Duke Rhime’s 10 Laws for Holding Power

The Westerly Kingdom of Lucardia is fractured — a realm of loyalists, opportunists, and a tyrant king. Rhime Battenborne doesn’t wish to conquer the realm with fire and blood alone. He will do it by obeying laws inscribed into his very being.

Here are ten quiet, brutal truths that define how Duke Rhime rules Eldenspire — and why they may make him the most dangerous man alive.

1. Never ask for loyalty. Make betrayal unthinkable.

Rhime does not inspire affection. He does not charm. What he builds instead is dependence — networks of men and houses who can’t survive without his shadow cast over them. Fear passes. Need does not.

When Rhime heard a whisper that House Keld had broken faith and wished to rise in revolt, the duke did not send troops. Instead, he rerouted every trade road from their land and raised taxes just high enough that no lord could afford treason without starving their people. Keld now praises his name at every feast and hopes the good graces brought by wagons of goods will someday return.

2. Always let someone else be the villain.

When hard decisions are made — executions, burnings, exiles — Rhime rarely holds the blade. But he is always the one who whets it. His hands stay clean while his will is carried out by fanatics, clerics, and kin who never realize they were chosen to be hated.

When the high bishop of Marrowhall ordered a purge of the Red Pilgrims, it was his name that drew the stain of atrocity. But the edict? It passed across Rhime’s desk first.

3. Silence is stronger than a decree.

Rhime doesn’t speak unless he must. He never delivers threats. He lets others imagine them. In a world full of men who shout to be heard, his quiet presence unsettles more than any war horn.

During the Feast of Iron, he was asked if the rumors that Highdelve would revolt were true. He didn’t answer — just sipped his wine and looked toward the empty seat of the absent Duke with a stare that could melt iron. The next day, Highdelve’s garrison declared fealty and sent gifts.

4. Realms are not forged by war — but by the illusion of peace.

Rhime doesn’t waste soldiers on glory. He offers safety, stability, trade, and the illusion of benevolence — all while building the noose. By the time you realize you’re choking, he’s already walking away.

When Rhime took in the Freehold of Lannach, he sent no armies. Instead, he rebuilt their ports, dredged their rivers, and forgave half their debts. Trade flowed again. Coin returned to the market. He even restored the old festival of Lanterns, praising their gods as his own.

But the Lannach Council did not see that the clerks he sent were spies, the trade routes rerouted through Battenborne banks, and the watch towers rebuilt to face inward. Within three years, every nobleman wore Rhime’s seal on their shoulder — and not one could name the day it happened.

5. Elevate the overlooked — and keep them loyal.

He surrounds himself with the forgotten: bastard sons, discarded wives, maimed knights, blind archivists. They serve not because they love him, but because he gave them a name, a title, a purpose no one else offered.

And when you build a court from broken things, they never forget who fit the pieces back together.

Meron was once a scribe’s apprentice, disfigured in the Siege of Bellrun and left behind by a fleeing noble house. Rhime found him sweeping the ash from a ruined hall — and made him master of his own. Now, Meron rules the halls of Eldenspire as head of household, a quiet power behind every closed door. To most, he is just an old man in black. But his word opens vaults, closes mouths, and steadies Rhime’s rise with the dignity of old stone.

6. Let the myths grow. Never correct them.

Stories of Rhime outmaneuvering kings and talking ghosts into silence abound. He doesn’t deny them. He doesn’t confirm them either. Rumor is cheaper than propaganda — and far more seductive.

Some say Rhime carries a knife carved from a Watcher’s bone. Others whisper that a black snake coils in his shadow. Rhime has never once addressed the rumors. Why would he?

7. Never name the heir too early.

Rhime may hold a seat, but he never promises a place in his stead. Not a brother, not to an uncle, or even a son, if he had one. Because once a man thinks he’s next in line, he starts measuring the distance between you and the grave.

And Rhime intends to rule for a long, long time.

His brothers, Eldwin and Ragnar, each command parts of his domain — one with ledgers, the other with blood — and their uncle Gunthard holds the city’s keys. But none of them knows who Rhime favors. And each of them fears the other thanks to Rhime’s warnings.

8. Truth is what you repeat the loudest.

Rhime creates his own truths. He just repeats what he wants believed until no one dares say otherwise.

The first time he called his fractured coalition “The Reunited Realm,” even his own generals scoffed. But by the fiftieth time, they were swearing loyalty to it. And, when Rhime declared Eldenspire the “Heart of the Realm,” it wasn’t true. But he named the festival after it. Then the coin. Then the court. And then it was.

9. Attack, even when you’re winning. Especially then.

Rhime never waits for unrest. If it is so, it is because he has fabricated it. Stoked it. Used it to justify crackdowns, oaths, and loyalty tests. He doesn’t just eliminate rivals—he elevates them as threats first, so their fall justifies his grip.

When Duke Aerwyn of Lowmer stood to offer a toast, and instead used the moment to insult Rhime, the duke leaked a false letter implicating Aerwyn in treason. By the time the man proved it was a forgery, he was already in the Black Cells—and the kingdom had applauded.

10. Make them laugh — then make them kneel.

As mentioned above, Rhime does not charm. For that, he uses his brother Ragnar. The joke, the song, the firelit feast. A court that laughs together forgets it’s afraid. Until the moment the laughter stops — and someone is dragged out.

At the Feast of Sereth’s Wake, Rhime raised a toast. Ragnar followed with a jest about treason in the kitchens. There was laughter, and all did not eat to play along with the game. The next morning, three cooks were missing.

Duke Rhime of the Spire is a dark political fantasy set in a crumbling empire — but its quiet power lies in Evaline, the woman at its heart.

📖 Read the book and step inside Eldenspire.