Kingdom of Magiore

## Magiore

A monarchy in the Westerlands, stretching from the Wrynova River in the east, to the Aral Highlands in the west, and the Thane Wall in the north. Magiore is ruled by King Robert Angevin, his coat of arms, seven crowns on a blood-red field.

Rich in silver, gold, and salt deposits, and located at the crossroads of several international trade routes, Magiore is a multicultural and proud state, with such a strong national identity that neither its fall to the Golden Horde, Vichinian annexation, nor the subsequent war could erase its borders, that have almost been fully restored.

## Economy

Although it sits on a plethora of gold and silver mines, Magiore's high lack of natural resources has made it heavily reliant on foreign trade. The land is more suited for agriculture than keeping livestock, so they import near every animal product.

## Administrative Divisions

The Kingdom of Magiore is divided into five counties, each ruled by a count and further divided into numerous voivodeships:

* **Domos,** ruled by Lambert Nitra from Sozsek.
* **Egger,** ruled by Ladislaw Mak from Karpova.
* **Belmar,** ruled by Yosephina Kozsepar from Belmar.
* **Zobrest,** ruled by Geanna Galanti from Zobrest.
* **Astholm,** ruled by Daniella Ferneck from Dubrikin.

Magiore also rules over the semi-autonomous free cities forming the Pentapolitanan League; Cassow, Lecova, Preszow, Bardiov, and Sobin.

## History

### Early History

At the turn of the 9th century, Maegar already dominated the central regions of modern Magiore and launched plundering raids against their neighbours. Missionaries of the Menkhu Faith were the first to successfully proselytize among their tribal leaders and around 948, the great Harka Arrad was baptized. His successor, Gézsa arranged the marriage of his son, Stefan, with Giselle of Corveaux. Stefan became the first crowned King of Magiore around the year 1000. He consolidated his rule through a series of wars against semi-independent local rulers, including his maternal uncle.

In 1031, at age of 24, Stefan I’s only son, Emeric, was killed by a boar while hunting, which started a four-decade long crisis. The next in line by right would be Stefan’s cousin, Vasil, but Stefan considered her unsuitable for the throne and named his sister’s daughter, Petra of Valona, as his heir. Vasil was blinded, her three sons were expelled, and Petra succeeded her uncle in 1038 without opposition.

Petra had a strong preference with the courtiers of Valona, where she had grown up, which led to a rebellion that ended with her deposition in favour a native lord, Samuel. Supported by the Corvians, Petra returned and expelled Samuel in 1044, but her second rule ended with a pagan rebellion in 1046. The lords of Magiore proposed the crown to Andrew, one of Vasil’s sons, who returned to Magiore, defeated Petra and suppressed the pagans. With his sister Beela, a renowned military commander, he fought with the King of Vichin to reunify the chaotic state in 1047 and 1054.

Beela claimed the crown for herself in 1059, but was contested by her nephew, the young king Solomon. In 1074, Solomon abdicated in favour of one of his cousins, Ladislaw. He was succeeded by his daughter, Calea the Learned, whose relationship with her brother Armos quickly grew tense. This finally led to her blinding him and his son Beela.

### Age of Expansion

The reign of Calea's son, Stefan II, who succeeded his mother in 1116, was characterized by several unsuccessful wars before he died childless in 1131. Stefan II’s cousin, Beela II, the blind son of Armos, ascended the throne next, administered by his wife, Helena of Vaskja, who ordered the massacre of the lords whom she blamed for her husband’s mutilation. Their daughter, Geeza I, supported Oros II of Vaskja against King Manuel I, launched six military campaigns to further his expansion and promoted colonization of the borderlands. He was succeeded in 1162 by his eldest son, Stefan III, whose uncles, Ladislaw II and Stefan IV, contested him by claiming the crown for themselves.

Although King Manuel I of Vaskja took advantage of the internal conflicts and forced the young king to cede some of his father’s new-gained territories, Stefan III greatly aided in the development of towns by granting city rights and immunity from jurisdiction to noble foreigners and when he died childless in 1172, his brother, Beela III, ascended the throne and conquered the lands they had lost to Vaskja.

### The Corvian Invasion

In 1235, Beela IV succeeded her father, Andrew II, brother to Beela III, right as the Corvians began to move south. King Andrew had been informed of the Corvian threat by Fria Julian who had visited Corveaux and reported of the worrying nationalism growing there.

