Bouwergracht Family
The Bouwengracht family has enjoyed a reputation both mysterious and prestigious since the rise of Liesech.
Otto Bouwengracht (as seen in the image), the first known patriarch of the family, is the most famous.
But the family is now fading slowly into oblivion after being slaughtered by Analita von Raiza during the event known as the Red Morning.
However, rumour has it that one child of the family, Wilhelm, secretly escaped by being exchanged with another child at the last moment.
The most fanciful stories claim he will come back one day to retake control of Liesech and return the city to its former glory.
History
The Bouwengracht family has tacitly reigned in Liesech since its very beginning as a city-state.
Back when Liesech was just a large fishing village, Otto Bouwengracht was an ambitious fisherman who direly desired a better, wealthier life. His ambition led him to fish further out in the bay.
When he eventually reached the area at the centre of the bay, known as the Eye of the Sea, he came upon an otherworldly creature called The Filthgrazer.
The creature felt the fisherman’s ambition and offered him a bargain; she promised advice and access to superior intelligence that would help Bouwengracht raise a superb coastal city, the most wealthy ever known.
In exchange, what she asked seemed very little in the eyes of Otto Bouwengracht: the filth of the city.
She wanted to eat all the rubbish produced by the city, including the corpses of the dead.
Otto Bouwengracht’s part of the bargain was to instate a cult that would secretly serve the creature’s gluttony under the guise of blessing the sea for all the wealth it provided to the city.
So Otto accepted.
True to the creature’s word, he quickly became a famous businessman whose wealth boosted the development of Liesech.
He developed tremendously advanced techniques to expand the territory of Liesech, constructing channels and ditches that would prevent floods and optimise transport and logistics.
Naval construction also accelerated, and under the Bouwengracht family's rule, Liesech became a major maritime power in only a few generations.
They began sending more ships across the seas to explore and gather wealth, and after a few more generations, Liesech had reached a state of wealth and opulence that no one in Etharis could ignore.
Disbandment
When Analita von Raiza was sent to Liesech she noticed the magic in action around Liesech, and in particular the Bouwengracht family.
She understood where the strange magic around Bouwengracht family came from and saw she an opportunity to strike a blow against the Bürach Empire and spoil the jewel that she had so compliantly handed to her former gaoler.
On the morning of the next annual ceremony of the Nurturing Sea, the entire Bouwengracht family was found slaughtered, their blood entirely drained out.
Comments