Duke Barnabus Gardiner is the gnomish steward of Pitkijuke, the Red Realm's newest Duchy. In the aftermath of The Last War, Gardiner rallied the gnomish population in an attempt to reclaim their ancestral land. This was effective and their insurrection became a serious problem for the nobility. As part of The Concordance they established the Duchy of Pitkijuke and bestowed the title on Barnabus Gardiner.
The Duke of Pitkijuke is a controversial figure in the Red Realm, but he doesn’t have the old family alliances and is viewed as a wildcard. Factions in the Council of Peers often seek his alliance as a tie breaking vote.
Biography
Humble Innkeeper
Barnabus Gardiner was born the forested remains of old Pitkijuke in 1287 GS. Following the birth of his sister Ellywick in 1315, the family moved to
Mosswood. The elder Gardiners opened the Soggy Hogg Inn and Tavern. Over the years, they grew to be well-respected in their small community, and their tavern became the informal meeting place for the villagefolk.
Aspiring Noble
Following the death of the elder Gardiners, Barnabus and his sister inherited the family's inn and tavern. But as a pillar of the small community, Barnabus always had his eyes on nobility. Following the untimely death of the local reeve in the Seven Year Plague, Gardiner petitioned the crown for the title of steward of the small hamlet. But in a favor to an old crony, the king granted stewardship to a loyalist knight with no connection to the area, Sir Derrick the Wolf. Barnabus was accepted the position of private secretary to the reeve, but those close to him saw the resentment he harbored for his Lord.
Political Prisoner
When
The Unkillable Bastards gathered in Mosswood to subdue the increasingly-agitated bear population, Gardiner greeted them on behalf of Sir Derrick the Wolf. The bear hunt led the party into a plot orchestrated by the
Children of Asmodeus to locate a powerful artifact. While Gardiner did not know it at the time, the arrival of this adventuring party was the catalyst for the destruction of his home of nearly two-hundred years.
Four days after the party's departure from Mosswood, another group representing the
Children of Asmodeus descended on the hamlet, this time with the support of the Crimson Army. Frustrated with the community's untowardness and support for the adventurers, the cult directed their soldiers to raze the village, confiscate all the valuables, and execute anyone who stood in their way. Gardiner was detained and summoned to the court of
Redacre for interrogation. There, in a windowless cell in Redacre's coastal prison, his resentment festered.
Gnomish Revolutionary
After the death of
Galvyn XII, the remaining leaders of the Crimson Army quickly lost motivation for a war they were clearly losing, and turned their energy to grabbing power within the realm. In the chaos that followed, Gardiner either escaped or was released from prison. He fled the city for his ancestral forests, where he encountered other gnomes hiding from the conflict.
In the forest, Gardiner wove tales of his harrowing experience in jails and dungeons, and unleashed fiery rhetoric denouncing an empire that had cut away their forests and subjugated them to human nobility in their own homeland. And now, the conquering dynasty had come to an end. Would they allow these (relative) newcomers to place another king above them in their own forests?
The forest camp drew increasing gnomish crowds, most of whom had come to hear Gardiner's impassioned oration. The speeches inspired action, and the rebel group known as the Pitkijuke Reclaimers were formed, with Gardiner at the head. The Reclaimers entered the fray of the Succession Wars, winning many gnomish citizens to their side, and regaining control of the southern Vermillion Woods.
Steward of the Seventh Duchy
After nearly seventy years of war, and watching the kingdom decline while its neighbors thrived, a new generation of nobility sought to bring an end to the fighting. The six duchies reached a temporary ceasefire, but their negotiations were interrupted by attacks and assassinations from the Pitkijuke Reclaimers. Eventually they made a proposal: acknowledgement of the destruction of the gnomish homeland, and creation of a new duchy based in Pitkijuke, with Barnabus Gardiner at its head. Surprising many of his fellow revolutionaries, Gardiner accepted.
