Kane Bayle and the War of Plagues

The second son

Kane Bayle was the second son of the royal house of Qeynos, the brother of King Antonius and the Commander of the Qeynos Guard. In public he looked the part. The Antonican Times ran a cheerful birthday article about him, noting that donations to the Temple of Life had tripled.

Not everyone was fooled. In the game the citizen Rihtur Fullome warns that the commander has quite a black heart, and Nerissa Clothspinner mentions that her sister had asked Kane to watch over her. A developer post from 2006 adds that Kane is not the only stain on the Bayle family line.

The Bloodsabers

The cult Kane served was the Bloodsabers, the worshippers of Bertoxxulous who hid beneath Qeynos. Their schemes were never small. In the story Stranger in Qeynos, the Bloodsaber Mordavin Telase plotted to overthrow Antonius, summon the Avatar of Bertoxxulous and spread a plague as far as the Karanas.

To survive their own disease, the cultists stole scrolls from the Temple of Life in search of immunity. Al’Kabor was among those who saw the plot unfold, and Mordavin himself escaped.

The War of Plagues

The same developer history describes a War of Plagues that lasted a couple of years under Antonius IV. Its final battles were fought in the Thundering Steppes and the Karanas, in the hills of Antonica outside Qeynos, and finally inside the city itself. Grimrot led the undead army against the living.

Kane’s part was betrayal. EverQuest II’s A Martyr’s Tale says he gave the Bloodsabers the city’s battle plans in advance.

The trial

EverQuest II’s book Trial of Kane Bayle records how he was caught. The witnesses were Marghetta Landon, Jenner Wenbie and Milea Clothspinner. Milea had followed him to a meeting with a Bloodsaber woman. Others testified that he had diverted reinforcements away from the battle so they could clean the Bayle crypts instead.

The guard’s old motto, Might for Right, was turned against him as Might for Wrong. He was found guilty and executed for treason.

In his own words

The EverQuest RPG’s Heroes of Norrath gives Kane a voice. Interrogated by Halwain, he is defiant to the end: “I am the true power of Qeynos!” He names Grimrot, insists “I am unkillable… immortality will be mine,” and sends a message for Rodcet Nife, the god of the Temple of Life whose city he had betrayed.

Legacy

Kane became the template for the Qeynos traitor: the respectable man at the top whose name everyone trusts. Players in 1999 knew him as the commander in the castle; later stories told them what he had been doing in the sewers.

His story belongs beside the history of Antonius Bayle and Qeynos, and beside Bertoxxulous, whose cult he served.