Aedwin

* In-game
* Map

**Lauch State of Aedwin** is one of the two nations of The Hales, besides Hallengard. It was formerly known as Pierre Harbor, City of Pierre, City of Aedwin, (This era is also known as Lauch Aedwin) before The Great Divide.

## History

Before the Lauchmen arrived, the southern Hales was a warm, swampy territory of The Hale Empire. The nomadic natives were nicknamed the "Swampmen", due to their unique choice of homeland. Since the local tribes were completely illiterate, it's very hard to recover any sort of information of their culture. While a few Swampmen tribes survived by modernizing, most of the tribes for absorbed into Pierre Harbor and mixed with the Lauch settlers, who eventually outbred them. This could be a result of more advanced medical technology, and therefore a higher survivability of newborns.

Pierre Harbor was founded as Lauch a mining and trade settlement. However, Hallengardians eventually grew unsatisfied with the increasing number of settlers and attempted to reconquer it, which eventually caused The First Conquest. While it was recaptured, the smaller Hallengardian raids continued, as the Lauch forces lacked the men, leadership and the morale to hold their ground against the larger northern army, resulting in many desertions. The lack of supplies and Lauchette's negligence of the settlement even caused some regiments to join Hallengard's forces, further increasing their numbers.

In hopes of increasing the spirit and the manpower of the settlement, Lauchette had a castle built and surrounded the harbor with tall stone walls. Aedwin-De-Steinberg, a general of Lauchette was placed as the first governor of the newly found city of Pierre. The governor often hanged deserters as well as his prisoners, in front of the smallfolk, then had the corpses thrown into the sea. He was also infamous torturing and mutilating Hallengardian captives before sending them back, as a warning. His fear tactics deemed to be effective, as the number of Hallengardian raids decreased drastically. Aedwin-De-Steinberg was respected by his people, but deeply feared and despised by his northern neighbours, which eventually lead Braun Tarbor, the king of Hallengard to order an assault on the city of Pierre, claiming the life of the governor.

Hallengardian legends state that he was captured in the castle the king of Hallengard decapitated him, while Aedwinian historians claim that he died on the frontlines. His acts for the city inspired the people to name the castle after him, which eventually lead to the renaming of the entire city. After the assault, Hallengard temporarily occupied and plundered the city, blocking the exportation of any resources, which escalated into The Second Conquest.

After the war, the entire Kingdom of Hallengard was conquered by Lauchette and annexed into Aedwin, further enlarging the empire's territory. The union between the two provinces resulted in the partial merging of the two peoples, which motivated the Lauch to start using the phrases "Aedwinian" and "True Lauch" to separate the descendants of the settlers from those who lived on the main land, as they were seen as inferior. This generated rivalry between  The Hales and the Lauch empire, eventually even provoking numerous noble houses to pick up arms against the empire, however these rebellions were short lived.

During The White War, The Hales was the main war zone, especially the northern end, which faced constant Winterlander invasions. As the war dragged out for years, many farm lands and small towns were torched to the ground, as The Winterlands would damage the territory they knew they couldn't hold for long. Both Aedwinian and Hallengardian forces were fighting on the front lines, mostly being responsible for assaults, while the Lauch would usually be reserved for reinforcements. Near the end of the war, Lauchette had the upper hand, as the main land was mostly untouched, besides a few failed invasion, while The Hales was war beaten and The Winterlands couldn't afford the men to keep up the war, having to depend on mercenaries.

After a truce, governor Edmund Warde advised the emperor of Lauchette to just offer peace, as Aedwin was in ruins and it's soldiers didn't want to be forced onto the cold environment of The Winterlands.. The call was dismissed, sending even more Aedwinians to invasions they wouldn't return from. The governor declared independence from the empire, igniting The Great Divide, forcing Lauchette to sign a white peace treaty with The Winterlands, giving the war it's name.

