Lenora

> "*Resided along the banks of the great Lake Lenora, you'll find no place more populous, or one more important, than the city of Lenora, seat of the High King of the Reach.*"
> ― Anonymous
>
>

**Lenora**, sometimes referred to as **Elfethyr**, is one of the twelve major cities of The Reach and capital of both County Lenora and the Reach as a whole. Lenora is well-known throughout the Empire as a flourishing metropolis that enjoys the economic and militaristic benefits of its position as the capital of Eroris' most populous province.

## Description

### Geography

Lenora is named after the eponymous lake that it is on the shores of. The city gains much of its trade wealth through the complex Grove River which can ferry goods both north, towards Summerset, and south, towards the Solitude Bay region. When the Naryids originally built the city that would one day become Lenora, most of it was located on the hill that the Oakenfort, the palace of the High King, now resides. As the population grew, however, with the eventual Reachman domination of the Reach, the city outgrew its early confides and spread out to encompass much of the north coast of Lake Lenora.

Lenora is divided into three districts based on who lives in that area of the city. The first is the Roots District which is the most populated district near the base of the hill. It sprawls around the other two districts and is protected by the outer walls of Lenora forty-feet high. It is the poorest and densest part of the city and contains the infamous Warrens, an enormous slum where most of the poor of Lenora live, and also the Great Marketplace where most of the trade flowing into Lenora ends up. Next is the Trunk District, situated higher up on the elevation that the Oakenfort rests upon. In the Trunk District resides The Templum the seat of the Arch-Primate of the Eight Divines. The Templum is then surrounded by the homes of many of Lenora's merchants and artisans who have made their livelihoods performing their trades. Finally is the Canopy District which is dominated by the Oakenfort and by the apartments of minor nobles within it. It is said that at the initial founding of the settlement Illyriar, or the world tree, was already on top of the hill that the Oakenfort now rests upon. Over the many years since its discovery, the Oakenfort has grown around the tree, being carved from the iron-hard roots that came to grow around the tree. Illyriar now serves as the throne of the High Kings of the Reach.

## History

### Age of Legends

#### Arrival of the Eldyaar and the Discovery of the World Tree

After First Contact, when the Eldyaar landed on Eroris they quickly spread out to colonize the rest of the continent. One of the greatest pushes of early elven colonization was the Reach, which was seen as a lush land of plenty. The elves who came to settle in the Reach eventually became known as the Naryid. One such Naryid expedition party came across a strange sight on a hill rising high next to a great lake. On this hill was a tree sapling that seemed to glow silver and then gold with power. The leader of this expedition, only known as Leor, named this tree Illyriar and declared that the tree was a sign from divine Geia that this would be the site of a great city. By word of mouth the news of this new discovery spread, and soon many elves flocked to the burgeoning city of Elfethyr.

#### Naryid Kingdom and Argilac's Rebellion

As the Naryid civilization grew, so did Elfethyr. It became so prominent, that, by the late Age of Legends, the King of Elfethyr was considered the de facto suzerain of all the Naryrid Kingdoms. It was able to fight off an attempted attack by the Nords in AoL 541, and steadily grew to surpass the populations of even the cities of Eldrion. It was also during this time that a new race of Manoyaar or Reachmen began to arise from the interbreeding between the Naryid and the Nords who migrated to live under Naryid rule. This new race would begin to alarm the Naryid rulers as their population rapidly grew to outnumber all the elves within the Reach. As such, many of these Kings banded together to impose a restrictive set of laws that effectively made the Reachmen second-citizens. It was this discrimination, that eventually led to the rise of Argilac the Red in AoL 10. Elfethyr was a chief goal of Argilac throughout the entirety of the rebellion and, as such, was subject to frequent attack. It wasn't until the last year of the Age of Legends that Argilac finally succeeded in his mission. In one last proud attack, his armies were able to take the city of Elfethyr. It was there, taking his seat in the Oakenfort, that Argilac renamed the city Lenora and declared the First Empire of the Reach.

### First Era

#### Early Years

Lenora, after its successful conquest by the forces of Argilac the Red, soon became the center of a rapidly growing Reachman Empire. As many of the old elven buildings were destroyed in the Sack, many new ones of a new unquiely Reacheon style were erected in this time. Such buildings include Castle Æthrod built during the reign of High King Godwine I, Argilac's successor, to replace old elven citadel of Lenora. As of 4E 901 this castle is primarily used to house the prisoners of Lenora. The city also underwent rapid growth in its population as many Nords, fleeing the Wars of the Stormcrown, flooded into the city walls. This influx of Nordic influence in the city, along with the area of the Reach north of the Grove River led to the the growth of the unique Norman culture of Reachman.

