Current year: 1277
AP: Andro Paganis (The time of Pagans) CY (: Concecrated Year)
300 AP: Orthianism begins to surface in Redessa as a local religion.
280 AP: Non-drusic are allowed to practice orthianism
200 AP: Orthianism spreads throughout southern Rudair
0:CY The Clergy is founded in Alinor and the Archbishop becomes the nominal leader of Orthianism
0-400: the kingdom of Scabbarad is the main ruling power in the land. It’s borders stretch from Lykontos, it’s capital, to the fortress of Perdaes near modern day Avenon. Around 350 it’s power begins to wane.
420:Scabbarad begins to pull out of Rudaur en mass
500: Lengthening winters and wars in the north and east cause mass-migrations by the Erynse people of Eryn and the Arundel of Arundel. The norscen begin to raid Rudaur with increasing frequency
600: The Dacic lord Variel (later called Variel the Unifyer, or Variel I) unites the tribe of the Avenites and then sets out attempting to convert the entire continent to an Orthian Empire
605: Variel conquers the eastern Dacic people
613: The southern Erynese flee from their northern enemies and settle in modern day Westmark and Seamark.
620: Variel, now 35, has united the entire east, contouring modern day Blackmark. His armies sweep into the lowlands and Havermere and incorporate them into his empire. The Westmarkers join willingly, and the seamarkers resist but are subjugated.
630: Variel has united all of the modern day Empire with the additions of Celedorne and Arundel. He rules, bringing about an intellectual golden age.
660: Variel dies, and the tribal lord, Dragan of Highmark is elected
670/800: a hazy period. The records from then are lost, but around this time, the norscen began raiding en mass and the modern shiring feudal system was put in place, polygamy declared heretical and Celedorne secedes, returning to its independent state.
804: Baron Ranulf Skarskgard of lowmark is elected emperor.
812: The Norscen settle in Ridemark and highmark and are paid by emperor Ranulf to orthenize and stop their predations.
827: The first recorded major war, the North War, is fought between Lowmark and Havermere and lasts for 17 years. The outcome results the destruction of the ruling house of Fennekzoon in Havermere who are replaced by Peiter Van Der Meere, who marries Sigrid of Lowmark in 843, reconciling the houses peacfully
845: A great famine in Ridemark causes a peasent revolt, which is swiftly put down by the use of mounted nobility who could afford horses, wielded long iron swords and wore crude mail and round, bowl-shaped helmets.
britishbattles.homestead.com/files/europe/france/carolingians/TRANS_C9_carolingian_skola_heavy_cavalry.gifA “Nichtgonnsoldat”[Nickt-gone-sol-dat] of the first empire. Translated from early imperial era Rudair Tongue, this means “Night-bringing-soldier” and was used to refer to those wealthy men who were said to favour a charge in the seconds before the dawn came with the rising sun behind themso that it shone off their armors and they appeared as shadows encircled by a halo of light. These would evolve into knights over the next century.
851: Emperor Ranulf dies, aged 83, and the vote is a draw between Ritter Jason Matrigar of Ridemark’s Redshire and Duke Otto Reinhold of Westmark. The conclusion cannot be reached, and after theelectors retire for the evening, Ritter Jason has Duke Otto murdered in his sleep. When the deed is discovered in the morning, he is crowned emperor, but Westmark,under the control of the slain duke’s son, Victor, revolts, aided by Havermere and Lowmark, beginning the Morning War when he sends the new emperor the head of his envoy. The emperor’s forces are drawn from Avenon, Blackmark, Ridemark and Greymark. The other marks remain neutral. The battles of Lin Ford and the Darkwood Pass are fought, and the imperial armies gainthe upper hand, forcing the westerners back to their borders. Then, as the ice closes in, the armies retire to winter encampments across the Bhoyne from one another.
