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Ferren /
TheHistoryOfFerrenGarius Drake and the foundation of Uminium (0 DE) The War of the Sea KingsThe war between House Amash and House Katun was more than a simple power struggle - it was a fight over the very identity of the Kunban isles. For centuries, the houses of Kunban had assumed that they were alone in the world. The arrival of the gnomes in 699 DE (the islands tend to call this their year zero) changed everything: the Kunban people were no longer the pinnacle of civilization, and they had to learn to accept that the gnomes were better than they at magic and sailing. It took nearly 30 years for the Kunban people to accept the gnomes into their world view, and then came the greatest blow to the Kunban national consciousness: the discovery of an entire continent full of humans and other races. The discovery split the islands into two distinct factions. The southern islands controlled by Amash were delighted at the discovery of more trading partners, as their lumber mills and shipyards worked feverishly to meet the new demand for merchant fleets. The northern islands led by Katun, which were still reeling from the integration of the gnomes into the previously isolated society, steeled themselves against further foreign influence. Nationalist sentiment and prejudice built over the next several decades, as the houses under Katun (Kusan, Canis, Naga, Shiki, Chir, and the Lost House Senan) sought to prove the superiority of Kunban traditions and works through almost any means, from contests and challenges to outright destruction. For decades, frictions between the two factions grew, as the Amash faction continued to trade goods and ideas with the Favencian mainland and the Katun faction grew increasingly paranoid about the "corruption" of the islands by outsiders brought in by Amash mariners. Tensions finally came to a head with the infamous Night of the Drowned in 795 DE, when an isolationist group calling itself the Blue Scarves of Kobuk stole into the harbor of Whitewind and set fire to every single foreign ship in port, capturing and killing every man, woman, or child who attempted to escape the blazes. In retaliation, House Amash had every member of the Blue Scarves executed, but the damage was done: Seljuk immediately ceased trade with Amash, while Uminite traders started withdrawing from the Kunban isles. Archduke Warrick Amash and immediately traveled to Stonespur Keep and demanded that Archduke Gandry Katun "put down his mad dogs." While both houses dispute the details of the resulting conversation, Archduke Gandry was found dead the next morning, and the War of the Sea Kings began. Much of the resulting 90 years of naval warfare was spent in extended stalemates. With trade to the outside world made nearly impossible by privateers, the war was sporadic, with fleet losses often followed by long periods of build-up and failed invasions of enemy islands. Amash held the advantage at sea with their superior lumber yards, but without much access to the mines of the northern isles, they could never gain a foothold on the better-armed Katun forces. The Inheritor's WarIn 883 DE, the ancient Count Horace Berem of Uminum, who had been a staunch enemy of Ferren for decades in innumerable border clashes, died with no direct heir. His only living relation was his sister's daughter Julia, an unmarried young woman with only a tenuous claim to her uncle's title. While young nobles of all flavors began to line up for a chance at Julia's hand in marriage and the title of Count Berem, royal historians combed the rolls of lineage to find a male heir with enough relation to the Berem line to keep the nobility strong in such an important border area. To their dismay, they found that King Taliesin of Ferren held a claim to the county through a cadet branch of the Berem family. Ferren spies quickly reported this fact to their king, who seized on the opportunity to expand his borders beyond the mountains. Relations between Ferren and Uminum, always strained, became openly antagonistic as Taliesin moved to claim Berem as his, and the heralds of Uminum quickly found several spurious "heirs" to dispute Taliesin's legitimacy. Initial skirmishes quickly escalated into an invasion as Ferren troops moved to support their king's claim with steel. To the surprise of the Uminite people, who believed that their forces would destroy Ferren infantry on level terrain, their cavalry did not overrun the invading Ferrens in a decisive, brief autumn campaign. The close-knit mountain pikemen were simply better trained and more experienced than the looser ranks of the Uminite military. The war lasted a year and a half, and though both sides had their fair share of losses, the Uminite ranks were eventually forced to retreat behind the Lutz river during the Razing of Runebridge. This defeat, combined with the coming of spring and the flooding of the Lutz