The kingdom has a patriarch.  Maybe he dies suddenly by some…thing. maybe there are terms like 20 blooms and they pass it off. This might be good because you could have conflict between past patriarch and current. Maybe the goal is to prevent the bad guy from become patriarch. This could provide steps for derbin to foil bad guy. It could provide high stakes for the bad guy that derbin foils.
How is the patriarch chosen? Nature. Similar to that of heartwind? It is a force that is present.
Maybe bad guy sets up tragic events that he could come and be the savior thus helping him earn the patriarch. Of course derbin foils. Maybe the patriarch is chosen by council part being nature and the rest from kingdom aristocrats and others. That way a king can be chosen in spite of what nature thinks. This provides an opportunity to try and coerce and extort.
Maybe bad guy releases the creature or fosters the reasons why the creature would come “back”…
“The creature hasn’t been in 200 blooms. Why now? What brings his presence again?
Someone has been to the dwelling. Someone has disturbed the beast. Someone has killed it’s baby (?). Now it begins its reign over some of the outlying villages.”
“Now go. Rally your people. Get your strongest and bravest and go defeat the beast..says the bad guy knowing full well they will immediately be destroyed. These attacks only anger the beast more.”
“We must capture the beast. That is the only way to put an end to this