No boots and my dominion was strong across my territories and beyond (started with 5 dom, built 10 more temples, was at 7). It simply vanished without any kind of message.
I don't know if there is some kind of spell that can "banish" other pretender but I guess a message would appear, isn't it?
I would be delighted to provide any interested parties with the turn that happened, but it was maybe 20-30 turns ago and I don't have it saved. Anyways, who can tell me what files need to be saved to preserve a a particular turn?
Guess I am going to start all over. Playing a game without the pretender for me is a bit akin to playing chess without the King.
Thanks all for the nice help!