Castlemere War
The Castlemere War: The Fall of House Ravencrest
The Castlemere War was not just a conflict—it was a reckoning. A brutal and decisive campaign, it marked the end of House Ravencrest’s tyrannical rule and the bloody rise of Narri Castlereagh, who led her fearsome Vermillion Guard from the jungles of Chult to claim the city as her own.
For centuries, House Ravencrest ruled with an iron grip, weaving a web of espionage, assassination, and dark sorcery to maintain control. But their reign had bred resentment. The nobility feared them, the common folk suffered under their cruelty, and foreign powers watched for a moment of weakness. That moment came when Narri Castlereagh, Former Commander of the Red Wizards of Thay Expeditionary Forces of Chult and excommunicated member of the Raven Lords, set her sights on the city, seeing it as the perfect foothold in the northern lands.
The Invasion of the Vermillion Guard
Narri did not arrive as a liberator, nor as a usurper seeking noble alliances—she came as a conqueror. With her Vermilion Guard, an elite army of warriors forged in the brutal battles of Chult, she launched a direct assault on the city, bypassing the usual political games that had protected the Ravencrests for generations. Her warriors, clad in their crimson war paint and battle-hardened armor, struck with precision and fury, cutting through the city’s defenses like a blade through silk.
The war was swift and brutal. The Ravencrest loyalists, though well-trained and deeply entrenched, were unprepared for the sheer ferocity of the Vermillion Guard. Accustomed to ruling through fear rather than open warfare, House Ravencrest’s forces crumbled under the relentless assault. The once-mighty Ravens Hold (now the Crimson Citadel) became a battlefield, its dark stone halls echoing with the screams of the dying.
The Fall of King Vaedric Ravencrest
In the final days of the war, King Vaedric Ravencrest, the last true ruler of the family, made his last stand within the citadel. His sorcerers wove dark spells, his assassins struck from the shadows, but it was not enough. The Vermillion Guard stormed the throne room, Narri Castlereagh personally leading the charge, and in a climactic battle, Vaedric Ravencrest was slain.
The Aftermath: A New Rule in Crimson
With the Ravencrest line broken and their banners torn down, Narri Castlereagh declared herself ruler, renaming Ravens Hold to the Crimson Citadel and cementing her rule with an iron will. She offered no mercy to the remnants of Ravencrest’s rule—traitors were publicly executed, their bodies hung from the citadel walls as a warning.
Yet, even as the city adapted to its new ruler, the scars of the Castlemere War remained. The streets still whispered of the Raven Lords, of lost heirs, and of vengeance brewing in the shadows. Though the war was won, the struggle for power was far from over.