House Jaecalla

Heraldry of House Jaecalla

### Notable Members

Zerua I, Sanya I, Zera I, Raegon I, Ziya I, Saecon Calanyot (nominally), Sanya II, Ingo Jaecalla,

### Domains

Thalyra, East Lerance, duchy of Astowyr in Lunate, Duchy of Haede in Kidor, Duchy of Larella in Westyra, Duchy of Vaeli in Evaica, duchy of Caudir in Drehan

**House Jaecalla** is a gryphon-riding noble house currently in control of the kingdom of Thalyra, and by extension the Faint Heart, a crown largely regarded as the mark of a just and rightful ruler across the entire continent Apheon. The house itself has had many offshoots created throughout its history, notably House Heravon following Toril's Revolt, and House Artemine after the True Heir Crisis. They have retained control over Thalyra for close to four centuries unbroken, beginning with Zerua I "the Last Jade" and continuing with the tumultuous and war-torn rule of Ziya I.

Having seized Thalyra after the War of the Gems, Zerua the First, as the sole survivor of her original house, founded a new house, and set about ensuring that the new House Jaecalla would not meet the same fate as its predecessor, House Prainde. In recent years House Jaecalla has direct roots in every one of the Nine Reaches, with six known branches, not including that which rules Thalyra. Aside from the ruling Acathanean Line, there exist 2 other known branches of the house. These include the Tharan Line and the Sanshan Line.

Recently, the house has been thrown into turmoil in the aftermath of the death of Zera Jaecalla, sister of the current queen of Thalyra and the would-be spouse of a princess of the kingdom of Toria. Zera was killed in an arena duel as part of an invented tradition by Toria's king, who objected to the marriage between Zera and his adopted daughter. He organized an arena tournament for his daughter's hand, during which Zera was killed. As a violation of the terms of the marriage, and as what many considered to be an arranged murder of a member of House Jaecalla, Queen Ziya used the event to begin the War of the Fallen Heir, which 6 of the Nine Reaches are now involved in to some extent.

## History

### Origins

In the year 391 BU, Thalyra was ruled by a house known as House Revaena. Their numbers were many, and they, being the only gryphon riders in the realm, held the lords of the kingdom in an iron fist for over three centuries. Among those lords were the heads of House Aertalan and House Prainde. The head of Aertalan at the time, Lucan Aertalan, was an influential duke in the kingdom, arguably the one that held the most power save for the king himself. With this power came an emboldened sense of worth on Lucan's part. As a result, when the king of Thalyra died, Lucan began openly and publicly criticizing his successor.

The new king, a brash young man known as Aerta VII Revaena, did not take kindly to Lucan's boldness. At first, he ordered Lucan's arrest and trial. However, in a moment of great anger, he amended the order to include the massacre of Lucan's entire court as well as his arrest. And so, one summer night, the king's forces attacked Enthril, Lucan's castle, in what would come to be known as the Night of the Martyred Family.

Lucan himself and his son, Abathon, managed to escape the slaughter, but only for a few days. A week following the murder of his immediate family, Lucan I was captured, tried, and executed for Sedition Against the Royal Family. His son, however, had been placed with House Prainde, and so was saved from the fate of his family.

As word spread from Thalyra's capital to the rest of its holds about Lucan's fate, many minor noble houses were outraged that the head of one of their contemporaries was executed for mere criticism. In response to the growing anger, king Aerta issued a decree in an attempt to quell the growing flame in his kingdom. This decree, known as the Revaena Affirmation, declared that, while House Revaena was only a first among equals in relation to the other houses, any attempts at usurpation by other houses (usurpation is never clearly defined within the Affirmation) would result in the same response as had been levied against Lucan.

This decree was issue to every Duke, Thane, and Count in all of Thalyra. As it spread, sides were taken by every house that meant something. On one side, the Affirmites, the constituent houses believed that Aerta was well within his right as king to declare such a thing. On the other, the Enthrilians, the houses believed that such an abuse of power was a massive overstep on the part of the king, and that measures needed to be taken to ensure their own survival. With these two rival factions, Thalyra erupted into civil war.

The war was brutal, lasting over 10 years before a true victor was decided. Tens of thousands of lives were lost by Affirmites and Enthrilians alike, and famine and diseases cost the lives of many hundreds of thousands of people.

During the war, the castle owned by the Praindes came under siege by Affirmite forces. The siege lasted for just under 3 months, when the Praindes, desperate for food, accepted a supposed offer of surrender from their attackers. As they lowered their drawbridge for the first time since the siege began, however, the attackers stormed the castle, killing every man, woman, and child they found within. The sole survivors of this event, known as the Elderstock Massacre, were Zerua, future queen of Thalyra, and Abathon, its future king.

Despite such a major setback, however, the Enthrilians would eventually, painstakingly gain victory over the Affirmites. Eleven years after the execution of Lucan Aertalan, the Windhold, the home of House Revaena, situated in the very heart of the capital, would too be stormed and massacred. The king himself would die fighting, facing Zerua Prainde in single combat.

With the tyrant dead and his heirs dead or scattered, the question arose of what to do with the Thalyran title. A council of all remaining houses was declared, held within the very halls of the Windhold. The Windhold Tribunal, as it was called, in a rare moment of unity among houses, nearly unilaterally declared that the most bereaved, the sole survivors of House Aertala and House Prainde, should be jointly granted the title.

And so Abathon and Zerua, wedded shortly after the Windhold Tribunal, were jointly coronated as the divinely-appointed king and queen of Thalyra. On the very same day, the two new sovereigns declared the foundation of a new noble House, House Jaecalla, which would see Thalyra into its prosperous future.

### The First Inheritors

The union between Zerua and Abathon ultimately resulted in four children, three of which would live to see adulthood. The oldest, Zerua II, was born just a year after the end of the War of the Gems, and would later inherit the kingdom of Thalyra. Her reign would be among the most prosperous in Thalyra's history, and her direct descendants would form the line known as the Zeruan Line. The second child of Abathon and Zerua, Acath, would become the first member of house Jaecalla to join the Heartbound, and beyond that, his direct descendants would become greatly important in the middle years of the Jaecalla' reign over Thalyra. The third child, and the final to survive, was Toril. One more child, Sansha, would be born, but she too would meet her end by disease at the young age of three.

Aside from their children, Zerua and Abathon would make several important contributions to the future of Thalyra, and its future prosperity.

The two would create the aforementioned Heartbound. This elite force of knights and soldiers drawn from across the kingdom would protect the realm's most important people. They acted as law enforcement in particularly crime-ridden cities, acting as agents of justice, and were qualified to serve as judges in lawful trials. They received elite training, often from commanders from neighboring kingdoms, and were allowed to specialize their weaponry to make them as prodigious fighters as possible. This may have caused inconsistencies in their tactics, but at the time they were not expected to be used in a military context. The Heartbound would become a permanent fixture in the Thalyran monarchy, growing in size year after year.

Zerua was fascinated by gryphons, both in her youth and during the war. She dreamt of her and her house being counted among those who could ride them, and so when she became queen, she dedicated much of her time to researching the methods by which they could be tamed. The other kingly houses of Apheon refused to share the secrets with her, hoping to prevent the upstart house from becoming a true threat. House Revaena had known how, but they were practically extinct after the War of the Gems.

Eventually, however, she discovered the secret. Through her own due diligence, and that of certain scholars she counted among her most trusted, she discovered a document written by the very first of House Revaena. It detailed an account of how the House's primogeniture tamed his own gryphon, in painstaking and intricate detail. Zerua took this document and shared it with Abathon alone. The two would then spend months hunting down a breeding pair of gryphons, made even harder by the stipulation that the breeding pair lack any offspring. Despite that difficulty, they would succeed.

The two tamed their gryphons together, following the instructions of the document to the letter. Zerua named hers Sunbeak, and Abathon named his Shaeya. The king and queen subsequently ordered special stables built in unused space in the city. These stables would eventually become the Highroost, but while it was constructed, Sunbeak and Shaeya resided in the palace, which House Revaena had specially designed to accommodate them. It was in this way that House Jaecalla became gryphon riders.

This was also the era in which the great swords Whispered Love and Son of the Third were forged. Zerua and Abathon desired swords which would echo into the annals of history as legendary and superbly valuable. Knowing of the usefulness of Dicortite, they plucked feathers from their gryphons and ordered them forged into mighty blades. They brought in the realm's greatest blacksmith to forge them, and months later, they were presented with two beautiful blades. Zerua was presented with a falchion, which she named Whispered Love, and Abathon claimed a bastard sword, which he named Son of the Third, in reference to Enyx Vymerian.

Zerua also instituted the Baellatus Consensan as part of the Statute Against Senseless Blood in 371, a policy she enacted which illegalized internal wars within the kingdom. In the place of wars, bloodless trials-by-combat would be held within the Windhold, overseen by the king or queen themselves, in order to ensure fairness. The houses which presented their grievances would send a representative to the palace, where they would duel against the other. Whichever representative won the duel would gain whatever the conflict may have been over. This tradition greatly strengthened the kingdom, as Houses no longer senselessly destroyed the realm's infrastructure or its people.

The Statute would first be put into practice in 370 when Houses Holwin and Coulstone, two houses which held large duchies, became involved in a dispute over a county in the north of the realm. Before hostilities could begin, Zerua and Abathon intervened, ordering each house to send a representative to the Windhold. One they had arrived, Dame Lyla Coulstone of House Coulstone and Sir Loegan Holwin of House Holwin took part in a simple, one-on-one duel, armed with training sticks. The two fought for almost 15 minutes, but when the dust cleared, Dame Lyla was forced to concede the duel.

