Nalaster the Clever,
5th Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy
Born -164 CY, Died
-152 CY
Reigned -179 CY to -152 CY
His older brother Gennor having died without any
surviving issue, the 28 year old Nalaster(1) was crowned as Grand Prince. He
had been with his brother in exiling the dissident Naelax to the north, but had
also argued that the church of Hextor shared a large part of the blame for the
recent rising. His brother had opposed such a policy, afraid of alienating the
large number of Hextoran nobles in Medegia. Nalaster, now as Grand Prince, was
given free rein to act against the leadership of the Hextoran priesthood. But
he went about this with the guile exhibited by so many of the Garasteth.
Divisions had already arisen among the Hextoran faithful who were most
concentrated in the nobility of Medegia. That land had been a thorn in the side
of the Garasteth grand princes since they first began to unite the Aerdi as a
kingdom. The more moderate faction, cognizant of this was anxious to prove their
loyalty. These were the Hextorans who, led by Prince Leo Naelax, had chosen
exile in the north and were intent on carving out new homes from the lands of
the Flan and Ur-Flan still hostile to Aerdy. The majority of the priesthood led
the conservative faction which had remained in Medegia and voiced their
hostility to any attempts by Grand Prince Gennor to move them. Supported by a
still sizeable number of the Medegian nobility, they pledged their loyalty but
made plain just how far they would be pushed. Rather than directly using force
against them, Nalaster undertook a project of rebuilding and expanding the
grounds of Mentrey’s most holy site, the Tomb of the Hidden Empress, believed
to be the final resting place of the mortal remains of Johydee before she
ascended to godhood. As the primary religious body in Mentrey, he taxed
Hextor’s cult heavily to do so. Protests brushed aside for months, the Hextoran
priesthood and the Medegian lords still loyal to the priesthood finally rose in
revolt in Coldeven of -177 CY. This was the excuse Nalaster had been waiting
and preparing for. He swiftly marched on Medegia and put down the rebellion
within a month. He then purged the Hextoran priesthood of hostile clergy,
replacing them with members loyal to him, and also culled the ranks of
rebellious Medegian Naelax lords, replacing them with nobles from other houses.
With very few exceptions, despite the suppression of their
fellows in the south, the Hextor-worshiping Naelax exiled to the Flannish
Marches remained loyal to the crown. Those priests and nobles who railed
against the Grand Prince were personally dispatched by Prince Leo. They were also
busy battling against the Ur-Flan and expanding their land-holdings. Now much
more confident in Prince Leo’s loyalty, Grand Prince Nalaster left him to
pursue the conquest of the Flan tribes in his own way. Prince Leo faced steady
resistance from the Ur-Flan tribes, increasingly consolidated under the
Necromancers of Trask. Instead, he pursued an easier conquest of the non-Ur-Flan
tribes of the Upper Flanmi Valley. The death of Gennor and the reduction of
influence of Princess Yanaymi of the Kho’lam Flan provoked a cooling of
relations between their king, Man’khu toward the Aerdi. With his demands for
her return along with her dowry, Leo was easily able to goad the Kho’lam into
war. He swiftly overran them and had secured their lands by -176 CY. This left
the Sim’chian Confederation, on the left bank of Flanmi with hostile Aerdi lords
to the south and to the east. After just over a year of war the Naelax had
conquered the Sim’chian, leaving only a few small, independent tribes. From
-175 CY Prince Leo returned his attention to the Ur-Flan, leaving his half-brother,
Mazos to defeat the remnant of the Flan tribes of the Upper Flanmi. By this
time the Torquann had lost much of their interest in expanding north, rich as
they were with their numerous fiefs scattered around the Kingdom and the wealth
in trade brought in by the city of Winetha. The Torquann, under a new prince,
thought it better to let the Naelax die to wrest land inch-by-inch from the savage
Ur-Flan. The Naelax for their part lived happily in this frontier, swimming in
the carnage of near constant battle with the Ur-Flan. They had become
accustomed to launching deep raids into Ur-Flan territory to sow terror and
bring back captives to serve as serfs on their farms and be sold further south
to the Torquann and beyond. Over the rest of the decade the Naelax advanced north
toward the Trask. By -171 CY the northern border of the Naelax lands was formed
by that river, with keeps at what are today Eastfair, Luvern, Bortrend, Marder,
and Atirr anchoring their conquests.
Also in-171 CY an unfortunate incident occurred that would
have unforeseen repercussions throughout the Kingdom. At a location now known
as Chokestone(2), a battle took place against a small Flan tribe that Mazos had
pursued northeast, although many describe the event more as a massacre. The
Flan were vastly outnumbered and taken by surprise by a large Naelax raiding
force, and the tribe’s few warriors were easily slain, leaving a mass of women,
children and the elderly. Rather that claiming them as serfs as was the norm,
Mazos ordered them all sacrificed in an orgy of slaughter dedicated to his
patron god, Erythnul. By that time, Erythnul was rarely worshiped among the
Aerdi, but a few still adhered to his cult, and Mazos was one of them. Some in the
army objected and when their pleas were unheard, departed. But the majority
joined in. Their disgusting rituals continued long into the night and it is
said that a ghastly apparition of The Many appeared. Whether it was merely that
god displaying his fickleness and cruelty, the action of other gods, or dark
magic brought down by the Flan, the resulting curse revealed itself to the
Aerdian army the next morning. The fertile plain upon which they had gone to
sleep was now transformed into a barren waste of rock. As they stirred and
moved about the camp, the stone cracked, breaking into dust and setting up
clouds of oily choking smoke. Over half the host succumbed before they were
able to retreat; vomiting up blood and clumps of worms that writhed upon the
lifeless ground. Of those that survived almost all ended their days
prematurely, coughing up bloody phlegm. The fate of Mazos was unknown among
them as his body was not found. The area remains deserted to this day, haunted
by the occasional appearance of a giant black serpent, seemingly composed of
smoke. Few are those who have seen it and lived to tell of it. After the events
at Chokestone, Nalaster decided it was time to put an end to the worship of
Erythnul, officially outlawing his cult in that same year, driving The Many’s
priests and worshipers into hiding.
