Roland Auberge

(a.k.a. Iron Rod)

Youth

Roland Auberge was born to an illiterate innkeeper father and pious mother in the Mist District of Meridia just after The Crossing Over, in 5AM. With the Shattering of House Mira occurring but two years before, Roland grew up in a changing and tumultuous city. When the Rhetorlord and the Rostrum seized the capital and pushed House Mira back, they liberated the city from a tyrant, but unleashed a torrent of crime.

"Brutal combat in the Miran Spire yesterday evening, as House Mira suffered heavy casualties in the latest step in the brutal culling of their line. Few holdouts remain in the upper levels, and the Mirans have been forced into the dregs of the city, amongst their erstwhile victims." - The Whistling Observer

The lower levels of the city, such as the Mist District, saw an increase in both petty and organized crime in the years following House Mira's expulsion, thus young Roland grew up in a dangerous environment. When he was in his early teens the Argent Cloaks raided his father's inn to break up a meeting of organized crime, and gave him his first experience of justice at work.

Early Career

One of the few escapes from poverty and violence available to the well-behaved was with the College of Vestrial Priestesses and other religious groups. Roland followed the pious interests of his mother above the path of his hard-drinking father, and found himself an acolyte in the Order of Bellowing Brothers around 20AM. Seen as the poor-man's priesthood, the Brothers focused on the social and spoken aspects of the worship of Vestria, more associated with agrarian areas such as the Vestral Downs than Roland's native Coquet Heights.

"The Argent Cloaks were deployed to the lower extremities of the city yesterday evening, as the immigration boom continues to bring with it an increase in undesirables." - The Whistling Observer

The Order of Bellowing Brothers' lack of emphasis on the strict manners prescribed in the Book of Etiquette fit Roland's personality well, but brought his conflicting traits to the surface. While he was far from a formal man, Roland was abstemious in his personal life, and thought moderation ought to still be preached by the Brothers. This manifested itself as a repudiation of the criminal elements amongst which he often had to preach.
By his mid-twenties he was growing discontent with the methods of the Brothers, and was transferred from the Order to The Tribunal for the Upkeep of the Sacred.

Anti-Vice Crusader

Meridia

Assigned to the Meridian section of the Tribunal for the Upkeep of the Sacred, Roland began the final arc of his career back in the very place he began. The Tribunal's powers have waxed and waned with the temperament of the nation, but the group was at its height in the chaos following the Crossing Over. Tasked with enforcing the moral tenets of Vestria, as well as cracking down on heresy, this group was a better fit for the interests of Roland Auberge.
While the strictness of the Tribunal fit less well with Roland's personality than the Brotherhood, their more organized manner meant they knew how to deal with his talents effectively. Roland's sympathy for the vulnerable and poor, as well as his connections in the lower levels of the city, made him a natural fit for cleaning up the aftermath of the Crossing Over. His first major assignment saw him tasked with solving an organized ring of kidnappings by the Snatchers.

House Mira

After thoroughly investigating the kidnappings in Meridia, Roland eventually connected them back to a network of Snatchers operating out of The Promenade, supplying victims for service in Anharan Baths. In his reports, during which he connected the dots back to these purveyors of people, Roland began writing his famed book In the Den of the Depraved.

"We have been unable to interfere with trafficking between The Promenade and Mira's Eye, as many of the same officials who authorized our work have been found partaking in the ill-gotten fruits of kidnapping upon the island." - Roland Auberge, In the Den of the Depraved

In tracking the Snatchers, Roland followed the money back to the recently defeated House Mira. After being thrust from the capital, the house continued throwing their famed lavish banquets on Mira's Eye, and needed slaves for entertainment in its arenas or service in its halls. As Roland investigated House Mira's crimes, he began building one of the first investigative and analytical histories, and documented the house's slide into madness.

The Den of the Depraved

Booking passage on a ship bound for House Mira's mines in the south Coquet Heights, Roland arranged to be dropped on an islet near Mira's Eye, and began his imbedded investigation. Sneaking to the island proper, he spent three months exploring, investigating, and interviewing before being discovered. Having uncovered the identities of numerous houses' nobles, he was sent to the Agistment to be hunted, rather than be given the opportunity to escape with that information. Despite the odds, he survived and fled back to Meridia.

"While I had successfully evaded detection upon the island for days, I knew that if I was discovered my story would come to an end in the Agistment, hunted and hounded by my fellow man." - Roland Auberge, In the Den of the Depraved

House Prominere

After handing his research over to the Tribunal, it was released as a book with the names of the nobles identified kept hidden. On the promise that the Tribunal would lead a raid upon the island of Mira's Eye, Roland was dispatched to the lands of House Prominere to root the kidnapping ring out at their source. After embedding himself amongst the gangs of the Seaside, he sent one report back to Meridia before contact was lost.

"The Whalestream Baths, though I have a name for it not fit for paper. It's more of a gilded brothel really, but poor mothers cover their ears to its ill nature, lest their daughters stay trapped in the Seaside forever." - Isobard Quickquill, Whale Whale Whale, What Have We Here?

Disappearance

There are a number of theories about the disappearance of Roland Auberge, both amongst the educated of the realm and the poor with whom he worked. Isobard Quickquill, a fan of Roland, investigated many of these in his work The Criminal's Chronicle. Through interviews will gang members and dockworkers in The Promenade, he discovered Roland was a well-known figure there, implying he either survived longer than the month previously assumed, or made a sizeable impact in that time.
People in The Promenade believe he could have faced one of a few fates. Firstly, press gangs abound in the Seaside, and some think Roland found himself forced into service on a doomed whaling ship. Others suspect he was killed after making his way to the Landside and investigating its baths. Still more, and seemingly Quickquill himself, seem inclined to believe he survived and made his way back to the Miralac, joining up with the democratic mining towns of the south against House Mira.

Influence

Roland Auberge led a short but impactful life, despite seemingly failing in his quest against House Mira. His investigative and analytical writing, still budding at the time of his death, inspired later writers, especially the Crimson Quill Isobard Quickquill, himself one of the best investigative writers of his own time. Quickquill led a similar life, picking up largely where Auberge left off, over three hundred years later in his investigative and historical trilogy about House Prominere.
Unrelated to his literary influence, during his early work in Meridia he gained the nickname "Iron Rod" for his aggressive methods taken with criminals. This led to Rod becoming a common nickname for those with the name Roland, starting in Meridia before becoming ubiquitous, and the name's origins largely forgotten.

Age

36 At Presumed Death

Date of Birth

5AM

Circumstances of Death

Disappeared

Birthplace

Meridia

Hair

Dark Brown, Curly & Receding

Height

6'

Aligned Organization

The Tribunal for the Upkeep of the Sacred

Other Affiliations

• Order of Bellowing Brothers