Chapter 5, The Pre-Aerdy Period: Thalland’s Restoration

Medegian army besieging
Bluelode -262 CY
art from Old World by Mohawk Games

The disappearance of Tuerny in -262 CY left a void in the Kingdom of Thalland that many factions wanted to, and immediately began attempting to fill. The party with the most immediate advantageous position was the Medegian Bladelands, which possessed one of the largest armies and had advanced almost as far as Bluelode in their invasion of southeastern Thalland. What had promised to be a devastating battle ended when the tyrant was imprisoned by Graz’zt and as lore has it, taken back to that demon prince’s realm in the Abyss(1).

With their leader gone the forces of Tuerny were thrown into a confused retreat. The Medegian army continued its advance, though this did not last long. As they came within sight of Bluelode they were confronted by a messenger asking their intentions. He had been sent by the commander of the town, who enquired in the name of Alamnos, the Thellari crown prince who had been imprisoned by the usurper in -270 CY. The Medegi prince, Balzana answered that the commander should surrender the keep as he was appointing himself protector of the Kingdom of Thalland and would crown prince Alamnos if indeed he were still alive after eight years in the dungeons of Rel Deven. The messenger departed and when no response was issued by Bluelode's commander the Medegian army settled in to besiege the town. This provoked a rancorous response from the exiled Thellari faction in the invading army led by Syfos Banzanne and his twenty-two year old grandson, Ferrante. The latter had gained fame as a warrior and leader, as well as being noted for his devotion to Heironeous, the patron god of Thalland. The Thellari exiles refused to take part in the siege of a town acting in the name of the Thellari heir and threatened to leave the camp and go over to the town. Angry words were issued by Prince Balzana and Syfos responded by accusing him of plotting to steal the throne. A council was called by Ferrante’s step-father, Ederradios, the head of a cadet branch of the Medegi royal family, to try and mediate the dispute, while the siege went forward as the matter was debated. But the fears of the exiles were stoked further when after two days a young man rode into the camp from the west under guard of one of Balzana’s lieutenants, claiming to be Crown Prince Alamnos. Balzana brought him into the council and announced he would be crowned in the morning and also betrothed to the prince’s daughter, Damenica – she who had once been promised to the Naelax heir, Baldo. The Thellari exiles erupted in anger and swords were drawn. Ederradios again stepped into the dispute saying the matter could be settled easily by a priest’s divination as to the truth of the young man’s identity. In answer, Prince Balzana accused Ederradios of betraying the Medegi for a foreign wife and father-in-law. Insulted, Ederradios invoked his right to challenge Balzana for leadership of the Medegi in a trial by combat.

In the legal codes of most Oeridian-descended nations the trial by combat is still a feature, even after the reforms of Schandor(2). But the ancient right to determine leadership based on it had been abandoned in favor of agnatic primogeniture, whereby the firstborn son inherited the right to rule, at least a century before in the east. Only the Medegi, with their preference for Hextor as a patron deity, retained the custom. The Bladelands operated more under a system of confederation with each successor to the title of prince being chosen by election in the assembly of the clan’s leading noble families.

Though the right remained legal even if having not been invoked in over fifty years, Balzana refused, leading to an open battle between his backers and those who supported Ederradios. In the confusion Syfos’s Thellari exiles departed and were taken into Bluelode after a brief parley. Balzana was slain in the fighting and his son, Udo stepped into his place, disputing Ederradios's right to the title of prince. Any hope of reapproachment done, the two Medegian factions retreated toward Pardue in a confused route punctuated by skirmishes between the two sides. 

Meanwhile, in the ensuing days, factions in Thalland had been forming, with some made up of warlords who had been loyal to Tuerny and others led by nobles who had returned from their exile in the Aerdi principalities. Though some brief fighting broke out it soon was quelled by the realization that whatever their disagreements, none of them wanted a Medegian puppet on the throne of Thalland. Not having heard of the Medegian retreat they all descended on Bluelode prepared to battle the Bladelanders as a united army. Before they could reach it they were met on the road by messengers from Syfos telling them of the Medegian retreat and calling them to an assembly to choose a king. The first day of the council was tumultuous with many sides claiming the throne in support of various nephews of the late king, all with more or less equal claim to the crown, but on the second day any dispute among them was resolved by a dramatic turn of events.

Alamnos crowned King of
Thalland at Bluelode - 262 CY
art from Old World by Mohawk Games

Ferrante had been sent by his grandfather toward Rel Deven with the intent of  finding whether the crown prince lived or not. But he unexpectedly found his answer in Nulbish. There he heard a rumor that Crown Prince Alamnos had been freed in Rel Deven by Tuerny’s general, Paganos, who was attempting to save his skin by paying court to him. Forced to retreat from Rel Deven by the invasion of Zelrad and Ehlissan forces who took the news of Tuerny’s downfall as the signal to conquer southwest Thalland, Paganos had been caught at Nulbish by men loyal to Balzana and the heir had been secreted away after he proved unwilling to cooperate with the Medegian scheme to set him on the throne as a puppet. With his bodyguard, Ferrante had found where the Prince was being kept and overpowered the Medegians and their mercenaries. Alamnos, though much worse for his imprisonment, had been escorted swiftly to Bluelode. Now in the great hall of the keep there, with palsied hands he accepted the scepter of rulership and the crown was placed upon his head. There was no dissent.

