Nobles of Hohenthal
Intro
Havoc recently linked a post describing a method of generating a noble lineage. I wanted to learn more about Hohenthal, the ruined town above the dungeon in my Solo Goblins game, so I decided to give it a spin. I used Ktrey's d100 - Rumored Renown for when Reputation Precedes and a judicious amount of yes/no oracle rolls to further flesh out the nobles.
Looking at OSE's Designing a Base Town, I decided Hohenthal was going to be a Small Town at the height of its development. So between 1000 and 4999 inhabitants. Rolling 1d4 for thousands and 1d10 for hundreds, I got 1700 people.
From there, after few oracle rolls, I determined the founder and the first ruler was a famous adventurer, a thief. And the last ruler was a rather insignificant noble. I used the procedure described in the blogpost to generate a suitable amount of nobles in between and ended up with this.
List of Rulers
2 years - Madison the Fox [He/Him]
- Thief 8.
- Granted title by the crown.
- Founded the town.
- Had fondness for horse riding and fine steeds. Built a well stocked stables, which the town became famous for.
52 weeks - Brynn von Kirchenthal [She/Her]
- Madison’s wife.
- Ruled as regent for their daughter Wibke von Hohenthal.
11 years - Josefine von Kirchenthal [She/Her]
- Maternal aunt of Brynn.
- Rules as a regent for her grand niece Wibke von Hohenthal.
- Assassinated by an unknown adversary.
22 years - Wibke von Hohenthal [She/Her]
- Daughter of Madison the Fox and Bryn von Kirchenthal.
- Her rule was long, prosperous and uneventful.
33 years - Amadea von Hohenthal [She/Her]
- Daughter of Wibke von Hohenthal.
- Her rule was long, prosperous and uneventful.
14 years - Eusebia von Hohenthal [She/Her]
- Daughter of Amadea von Hohenthal
- Was ensorcelled by a witch and became increasingly erratic under her influence.
- Greatly expands the cellars under the keep.
- Establishes matrilineal succession for the title of Hohenthal.
- Presumed dead after venturing into the forest and not returning.
2 years - Lyonette von Hohenthal [She/Her]
- Daughter of Eusebia von Hohenthal.
- Dies during childbirth.
36 years - Lioba “the Lynx” von Hohenthal [She/Her]
- Daughter of Eusebia von Hohenthal.
- Thief 14.
- Well known troublemaker with a craving for controversy.
- Said to be favored by the goddess Fortuna herself.
- Defeated the Spectre of Spreewald who was actually an unholy amalgam of her grandmother Eusebia and the witch that ensorcelled her.
- Stored many treasures from her adventures in the cellars underneath the keep.
10 years - Asta von Hohenthal [She/Her]
- Daughter of Lioba von Hohenthal.
- Thief 13.
- In many ways resembled her mother, except she kept a much lower profile.
3 years - Maurina von Hohenthal [She/Her]
- Daughter of Asta von Hohenthal.
- Dies during the hobgoblin raid which razes Hohenthal.
Intermission
Around halfway through, I realized I need to keep tabs on the exact timeline, if I want to make sure the nobles don't have babies as kids themselves or when they're 80+ years old.
Timeline
-1 - Wibke is born to Brynn von Kirchenthal and Madison the Fox.
0 - Hohenthal is founded by Madison the Fox.
2 - Madison the Fox dies during an adventure.
3 - Brynn von Kirchenthal dies in a riding accident.
14 - Josefine von Kirchenthal is assassinated by an unknown adversary.
15 - Amadea is born to Wibke von Hohenthal.
36 - Wibke von Hohenthal dies during childbirth.
36 - Eusebia is born to Amadea von Hohenthal.
58 - Lyonette is born to Eusebia von Hohenthal.
59 - Lioba is born to Eusebia von Hohenthal.
69 - Amadea von Hohenthal dies of poor health.
79 - Livvi is born to Lyonette von Hohenthal.
83 - Eusebia von Hohenthal is presumed dead after venturing into the forest and not returning.
85 - Lyonette von Hohenthal dies during childbirth.
87 - Livvi von Hohenthal dies of measles leaving no heir, title passes to the line of Lioba von Hohenthal.
87 - Asta is born to Lioba von Hohenthal.
96 - Lioba von Hohenthal defeats the Spectre of Spreewald.
111 - Maurina is born to Asta von Hohenthal.
121 - Lioba von Hohenthal dies of natural causes.
131 - Asta von Hohenthal dies while returning from an adventure.
134 - Maurina von Hohenthal dies during the hobgoblin raid which razes Hohenthal leaving no heir.
438 - Current date.\
Outro
I gave each noble a 1-in-6 chance to have a feature from the d12 table from the original procedure and 2-in-6 chance to have a feature from the Ktrey's d100 table.
For each noble I flipped a coin for their gender and it just so happened that nearly all of them are women.
At the very end I rolled 2d20 keep highest to determine how long since the town was raised and got 304 years. That's probably too much for there to be even ruins left but d&d logic and all that.
I like the procedure and think it could be expanded with some additional tables to roll on. For example a cause of death would be nice. Though to be honest, I don't think this was particularly good use of time in my case. I'm running a bunch of goblins and unless there's a budding archeologist among them, they might not even come across a lot of this. I guess it does give me a reason why the dungeon is there underneath the keep (built by Eusebia as ordered by the Witch of Spreewald) and why it is filled with all kinds of treasures (spoils of adventure stored there by Lioba and Asta).