#### Alhmund the Avenger and the Fall of Lenora

In the year 1E 796, the Empire of the Reach was on its decline. State revenue collapsed as people began to identify more with the county that they lived in that some larger idea of the Reach. High King Almeric V largely considered to be a weak and ineffective king in his time, was not respected by his nobles whatsoever. In an attempt to prove to the nobility that he did hold power within his kingdom, he executed the father of a minor noble in Herrath for the charge of corruption. Now this, at first, did not anger many in the Reach; the man was breaking the law, and even though corruption was largely common in the Reach at that time, most officials were never caught. This all changed, however, when High King Almeric denied the noble's right to a proper burial instead hanging him from the battlements of the Oakenfort for all to see. This greatly enraged the traditionalist nobles of High King Almeric and they quickly rose in rebellion against him with the son of the noble executed, Alhmund the Avenger proving to be an exceptional military commander.

The rebellion continued on for five years, and it was eventually defeated in 1E 801 at the Battle of Ivering. This victory, however, was hallow for just a few months earlier, before the turn of the year, the royalist army was defeated in the 2nd Battle of Lenora, killing High King Almeric in the process and leading to the second sacking of Lenora. Argilac's empire would never recover from this humiliating defeat and it was only twenty years later that it collapsed in a spectacle of internal infighting and war. It was this collapse that led to the centuries of chaos that followed in the region, commonly referred to as the First Interregnum.

#### First Interregnum and the Rise of Nymeria

Now when talking about the First Interregnum there must be some context placed in the events that occurred during it. The First Interregnum was relatively tame compared to the two that would follow it, mostly because it was centralized in the only province that it affected. The First Interregnum was so initially devastating for the Reach that the Naryid survivors, who had been living mostly in Eldrion, were able to make a come back retaking control of nearly all of their territory. Seeing the race of Reachman as a treat once again, they placed them into slavery in order to stomp out the rebellious spark that had begun with Argilac the Red. This action, however, would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Naryid people, when great Nymeria rose in rebellion against them in 1E 1158.

Nymeria's revolt against the Naryid was quickly successful in gaining the support of many of the oppressed populations of the province. Aid from the Nords of Norravägg under High King Ragnar was essential in much of the fighting in which the forces of the Naryid were greater than or equal to that of Nymeria's. In the end, however, Nymeria finally came to the gates of Elfethyr which she took in one great battle with the aid of the war god Ryenar. With this fall, Lenora, and the Reach as a whole, was incorperated into the rapidly growing power of the Nymerian Empire as it spread across the continent.

#### The Reign of the Nymerians and the Rise of the Light-Born

During the reign of the Nymerian Empire in Lenora, the city prospered greatly as the center of the powerful state. The population grew as trade increased through the region. New monuments were build and the Oakenfort was renovated. At points, it seemed as if Lenora would eclispe Isnhrion as the political heart of the Empire, but this would never come to pass. It was also during this period of time that Aldemar the Green, a descendant of Argilac the Red, rose to power in the city of Lenora to become the first of the illustrious Gardener Family who would go on to become High Kings of the Reach by 4E 901.

In the year 1E 1641, angered by the abuses of the indulgent Empress Isis, Arch-Primate Osmund IV proclaimed that all those faithful to the Divines were not relieved of their oaths of fealty to this corrupt Empress. Angered by the Primate's audacity, an army was sent from Summerset but quickly defected to the Primate's side. These events, coupled with the revolts that broke out as a result of the Arch-Primate's actions are referred to as the Ascension Wars. It was during this conflict that a radical segment of the Temple of the Eight Divines, the Nymerian Order, was able to rise up to claim power from the Empire and initiate the Purges.

With the ethnic purges of the Nymerian Order and the rise of the Light-Born near the end of the First Era, Lenora became a prime target in the following wars. Its strategic position at the center of the Reach and its ownership over several of the Empire's most valuable leagues of land was the reason for much of this conflict. Over the course of the War of Righteousness, control over Lenora would fluctuate many times over the conflict, up until the point that it was captured by the Light-Born Ilrodan near the end of the First Era.

### Second Era

#### The Forgotten Hero and the Holy Order

During the Forgotten Hero's quest to reunite the pieces of the Infinity Blade in order to end the tyranny of the Light-Born, she came to encounter the forces of the Holy Order while she searched for one of the pieces of the blade in the Reach. Fleeing from Herrath, where she had only just barely managed to escape the grasp of the Order, she came to Lenora where she was granted entry by its King, Tostig Gardener. This act of defiance against the Holy Order greatly angered the Light-Born Cameron, who, in response, set the order to lay siege to Lenora to bring the disadent king to heel in the summer of 2E 3997.

