Baron Caidin

From Mistipedia
(Redirected from Caidin)
Jump to navigationJump to search

Baron Caidin is the major antagonist of the Ravenloft product line novel Tower of Doom. In universe, he was the brother of Wort and ruler of Nartok in Darkon. He lived in Nartok Keep and was the owner of the Soulstone.

Biography

Early Life

Wort's real name is Worren. He was born to the Old Baron and the Old Baroness of Nartok on the same night as his half-brother Caidin, whom the Old Baron sired with a mistress named Kylene. The Old Baron despised his legitimate son's deformed nature and switched notes of their mothers to make Caidin his proper heir. Furthermore, he poisoned the Old Baroness and Kylene to cover up this secret.[1] On his death bed years later, the Old Baron told Caidin, but Wort never never grow up to know he was the legitimate son.

Caidin's antagonism, even abuse, towards Wort was apparent early on, but Wort seemed to return only love and good will to Caidin. Outright hatred did not manifest in Caidin's heart until later later in childhood. At Morrged's Leap, Caidin hoped to lure Wort into falling on the jagged rocks below,but instead Caidin went off balance and needed Wort's help.[2] The public echoed Caidin's disdain and contempt, for they treated him just as much a monster, a freak, or other menace. Thus Wort became all but confined in the old bell tower of Nartok Keep upon Caidin's instructions. Beyond acting as the bell ringer for executions, the fact that Caidin even had a brother fell out of public memory, to the point that even Caidin's most trusted men didn't know about Wort's existence.[3]

Events prior to the start of Tower of Doom

As baron, Caidin was assisted by Castellan Domeck as his castellan and Lord Inquisitor Sirraun as his lead inquisitor.[4] Kraikus was the baron's treasurer.[5]

Caidin stumbled upon a reference to the dread artifact known as the Soulstone in an ancient book he found within the depths of Nartok Keep. The power to drain life energy from the Living greatly appealed to Caidin both on an abstract level and as a source for power. He searched long and hard for more on the Soulstone, but his search was stymied prior to his encounter with the darkling known as Brynn. Following Brynn's capture, Caidin eventually learned from the interrogated darkling the location of the Soulstone: a cave beneath the Vuchar River. From there, Caidin began a plot to overthrow his liege, Azalin Rex.[6]

Caidin sought to use the Soulstone to drain enough life energy from his subjects to animate a war tower, which he secretly constructed using the labor of the zombies of those he slew with the Soulstone. He disguised the harvesting of bodies behind a phony inquisition, with Sirraun falsely accusing many of Caidin's own subjects of conspiring against him.

Several years prior to the beginning of Tower of Doom, a gnome cutpurse named Pock attempted to pick Baron Caidin's pocket. Although this would normally be grounds for Pock to be executed, Caidin acted upon a hunch that Pock might be useful in the future as a spy and so installed the gnome as court jester. Pock proved Caidin right by uncovering several conspiracies put against the baron by his courtiers.[7]

Highly handsome and debonair, Baron Caidin was a womanizer, fancying himself as irresistible to the opposite sex. At the time of Tower of Doom's beginning, his current favored mistress was Contessa Sabrinda.[8] However, she was merely buttering him up to impress her real lover, Sir Beacham, upon Caidin, such that the baron may award him a fiefdom. Thereby, Sabrinda and her lover would leave to live there together peacefully.[9]

In Tower of Doom

By the start of Tower of Doom, Sirraul's flimflam of an inquisition wass fully under way (even knocked into high gear), with Caidin only needing a few more souls to complete his plans to animate his Tower of Doom. However, Caidin's actions were sloppy enough to draw the attention of Azalin. Azalin sent Jadis, a Kargat agent and spy, to keep him appraised of the situation.

As Baron Caidin initiated his scheme, so do did Wort. To find a way of revenge on his brother and Nartok society in general, Wort sneaked into the dungeons of Nartok Keep to speak with Brinn, a darkling seer held captive by Caidin. Brinn told Wort of the Bell of Doom, a dread artifact of darkness with ancient origins similar to Caidin's Soulstone. Once Wort located the Bell and brought it back to his [[Old Bell Tower of Nartok, his old bell tower], be began a series of murders committed by proxy via the evil ghosts conjured by the Bell's ringing. [[Castellan Domeck was Wort's first victim, the murder of whom Wort pinned upon Sir Logris. The second murder was Contessa Sabrinda, the murder of whom Wort pinned upon Lord Inquisitor Sirraun. So incensed was the baron that Sirraun's pleas went entirely unheard.

Following the demise of Sabrinda, a traveling healer from Il Aluk named Mika grabbed Baron Caidin's interest. Enamored with her, he made multiple attempts to seduce her, though his attempts initially failed. Surprised at her resistance, Caidin nonetheless kept up his attempts and eventually won her over. Their dalliance alienated and incensed the jealous Wort, for he had mistaken his friendship with Mika to be something more than friendship, causing him to return to his serial murders of the "sinners" of Nartok.[10] Mika eventually discovered Wort's damning corruption by the Bell. Seeking to save Wort's soul and ignorant of Caidin's antipathy toward Wort, Mika petitioned Caidin for helping, and she told the Baron the location of the Bell upon his promise not kill Wort. Caidin had no intention of honoring such a promise.[11]

In the course of less than a week, Wort wracked up a kill count of thirteen people. He then planted the bloodied possessions of his victims among Caidin's things. It wasn't too long thereafter that the Baron's own peasants began a rebellion against him. Though Caidin's knights could not hold out (and may not even remain loyal) forever[12], the Baron ordered his men to set ablaze the village of Nartok, effectively quelling the rebellion. Simultaneously, he played a game of intrique with Lady Jadis that ended with Jadis lured into a trap that ultimately cost her her life. Jadis had the last laugh, as she ferreted out the information of Caidin's scheme and related it both to a courtier to let Azalin know and to Mika, causing the healer to loathe the Baron.

Wort and Caidin held their final confrontation on Caidin's rolling Tower of Doom after Caidin stole the Bell of Doom. They momentarily ceased their fighting when the spirits of the Bell of Doom were set loose upon Mika. Though neither Wort nor Caidrin could do nothing to stop the ghosts, Mika's purity as an Innocent destroyed the ghosts, for they could not destroy someone truly pure of heart. The backlash ultimately caused the Bell to fall, and it crushed Caidin flat.[13]

Other Information

As a sort of twisted past time when he was upset, Baron Caidin was quite fond of using the iron sarcophagus to create goblyns. It tended to lighten his mood.[14]


References

  1. ↑ ToD p. 257-258
  2. ↑ ToD p. 35-36
  3. ↑ ToD p. 1-20
  4. ↑ ToD p. 12
  5. ↑ ToD p. 179-180
  6. ↑ ToD p. 62-63, 93, 207, 243, 187-288
  7. ↑ ToD p. 34
  8. ↑ ToD p. 117
  9. ↑ ToD p. 130-131
  10. ↑ ToD p. 211-216
  11. ↑ ToD p. 238-242
  12. ↑ Tod p. 224-229
  13. ↑ ToD p. 278-309
  14. ↑ ToD p. 170-174

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Tower of Doom

Tower of Doom - pp 12-16,Throughout


Retrieved from "http://fraternityofshadows.com/w/index.php?title=Baron_Caidin&oldid=163235"