The Battle of Lin Ford
thelosttreasurechest.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/viking-raiders-clash-with-the-carolingians-near-paris-the-ninth-century-ad.jpg852: with the changing of the year, the river freezes over in the night and Duke Victor of Westmark has his knights lead their horses across the river and mount them. They ride into the imperial camp, throwing firebrands and laying about with their weapons in the dark of the early morning. Emperor Jasonis woken and hurridly dons his mail. He flees from his burning tent with a dozen men and into the night. Victor’s knights give pursuit as his foot soldiers mop up the remainder of the imperial army. Emperor Jason flees to Havermere where he arrives at the city of Ironwald and demands to be given residence. He is allowed in and Duke Van Der Meere then quietly informs Duke Victor that he has the emperor and for a large sum of money is willing to turn him over. Victor agrees and pays Van Der Meere a king’s ransom of shillings, then promptly rides to Avenon, has Jason publically tried and executed and convenes another election, but refuses to put himself forward for the position of emperor lest it appear like he was trying to take the empire by force. In the spring, the Duke of Highmark, Larkin, was named emperor.
853/880: Aside from small border wars, a period of unprecedented peace.
884: Emperor Larkin dies, the electorate names Baldwin I of Redessa emperor.
885: The Battle of Ryne Pass sees the last dacians in the northern Snowhawk mountains slain.
891: Baldwin I of Redessa abducts and weds the daughter of the king of Greater Vulpony against her or her father’s will, and the Twenty Years War begins.
893: the first major battles (excluding skirmishes) of the twenty years war are fought as the Vulpons invade southern Eastmark.
894/896: protracted fighting in eastmark.
897: Emperor Baldwin I pushes back the vulpon army and invades Vulpony.
898/909: Devastating war shatters Vulpony into many warring states, the Rudair massacre the Greater Vulpon royal family down to the last child, pilliag the city of Vulpa, raze it to the ground and leave. Onth way back though, the Rudair army is attacked and Baldwin I killed. Aiden of Highmark is elected Emperor and brings about a period of peace
917: Aiden of Highmark fully finalizes the feudal system
www.irelandhistory.org/pictures/normans-knight.jpgKnights of the “Highmark Era” wore only light armor and their horses none at all.
930: Aiden of Highmark is slain by the Imperial Guard captain, named Halbor, in Avenon and the Marks are thrown into turmoil as he crowns himself Emperor. This is seen as the end of the First Empire and the time of progress begun under Variel ends as the Marklords war with no leaders for the next thirty years during what is called the “Dark War Period” and countless works of literature and art are pillaged and destroyed. During this time, Avenon goes from a castle and town to a large city.
959: Godrick of Marchfold besieges Avenon, then storms it, executes the ‘false emperor’ Halbor and convenes a new council. He is elected emperor, beginning the Second Empire of Rudair. that has lasted until today.
952: A skarzcki horse tribe, the Maers, begin raiding from the east
958: Emperor Godrick convenes a mounted army and meets the next great raid of the Maeirs at Leckenstauf in Blackmark, where he take no prisoners, men, women or children and puts a permenant end to the Maeir raids.
fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/220/f/5/battle_of_lechfeld_by_ethicallychallenged-d5a5aj7.jpgThe Battle of Leckenstauf
961: Emperor Godrick passes a law forbidding the keeping of non-pagan slaves.
964: Emperor Godrick is attacked by an attempted coup by the imperial guard while visiting the toilet and flees down the chute, where he crawls his way out of exctrement and into the moat of Avenon Castle, then, still missing his pants and smallclothes and covered in nightsoil, he arms himself, rallies his personal knights and beats back the coup.
972: Emperor Godrick visits the distain lands of Uesegi, but on his return, his vessel goes down in a storm in the Sea of Stars. His body is never reovered, but he is still known even today as Godrick the Great.
973: after an extended period of mourning, during wich, the Lord Steward held regency, the new emperor, Gerias of Arundel is voted into office
974/1000: a period of extended peace marred only by the usual small wars.
1001: Gerias of Arundel dies and Count Torrin of Seamark is voted emperor.
1012: the First Great Pilgrimage is undertaken
1022: The Mark of Redessa is created and Emperor Torrin dies on the last day of the year in Redessa, fighting tribesmen in the desert.
1023: Scully Skarner of Greymark is voted emperor and becomes famous for his loutish behavior and frequent drunkenness, much to the embarrassment of his brother, the duke of Greymark.
