Chapter One: The Continent of Oerik
In –216 CY the scion of House Garasteth,
Lord Mikar, became the first grand prince.
He ruled a land now called the Kingdom
of Aerdy. The Aerdi made their capital
in Rel Astra, and spent the next few
decades conquering the neighboring Flan
and driving the Suel to the south. Due
to the cooperative effort of the various
Aerdi tribes settling in the Flanmi basin,
they expanded quickly. Grand Prince
Mikar’s army won victory after victory,
and by the time of his death in -175 CY,
the boundaries of the Kingdom of Aerdy
stretched from Relmor Bay to the Spindrift
Sound and from the Blemu Hills to the
Glorioles. Thus began a march to empire
that would not slow for almost 300 years.
First the Aerdi conquered the crumbling
kingdom in the southwest. The ancient
Flan kingdom of Ahlissa was founded
by the legendary Queen Ehlissa the
Enchantress. This state lasted some 700
years but was crumbling by the time the
Aerdi reached it in approximately -400
CY. After they conquered Ahlissa and
absorbed it into the growing realm they
continued on to ravage the Suel petty
kingdom of Zelrad (in modern Idee) along
with the lands of multiple minor Suel
houses in the Pawluck Valley (modern
Sunndi).
Other Oeridian noble families, such
as the Naelax and Torquann, desired
their own territories and looked to the
northlands. By all accounts, the Flan
of these lands were vile and decadent,
worshipping dark powers and draconian
overlords, and they had preyed upon their
neighbours for centuries.
The gentler folk were quick to ally with
the Aerdi when their armies marched up
the Flanmi River and conquered those Flan
kingdoms in the second century CY. Most
of these lands were soon consolidated as
North Province of Aerdy, with the Naelax
in the primacy. After eradicating most of
the vestiges of the previous Flan culture,
they founded the court at Eastfair in –142
CY, and began setting up a state heavily
steeped in the dogma of Hextor.
Kingdom of Keoland
Under the plan conceived at the Council
of Niole Dra, rulership of the new Kingdom
of Keoland would alternate between House
Neheli and House Rhola (the other Suel
houses, while part of the Kingdom, were
reduced to a secondary status), while
the representatives of all noble houses
would meet as a permanent advisory
and legislative body: the Court of the
Land. Representation was set so that the
Keogh would be the swing votes in critical
decisions where the Neheli and Rhola
were split, which, given their natures, was
expected to be most of the time.
The Keogh would not rule, but they would
determine whose policies, the expansionist
Rhola or the isolationist Neheli, would be
followed. Not merely arbitrators of policy,
they could also be the king makers,
and the Rhola and Neheli would have to
court them constantly if they wished the
prestige of the Lion Throne.
As a federation of allied tribes, the
Keogh had an internal system similar
to that which had been adopted by the
Kingdom as a whole. The clans making
up the Keogh were led by Hetmen, chosen
from the heads of powerful families, who
led their cavalry in the field. The Hetmen
would choose one of their number to
speak for all of the Keogh during time of
uncertain peace, but more profoundly
for war. During the negotiations at the
Council of Niole Dra, much time was
spent deciding on the equivalent of each
title, and their precedence. In the end,
the Hetmen would be of higher rank than
the heads of allied Suel houses and cadet
branches of the main Suel Houses. The
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