Tommen Frauentyk, known as Tommen Londyr from 569 b. OW on, was an important military officer and public administrator in the Ochebana Empire. He was commander-in-chief of the Ochebanian army during the conquest of Brimmer, and served as Warden of the Marches.

History

Tommen Frauentyk was born in 599 b. OW in Softoun, a city in the Ochebana Empire. He was the son of a stoneworker and a woodworker's assistant, the youngest of five children. He grew up watching knights in shining armor stand in the village square, announcing their glorious deeds and the words of the emperor himself. He admired the knights and desperately wanted to become one of them; he'd tried out both stone- and woodworking, and hadn't found much pleasure in it; his two brothers likewise didn't much appreciate working in the village. One day, when Tommen was 11 years old, two Swordswingers came to the town and said they were looking for artisans versed in construction, for work in Londerhome. The boys saw their biggest dream come true and volunteered their parents for the work. Of course, it was a bad surprise for the parents, who'd intended to live out their lives calmly in Softoun, but two days later the whole family was on a rickety wagon, moving south to the legendary capital.

The parents' new work paid better than before, and, with an additional down payment by the imperials, the Frauentyks were able to afford a nice little home in the center of town. Though the parents intended for their children to become artisans, and Tommen's two older brothers were already finding some success as merchants and farm owners, he had bigger dreams. When he turned twelve, he applied to train as a Swordswinger, and the order took him in.

For ten years, Tommen underwent the order's harsh training, until he was anointed and received his two blades. As a Swordswinger, he was often busy with official functions like supervising the training of levies, carrying messages or announcements between settlements, and even serving as Ochebanian ambassador to the empire's neighbors. On the side, though, he used his influence to encourage his brothers' businesses and help them become some of the richest guildsmen in town. When Arthur Morgan marched on Londerhome in 572, Londer was one of the first to notice, rallying both the city militia and the Swordswingers to meet him. In the ensuing fight, he fought bravely and killed an enemy Swordswinger. In recognition of this service, he was given the rank of Blade Principal.

By then, the Frauentyks were one of the most influential families in Londerhome. Tommen, as a knight, had designed a sigil for himself: a sword buried in the grass, with a cormorant perched atop it. In fact, the cormorant was the family's unspoken totem animal, and all Frauentyks used cormorants to some extent as their house sigil. It was thanks to this influence that Tommen was made Warden of the Castle in 570; this was a mostly honorary position, but it did grant him complete command over Londerhome's guard forces. A year later, when Harnfeldt Merker, a rich landowner, decided to invest heavily into a ship and a forge, Tommen encouraged the Frauentyks to support this endeavor. The plan worked out: three years later, Tommen's sister and brother had married Merkers, and the Frautentyk-Merkers dominated Londerhome's market. To consolidate their position, the two families decided to form a new house, with a pure ancestry and honorable name: Londyr.

Londyr funds and human resources were essential for Emperor Londer's war effort. Thus, Tommen was named Blade Captain - the commander of the Swordswingers - and he made Taren Londyr, his Merker half-brother, Principal. Reportedly, the relationship between the two half-brothers was extremely close, and Tommen saw himself as the protector of the younger man. There were allegations of love between the two. Tommen honored his name both on the battlefield as a warrior, and in the commanders' tent as an excellent strategist. When the campaign against the Lespen Alliance was won and Londer returned to Londerhome due to health problems, Tommen was made Warden of the Lakelands and oversaw the rapid assimilation of what had been the Lespers, and the restoration of the army for a continued campaign.

Tommens war banner.

A commander had to be chosen for the imperial army. Tommen was an excellent officer, and the favor of the Frauentyk Londyrs back home, the Swordswingers in the Lakelands, and the emperor himself. Tommen became the second ever General of the Imperial Army, replacing Tenner, a Merker Londyr. Under his command, the Ochebanian army quickly won the siege of Peteran and a battle against a small Brimmer army as much through political and morale maneuvering as through strategic prowess, and soon after won a brilliant victory against a superior enemy at the Battle of the Cloud Peaks. Tommen captured the Brimmer king, and Tommen attended the official dissolution of the kingdom in Peteran.

