Keeper of the Bonehives
Overview
The Keeper of the Bonehives is an Imperial title created by the Senate in Winter 383YE to oversee the Bone Hives following the conquest of Ossium. The position of Keeper is an unusual sinecure, producing doses of three unique drugs. The hives are in the depths of the Echofell, in Ossium.
Responsibilities
The Keeper has no particular responsibilities; they simply receive an income of unusual drugs from the Bone Hives each season. If the hives were to be threatened in any way, it would be the responsibility of the Keeper to deal with those threats.
Powers
Unique Drugs
The Keeper gains custodianship of a sinecure. Each season they receive 3 doses each of substances known to the locals as Flickerbright, Stormspark, and Fireheart, produced from the ichor and venom of the insects housed at the sinecure mixed with local plants.
Appointment
The title is selected by unanimous decision of the Varushkan senators at the Winter Solstice. If a unanimous decision cannot be reached, the title may be appointed by the Imperial Senate instead.
The title can be held by any Varushkan citizen. The Keeper serves until the next scheduled election. They can be revoked by the General Assembly, the Varushkan National Assembly, and by the Assembly of the Nine.
| Summit | Elected |
|---|---|
| Winter Solstice 385YE | Sketchemi Justicast Mentyevik |
| Winter Solstice 384YE | Druhain Olodniky |
| Spring Equinox 384YE | Druhain |
Recent Elections
This title is currently held by Sketchemi Justicast Mentyevik; it will be reelected at the next summit. The table to the right shows the citizens who have been elected to hold this title in the years since Empress Britta died.
The Bone Hives
The Echofell is currently known for two things; the Tower of the Scorpion and the disturbing number of unpleasant insects and poisonous creatures the live there, many of them almost unnaturally keen to feast on human blood. Much of the forest is still shrouded in mystery, but the Druj of the Amber Scorpion clan, it seems, were farming insects in much the same way a Volodmartz herder might farm sheep.
The great buzzing hives stand in the south-eastern Echofell, and take their name from their peculiar construction. The hives, it seems, are built of bleached weirwood and animal bone, making them stand out like eerie ghosts against the dark trees of the forbidding forest. The secretions from the insects harboured within are harvested and mixed with local plants to create substances unknown in the Empire which combine narcotic and medicinal effects that work equally well on humans and orcs. Surrounding the hives is a ring of buildings, formerly belonging to Druj apothecaries, and now occupied by their former human and orc servants. Initially suspicious of the civil servants, the presence of the Imperial Orcs Bonewall Tresshak and Bonewall Koshhok in their party helped create an initial rapport. Hungry and isolated, the former servants were able to provide an explanation for the hives, and demonstrate how they were used. Most of the orcs were fascinated to hear tales of Skarsind, and have already departed the area to join the Imperial Orcs. The remaining humans have shown a great deal of interest in becoming Varushkan, and potentially establishing a vale around the Bonehives. The Hives themselves, however, they have no interest in maintaining.
Following their invasion of Echofell in 384 YE, the Druj attempted to destroy the bone hives, to deny them to the Empire. Luckily the Keeper, and a band of Imperial heroes, were able to thwart them - but not before they had damaged several hives. As a consequence, production of the unique drugs from the bone hives was interrupted for several months.