Though the city was eventually taken, Tostig and the Forgotten Hero were able to escape during the assault allowing them to continue on with their plans to undermine the Light-Born

#### The Second Interregnum and Remus Atticus

With the death of the Light-Born in the closing days of 2E 3998, the continent was thrown into chaos as the Holy Order collapsed and the Second Interregnum spread across the land. As this chaos unfolded, the Gardener Kingdom emergered as one of the most powerful of the post-Light-Born states, conquering a significant part of the Reach during this time. Significant opposition to the Gardeners wouldn't arise until the breakaway of the Kingdom of Atlas from Eldrion and its establishment as one of the most militaristic city-state in the region. This rivalry between Atlas and Lenora would only intensify as time marched on, fighting war after war for territory, most commonly for Nymeria. It would all come to a head in 2E 4178, when King Miloras of Atlas and Queen Saewynn of Herrath united their Kingdoms in marriage, and lauched the War of the Roses, named after their combined sigil of a gold and red rose, to finally subdue Lenora. The war would last for nine years up until 2E 4187, when the two allied monarchs perished in the Battle of Red Lake. King Cedric III of Lenora declared victory in the war against Atlas, though he would not have the same success when the son of the two deceased monarchs, Remus Atticus, grew to avenge his fallen parents.

Ascending to the throne in the year 2E 4187, Remus Atticus inherited a Kingdom on the verge of collapse. During the regency council that ruled in his name during his early years, Atlas lost battle after battle against the forces of Lenora. Eventually, however, when Remus came of age at the age of sixteen, he purged the city of corruption and successfully led a campaign to push back Cedric III's forces. Eventually, Lenora would be captured by Remus in the summer of 2E 4202. This victory against the Lenorans would be an essential stepping stone in Remus' eventual conquest of Eroris.

### Third Era

#### The Return of the Arch-Primate

In the aftermath of the fall of the Light-Born, Eroris was slow to return to the worship of the divines. Many ignorant peoples of the land clung desperately to gods that they knew were dead, and refused to return to the way of their ancestors. When Remus Atticus came to power, however, he reinstated the worship of the Divines in the areas in which it had once been prevalent, triggering a full scale return to the worship of both the Divines and the Old Gods in the Empire. Most notably for Lenora, the Arch-Primate, previously having gone into hiding with the rise of the Light-Born, returned to the city to much joy and praise.

#### Defiance at Devan

During the riegn of fourth Emperor of the Attican Dynasty, Emperor Karstagg, Lord Bedhelm of Devan Keep just ten leagues from Lenora refused to continue to pay taxes to the Empire. Emperor Karstagg, who was in attendance of the King of Lenora's wedding at the time, personally led a force to bring the dissident lord to heel. Instead of resisting, Lord Bedhelm initially offered to negotiate with the Emperor on the terms that he came himself to do so. Though his advisors strongly urged him to refuse, Karstagg accepted Bedhelm's offer and fell right into his hands, being captured on the 16th of First Seed (3) 3E 118 and imprisoned in Devan Keep.

The siege began immediately afterwords with reinforcements from Lenora forming the bulk of the encircling force. The commanders of the siege, however, stopped short of assaulting the castle under the fear that any hostile action would incur harm on the Emperor. With this reality, the siege quickly devolved into a stalemate in which the Imperial forces could not prevent supplies from entering the Keep. It would all come to an end, when in the summer of 3E 119 a group of imperial bodyguards were able to sneak into the keep and rescue the Emperor. Karstagg was immensely tramitized by his treatment during his imprisonment. It was immediately afterwards, that he ordered a full on assault on the Keep to kill all of its denizens. This action, along with others that would follow, would paint the path Karstagg followed to madness.

#### Third Interregnum

With the assassination of Veran II and the eruption of the Third Interregnum in 3E 561, Lenora was one of the countless territories and kingdoms that broke away in the chaos. It came under control of the powerful King Edmyn I of the House Gardener who, through his martial prowess, was able to create a strong state in the center of the Reach. Near the end of his life, he even managed to claim enough territory to proclaim himself the first High King of the Reach in centuries, though this would collapse soon after his death.

Lenora was also the subject of a Dea'ra plot in the middle of the Interregnum. A group of cultists who worshiped the Dread Lord Dazarae planned to perform a mass murder which they hopped would summon their cruel master into the mortal world. This plot, however, was foiled when one of its members had a change of heart and reported the plot to the King. A melee would soon break out in the sewers which the cult dwelled, as Lenoran guards cleared out the dreadful creed.

Like the rest of the Reach, Lenora was eventually incorporated into the rapidly growing Ashen Empire when Alaro Ashen took the city in 3E 2250.

