O'Caspar Brief Family History

The O’Caspars have been in Duchy of Ergellon for decades, going back to the founding of the village now called Arbeth. This village was earned by the early Caspars who were merchants. They bought low and sold high, mostly taking Sarranid spiced wines and selling them across Calradia, charging up to 10 times the price of wine for them. Another major trade route for the Caspars was the steppe horse trade where they would buy young khergit horses and sell them to Swadian or Rhodok nobles. It should be noted that the modern O’Caspar have abandoned these trades but it is what bought them the village long ago, little of their fortune remains.

They roamed from town to town for the most part before settling down outside what is now the Free city of Ergellon. They bought a great deal of land with their fortune they had earned and invited families to join them. Many of the families are lowlander Rhodoks though some are Swadian settlers as well.

The Caspars focused on building up the village and keeping the fields strictly under their control, as it would keep them afloat in the region’s economy. Later they themselves began to use the bow rather than a crossbow as was typical of Rhodoks. The bow as a weapon for self-defense was surprisingly effective in the right hands plus was cheaper to make and sell at a profit.

Overtime the family would become less and less like cityfolk and their name would shift from Caspar to O’Caspar.

Aedan’s grandfather, Solomon O’Caspar, worked tirelessly to keep the family in good light with the Rhodok Baron, taking more Highlander aspects into the village such as the appointment of a Clachan Reeve (Village Reeve) who he appointed his younger son Arthur. He would keep the fields protected from those outside the village and would only allow his tenants to use them, and they would pay portion of their product to the O’Caspars.

He died of old age soon after his wife did, leaving Aadam O’Caspar to take the reins of the village. He continued the strict monopoly and, through popular pressure from the village, promised to pay the Baron money instead of village men. This caused the Village to become used to the lack of violence and the protection of the Baron.