Kingdom of Revarine

Serving as one of the oldest bastions of humanity in the known world, Port Revarine is an ancient and prestigious port city. So much so that it played host to many emperors, old and new, all of which loving the city and its culture. Its marketplace was once one of the wealthiest in the world, making or breaking the empires that had it under their control as it ebbed and flowed. Thousands the world over traveled to its colosseum to see warriors test their mind and mettle against one another, to see the theatrics at the theater that was once home to the most powerful and influential performer's guild in the world. Then, when it came to catastrophe, it also served as a shining, stalwart bastion against Argus the Eliminator's army of bloodthirsty demoniacs. Governments and emperors came and went, markets crashed, monarchies dwindled, war and famine struck...yet after all these centuries, the city and its most prestigious families still remain.

## Kingdom of Revarine

Heraldry of The Kingdom of Revarine(courtesy of drawshield)

## History

#### **Foundation**

Nobody knows when, exactly, the city itself was founded. It is, however, known that the old Erodeman Empire of many ages past is responsible for its construction. It is believed that originally, the city served as a shipyard and military port from which the Erodemans could strike out and conquer parts of Ascalon, Sayadia, and Northgard. Some time after the Erodeman Empire's collapse, the city's aristocracy repurposed the harbor into a trade port and kindled the industries around the city. The locals then changed from producing for what they saw as overglorified warlords rather than emperors, and instead grew olives to make olive oil, made wine from grapes, pastured horses, and most importantly: founded several banks. The existence of the banks drew the attention of powerful mercenaries in the city and mercenary captains from all over Erodemus, leading to the foundation of the Lega dei Condottieri. The Kingdom of Revarine itself was not founded until many, many centuries later when Alban Crethwall, an Erelonian knight sworn in to become a Theonian Legate, united Revarine and the surrounding baronies, counties, and villages under his banner in a bid to return the rule of law to Erodemus after Old Theonia was destroyed in its entirety by the Dark Lord, Argus the Eliminator.

#### **Port Revarine's** **Conquest by Theonia**

The story of the Kingdom cannot be told without telling the story of the city. The city, after the dissolution of the Erodeman Empire, enjoyed its freedom for many centuries, but this was not a peace that would last forever. The growing wealth of the city drew the attention of the restless legates and ambitious patricians of their neighbors in Theonia. It began first as a diplomatic mission from Theonia's senators, who built their influence over the population over the course of many decades. These diplomats would buy business, hold accounts in banks for their wealthy plebeian friends who they would then invite to Revarine to run their businesses. Perhaps the most brutal blow to the local power players in the city was the fact that Theonians had started growing their own, supposedly finer quality olive oil in their homeland, which was sold at a less expensive price than the product being sold out of Revarine's own fields. Finally, Theonians started purchasing vineyards and ranches, with an ultimate goal in mind: own the banks. Fearing they would lose their power, the patriarchs of the many old and renowned aristocratic households within Revarine began to mobilize their own loyalists who would assassinate minor Theonian patricians, rob wealthy Theonian merchant shops and enterprises that had popped up in the city. Eventually, the Bassanelli family used their ownership of the banks to seize Theonian accounts and blacklist Theonians from opening accounts or taking out loans, effectively making it even more difficult for Theonia to gain a foothold in the most powerful marketplace of its time. It was not long before the Theonian people grew impatient and demanded that the emperor and his senate do something about the dwindling economy.

Listen they did. The emperor mobilized his legions and hired auxiliary troops from across the sea via contacts in Fjorsette, which at the time was a Skaldic-Erodeman fishing town and shipping outpost. Meanwhile, Senators raised passions among the plebeians, encouraging them to enlist in the legions in scores of thousands at a time. After only half a decade, the Theonians had an army the likes of which had not been seen since the mythical days of the Erodeman Empire. Armies, however, are expensive, and are also very unruly when left to idly sharpen their swords and their axes. Settlements like Faucel, Capraevium, and Revarine had the wealth to feed and pay the empire's armies, so the emperor sent his legions to conquer these places. Faucel held its own for a year before surrendering to the authority of the Theonian empire, and with it many minor city states and villages, much like Fjorsette and Capraevium, begrudgingly accepted imperial troops into their midst. Revarine was surrounded, with only the Lega dei Condottieri to defend them.

