The First Crusade

Knights of the Realm slaying a Titan

The First Crusade was a conflict between Draco Arthure and the Knights of the Realm against the tyrannical Titans that occupied Logres during the Age of Lords. The end of the First Crusade marks the beginning of the Age of Heroes.

## Historical Sources

Present in nearly every culture in Logres, the story of the First Crusade is a fundamental part of Logressian identity and the cornerstone on which the Arthurian Pantheon is built. That being said, very few historical records survived the Age of Chaos, and as a result tellings of the First Crusade rarely agree on all points. It is generally accepted by scholars that the most reliable historical reference for the First Crusade is The First Annals, a text written by the Knight of the Realm Kay the Seneschal, who wrote down many of the questlines of his fellow knights at the end of the Age of Heroes.

## Important Events

### The Rebelling of Arthure

According to teachings from the Arthurian Pantheon, Draco Arthure was born a nameless human slave in modern day Arthures Lot. As a slave Arthure toiled under the cruel dominance of the Titans, working "a thousand days and a thousand nights without sleep or water". After a thousand days and nights of toil, Arthure managed to escape the camp where he was imprisoned and fled into the Lost Woods. Whilst fleeing through the woods Arthure supposedly encountered a group of Forrest Kin, sentient animals touched by the Feywild, who escorted him deep into the forest to meet their village elder. The elder turned out to be the Lanciel Grandmaster Meyrl-Lin, who, being a powerful diviner, recognize Arthure as the savior of Logres. It was in these woods that Meyrl-Lin taught Arthure the many forms of magic. After many years of training Arthure left the woods and returned to his home village to slay the Titan that lorded there, a huge dragon named Mezzorax. Arthure slew Mezzorax, and the people proclaimed him as "Draconis Harturr", or "Dragon Hunter" in modern common, which has become the name "Draco Arthure" over time. Scavenging the corpse of Mezzorax, Arthure created weapons and armor from the bones and scales of Mezzorax, and, anointing his fellow slaves, created the Knights of the Realm. Arthure began attacking neighboring compounds and slaying Titans, and eventually bolstered his forces until they had an army large enough to take back the plains of man.

### Ser Bedivere and the Titan

Ser Bedivere Kay, one of the original Knights of the Realm, would not follow Arthure into battle against the Titans in modern day Camelonia, but instead chose to go off, alone, to find his family in the east of Logres, in what would now be Kayhelm. Bedivere would have many adventures on his way home, and by the time he reached Kayhelm he had a large army of fighting men and women. When he arrived at his village he found a powerful Titan had eaten the entirety of his village, and the ground was soaked in blood. A divine rage came over Bedivere, and he slew the Titan with his dragon bone greataxe. When the Titan fell the impact of corpse carved out a huge chasm in the ground, and his body burst into a red spring of magical water. Climbing down into the chasm, Ser Bedivere drank the water and found it gave him great health and strength. On this spring he built his homestead, and the City of Bedivere was founded.

### Ser Trystram deLyonesse and the Rikes

Ser Trystram DeLyonesse was a half Lanciel half human Knight of the Realm who was a knight in Arthure's court after the freeing of Camelonia. Seeking his own glory and power, Ser Trystram gathered a group of Haelian and Brent warriors to free the lands to the west that were still under Titan rule. To the west the Titans had brought over a large group of slaves from Alik Bahir called Rikes who served both as slaves and slave masters. Over many decades Trystram and his men slew the Titans in the region making up modern day Farregid, freeing the Rikes kept in slavery (known as Zutes) and disposing of the human slave masters (known as Mossai). Trystram appointed many of his knights as lords in Farregid, but was forced to resign the title of monarch to the Zute leader, Caesar Marcus I. Eventually, during the Age of Heroes, Trystram attempted a coup to regain power from the Caesar, but would eventually fail and be killed by the Zutes.

### The Black Knight and The Tournament

Sometime near the end of the Age of Lords the Lanciel people held a grand tournament to unite the various clans and bannermen of their recently freed race under one sigil. The winner of this tournament would be named Champion Magnate of the Lanciels and all other bannermen would have to swear fealty to this Lord. The Black Knight, who was widely regarded as the greatest warrior of that era, perhaps of all time, fought for three days and three nights tirelessly as warlord after warlord challenged them in combat, knowing if they could best the Black Knight they would've proved themselves as Champion. The Black Knight remained unseated throughout the tournament, and through his prowess he was named Champion Magnate. Much to the shock of the crowd, upon his victory the Black Knight refused the title, claiming "[He] knew only the dominion of his own beloved Lord Arthure" (*The First Annals*, Kay the Seneschal). The Lanciel people gathered at the tournament begged the Black Knight to lead them, exclaiming that the dangers of the world were still such that they could not survive divided and unprotected. Seeing this, the Black Knight proclaimed that they would not go without protection, and disbanded his own personal guard, ordering them to swear an oath not to him but to the Lanciel people as a whole. He also passed on his power as Champion Magnate to a Magnate Council, which would be composed of Lanciels elected from each of the twenty-five banners that had attended the tournament that day. Once this was done, he simply rode away to Camelin.

### Ser Gawain and the Freeing of Orkney

Many of the Knights of the Realm, including Arthure, had originally come from or had ancestors from the southern cliffs of Logres surrounding Cradles Bay and the Sea of Refuge in modern day Orkney. Ser Gawain of Orkney, Arthure's nephew on his father's side, was one such knight, and he asked Arthure's permission to lead a campaign to the south. Arthure agreed, and Gawain, supported by the Black Knight and his warriors, began an all out assault on the Titans occupying Orkney, primarily Archfey. Joining up with tribal Haelian warriors in the Green Cliffs, Gawain conquered and captured the Titan fortress of Llangheil. Upon his victory Gawain returned to Arthure's court near the end of the Age of Lords.

### The Banishment of Loth and Senest

According to Drow tradition, near the end of the First Crusade the Lanciel knights Loth and Senest led a large army of elves against the very powerful Storm Giantess Dùrnir. Dùrnir was one of the last powerful Titan Lords in Logres at that time and was a powerful sorceress. With a colossal fortress in what is now known as the Bowl, Dùrnir had prepared for a long intensive siege, having dug a large network of tunnels deep within Thorun Karag. Senest besieged the fortress for one hundred and one days , while Loth infiltrated Dùrnir's ranks to open the gates from wihtin. Charging into the fortress, Senest and Loth found themselves falling into a sinister trap. Dùrnir, having had over two months to prepare during the siege, had placed powerful sigils into the rock surrounding the fortress, and shifted the entirety of the fortress and the Lanciel army into some unknown plane of existence. It is theorized that this plane was perhaps the Shadowfell, the origin plane of the Deep Night, and that Senest and Loth's forces eventually returned to Logres as the Drow.

## Result of the Crusade

After the First Crusade nearly all Giants, Dragons, and Archfey were either killed or chased out of Logres. Most surviving Archfey retreated to the wilds of Logres and the Feywild, imbuing the woods of Logres with powerful magics. Trystram deLyonnesse, during his freeing of Farregid, successfully pushed the remains of the Draconic Forces North past Ronins shield, who presumably stayed there until their return after the Age of Chaos. Most Giants in Logres, refusing to surrender, were killed outright, although some believe there may still be giants hiding in the most inhospitable regions of Logres.