Chapter 7, Rise of the Celestial Houses: Garasteth and Torquann

The Headless Prince
Art from Old World, Mohawk Games

The end of the Ten Month War marked the end of the dominance of the southeast Flanaess by the dueling Thellari and Medegi states, though Thalland still stood as the strongest state in that region. Despite their defeat in the Ten Month War the lands belonging to the Medegi Principality were still larger and richer than most of the remaining Aerdi principalities. But still it was clear that Thalland and Medegia’s dominance of the region was declining in power and influence. With their patchwork of holdings in the former Bladelands combined with the Naelax Principality proper, that house would have easily matched the Medegi in power were it not for the constant intra-house disputes among that fractious clan. A divided Ehlissa lay to the west, south of which was a handful of Suloise states dominated by various mutually hostile branches of the House of Zelrad. Compared to all these, the Aeridian principalities of the Rax, Cranden, Darmen, Garasteth, and Torquann were still relatively weak.

The Garasteth lived on lands roughly within the current Constabulary Fief of Rel Astra. Their center of power was a town they had founded on the site of an abandoned Suel city, which they renamed Rel Astra, “City of the Heavens”(1). The original Suloise name of that place is unknown, having been lost to history with the sacking of the University of Rauxes in 449 CY during the Turmoil Between Crowns (2). The Suloise of that land had once comprised a fairly powerful city state that had consumed itself in a civil war just before the Garasteth first pushed into the coastal lands. Their remnants had easily fallen to the Garasteth who then built upon the ruins. However, most of the early history of the Garasteth was consumed by their expansion to the north, focused especially on a series of conflicts with the Suloise city-state of Ountsy(3). In the end Ountsy did not fall to the military might of the Garasteth but was absorbed into their principality through a political marriage, a diplomatic skill that the Garasteth would come to excel at. The Garasteth Prince, Manso arranged to marry Pendri, the son of his younger brother, to the eldest daughter and heir of the Fasstal of Ountsy in -266 CY. Pendri had gained fame as a young man in the war against Tuerny as part of the Naelax-Garasteth alliance that had fought alongside the other Aerdi houses against the tyrant (see Chapter 4. the Rise of Tuerny the Merciless). The childless Manso adopted his nephew as his heir and when he died in -257 CY Pendri became Prince of the Garasteth. Two years later Pendri and his wife had a child who they named Mikar after the river that flowed through the Garasteth lands. The boy inherited his Suloise mother’s hair and complexion earning him the nickname the Fair. In -242 CY with the death of his maternal grandfather, Mikar’s mother, Ondagarda became Fasstal of Ountsy. As a boy Mikar split his time between the courts in Rel Astra and Ountsy, so that he could be seen by his mother’s people and accepted as her heir.

Wedding of Pendri of Garasteth
and Ondagarda of Ountsy
-266 CY
Art from Old World, Mohawk Games

Further up the coast lay another Suloise city-state, the virtually impregnable city of Roland. Besides its formidable natural defenses it was surrounded by the mainly Flan hill tribes of the Gull Cliffs, along with clans of petty dwarves and gnomes. These tribes were known for their independence, mutual hostility, and changeable loyalties and had been used to advantage by the competing city-states while they were all still under the control of Suloise overlords. Now the Oeridian Garasteth with their wider trade network and greater wealth were able to use the tribes’ mercenary natures to their advantage in pressing Roland.

Another threat to Roland and a rival to the Garasteth’s designs emerged in the form of the Torquann. The Torquann had been defeated in -325 CY by the Cranden and driven north through the Grandwood into the plains beyond the fork of the Imeda and Flanmi Rivers. From those heartlands they had been steadily expanding eastward, eating up the lands of Flan tribes, much to the concern of the Garasteth. In the -260s CY an alliance against Tuerny of the minor Aerdi principalities that would come to make up the Celestial Houses led to a healing of the rift between the Torquann and Cranden, fueling further distrust on the part of the Garasteth. During this time the Torquann had also expanded south and west, clearing forest land along the fertile banks of the Flanmi.

The Torquann were now intent on the richer prize of Roland which they unsuccessfully attacked for the first time in -238 CY. While this rivalry between the two Aerdi houses never flared into full-scale warfare, skirmishes did occur between their warriors and a complex warfare of diplomacy over the loyalties of the various Flan tribes of the Gull Cliffs burned brightly consuming the gold and trade goods of the rival Aerdi principalities to pay for their services.

Rolandi Defenders man a catapult
against the besieging Torquann
- 230 CY
Art by Angus McBride

The defeat of another siege of Roland by the Torquann in -230 CY was followed by an expedition in -228 CY by the Garasteth to try their luck. An intertribal war between the Gull Cliffs tribes had resulted in the consolidation of many of them under a chief known as Kanché whose loyalty Prince Pendri had managed to gain. Combined with the Garasteth forces it was hoped they would finally have a force strong enough to be able to breach the walls of Roland. The expedition was under the command of Mikar who had ascended to the position of Fasstal of Ountsy upon the death of his mother in -232 CY and brought with him a large guard of Suloise warriors. It was on this campaign that Mikar proved he was as skilled in diplomacy as his granduncle Prince Manso had been. After assembling the siege on his own initiative he called for a parley with Roland’s Fasstal and entered the city. Once there he outlined the threat posed by the confederation of Flan hill tribes under Kanché to both of them and proposed a secret alliance to remove it, with his marriage to the Fasstal’s sister, Hildora to seal the pact. The Fasstal agreed. Returning to his camp Mikar announced that his efforts had been unsuccessful and that the siege would begin tomorrow spearheaded by his Flan allies.

