Duke Byron Ashton
Duke Byron Ashton is the lord of Dion Castle, subordinate and paying taxes to King Amadeo Cadmus in Aden. In a harsh world of warring states and feuding clans nobody becomes, and especially stays, lord of a fief without an iron hand, but Duke Ashton is an even more than usual oppressive lord, brutally squeezing out the local peasants and killing people at the drop of a hat. Some people say that apart from a certain natural disposition this is due to the influence of the Evil Spirit Tempest which is living at the bottom of a pit in the Dion Execution Grounds and sustains itself on the hatred of those unjustly slain, constantly needing new corpses to survive.
But in reality Duke Ashton's harsh rule mainly has more mundane reasons. As mentioned above, Ashton is subordinate himself to his liege lord in Aden and in times of war has to provide the King with troops, leading them personally into battle ("duke" is a different spelling of the old word "dux", meaning "[military] leader"). Equipping and maintaining those troops is expensive, especially at present, where the Gracian threat is always looming on the horizon and the armoury of the castle has to be kept fully stocked at all times. Knights bring their own equipment, but the cuirasses and weapons of footmen and pikers must be supplied by the Duke.
Another problem in times of war is how to fill up again the ranks of those fallen in battle. Few people want to fight voluntarily under a leader as brutal as Duke Ashton, and pressing farmers into military service has the disadvantage that they are then not able to work the fields and pay taxes. Therefore Ashton has taken to hiring mercenaries. Of course professional soldiers do not sell their lives cheap - more need for money.
Caught in this situation, Ashton increased the pressure on the weakest link in the chain, the farmers, which lead to the Dion Peasant Revolt. The Duke reacted in the only way he knew: with brutal force. Soul Collector Acheron, one of his mercenaries, slaughtered countless innocent peasants on his forays into the countryside, while others, real and supposed rebels, including their families, were "officially" beheaded at the Execution Grounds by Ashton's Executioner Guilotine.