Second Prince Ogsero

Locks up his father, deposes his brother, and tries to pull the Northern Lands into his sphere. After the Norton refusal he occupies Vanandes, fortifies the Lichtdana pass, and eventually retreats back through the Chain Bridge when the four-family alliance closes against him.

**Andinak crisis.** Imprisoned his father, deposed his brother, and tried to pull the Northern Lands into his sphere. After the Norton refusal he occupied Vanandes and started fortifying the Lichtdana pass — the same construction site Yuri's recon reported back from in ch 158.

**Withdrawal.** When the four-family alliance closed against him he retreated through the Chain Bridge into his father-in-law's territory; Grand Duke Fisabrun later abandoned him, ending the crisis.

An outstanding strategist of the new generation — cunning, ruthless and ambitious, acknowledged across the continent as a military genius. But great victories go to his head: even in a winning position he makes mistake after mistake — relying on force alone, refusing to placate the conquered nobility, arrogantly commanding other men's dukes, and so driving them into alliance against him.

With the Nortons he is by turns ally and rival. Lorist's men — Fatty Shi, Bodfinger — never warmed to him: he once tried to swallow the northern convoy whole. And once he finally took the imperial throne, Ogsero again grew suspicious of the four-family northern alliance.

The second son of the Third Prince — the very man who was regent of the fallen Crissen Empire and whose branch of House Crissen rules the Kingdom of Andinak (the legitimate heir of the collapsed empire). Ogsero imprisoned his own father, deposed his elder brother and seized power in the kingdom by force, then proclaimed himself heir-prince.

Fatty Shi, leading the Nortons' northern convoy through Andinak, in effect helped Ogsero return from near-exile to power — which Ogsero promptly used to crush the rebel nobility.

'Ogsero's Counterattack' (October 1767 - August 1768, ch 166): when the elder prince at the head of the Reiderlis Kingdom fielded seventy thousand men to chastise Ogsero, Ogsero cunningly set Grand Duke Madras against the Iberian support corps (through the 'Dawn Raid'), broke the elder prince in an ambush on the Liushuichuan river, forced both Reiderlis and Madras to cede land and make peace — and doubled Andinak into a regional power.

Lorist and Ogsero are bound by many threads. Ogsero granted House Norton its county title (for help in gaining the regency) and Hairoues island as a fief; he helped open the convoy's road north while seizing Yunge Shandra province for himself. Yet he immediately set Lorist up in secret, sending men to wreck the walls of Kobo.

Later their relationship runs through outright clashes (Lorist executes Ogsero's insolent tax-officer and crushes Count Aslan's five thousand) and forced alliances. Ogsero becomes the 'new god of war,' destroys the Reiderlis Kingdom, conquers the four central principalities and makes war on the Trade Union. At the decisive hour against the Union, Lorist himself duels the Storm Sword Saint — the peak of their closeness.

In the end Ogsero ascends as Emperor of the restored Crissen Empire. But the moment the external enemy — the Trade Union — is gone, he again eyes the Nortons with suspicion. Even after Lorist becomes a State Sword Saint, at a celebratory banquet Ogsero floats an army-reduction proposal to test him.

Ogsero (of Andinak) is not the 'Second Prince' who invaded the Northern Lands and kept Princess Silivia in his retinue. That is a separate character, the King of the Iberian Kingdom (Crissen Iblia, formerly the Second Prince of the Crissen Empire itself), whom Lorist later captured at Windbury and handed to Ogsero for judgement. The two 'second princes' are easily confused.