The Lega dei Condottieri stood defiantly against the Theonian legions. They were better funded, better equipped, and better trained. After all, it was their job to know battle and war. As well, they were a league of mercenaries whose livelihood was the well-being of the Revarine families and the banks that funded them. For years they held back Theonian advances, severing the supply line between the legion stationed in Capraevium and the legion stationed in Faucel, crippling their authority in the region considerably. This strategic advantage would have guaranteed Revarine's freedom had it not been for the Year of Nightmares, a time in which an Orcish Warlord of the Ironblood Clan from the Ironsands arrived with an army of war trolls, dune titans, wild men, and orcs to pillage so-called civilized lands for supplies. This orc had an Azraelite magician at his side who tried to plane-meld parts of the realm of Witherend with southern Erodemus using powerful artifacts left behind by Erodeman arch-magi. Successful, this magician's works invited the Domini, giving them permanent access to the world. However, the Magician and his master would not be able to enjoy their victory for long, as the Lega dei Condottieri stormed the Warlord's stronghold alongside Theonian legionaries, flaying the Warlord alive and burning the magician at the stake after a joint trial held by the Erodemian Orthodox Church and the Church of Erodemnity. This trial resulted in the dissolution of any magical guild in Erodemus, the outlawing of magic in any land or country that holds true to the Erodemian faith, and the alienation of cultures who relied on magic in some way or another.

The free practice of wizardry and sorcery was not the only thing that was lost. The Lega dei Condottieri had suffered heavy casualties in their war with the Ironblood warbands and thus could no longer reliably protect their city. The families of Revarine had no choice but to offer their conditional surrender to Theonia, who happily obliged. Revarine was taken under the condition that the families and the guilds may still dictate the market, while on Theonia's side of the deal, the Lega dei Condottieri were to be dissolved, and a dux would be instated as the emperor's own eyes and ears within the city.

Theonia would rule in Revarine for five hundred years, using it as a base of operations for naval affairs, much like their predecessors in the Erodeman Empire. It enabled them to strong arm the Techung Hoian people, to conquer large chunks of Sayadia and its spice trade, and to contend with Ascalon as an economic and military power. Its rule ended when the Dark Lord Argus the Eliminator destroyed their homeland, Old Theonia, and systematically assassinated and killed legionnaires and their sympathizers in Erodemus.

### **King Alban Crethwall of Erelon**

After Argus's crusade, Legate Alban Crethwall was one of the last living legates with a legion left in Erodemus. Alban was loyal to the empire, but he was not from Theonia, or even Erodemus. Alban was originally a knight loyal to the royal house of Colvent in Erelon, but he happened upon a plot to kill the king, of which he was too late to stop. Ashamed, he left for Fjorsette where he made a name for himself among the legionnaires as a competent leader of men and a skilled fighter. Eventually, or perhaps inevitably, Alban was recruited by the emperor's cohorts and was made a legate in recognition of his abilities. He served loyally as a commander at the northern border of Erodemus, even during Fjorsette's initial rebellion against Theonia. He was one of the few to fight Argus the Eliminator and live to tell the tale during the Dark Lord's invasion of Erodemus, and he was the one, who with the help of General Tiberius Trentin, returned the rule of law to Revarine after the Empire's destruction. He was recognized as King for his efforts in return for restoring the original families to their former glory. He also ennobled many of the relatives of the legionnaires who fought under him and made a name for themselves. His rule lasted for twenty years before he perished from illness with no heirs to succeed him, sparking a civil war between many of the great houses in Revarine.

## Factions

#### **Lega dei Condottieri**

These captains of this new guild of mercenaries served as the lawkeepers in the years of the city's independence from external rule, creating a culture of mercenary law enforcers who saw serving the city as being one of the finest honors that could be bestowed on any human.