The war started off by Aedwin sinking the Lauch ships in it's port and sending a call to arms to Hallengard, promising the kingdom freedom of the empire. This was dismissed by Kedran Herrenhold, the king of Hallengard, as he wanted to join Lauchette's side in the war, however many of the royals in Hallengard disagreed with the decision, splitting the nation onto Loyalist Hallengard and Free Hallengard. While Aedwin was able to successfully fight off the Lauch invasions, Free Hallengard was stuck in a stalemate with their loyalist counterpart. Once Aedwin achieved naval superiority, Edmund, now named a king, decided to ride north to aid Free Hallengard. The siege was successful and Hallengard was reunited. However the victory was short lived as the king of Aedwin has been assassinated by the remaining Loyalist soldiers. The crown fell to his younger brother, Perich Warde. The Hales organised a mass naval invasion of Lauchette and most of the ships successfully landed on Lauch shores starting the siege. Seeing how recapturing the west was nearly impossible a treaty was signed and Lauchette oficially lost the war, shrinking it's status back to kingdom.

However, this wasn't the end of conflicts for Aedwin and Hallengard, Perich demanded justice for the death of his brother, as Kodran wasn't executed. Gorge Haberford refused to kill him, as he was promised he'd live if surrendered. While it never escalated into war, the bitterness and rivalry between the two nations increased.

The server takes place 40 years after these events.

## Recent events

King Terik Warde died without a heir, pushing Aedwin into a state of anarchy of short ruling kings. The first ruler following Terik's demise was Marcus, who attempted to bring order into the kingdom by reforming the militia, however after some provocations and minor assaults against Hallengardian visitors, King Marick Haberford assaulted the kingdom, proceeded by the temporary occupation of Aedwin.

Marick originally wanted to crown Addy de Lethcean, a Hallengardian, however he refused, so the crown was given to Caprica Valter, on his request. While Caprica was adored for the first couple of years of her rule, her popularity started to quickly decline after the Hallengardian king, and anarchy was rising once again, with crooks, cults and bandits becoming more fequent. The situation only worsened when a Lauch diplomat arrived, actively criticizing her leadership, and wanting to put Addy on the throne.

Eventually she had her wish and Caprica stepped down in favor of Addy. The boy king became a very controversial figure himself after he formed a close bond with the diplomat. Aedwinians feared that putting Addy onto the throne was simply part of a Lauch scheme to conquer Aedwin.

Addy was removed from the throne only after a few years, and the crown returned to Caprica, but she deserted the kingdom, shortly after. At last, Nikolas Simmons has been elected the new king, and at last Aedwin has stabilized, allowing the nation to blossom.

The southern kingdom wouldn't meet any serious threat for most of Nikolas' rule, up to the point when Ocelotte attempted to stage a coup with the assistance of The Andophist Order and King Ajax of Hallengard. While the invaders did manage to break into the castle, Nikolas survived the battle, on the other hand the young conqueror did not. Ocelotte was betrayed by his allies and got executed. Ajax breaking the Pact of Steel, and Ocelotte's invasion pressured the King to step down and flee the kingdom. His eldest son, Vince Simmons was crowned shortly after.

Aedwin entered The War of Weak Kings, despite accepting Lauchette's demands to stay neutral, pulling the southern kingdom into the war too. While they defeated the Brotherhood in each battle with ease, the Lauch army successfully laid siege on the capital, and the kingdom has been occupied. After the war was over, the occupiers annexed Aedwin, abolishing most of the previous houses and nobility.

Lauchette has elected Siegnoir Rosengram, an Ascadian duke as the first Warden of Aedwin, to appeal to their eastern ally. Siegnoir was given complete freedom of governance over the state, as long as the tributes were paid. At first, the given liberty appealed to the new Warden, it didn't take too long until conspiracies against the Ascadian, as well as the Lauch overlords started to arise.

While Siegnoir has fought these rebels for years, often finding victory in these clashes, after desertion became more common, the duke decided to depart from The Hales, surrendering Aedwin back to Vince, and denouncing Lauchette. This action tainted the relationship between The Lauch Empire and The Kingdom of Ascad for good.

Aedwin now found itself exposed to more conflict, as now it had both a king and an emperor, as Lauchette refused to recognize it independent from the empire, however, on the order Emperor Lorens, no military action has been taken against the rebellious state, as the Lauch ruler wanted to decrease the unrest, peacefully, despite the advise of his Council.