Duke Dmitry Grimhall
Allow dreamers their illusions about changing the world. Honorable men just do the best they can in the flawed one we live in.
Obituary: Abdicated rule of House Grimhall under mysterious circumstances, for an unspecified treason. The new Duke Harald Grimhall announced Dmitry's death for the same treason without going into reasons, leaving it an unanswered question as to the details to the rest of the Compact.
Description: An older, weathered warrior, Duke Dmitry Grimhall still has the powerful build that made him fearsome on the field. With a hardlined face seemingly set in a perpetual slight frown, the man's rough hewn face has a grim austerity to it that all but dares someone to attempt to flatter it.
Personality: Dmitry tries so very hard to be an honorable man. He knows full well the kind of reputation that Grimhall enjoys, and he knows full well that every bit of it was justified. He saw the kind of duchy that his father Taras ran, and the kind of wanton wastefulness caused by the stupidity and brutality of his father. Dmitry was determined to be a far better man than that, and despite (or perhaps because) of the reputation that Thrax and Grimhall enjoys, he has a rare reputation as an honest if grimly determined man driven to improve the standing of his house. He can be ruthless and painfully direct, but the short of cruel malevolence of his brother is foreign to his nature.
Background: Honesty was Dmitry Grimhall's vice, according to his father. His father, Duke Taras Grimhall, was a famously cruel and abusive man, with the sort of malevolence that even made House Thrax uncomfortable and consistently caused issues with the other houses, including completely unnecessary skirmishes with Redrain vassals that threatened to break into all out war. Dmitry never quite learned to not question what he saw as the dishonorable, brutish and stupid nature of his father's reign... resulting in him being passed over as heir for his younger (and far crueler) brother Eugine, as well only kept in the family to torment. Dmitry, a grimly determined man who took his vows of loyalty to family and liege with unshakeable loyalty, endured slight after slight, being kept by his father and younger brother seemingly just to mock and toy with. Through it all, the honorable Grimhall ignored it all, silently showing himself as a fearsome combatant on the field in the Tyde rebellion with acts of heroism that were praised throughout House Thrax and ignored or mocked at Grimhall's home of Grihem's Point.
After the death of Duke Taras, the title of Duke passed to his younger brother, Lord Eugine, who sought to outdo their father in wastefulness and wanton cruelty. Many of the other lords in the Mourning Isles urged Dmitry to contest the claim, some all but promising him military support to depose his brother, but the famously honorable Dmitry pointedly refused every entreaty and served his brother Eugine without a word of complaint at the continuing abuse heaped upon him. Most of the lords of the Mourning Isles were aghast at the honorable Grimhall just ignoring the barrage of slights from his brother, save where his daughter was concerned. It seemed that Dmitry was not particularly a traditonalist, largely turning a blind eye to his daughter Cordelia's rebellious ways, and it was rumored that Dmitry and Duke Eugine nearly came to blows over it. Fortunately for the Mourning Isles, Duke Eugine's ship was lost at sea recently, dying without a decreed heir, which caused the title to pass to Dmitry. Any death of a duke is suspicious, but frankly the Mourning Isles houses were too glad to see Eugine gone to pay it much heed.
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