Artorias Varjangaria

**Artorias Varjangaria** was the Count of Dennewitz, Marquess of Graille and Regent of Workhold and Sacra Adelia. Artorias has been called the last proper ruling Adelian. Artorias fought in the Edelmaa Great War as the Regent of Workhold after King Henrinion's young son Hanren became King. Artorias was benevolent even towards non-Adelians making him very different from his past lineage. Artorias's efforts however were futile as in the end the Dream Sacra Adelia Umryr was killed when Jiri Baathúr was made king of Workhold and Artorias was made a vassal of Samuel Berghof in Hefaia.

## Origin

Artorias was born in 2nd January 141 in the Sacra Adelia. He was the son of Garl Varjangaria and the grandson of Miro Varjangaria. As the eldest son of Garl, Artorias became his successor for the Marquessate of Graille. Artorias lived his entire early life in Sacra Adelia where he was tutored to become a proper Adelian.

## Great War

In May 170, King Henrinion I died leaving his young son Hanren to the throne. As the Varjangaria family was the sibling house of the House of Niskain, Artorias was nominated the Regent of Workhold. This was not well taken by the other Marquess, Marquess Octavio Perickard who sought to challenge Artorias' nomination. An open rebellion began and Artorias' first experience in a position of power became very difficult. Artorias immediately began planning for negotiations with various different Lords of Edelmaa in an attempt to gain as many allies and possibly end a rebellion before it would escalate too far.

Artorias first met with the Lords of Hidahl where he managed to secure the loyalty of the castle guard. Following this, Artorias did something controversial, he traveled to the Steel Fort, the ruined castle of the banned religion of the Forgotten Sword, in an attempt to get the Steel Order on his side. In the ruins, the Grandmaster of the Order, Nils Niskain, who was ironically the uncle of King Hanren Niskain, was ready to vow loyalty towards the crown, if the Faith of the Forgotten Sword should to become a permitted religion across Workhold. Artorias begrudgingly approved, yet the Grandmaster demanded Artorias's conversion into the Faith of the Forgotten Sword as affirmation, which was repulsive to other Adelians, but Artorias accepted this demand as well. This was not well received by anyone else, even his brother Arthur Varjangaria, but Artorias was willing to risk his own image in order to rescue the realm.

Artorias heard of the Battles of Maakor Castle, where the Peasant forces were crushed by the young Maakor Silven II, which alleviated Artorias, though the thought of over half-the-realm joining the revolt did not. Artorias was even more aggravated when he got wind that the exiled prince of Baathúr island, Jiri Baathúr, had invaded the province of Ili-Fien close to the city of Fon. Artorias, together with the Royalist military commanders Samuel Berghof, Kenrith Silven and Artoria's friend Sexton Scale, deduced that Jiri was definitely going to invade the mainland Edelmaa as well. Artorias, in no circumstance, wanted to fight a war against the Rebels and Jiri at the same time and decided to invite Octavio Perickard to parley at the city of Dives. Artorias sent the invitation, citing that Jiri Baathúr and as an extension, the threat of Alarass, was great to both factions of the civil strife. Much to Artorias' astonishment, Octavio agreed and the negotiations began in August 170.

### Marquesses' Peace

This negotiation, named the Marquesses's peace, is also known as the Marquesses's disaster. Throughout the negotiations, it came seemingly more obvious that the Peasant faction's leadership was not fighting for the equality of peasantry, but instead for their own gain. Artorias was in a tough spot for he was not willing to sign peace with the peasant leadership just to have him fight the peasants later anyway. yet, Artorias agreed to sign a full peace treaty for the civil strife, in which Artorias greatly promised to improve peasant quality of life in hopes of ending the rebellion. This resulted in many nobles cursing the treaty, including Samuel Berghof, who proclaimed himself the King of his own Kingdom of Hefaia. The peace however, was broken the day after it was signed when a peasant army attacked the city where the negotiations were held at. The situation went beyond control when Jiri Baathúr also arrived with his army forcing Artorias together with Octavio to flee the city into the safety of the Royal Keep.

### Ravaged Manor Field

In the Royal Keep, Artorias, Octavio and Sexton Scale began to organize a new army against Jiri Baathúr, as the main bulk of the Royalist Army was decimated at the city, including the main commander of the Royalist forces after Samuel Berghof left, Kenrith Silven. Artorias, Octavio and Sexton, together with Arthur Varjangaria and Sir Rhys Ab were to command a new Royalist army against Jiri Baathúr, at the Small Manor Field.

## TÄSSÄ KOHTI

The Battle of Ravaged manor field was Artorias' first experience of combat and consequently didn't really participate in it. Artorias observed the battle from atop a hill together with King Hanren and Sexton Scale. Artorias' brother, Arthur, played a great role in the battle, killing Jiri's best general Komnenos Platos, however, Arthur died shortly after, a fact that saddened Artorias. Miraculously, the battle was won by the Royalists and Jiri Baathúr had to withdraw back to Dives. This was incredible, as Artorias recognized the propaganda and morale value of this victory. Surely enough, mass desertion from the Rebel forces into the Royalist ones began.

