Bryce Vimmark
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Bryce Vimmark (2nd of the Sun's Smile, 1500 – 16th of the Grand Harvest, 1539) was the Viscount of Alamar and Grand Knight of the Holy Orenian Empire during the reign of John I, to whom he was for years a personal favorite, until his downfall and scandalous death in the Saltstone Plot of 1539. He was lord over the castle of Saltstone, acclaimed to be the realm's strongest fortress. He was reputed to be very loved by women.
Originally born a bastard to an exiled prince of the Horen dynasty, Vimmark's early life was spent as a Master of Beasts and Man at Arms for his cousin, Ser Garahel Varodyr, the constructor and ruler of the impenetrable northern fortress of Saltstone. He would eventually uncover his noble lineage through this relationship. Subsequent to the Dukes' War, Varodyr departed the lands of Oren for Aeldin, leaving the newly-ennobled servant Vimmark as castellan. When his first cousin John I came to the throne in 1526, he would seek legitimization successfully. By all accounts, the emperor was quite fond of his kinsman, considering him an early favorite of sorts and granting him the hereditary rights to the Viscounty of Alamar as well as appointing him to his Privy Council as the Grand Knight, the Empire's master of the chivalric register. Initially, Vimmark executed the emperor's wishes in the northern Duchy of Courland, originally bearing cordial relations with the duke, Percival, to whose daughter he was wed.
Throughout the later years of the 1530s, however, Vimmark fell out of favor with Richard Staunton, the Duke of Courland and his brother-in-law. Staunton mistrusted the viscount and suspected that Vimmark intended on using his own half-Staunton son against him. For less public reasons, the lord of Saltstone would also find an enemy in Josef Vladov, the Baron of Franzenburg, another one of the emperor's intimate favorites. This widespread sentiment against him engendered a court plot to have him removed from favor permanently. Factions at court slowly began to influence the emperor against his Grand Knight, however, determined not to be swayed by such irresolute politicking, John dismissed them in a rage.
This changed when Vimmark's Third born son, Rendon, killed the emperor's two favorite nephews, Philip Augustus de Capua and Philip de Sola in a duel. Though the two young men were widely regarded by some of the Nobility as the future of the Duchy of Istria - energetic, youthful and virile - and so upon their deaths, calls for Vimmark blood resounded across a few circles within the Nobility. The circumstances of the killings are not entirely known, though regardless of them, the infuriated John could not defend this action, blaming the elder Vimmark for his son's misdeeds. He was convinced by the Baron of Franzenburg to form a party to arrest Bryce at Saltstone, however before he could take the Grand Knight into his custody his right-hand, Aulfr af Eklund, stabbed him to death from behind atop the ramparts of his castle.
With the exception of Vimmark's eldest son, Maric, the remainder of his family were hunted down and disposed of by Josef Vladov's soldiers. His family only survived through Maric who would begin to rebuild the families reputation and fortunes.