In a move that surprised many, House Coulstone accepted the results of the duel, granting the county to House Holwin. The two representatives even managed to garner a friendship prior to their departure, mending a wound in the relations between the two houses.

#### The Parwen Revolt

Not all Baellat Consensan went so well, however. In 365, the noble House Parwen conflicted with House Tayhope over the death of a member of House Tayhope. When Tayhope's representative won the duel, and Parwen were ordered to pay substantial reparations, Parwen revolted. They claimed that the ruling, as well as the Statue in and of itself, were unjust, and that Zerua was something of a tyrant for instituting it. However, their cause was unpopular, so they stood alone against the king and queen.

Zerua and Abathon together lead an army against the Parwens, riding on the backs of their gryphons, putting their rebellion down in a matter of days. In the aftermath, the ruling was rolled back, and the Tayhopes paid personally by the crown. The Statute remained in place, however, and the head of House Parwen was tried and executed for treason.

#### Castle Whiteclaw

Of lesser note was the construction of Castle Whiteclaw. Uncomfortable with their family being collected in one place, Zerua and Abathon ordered the construction of a new Palace for their House. This castle would become Castle Whiteclaw. The castle became the second home for House Jaecalla, and the heir-apparent to the throne is granted the title of Prince or Princess of Whiteclaw by their monarch to this very age.

#### Zerua's Death

Abathon and Zerua would rule together until Abathon's death in 359 to White Rending. After that, Zerua ruled on her own. However, her death would come eventually, as well. In 342 she developed a particularly aggressive cancer that her best apothecaries could not treat. She died quickly after her diagnosis, having named her daughter, Zerua II, as Princess of Whiteclaw and heir to her throne.

#### Toril's Revolt

Toril, as the youngest child, was constantly outshined by his siblings. His sister would be groomed to rule, and his brother would become an unrivalled warrior. It is said that the three were only equal in their gryphons, of which each was granted one. As a result, Toril harbored intense resentment toward them both. This resentment would eventually culminate after his mother's death. Immediately upon her death, even before his sister could be coronated, Toril would attempt to seize control of the throne. Having hired a sell-sword army in the weeks leading up to the queen's death, Toril would personally lead them into the Windhold, though not without heavy resistance from the fledgling Heartbound. Ultimately, he and his cadre would reach the throne room, where aside from three members of the Heartbound, including his brother, his sister was alone.

Leading some 200 men into the throne room, Toril drew his own sword, demanding his sister rescind her right to the throne. Seeing no other option, and fearing for her own life and those of her brother and the Heartbound protecting her, she obliged. She knelt and proclaimed her right to the throne illegitimate. Within an hour, Toril had himself crowned as king.

His kingship would hardly last a month. Allowing his siblings to live gave them the leeway needed to counter his efforts. They gathered their gryphons, and a small number of loyal members of the Heartbound, as many had chosen to remain in the service of Toril. In addition, Zerua brought her plight to the neighboring kingdom of Lunate. Leaving out her proclamation, she appealed to Lunate's king for assistance. With the promise of reparations and certain titles, the king obliged. 8,000 men, in addition to some hundred Heartbound, and a dozen gryphon riders, marched once again on the Windhold. They clashed with Toril's soldiers, eventually fighting their way to the throne room.

They found it empty. It had appeared that, in the chaos of the battle, Toril had seen fit to flee the city entirely with his gryphon, Haera. With the usurper missing, and his army shattered, Zerua was finally crowned as queen of Thalyra, bearing the Faint Heart as her mother had.

### Zerua II

With the throne safely in the hands of Zerua II, the realm quickly stabilized, recovering from the brief turmoil of Toril's rule. Upon her ascension to the throne, Zerua handed promotions to her key allies. Most notably, her brother Acath would be elevated to Domicinthus of the Heartbound, a position with little real authority within the order but one which demanded a great deal of respect from outsiders. She also granted Lunate's king the honorary title of Friend to Her Majesty and the Realms of Jaecalla. With that title came a flimsy but well-established alliance between Lunate and Thalyra, and a marriage between two of the realms' royals.

##### Wickvern Famine

This alliance would be largely ceremonial, but would be called upon most notably during the Wickvern Famine. The aforementioned famine began approximately 3 and a half years into Zerua II's reign, when one season brought next to no rain. The coming drought would persist for over a year, greatly reducing the supply of the kingdom's food, with thousands dying every year. In order to combat the famine, Zerua enacted several policies. Firstly, she began distributing and rationing the royal family's food stores. Secondly, she began buying food from other kingdoms with the royals' own money. And finally, she called upon Lunate and their alliance for relief efforts. Additionally, Zerua was known to have personally visited the areas worst affected by the famine.

Her efforts were successful, and the famine was resolved relatively quickly, though not without a great human cost. By the end, over a hundred thousand of Thalyra's people had lost their lives, but the kingdom survived, and Zerua's reputation as a caregiver who had personally involved herself in the kingdom's strife in order to solve it earned her the epithet "the Wolf".

##### Ivory Roundtable

In the aftermath of the famine, it dawned on Zerua how truly overwhelmed she had been throughout the famine. Ever major decision she had made in an effort to combat Wickvern had been made on her own. She had had no advisors, no confidants on which she had been able to rely. She rarely slept more than a wink, too essential for the efforts to relieve Thalyra's people. She needed to find a solution to this issue, to ensure that any future monarch would not be too overwhelmed or, more importantly, too incompetent, to act quickly.

Her solution was the Ivory Roundtable. She assembled some of the brightest minds within her government. She employed a scientific expert, a financial advisor, a skilled military commander, and three other high-minded individuals as her advisors. She decreed that that body, whoever it was made up of, would act as an advisory force for the king or queen, and assist them when times called for it. Though the members of the Roundtable held no real power by right, it was not uncommon for power to be granted to them by the monarch when it was necessary.

##### Alon Briin

During the Wickvern Famine, Zerua met people from across her realm, nobles and peasants alike. One in particular, Alon Briin, the son of a minor count, she found particularly pleasant. He accompanied her on her travels through Thalyra during the famine, assisted her when called upon, and acted as a friend for her. When the crisis was resolved, Zerua found it difficult to part with him. Instead, she opted to marry him, taking him as her king-consort.

The pair had two children, Zaedan and Vaisa. Zaedan, as the eldest, would become the heir apparent to the throne, being named Prince of Whiteclaw. He would be personally tutored by his mother in the ways of governance, and trained by the domicinthus of the Heartbound in the art of combat. His sister, Vaisa, would be among the many members of House Jaecalla to join the Heartbound. She, too, would become an unmatched warrior, especially proficient with a mace. She would later become the order's domicinthus, serving as her brother's right hand.

Zerua II's reign would end in 332 BU, when she contracted White Rending. A debilitating disease, White Rending seemed to affect Thalyra far more than almost all of the other reaches. Zerua would be confined to her chamber for a period of six months, during which time Zaedan would take over the role of governance. Eventually, Zerua passed in the night, leaving the kingdom to her council and her children.

### Zaedan I

Zaedan would be coronated one month after the passing of his mother. He would personally see to her funeral, an extravagant event attended by thousands of people. She would be put to rest in the Garden of the Gryphons, an inner courtyard of the palace, alongside her mother and father.

The first years of Zaedan's reign were peaceful. No major crises or political issues came up, and the realm was largely prosperous. He personally oversaw several high-profile Baellat Consensan, and not one erupted into war. Through his diligence, crime in the kingdom fell, and quality of life increased. He also improved relations with the neighboring reaches, formalizing an alliance between Lunate and Thalyra, as well as a mercenary deal with Westyra. His diplomatic efforts would be critical in the years to come.

During this first phase of his reign, Zaedan would father four children, of which three would survive. His wife was Alyna Velian, a prominent duchess. Their first child, Acath, would die in childbirth. Their Second, Zerua III, would be named Princess of Whiteclaw and heir apparent. Their third, Caenas, would go on to conquer the Reach of East Lerance for himself, passing it on to his descendants and eventually allowing the realm to pass into the hands of Thalyra's monarch, if briefly. His final son, Atramon, would go on to join the Heartbound, but would also sire the Atramonian Line of House Jaecalla. This line would eventually rule West Lerance, binding the Reaches more tightly to House Jaecalla.

##### War of the Six Kingdoms

###### Main Article: War of the Six Kingdoms

Strife would eventually find its way to Zaedan, however. In 325 BU, the ruling queen of Lunate, Etaria Rosen, would be murdered and usurped by one Taenyn Kirk. He ruled as a tyrant, undoing many reforms passed by Etaria and her predecessors, seemingly in the interest of enriching himself and his house.

This development stunned and worried the monarchs of all of the other Reaches, but none more so than those of Kidor, Drehan, Westyra, Evaica, and Thalyra. Those five, two queens and Three kings, convened a council in Evaica's capital city. Known as the Council of Five Kings, this meeting would decide the course of action for the entire region. As the usurper-king grew more tyrannical by the day, it was decided that the kingdoms would jointly intervene. They mustered their armies and invaded, beginning the War of the Six Kingdoms.