Looking at the various enemies facing his kingdom, the newly proclaimed Alamnos II, with Syfos as his chief advisor considered all the threats to his young reign. The most immediate threat was the Ehlissan and Zelrad invasion which had taken both Rel Deven and Kalstrand and much of what we now know as the southern half of the Principality of Kalstrand and southwestern corner of the Principality of Rel Deven. Beyond that their advance had been hindered by resistance from various Thellari factions, aided by division among the invaders. Though nominally allies, much distrust had grown between the Flan and Suloise Zelrad  factions of the Ehlissan armies. The involvement of “foreign” Zelrad from the petty kingdoms of Ingmalt, Foelt, and Menst did not aid matters, and had even led to some infighting among the Ehlissan Zelrad. The Medegian threat was less immediate. Word had come to Bluelode that Ederradios had reached Pardue first, holding the crossing against Balzana’s heir. Stymied, Udo had been forced to march north and cross the Mikar at Spiral whose commander had been a close liegeman of his father. Each side engaged in a mad rush to Mentry. The result was civil war in the Bladelands, with other factions forming to try and claim the title of prince, though the largest remained those led by Ederradios and Udo. The least immediate threat was from the still relatively weak, but organized Cranden who desired to reclaim their lost lands in northern Thalland that they had been driven from roughly sixty-five years before.

Ferrante commanding the siege
of Kalstrand - 260 CY
art by Mariusz Kozik

Ferrante was placed at the head of the main army and sent west to drive the Ehlissans and their allies out of Kalstrand and then Rel Deven. Alamnos and his advisors moved the court to the small town of Bar Strannach in the center of the country. In a move that foreshadowed his cleverness as a politician, his first act granted the Cranden, Rax, and Darmen principalities their full independence and forsook claim on their lands and demands for tribute or fealty. This served to momentarily counter the Cranden designs on northern Thalland and soften the attitudes of the Aerdi princes who stood to be their most immediate allies. It also lessened their reliance on and loosened ties to the more powerful princes of Garasteth and Torquann, who had begun to see themselves as rivals, especially as the Torquann expanded northeast toward the coast from their base in the lands nestled between the union of the Flanmi and Imeda Rivers. To further disarm any potential Cranden threat Alamnos sought an advantageous marriage. One might think that allying with either the Rax or Darmen would have been an astute move.  But given their relative weakness compared to the Cranden, and the chance that choosing one might provoke the enmity of the other, the king cast his eye eastward to the Naelax, offering to marry Savina, the eldest daughter of Golganus, that folk’s prince. Golganus could hardly reject the offer with the benefit being his potential grandson as king of Thalland one day.

Some say powerful artifacts of magic are the gods’ way of toying with mortals. For with each boon granted by these items there seems to follow a curse, and history has often proven this to be true. But the curse for some is the boon for others. Such was the case as the uneasy Ehlissan alliance held their gains in southwest Thalland against the best efforts of Ferrante and his army into the next year. The pride of the queens of Ehlissa, the Marvelous Nightingale is a creation of chaotic magic and had always proven hazardous in its use. So it was that in -261 CY the magical contrivance struck down Ehlissa XII in her castle in the lake country near Hexpools. In the queendom proper, with no clear successor having been named, the Flan faction at court in Karnosa crowned her eldest niece, Efrythyl. The Suloise, led by their fasstal, Geralf, choose a younger niece, Angharad and crowned her at Hexpools. Both claimed the reign name of Ehlissa XIII and civil war broke out in Ehlissa between the two factions, spreading across the river into Thalland and dividing the forces there. Rel Deven was held by forces loyal to the Zelrad and queen at Hexpools, while Kalstrand was held in the name of the queen at Karnosa.

Thellari knights engage Zelrad
Infantry at the Thelly River -259 CY
art by Angus McBride

With the Ehlissan forces weakened and the situation in Thalland increasingly more stable, Ferrante was able to take back most of the land controlled by the Ehlissans in -261 CY. After nearly a year long siege, Kalstrand itself was taken. Rel Deven fell the year after that and Alamnos moved his court back to its traditional home. Ferrante remained his chief general, with the young noble’s adherence to the strict lifestyle of a Heironean paladin inspiring both increased loyalty in some and alienating others. But Ferrante did not stay long at court as in -258 CY the Flan hill tribes in those portions of the Glorioles and Hestmark Highlands held by Thalland attacked and drove out their Thellari lords and garrisons. While Ferrante was beginning what would be a brutal war against the hillmen, the Kingdom of Nehron was ending its war to suppress the rebellious Lathu Flan. Their will finally crushed, the Lathu tribes capitulated, grudgingly swearing fealty to an Oeridian overlord.

