Castellan of Pravend, Heir-in-Training of House dey Tihr
Furnhard dey Tihr is a nobleman of Vlandia, the son of Baron Aldric and Lady Elthild, and a member of House dey Tihr, the cadet branch of House dey Meroc that rules Pravend. He serves as Castellan of Pravend as part of his formal preparation for noble command, a position intended to teach governance, law, and the weight of rural obligation before he is granted the right to hoist his personal banner in battle. This appointment lasts three cycles, and Furnhard is now in his final cycle, nearing the age at which he will be recognized as a banner-bearing noble in his own right.
In theory, the castellanate is meant to temper heirs with responsibility. In practice, Furnhard treats it as a temporary inconvenience between pleasures. His combat skill is formidable, comparable to a trained Vlandic cavalry officer. He rides well, fights well, and understands battlefield command enough to be dangerous. None of this translates into governance. Furnhard is cautious in battle to the point of cowardice, preferring to avoid direct risk unless victory is assured. In administration, he is devious, closefisted with aid, and cruel in punishment. He extracts dues with enthusiasm and distributes protection with reluctance.
Furnhard’s reputation as depraved is not exaggerated. He indulges openly in drink, flesh, and cruelty, using his authority to shield himself from consequence. Villagers know him as the castellan who listens just long enough to find leverage, not relief. He is feared not because he is powerful in war, but because he controls whether help arrives at all. Reports of raids, unrest, or foreign movement pass through his office before they reach Baron Aldric. Furnhard delays, misfiles, or quietly dismisses warnings when they inconvenience his pursuits. In some cases, he has been known to allow Sturgian and Battanian raiders to range freely in distant northlands so long as their violence does not interrupt the flow of coin or draw attention to his neglect.
Though Furnhard technically fulfills his duties, he relies heavily on his sister Liena to keep House dey Tihr functioning. Liena manages correspondence, levy schedules, and tax coordination in his name, quietly preventing administrative collapse. This has created a court fiction in which Furnhard is presented as the acting authority while Liena performs the work of governance. Those within the household understand this arrangement. Those outside it suffer from the gaps it creates.
Furnhard’s cruelty is personal. He enjoys reminding petitioners of their weakness. He is slow to grant aid and quick to impose penalties. He is particularly harsh with those he perceives as beneath him, using small humiliations and arbitrary delays to assert dominance. This sadism is not strategic. It is indulgent. He does not seek loyalty. He seeks submission. This makes him an unstable figure within House dey Tihr, tolerated only because he remains the baron’s son and because his formal authority is temporary.
Politically, Furnhard is dangerous because he sits at a choke point. The Castellan’s Office of Pravend is the gate through which village alarms, tax tallies, and patrol requests pass. Furnhard can stall responses to raids, demand bribes for urgency, or misdirect patrols to serve his own convenience. He does not openly defy the crown, but he abuses the space between law and action. This makes him an embodiment of the system’s cruelty: not broken law, but law weaponized through neglect.
To Zenishi and others from burned villages like Valanby, Furnhard represents the face of institutional indifference. He will acknowledge the raid. He will record it. He will speak of process. He will not move fast enough to matter. If pressed, he may even punish those who demand urgency, citing improper petition or failure to follow protocol. In this way, Furnhard becomes not just an antagonist, but a lesson in how power fails people without ever admitting it has done so.
Furnhard stands on the edge of adulthood and authority, trained for war but unfit for stewardship. Whether he grows into a lord who abuses his banner or is quietly sidelined by his own house depends on forces beyond his control. For now, he holds a seal, a ledger, and the power to decide which villages burn alone.