King Jareche I

## Jareche Edos, King of Kings

An Iadrian portrait of Jareche Asterion.

**King Jareche I of Leogoth**, also titled **God-King of Iadria**, **Inheritor of Anderia**, and **Jareche Edos**, was the first King of Iadria and the purported Second Coming of Edos. Born Jareche Asterion, he was raised as the heir to the Anderian Kingdom of Leogoth. Upon his coronation, the young Jareche invaded and unified the Twelve Kingdoms of Iadria in what would come to be known as the Second Great Conquest. Jareche established the city of Ihenium, successor to Ancient Ihenium, in the subjugated Kingdom of Angarth. He reformed the Twelve Kingdoms into eight Duchies subservient to a single King, and integrated his homeland of Leogoth as the Holy Land of Edos' birth. Following his mysterious death, the patriarchs of Leogoth declared the late King to have been the Second Coming of Edos and added the prefix Jareche to Edos' title. The Calendar of Aerodran came to interpret the Second Great Conquest as the beginning of the Sixth Age, placing Jareche's death in the year 6A 50. Jareche died childless, and was succeeded as King of Iadria by his Chancellor and chosen heir, Duke Castor Menestas of Angarth.

## History

Jareche Asterion was born in the year 1481 of the Fifth Age, the first and only son of King Aldeche II Asterion of Leogoth. The King and his wife, Queen Mirield, had struggled to produce an heir for well over a decade, leading the young Prince's birth to be heralded as a gift from Edos. The Iadrian Church maintains that a shower of meteors illuminated the skies of Iadria on the day of his birth. Celebrations were held throughout the capital of Eaglespear and wider Leogoth, and the Patriarchs of the Citadel of Light are said to have knelt before the child's cradle, struck by his divine aura. Jareche's early life is obscured by myth and legend; as a youth, he is often credited with many miracles, including ending a drought afflicting the Kingdom, restoring speech to a mute beggar, and eradicating a plague in Leonin. According to one of the most famous stories of Jareche's youth, the young prince was traveling the desert roads on a royal visit to the Duneswatch Towers when his party was set upon by a band of Daemons. Jareche is said to have calmly stepped down from his carriage and raised a hand, setting the Horned Ones alight in a burst of golden flame. These achievements, whether fact or legend, made Prince Jareche enormously popular among the citizens of Leogoth, and some even began to openly revere him as a herald of Edos. King Aldeche, growing old and sickly, began to relegate more and more of his Kingly duties to Jareche as he grew into a young man. Among these duties was the prosecution of Leogoth's constant border conflicts with the fragmented and unstable Anderian successor states to the east and west, and the Prince quickly became renowned for his martial skill and leadership.

In 5A 1499, King Aldeche died of his long illness. 18-year old Jareche was crowned King in the Citadel of Light, thousands of Leogonians flocking to the massive temple complex to witness his ascent. Wearing the ancient Anderian crown of the Kingdom, Jareche strode forth onto the Citadel's balcony. The massive crowd of peasants, nobles, clergy and knights watched as the new King held his father's sword aloft, and as the crown and blade burst into golden flame. Unscathed by the fire, Jareche proclaimed himself King not just of Leogoth, but of all the old Anderian West, and announced his intent to reunite Leogoth with its brethren lands. These words were met with thunderous cheers and applause, and within days, the entirety of Leogoth had rallied behind the young King and his new cause.

The first four years of King Jareche's reign were spent reforming the Leogonian military and state. Leogoth was heavily centralized around the King, many nobles willingly giving up their armies and power to the godlike Asterion. By 5A 1503, the formerly divided and small army of Leogoth had been rallied into a vast, well-equipped force, blindingly loyal to their King and trained constantly for the coming conflict. Among their ranks were the Knight-Paladins of the Citadel, the hardy warriors of Gothlon, and the horse-archers of Dahar. At the King's side was his most trusted general, Alastair Navine, the Lord of Leonin and commander of the Lion-Thanes. Jareche himself, astride a massive destrier and clad in armor of gold and silver, led his host out from Eaglespear in the first weeks of 5A 1504 - now known in Iadria as year 0 of the Sixth Age. The Great Conquest had begun.

The Inheritor's first strike was directed at the Kingdom of Dragonpeak. A land of jagged peaks and arid plains, the Kingdom was dominated by the eponymous Dragonpeak, an enormous volcanic mountain riddled with mines and forges since the days of Anderia. The Kingdom boasted a strong military, armored in blackened steel torn from the bowels of the peak, and thus posed the greatest threat to the resurgent Leogoth. Jareche led his armies through the Valian Pass, a winding column of silver and gold stretching across the horizon. At first, his forces faced little resistance, siezing Eastcliff and Aenvitall easily. Soon, however, the armies of the Dragonpeak had marched forth to throw back the would-be conqueror. The two hosts first met at the Battle of Tarnstead; a resounding victory for King Jareche, the southerners' vanguard was all but destroyed, sending their main force into a headlong retreat. By winter, Jareche had secured most of the Kingdom's north, including the northern coasts of the Gulf of Idrethor. As he prepared to continue his march south, however, Leogoth itself came under threat. Seeing an opportunity, the warlike Principality of Aedrisos, hegemon of Ucoria, launched an invasion of their old enemy. Leaving Alastair Navine in command of his main force, Jareche raced north with his best troops.

The Inheritor's relief force moved with inhuman speed, marching across the deserts of Leogoth in less than a week; many believe this to be another of Jareche's many miracles. Nonetheless, by the time the God-King had reached the north of his Kingdom, the armies of Aedrisos had made their mark. Fort Reachwall had fallen, Edos' Stand was burning, and the Oases of Light themselves were under threat. The Oases, long considered holy to the Leogonians, became Jareche's focus; bypassing Reachwall, he arrived to their western reaches just as the Aedrisian army made their assault. Though the monk-warrior guardsmen of the Oases were putting up a valiant fight, they were doomed to be overwhelmed. Just as all seemed lost, the Inheritor himself strode forth onto the field at the head of a small host of Knights and warriors. Diving into the fray, Asterion is said to have shone with a blinding light, cleaving apart the Aedrisian line with his flaming greatsword and striking down the Prince of Aedrisos himself. The invading army was shortly put to flight; rallying his warriors and the Oases' guards, Jareche pursued relentlessly. The location of the battle would later become known as Jareche's Stand, boasting one of the largest temples in Leogoth -- built around an enormous tree that supposedly grew from the desert where a single drop of the Inheritor's blood had fallen.