Dagult Nirembor
Lord Protector Dagult Nirembor
Formerly the Open Lord of Waterdeep until his ousting by the Masked Lords of Waterdeep in 1489, Dagult Nirombor is now Lord Protector of Neverwinter. Tall, broad-shouldered with a fierce countenance and thick mane of pumpkin-brown hair, he was nicknamed “The Lion” and gives every semblance of a fierce warrior, though he is not. Though he occasionally wears ceremonial armour and bears a longsword, as a consummate politician and cunning exploiter of personal weaknesses, his might is in his charisma, intellect and determination, not his sword arm.
A born leader who always acts decisively with clear insight of consequences, he is also ambitious, egocentric, prone to overconfidence and has a ferociously quick temper. Exceptionally fond of a drink and notorious for shameless and outrageous flirtation with beautiful women or plying susceptible associates with enough booze and charm that they agree to anything, Dagult is always looking for the favourable edge. He can be boisterously jovial one moment and dangerously guileful the next, but eloquence and flair for diplomacy make him easy to like, unless you are unfortunate enough to be a recipient of his wrath, or a subordinate.
While serving Waterdeep, Nirembor was reputed to embody ideals of moderation, honesty and responsibility, but was infamous for having his finger in pies of all flavours. Publicly claiming to never engage in overtly illegal actions, he was ruthlessly results-oriented and adept at contriving “lawful” justifications when needed, utilising a large roster of discrete allies and contacts with flexible morals. Nevertheless, Waterdeep thrived tremendously under his authority and, until the mid-1480's or so, when his licentious lack of responsibility was becoming intolerable, only the utterly foolish would have the audacity, or courage, to accuse or even openly presume that he did not serve the City’s best interests.
However, despite his auspicious rise to power and immense wealth in Waterdeep, he always considered Neverwinter to be both his true home and birthright, and his presumptuous taking control of that city and unmitigated focus on rebuilding it, literally at the expense of others, resulted in a notable fall from grace in Waterdeep and has birthed a mix of both utter contempt and respectful obedience to his rule in Neverwinter.
History
1429 DR: Dragult Nirembor is born in Neverwinter to a noble mercantile family. From a very young age he is indoctrinated into the family business, but resents the expectation of owing his family and aspires to his own empire and not being beholden to anybody.
1447 DR: : Dagult relocates to Waterdeep to begin his own commercial enterprise. Within five years he is one of the wealthiest merchants in the city and, by 1457, considered one of the ten wealthiest persons in the Sword Coast. He invests heavily in the island of Mintarn, founding a ship-building company as well as facilities to train mercenaries, and also bankrolls the White Sails company, which grows to become the biggest Tarnian provider of soldiers and ships for hire.
1461 DR: Dagult marries Lady Dionna Brandarth, seeking to utilise his wife's wealth and broad property holdings within Waterdeep to be acknowledged as a major local landowner and eligible for appointment to the council as a Lord of Waterdeep.
1463 DR: Lady Nermimbor nee Brandarth bears a son, Renaer, but suffers complications during childbirth. She never fully recovers her strength.
1467 DR: Lady Nermimbor passes and bequeaths everything to her son, explicitly excluding her husband from any claim. In the event of Renaer passing without a declared heir, the entire portfolio is entrusted to the Lords of Waterdeep to administer.
1468 DR: Dagult Nirembor is appointed the Open Lord of Waterdeep. Waterdeep has begun to thrive after years of neglect but, in a resoundingly unpopular move among the nobility, he institutes a law that allows for a limited number of Waterdhavian titles to be bought and sold, then personally organises the sale of many noble titles to potential allies in exchange for their promise of support in the future, while also significant profit. He also implements a tax on all residents of the city, requiring them to pay one shard each month, which the City Guard are directed to collect.
1469 DR: Most of the Waterdeep’s navy is decimated after being sent by Nirembor to hunt Northlander pirates so, acting for Waterdeep, he hires a fleet of Tarnian mercenary ships - in which he is the principal investor - to replace them, then proceeds to use that personal income to purchase more companies and directs Waterdeep's funds to use them to the exclusion of competitors.
1469 DR: Nirembor turns his focus to Neverwinter, most of which still lies in ruins after the eruption of Mount Hotenow 1451. He establishes the "New Neverwinter" movement to rebuild the city, proclaiming himself 'Lord Protector of Neverwinter', with a caveat that this role is a stewardship and he will relinquish it to an heir of Alagondar if one presents. The Lord Protector then pays sages to research the historical lineage of Neverwinter kings and prove that his family are direct descendants, while investing heavily in rebuilding the city out of his own funds, both to add credence and goodwill to his claim, but also provisioning mortgages over much of the new property, the profits from which are funnelled back into further building.
The sages “find” that Nirembor is a descendant of Vers Never, bastard son of Nasher Alagondar and brother to Bann Alagondar, who served as Neverwinter's first king. Suggestions that scribes were bribed to burn any records casting doubt on the legitimacy of that claim are never substantiated.
1470 DR: To spur economic growth, Nirembor removes most regulations on trade in Neverwinter and enacts a policy of low taxes on imported goods, hoping to attract back former resident trades as well as merchants from across Faerûn. This contrasts with codes being enforced in Waterdeep, where there are many regulations and comparatively high taxes, beginning to create notable angst in this other jurisdiction.
1470 DR: With extensive construction and refurbishment underway across much of the city, Nirembor directs Neverwinter to employ an army of Tarnian mercenaries to protect and police Neverwinter. While recognised to be utterly self-serving, its reputation as a haven with plenty of work available and many profitable opportunities is growing and provokes an influx of returning refugees and new immigrants.
