Manfried Dwendal

Emperor Manfried Dwendal was the first emperor of the Dwendalian Empire in Wildemount.

Biography
Manfried Dwendal became the first emperor of the Dwendalian Empire. His father, Eckhardt Dwendal, wished to institute a monarchy and placed his son Manfried on the throne. Eckhardt made deals with the heads of the emerging guilds, using promises or blackmail to secure their cooperation. With the support of the guild heads, the throne was established. In 539 PD, Manfried became the first emperor of the Dwendalian Empire.

In 544 PD, a group of religious leaders rebelled against religious restrictions in the Dwendalian Empire and attempted to usurp Manfried's newly-established throne. Dwendal had these leaders executed in an event called "The Admonition", and considered banning all religion henceforth, causing further uproar among the people. However, Dwendal's spies then discovered the rebellion had been seeded by the Julous Dominion. Publicly exposing the plot, the emperor outlawed all gods that he felt threatened civilized life, allowing the worship of only a select few. He redirected much of the people's fury by also proclaiming the Julous Dominion an enemy of the empire later that year and declaring war on the neighboring nation.

During the resulting Marrow War, the Dwendalian Empire eventually occupied the entirety of Western Wynandir including the Dominion's capital city of Zadash. During peace negotiations immediately thereafter, Manfried Dwendal assassinated Baron Inock Julous and Baroness Tessandra Julous of the Dominion, leaving the Dominion leaderless and bringing the Marrow War to an end. The conflict had lasted over sixteen months and cost the lives of many soldiers and innocents on both sides of the Marrow Valley.

Manfried chose not to destroy the Dominion, but to fold it into the Empire by allowing citizens to keep their lands and homesteads. Life continued much as it had before, but he allowed only his selected gods and brought the area within the Empire's tax, production, and distribution systems. In a further attempt to tamp down resentment within the newly-conquered lands, Dwendal chose to hearken back to the long-ago days of the kings and queens of the Age of Arcanum by dropping the title of "Emperor" and being known thereafter as "King Manfried Dwendal", while retaining the country's name of the "Dwendalian Empire".