History of Angleadd

## Early History

The first recorded
settlements in the kingdom pre-dates the royal calendar by several
centuries. Traders and settlers from the southern islands landed in
the bay of Faarn roughly 400 BF, building small villages and ports
for their ships. As reports of the fertile new land followed the
settlers back home a mass emigration started, with entire clans from
the islands making landfall and moving inwards to claim new territory
for themselves. Within the span of just a couple generations the bay
of Faarn was densely settled, and the valleys leading in to the
mainlands was turned into cultivated farmlands feeding the growing
population.

As the southern settlers
slowly made their way north, another group of people made their way
down into what would become the kingdom proper from the western
mountains. Being mostly nomadic tribes it took quite some time before
settlements appeared to the west, but as more and more people made
the journey down to the lowlands claims on land became more common.
In the following centuries the signs of early civilization crept ever
forward, most clearly marked by the founding of the city that would
become Caer Darin. Following the early settlements however came the
wish for power and unity amongst some of the tribal leaders. Tensions
began rising as the different clans both to the south and west
started building armies and fortifications in order to protect their
claims from each other. When contact was made between the two groups
of settlers in the year 132 BF, the conflicts between the different
clans and tribes took on a new aspect. Even though the first meetings
was amiable enough, the power-hungry leaders of some of the larger
groups soon began viewing each others as rivals. While most of the
common folk were happy to exchange culture and language between new
neighbours, the nobility and upper classes viewed the others as a
threat to their way of life. One of the biggest changes that happened
during this time of exchange was the formation of the western clans.
Noticing how the southerners gained power from their larger, unified
groups, the western lords were quick to adopt similar structures,
tying different tribes together in a similar fashion. The southerners
however viewed this as a sign of their superiority, and as more and
more of the west changed the call for conquest amongst the lords to
the south grew louder with each passing season.

 The early throne wars

In the summer of 85 BF the
first battle in what would be called the throne wars was fought
between the southern wolf clan and the allied bear and lion clans
from the west. No evidence remains to this day as to who made the
first strike, but the result was that three settlements controlled by
the western clans were razed to the ground.

The time that followed the
first battle is in many texts referred to as the summer of bones. The
bears were more or less obliterated in the first month of the war,
but the lions pulled back to gather new allies. The wolves on their
end used their early victory to conquer several of the lesser
southern clans, and forcing others into servitude. Farmers and
craftsmen were conscripted into hastily gathered armies to fight
against those who had used to be their neighbours, as more and more
clans joined into alliances either to join one of the earlier
factions or stake their own claim on the land. As the summer came to
an end the once fertile plains around the Elbar river had been
reduced to a ruined wasteland. With hundreds of people dead and
dozens of settlements razed or conquered, the future of what would
become the kingdom looked bleak.

After the first bloody
season of war the clans spent the winter solidifying the areas they
had claimed and preparing for a fresh summer of fighting. Lord Aedin
of the wolf had chosen the fortress at Faarn point as his capital,
while the forces of Lord Tulga of the lion pulled back to the
relative safety of Caer Darin. At the same time Lord Terren of the
falcon clan had gathered up as many survivors from the Elbar plains
as possible and moved north to get away from the fighting. They
settled a new territory in the Veidar valley, fortifying the paths
leading in to it as well as they could while trying to survive the
winter. To the east the badger, ram and eagle clans gathered remnants
of many other minor clans and families and pulled away from the
contested region completely. Knowing they held little hope of
fighting their stronger neighbours and fearing enslavement, they
chose to instead push ahead into the unclaimed wilderness and make
their own fate.

In the following spring
war was joined on several fronts as the wolves and lions renewed
their fights. As news of the fighting spread it also attracted the
attentions of some of the clans who had chosen to stay either in the
mountains or on the islands. The western nomads starting bringing in
horses and training cavalry for quick strikes against enemy
encampments, while the coast was raided repeatedly by young warriors
from the islands seeking fame and glory on the mainland. In the
middle of summer something that would change the war completely
happened however, as the self-proclaimed king of the boar clan landed
with a massive army on the beaches of the Brannoch hills. Declaring
war on both lord Aedin and Tulga, king Degan marched inland and
staked his claim on large tracts of land from both domains. This new
arrival led to somewhat of a stalemate, as the armies of both the
wolves and the lions shifted their attention to holding the front
against the boars.