Art Notes:
The Sarcophagus of
the Hidden Empress This coffin was crafted as part of the reconstruction of
the Shrine of the Hidden Empress undertaken by Grand Prince Nalaster. It is
said to have held the remains of the mortal body the hero-goddess Johydee
inhabited before she ascended to immortality. The wooden coffin of the
long-lived prophetess had been a sacred object among the Aerdi since before the
migrations although some tales say that Johydee still secretly lived among them
at that time, with the coffin there to serve as a ruse. As befits a deity of
deception, no one is ever sure there was anything in it, and her small
priesthood has never told. The stone sarcophagus commissioned by Nalaster held
the original coffin but that object disappeared during the Turmoil Between
Crowns for fear it would fall into the hands of one or other of the warring
factions and be used as a totem to bolster their cause. Though the Shrine of
the Hidden Empress still stands in Mentrey and is a site of pilgrimage, it is
said that the real Shrine lays somewhere under that city, unknown to any but
her priesthood(3). As for the empty stone sarcophagus that remains at the Shrine, it may be noted that pieces of of the friezes decorating it have been chipped off. Doubtless this is to feed the lucrative trade in holy objects.
Leo, Prince of the Naelax The
direct ancestor of the current Naelax Overkings, he was known for being a
tireless and cunning warrior and leader. Here he appears fresh from the field
of battle for an audience with Grand Prince Nalaster. Despite the role Leo
played in the rebellion that saw the death of Nalaster’s father, the Grand
Prince came to trust Leo and relied on him to pacify the Flan tribes of the
North with relatively little oversight. While the title used by the Celestial Houses for their prince was interchangeably in the form of, for example, Prince of Garasteth and Prince of the Garasteth, Leo was the the first prince to be styled only as Prince of the Naelax. This was in acknowledgement of Gennor's breaking up of the Principality of Naelax as a political entity as part of the retributions taken for the actions of Baldo. Despite this loss, the Naelax still retained a seat in the Diet of the Six Houses, which acted as an advisory council for the Grand Prince. Of those lands formerly making up the Principality of Naelax the majority were folded into an expanded Medegia, which became even more a patchwork of counties, viscounties, and baronies. A narrow band encompassing Strinken, the former Naelax capital, was absorbed by the Principality of Garasteth.
The Massacre at
Chokestone One of the darkest events in the history of the Kingdom of Aerdy
and Great Kingdom. The suppression of Erythnul’s cult in Aerdy drove his
worshipers and priests either into hiding or exile. Many of them went north
into the wilds and Rakers Mountains inhabited by savage humanoid tribes. There
the priests of The Many spread his worship, through awful means, displacing the
native gods of Orc, Ogre, Gnoll, and Goblinoid. Here, an avatar of Erythnul appears behind Mazos who prepares to cut the throat of the tribe's priestess, said to have been a renegade Ur-Flan who had taken up the faith of Pelor. One theory of the Curse of Chokestone is that she repented of her apostasy and in her final moments called down the vengeance of the dark god worshiped by her birth tribe.
End Notes:
1. As stated in previous chapters the names of Gennor and
Nalaster both come from the fan-created “Timeline of AerdiGrand Princes and
Overkings” by Canonfire! member Taras Guarhoth and posted on that site in 2001.
While I’ve diverged from this timeline in my own writing I do want to honor the
creativity of Taras, one of the earlier Canonfire! members and the author of a
wealth of material on the Great Kingdom.
2. Ivid the Undying (IVID) p. 53 "This place, and the lands around it (one hex in each direction), are deserted, not farmed by anyone. The site is that of a great battle between Aerdi men and a small Flan tribe in -171 CY. The Oeridians were easily triumphant, and an excessively brutal general ordered the torture and sacrifice of all surrendering Flan folk in thanks to Erythnul. The following day, the Aerdi army woke from its camp to find that the land for several square miles around had been stripped of vegetation. Only slate-like stone remained. As they trod upon the stone, it cracked as if it were brittle paper, releasing clouds of oily, choking smoke. Less than a third of the army managed to march away from the accursed area, and those who survived suffered lung infections and disease which brought their lives to very premature ends.
From time to time since this slaughter, a huge black smoky serpentine shape has been spotted prowling the lands around Chokestone, slaying any who dare approach the land where the Flan were slaughtered. Astrologer-sages can predict this wandering; it occurs around once every 17 years, with the 'snake' manifesting for 2d12 days. At other times, mages will sometimes try to obtain some of the stone for use in making dust of sneezing and choking, but they invariably send servants to obtain it rather than risking entry themselves."
3. “In fact, I theorise that the mortal remains of the
Hidden Empress are interred in a secret temple underneath Mentrey (and
jealously guarded by her priesthood).” -- Paul Looby, aka Woesinger.
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