Arathanial

Baron of Sendaria

Baron Arathanial of Sendaria is one of the last landed scions of House Lensely still in possession of his ancestral seat at Chepstan Castle, an island fortress in the middle of the Bontal that has never fallen in battle. The line motto is Coin, Castle, Comrades, and Arathanial holds all three more by competence than by inheritance — the Lensely cadet branches mostly moved south or were ground out of power across the dueling century.

Footwizard Banamor pitches Minalan a job: the Chepstan Spring Faire, the most lucrative event in the Bontal, was sabotaged the previous year by hired brawlers, almost certainly fronted by the Baron of Bocaraton. If a young Magelord could quietly police the next fair, Arathanial would be in his debt.

Confronting the Censorate

That fair becomes the moment Arathanial steps onto the page. When five mounted Censors break the Fair's Peace and confront Minalan in the air, Arathanial walks up under them with a baron's easy patience:

I, my dear Censor, am by the Grace of Luin the Lawgiver, Baron Arathanial of Sendaria, House Lensely. And this is my Fair you gentlemen are fucking up. Now, will someone please . . . do whatever it is they need to do so that their feet are on the ground?

— Baron Arathanial, Magelord

Minalan describes him with affection:

Baron Arathanial of Sendaria was the kind of noble you encounter in stories, not in real life. . . . He was a charismatic leader, a wise judge of character, with a generous yet cautious character and a casual conversational style that put you at ease . . . until it became a sharp knife at your throat.

— Minalan on Arathanial, Magelord

Arathanial fines the Censors' commander Dalrent five ounces of silver for breaching the Fair's Peace, confiscates the mageblades they tried to use against Minalan, and gives the swords to the Spellmonger as a gift “in gratitude. . . . A little excitement at the Fair is one thing. Funerals at the Fair are bad for business.” Minalan walks away with two confiscated mageblades and a powerful new ally.

Arathanial hosts the next Dragonslayer's Tournament, drawing his liege Sire Cei (a Sendarian vassal at Cargwenyn) and a wide circle of Bontal-vale knights. The squires he sends to the lists are well drilled; one of his lads takes the prize. Sire Cei makes a private call on the Baron at Chepstan Castle to brief him after the boys' covert journey through Sashtalia, and the table conversation reveals Arathanial's strategic eye:

I would not have my rival keep access to a mountain of gold in his domain. Nor silver. Currently I have the upper hand in lances, thanks to last year's conquests. . . . But should he suddenly be able to hire mercenaries in large quantities . . .

— Arathanial on the snowstone outcrop in Sashtalia, Knights Magi

The same evening he gives the boys an unprompted lecture on chivalry as they ride home: treat your inferiors as equals, your equals as superiors, and your superiors as beyond approach. Tyndal and Rondal both treasure the line.

The friendship deepens into open alliance. Arathanial is now actively planning the recovery of the lost Lensely lands, beginning with Sashtalia. He spends the year recruiting and arming, and Minalan, while careful not to formally commit Sevendor's banners, allows his vassals to hire out as mercenaries for the campaign and provides quiet magical support.

Arathanial is one of the few mundane lords trusted with detail of the Vorone Mirror network and the snowstone projects, on the understanding that no Lensely heir will ever turn that knowledge against the magi.

Arathanial's Sashtalia campaign is fully launched. Sire Cei rides with him as his sworn vassal, while Minalan supplies intelligence and a custom warstaff for Arathanial's newly-hired Court Wizard, enchanted by Carmella for breaking walls and undermining towers — a simple gift with strategically devastating consequences for the Sashtalian castles.

The Bontal Vale tilts. By the end of the campaign Sashtalia's holdings begin folding into Sendaria, and Arathanial publicly intends to install his younger son as baron over a new cadet barony to be carved from the conquests.

The Sashtalia War

Arathanial's war against Sashtalia comes to fruition. He has the upper hand in lances thanks to his prior conquests, the Lord of Sashtalia has lost his most powerful ally (the Warbird is gone), and Arathanial moves to take what he can while the moment lasts.

Sashtalia has done us no real harm, since the Warbird fell. But Arathanial does seem determined to recover his family's lost lands. . . . The farther away from Sevendor our borders get, the more secure we are.

— Alya to Minalan on the Sashtalia question, Enchanter

Minalan elects not to call his banners but to feed Arathanial intelligence and quiet magical support. Sevendor opportunistically picks up half a dozen border domains in the Sashtalian collapse, including the Trygg-clergy estate Alya wants to rescue.

The Lensely Cadet Barony

By year's end Arathanial has carved out a new Lensely barony from the conquests, intended for his younger son. He embraces Sire Cei as a brother for his service, and accepts Cei's strategically detailed map of the Bontal Vale (down to lance-counts at each Sashtalian castle, plainly produced with magical aid) as a gift of war.

Arathanial remains Minalan's closest noble peer in the Riverlands. With Sashtalia broken and the Lensely cadet barony of Taravanal established for his elder son Arlastan, the Baron of Sendaria has assumed effective leadership of the Riverlords League and the Lensely county. He attends the Sevendori weddings and feasts as a senior friend rather than a vassal.

Arathanial sits comfortably as the regional power in the Bontal Vale and a steady ally of Sevendor while Tyndal and Rondal range south through Enultramar. He remains the model of the “noble you encounter in stories” type, the trusted senior baron whose name still carries the Spring Faire and the Riverlords League.

The Council of County Lensely

Arathanial is the dominant baron in County Lensely, leading the Riverlords League and effectively choosing the next count for ducal confirmation. When Duke Tavard tours the region as a snap inspection of Sevendor, Arathanial entertains him with a hunt at Chepstan and lays out a thousand gold Roses to secure his sons' rights to the new lands. Another three hundred Roses guarantees the Riverlords League will endorse a Lensely candidate at the next moot.

Sevendor Wedding Feast

Arathanial is a guest of honor at Sire Ryff's wedding to the Alka Alon maid. The old baron leans on the table with the easy grace of a man who has hosted a thousand weddings, and offers Ryff a string of avuncular jests:

She's a fair one, your bride. Though she's a hundred years old or more, she doesn't look a day over nineteen! I envy you your coming honeymoon, Ryff.

— Baron Arathanial, Necromancer

The excuses are what amuse you, after a time, when even the thought of the hunt fades in importance. Should all the ailments that wives present to escape their duties be real, all of humanity would fail, though every doctor in the world were put on the case.

— Arathanial, on long marriage, Necromancer

The Baron also approves the magical loan of Lord Arlastan to Lady Dara at the Mewstower for the duration of the visit, and his oldest son's elevation to Baron of Taravanal is now formal.

Arathanial remains the steady senior baron of the Bontal Vale, even as Minalan's exile and the rise of the Magelaw redraw the political map around him. His sons hold their new fiefs, his Spring Faire remains the regional fixture, and he is one of the few mundane lords still consulted directly by Minalan on Riverlands matters from the distant Wilderlands.

By this point the Lensely county is a Sendaria-led satellite of the Magelords' diplomatic network: when the Anguin restoration sweeps the south, Arathanial's influence is one of the back-channel reasons the Riverlords League stays calm.