Confessions of the KIng

by Brightwil

This is the confession Bhelen wrote to his wife Rica on the event of his death. It takes place 40 years after Inquisition when he dies of old age. It assumes Bhelin is a reformer who will do almost anything to drag the dwarves out of their past. If people like it enough for it to continue he will make "mistakes" in things that happen in the game world as he is not all knowing .

Confessions of a King

My darling Rica,

Now that I am gone I must confess the rumors you heard were true. I had my brother Trian killed, blamed it on my other brother Duran and killed my father. I never told you while I was alive as I could not bear you leaving me.

The fact is that I hated the caste system long before I met you. I never understood why generations of dwarves should be cast out for something their great, great ancestor did. All it does is hold us back. Generations of dwarves are doomed to crime and hopelessness not for what they did but for what their great, great grandfather did. We have been throwing generations of dwarves for something their ancestor had done.

Behind closed doors I argued with my family about it for years. However, since I never shouted or became visibly belligerent I was underestimated and ignored. They saw me as weak and idealistic and so looked past me. They never knew beneath the politeness was a layer of rage. Rage against the unfairness of dwarven society and unfortunately my family was at the heart of it.

The slaying of Trian was easy , he was a pompous ass who made many enemies over the decades. He was smug and disdainful of others. His death was mourned by few. Duran was more difficult to push out of the way.

Duran was far more likable than my oldest brother. He was fantastic at fighting and he was quite willing to go out drinking even with the lower nobility. However, the low nobility was as far down as he went. Below that you were beneath notice and the casteless were there to be used until they died.

It was easy to convince Duran his brother was after him. He liked his brother no more than anyone else and knew full well that Trian was likely to lose the throne. Still I took no chances and hired some assassins to take him out. Actually, I maneuvered House Zace to do so. The youngest son was a hot-headed nit-wit and with the right ideas planted in his brain I knew he would do so.

I then made sure Duran would be found over the body. I had earlier blackmailed Frandlin Ivo into giving perjured testimony say Duran did so. I found out that he was illegally selling lyrium through the Carta bypassing the royal monopoly. If convicted he would have stripped of his caste and sent to Dust Town. He was a big supporter of the caste system and I had no compunction working against him.

Duran was exiled and was eventually killed hunting darkspawn. He killed a great many before succumbing. He was able to find better weapons and armor down there among the dead dwarves and food and water from them as well. But in the end they took him down. When they found his body he was a few hundred meters from a darkspawn attack. He was able to kill a good many, including an ogre, before being mortally wounded. He managed to crawl away a distance before finally expiring from his wounds. Well, he always wanted to go down heroically and he attained that goal.