The war was far bloodier than anyone expected. Taenyn Kirk hired mercenaries from across the seas, far more professional than the conscript and peasant armies of the Five kingdoms. Additionally, among them were several Phoenix riders, with mighty firebirds to rival the gryphons. Battle after battle would be crushing defeats, and ultimately it appeared that the mercenary army would win the day. However, the true Lunatan armies and a veritable trove of peasants rose against the usurper as well, bolstering the forces of the Five Kingdoms and splitting the attention of Kirk's mercenaries. With that new advantage, the Five Kingdoms began a slow but sure push into Lunate.

The final nail in Taenyn's coffin, however, would be when he ran out of money nearing the end of the war. As the Five Kingdoms and revolters alike knocked at Avisrest's gates, Taenyn Kirk's treasury ran out. With no reason to keep fighting, his mercenaries abandoned the city, fleeing back to their original land. Kirk was left only with his small army of retinues, approximately four hundred soldiers. Faced with the inevitability of his defeat, Kirk still chose to fight to the last. He died in personal combat with the son of queen Etaria, Jacquo Rosen.

With the usurper dead and his armies scattered, the Five Kingdoms allowed Jacquo Rosen to take the throne of Lunate, becoming Jacquo VIII.

##### Reforms

The war was devastating for Thalyra. Aside from the ransacking of numerous cities by the mercenaries, the military was thoroughly massacred, numbering 25% of its pre-war numbers. Moreover, the Heartbound had been nearly wiped out, taking part in military engagements for which they were woefully unprepared. The order's only survivors, among which was Atramon, were the domicinthus and 12 capticinthi. Zaedan, as a result of this utter humiliation to the order which was supposed to be the elite in Thalyra, instituted a number of reforms. On the general military side, he changed the methods of recruitment, including setting up large training camps across Thalyra with which to train conscripted soldiers. He also standardized their equipment, increasing effectiveness, albeit requiring lords to pay the taxes necessary to pay for that equipment.

For the Heartbound, he did much the same. He established a rigid command structure within the order, which had not existed before. The domicinthus served as the highest on the chain of command, followed in descending order by the other ranks. He also guaranteed that every joining member of the order would be given equal quality armor, to ensure that everyone had the same protection.

After the War of the Six kingdoms, Zaedan's rule stabilized. Like his predecessor, he was just and fair, and ruled well. Until he died, no other major crisis occurred.

Like his mother, he would meet his end to White Rending, in 295.

### Zerua III

Zerua III took her throne in a time when the White Rending was rapidly spreading into Thalyra. It had killed both her mother and her father, as well as her grandmother. Every time she left the palace she heard or saw news of droves of people dying to the pervasive disease. As a result, more than anything, she wanted to ensure that the White Rending could never hurt another of her subjects again. For the first years of her reign, she dedicated herself and the efforts of her council to ridding Thalyra of the disease forever.

The first action she took was to close Thalyra's ports. It had long been theorized that White Rending originated on the eastern continent of Aloa, and many an Aloan vessel arrived in Thalyra's ports each year. As such, Zerua closed those ports, while also increasing commerce with the neighboring Reaches so as to prevent starvation. This action, at least initially, caused food supplies to weaken, but not to the point of famine, especially because Zerua made special effort to keep the peasants fed.

While the realm adjusted to the economic strain of closing the ports, Zerua ordered her Maestra of Our Lord's Workings, a woman named Maryn Estchild, to begin formulating a treatment for White Rending.

This effort would eventually be successful. After five years of quarantine from the outside and experimental treatments, eventually the catch-all treatment would be found. Maryn was ordered to teach apothecaries across the realm how to administer the treatment, and those apothecaries were ordered to administer the treatment free of charge. The queen personally paid back the costs to those apothecaries out of her own treasury. Five years after Zerua III took power, White Rending was almost eliminated.

For her efforts, people began to refer to Zerua as "the Physician". However, Zerua illegalized using that title to address her. She argued that more credit was due to her Maestra and the realm's many apothecaries. She believed she had only been the catalyst, not the one to act. In the spirit of her own words, she was thereby known as "the Catalyst", with her Maestra Maryn Estchild earning the moniker "the Gold Healer".

After the White Rending resolved, Zerua got married. A friend of hers, Larann Melian, a Lunatan noble, had been an invaluable resource and consultant in her strategy. The two grew close over the course of those years, and when Thalyra was open to the outside world again, the two chose to marry.

They would have only two children, Sanya and Keron, twins. Both would be raised as rulers, thought favor was given to Keron as the potential heir apparent. The two were trained in administration, religion, and science, but also in combat and strategy. By the time their mother passed away, in 280, the duo were a force to be reckoned with, complete with gryphons of their own.

In 280, Zerua III became the first of Thalyra's Jaecalla monarchs to pass away peacefully. The realm passed to her daughter, making her Sanya I.

### Sanya I

The most notable thing about Sanya I's rule was how banal it was. Among all historical record, all personal accounts from the time, no major crisis can be said to have occurred during her reign. Indeed, it seems her reign was the most peaceful of any Thalyran monarch. She ruled mercifully, granting great discretion to her Ivory Roundtable, of which her brother was a prominent and important member, serving as his sister's Maestro of Our Lord's Workings. She and her advisors ensured that the realm ran smoothly, and intervened little beyond that.

It is worth noting, however, that Sanya also presided over the greatest numbers of Baellat Consensan of any of her predecessors or her successors. Over twenty times would she judge the results of a trial-by-combat, and each time her ruling preserved peace in the realm. No such event as the Prawn Revolt occurred under her watch, and no blood was shed unnecessarily while she governed.

She, like many of her relatives, would marry a noble from a major Thalyran house, Karl Elram. With him, she would have three children: a son, Zaedan II, and two twin daughters, Hannah and Vanha. As the eldest son, Zaedan would eventually be named as Prince of Whiteclaw, and so Hannah and Vanha were encouraged to explore their interests. Hannah would become a prominent author, writing many a poem, song, and epic alike. Vanha, on the other hand, would join the Heartbound like so many of her forebears.

Sanya's reign was historically peaceful and free of suffering. For this, people called her "the Good", and that is the epithet with which she passed away in 251.

### Zaedan II

Zaedan II was nothing like his mother. His rule is remembered harshly and with disgust. Many regard him as a tyrant, and many more as incompetent. He was known to use crown resources to protect and further his own personal interests. He was greedy, and raised taxes greatly for no good reason beyond filling his own pockets. When it came time to make harder decisions, he left those on his Ivory Roundtable to make them. As a result, these decisions were often disconnected from the needs of the people, made simply in the name of keeping the government stable. It is nothing short of a miracle that he faced only 2 revolts during his reign.

The saving graces for most during this time were his sisters. Hannah and Vanha were immensely popular among the people. Vanha, as a member of the Heartbound, protected and cherished the people. She was viewed as a champion for their freedom and a wall against their enemies. Hannah, on the other hand, was adored for her writings. People were enamored with her songs, fascinated by her poems. Her epics were spread across the land for the magnificient stories they told. By virtue of their popularity, the king was never in danger of being overthrown.

But Zaedan would never learn from his sisters' examples. He did not soften with time, nor did he ever realize the magnitude of his sin. As he grew ever more unhealthy from his eating habits, he became an ever more callous person, often sentencing those around him to lengthy prison sentences or even death for the slightest infraction. These were, of course, rarely followed through on, but he issued those orders with utter sincerity, perhaps for the only times in his life.

Zaedan would marry the daughter of a major duke in the realm. Despite the weight and importance of their marriage, Zaedan would frequently engage in extramarital affairs. For this, he was condemned by the Sum Vincers, but as the Church held no real power in Thalyra, this did little to deter Zaedan's behavior. Through his affairs, Zaedan would father a triplet set of bastards: Saecon Calanyot, Pyne Calanyot, and Wynra Calanyot. These would be his only children, and so before he died, he would legitimize all three of them.

Zaedan would die of a heart attack in 265, leaving the beginning of half a decade of blood in his wake.

### War of the Three Bastards

#### Beginning

With their father dead, and having legitimized them, the Calanyot Bastards believed they had just as much of a right to the throne as any true-born Jaecalla. However, Zaedan's sisters and the Ivory Roundtable would disagree. In the days immediately following Zaedan's death, Hannah would, on behalf of herself, her sister, and the Roundtable, author a letter to the Calanyots, informing them that their claim to the throne was illegitimate and that none of the three would be considered as Zaedan's successor.

The twins and the Roundtable would then convene a tribunal, attempting to choose who would succeed Zaedan between Hannah and Vanha.

However, the triplets had expected that their claims would be challenged. In the years preceding their father's demise, they had planted spies in the government of Thalyra, and agents loyal to them within the Heartbound. Through these resources, they knew exactly when the tribunal would take place, and what its defenses would look like. With this information in hand, they planned their next move.

On the day the tribunal was to take place, the triplets infiltrated the Windhold with the assistance of their agents. From there, they hid themselves in different parts of the castle, so as to scope out the number of defenders within. In addition, their loyal Heartbound, marked by the presence of white animals on their cloaks, took up positions necessary to inflict the most amount of damage on their former comrades as possible.

Just moments after the tribunal began, the signal was given, and the Heartbound and the bastards attacked. The traitor Heartbound targeted their enemy leaders, cornering and overwhelming several of them through shear numbers. Thirteen capticinthi were killed within the first twenty minutes, with many more standard Heartbound soldiers meeting their ends as well. By the time the massacre was done, over 150 Heartbound, mostly loyal, had been killed.

