Count Simon de Montefort was born to Duke Tymion de Montefort, Lord of a wealthy rustic fiefdom in southern Minya Amar and bannerman to the King of Mooncrest. His mother was Silvya Demascio, a dark haired daughter of a wealthy merchant from the Four Sands Outpost.

He grew up like much of the nobility of southern Dae Luin. At the age of seven he began training in the ways of the sword, spear, and bow. He learned to ride, to shout and give commands, and to hunt with the hounds and hawk. He became an accomplished pugilist, wrestler and jouster. At the same time he was immersed in the court of Dae Luin, learning politeness and manners, the sigils and histories of the various noble houses, and learned to read and write with ancient stories of chivalrous deeds and courtly love. He also learned the holy ways of the Paladin, passed down from the founders of their House who won nobility helping the King of MoonCrest fight the forces of evil.

He was barely a teenager when the bannermen of the King of Mooncrest were called to arms to fight a Highlander threat in the north. His father, older brother, uncles, and cousins rode off to find glory fighting for the Kingdom. Only his older brother and two cousins returned. Simon never forgot what his father sacrificed for Dae Luin, and would spend the rest of his life trying to emulate the father who'd been taken from him.

His brother Perez became Duke of Montefort, and married a highborn daughter of another southern lord, Maria. Simon was made Count of Montefort, the Duke's Champion and Castellan. His brother wished for him to marry, but Simon had no taste for the intrigue and politics of courtly life. when he married, he wanted it to be for love.

Word eventually reached their land that his father was actually betrayed by one of his bannerman, Roderick Cestle, a man thought dead: who sold his father to the Highlanders for ambush. Enraged, Montefort demanded to be allowed to take a force north, to destroy the traitor and the Highlanders responsible and avenge his father.

For many weeks they quarreled, but finally the Duke relented. He would not deny his little brother the chance to fight for honor. He sent Count Simon north, along with two dozen heavy horse and archers, twice as many men-at-arms, and with four Caravels with full complements of sailors and marines. A small force, but as much as could be given by the now-impoverished duchy.

So northward rode Montefort, to his destiny.

The Highland Campaigns turned out to be long and brutal. On the way north Simon helped repel an undead invasion of the Dark Forest, and assisted the wood elves of the Eastern Forest in driving back a great pack of werewolves. Once he finally reached the highlands, the Highlanders fought fiercely, and Montefort would not have survived if not for the assistance of the Wood Elves and the Orcs. He freed an Orc named Rognar, who united their scattered tribes and founded the first Orcish Kingdom in a generation. Together they fought Dun Caric to a standstill, killed the traitor Roderick, and brokered a Peace Accord between the Kingdom of the Orcs, the Kingdom of Oakwood, Dun Caric, and the Kingdom of MoonCrest.

Afterward Montefort returned to MoonCrest, where King William berated him for making alliances in his name. However the King could not deny his accomplishments, and so rewarded him with the position as MoonCrest's crisis first responder and increasing his forces proportionally. Montefort, the Champion of MoonCrest, was born.

His fame and increased fortune pulled him to center stage in the Royal Court. While away on campaign his brother had pioneered ingenious methods to increase their grape harvest, and brokered trade deals with Kindor, Sirya Taras and the Four Sands Outpost to sell large amounts of their main export: wine. The county's fortunes had now turned. Aspirers to power courted them, and their enemies plotted their downfall.

At a ball put on by the Royal Family in MoonCrest Simon\'s brother was assassinated, killed by a faraway sniper armed with a simple crossbow. Grieved, Simon found himself with responsibility he never thought he'd bear, and another family member to avenge. Maria, freshly widowed, grieved for months at the Chateau. She was like a mother to Simon, and so he asked her to stay as Steward of his castle.

The woman he took to the ball, Serene, comforted him in his grief, and Simon fell in love. Her Ward, Prince Lawrence, saw Simon's affection and took advantage. He threatened to marry her to Conrad, the man he suspected guilty of his brother's murder, unless he abandoned Prince Wallace's claim to the throne and joined his own. Simon reluctantly agreed, and in the process lost one of his oldest friends.

Shortly after the death of his brother, Simon was assigned by Prince Lawrence of Lunaar to make good MoonCrest's claim on the Minocian Coast. In this time of chaos the Prince sought to unify the people by focusing them upon an outside enemy, and Lawrence sought to increase his glory and claim to the throne by having one of his bannermen lead the assault.

Simon de Montefort successfully conquered Minoc and brought the entirety of the southern continent under MoonCrest's control. In recognition of his accomplishments he was given the title Duke of Montefort, and married to Marchioness Serene Shardae, becoming too the Marquis of Tresceau.

A great victory celebration followed at the capital, during which the pirates counterattacked and set fire to MoonCrest's dock district. Enraged, the King stripped Simon of his title of Duke and that of Champion of MoonCrest for not forseeing the assault, and awarded it to Duke Conrad.