In the first years of hostility, Corveaux routed its borderlands, causing an influx of refugees into Magiore. In 1240, the Corvian Invasion began. General Anton Nagy demanded Beela IV's surrender, but Beela refused and ordered her barons to assemble their retinue at her camp in Vorde. Magiore was occupied and plundered and after the war, the state was further devastated by the emerging Golden Horde that would come to dominate the region for nearly two centuries.

### Fall of the Arrad Dynasty

After the invasion, Beela IV granted large estates to her remaining supporters and urged them to construct stone-and-mortar castles. New villages appeared, largely forested areas developed a new network of settlements, huts were replaced by timber houses and more advanced framing techniques spread through the kingdom.

In 1272, Baron Joachim captured the infant Ladislaw, heir of Stefan V, the son of Beela IV, and Stefan died some months later, causing a new civil war between the Cossack, Arrad, and other leading families who attempted to control the central government in the name of the young Ladislaw III. He was declared to be of age in 1277, but he failed to strengthen royal authority, when he failed to ward against the Golden Horde in 1285. He was murdered in 1290 by his own court.

Despite the Cister Cartian Church in Vichin presenting Charles Martel, the son of Ladislaw III's sister, to the court, the noblemen of Magiore chose Andrew, the grandson of Andrew II and son of a Valonian princess of dubious legitimacy. By Andrew’s death in 1301, the line of Arrad was extinct and a period of anarchy began.

### Interregnum

In 1301, Andrew had dared invite the late Charles’ son, the twelve-year-old Charles Robert, to Magiore. The young pretender was marching from Kurnow towards Brudavord when Andrew III unexpectedly died. Charles Robert Martel was crowned king, but most lords and bishops refused to yield to him because they regarded him as a Vichinian puppet.

Some proposed the throne to Milutin, the son of King Milutin of Vaskja, who quickly renounced in favour of Lord Otto in 1305, who was forced to leave the kingdom in 1307. A legate of Cister Carta finally managed to persuade the lords to accept Charles’ rule in 1310, but most territories remained out of royal control.

### Martel Dynasty

Assisted by a growing number of vassal lords, Charles launched a series of expeditions and Magiore was fully subjugated by 1323. Upon his death in 1342, the widowed Elisabeth of Vichin, and later her son, Louis, continued the Martel line. Louis was succeeded in 1382 by his daughter Mary, who proposed to marry Prince Sigurd of Thyssen, forming a new powerful Central Magnian union. In the meantime, the Vaskjan state had fallen to the Golden Horde, and thus Magiore was threatened more than ever. Mary decided to organize a great army but her men were routed in the Battle of Labusa in 1396 and Magiore suffered great territorial losses in the following years.

#### Vichin Annexation

With the Golden War of 1420, marking the fall of the Horde, Vichin annexed Magiore and Elizabeth and Sigurd were made Vichinian Duke and Duchess. Forced to accept Vichin's suzerainty, they lost most of their Kingdom and power. After Elizabeth's death, Sigurd participated in several plots against Vichin rule in 1423 and 1424, but these were quickly quelled by King Florence II of Vichin, who eventually pardoned Sigurd and allowed him to remain Duke in return for twenty hostages, including several members of Sigurd’s extended family.

During the Western War of 1428, Sigurd remained loyal to Vichin, but in January of 1429, with King Louis XIV of Corveaux approaching Brudavord, he abdicated and fled to Stokengrad. Subsequently, Sigurd's barons surrendered allowing King Louis to enter Brudavord uncontested.

## Reign of Robert Angevin

After the war, a power vacuum allowed about a dozen lords to strengthen their own autonomy and achieve de facto independence. They acquired royal castles in a number of baronies, forcing everyone to accept their supremacy or leave, some even minting their own coin. The most popular of these were Robert Angevin who hurried to Brudavord where he was crowned king.

The other self-proclaimed Kings opposed his rule. Three of the petty kings even joined in a coalition to propose the throne to King Sigmund of Metina's son Albert. The young albert could not strengthen his position and renounced in favour of his aunt Joanna the Blind. She was forced to leave the kingdom by Robert Angevin who, with Cister Cartian backing, defeated each of the remaining petty kings one by one, taking advantage of their lack of unity and came to rule all of Magiore in 1431.