Description
Witiges is an elder tiefling, marked by a pair of majestic horns and long, curling hair kept in the elaborate style expected of Wien’s nobility. He wears noble cloth dyed a deep lavender-purple, the color of his office. In public he still carries himself as the emperor Wien has always known — composed, ceremonial, unshaken — but behind closed doors, only his innermost circle knows how little time he truly has left. The gap between the face he shows the city and the man fading beneath it is the quiet tragedy at the center of who he is now.
Motivations
- Securing a successor. With his health in decline and no heir he trusts to carry the throne forward, Witiges petitioned the gods themselves — the resulting contract gave rise to the Labyrinth of Wien, a gauntlet of divine trials meant to prove whoever is worthy of succeeding him. He does not get to choose his heir directly; he has to trust the trials to find one.
- Holding the throne against rivals. His declining condition has emboldened factions within Wien who see an opening to seize power. The labyrinth complicates their ambitions — a claimant who simply seizes the throne without passing the gods’ trials would lack the legitimacy Witiges has built the succession around, buying him time and cover against being pushed aside outright. Hofmark’s noble houses, jockeying quietly behind their own gates, are the most immediate face of this pressure.
- Preserving Wien’s identity. Wien is a city defined by art, music, and its people’s dual nature — drawn equally to their hellish lineage and to the natural world around them. Witiges sees honoring the eight gods through the labyrinth as an extension of that identity: a way of keeping the divine bound up in the everyday life of his people, not just in his own succession.
Role in the Campaign
Witiges operates almost entirely offstage. He is the reason the Labyrinth of Wien — the Gauntlet — exists, but he rarely appears directly; players engage with his story indirectly, by entering the labyrinth themselves to challenge the divine trials for honour, glory, or treasure, unaware (or only dimly aware) that they’re also auditioning to succeed him. His failing health and the political jockeying around his throne can be surfaced as background tension or as hooks — Hofmark and its Auction House are natural places for that kind of intrigue to reach the party — depending on how directly the DM wants to bring Wien’s politics into a given session.
Relationships
- No specific named allies, rivals, or confidants are established in the vault yet. The DM’s notes mention “those closest to him” knowing the truth of his condition and “opposition aiming for his throne,” but no individuals are named — worth fleshing out if Wien’s politics come into focus. Hofmark’s noble houses are the likeliest source of both.
Notes
- Formerly named Skyum, renamed to Witiges as an inspiration from real history.
- A
wiki_konradsboks_Wien Citydraft now exists covering the city’s overview, geography, and districts (still marked draft), so the[[Wien City]]link above is no longer dangling — update further if the city page’s title changes. - Session material (
dungeonsanddragons_7 Session seven g1) floats Wien as a possible separate timeline/side-campaign rather than sharing full continuity with the main Terra sessions — worth confirming with Konrad whether Witiges’ Wien is the same continuity as the Gauntlet sessions or a distinct framing. - Heinz Majo’s (PC) backstory, written in Norwegian, has him undertaking the labyrinth’s test to become “keiser av Terra” (emperor of Terra, not explicitly Wien) — possible terminology drift between “Emperor of Wien” and “Emperor of Terra” worth flagging/reconciling.