Admeth Hadret was the founder of the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood. He died during the War of Defiance.
Biography[ | ]
Even though he was raised in nobility in the Dyrwood (while it was still Aedyre territory), information about Admeth's early years is nearly impossible to find.
In 2652 AI the Dyrwoodan troubles with their fercönyng were at a boiling point. Several of the erls under Edrang's rule, provoked by the imperial court in Aedyr resumed looting the ruins around Dyrwood that the Glanfathans held sacred. When the Glanfathans finally retaliated, it was overwhelmingly brutal and resulted in a slave uprising. Galven Regd, whom Edrang had fought before, resumed control of the Glanfathan troops. Regd was also able to convince some delemgan to join the fight.
Edrang was, at this point, far too old to lead his forces into battle, so he sent his son Admeth in his place to contain the threat. In order to prevent Regd's troops from using the woods as cover and to keep them from advancing through his land, set fire to the forest at tributary of the Isce Uar River and positioned his troops to prevent any of the Glanfathan forces from retreating. This tactic proved to be effective - while some Glanfathans and delemgan were able to escape, thousands died. In the skirmish that followed, Galven Regd was captured and sent to be held in New Heomar. Admeth was able to do what his father spent decades trying to do. He stopped Galven Regd.
The conflict with the Glanfathans continued for several months, and Admeth repeated the scorched earth tactic several times to flush the opposing forces from key battlefields. He was able to bring the conflict to and end before the year ended. While it was a win for the Dyrwoodans, it was very costly as well. Because of his tactics, the conflict earned the name The War of Black Trees.
After Edrang's death in 2654, Admeth became the Gréf of the Dyrwood to the dismay of the imperial court and the other erls. Over the course of the next year, they defied his rule at every turn, rebuking his decrees and countermanding his directives. In 2655 AI, Admeth had had enough. Even though he lacked support from most of the erls, he was admired by both the Vailian ducs and all the common folk. Backed by this support, he issued an ultimatum to the fercönyng to appoint him a gréf palatine. The fercönyng, unwilling to deal with a rebellion while trying to establish a new vorlas trade in Readceras, agreed. Admeth then held authority and legal power over the erls, their holdings, and their titles. The Dyrwood was no longer a gréfram, but instead was a palatinate. This change reduced the fercönyng's power over the region. With his new power, Admeth quickly brought the rebellious erls into line. But, in exchange for the power, Admeth invested time and money into all of the Dyrwood's ports and trade posts, dramatically increasing shipping traffic. This helped the erls and brought in more money for the fercönyng.
Over the five years following his ascension to gréf, Admeth attempted to mend relations with the Glanfathans and bring his land together with theirs. He enacted laws that restricted the taking of new slaves, allowed Glanfathans to buy their fellows out of bondage, and imposed a tax on slave ownership in order to promote the use of free labor. While there was some resistance to these new laws, the fercönyng's attention to Readceras and Admeth's power (backed by the colonists), made it difficult for the erls to truly resist what was happening.
In 2662 AI, in the year of the tenth anniversary of the War of Black Trees, Admeth brought about the end to slavery in the Dyrwood. He negotiated a series of treaties with the Glanfathans wherein a timeline was established for the official emancipation of all remaining slaves. Each owner would receive compensation in either land or money based on the number of slaves freed. If they didn't comply, the slaves would be seized and their former masters would suffer a substantial fine. In return for this, the Glanfathans opened trade routes with the Dyrwood and allowed Dyrwoodans to live in and near areas that had their sacred ruins but they are, under no conditions, to enter the ruins. As a final act of good will, Admeth freed Galven Regd, saying he had suffered sufficiently for his actions.
The fercönyng, seeing he was completely out of control in his own palatinate, devised a plan to get the supply of ancient artifacts running again. He approached the erls suffering under Admeth's rule and convinced them to hire agents to raid the ruins. Initially, they did so in secret, but they quickly became sloppy, eventually being caught. This breach of the treaties incited Glanfathans again to acts of violence while Admeth researched who was behind it.
With help of the Glanfathan leaders, Admeth found evidence that pointed back to the fercönyng as the source of the raids. That was the beginning of the end for Aedyran rule in the Dyrwood. Over the next seven years, Admeth and the fercönyng maneuvered around each other, playing political, economic, and military games in order to gain the upper hand. In 2668 AI, Admeth declared the Dyrwood had had enough. The fercönyng would no longer be recognized - the Dyrwood was now a free entity and would govern itself. This started the War of Defiance which lasted five years.
The end result of the war was freedom for the Dyrwood, and though Duc Hadret would never live to see it come to a close, the people of Dyrwood consider him the founder of the country nevertheless.