Brencis, Knyaz of Vale Sangora
Vale Sangora is ruled by the vrakhir Brencis, a usurper born in the ancient Roman Empire who still takes open pride in his distant homeland and heritage. He seized the valley two years ago together with his three vrakhir boyars, and many believed he had saved them — in a way he did — but not for their sake. Little by little, the people of the valley are learning he is not the benevolent knyaz he claimed to be.
He holds court from Greifberg Castle above Svartrau, watching over everything. Reaching him in his fortress will not be easy — but difficult does not mean impossible.
The three boyars
Beneath Brencis sit three boyars, each running a different arm of his rule:
- Xanthe — the cathedral, the blood supply chain and the ancient digs
- Bakir — policing, punishment and collection
- Ambrus — the military fist of the Knyaz
The Court panel is where Coen sees which activities damage which boyar. Completing enough of them opens the opportunity to face the ruling vrakhir himself.
The eighteen activities
Eighteen activities are assigned across the three boyars. They are not abstract tasks; each one is a real operation somewhere in Vale Sangora, and disrupting it removes something the boyar depends on.
Xanthe
- Abducted Girls
- Blood Guard Recruiters
- Blood Guard Mentors
- Artefact Transports
- Ancient Digsites
- Gargoyle Manufacture
- Cathedral Ritual
Bakir
- Rebel Hunters
- Distilleries
- Pillories
- Payoff Transports
- Uriash Village
Ambrus
- Blood Cellars
- Blood Transports
- Draining Dungeons
- Leech Collectors
- Prisoner Transports
- Prisoner Processing Camp
For a vassal-by-vassal breakdown of what each activity provokes, see the guide Court Activities, and which vassal each one angers.
Infamy and how it rises
Every disruption raises Coen's Infamy. Infamy runs through three stages — Insignificant, Notorious and Dreaded — tracked in the same Court panel as the boyars themselves.
The actions that raise it are weighted. Tearing a banner from a city wall is a small offence, killing soldiers at a checkpoint or a military camp is worth more, and massacring a guard post is worth several times either. Infamy is therefore a measure of how loud Coen has been, not simply how much he has done.
Why Infamy has teeth
Each new Infamy level makes Brencis issue a new edict, and every edict makes Vale Sangora a little more hostile. There are nine of them in total, three per Infamy stage, covering everything from checkpoints on the roads to a curfew and eventually an army reform.
That gives the Court system a real cost. Clearing boyar activities is how Coen reaches Brencis, but it is also how the world closes in around him — the trade The Blood of Dawnwalker asks the player to make deliberately rather than by accident.