Difference between revisions of "Dwarden"

Revision as of 04:32, 10 October 2016

Southern Dwarden, known as the Kald, near the Barony of Merándan, the place of Cecil's birth.

Dwarden is a rocky and rough land near the ocean, and has always been a challenging place in which to live. At the dawn of Mandadorianism, this proud people worshiped Vandadon, the Capserian god of pride and power, but whose reverence and influence had been waning for some time. Dwarden was converted by the Holy Legate Yathamian the Sea Elf, who was incredibly successful. The many petty kings of Dwarden, who knew only war with one another, submitted to the great Sea Elf. Yathamian, to this day, remains the Patron Saint of Dwarden. They later became great knights under the first emperors of Mandadoria.

Towards the decline of Mandadoria, one of the priest-kings, a powerful monarch-bishop named Thagdion, returned from wars in Hollapse, near the Phalein Mountains. He had become so powerful that he achieved dominance over many of the other kings, destroying many of them and their royal lines, creating a power vacuum which he quickly filled. The kings that managed to resist were mostly the sea-kings of the south and some of the east mountain kings. By the fall of Mandadoria, this priest-king, who was by then incredibly old, had made himself a living saint, who was crowned by kings and metropolitan on Mount Kernej, the eventual seat of his power, and proclaimed the King of Dwarden. The insane devotion of his followers was such that upon his demand for them to worship the dark icons of a pagan god, they did so blindly. Thagdion however underestimated the resolve of the kings and knights outside his fold. A great war was thus begun, a war which has lasted for over three centuries.

Early in the war, the kings proved again and again too fractious to lead the war of the resistance. At length, Dwarden's knights, themselves exhausted from fighting both Thagdion and themselves, and facing the complete collapse of their defenses and their nation, unified men of their status and profession into a coherent body with a definite purpose and goal. It was a last-ditch attempt. Thus was born the Order of the Knights of the Beleaguered Shield.

Thagdion the Mad still rules from the Kernej, now a war cleric lich of awesome power who worships the god Yalesti, whom he brought back from his campaigns in the Phalein Mountains.

In the 700s there was an attempt by Pompiers and Thousiers to help the order cleanse Dwarden of the undead. This sudden and massive import of military support into Dwarden gave the Thousiersian leaders great confidence and ambition, and after guaranteeing their continued support, the kings of Dwarden agreed to crowning a Thousiersian noble the King of Dwarden, for such was their desperation. Despite all this, the Thousiersian king of Dwarden was outmaneuvered by Thangion, and the entire army was destroyed. For decades Thousiersians continued to support their royal claim in Dwarden, prompting eventually three crusades, but each was less supported than the last. By the 9th century, the last Thousiersian claim to the throne of Dwarden had fallen to a disinterested noble line in the Thousiersian homelands, and the Order of the Beleaguered Shield once again assumed true leadership of Dwarden. One of the lasting impacts of the Thousiersian adventure in Dwarden was the change in language and outside blood, especially amongst the nobility and knightly classes. Another major change was the waning of royal titles in Dwarden. The Thousiersian kings of Dwarden were displeased at the number of petty-kings throughout the country, which in turn brought about an attempt to label these petty-kings as the nobility instead of royalty. One attempt was even made to force the kings to resign the royal title and replace it with titles of peerage. The Thousiersians found their real solution in granting the baronial title to those whom they favored, as well as the creation of powerful Thousiersian knights as barons of Dwarden. The title became fashionable and more coveted than that of king. The petty-kings still remain in Dwarden, but their numbers are quite diminished, and there are a number of cases in which barons are more powerful than neighboring kings.

Mount Kernej, the seat of Thagdion's power. Eastern Dwarden.

The Lich Langaria

A former wizard of the Priory of St. Dalangion, Langaria was persecuted as a “white” necromancer whose experiments were extreme. Accused by various fanatics, it was the paladin Alamandon Ul’muré who was the advocate who prosecuted the case for the priory. Langaria was convicted, but before he might be disfigured to stop his wizardly career, he escaped through a transmigration of souls, causing the condemning of the wrong man. Alamandon prosecuted a nearby priory, and expelled the actual Langaria who had assumed the priorship. Alamandon received a command knighthood from the Order for this, a major honor. After many decades, a mysterious sorcerer appeared near the priory of Belareau the Magician, bringing undead evils to the land. Several crusaders and heroes failed to destroy this evil. At last, Cecil’s father, Knight Commander Cevrandeaux Ul’muré, shortly after Cecil was conceived, discovered that after many decades Langaria had achieved wizardly lichdom, and had every intention of destroying the house of Ul’muré. In a significant adventure, Cevrandeaux and his large company were destroyed, and soon after the entire priory fell to the undead. Langaria himself, now a lieutenant of Thagdion the Mad, 11 years afterwards, turned his attentions to Sir Alamandon and his eldest son at their ancestral Castle Ul’muré.