In the morning the attack began with the Flan forming the center and converging on the city’s main gate while Garasteth and Ountsian warriors assaulted the walls using scaling ladders and siege towers. As planned, in the middle of the battle the wings of besiegers turned and attacked the flanks of the Flan while Mikar led his cavalry into their center. The wily Kanché was quick to realize what had happened and had turned his warriors to meet Mikar when the gates opened and Rolandi soldiers attacked from the rear. In the ensuing slaughter the Flan chief was killed by Mikar himself. As part of the victory celebration the wedding of Mikar and Hildora took place.

Mikar’s return with a Rolandi bride and the head of his hard-gained ally, Kanché was not the result that Prince Pendri had expected but he was nevertheless pleased. Roland’s Fasstal only had one child as heir and any number of things could happen to place Mikar’s wife on the throne and put one of their potential children firmly at the front of the succession. In the meantime Roland had been peacefully gained as a trading partner and most importantly the Torquann were forced to give up their designs on the city unless they wanted to face a Garasteth-Rolandi alliance.

Mikar returns to Rel Astra with
Hildora, his new bride - 228 CY
Screenshot from Crusader Kings

With their chances of gaining Roland taken from them by the Garasteth in -228 the focus of the Torquann turned to the northwest on the sole remaining coastal Suloise city-state of Winetha. In spring of -227 CY the Torquann prince, Pertos led the army he had been building to take against Roland on Winetha. Unfortunately that city was almost as impregnable as Roland and could easily be supplied by sea. The resulting siege dragged on into late summer with no end in sight. With the coming of winter the army would soon begin to starve and the siege would have to be lifted. Into this situation came Orsos, a member of the Fharlanst family, a cadet branch of the Torquann, with a novel idea. Having noticed many of the seabirds that nested on the roof of the city scavenging in the garbage piles of the Torquann camp he came up with a plan to capture large numbers of them. By attaching slow-burning cords to the legs of the birds and releasing them at once numerous fires would be set throughout the city. The plan was launched on a dark night with no moon and in the chaos created by the multiple fires inside the walls Orsos led a small group that scaled a tower and captured a postern gate, letting in large numbers of Torquann warriors before the alarm could be raised. Once the main gate was captured and opened the city was theirs. In one campaign the Torquann had managed to extend their lands to the Solnor and cut the Garasteth off from further northern expansion.

In -222 CY Prince Pendri of the Garasteth died, leaving the title to his son, Mikar. Pendri’s vision of a future for the Garasteth had focused purely on increasing the lands and influences of that principality. Mikar on the other hand realized that the only way to challenge the power of larger states like the Kingdom of Thalland, Principality of Medegia, and even the Queendom of Ehlissa was by building an alliance between the smaller Aerdi principalities, similar to what the Bladelands had once been.

Next Chapter -- Rise of the Celestial Houses: Cranden, Rax, Darmen, and Naelax

Art Notes:

The Headless Prince This headless statue of what is assumed to be a fasstal of the destroyed Suloise city state the Garasteth built their nascent principality upon still lays at the western entrance to the gorge the Rel Astra road runs through. It was decreed by the first Overking, Nasran, that the ruins of the statue should stand in perpetuity as a reminder that all the works of mortals are fleeting.

Wedding of Pendri of Garasteth and Ondagarda of Ountsy -266 CY The wedding between the adopted heir of the Garasteth Prince and the daughter of the Fasstal of Ountsy laid the groundwork for absorption of the latter by the Garasteth. Even just as an ally the union with the powerful Suloise city-state greatly boosted the power of the nascent Aerdi principality. More importantly it marked the beginning of a long line of diplomatic successes that would see the Garasteth in the leadership position of the future Kingdom of Aerdy.

Rolandi Defenders man a catapult against the besieging Torquann - 230 CY The Rolandi beat back at least four attempts by the Torquann to take their city before they were finally brought into an alliance with the Garasteth. The small siege engine here is called an onager after a breed of wild ass which it is said to kick like when it is fired. The overseer of the crew is marked as a noble by his rich dress and ornate helmet. The crew of common warriors have wrapped the stones being fired by the onager in coarse fabric, soaking it in tar and setting them on fire.

Mikar returns to Rel Astra with Hildora, his new bride - 232 CY Central to the success of the Garasteth was their skill in negotiating with rivals and securing advantageous political marriages. Hildora was integral to the future of the Garasteth in her ability to bear children but she was also a clever politician and diplomat in her own right, often holding together first the Principality of Garasteth, and later the Kingdom of Aerdy, when her husband was away from his capital on one of his frequent military campaigns.  

End Notes:

1. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (LGG), p. 91 “Rel Astra, literally ‘City of the Heavens’ in Old Oeridian. . .”, and p. 93 “After decades of battle with the native Flan and treacherous Suel, the Aerdi noble houses sought a place to call their own, and these places included settlements at Roland, Ountsy, and the largest of all at Rel Astra, the site of a small abandoned Suel settlement.”

2. Greyhawk Wars: Adventure Book (GW:AB), p. 4 “The history of this second wave of civil war is even more confused and incomplete than that of the first. The sack of the University of Rauxes in 449 CY destroyed all imperial records of the war.”

3. Unlike Rel Astra which is a wholly Aeridan name, Ountsy is an Aerdi derivation of the original Suloise name of Ondsieg, which had been named after its founder, a Suel noble named Ond, combined with the Suloise word for island -- thus its original meaning, “Ond’s Island”. Over the centuries through natural and man-made means the oldest part of the city has become absorbed into the coastline as a peninsula.