Lore of Kratith

## **Rumors of New Isles**

Two brothers, born of Nobility, Agnar and Ari, heard rumors of the pier-folk around their father's docks. Ship Captains and traders all spread rumors about an Isle far to the West where lives native peoples far unlike those of the lands they've known and conquered for generations. Ari, the Adventurous of the brothers begged his older brother and heir to the throne, Agnar to lend him a vessel and a crew to sail the waters in search for this fabled land. Time and Time again, Agnar denied his brother's request, as the armies of their fathers were needed elsewhere in the kingdom; talk of rebels and villages on fire were spreading through the ears of their father's kingdom, and he needed to lead a banister party through the lands to quell the people, and cull those who would betray his father and their family name and kingdom.

Several days after the brother Agnar left with his Banister Party, trouble struck the capital, their father of 50 grew ill and became bedridden. Ari sent a message of their father to his brother but returned within hours with Agnar in tow with several arrows piercing his armor, holding onto his horse's reigns with a fractured wrist, barely conscious. Agnar warned the watchmen to close the gates and shoot anyone that attempts to enter. Ari is told the rumors were true, and there were rebels against their father and the crown in the far villages, praising false gods, and destroying the alters of The Five. Ari is given control over their father's armies as his brother's wounds are treated.

No armies breach the tree line through the next day, and Ari estranged to the role of military commander, relaxes the linemen and archers. In the middle of the day, havoc breaks in the markets, women slain by strange robed and hooded men and women with swords in hand, clambering out of the city's runoff ports. Ari orders his soldiers deal with the issue, while his advisors warn of greater loss should he and his brother, two brothers of the divine blood of the gods, were to fall into the hands of the rebels, ushers him off to reunite with his brother in a secret cave beneath the castle; a secret dock bearing a dozen ships and nearly a hundred men, ready to set sail at a moment's notice. Agnar tells his brother to board the vessel bearing a Teal-Winged Lion where their father currently resided in the galley, for his final prayer, before departure.

The ships set sail, just as the rebels breached the castle gates, what remained of their armies attempting to hold steadfast against the invaders as if the king and his sons were still in the heart of the castle, as if they never knew of the secret departure for the New Isles. Ari met with his father, and heard his father's last words, perishing within the galley before him; his final words, the prophesized name of the foreign land they would call their future home, Kratith.

## Kratith

Setting sail behind the kingdom's waterline, the sailing ships were not seen even by those on the docks, hidden by the mountains between on water's edge. As the brothers neared the horizon they witnessed their father's castle, their old home, a fireball, as the great towers could be seen crumbling down into the city below. The darkness setting on the sails as they cross into unknown waters.

The Next morning, they held a funeral for their father, the old king of a now fallen kingdom, in the open, and calm waters, laying his body to rest in a small boat, burning in the effigy of rites, as the great soldiers fallen in battle receive after their bodies reclaimed from the battlefields. The Two brothers, followed by their father's most trusted soldiers, now heading into a land unknown by man of any land.

The journey takes several weeks, and rations running dry, Ari, hanging on the top sail of the lead ship claims sight of land, riling up the soldiers moral in a desperate time of forlorn, they quickly coordinated to affix their path to the island. Ari called forth his brother, who got the soldiers ready to set up a perimeter as they settled into a small base just behind the mountains through the east river pass. The first few nights, not only was a perimeter set, but many structures were raised to defend their new territory.

The local groups could be seen in the nights after arrival, weeks went by before their first raid on an outpost as the settlers attempted to expand. Ari wanted to make peace with the natives, but Agnar saw them only as creatures standing in their way of safety. It was several months of struggling before the first of the natives would approach, peaceful seemingly, and capable of a few words of the kinglands; Ari, the first contact, could see their ability to be reasoned with. Ari would bring info from their meeting place every week, and slowly a peace was created between the native tribe of ---- and the stronghold of Agari. The chief of ---- agreed to meet with the brothers and welcome them into the brotherhood of their ancestors, as well as grant them the lands they've built on, so long as they aid in their war against the tribes of the far West, the ----.

## Tribes & Gods

Ari agreed to the treaty, but Agnar was skeptical of their hospitality. Ari agreed to keep half the troop at the camp, while Agnar took the other half to fight the war against the ---- so they could claim the land as their own. However, upon reaching the Tribe's camp something changed in his demeanor. Worshipers of False Gods, this tribe of ---- worshiped creatures of the Underwaters, axolotls, Agnar decided not only to murder their entire tribe, but the whole of their religious order as well, slaying any worshipers of these false gods, making his way throughout the entire Isle for the next several years. In his rampage, he found his brother was Sympathizing with these native creatures and agreed to spare their lives should they forsake their false gods, and pledge fealty to only the Five.

This "Cult" of Axolotl Worshipers denied the request of the brother Agnar, those who chose to live and renounce their false idle were spared by Agnar only after his brother Ari stood in fence between them and his reign of terror. Not wishing to anger the gods, or their father's wishes, Agnar took his followers into the north to build a new empire, and finish their conquest against this cult, secretly killing those whom were under his brother's protection. Ari allowing any followers of his brother's zealotry to follow unopposed, those whom cared not for starting another religious war after witnessing the kingdom of the twin brothers' father fall for similar reasons remained with Ari.

The two brothers quickly grew distant, their kingdoms reigning in isolation from one another for several decades, Agnar the Zealot in the Northland Kingdom of Agnaron, and Ari in the Central Provence Kingdom of Agari.