case.

It depends on what you consider "Blackmoor". The way I see it, Blackmoor only applies to the whole group of Baronies after Uther's rebellion. Before that Blackmoor is only one Barony among several. Archlis for sure is not under Raddan's control at this time and neither are the demihuman realms, which may in fact never have been part of Thonia.

As to imperial support, I think he may have started out as the Empire's man, but once he got enough power, he was clearly running his own show. I doubt the Empire would have opposed to him going against the Duchy of the Peaks though, or the elves for that matter.

I've some timeline ideas I'll post later.....

I look forward to hearing about your ideas too!

-Havard