Grand Chieftain: Herrenval Ironmuscle
“The White Tyrant”
Herrenval Ironmuscle was a former Grand Chieftain of the Minotaur, ruling the Minotaur lands between the years 405 to 475. Herrenval took his position at age 28 after several years of rallying what remained of the then disorganised Tribunal.
His rule was a long and brutal one. Fraught with violence. The early years of his seat as the grand chieftain were spent bringing the region back under control after it had fallen into chaos and collapse during the White Plague.
This was primarily achieved through the use of force, but also through diplomatic and trade negotiation with clans and tribes through use of human and elf women. His treatment of women, and his tyrannical grip on the region eventually boiled over tensions and sparked The Great Clan War, where he and his loyalist faction were defeated. He died age 98 at The Battle of the Citadel, killed by his Rival Dalmuth Stonegut.
Overview
Herrenval was described as an immensely terrifying presence, despite his overall cold and calculated demeanor. Often attributed to his immense size, the bull standing at around 8‘1. He had an ashy grey hide, and tall, straight pointed horns. He was known for wearing full body plated armour, accented with bone whites when he was in the field, and favouring doublets and cloaks when he was not. He was very rarely seen naked.
He is remembered for a lack of emotionality and general swift cruelty in situations of violence: Described as being distant and devoid of emotion, generally calculated but known to whiplash suddenly into adoring, and showering his supporters with praise and compliment. Herrenval would frequently be described as emotionally unstable because of this, despite how viciously he hated the notion.
He is described as having a disposition that showed an immense want for power and order. He would describe the Minotaur lands as lacking in strength and discipline and often blamed the collapse from the white plague on “easy times creating weak bulls.” Many critics of his efforts at rebuilding noted his attempts to emulate the style of southern despots and conservative southern cultural norms. Particularly in regards to Cows, and Women’s roles in society and family, and in regards to sexuality and family building law. The same critics believe this was an attempt to try reshape traditionally open and liberal bovine cultural norms into something that could be more easily controlled.
He clashed very frequently with spiritualists, and particularly the Citadel’s matriarchs and Elder Wife. Whom he infamously order be disbanded and exiled, respectively, for “disloyalty” and “treacherous disobedience.”
He married at 35 to a cow Cardorine Kagercuff. Fathering three sons. He is known to have had many human and elf house slaves and it’s believed he could have as many as a dozen sons and daughters born outside of his marriage.
Early Life
Not much in the way of details is known of Herrenval’s calfhood or young life. He was forth born of five sons and one daughter. Furthermore he was left motherless at an early age after his Mother Shiseen Ironmuscle fell victim to the white plague. Furthermore it is know that his father was frequently absent, as Vihran Ironmuscle was an active fighter in the notorious Blood-feud between Clan Torbone and clan Stonemantle.
At age 12 during the height of the Plague, as the last surviving son of Vihran, Herrenval was sent south with the remnants of his clan to the Imperial lands. Here his records run scarce. But he writes that once he was of fighting age he spent many years with a human mercenary company as a roaming sell-sword.
Eventually he would return to his home at around age 21. His clan name and prowess in combat allowing him to quickly gain many followers and assemble a fierce war-band and find a seat at the then, almost completely defunct tribunal.
The end of the White Plague, rise to power, and Pre War Rule.
Herrenvals war-band spent some years after his appointment to the tribunal roaming the lands around the citadel and viciously stomping out elements of instability. Bandit groups and raiders being his primary targets.
Because if the ruthless effectiveness of this the citadel was one of the first tribal regions to regain order after the white plague leading to an influx of refugees to the region. Herrenval’s garrison was charged with securing the citadel’s border and handling this influx. Herrenval took advantage of this by coaxing widowed cows and women into marriages with key clans in his war-band, also key to note during this early period was that the Cows and Women that were recovered and rescued from the bandit camps, those that weren’t married were often given to members of the tribunal as gifts under the guise of “safety.”
It is believed this is where Herrenval formed the method by which his clan rose to power.