1471 DR: Nirembor bans the High Sun Games for being too brutal, a decision greatly resented by the low and working class as the event and associated tenday-long carnival was an annual holiday and one of few celebrations accessible to them. Also, participants are primarily adventurers, and watching adventurers try to survive (or not) as sport should not be considered unethical.
1472 DR: A company of mercenary troops is dispatched from Waterdeep to Leilon to suppress a paranormal uprising that has overrun the town, and regain control of it. The action is successful, but Leilon is in ruins and fear and superstition, particularly with regard to the prominent High Tower of Thalivar, means the town remains mostly unpopulated and avoided.
1474 DR: The "Protector's Enclave" is completed, a section in the southwest of Neverwinter protected centred on the Hall of Justice - a former temple to Tyr selected largely because of its emotional significance to the people of Neverwinter. In the name of “public safety”, the area is rigidly and voraciously policed by Nirembor’s mercenaries and becomes, essentially, a police state, with defiance or perceived disobedience swiftly and violently repressed.
1475 DR: Nirembor begins an affair with Kalain, an eccentric elvish painter. He is also rumoured to be enamoured with Talana Taenfeather, a member of the Waterdeep Guard, although there is no evidence they are lovers.
1476 DR: Subjugation of the populace in and around the Protector's Enclave sees the emergence of the Sons of Alagondar, an underground movementreuputed to have been instigated and sponsored by the Harpers, dedicated to resisting Nirembor's purportedly tyrannical reign.
As a cheaper and more productive option, Nirembor tends now to engage adventurers on a payment-on-success basis in favour of using his own valuable mercenaries for surreptitious objectives.
1477 DR: Rebuilding of the Neverwinter docks are completed and the city now openly competes with Waterdeep as a trading hub in and out of the western side of the continent. Taxes and import fees in Neverwinter begin to rise sharply, and Nirembor increasingly spends most of his time in that city, leaving the day-to-day running of Waterdeep to trusted lieutenants and bureaucrats. Engagement with the Lords of Waterdeep becomes extremely infrequent, with decisions for their consideration either stalled indefinitely or passing them entirely.
1478 DR: Decreeing that any and all spellscarred or plaguechanged individuals are to be expelled from Neverwinter and sent to Helm's Hold, Nirembor also dispatches mercenaries to take control of the town, forcing it to acquiesce to this dangerous indignity.
1478 DR: Nirembor survives an assassination attempt led by his Neverwintian spymaster.
1479 DR: After vetoing and dismissing multiple charges and formal complaints about his son’s reckless mischiefs, open objections to Nirembor’s abuses of power and wielding self-serving influence are now common. It is briefly and widely reported that the Open Lord had conspired with a wizard to obtain a magic artefact and sought to replace the Lords of Waterdeep with a council of mages, but no evidence is presented and the story is quashed.
1479 DR: A self-proclaimed heir of the Alagondar bloodline wearing the Crown of Neverwinter makes public a claim to the throne of Neverwinter, rallying support from the Sons of Alagondar and further inciting negative public opinion against Neverember. The Lord Protector claims willingness to hand over the city to a legitimate descendant, but hires adventurers to determine the true nature and intentions of the claimant, who is found to be a fraud wearing a false Crown. The question of the location of the real Crown of Neverwinter is not resolved.
1480 DR: Renaer Nirembor turns 17 and gains full jurisdiction over his mother’s estates. He begins to sell off assets to fund his excessive drinking, exorbitant parties and other frivolous expenses, which provokes a furious reaction from his father. Dagult attempts to legally force Renaur to forfeit his property holdings, unsuccessfully, and their already estranged relationship disintegrates into outright mutual animosity.
1485 DR: More rumours emerge of Nirembor colluding with a powerful wizard, and of funnelling money out of Waterdeep for subversive purchases, but no legitimate evidence of this is ever made public. The Harpers declare Nirembor to be an imperialistic despot and are known to be actively attempting to depose him.
1485 DR: Attempting to stimulate traffic along the High Road, Nirembor orders the destruction of the High Tower of Thalivar in Leilon and coordinates a conglomerate of merchants to fund a rebuilding effort to attract a population and establish it as a trading post on the High Road to Neverwinter.
1486 DR: Nirembor publicly announces plans for a military initiative to reclaim Gauntlgrym from the drow. This elicits a unanimously fierce objection from dwarves all over western Faerun, who begin to form an army to obstruct the upper world from laying claim to Gauntlgrym's riches. In a rare miscalculation of consequences, Nirembor is surprised by this and, with no leverage over the dwarves, quietly renounces the plan. The dwarven army is mostly disbanded, but dwarvish resentment and mistrust of Nirembor remains high.
1488 DR: Reporting of Nirembor’s disdain for even consulting the Lords of Waterdeep before making and implementing decisions, many of which are made by delegates in his absence and invariably serve to expand his wealth or influence, are now frequent and widespread. There is substantial discontent across the political spectrum in Waterdeep that, while his actions are never overtly detrimental to the City, he is continually enabled to do as he pleases with no accountability.
1489 DR: Laeral Silverhand appears in Waterdeep asserting that she has a mandate directly from the goddess Mystra to claim the title of Open Lord. Nirembor is ejected from the Lords of Waterdeep by the Masked Lords and exiled, ostensibly for “Failure to abide by his oath and serve to his utmost the peoples and City of Waterdeep”; sources claim that the "last straw" was his embezzlement of a vast sum of money in order to have cash quickly at hand following the reclamation of Gauntlgrym to facilitate entrenching himself as the supreme power of that city by default, much as he has done in Neverwinter.
Laeral Silverhand's first actions as newly appointed Open Lord are to place liens on all Waterdeep properties owned outright by Nirembor, and redirect funding to replace all mercenaries employed by the City with its own Guard and full-time military.
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