Next Chapter -- The Pre-Aerdy Period: The Ten Month War

Art Notes:

Medegian Army besieging Bluelode -262 CY One can see the continued evolution of armor in the roughly hundred years since the Aerdi had entered the eastern Flanaess. Chainmail coifs and hauberks have become more prevalent though they have not begun to achieve the length of the full mail coats we will see as this trend continues to evolve. Prince Balzana sits his horse overlooking the siege, wearing a short sleeved chainmail hauberk. The dismounted knight in front of him still wears the old style of lamellar armor which was giving way to jackets of smaller, overlapping scales. His helmet is more modern in that it shows the evolution of the traditional design toward extending the bottom of the helmet toward the shoulders and introducing a flared lip commonly seen in this period. The small town of Bluelode as we know it today is unrecognizable from the depiction in this scene, having been razed and its outer walls destroyed during the Turmoil Between Crowns of 446-450 CY.

Alamnos crowned in Bluelode Keep - 262 CY This ceremony has been carefully orchestrated by the Thellari nobleman Syfos Banzanne, who naturally came to the leadership position during this uncertain period through force of will and his skill at politics as well as the reputation of his grandson, the Heironean paladin, Ferrante. They can both be seen to the left of the Crown Prince. A priest of Heironeous stands beside them, his robes the white with red trim that were once the colors of that gods priesthood, and which survive today in the white and red of the Knights of the Holy Shielding. Presiding over the ceremony is the head priestess of the goddess Stern Alia from her temple in Pontylver. Syfos had the foresight to take her with him when his forces fled the camp of the invading Medegian army, knowing that her presence would help to legitimize the coronation in the face of any doubters as to his legitimacy.

Ferrante commanding the siege of Kalstrand - 260 CY This scene shows the famed paladin of Heironeous himself, directing the assault. The peaks of the Glorioles can be seen in the distance. Ferrante wears a hauberk of scale mail that has replaced the traditional lamellar armor of the Aerdi nobility. His helm is highly decorated and of an older style, showing Suloise influence, doubtless via the Zelrad who had lived in the lands of Ehlissa bordering Thalland for the last 150 years. The horsehair plume is distinctly Oeridian though. The shields are of the oval and round shape that was still prevalent in this period. The monogram seen on Ferrante's shield and those of the soldiers around him is symbolic of their god and is composed of the stylized letters 'h' and 'r' in the Suloise alphabet that had been adapted to the Oeridian dialect spoken by the Thellari. Thalland led the Aeridan nations of the time in scholarship and literacy.

Thellari knights engage Zelrad Infantry at the Thelly River -259 CY This scene shows the aftermath of the siege of Rel Deven. A Zelrad rear-guard engages pursuing Thellari cavalry as the former retreat across the Thelly into Ehlissa. The Zelrad wear short-sleeved chainmail hauberks typical for them in this period and the peaked helms with simple nasal guards that will be adopted in the future among all sides. The Zelrad commander's helmet is equipped with an old-fashioned visor that was typical among the Ancient Suel and survived among the Barbarians of Thillonria for some time. The majority of the Thellari knights wear the scale mail hauberks that had become prevalent and the two on the right are wearing more modern helmets. The squire of the lead knight wears a jack of riveted plates sandwiched between layers of leather that are now commonly referred to as brigandine. 

End Notes:

1. RotE p. 56 “During one battle, Graz’zt turned the tables and captured Tuerny in the Iron Flask. Tuerny was transformed to a minor demon known as a dretch and taken to the Abyss as a slave.”

2. Dating the legal system devised by the mage Schandor is not exact, but looking at the various sources we can roughly estimate it. We do know that it was after the reign of Yalranda – Ivid the Undying (IVID) p. 7 “The mage Schandor, creator of the Court of Essence in Rauxes, was surely another. He is regarded as the architect of Aerdy's once-famed code of justice. Historians consider that the relative peace which existed between Aerdi royal houses for centuries is largely due to his (Schandor’s) wisdom building upon the informal understandings developed by Yalranda.” So this places him after Yalranda’s reign, which began in 75 CY – IVID p. 3 “The ruling house of Aerdy became the Rax-Nyrond House after the death of Nasran's grandson, Tenmeris, in CY 75. Tenmeris's Queen, Yalranda, was a formidable diplomat and mediator who had done much to support her husband and was the true power behind the throne.” It would have been before 202 CY because the Court of Essence is referenced as being in existence in the history of Sir Kargoth – Dragon (DRG) #290 p. 100 “By the autumn of 202 CY, during the reign of the Overking Jiranen, a vacancy emerged at the head of the illustrious knighthood following the death of the well-respected Knight Commander of the order, Lord Nidramon the Hextorian.” p. 101 “When word of the decision reached Lord Kargoth… Goaded by his supporters, Kargoth appeared in the capital in the following month for the convocation of investiture held in the Court of Essences…” IVID p. 7 states that “Schandor's legal reforms had an effect only noticed over centuries of time,” and on p. 15, “During its centuries of greatness, Aerdy had a famed legal code the envy of many other nations.” This argument for its long term existence as the envy of other nations gives me the impression that Schandor’s reforms took place not long after Yalranda’s rule, which did not last long since she died at a relatively young age – IVID p. 3 “That she died young, at age 40, is one of Aerdy's great tragedies.” Given all this we can make a reasonable guess placing Schandor’s reforms at sometime around 100 CY.