The bastards, for their bit, moved into the Chamber of the Ivory, wherein the tribunal itself was being held. They, along with their few Heartbound escorts, slaughtered every member of the Ivory Roundtable, and both of the twins. Vanha fought valiantly to protect herself and her sister, killing several Heartbound and nearly taking Pyne Calanyot with her, but the element of surprise and overwhelming force were too much, and the two were mercilessly killed, along with their gryphons, who, due to their young age, were able to be in the room.

With that, the Calanyots declared Wynra was the new queen of Thalyra, rightful and just.

However, the massacre that preceded her ascension would spread like wildfire. Within two weeks, every soul in all the Nine Reaches knew of what had happened. The massacre quickly earned the moniker of "the Night of Gold Tears" based on an eyewitness account that stated that, upon their deaths, the tears of both Hannah and Vanha gleamed golden.

One Reach was especially enraged by the massacre. In East Lerance, a branch of House Jaecalla held the throne. The daughter of Caenas Jaecalla, granddaughter of Zaedan I, Annie Jaecalla, was horrified to hear of the slaughter of her family, and, like the rest of the continent, was infuriated by the slaughter of the gryphons, as they were viewed as holy creatures. Almost immediately, she declared her refusal to recognize Wynra's queenship. 7 other Reaches followed suit, though none went so far as to commit to war. Annie, however, rallied her troops as soon as possible, declaring war upon the usurpers. Compounded with the large revolts the Calanyots quickly had to face, Annie was confident in her chances of victory. This would begin the War of the Three Bastards.

#### The End

After five years of fighting, Annie's forces, joined by those from Westyra and Lunate, had won many key decisive victories over the Calanyot loyalists. By 260, only the area surrounding the capital and the Windhold remained in the hands of the Calanyots. In one final push, the Jaecalla forces would reach the palace's gates, and offer the Calanyots one last chance to step away from the throne and face trial. Outnumbered and hopeless as they were, the Calanyots refused, and charged into battle against the Jaecalla forces. The two remaining Calanyot bastards, as Pyne had been killed in a battle years prior, were killed in the ensuing skirmish.

However, during the war, Wynra would have two children, whom she sent away from the palace prior to the battle. The children would escape to a small duchy in Aloa, where they would eventually work to found the new House Gladster.

With the closest Jaecalla relative to Zaedan II being Annie herself, the title of queen of Thalyra would pass into her hands. However, she grew tired of rulership, wishing to settle into a somewhat standard life. As such, when she was able to ensure her two realms wouldn't collapse in her absence, she abdicated both thrones, passing Thalyra to her daughter, Sanya II, and East Lerance to her distant cousin, Taenyn Jaecalla, of the Tharan line.

### Sanya II

Sanya II and her mother were hailed as heroes by the peasants of Thalyra and its nobility alike. Having saved the realm from rule which would no doubt have been tyrannical and cruel, the nobility and newly appointed Ivory Roundtable members barely objected when Annie announced her abdication. In addition, Sanya chose to personally address her subjects in Thalyra, as she was queen at a relatively young age. She gave a long-winded speech to her assembled lords, promising them that she was, in fact, ready for rulership.

Among Sanya's most notable achievements was the construction of the Cathedral of the Defiant Promise, a massive church complex she ordered to be constructed in the heart of Anathon. The project took three decades in total, attracting investment from countless sources, most notable the Sum Vincers and the Church of Three itself. The Church would invest a great deal of money and resources into the project to ensure its success, as this was only the second project of its sort outside of Lunate. Additionally, the project created work for many thousands of Thalyrans across the kingdom, as the labor required to gain resources and construct the Cathedral was astronomical.

By the time the Cathedral was done, there existed a massive surplus of resources such as stone and glass, as the amounts of those resources needed to construct it had been greatly overestimated. Sanya, then, ordered their use in the development of poorer villages across her kingdom, even at the protest of some of her vassals.

Sanya was also noted for joining the Heartbound, which in itself would not have been terribly remarkable. However, she was the first sitting monarch to join the order during their reign, and this bought her a deal of respect from her commanders and contemporaries alike. She trained as any standard member of the order, and rose through its ranks in the conventional manner, becoming its second-in-command. Her weapon of choice during her service was a bardiche.

#### The Ramfort Rebellion

Her experience in a militant order would become relevant in 245 BU, when a high-profile Baellat Consensan was decided. Houses Ramfort and Howvort were in dispute over control of a certain duchy. This dispute had erupted into a fairly large skirmish between the two houses' men-at-arms and several knights, resulting in hundreds of deaths. This skirmish was quickly crushed by the swift response of several Knights of the Faint Heart, and the matter was taken to the crown for a Baellat Consensan.

Sir Altwin Ramfort and Sir Fuberd Howvort represented their respective houses in the duel, and it looked as though it would play out like any normal Baellat Consensan. However, during the duel, a personal issue made itself apparent between the two, and they fought with increasing ferocity. Eventually, Sir Altwin was killed by Sir Fuberd, rendering the Consensan void.

In response, House Ramfort rose up in arms against House Howvort. Neither house had any issue with the crown, but as a violation of the Statute Against Senseless Blood, Sanya was forced to take the side of House Howvort to end the violence. She lead her armies in combat personally, riding her gryphon Cynfri and crushing the forces of Ramfort in the span of roughly a year. By the end, the head of House Ramfort was at the crown's mercy. Sanya, however, empathized with the motives of the revolt. She granted Ramfort mercy, trying only the worst of their warriors for any real crime. In addition, Ramfort was compensated for the loss of its representative and of some of its holdings. Sir Fuberd died during the revolt, and so Ramfort considered that issue settled.

#### Post-Rebellion

Beyond the rebellion, Sanya's rule was peaceful. No other Baellat Consensan went as wrong as Ramfort's did, and no major crisis or war occurred. It was during this time of peace that Sanya would have three children in relatively quick succession, and a fourth later on: Zaecan I, Gwyn, Atramon, and later Zera. All of her children would become renowned scholars or warriors of the Heartbound, especially Gwyn and Atramon. They would serve as their mother's left and right hands in the later years of her reign, even jointly filling the Marshal seat on the Ivory Roundtable.

Zera and Zaecan, on the other hand, would remain the two who Sanya guarded most zealously. As her youngest and oldest child, each held special importance to her. Due to this, she would educated them more in rulership and diplomacy than in combat, stopping short of outright forbidding their training in that regard. Regardless, neither would reach their two brothers' level of prowess and tactical knowledge.

#### The Lollistan Rebellion

This fact would become greatly important in the onset of the Lollistan Rebellion. In 201, a major member of one House Lollistan was arrested on charges of treason, attempting to sell some of his land holdings to dukes in Lunate and Westyra. This practice in particular had been illegalized decades prior, as it led to tense border clashes with Thalyra's neighboring kingdoms. In spite of that law, the noble met in secret with the foreign dukes. He planned to flee the realm with his money, but was ultimately foiled by one of his own knights, Sir Ytrin Galner, who personally placed him under arrest.

The treasonous duke was ordered executed by Sanya personally, and his sentence was carried out just a week later. However, his house did not take kindly to his death. They compared it to the death of Lucan Aertalan centuries prior, calling it an unjustifiable act of cruelty. They rose up in open rebellion, employing mercenaries and their own men-at-arms alike. They, in turn, were joined by a small number of other houses, though it is speculated that they were seeking personal gain rather than truly believing in the Lollistans' cause.

Regardless of their motives, the rebellion was devastating. Dozens of villages were burned, many cities ransacked for all they were worth. The queen's sons Gwyn and Atramon were personally involved in dozens of battles, but Thalyra's royal armies could never decisively win against the Lollistans. This series of stalemates and pyrrhic victories, exacerbated by the aid of the dukes to whom the Lollistan traitor had originally intended to sell his holdings, would eventually find its way to Anathon and the Windhold.

It was during that battle that Gwyn and Atramon, and their gryphons, were killed. The two faced the ringleader of the rebellion, Aecan Lollistan, in personal combat, and both would be defeated in that duel. Both were killed personally by Aecan. After that, the Lollistan rebels made their way to the palace practically unhindered. It was there, however, after they had breached the gates, after they had made their way to the queen's personal chambers, that they discovered that the queen was already dead. Sanya had passed during the battle, dying peacefully, as one last insult to her enemies.

Prior to, however, she had sent her youngest and her oldest away, with everything necessary for Zaecan to be coronated. Zera and Zaecan, as the sole surivors of the primary line of House Jaecalla, would flee to East Lerance. There, they would rally soldiers and the surviving Heartbound. In addition, the procured the aid of West Lerance and Drehan, preparing to invade their stolen kingdom.

In 198, they returned in force, seizing Castle Whiteclaw and the lands surrounding Anathon in a matter of two weeks. They sieged Anathon, and breached the Windhold. There, Zaecan and Zera faced Aecan, succeeding where their brothers did not. Aecan was killed, and his house scattered. The Faint Heart was placed upon the head of its rightful owner, and Zaecan was once again king of Thalyra.

### Zaecan I

Having ended the Lollistan rebellion, Zaecan would be hailed as a hero, much like his grandmother before him. He would not rest on his laurels, however. The Lollistans and their allies had thrown the realm into turmoil. They had threatened to consume all of Thalyra in the fires of their ambition, and they had not rebelled without cause. Beyond simple ambition to hold the Faint Heart for themselves, the Lollistans and their allies had been emboldened by a perceived lack of efficiency in the government, and a disunity among the Jaecalla' vassals.

