Chapter 8, Rise of the Celestial Houses: Cranden, Rax, Darmen, and Naelax
Darmen merchant caravan, c. -240 CY Art by Merlkir At the end of the Ten Month War, in the plains south of where the Adri Forest and Grandwood converged and between the Flanmi and Mikar Rivers was a loose alliance of the Principalities of Cranden, Rax and Darmen. They had only been free of a long tributary status to the Thellari kings for about twenty years. Some scholars refer to these states during this period between -262 CY and the founding of the Aerdy Kingdom as the Three Houses. The Cranden, in the north, were the most ambitious, desiring to regain their former lands on the western side of the Flanmi in the north of Thalland. Even given that kingdom’s weakened state after its series of wars with the Bladelands and soon to be convulsed by inner turmoil, the Cranden Principality was far too small and weak to perform this feat. The Darmen, in the south, were more concerned with adding to their trade network, which was the most widespread of any of the Aerdi houses. Darmen m...