### Northern Campaign

Following Ravaged Manor Field, Artorias sought to capture the city of Charlington, which is the breadbasket of Edelmaa. If the Royalists were to capture Charlington, the Peasants could not organize large military campaigns against the Royalists. Artorias goofed up during the Battle of Charlington, when Artorias prematurely commanded a charge against the encamped Rebel position outside Sallinburg. Altough the Royalist won the battle, they suffered many casualties. During the battle, King Hanren also died, which led to a crisis in the Royalist camp. Luckily, Hanren's uncle Lyon Niskain was present to handle the situation and he nominated Artorias as the Royal Regent for the remainder of the War. After this, the Charlington garrison surrendered yielding the city to the Royalists. There, Artorias stumbled upon Reyland Silven, the son of Kenrith and brother of Maakor II. Reyland was promptly made the overall commander of the Royalist forces. Reyland then rode off into the Royal Keep in search of more soldiers. This meant that Artorias was once more in command of the Royalist forces, even though he was not adequate to be in the role.

Artorias rode north to the city of Dullahan, which Artorias desired to join the Royalists. The Dullahanese agreed, if Artorias was to marry a Wolfjerl noble girl, Mounar. Once again, sacrificing himself for the realm, Artorias accepted even though he already had a wife. Together with Mounar, Artorias had a son which he named Logan.

Artorias traveled back south to meet the Royalist forces and agreed to split the Royalist army into two in order to capture two important settlements at once and then to re-merge in order to capture the important city of Silverion. Artorias marched to the cities of Ithimar and Axia, where a captain by the name of Blau van Dire, perpetrated massacres and looting in the name of Artorias. Artorias did not approve of this, but couldn't stop his men. To this day, the cities of Ithimar and Axia do not allow any descendants of Artorias to enter the cities.

### Southern Campaign

Artorias re-merged with the other Royalist contingent and advanced towards Silverion only to stumble into Abe Perickard, the current head of the Rebel forces and the younger brother of Octavio Perickard. Artorias negotiated with Abe, who agreed to join forces in order to defeat Jiri Baathúr. However, At the same time as the two of them were conversing, news about Samuel Berghof's invasion of southern Edelmaa reached the two. Artorias and Abe concurred that they should defeat Samuel first and Jiri second, and hatched a plan. This was probably for the worse, as neither one of them was a military strategist.

The plan indeed was a miserable failure, as Abe died in the Battle of Meta-Gudur and Artorias was fooled by Samuel into surrendering after the Deceit at Lion's Road. Artorias became a captive of Samuel, who regarded Artorias well. Samuel desperately wanted for Artorias to join his side, which Artorias refused. Eventually, together with Sexton Scale, Artorias fled Samuel's army camp into the city of Muede, where Artorias became the temporary governor of the city. With the help of the local bar and the very famous bartender Octavio Woodbrew, garnered military support from the local populace, creating a small militia force in the process. Artorias' small militia faced the army of Konrad Perickard in the Battle of Muede, where Sexton managed to win the day for Artorias.

Around this time, Artorias received an invitation to the Kerry's Farm Negotiation, which was sent to Artorias curiously by Jiri Baathúr. Artorias ordered Sexton to besiege the city of Silverion on his behalf and rode to Kerri's Farm. At Kerri's Farm, Artorias immediately noticed Konrad Perickard, his prior enemy from the Battle of Muede. The two of them made amends and continued on to the conference. At Kerry's Farm, Artorias was completely flabbergasted how much better this assembly proceeded compared to the Marquesses's Peace. Artorias was largely satisfactory with the terms laid out there, aside the fact that he and his family would become nobles of Hefaia and sent there. Artorias' couldn't really argue his point, as he had no voice in any of the matters. He was no longer Royal Regent as Lyon Niskain had proclaimed himself the new king of Workhold. Artorias' was just a Marquess. In the conference, it was revealed, that Jiri Baathúr's brother, Jamur Emetur, had also invaded Edelmaa. Jiri decided to fight his brother, as both competed for the throne of Workhold. Together, the Royalists, the Peasants, Hefaia and Jiri formed the Great Coaliton and planned for battle against Jamur.

### End War

During the End War, Artorias marched to Silverion and assisted Sexton in capturing the city, which resulted in the death of Abel Perickard, the youngest Perickard brother. Artorias then began to ride across Workhold through the cities he had conquered, besides Ithimar and Axia of course, and recrutied as many willing men as possible for the upcoming battle.

When the Great Battle finally began, Artorias didn't really participate in it. Artorias was too feeble of a warrior and not a tactical mind, Artorias sat pack and observed the battle. Eventually, the battle was won by the Great Coalition and a flamboyant Coronation Day celebration was held. Succeeding this, Artorias and his family were shipped to Ili-Hefien, where Artorias was made the Count of Dennewitz.

## Legacy and Death

Artorias died in 1st December 302 after suffering from an unknown illness he named the *Octavio Disease*. Artorias became remembered as a man of peace who tried to solve the problems of the Edelmaa Great War and unite the land against Jiri Baathúr. Many think that should the Marquesses's peace had worked out, the Peasants and the Royalists would have united to defeat Jiri Baathúr together.