In an attempt to mend these issues, Zaecan set about reforming the kingdom. Among his first acts as king was the expansion of the Ivory Roundtable. Not only did he allow each major house in the realm a non-voting representative on the council, but he also expanded those voting roles as well. Most notably, he allowed for a member of the Clergy to sit on the council, and he began to employ a historian, called a Prophess, who would also serve as the king or queen's prime diplomat. Less importantly, he expanded the number of general advisors from three to seven.

That was the only the beginning of his series of reforms. In regards to the noble houses, who already held great power outside of the crown's purview, Zaecan sought to increase their loyalty and obligations to him. For this, he and his Prophess, at that time a man by the name of Lord Drees Whitmos, personally visited the castles of each of his direct vassals. In each castle, they personally renegotiated vassalship contracts with lords, hoping to buy greater loyalty and reliability from each castle's lord. In all but two, they succeeded, departing with significantly happier and more loyal vassals. In two, the castles of the lords of Staiton and Geweth, the king and his Prophess failed to get what they bargained for. The dukes were unwilling to cooperate, demanding unattainable concessions on the part of the crown. The king and his entourage left those two lords empty-handed.

Largely, however, his efforts were successful, and even despite the failure to garner the support of every one of his lords, his rule never saw any major conflict. The cohesion of his Ivory Roundtable would rarely falter, and although there were crises and problems throughout his years as king, none would balloon to threaten the realm's stability the way many had in the kingdom's turbulent past.

What is often regarded as Zaecan's greatest failure as king, however, was his lack of heir. Never would Zaecan father children, or even marry. He would never have a child of his own to carry on the Jaecalla line, a dangerous move as one of only two survivors from his line. However, the consequences of this failure would never make themselves known, as his youngest sister would outlive him, and sit upon the throne of Thalyra upon his death in 182.

### Zera I

It is said that Zera hit the ground running in her rule. Taking the throne at the age of 48, she was determined to fit as much action as she could into her reign. Among her first acts as queen was to focus efforts on securing the loyality of the two "renegade" houses, hoping to succeed where her brother had failed. She established the Prophess Wing to this end, bringing into her employ far more than just one historian-diplomat. The Prophess which served on the Roundtable became known as the High Prophess due to this.

With the backing of her small army of diplomats, she once again attempted to tackle the two lords. This time, she dealt with their successors, spending years in each's castle. She painstakingly negotiated, offering what she could and standing her ground where she had to. She first took this strategy in the castle of Lady Zana of House Eddal, taking roughly two years to secure a deal. She employed it again in the castle of Lord Baltor of House Ragna, taking another two years to reign him in.

Upon her successful return to the Windhold after four years of exhausting negotiations, during which time she was forced to allow a regent to rule, she was met with adulation from her Roundtable. Her children were especially glad to see her, as they had been forced to stay behind in the Windhold. After her return, Zera expected to rule peaceably, sitting back in her remaining years on the throne. However, in 172, she received word from her cousins in East Lerance of an invasion.

#### War of the Summer Princess

##### Main Article: War of the Summer Princess

In early 173 BU, during the reign of Zera I, envoys began arriving at the courts of the kings of West Lerance, East Lerance, Etrois, and Evaica. These envoys, claiming to hail from the far-away island kingdom of Soronya, supposedly sent at the behest of the island’s ruling Princess, each carried identical letters for the lords of each realm. Each, written personally by the Princess of Soronya, demanded only one thing: submission. In each letter, she wrote detailed descriptions of what would be done to the lands, people, and holdings of each realm if they did not submit. Of course, at the time, these letters were met with bemusement to offense.

One envoy, that to Etrois, returned home with his hands strung around his neck. The other three were perhaps more fortunate, but returned equally empty-handed. None of the four Reaches would submit, or even acknowledge any letter. They would not submit to an upstart from a kingdom that had not been relevant in almost two thousand years. Each remained smugly in their thrones, convinced nothing would come of the letters or their answers.

However, in Soronya, the Princess, Lynd Aestanian, was unphased by the answers. To her, the letters had been a formality, evidence to herself, her council, and her realm that she was not simply a bloodthirsty conqueror, but an aspiring Empress with a plan and a willingness to negotiate.

Since her reign began, she had amassed a fleet of over seven hundred ships, which she called the Bloomed Flower. Her army, too, had been greatly expanded, with over a hundred thousand soldiers standing by to invade the continent of Euslan. When her envoys returned, empty-handed and, in one case, horribly maimed, she took it as the final piece of justification she needed to enact her grand plan.

In late 172, those same kings who had so smugly dismissed the letters sent them by the Princess would wake to see hundreds of ships on their shores. From Ma Larrac in Etrois to the Star Keep in East Lerance, Soronyan troops would land, slaughtering the poorly-equipped men-at-arms and inexperienced knights that first met them. The Princess herself would, too, take part in the fighting, defeating renowned knights such as Sir Byddock Lyndon and Dame Jaenna Jaecalla in single combat, as well as their gryphons, riding on the back of her dragon, Verda. So great were the Princess’ combat abilities that her enemies, who had heard rumors of her unassailable skill, began to refer to her as the Summer Princess, both as an homage to the house from which she hailed, and because she was viewed as being just as inevitable as the passing of the seasons.

The especially notable duel in which she took part was during the battle of Hartton Heath, in 170, when she faced Baewyn Jaecalla, heir apparent to the kingdom of East Lerance. Though Baewyn was a mighty warrior, serving on his father’s own royal guard, the Summer Princess could not be matched. She killed him, though not before a hard-fought duel. His death would eventually serve as the catalyst to convince the queen of Thalyra, Zera I, to assist in the war.

###### The End

Even despite the assistance of Thalyra, it would take all nine of the Apheonian kingdoms uniting to beat back the Sonoryans. The Princess' use of both dragons and gryphons, the extraordinary discipline of her soldiers, and their being equipped with weapons forged from the blood of dragons and feathers of gryphons, made them near insurmountable foes. That, coupled with the slow response of many of the kingdoms that weren't directly affected, meant that it took six years to defeat the invaders.

The final battle of the war, in 166, was the battle of the Star Keep, which the Jaecalla king of East Lerance had fled two years prior. Eventually, under his leadership, and accompanied by forces from all nine kingdoms, the Summer Princess and her army was fought back to the shores of the Lerant where they had first landed. As armies clashed, the leaders saw to one another personally. In particular, Abel and Jaenna Jaecalla, Zera's children, met Lynd in single combat.

The two were defeated, but forced the Princess to flee atop her dragon, just as the vast majority of her forces were fleeing back to their great ships. So ended the war of the Summer Princess, with the titular princess and aspiring conqueror fleeing back to her homeland.

Not all of the Sonoryans fled, however. Some chose to settle in the conquered lands, the vast majority in West Lerance. They settled in lands they had taken, starting up farms and small businesses. At first they were feared and shunned, as people couldn't remove them from the horrors of the invasion. However, they were eventually accepted, and they spread across the continent. Now, they are found as far as Thalyra.

#### Zera's Death

Ultimately, the war would not touch Zera. She was too old to fight by the time of its beginning, and the Princess would not extend her reach to Thalyra. Her children would both survive the war, and the wealth and power of her realm would remain relatively unchallenged. Even in her advanced age, Zera's rule never worsened, as her Roundtable picked up where she could not.

At the age of 70, in 161, after a little over twenty years of rule, Zera passed away peacefully. She would be succeeded by her son, Abel I.

### Abel I

There is little to be said of Abel I or his rule. He fought with distinction during the War of the Summer Princess, but aside from that, he never accomplished anything of real note. He was the first ruler to ban discrimination against Sonoryans within his realm, however, which is worthy of remembrance. Beyond that, his rule was stable and relatively prosperous. He enacted no major legislation, nor did he do anything to engender ire with any noble houses. Indeed, it seems the only truly notable thing Abel did as king was father Gwyn I and his two sisters. Gwyn in particular would become reviled and infamous in years to come.

Abel died in 112, passing the realm into Gwyn's hands, as both of his sisters had died by the time of his ascension.

### Gwyn I

To say Gwyn was cruel would be a gross understatement. Embittered at the loss of both of his sisters, angry that he had always been "the spare" in the relationship with his siblings, and overwhelmed with a sense of self-righteousness, Gwyn was, in his own eyes, incapable of wrong. Every action he took was justified in his mind, because as king of Thalyra, he had a right to do what was "necessary" to protect the kingdom and his family. And so, from the moment he took the throne at age 61, his rule was marked with blood.

He would routinely execute courtiers who failed in tasks he gave them. If the individual responsible for bringing him his food and drink brought him the wrong items, they would be killed. If a bard who happened to be present sang a song he didn't like, the bard would die. Incidents like this were commonplace in his court, to the point that those close to him, including those on his Ivory Roundtable, began referring to him as "the Terror".

Life was even worse for his vassals. They, in particular, were expected to routinely make grand shows of subservience to the Terror. They were often ordered to come and live in the Windhold, so that the king's control over them could be that much stronger. More than once did he order his more minor lords killed, but he wasn't so foolish as to kill his dukes.

Beyond that, his policy was also cruel in its own way. He reduced the crown's involvement and intervention in the markets, resulting in food becoming harder to obtain, while also increasing the obligation of peasant farmers in terms of contributions. He also reversed his father's policy on the Sonoryans, and actively persecuted them within his own lands.