The stalemate held for
several years, with villages and forts changing hands almost every
other season and the land between the warring clans slowly got turned
into desolate fields covered in bones of the fallen. It wasn't until
82 BF that the situation changed, when a fleet led by boarsmen and
their allies managed to besiege the port of Faarn. Now on the
defensive, the wolves saw several of their earlier allies and
subjects pull away and moving north to the relative peace of the
falcon lands. Driven to desperation Lord Aedin led most of his army
on a direct attack against the presumably weakened boar border. The
lions took advantage of this situation and fell on the wolves from
the back, leading to the death of Lord Aedin and many of his closest
supporters. This however had all been part of king Degan's plans, as
his armies now could strike the battling wolves and lions from two
sides. In a series of battles and skirmishes the superior numbers of
the boarsmen pushed the other two clans steadily back, and as autumn
came along both wolves and lions found themselves leaderless and
almost at the gates of Caer Darin. Realizing that their numbers would
never be sufficent to retake the coast and stop the boars, the
surviving clanleaders formed a truce and vowed to join forces the
coming summer. The years of conflict however made mistrust run
rampant through the decimated armies, and the new lords of the clans
spent more time quieting arguments and stopping rebellions than
preparing for war.

## The prophecy

While the different clans
either fought or hid across the realm, a faint glimmer of hope
appeared in a secluded temple along the southern coast. On a spring
day of 81 BF, the hierarch of the Allfather suddenly collapsed in the
middle of a sermon. When he came to, the people gathered at the
temple noticed that his hair and eyes had gone completely white, and
his voice suddenly carried a power noone there had ever witnessed
before. He told the frightened congregation that the Allfather had
spoken to him, and in a vision he had seen that blood would drown the
land for years. There was still hope however, for he had been shown
the path to salvation for all the people of the realm. Though few
believed him at first, the hierarch continued to preach about the
coming redemeer and declaring that the salvation of everyone would be
found to the north. As blood continued to flow along the western
coast and mainland, acolytes from the temple slowly began spreading
the words of their new prophet. Though few of the honorbound clansmen
was willing to listen, the tales and promises of a new time of peace
flourished amongst the commonborn that was caught between the warring
armies. As the word spread a slow trickle of people started to break
away from the ravaged coast and moving north, all of them searching
for the promised saviour. As the trickle started to turn into a mass
migration however, the clanlords started to supress the new religious
fervor with any means possible. Priests and acolytes were imprisoned
and sometimes executed for treason, while others were bought or
either persuaded or threathened into declaring that one or the other
of the southern lords were the promised leader. For the common people
however the situation just kept getting worse. Fearing that the
farmers and workers of their lands would flee north, lords on both
sides of the war started branding their subjects and forcing them
into near-slavery to keep them in line. Many started blaming the
priests for their misfortune, and as the year 74 BF dawned the temple
of the prophet as it was now called was burned to the ground by an
enraged mob.

## The battle of Reins fields

In the period between 82
BF and 70 BF the war started to wind down, as the number of fighting
men on all sides of the conflict started to dwindle. Once rich lands
lay fallow and deserted as armies looted whatever supplies they could
from the countryside. The armies who decades earlier had numbered in
the thousands was reduced to poorly equipped companies of a few
hundred men, and even the seemingly invincible boarsmen started to
struggle as the flow of eager recruits from the islands came to a
stop. In the early summer of 69 BF the joined armies of the surviving
lions and wolves made a last stand against the similarly depleted
troops of king Degan, both sides realizing that the end was near
unless a decisive victory could be achieved.

The armies met in the
fields outside the ruins of Caer Reins, one of the trading-cities
that had been razed during the summer of bones, and for close to four
days the battle raged. In the end the boars managed to push through
the weakened lines of their enemies, scattering the houseguard of the
allied lords. In the frenzied battle that followed both Lord Warric
of the wolf and Lord Tulga was killed. Their remaining men tried to
flee the battlefield, but many of them were hunted down and brutally
killed by the victorious boarsmen. The victory proved to be hollow
though, as King Degan had been wounded during the battle. Even though
his injuries were reported to be slight, the wound turned septic due
to unknown causes. Some claimed that it was punishment from the
Allfather, seeing as how Degan had been at the forefront of putting
down the followers of the prophet during the last decade. Whatever
the cause, the self-proclaimed king died a slow and painful death,
succumbing to the infection a week after his victory.

## The coming of the falcon

With all three clanleaders
dead, chaos erupted throughout the lands. Leaderless bands of
soldiers and lesser lords fought each other as everyone struggled to
take control over whatever land or ritches they could find.
Conditions for the surviving commoners and farmers went from bad to
worse as their new overlords cared not for anything but their own
scant wealth and power. Hope arrived however as a substantial army
came down from the north and slowly but surely took control over the
ravaged countryside. Under the command of Lord Metyc, son of the
recently deceased Terren of the falcon, the northern armies made
quick work of most of the brigands who had tried to call themselves
lords of the Elbar plains, and as winter came along their border
stretched almost down to Caer Faarn and Caer Darin. When snow made
the movement of large troops next to impossible, Metyc sent out
messengers to whoever survived amongst the warring factions and
offered a truce and amnesty. The offer detailed that whoever that
would swear fealty to him as their overlord would be offered a full
pardon, and any nobles would be offered lands in return for their
loyalty.

