"Alem itself was a fortress protecting a portal to a netherworld full of demons and so on. They were trying to hold it and prevent the undead breaching and unleashing unpleasantness. The siege had lasted the better part of a year when we arrived, and had all the usual siege issues. Low mood among the troops, infighting, supply issues, sickness."

He ducks under a branch, swatting aside some insects.

"Deimar is a fairly young ruler. There was strife between him and his brother over who should rule. Deimar is in his early twenties, his brother Haiva was older but sickly and... troubled."

A mild way of putting it. Haiva had seemed sympathetic at first, a sick young man, trying to help but betrayed by his body, concerned about the conflict. How things had changed once the mask had fallen away.