HIs cruelest action, and that which more than likely sealed his fate was the burning of the Losnatas Vincert, and the execution of its vincer. That vincer in particular, a man named Father Dorean, had been an outspoken critic of the Terror's rule. He was among the loudest voices that protested when people were needlessly executed, but the king was unaware of his criticism until years after, as people generally did not speak of what was said during sermons. All the same, however, the Terror would eventually learn of what the vincer was saying, and travelled personally to the man's village, along with a fairly large host.

The king confronted the man, accusing him of treason and giving him the chance to redeem himself. If the man would kneel and renounce his clerical vows, the king would spare him. Dorean, steadfast in his ways and in his faith, refused. The words had barely left his mouth when the king, despite his age, swung his blade with great speed and ferocity, decapitating the aged vincer. At once, he ordered his troops, mostly mercenaries, to burn the village to the ground.

They did so. It is said that over 500 people died in the ensuing massacre, and Gwyn's troops ensured that very few lived to tell of the event. When the scattered survivors did eventually tell of the occurrence, it took years before the story would make it back to Anathon and the Windhold. When it did, however, in 100 BU, the Ivory Roundtable and the Heartbound lost all loyalty they had to Gwyn. Three major officers conspired to put Gwyn to an end. These included the Domicinthus of the Heartbound, Sir Malkolm Goldman, the Martial, Sir Torean Watyer, and the king's Chancellor, Lady Veryn Rainter. In early 99 BU, the three invaded the king's bedchamber as he slept, and murdered him in his sleep. For unknown reasons, his gryphon, Abathon, disappeared the next morning.

They left the king's infant son alone, however, and at the age of one, Luken I became king.

### Luken I

The first sixteen years of Luken's kingship were a regency, which was a historic first for the Roundtable. No other king or queen had ascended at so young an age, and so the Roundtable was unsure of how to go about that regency. It was decided that the title Keeper of the Heart would be created, chosen from among the membership of the Ivory Roundtable. The Keeper would be the acting monarch, allowed to wear the Faint Heart while the king or queen is indisposed or otherwise unable to rule. The first Keeper was chosen to be Lady Veryn, and she would rule passively until Luken's ascension.

#### **Mending with the Church**

Growing up, Luken learned of the evils his father had committed, mostly from his mother and members of the Roundtable. He would grow horrified at the stories he heard, and became determined not the repeat his father's mistake. More than anything, Luken regretted the rift that had grown between the crown and church. He hated the atrocity committed at the Losnatas Vincert, and was hell-bent on undoing the damage it had caused. This was only reinforced during his coronation, when his court's own vincer, rather than one of the Sum Vincers, crowned him. This broke a chain of more than 12 kings and queens to be crowned by a Sum Vincer.

Most of Luken's early life as king was spent speaking with vincers and attending services at vincerts. He hoped that these efforts would show the clergy that he was not like his father, that he respected the right to worship. He eventually managed to attend a meeting between the three Sum Vincers, where he made the case for the crown and the reestablishment of relations between the two entities. This was effective to a limited extent, and he was able to convince the Sum Vincers to resume their crowning of Thalyra's kings and queens.

This did not completely heal the wounds created at Losnatas, but it was a start.

#### Restoring the House

After his efforts to woo the church bore fruit, Luken directed his attention away from the church and back towards his own rulership. For the years he spent among the clergy, Lady Veryn ruled in his stead. Now, however, she was old, and most believed her death to be an event soon to come. It was with impeccable timing, then, that Luken returned to the throne. Immediately, he set about his chief concern: increasing Jaecalla numbers. Within his own line, Luken was the sole survivor. His cousins had scattered across the realm and beyond, in search of glory, adventure, or otherwise. Luken served as the sole Jaecalla survivor with proximity to the throne. So, he sat about having heirs. He married a Soronyan woman, Avina Rantesian, reversed his father's own reversal regarding their treatment, and would father seven children. These were Raigon I, Veryn, Saea, Ytrin, Baltaen, Jaella, and Aeryn.

He also set about replenishing the numbers of House Jaecalla' gryphons. His father's gryphon, Abathon, had only fathered a single egg before his partner died and he himself vanished. That egg had since hatched and the gryphon, Newbeak, now belonged to Luken. However, concern arose that Newbeak would be the last of House Jaecalla' gryphons unless a second could be tamed, especially since gryphons only live to around one hundred and fifty years. Worse still, Luken was not educated on the process, as it was a closely guarded secret of his house to which he had been far to young to be privy. And so, just as Zerua I did, Luken keenly searched for a way to tame a gryphon.

He employed his Prophesses, whom he would entrust with the knowledge should they stumble upon the answers he sought. Eventually, after years of searching, Luken stumbled upon the very same account that his long-distant grandmother Zerua had. Armed with the very same knowledge as his forebear, and the very same determination, he set out on an expedition into the forests of Thalyra, where gryphons were said to roam. He brought with him only his two eldest children, Raigon and Veryn, so that he may demonstrate to them and them alone the process of taming a gryphon. He also armed himself with Whispered Love, the weapon Zerua I herself had forged upon her successful taming of a gryphon.

After weeks of searching, the trio eventually stumbled upon a lone female gryphon. Instructing his children to wait at the edge of the clearing in which the gryphon-a mighty ten feet in length, only slightly larger than Newbeak- rested. First, as per the instructions of his ancient forebear, he approached with guile and confidence, so as to not suggest subservience. Second, he held out his hands and allowed the gryphon to become familiar with his scent. She nudged his hands away with her nose at this stage, indicating that he succeeded. Then, he placed his hands on her beak for several minutes. Finally, drawing Whispered Love, he drew his own blood and allowed the gryphon to drink of it. It did, and the pain in Luken's wound quickly dissipated.

Having successfully tamed the gryphon, he allowed his two children to name her. They decided on Santiana, a name which means "first of the new" in Rehani.

The trio returned Santiana to the Windhold, where she and Newbeak quickly bonded. House Jaecalla' gryphon bloodline, it seemed, was secure. Having tamed Santiana and Newbeak himself, Luken became the first of his line, and possibly in history, to have two tamed gryphons. This event would earn him the nickname “the Six-Winged King”.

Santiana and Newbeak would have a clutch of nine eggs around six months later. Seven of these eggs would be given as gifts to each of Luken's children, but two had fates uncertain. Luken considered it a waste to hold them in his possession, as Newbeak and Santiana were still quite young for gryphons. He looked to the west, where members of his family had scattered. He wondered if the restoration of the gryphons would be enough to call some of them back.

Many had gathered land and holdings of their own, albeit under different family names, and were unlikely to return. However, he noted his two landless cousins: Tavic and Acath. Tavic had taken up residence in Westyra, serving as a knight for a lord of House Minat. Acath, on the other hand, served as a close advisor to the King of Lunate, King Jacquo XI. Both would receive packages delivered by Luken himself, having flown on the back of Newbeak, who at that point had grown to over twenty feet long. He arrived to the homesteads of each, presenting the gryphon egg as a gift. He would plead with both to return to Thalyra, to become true scions of House Jaecalla once again.

Both, astounded at the taming of a new gryphon, a process not even they had known, and hopeful at the number of children Luken had sired, and of course, dazzled by the prospect of having their own gryphons, accepted. They would ride back to Thalyra on Newbeak, becoming the first Jaecallaes since Gwyn, other than Luken himself, to ride on the back of a gryphon.

#### Reforms

With some of his family returned and gryphons restored to his house, Luken finally began to focus on policy. Among his first acts was an attempt at standardizing law within his kingdom, specifically in regards to how minorities and marginalized groups were treated within his kingdom. For one thing, he cracked down on the oppression of Sonoryans, beyond his reversal of his father's policies regarding them. He brought prominent Sonoryans into his government, even having one serve as an advisor on his Ivory Roundtable. In this, his wife Avina assisted greatly. She personally visited the houses of Thalyra's lords, spending considerable time with those who still harbored misgivings about her people. He also did what he could to limit religious persecution, to the minor chagrin of the Church. As prevalent as it was, there were still those among the people of Apheon who clung to the old ways, and more still who had come from distant lands and did not adhere to the Church’s edicts.

Additionally, Luken standardized laws regarding marriage across all of his realm. He first banned incestuous marriages, viewing them as both religiously and morally foul. He established a minimum age for marriage eligibility (17 at the time), and in its place created a betrothal systm, which ensured that diplomatic marriages still remained useful despite the change in law. Finally, he legalized "all forms and ways of marriage between adults", allowing two people, no matter class, occupation, or sex, to marry.

Finally, Luken invested into the education of the lowborn of his realm. Within his own holdings, specifically in Anathon, he built a great school, which would become known as the College of the Heart. Without, he invested into a great many vincerts, which already served to educate the clergy. With his additional funding, he hoped that the church would extend that service to the common folk as well. This was less common than he would have liked, and the funds he sent tended to disappear, but in some places, his investment was worthwhile.

#### Death

It is said that death was the only thing that was every going to stop the Six-Winged King. Indeed, his skill with a blade was insurmountable, his will nigh unavoidable. He only ever slowed for the sake of his family, and fought to make his realm a better place. But, as all mortal men, death would have its due with him. At the age of 56, Luken would rapidly grow unhealthy, becoming confined to his bedchambers for the most part. Having named Raigon as Prince of Whiteclaw, he would come to realize that his fight was over. However, he did not wish to die in his bed.