Many of the lesser lords
tried to rally their men against the falcons, claiming that Metyc was
nothing but a vulture coming south to exploit the weakened state of
the other clans. The surviving people and warriors however were tired
of the endless war, and as stories about how fairly both Metyc and
his father had dealt with the refugees who had headed north during
the last decade, several of the lords found themselves either
completely abandoned or brutally killed by subjects who no longer
wished to follow them. The following spring a joint group of boars,
wolves and lions met up with emissaries from the falcons to negotiate
their surrender. A handful of pretend-lords that had survived and
managed to keep some of their sworn men under control refused the
offer, but faced with the overwhelming numbers joining Lord Metyc,
they fled to the west and into exile. So it was that in the year 68
BF, the throne wars finally came to an end, and the slow process of
reclaiming and rebuilding the domain began.

## The first king and the founding of Caer Angleadd

In the years following his
victory, Lord Metyc spent most of his time travelling through the
realm and overseeing the restoration of towns and settlements razed
during the war. Though he never claimed the title himself, most began
calling him king of the realm, and as the years passed by in relative
peace, more and more people began calling out that he was the
promised saviour that the prophet had spoken all those years earlier.
Metyc himself dismissed the claim however, proclaiming that he had
just done what had to be done in order to save both the people and
the lands. It was during these years that contact was finally made
once more with the clans that had fled east at the beginning of the
war. Though cautious at first their emmisaries soon began to trust
Lord Metyc and his clan, leading to both trade and the beginnings of
an unification. Treaties was also signed between the remaining clans
to the north-east, as well as some of the people still living on the
islands.

In the year 59 BF two
things happened that would stabilize the emerging kingdom further. In
early spring Metyc married Lady Jenna, the youngest daughter of Lord
Aedin, thus bonding the falcons with the surviving wolf clan. Just a
few months later, a delegation from the east showed up at the gates
of Caer Terren, bearing news that the ram, eagle and badger clans
wanted to join his growing domain. Metyc however still refused to
claim kingship for himself, and declared that he had no desire to
rule. His honorable refusal only strengthened the voices of those who
fought for his coronation. In the end he made the lords who had sworn
vassalage to him an offer. He himself would not claim a throne, but
he would prepare his son for the mantle of rulership if they so
desired. The lords and clans did not completely agree to Metyc's
suggestion, but the respect and reputation he had gained during his
rebuilding of the realm worked in his favor. At the midsummer
celebration that year a proclamation was issued throughout the realm,
naming Metyc defender and regent of the land until such a time that
he had a son who would be crowned king. The people soon began talking
about how the gods had approved of this act, for just a scant year
later a son was born to the regent and his wife. The young Rayek was
barely a month old when he was proclaimed as marked prince and
king-to-be in front of the assembled lords of the realm, who in turn
swore fealty to the infant and the throne of the newly named kingdom
of Angleadd.

As the young prince grew
up, Lord Metyc continued his work in securing alliances and further
stabilizing the fledling kingdom. On Rayek's tenth birthday he
declared that the time had come to build a proper capital for the
kingdom, a city that didn't belong to any of the clans and that would
become a symbol of the new and unified realm. The location for this
new city would be the Elbar delta, chosen because of it's location
between the old realms that had fought in the war. In the year 45 BF
the work began preparing the site, with craftsmen and artisans from
the entire realm joining together in the work. The construction would
take far longer than what Metyc had anticipated however, and when he
passed away to old age in the year 9 BF the city was still not
finished. King Rayek the first however vowed to continue his father's
work and make sure that his dream would come through. As the mighty
citadel of Caer Angleadd finally stood finished, the aged king
declared that he would never take ownership of it, claiming that it
was a new capital for a new king and not for an old man. Calling a
gathering of all his vassals outside the walls of the city, he placed
the crown upon the head of his oldest son Aeric, naming him king of
the realm and master of Caer Angleadd. He then swore fealty to the
new ruler before heading back to Caer Terren to live out the rest of
his life in his ancestral lands. The lords, allthough shocked by
Rayek's actions, followed and swore their oaths to their new liege,
hailing him as as the new defender of the realm. The hierarch of the
temples decided that his marked the through birth of Angleadd, and it
was proclaimed that a new age had started, with the year of king
Aeric's coronation being marked down as the beginning of the royal
calendar.