With his garrison’s numbers swelling, He split his war-band in half some short time around age 24, travelling south of Tribe Broken Rock with these bulls. The war-band helped stabilise tribe Broken Rock, making short work of the lawlessness in the region. Constructing a rudimentary fortress along the Waking Waters and then expanding east and west to build more. Herrenval would travel back and forth between his garrisons on the border, and the Citadel many times during this period, overseeing their construction. Trading cows and women to the clans of Broken Rock for assistance and loyalty during this period. Before long he had the region under control, and had the southern border staffed with Minotaur.
At age 29 he was made Grand Chieftain of the Tribunal, declaring to the tribes of the region that he and his loyal clans would bring order back to the region. Promising Clans loyal to him would be rewarded.
His efforts continued across the rest of the regions during this time. One by one the tribes of the Minotaur lands were bought into fealty.
As before, Herrenval continued the usage of females as commodities to buy and secure loyalty. Clans loyal to his regime found themselves with wives. Minotaur Cows, being rare, were often saved for the most loyal to his rule.
He was known for finding clans on the verge of collapse and ascending them by bolstering them with wives and effectively ensuring fervent loyalty. Another tactic employed was to starve older stronger clans out of positions of power and replacing them with these newer more loyal clans.
The consistent need for women was what lead to the border raids and the beginning of kidnapping campaigns in the South. It is believed this was not initially Herrenval’s idea, but the idea of one of the border garrison commanders, but upon learning of it, Herrenval took to the idea completely. Complimenting the influx of women to the region by sending parties south to human and elf border villages to kidnap girls and wives to take back North.
Many years of campaigning had paid off and by about age 35 Herrenval had most of the region under control again. And his government began to slow process of rebuilding the region. Buying and securing favour as it went.
Eventually though rumour spread of the raids to the south and the raids became impossible to hide once retaliatory raids from the Empire began on Broken Rock and the Harborcoasts. While immensely unpopular, there was very little that could be done as Clan Ironmuscle had secured itself and elevated itself and those loyal to it far too much to be challenged. The raids would continue for almost the entire length of his rule. Broken Rock and the Harbor Coast would continue to find themselves, as described as, “the rock the waves would break against” when retaliation came from the South.
Furthermore, the unpopularity of his treatment of women was growing as it became clear that a great many of the wives were being traded without their consent, or at best being coaxed into dubious consent out of implied threat. All of the tribe Matriarchies were vocally upset by the revelation of what was happening. Though at the time, still recovering from the plague, they were far too weak to act against it. Furthermore their strength was weakened intentionally over time as Herrenval made efforts to weaken the power tribe Matriarch’s had in lawmaking.
This peaked around halfway through his rule, when at age 59 Herrenval effectively removed tribal Matriarch’s from their voting rights on tribunal and tribal law.
This would continue to be a consistent theme of his rule as Grand Chieftain, and the tension caused by this would continue to grow over the decades until it finally boiled over.
The Great Clan War
Despite his renowned knowledge for combat, the beginning of the rebellion and the start of the war came as a complete surprise to Herrenval, who was busy handling issues to do with water supplies in Duneshifts when the first skirmishes for the Great Clan War began in the Old Woods of Broken Rock and the coastal flats east of the Harborcoasts. It took weeks for the Grand Chieftain to return to the Citadel to take command of the situation, which is believed to have provided the rebelling forces and the still disorganised and leaderless New Tribunal to get a hold of the situation.
After the war had begun proper Herrenval’s Clan and war band spent several years campaigning North East of Broken Rock fighting the New Tribunal and attempting to reconnect with his forces along the border fortresses.
His presence putting a great deal of pressure on the rebelling forces and almost causing the New Tribunal’s front to collapse. Herrenval’s war bands came into direct conflict with the rebellion in the Old Woods, where their advance South was stopped by the combined forces of then Provincial Chieftain of Broken Rock, Irovirn Autumnclove and Elder Wife Sheyn and the her sisters of the Night Hunters. In this battle Herrenval took an arrow in his chest and was wounded, having to be sent back to the Citadel to recover.
This wounding was devastating to the Loyalists Southern war effort, his absence from the front stalled the campaign and ensured the Loyalist front never managed to join up and relieve the border garrisons. While he did recover quickly once he was back home, the Grand Chieftain would never again make it further South than the Frost Passes.
By the time he had recovered to full strength by the War’s sixth year, he was forced to turn his attentions West to the Knightspeak Valley, where the New Tribunal’s now nearly selected leader Dalmuth Stonegut.