On the day of his death, he summoned his two eldest children as well as his most-trusted Heartbound knights. He would then travel, under their escort, to the Highroost, where Newbeak and Santiana, as well as their 10 children, nested and lived. He entered the sprawling tower, seeking out his two gryphons, who by that point had both grown to over 50 feet long. Both would sense his arrival, and rushed to his side from their high perches.

As his loyal companions approached, King Luken collapsed, the last of his strength leaving him. Newbeak kept the aged king from falling to the ground, and laid him down gently, laying down beside his old friend. It was there, surrounded by his friends and his gryphons, that the Six-Winged King died in 44 BU. His crown passed to Raigon.

### Raigon I

Raigon knew he could never fill the shoes of his father. Already he was regarded as one of the greatest kings the realm had ever seen. However, he knew that his father's shadow couldn't stop him from being a great king in his own right. He refused to bond with Newbeak or Santiana upon his father's death, which, as the heir to all that was Luken's, he had the right to do. He would prefer his own gryphon, Meola, who was a mere 15 feet upon Luken's death. Upon his coronation, Raigon became the first of Thalyra's monarchs to turn down the Faint Heart, instead donning a crown he had ordered made in the weeks before his father's death. That crown was constructed from Dicortite, the same material from which Whispered Love was forged.

This bought him immediate prestige among his lords. The status of the Faint Heart wasn't sacred in Thalyra; refusing it was unprecedented, but neither was it insulting or offensive. Raigon's refusal to wear the ancestral crown of his family quickly earned him the nickname "the Wayward".

#### Wars of the Dragon Kings

##### Main Article: Wars of the Dragon Kings

Raigon's rule would immediately tested, just a few months into his rule. In the distant southern continent of Auca, a coalition of kings had waited for an opportunity to set out across the seas. They dared not raise their hands against Apheon while the Six-Winged King lived, and they were far from certain of their ability to fight against the phoenix riders of the east. However, when Luken died, they were emboldened, believing that Apheon's bedrock, and the only person capable of uniting the northern continents, had died. In early 43 BU, massive fleets carrying over a hundred thousand soldiers, escorted by dozens of dragon riders, arrives on Apheon's southern shores.

The invaders first landed in Lunate, burning its great forests and ancient castles to the ground. They moved quickly, and even House Rosen's mighty gryphons were not enough to stop the onslaught of dragons and men alike. House Rosen was decimated, leaving only the heir apparent to the throne and her family to flee to Thalyra. So began the Wars of the Dragon Kings.

The Dragon Kings did not stop in Apheon. They marched onto Aloa's shores as well, to much the same effect. Within weeks, it looked as though the Aucan kings would achieve their goal, gaining dominance over the known world.

This was stopped by Raigon. When he first received word of the invasion commenced on his continent, he began writing letters and missives to not only the kings of his own continent, but also many in Aloa as well. He fancied himself a diplomat, and he pleaded with his fellow kings and queens to assist one another against the existential threat the Dragon Kings posed.

At the same time, he became personally involved in the Wars, as the Aucan forces stepped foot into his lands. He, and his siblings, mounted their gryphons and joined the fight. Though he had not bonded to either, he also allowed for Newbeak and Santiana to fight, being among the first of House Jaecalla' gryphons to fly freely. He would personally duel the great dragon riders of the south, slaying many a rider and dragon alike. In between battles, he would read and write countless letters, desperately negotiating some sort of alliance with his neighbors.

His efforts would bear fruit after over a year of war. Just as the Dragon Kings and their forces reached the walls of Anathon, sure to storm the city, the Highroost, and the Windhold to the ground, confirmations came from every monarch affected by the invasion. From the Apheonian kings, confirmation came in the form of reinforcements arriving along the hills and river outside of Anathon. From the Aloan kings, the arrival of a single massive phoenix and its rider would herald the alliance. With the combined forces of the kingdoms of Apheon and Aloa alike, the Dragon Kings lost ground.

Like the Summer Princess before them, the defeat of the Dragon Kings would come in the very same places in which they had first landed. In 39 BU, the forces of Auca made their final stand on the southern beaches of Lunate. Many of their dragon lords had abandoned them, fleeing back to Auca proper. A select few, who would earn the moniker The Kings Who Stayed, remained to fight and die alongside their soldiers.

The final battle, the Crush of the Lun, would be the one and only time Raigon flew upon Newbeak. He mounted his father's great gryphon, riding him into battle with ferocity. By that point, Newbeak was nearing 70 feet in length, and so dwarfed all but one of the dragons present at the battle. The one dragon which could match Newbeak in size was Tenramon, a great purple she-dragon ridden by King Anwi Mitra, the only one of the Dragon Kings to remain in Apheon.

Their duel was legendary. Two massive creatures battle one another at the behest of their riders, with purple flame and great gusts of wind caused by Newbeak's war cries shooting in all directions. Raigon and Anwi exchanged blows themselves more than once, but were mostly a side show to the battle of gods they took part in. Dragons were largely considered to be the most powerful of the three patron species, but Newbeak fought with such ferocity than he may have been mistaken for a dragon himself.

In the end, Tenramon and Anwi would be killed. Newbeak, with one final well-placed use of his sonic shrieks, sent Tenramon, tired and wounded, hurtling towards the ground. The dragon would die on impact with the ground, leaving her rider at the mercy of Raigon. Anwi retained some strength, however. He stood to face off against Raigon, who by then had dismounted Newbeak. The two exchanged words known only to Raigon, and then engaged in a quick but brutal duel. The skill of both warriors would be put on display, but Raigon's speed would outmatch Anwi's power. He cut Anwi down, paid his respects, and ordered some of his bannermen to collect the man's body.

After the battle had been won and the Wars of the Dragon Kings could be considered ended, Raigon would personally travel to Auca, transporting the bodies of their dead as a show of respect. The wars would earn Raigon the Wayward the much more prestigious nickname of Raigon the Dragonbane.

#### Reign

After the war, Raigon's rule would be peaceful. He dedicated himself to his realm and his family, regularly assembling his Roundtable and ruling on the matters of the kingdom. In addition, during this time he would have a total of five children: Ziya, Anath, Zera and Abel (twins), and Kimi. Interestingly, Kimi was named against standard Thalyran naming conventions, instead receiving an Aloan name as a token of thanks to his old allies. All five of his children would receive gryphon eggs, borne by a newly-tamed gryphon named Teamon and Raigon's own Meola.

There is little to be said of Raigon's policy. He attempted to pick up where his father left off, developing infrastructure in the form of roads and investing in lesser-developed villages. None of his efforts would have the same impact as those of his father, a fact which he learned to accept in his later life. However, one thing that can be said is that Raigon revolutionized Thalyran methods of diplomacy. He greatly expanded the Prophess Wing, even ordering the construction of an actual wing for them in the College of the Heart. He hoped that, with the right resources and education, he might be able to train diplomats to ensure that something like the Wars of the Dragon Kings could never happen again.

#### Death

Raigon's reign would be cut short. Indeed, it would be his obsession with diplomacy that did him in. Raigon was very much married to the concept of visiting among his people. He would regularly take journeys out from the Windhold and into the farthest reaches of his kingdom, hoping to better understand the grievances of his people. Most times, this was successful, earning him popularity among his people, and allowing him to act in accordance with their needs.

However, on one of these journeys, he visited the port city of Vyrathon. That city in particular had, in the days prior, received a single Sonoryan ship, which carried a certain member of House Aestanian. As Raigon was conversing with his people, having visited a tavern under the protection of just two Heartbound Knights, that man murdered the king, stabbing him through the heart with a dagger which had once belonged to the Summer Princess.

The man was beheaded near-instantly by the two knights present, but the damage was done. The king was dead, murdered while surrounded by his people. Prior to his death, the Sonoryan had declared his descendance from the Summer Princess, and suspicion was placed on the ruling House of Sonorya. However, Raigon's successor, Ziya, was much like her father. She insisted that war should not be the immediate course, especially not so soon after the horros wrought by the Dragon Kings. This would prevent war, but animosity would grow for the kingdom of Sonorya.

### Ziya I

Ziya took the crown in a time when calls for war were growing in a realm that was simply not ready for it. People seemed to have forgotten the horrors wrought by the Dragon Kings, and the Summer Princess before them. The murder of their king had whipped the lords and lowborn alike into a frenzy, and they called for revenge, justice for their fallen lord. Ziya was forced to act as a voice of reason in this. She and her Roundtable knew that the realm was not ready for war. Her lords, however, were bloodthirsty.

It took months to talk the most violent of them down. They needed to be shown directly that the realm wasn't ready. They were shown the numerical inferiority of their few bannermen and men-at-arms, and the woeful unpreparedness of their knights. Moreover, they were sold fantastical stories of dragons, regaled with tales of the burning forests of Lunate and the ash-choked ruins of the Star Keep. Sufficiently terrified, even the most war-hungry lords fell silent in their calls.

Having preserved the peace for the moment, Ziya took her throne. Little is remarkable about this phase of her reign. She set about undoing the damage done by the Dragon Kings. She distributed food whilst the peasants slowly recovered their farms, and did her best to prevent civil war as her many subject Houses recouped their losses. Additionally, she acted as an advisor to Etaria IV Rosen, the surviving queen of Lunate. Her realm was the most affected by the dragons, and she was a fairly young queen, and so she was offered the wisdom of several other Apheonian monarchs.

