The Sad Story of Grenville Kale

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Amlost
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The Sad Story of Grenville Kale

Postby Amlost » Sat Feb 27, 2016 3:18 pm

Grenville Kale was an Avestite Missionary who was born on the shores of the Sea of Dissolution on Pyre. He entered into the local priesthood at a young age. While initially shy and reserved he was noticed by his peers as a quick student and powerful speaker. He was recruited into the missionary core of the order at age 17. After a short stint on Pyre, a year tour in the slums of Aragon, and a visit to an Istakhr monastery he was assigned to the two person mission house near Fort Vladamir. Locals had long treated the Vesti mission as an oddity, few nomads seemed drawn to the stringent beliefs and fervently anti-tech views. (Odd as I see their worship and lifestyle most similar to the inhabitants of Prye. I digress….)
After six years working in the small mission he deemed had deemed his mission a failure. Not only had the Nomads been few to show interest in his teachings, there was sudden unrest amongst them. The Governor and Generals attempted to diffuse the situation with diplomacy but a well armed insurgency against the Orthodox Governor - Bishop Yves Arthe took hold. Within a week Fort Vladamir was besieged.

Grenville fell back with over a hundred villagers to the Governors Plateau. When those walls breached they fell back to the Abijah Mission. It was here that Grenville was at his finest. He stood at the missions doors with torch and metal staff in hand beating back the oncoming nomad army allowing his fellow villagers time to enter the sanctuary. Soon the Pyre raised pastor became the healer and minister to the scared and confined hostages. In the steamy hopelessly hot confines of the mission he was the perpetual wall of faith.

As the siege ended its first week, the guns of Fort Vladamir blazing away in the distance, the skys filled with the first signs of air wings from Necropolis. With a sudden furor of the attack was accompanied by bombings all around them. Grenville noticed a Charioteer who had taken refuge trying to talk to the oncoming pilots warning them of hostages on the Plateau. Grenville quickly grabbed the white trestles hanging behind the church alter and climbed onto the roof. In a frantic attempt to keep his group of survivors safe he scurried about the tile roof securing white flags amid bullets and bombs. For the next two days he and the Charioteer, Ozwald Baatar, traded jobs keeping the white flags waving and the radio alive.

When the siege broke and the Fort secured, the refugees evacuated to Necropolis. The survivors of the siege sung long and far to the praises of Grenville Kale. Not yet 30 years old the young priest was overwhelmed with his newfound celebrity. He was invited to every event held in Necropolis by noble, guildsman, and churchman alike.

Unfortunately his celebrity came at a cost. He was quickly dragged into the politics and intrigue of the cosmopolitan (compared to his previous experiences) intrigues of Necropolis. Rumor, narcotics, secrets, and social pressures surrounded him. He attempted more than once to retreat to a monastery, but his popularity always dragged him quickly back to the city. He was a celebrity nightmare; the one everyone wanted to change but couldn’t. His philosophy’s on lifestyle and the nature of the Pancreator invaded every conversation. His slips and slides into the darker politics and high lifestyle were usually followed by bouts of preaching and penance.

On Midyears day of 4982 something suddenly snapped. The Midyear Gala at the Rohrbach Citadel was a long excruciatingly hot affair. Grenville was caught in yet another heated philosophical debate and in the company of other nobles, guilders, and churchman ending in the dawn hours. At midday screams were heard in and around the markets and shops surrounding the Lokhienne Brewery. Grenville had armed himself with a flame-gun (later determined to have been borrowed from a visiting inquisitor at the Avestite Sanctuary where he lived) and the metal pipe/staff he had used during the siege. He was ranting on the evils of celebration, torching local stores, and throwing flaming bottles of alcohol at the southern storehouses of the brewery.

By the time Sherriff Joez Palzer eventually managed to subdue Grenville the Lokhienne brewery fire was well underway. Most of the storehouses roofs where made of hatch; And the fire spread quickly. Hundreds assisted in tearing the roofing off of surrounding buildings creating a fire break. Thousands of citizens formed bucket lines to contain the blaze. With the arrival of forces from the Trinitine Towers the fire eventually was subdued.

Five people were killed. Twenty two people were injured. The fire had wiped out the vast stores of the brewery. Over two years of goods had burned, turning the town dry overnight. Needless to say the atmosphere was charged and the fate of Grenville Kale was a point of great contention in the city. Pendogues and Almaltheans were called in to examine the ranting prisoner. Reeve counselors lined up to defend both sides of the trial. The buildup to the trial was nearly endless and the Town Criers made the most of the events; drowning out the slight lull in the Emperor Wars.

The trail was short, Grenville plead guilty while purporting to have no memory of the episode. (He maintained his lack of memory the rest of his life.) He did not plead for reserved treatment and only asked for a few days to make right with the Pancreator before his execution. Outraged survivors of the Siege immediately called for the Governors pardon. Clan Lokhienne, the majority of the guilds, and the majority of the Councilors called for his immediate execution. For two months the various parties fought, but the Governor General ruled on imprisonment for forty years.

In the end the Governor General sentenced Deacon Kale to imprisonment in the Windsor Tower. His only other company, the deposed Count Jorge Torenson, proved insufferable often demanding the removal of the low-born Deacon from “his palace.” The regular heckling from the deposed Count and his small entourage became worse over time as the Counts condition became worse and health declined. After 4990 the Count became increasingly irrational, violently at times, insisting that he was a contender for the Emperors throne. When Grenville requested to act as the “mad Count’s” confessor he was initially accepted; but rebuked and thrown out within month. The Count eventually insisted on no less than the Bishop’s attendance as his confessor.

Count Jorge eventually died in 4996 resulting in decreased staffing and a quite atmosphere developing at the Windsor Tower. It appeared, for about two years, that the tortured Deacon Grenville was to finally have his long sought peace. As is too often the case it was not to be.

Soon after the Counts death a report surfaced stating the average cost of maintaining a presence in the towers cost the Empire over a 1,000 FB annually. The Town Criers Guild jumped on the story, such a significant sum enraged a large part of the population. (Most of Nowhere live on less than 50 FB a year.) Within days the Governor feared potential riots. The Governor General implemented a meeting of the Councilors aimed at quenching discontent and investigate other options. The council eventually decided it was to difficult to maintain constant occupation of the Tower in force. Grenville, the last prisoner, was to be moved to the Trinitine Towers.

Imprisoned in the Lord Mayors tower he became increasingly nervous and paranoid. He requested numerous changes in cells fearing for his life. The view of the city below unnerved the Deacon unreasonably. Grenville disappeared from his cell during the New Year celebrations of 4997-8; the subsequent search turned over no clues of his ware bouts.

In May of 4998 a caretaker at the Windsor tower discovered the Grenville’s body sprawled on the floor of the towers chapel. Investigations after the fact determined that he’d been run thru the heart by a wireblade. It was eventually determined that he had returned to his old cells in the tower after his escape the previous winter. He had successfully avoided routine checks for months. Given the nature of his murder it is believed he knew and trusted his killer. .

- As written by Lohl ma Lyovell; Priest of the Ven Lohji, Survivor of the Abijah Mission Siege; indebted and friend to Deacon Grenville Kale.

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