Simon for years worked overseeing the occupation of Minoc under his sworn enemy, and worked to improve his new lands and relations between the four kingdoms. Eventually the Minocians rebelled with outside help and regained the independence of their peninsula, forcing Conrad to retreat in shame. He then began spreading rumors at Court that it was Simon's incompetence that lost them Minoc, furthering soiling his once-great reputation.

In the meantime Simon had made great gains with his lands of Montefort and Tresceau. Towers, keeps, and holdfasts were erected across his domains, each within sight of at least two others so that messages could quickly be transmitted across the land via mirrors or signal fires. Interlocking these and the villages was a system of stone roads to facilitate easy transportation within his lands. The rivers and streams flowing through his lands were dammed, their water harnessed via reservoirs, canals, aqueducts, cisterns, and irrigation ditches used to support agriculture and supplement the wells. It also served to supply running water to population centers for sewage, fountains, and bathhouses. In Ourlieu and the largest towns libraries, academies, gymnasiums, trade guild halls, hospitals, and courthouses were constructed. A constabulary independent of the military was established, and judges independent of the local nobility. In Ourlieu Simon erected galleries for the visual arts, wine-tasting halls, and a grand amphitheater to be a venue for athletes, performing artists, and dueling bravos to find glory. Simon soon saw the payoff of continuing his elder brother's infrastructure initiatives.

During this time, Serene his love gave him a son, whom Simon named Perez after his older brother. He looked the spitting image of Simon: big and swarthy and strong. Though half Atavian he had neither his mother's wings nor hollow bones as far as the maesters could tell. He seemed fully human in all but name, and all Montefort. Two years later Serene became pregnant once again, and this time gave Simon twins: a boy named Raphael and a girl named Isabella. They were fair like their mother; with narrow features, ivory skin, and sapphire eyes. Their ears tapered, wings sprouted from their shoulder blades, and as far as the maesters could tell they seemed to have the hollow bones and lighter frame of the Atavian race. Of their father they had raven hair and wings of the same hue. In time Perez became Simon's squire, Raphael his Page and Isabella his cupbearer. Once he was old enough to squire, Simon sent Raphael north to his old friend Rognar to foster, with his cousin Edgar de Montefort and a maester to accompany him. In return Rognar sent his son Ruslok south with a red orc guardian to foster at the Chateau.

Suddenly, tragedy struck the family. Moghedrin, the ancient dark sorcerer, somehow bypassed the ancient warding spells that protected the Chateau and entered the keep. There he slew Serene in their bed, and spirited away Simon's firstborn son Perez. Simon spent two years travelling halfway around the world searching for them, but in vain. Defeated, he returned to the Chateau to see to his lands and surviving children.

Years later trouble once again brewed in the north. The MoonCrest mines and the shipments they sent south were taken by raiders. The mining guild petitioned at Court for an expedition to be undertaken to retake the mines, but the King had been reluctant to send royal forces away from the city ever since the pirate attack, and instead commanded them to explore mineral prospects in the catacombs under the city and castle. During this time Simon set out to find a werewolf that was terrorizing his lands. He fought the beast all night, and when morning came it turned into a young man. Simon took pity on Olvar, and instead of killing him took him captive. Eventually he became found of the boy, released him and made him his squire.

Simon met in secret a representative of various dwarf clans interested in resettling their ancient kingdom under the mines. They agreed that Simon would call forth his banners for a campaign to take the mines and the lands surrounding them. The Atavians, Serene's wandering people, would be settled on the mountains over the mines, while his humans would settle the surrounding lands. The Dwarves would have the mines and the entirety of their ancient kingdom with Simon protecting their borders. The Dwarf representative, Veloran Aedulin, would be Baron over all this provided he bent the knee and did Montefort fealty and through him the King. Thus the dwarves would regain their ancient home and MoonCrest their mines. Afterword, he was approached by a representative of the rich merchants of Vespora. Their spies had informed them of Montefort's deal with the dwarves. They revealed to Montefort that corsairs had established control of the isles surrounding the MoonCrest Volcano and were preying upon shipping along the western sea route. Their overlord had landed on the mainland with a force and seized the mines, declaring himself King of the Isles and the Mines. They offered to fund Simon's campaign to retake the mines, but only if he killed the Pirate King and seized the Isles as well. They would even grant him generous loans to develop those lands after he took them, and recognize his right to exact a toll of no more than one fifteenth the value of the cargo being shipped through his sea lanes provided he ensured safe passage to all vessels that paid the toll. Contracts signed and money in hand, Simon prepared for war.

However, while sailing north they encountered a raging storm that whipped the fleet apart and threatened to overturn their ship at any moment. When at last the storm's fury died, they seemed to be in a different place: the sea was of a new hue, the air tasted strange; the very stars were changed. They were in a new land, and their adventure was only just beginning…

Simon is a large man, tall and broad-shouldered, well-muscled and standing straight as an arrow. He has a strong jaw, an olive complexion, and raven hair. Kindness and strength shine in his dark eyes, as well as in his voice. Scars litter his body from a lifetime of war, though his face seems to be relatively untouched.

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House Montefort Banner (carried by Simon's squire Olvar):


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