### Fourth Era

#### War of the Black Phoenix

By the time the War of the Black Phoenix broke out in 4E 794, Lenora had already become the economic center of the Empire. The population had boomed to an unheard of one million people which made the city the largest in the Empire. Its fertile farms and bountiful orchards became a target for the Black Phoenix, Melkor, who moved in to secure the city in the spring of 4E 800.

Desperate for aid in an otherwise untenable situation, Lenora sent word to the gathering forces of Irvan Ashen, who they hoped would send aid to their ailing city. Preoccupied with subduing the nobles of Solitude Bay, Irvan elected to send his second in command, Azelian Ashen, to relieve the siege on the city. This, however, proved to be a poor choice, for even though Azelian knew the urgency that the situation required, he choose to delay his departure and journey for several weeks as he raided up and down the coast of the bay for loot and treasure. He took so long that, by the time he finally arrived, all he found were slaughtered corpses of many, and the looted capital of the Reach. To this day, the people of Lenora still curse that laziness of "Azel Laggard", the man that left them to die in their more dire hour.

#### The Grey Plague

Once the War of the Black Phoenix ended and Azelian ascended the throne as Azelian I in 4E 821, the people rejoiced as yet another destructive war came to an end. In the early days of his reign, Azelian had to deal with the unrest from the newly resurgent Lenora, which still fumed over his lack of action two decades ago. At times, during the first ten years that Azelian reigned, it seemed as if Eroris would fall back into the titanic clarity of war that had engulfed it less than a decade ago. This all changed, however, when the Grey Plague broke out in 4E 832.

Believed to have originated in the Ashlands of Valyaria, the Grey Plague was an epidemic that swept over Eroris like wildfire. Starting around the Solitude Bay region in Ancalen, the disease quickly spread to the point that Lenora shut its gates to all outside contact. This measure, however, proved to be ineffective as the disease quickly spread among the populous of the city, suspiciously leaving Lenora's large Dark Elven population unharmed. Quickly rumors arose that somehow the Dark Elves had brought the illness into the city, and large organized riots broke out targeting Dark Elven communities in the Roots District. Nevertheless, by the time the plague finally had swept through the city, over half the population had died from ether the plague or violence, bringing Lenora's once immense population of one-million to a seemingly measly five-hundred thousand by 4E 836.

## Districts

In Lenora this is a total of three districts, ordered in their height atop the hill that the Oakenfort rests upon. There is the Roots District, the lowest and most populous of the districts; the Trunks District, the center of the Eight Divines faith and the place were most of the middle class resides; and the Canopy District, dominated by the Oakenfort and the many apartments and residences it contains.

First is the Roots District which is the area where all first enter into the city. It contains the majority of Lenora's population mostly in and around the Warrens, or the slums. In the Roots District is the Great Marketplace were many of the city's merchants gather to discuss business transactions and generally converse with others. Surrounding the Marketplace is many of the city's main administrative buildings such as the courthouse and the Lower Temple where the city's poorer citizens gather to pray. Also in the Roots District is Castle Æthrod. It was built during the reign of the Gardener King Harold III, who built the castle as a military barracks and fortress while the city was still mostly located on the main hill. As time marched on, however, the city expanded to the point that Castle Æthrod was fully contained within its bounds. By 4E 901, the castle served as the guard barracks and common prison.

Next is the Trunk District which is the second highest in terms of population. The people that live in the Trunk District, in contrast to those living in the Roots District, are relatively better off than their lower counterparts. The denizens of the district consist mostly of merchants and other middle classmen who make their living ether trading for goods or creating them themselves. Because of this demographic, many of the city's workshops are located in the Truck District were artisans from around the county gather to find work. Located near the main entrance into the Trunk District is the Nymerian Park, which is situated just before the Templum, where the Arch-Primate of the Eight Divines faith watches over those faithful. The Templum, ever since the days of Nymeria, as long served as the administrative heart of the wider faith, and it has through the years come into conflict with those ruling the city from the Canopy District.

Finally, the Canopy District is mainly dominated by the enormous Oakenfort, the seat of the ruler of Lenora. It is considered largely to be the most impenetrable castle in Eroris. Over the countless years since it was built from the iron-hard wood of the World Tree, the Oakenfort has seen many renovations, and even more rulers. From elf, to man, and even beast, there is no exception to the people who have ruled from Illyriar. The Oakenfort is so large in fact, that many of the Reach's most senior nobles are able to rent expensive apartments near the base of the fortress, to stay in while they are in the city of Lenora. It is said that some of these apartments are so luxurious, that many lords opt simply to rule their estates from Lenora, granting the High King even more power over some of his more dissident subjects.

## Gallery

The City of Lenora from the Rose Gate.Flag of the County of Lenora Circa 4901 a. Re.Streets of Lenora.The Harborfront.The Oakenfort, seat of the High King