General Tommen oversaw the campaign against Drummir-Fjor in 563 b. OW, but it was a difficult challenge: he couldn't attack directly and had to keep the avenue of diplomacy open, even while the sizeable Drummir-Fjor Guardsmen army tried to defeat him. In the only armed encounter, a skirmish between two smaller forces, the Ochebanians were routed. Drummir-Fjor was finally vanquished diplomatically in a set of treaties between the city and the emperor, but Tommen had won no glory in the process.

The wars were still far from over: the Marcher Lords to the south refused to recognize the Ochebanian crown, and the campaign against them began in 562 b. OW. This time, General Tommen only commanded one of two armies; his failure during the Drummir-Fiorite campaign had dispelled his aura of infallibility, and the Londyrs back south intended to profit from his weakness: there was still some competition between the Merker and the Frauentyk parts of the family, and now that Taren was Governor of Londerhome, they wanted to weaken the Frauentyks as much as possible by forcing Tommen from favor. He commanded the smaller of the two armies, and faced a far tougher foe than Brimmer. The Marchers were experienced in warfare and often used light, ranged, and mobile units to outmaneuver and ambush their enemy; the Ochebanian army was based on heavy infantry, which was exceptionally vulnerable to such tactics. Nevertheless, Tommen - in no small part thanks to hobgoblin stag cavalry - managed to outmaneuver and defeat small Marcher armies twice, while the Marcher Lords focused most of their forces on fighting and routing the other Ochebanian force. For the final standoff, General Tommen - reinforced with everything the empire had, as well as several Marcher Lords who had decided to side with him - faced the united Marcher army, and won.

Tommen was very popular both among the Ochebanian soldiery and among the Marchers, who saw him as a capable leader and inspirational man. However, he had been wounded in the recent fighting. In recognition of his exceptional service, Emperor Londer gave him the title of Warden of the Marches, and allowed him to move into Moat Cailin as ruler of Ochebana's largest province.

Back in Londerhome, the Merker Londyrs had consolidated their power even further. In a final maneuver, they gave the emperor all the troops loyal to them in exchange for some favors. The idea was to strip Tommen from any military power, perhaps even to have him fall to a Marcher revolt, while simultaneously gaining complete control over the family. Caety Londyr, the Frauentyk daughter not married to a Merker, was their final threat. To prevent anything from happening to her, she joined Tommen in Moat Cailin, and married a Marcher Lord in 561 b. OW. The couple lived in Moat Cailin, and Tommen was his sister's protector; there were reports of an affair between the two - in fact, there were doubts that Caety's twins were the trueborn children of her marriage. Tommen himself did not marry.

By the emperor's orders, the imperial army was to invade the expansive territories currently occupied by cling-clang south of the Marches in 559 b. OW. Maneuver as they might, the Londyrs and Merker's other enemies could not deny Warden Tommen's authority in the matter. He organized the mobilization and deployment of imperial forces; these encompassed 15'000 troops from the empire proper, and 4'600 Marchers loyal to him. He decided to form two armies, as the empire supplied him with two generals: and one of these was Tenner Londyr, who arrived at the head of the Londerhome Regiments and the Swordswingers. But Field General Tommen knew the Londerhomians; they were the Londyr troops he had fought with during the Brimmer campaign. And he knew the Swordswingers, who still saw him as one of their own. Thus, he was able to make General Tenner commander of the Marcher army, while the two others, who were friendly and neutral to him, commanded the imperial troops. The Marcher officers under Tenner of course were loyal to Tommen first, and made sure that Tenner did exactly what Tommen wanted him two. In the ensuing campaign, Field General Tommen's two armies successfully pierced through the disorganized cling-clang, and Tenner returned to Londerhome a victorious general within the year.

It took several years of military rule before enough Ochebanian settlers had arrived in the new territories for local cities and militias to take over. During that time, Tommen consolidated his position in the imperial administration and expanded the Marches' territory some distance south.

Lady Caety Londyr's young husband died of an unknown cause in 557 b. OW, and she lived as a widow with her brother in Moat Cailin. They raised her twins together, the support of the Marchers too great for anyone to remove them from power. Tommen Londyr died in 526 b. OW, the last Frauentyk Londyr capable of continuing his line, without children. Caety's children had a Marcher name, and first Caety, then the older daughter, served as Wardens of the Marches.