Fedor dan Isher is one of the foremost of Midderland’s old nobility, and a cunning and duplicitous operator on the Open Council. He is probably the son of the Lord Isher the Elder, who appeared in the original trilogy.
Appearance and Personality[]
Isher is a tall man with well-groomed pure white hair, despite being in his early thirties. He's a cunning politician, a smooth talker, and a bit of a snake.
History[]
A Little Hatred[]
Lord Isher has made himself exceptionally rich by fencing-in common grazing land, and then forcibly buying out smallholding farmers. Among those effected is Gunnar Broad, a veteran Ladderman recently returned from the war in Styria, who is so incensed that he kills Isher's bailiffs.
After the Battle of Red Hill, Lord Governor Leo dan Brock of Angland travels to Adua for his triumph. Lords Isher, Barezin and Heugen make a point of introducing themselves, to sow seeds of discontent in the young man's mind.
The Trouble With Peace[]
When Fedor dan Wetterlant is arrested for rape and murder, Lord Isher sees an opportunity to conspire against the crown. With King Orso, he proposes a compromise where Wetterlant gives a full and contrite confession before the Open Council, allowing Orso to commute his sentence to life imprisonment. With the other nobles, he take a decidedly different tone, portraying Wetterlant as an ill-used victim of the corrupt Closed Council. In the Lord's Round, Wetterlant puts on quite a performance at his trial, having transformed himself from a pampered fop into a tortured innocent. As the Open Council erupts in tumult, Isher encourages Leo dan Brock to denounce the trial as a travesty. The king is not amused, ordering Lord Brock forcibly removed from chamber, and then sentencing Wetterlant to death by hanging.
In a joint ceremony with Leo and Savine, Lord Isher marries Lady Isold dan Kaspa, one of the most eligible heiresses in the Union. At the wedding reception, he apologises to King Orso for the Wetterlant trial, as if he hadn't orchestrated the whole thing. He also begins planning an armed rebellion against the Closed Council with lords Brock, Barezin and Heugen.
Later, Lord Isher travels to Angland to continue planning the rebellion. To his surprise, Savine insists on joining the conversation. Although Isher is dubious, she quickly sets to improving their plan: for the nobles to raise troops on the pretext of protecting their interests from the Breakers; and to broaden their alliance to include the Styrians and Breakers themselves. Then Isher and Savine have a private conversation, and make a deal where, when its all over, Leo will be king and Isher will control the Closed Council.
Alas, King Orso has been tipped off about the rebellion, and they find themselves confronted by a well dug-in enemy at the Battle of Stoffenbeck. Isher is the only member of the Open Council to being well drilled troops, but he's clearly nervous on the battlefield; a politician but no general. The battle ends in disaster, with Lord Marshal Rucksted arriving in the nick of time with royalist reinforcements, and Leo's heroic charge comes to grief. Of the leaders of the rebellion, Lord Isher is the only one to escape.