Herrenval was quick to move west, crushing the initial resistances in the Battle of the Northern Lake, splitting his forces to encircle the valley and put the tribe under siege in an attempt to stall Clan Stonegut and the New Tribunal long enough to give his campaign time to try move South again. While his victories against the New Tribunal in the Valley were devastating, the attempt to take the tribe quickly bogged down into stalemate as the Valley was too difficult to pass and the New Tribunal proved themselves firmly rooted in place, turning the attack into a prolonged siege that went on for two years.
Once again, fate was not on Herrenval’s side as during the Siege, as the Knightspeak Valley was beginning to run low on food and supplies back to the South, Elder Wife Sheyn and the Night Hunters triumphed at the Battle of the Empty Basin, the Elder Wife was killed during the battle but her assault dealt a devastating blow to the most major of the Southern Fortresses and leading to the collapse of the border garrison. The fortresses that were not overrun by the war bands from Broken Rock and Harbourcoasts were routed and forced to retreat North.
With the Southern front now relieved, Broken Rock and the Harbourcoasts managed to rally their forces and make a push to relieve the Siege at the Knightspeak Valley.
The fronts of Broken Rock and The Harborcoasts and the Loyalists once again came to blows South of Knightspeak Valley at the Battle of the Lakeshore where the siege was broken and Herrenval’s war-band was forced to retreat.
The war slowed during this period as the two sides settled into the decided fronts South-west and South of The Citadel and Dalmuth Stonegut rallied his War-band.
During this time Herrenval was pressured by the spiritualists in his campaign attempt to negotiate for peace. But it is written that Herrenval grew more belligerent and unstable as the war began to turn on the Loyalist Faction over the next few years. The Loyalists would attempt several times to try reopen a front near Broken Rock by way of boats and barges sent across Lake Ethrea. The attacks were ill fated but throughout the rest of the war, raids on Broken Rock via the lake were a favoured tactic by the Loyalists.
Eventually the garrisons at the peat bogs south of the Frostpass were pushed back and the war entered its final years as the Citadel was besieged from the West and South. Herrenval would try initially to counter attack the siege to break it. But the attack was of little success.
Finally, upon the news that Tribe Grasswinds had finally joined the war on the New Tribunal’s side the loyalists were drawn out into a final battle. Herrenval and Dalmuth met off against eachother during the skirmish, where the Grand Cheiftain met his death. The Citadel surrendered not long after the news of Herrenval’s death was announced.
Some of Herrenval’s loyalists managed to hold out for a few years more in Duneshifts and the badlands surrounding the northern tribe. But the war was effectively ended in the year 475.
Legacy and Clan Remnants
Following the climax of the war those loyal to Clan Ironmuscle were tried and convicted based on culpability. Though after being urged by the Elderwives of the region and the Spiritualists, mercy was extended to Herrenval’s wife Cardorine Kagercuff, and Herrenval’s sons Anhril, Jinnavir, and Tastowe.
It was determined the proper plan of punishment for Herrenval was to strip his clan of it’s name, honour, legacy and deeds. Furthermore to protect Cardorine and her son’s from potential retaliatory killings from widows or angered bulls. The Clan, with help of the New Tribunal and the Elderwife of the Citadel were ordered to be given new names, identities and transported away. The location and status of Herrenval’s wife and son’s is currently unknown to anybody but the Elderwife of the Citadel and the Citadel’s Matriarchs. Who have sworn and oath to keep it secret for their safety. The same amnesty was offered to Herrenvals those Concubines and Handwives who wished to stay in the region.
Herrenval is a deeply despised figure in minotaur culture and is regarded as one of the minotaur’s worst tyrants. It is generally agreed that the destruction, cruelty and ignorance he encouraged and bought to the region outweighs his achievements in stabilising the region after the plague. His attitudes toward women is often cited as being particularly despicable and unforgivable
Herrenval was cremated on an unbannered pyre, to symbolise his death in dishonour and the denial of his Clan legacy in his passing. In accordance with the customs of Sister Thyrine, Herrenval’s weapons and armour were melted down and reforged into six blessed tools, each of which were gifted to the new Chieftain’s of the tribes, symbolising the final conclusion of the war and the beginning of the efforts to rebuild and heal.