This style of rule worked well for around five years of rule. During that time, the realm began to prosper once again. Food production increased. Lords and noble families gained new knights and bannermen, matching their pre-war numbers. Ziya and her four siblings grew to be quite popular in both their own realm and beyond.

This was until the kingdom of Toria became involved in Thalyran politics. Toria was ruled by the feared House Heravon, distantly related to the very first of House Jaecalla. However, their power was undeniable, being among the only Houses in history to learn to tame the creatures of a different continent. Phoenix riders as they were, they still desired more power; the queen at the time, Yri VI, hoped that by marrying her adopted daughter into House Jaecalla, she could learn the secrets of taming the gryphons, as her ancient forefather Toril had not known the process. Her motive was twofold, however; she had learned that her aforementioned adopted daughter, Vera Maenea, was not attracted to men, but rather women. This was unacceptable among Torians, and so she wrote to Queen Ziya, asking for a betrothal to one of her siblings.

Yri was not careful enough in her wording, however, and Ziya was amused at the prospect of inconveniencing an Heravon, and so her sister, Zera, was sent as the betrothal, with her as-of-yet unhatched gryphon egg and four Heartbound knights as escort.

Yri was not so amused. Upon the young princess' arrival, the queen was outraged, writing a sternly-worded letter to Ziya, threatening to undo the entire marriage pact in the first place if Zera was not recalled. However, Ziya, ever the stateswoman, reminded Yri of the sacred rights of hands, which stated that once a marriage pact has been committed to, breaking it constitutes almost an act of murder. This was a tradition stemming from the ancient civilizations of Auca which survived in both Mitish and Tosiir culture.

Having already announced the marriage pact prior to Zera's arrival, Yri would be forced to allow Zera and her daughter to engage, though by Tosiir tradition, the wedding would occur in the coming weeks. She wanted to avoid the coming humiliation, however. Not only had she been outplayed, but she was going to have her hand forced, her hand twisted into allowing an unconventional marriage within the royal family itself. She would not have it.

So, she invented a tradition. She announced a tourney, though not one as someone from Apheon would understand it. She announced a series of arena fights, every combatant fighting against Zera for Vera's hand. Almost a dozen sons of duchesses or other minor noble ladies would arrive to take part. Zera, for her bit, was a highly trained member of the Heartbound, and was not dismayed by the combatants before her. She had brought her specially-forged dicortite blade, which she named Starfall, to Toria with her, and was confident in her chances of success.

The tournament began four weeks after Zera's arrival, and two weeks before Zera and Vera were to be married. Zera chose, prior to the tournament's beginning, to entrust her gryphon egg to one of her knights, Dame Nira Somheld. The two exchanged some words, and Zera entered the arena.

The fighting was almost non-stop. Zera would down her opponent, sometimes with ease and other times with considerable effort, and a new one would be immediately sent in. She was not informed that this would happen. She was under the impression that she would be allowed rest between each fight. However, her opponents came one after the other, wearing her down through sheer number. By the time she had fought through six of her opponents, she was wounded having lost her left eye. It was then that she was allowed rest.

The queen declared that the tournament would conclude the following day, and ordered her knights to escort Zera to her chambers. They retrieved her from the arena, but rather than escorting her to a room within the Heravon's palace, she was escorted to a chamber which more closely resembled a dungeon cell than it did anything else. She remained in that room until the next morning, being denied food and only given a small amount of water in the morning.

On the second day of the tourney, Zera was more exhausted than she'd been the first day. Still, she steeled her nerves and readied her blade. Over the course of that day, she fought seven opponents. Her fifth injured her arm, rendering it almost useless. Her seventh and final, a young man named Jokun Hangbran, would do her in. She fought him well, giving him a run for his money even in spite of her injured arm. However, the odds were stacked against her, and in her tired state, she made a false step, losing her balance for a brief moment. Jokun took that opportunity to plunge his blade into her stomach.

Zera lay defeated a moment later, dying on the grounds of the arena. Jokun was quikcly married to Princess Vera, but the princess refused to consummate.

The arena match concluded, and the wedding officially impossible, Yri ordered that Zera's host leave her kingdom and return home. She did not intend to allow that, however. If they left, they would bring home the gryphon egg she so desperately wanted. And so, she allowed the knights a night of rest before their departure. At the time, she ordered some of her best women to prepare for a fight.

In the dead of night, some twenty Diamondglassd of House Heravon invaded the quarters of the Heartbound knights, killing one of them immediately. The other three, having expected something like this, were armed as they were attacked.

In spite of their preparation, however, the Torian Diamondglass had them in numbers. After the first Heartbound knight died, two more followed suite, and after a few moments, only Nira remained alive out of the original four knights. Clutching the egg she had been entrusted with, she abandoned her blade and fled the castle, dodging straggler knights and servants as she went.

She escaped into the city. For four days she made her way to the docks, surviving off the the charity of strangers as she desperately attempted to avoid detection by the queen's forces. She took special care of the egg, as it was the final order her charge had given her. She resolved that if she couldn't make it home, she would do everything in her power to bring the egg home, at least. Fortunately for her, she wouldn't have to confront that. She found a ship captain willing to transport her back to Apheon, but before she could board, a lone Diamondglass of Toria happened upon her.

She dueled the woman, defeating her quickly, at the cost of her eye. She allowed the warrior to live and finally fled the realm. As her ship arrived in Anathon's port, she made her way back to the Windhold, carrying the egg close to her chest. She stumbled into the throne room, interrupting a very angry royal family in council. Queen Ziya was briefly pulled from her anger when she saw Nira enter the room, rushing over to her and bringing her up to speed.

One of Yri's duchesses had written a letter informing Ziya of Zera's death, almost immediately after it happened. That duchess in particular had requested that she be spared from the war she saw as inevitable, and Ziya would eventually oblige that request. Now, however, the realm had the unacceptable death of one of its heirs to contend with. Zera and her brother Abel had been beloved across the realm, for their service as knights and their talents as people-pleasers. Zera's death enraged not just the royal family, but almost every duke and duchess in the realm, as well as the ruling family of East Lerance. Calls for war would quickly grow, and this time around, Ziya was willing, eager, to oblige. So began the War of the Fallen Heir. This event marks year 0 on most calendars used in Apheon today.

#### The War of the Fallen Heir

The war was one unfamiliar to House Jaecalla. Almost every war they had ever fought had been in their own continent, and those perpetrated by outsiders had been defensive in nature. Despite this, Ziya ordered a mighty fleet constructed and assembled her kingdom's armies. Additionally, she called upon the lords of East Lerance, her distant kinsman, for assistance, which they provided in the form of gold and men, including the popular Prince Calbat and his two retainers and close friends, Sir Kamryn Belt and Dame Annasel Token, all three of whom were purported to be gryphon riders.

The Jaecallas and their fleet set sail roughly six months after Zera's death and Ziya's declaration of war. Halfway across the Feather Seas, the fleet was beset by a storm. Fully half of the fleet was sunk, and 15,000 of the 30,000 man army died in this storm, including the knight Sir Kamryn. However, Ziya sailed on, choosing, in her relatively young age, to fight alongside her armies for the sake of her sister. 8 months after Zera's death, Ziya and her fleet set foot onto Torian soil.

It is said that the most ferocious warrior that Thalyra had in this war was Prince Abel, "the Prince of Promises", and his gryphon, Vaylith, who both involved themselves in many a battle during the war, slaying hundreds of bannermen and men-at-arms to Queen Yri on their own. Among his most notable actions during the war was when he ended the sacking of Toria's capital, Vontr, by personally executing the commander perpetrating it, Sir Aethwyn Wraight.

The war was largely a slog for six months after the Thalyrans landed. For every victory, a defeat was also faced. They gained little ground, confined primarily to only a few dozen square miles. This was the case until the death of one Lady Liutdo. Liutdo had been lady to one of Toria's largest swathes of land, and was succeeded by her daughter Katla. Katla had been personally disgusted by Queen Yri's decision to have Princess Zera killed, and had fostered secret sympathies towards the Thalyran cause. When she came into power, those sympathies became public, and she openly declared her support for Thalyra in the war.

The new lady personally met Prince Abel prior to uniting her armies with his and his siblings', and was confused for an enemy, ensuing in a short duel. Once she explained who she was and what she had done, however, Abel ceases hostilities and the two became close allies throughout the war. With the help of Katla's soldiers, the tide was shifted against the Torians, and within two years, Vontr was surrounded by Thalyran forces. The siege lasted two months before the gates were broken and the city was stormed. Prince Abel and Queen Ziya personally led the charge into Firehall, the palace and seat of House Heravon.

Within the palace they cornered Queen Yri and her newly-appointed protector Jokun Hangbran, who wielded Zera's blade Starfell. The sight of this enraged the siblings, and they dueled and defeated Jokun near instantly, reclaiming Zera's sword. They were unaware that Jokun had been the one to murder their sister, however, so they spared him for a brief moment. Vera, however, who had been hiding until then, revealed herself, and begged the two warriors to let her kill him. She explained who he was, and they quickly obliged. After Jokun was dead, they imprisoned Yri, forced her to abdicate her throne, and set heavy reparations upon Toria's back, with the stipulation that houses which had allied with them would be exempt from assisting in their payment.

This ended the War of the Fallen Heir, and Thalyra's forces would return home. However, mere weeks after the war ended, former Queen Yri was found dead by poisoning.