1036: Scully Skarner is killed in a hunting accident and Loris of Arundel is voted emperor.
1063: Lowmark goes to war against Blackmark when both lords are vying over the effections of Elisa of Eastmark.
1070: The “Lovers Quarrel” ends with a duel in the forest, the duke of blackmark comes out victorious.
1073: the aged Emperor Loris of Arundel marries Jane, the widowed Duchess of Ridemark but dies while consummating their marriage. The next emperor elected, Jacks of Blackmark, a common chivalric knight, and the first to be elected to the office (on virtue of his character, primarily, as he had undertaken twenty pilgrimages in his 30 year long life) He marries the double-widowed empress Jane.
1074: A sucession issue in Marchfold
1078: Emperor Jacks undertakes a militant pilgrimage to Redessa, and spends all his time staying in the holy Palace of Ortha, commanding his armies.
1083: It becomes clear that the emperor dosen’t want to leave, but many of his soldiers want to go home.
1089: A massive revolt occours within Jack’s army and a lamentable fate befalls him and his wife at the hands of rebelling soldiers. The knight Damein of Seamark rescues the empress before her honor can be further sullied, and the rebel soldiers are allowed to return home. This confusing event leaves the empire without a leader for nearly 6 years and dukes gain unseemly power and expand their territories, exemplified by Seamark seizing the island of Morly from Westmark and Marchfold appropriating the Caer river from Ridemark.
www.planetfigure.com/attachments/2-jpg.134600/A knight of the Redessan era without his helmet. Knights at the time wore halfhelms or mail faceguards. The crossed nails of Ortha are displayed upon his chest.
1095: Vicount Daven Faustrich of Blackmark is elected emperor.
1096: Emperor Faustrich is attacked by the imperial guard who have been paid to assassinate him. He survives and demands answers. It becomes clear that it was the Duke of Havermere, who he has executed immediately.
1100: The new year is celebratedwith a festival thrown with great pomp and ceremony.
1105/1127: Relatively uninteresting border skirmishing. Emperor Fautrich dies.
1128/1153 Emperor Tharn of Redessa is made emperor.
1164: The historic split between Alinor and Avenon occours, when two men in line for Archbishop receive the same exact amounts of votes. One gets to Alinor first, and the other makes his place in Avenon.
i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg242/vanderzwet1980/1187-poorknightleftr-richknightrigh.jpgPictured left, a poor knight of Westmark and a wealthy knight of Seamark of the time.
1168: Celedorne and Redessa war for a short time over lands in the mountains.
1170: Emperor Tharn dies and Duke Aimory of Arundel is voted Emperor.
1175: Duke Aimory leads the Third Pilgrimage to Redessa and valiantly slaughters entire tribes of pagans. This goes on for ten years.
1186: The Drusic, finally having had enough, create the post of “King of Kings” and Suman the Bearded is appointed to the post. He beats back the invaders, but they keep at it. The Third Pilgrimage will last for sixty years more until the Rudair give up and retire across the Vourlon river back into Redessa.
1190: Emperor Aimory returns, and marries Gwenevere Harford, Countess of Westmark.
1194: A long, internecine war between the border counts of Lowmark, Greymark and Havermere ignites over a succession dispute that confers control over the Ryne river. His son Alistair is born.
1200: Aimory puts a halt to the war.
1210: Aimory rides to Alilnor to meet with the holy chair but is ambushed by bandits in Estorno. He is wounded and takes ship back to Avenon. He lingers. His 16 year old son Alistair is wedded to Maria, the daughter of the Duke of Ridemark. 14 at the time
1211: Alistair’s son Baldwin, and his twin, Dranor are born.
1220: Still bedridden for the past ten years, Aimory senses that he will die soon, and has the Imperial Guard, long-since proven untrustworthy disbanded and replaced with Nordic and Estornan mercenaries loyal personally to him.
