In the year 476 (1454 IC) King Louis the Righteous led his army against a foe that was once his own kin. The Red Duke's undead hordes sowed wreck and ruin across his former lands, giving no quarter and using the dead to swell his army yet further. Louis took solace in a Prophetess known as Isabeau, who advised him to face the Vampire at Ceren Field, where the armies of Bretonnia could charge without obstruction and trample the Duke's undead hordes.[1]
Overview[]
The Battle of Ceren Field was long and brutal. Needless to say, however, no undead creature could stand against the King, and Grail Knights do not fear the spirits of the departed. Louis rode into the thick of battle, smashing rotted faces with his lance and breaking fleshless bones with the heels of his armoured boots. For hours he fought, cutting down mighty Wights and destroying droves of skeletal spearmen and rotting zombies. Against this sea of undeath Louis fought until eventually, his enemies paused to make way for their leader, lowering their weapons and returning to a state of stillness. The Red Duke sat astride a steed of spectral bone and witch fire, its corruption swathed in a black caparison. Louis looked at his brother with tears in his eyes and vowed to defeat him, not to destroy the monster but to avenge the man he had once been.[1][2]
As the two knights charged, a beam of pure light surrounded the King of Bretonnia, his armour dazzled and shimmered under this holy light, casting a wondrous glamour to the vampire's hideous countenance. The Red Duke reeled in his saddle, throwing his arms towards his burning eyes. Louis drove his lance into the creature's breastplate, tearing through it as though it were parchment. The Red Duke was lifted clear from his saddle, his heart pierced. King Louis held the struggling vampire aloft, repeating his vow over and over again, not to kill the monster, but to redeem the man.[1]
After his brother's defeat, Louis refused to burn his corpse out of respect. Despite the priestesses of the Lady and even his own Lords urging him to destroy the vampire's body completely, Louis built a massive tomb in his brother's honour, made to celebrate the Duke's achievements as a noble mortal. Louis helped raise his brother's son, Galand, who would go on to become a renowned great hero of both Aquitaine and Bretonnia itself.[1]