Aerdi History

Gilbra the Weak, 2nd Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy Born -215 CY, Died -198 CY Reigned -206 to -198 CY Gilbra, -203 CY Dean-Charles Chapman in   The White Queen The assassination of his father and older brother in Roland left Mikar’s younger son, Gilbra as the successor to the title of Grand Prince. His mother, Hildora remained a prisoner of the cabal of Rolandi nobles who had carried out the treacherous deed. By fortunate happenstance he had remained in Rel Astra instead of accompanying his parents and brother to Roland, which had been meant to show that a Garasteth of Mikar’s line still held the reins of power, even if it was a 9 year old boy. The person to who it fell to act as regent was his 47 year old uncle, Erian, who had always been Mikar’s most trusted aid and general, and had recently been created, Duke of Jalpa. It was his duty to hold the Kingdom of Aerdy together in this tumultuous time. The Regent’s obvious first course of action was to revenge the death...

Mikar the Founder, also called The Fair, 1st Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy Born -255 CY, Died -198 CY Reigned -217 to -198 CY Ehlissa XVI conducts a  ritual in the Court of Karnosa, c. -208 Art by Kristina Gehrmann While -209 CY spelled the end of Mikar’s hopes of immediately conquering the remnant of Thalland, for Ehlissa it saw the unification once again of that state which had been split into eastern and western halves since -254 CY. Ehlissa XIV of Western Ehlissa had died in -213 CY without a clear heir other than her cousin, Ehlissa XIII of Eastern Ehlissa.   With Western Ehlissa ruled by a Council of Elders which was known for being particularly corrupt, the mood of the populace and lesser nobles of the nation soon turned sour. Into that situation stepped Arnoult, Fasstal of the Zelrad and Protector of Eastern Ehlissa. Through bribes and diplomacy he was able to secure an agreement whereby he and the Council would rule a reunited queendom, with Ehlissa XIII of...

Mikar the Founder, also called The Fair, 1 st Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy Born -255 CY, Died -206 CY Reigned -217 to -206 CY Iron Crown of the Bladelands Leo G. Carroll as King Duncan in the  Philco Television Playhouse production of MacBeth, 1949 The first thing that needs to be understood about the Kingdom of Aerdy was its nature. Though the Celestial Houses( 1 ) were the primary powers in the Kingdom they were not the only one. There were a number of other minor clans who were signatories of the Rel Astra Compact, although only the Montesseri of Medegia were of great consequence and enter this history. Tradition placed great value on the independence of the individual clans that made up an Oeridian tribe. They existed as a confederation of semi-autonomous clans banded together for their mutual benefit, though this shifted into more cohesive structures for some tribes during the Migrations. As has been seen the confederation of the migratory Aerdi Tribe fell apart u...

Funeral of Pendri, Prince of Garasteth, -222 CY Art from Old World by Mohawk Games Mikar Garasteth’s father Pendri had worked his whole life to further his clan’s power. Mikar, inheriting the title of prince in -222 CY, was more ambitious. He hoped to unite the Aerdi peoples together into one strong nation. From the outset, such a project looked to have little chance of success. Early on he realized that the core to making his dream a reality would be to unite the relatively weak Aerdi principalities to face their stronger neighbors. At the time such an ambition seemed doomed to failure, as the principalities were riven by self-interest and ambition. But it turned out to be exactly those factors that contributed the most to his success. Mikar was clever enough to realize that all the principalities had individual goals that did not necessarily interfere with each other. The Cranden desired their old lands in northern Thalland. The Torquann hungered after the lands of the Flan to the no...

  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...