1221: Aimory dies, and the elector council convenes. However, Aimory’s foreign mercenaries bar the doors and crown Aimory’s young son, twenty three years old, emperor. The Dukes have no choice but to accept. One, the Duke of Redessa, however, says that he will have no part in this, and turns to leave, but an Estornan mercenary shoots him in the back with his crossbow and the boy is sworn in as emperor while the duke of redessa expires noisily on the floor. When he becomes too loud in his dying and begins to drown out Alistar’s oath with his screams, a norseman puts his axe in the man’s skull. The Dukes return to their Marks, many displeased, but some enriched.
1222: Alistair orders the construction of the imperial summer palace of Goldgarden, and his daughter Alison is born.
1223: The knight Jeffri DuMath makes a name for himself. DuMath is from a minor knightly family in Lowmark, and as a third son was always expected to join the Clergy. He left his home in 1208 however, at the age of fourteen and squired for a hedge knight on the roads. Jeffri has now become a champion tournamenteer, and none can stay ahorse before his lance. He becomes famous when the Margrave of Stoneshire in Greymark has his wife ‘stolen’ away from him by a villainous young knight. He slew the knight in single combat but fell in love with the woman he had rescued and eloped, particularly when she told hi stories of the viciousness of her husband. He refuses to marry or bed her however until she was unmarried, for he would not sully either of their honor so. He journeyed to Alinor and Avenon searching for annulment but the archbishop of Alinor refused, and the archbishop of Avenon said that it would be unseemly, despite the righteousness of it.
The emperor was organizing a tournament to celebrate the creation of his summer palace in southern Eastmark by the shores of the Sea of Stars, and Jeffri of coursed showed up.
There was more than jeffry however. There was also opposition. The Duke of Blackmark and several confederates of his showed up not wearing their house colors, but stark black. The emperor asked, innocently enough, why they were dressed in this manner and the Duke of Blackmark, Otto Von Blacke boldly stated that it was “In mourning for the Empire” He and his confederates then passed on and Alistair was deeply troubled.
The Blackes, as their faction came to be known, were a faction that had long believed deeply in the Divine Right to Rule, and that only an election could account for that. That no one family should have rule over the Empire, and that Alistair, in doing so, had perverted the spirit of the Empire.
When the tournament started the next day, Jeffri, the renegade knight appeared on the field wearing his love’s favour. He challenged the Margrave of Stoneshire immediately, and the Margrave refused.
The Archbishop of Avenor was in attendance however, and Jeffri turned his charger to face him and asked politly that he excommunicate the Margrave on the grounds of cowardice unbefitting the nobility. The Margrave, quite drunk by this point, called for his armor and sword. Jeffri smiles smugly.
When they are prepared, it is midday, and the crowd is silent. Duels to the death in tourneys are uncommon.
The Margrave comes out, dressed in regal mail and even some plate, meanwhile, Sir Jeffri is wearing only light chainmail
They begin fighting.
The duel is long and fierce. Despite his drunkenness, the margrave is still a deadly warrior. He wounds Jeffri with a wild swing, but the knight steps into his guard and thrusts his sword through the Margarve’s heart. The people cheer as the despicable Margrave dies.
When the noise has died down, Emperor Alistair asks what the young knight would have for his reward for such chivalry shown. The young knight asks to be granted the post of Marshall, high war leader of the Empire, vacant since the last emperor, Aimory died. Alistair considers, then grants his wish, and elevates him to nobility, granting him the title. The smallfolk cheer.
When the tournament concludes after a week, emperor Alistair throws a great feast as a farwell. When he is preparing for a toast to his guests however, his son Dranor, allowed to stay up and participate, somewhat drunk already, takes the glass from his hand and toasts them himself. He then drinks deeply. Moments later, he grins foolishly and topples facefirst into the woodpigeon pie, stone dead.
It is absolute uproar. The boy is checked by the Imperial Chirurgeon himself, and he is pronounced dead, poisoned. Alistair bellows for the palace to be sealed and for everyone to leave, and then, before anyone can even move, he falls to his knees, sobbing over the corpse of his son. The poison had been meant for him, he knew, and he beseeches God to take him instead and send his son back to the earth, but the boy’s face is still pale and dead. He was only twelve years old.
