Earl Osbert Pike of Wye · World of Aerth

Earl of Wye, keeper of orchard roads, militia readiness and a hard county peace. His formal powers are almost nothing; his real weight lies in putting men, carts, fodder and local knowledge in one place quickly.

Earl Osbert Pike of Wye has held since his father died in 4598, and is by common agreement the most capable head his house has had in three generations. He is also, by his own description and everybody else’s, a man whose formal powers are almost nothing. The realm does not give its earls jurisdiction. He sits as a magistrate like any other qualified gentleman, he owns land, and there the enumerable part stops.

What remains is the county. He keeps orchard roads, militia readiness and a hard peace in a district where a failed bridge can matter more than a speech in Westminster. His military importance lies less in any genius for battle than in his ability to put men, carts, fodder and local knowledge in one place at short notice, and his militia is among the stronger sort. He is unembarrassed by his family’s origins: the house rose by keeping accounts for people who could not, and he has said as much to the corporation’s face rather than let the county say it behind his back.

He is known to ride the roads himself after a bad winter and to keep his own tally of bridges, fords and culverts, which the county surveyors are said to consult quietly when their own records fail.

Companies meet him when their business crosses his roads. Like the other lords of place, he can stop, feed, mount, delay or employ a company before any ministry has found the correct paper, and a band that treats his lack of formal power as a lack of power will learn the difference at the first closed bridge.

“We were reeves before we were anything. I mention it because the county says it behind my back and I would rather say it in front of them: this house rose by keeping accounts for people who could not, and I do not find that a reproach.”

Earl Osbert Pike of Wye, what he said to the corporation, Maidstone, 4618 A.C.

In person

Osbert Pike is broad and strong, in his middle fifties, with the build of a man who has ridden all his life. His brown hair is greying at the temples, and he wears a full moustache over a short, restrained beard. His face is broad and weathered, with an old scar through one eyebrow, a slightly crooked nose and steady grey-hazel eyes. He dresses as a country noble rather than a courtier, coat and cloak over visible chain mail, riding boots and gloves, with a sword at one hip and a spyglass on his belt.