Hours later, alone save for the captain of his guards and his wife, he wipes away his tears and shelves his greif for another time. For now, it is replaced with anger. He remembers Duke Otto and his colors and comes to the conclusion that they meant to poison him to restore democracy to the Empire. “They killed my son,” he is said to growl. “All of them. They killed my heir. I’ll see them burned.” He orders them taken into custody, alive “if practical”
When the captain of the guard, the norsman Jergen Ironaxe goes, with one of his guardsmen, to Duke Otto’s chambers, he finds him packing his things. He clearly meant to leave. Duke Otto sighs and said. “I knew his Eminence would blame me. I did not
poison the boy, Jergen.” The norseman simply shrugs. “I do not give the orders,” he says in his thick accent.
Duke Otto sighs and then nods. “Then we must fight.”
Jergen and his men put their hands on their axes. “Surrender,” demands the captain.
“And you may be shown leniency.”
“Truly?” asks Otto, a smile on his lips. “I doubt that very much.”
Jergen narrows his eyes, but then speaks to Duke Otto. “Did you kill him?”
“Would I ever kill with poison?” responds the duke of Blackmark, famed for his marshall honor.
Jergen shakes his head slowly. “I believe you,” he says. “But I am loyal to my Emperor.”
“We do not need to fight” says Duke Otto, but he draws his broadsword all the same.
Then, Jergen falls, a crossbow bolt in his head. The other norseman with him turns to gawk at the new attacker, and Duke Otto runs him through.
Duke Otto had brought along a courtesan, a simple whore, to the tourney, and she had been sharing his bed with him when Jergen had come. And she knew how to use a hunting crossbow.
Otto and his confederates flee from Avenon under cover of night. When their flight is discovered, Emperor Alistair is furious. He demands that his son’s killers be brought to justice.
Over the next two months, preparations are made for war. In Avenon and Eastmark, men are raised, and couriers are sent out to the lords of other Marks. It is late fall, and winter is closing in swiftly.
While emperor Alistar is furious, he must look to his family as well. Baldwin has become near-suicidally morose at the death of his brother, and Maria, the Empress has too become depressive. As Alistair raises his banners, he cites the obligation of men to their rightful Emperor, their vows as Dukes to Him that they took when he was sworn in, and the right, as a father, of vengeance for a murdered son. He offers his son and an outrageous sum of money to the daughter of any man who brings him Duke Otto’s head, and his armies are led by the chivalrous master swordsman, the new Marshall, the charismatic knight Jeffri DuMath, recently married to his one true love, the lady of Stoneshire in Greymark. Emperor Alistair is, despite his militant outlook, supported by the clergy of Avenon, who give to him the True Sword, a massive, nine-foot blade mounted on a cart and supposedly wielded by God himself. Alistair says that he shall show no mercy to the traitors, and does not expect any.
In Blackemark, Duke Otto is calling for men to defend both an innocent man and the democracy. His confederates, the Blackes, as many call them, are already with him. He cites that he did not slay the emperor’s son, but he will find out who did. He declares that should the emperor meet him on the field of battle, he will not slay him, but rather, capture him, and convene an election to have a true and just Emperor placed upon the throne. On one day in Snowmourne, a man arrives from Alinor. Despite their differences, as Otto is not a militant Orthian, the Holy Chair of Alinor, the Archbishop, recognizes him, and has granted him the Clerical Banner and the Sign of Saint Ortha herself, the crossed Nails.
As winter sets in, and the snow begins to fall, Duke Otto’s armies have been gathered, and they cross the White Pass as the month of Evenstar begins. Their march is swift, despite the biting cold, and they arrive on the southern side of the mountains in good order, then mark out of Blackemark, and into Avenor.
Hearing this, the Emperor, Alistair, dons his armor, gathers what armies have been brought to him, and rides to meet his foe in battle.
Both armies meet in the snow by the banks of the frozen Yoren River in Avenor, two miles from the town of Yonstone, on the 7th of Evenstar, 1223.
(Please PM me wich side of the conflict your house has taken. No takebacks. Once everyone has sent in their answers, I will release the details and begin working on the simbattle. What happens next in the timeline hinges on this battle.)