river, effectively ended the Inheritor's War in favor of Ferren, as the loss of Runebridge and most other bridges across the Lutz prevented forays into Berem. Combined with the spring melt turning the usually placid Lutz into a rushing torrent, the Ferren forces had more than enough time to solidify and reinforce their gains in Berem, making any expedition into Berem equivalent to suicide. In the aftermath of the Inheritor's War, King Taliesin took Julia as his wife to solidify his claim to Berem. At the same time, his envoys moved quickly to the other nations, convincing them to support his annexation of and claim to Berem over the protests of the Uminite ambassadors. Humiliated and defeated on two fronts, Uminum grudgingly acknowledged Taliesin as the new Count Berem - a title he never truly took on, preferring the title King of Ferren to any minor accolades the Uminites could give him. The Birth of Crown Prince AnatoleThe marriage of Taliesin Ferren and Julia Berem, though political in nature, was apparently not without love. A mere two years after the Inheritor's War, the Kingdom of Ferren held a month-long holiday to celebrate the birth of the Crown Prince of Ferren, Anatole. King Taliesin found himself absorbed in an almost unending stream of work. Keeping the strained relations with Uminum from blossoming into a second war took up much of his time, but the expansionistic bent of the Seljuk and the recently opened ports of the Federation of Katun (see below) nearly consumed him. He became known as the "Mountain Giant" for his unmoving patience and will of steel, but though he earned the respect of his neighbors, he could not spend much time with his newborn son. In his place, he assigned some of his most trusted friends and advisors to teach his son the ways of statecraft and war. The Menasi RevoltThe turning point of the War of the Sea Kings came near the end of the Inheritor's War, when the leaders of the minor houses Menas and Kaetor became disillusioned with the young and inexperienced Windric Amash's increasing reliance on foreign advisors and mercenaries. Hylar Katun learned of their discontent and made secret overtures to them, eventually leading to a dramatic mid-battle defection of the two houses and the subsequent surrender of Amash forces. With House Amash defeated, Katun quickly consolidated the remaining houses. House Amash was allowed to keep a seat on the Great Council, while Menas and Kaetor were rewarded for their defection with lands taken from the defunct houses and promotion to Greater House. House Amash's allies were relegated to the status of Minor House, while Amash itself was graciously allowed to keep its status as a Greater House - a hollow title at best, given that the other 4 houses in the Greater Council were firmly allied with Katun. However, in the years of relative confusion and dissent that followed the end of the war, House Amash managed to maneuver its way into a victory greater than any in the previous 90 years: the opening of Tolesport. By choosing to accept an "exile" to Favencia with Taliesin Ferren, Windric Amash and many of the gnomes of Kunban built a city dedicated to integration and trade. The New Federation and the Opening of TolesportIn 889 DE, gnomish ships were seen sailing the Kobuk under the flag of peace for the first time in over a century, a sign that brought hope to the beleaguered ports of Uminum and Kyrnheld. The sea trade had suffered greatly from rampant piracy in the Kunban and the closed ports of the Great Houses, and many merchant mariners had either been ruined utterly or been forced to resort to highly dangerous smuggling. King Taliesin had spent years working through his agents and spies to end the War of the Sea Kings, and had quietly been seeking a suitable harbor for his kingdom and securing a safe passage through The Wilds to reach it. When the gnomes surveyed the coasts of Favencia again, they were not surprised to find that their maps out of date. However, they were surprised that the kingdom of Ferren, which had never had a fleet of any kind, now had a rudimentary port. Half of it was still under construction when their first ships sailed in, but King Taliesin himself was overseeing its construction. Through the gnomes, he quickly established diplomatic contact with the ruling houses of the new Katun Federation. No one quite knows what Taliesin offered to the Houses of Kunban, but through a combination of deft maneuvering on his part and Katun's desperate need to trade with the mainland and restock its depleted stores, he secured the cooperation of House Katun and its rival, House Amash, in building and maintaining his new port. The terms were twofold: first, House Amash would govern the city jointly with a representative of Ferren to ensure that the Ferrens and the Kunbanites would be able to co-exist, and second, that young Kunbanite and Ferren nobles alike would both be schooled in this new city by teachers from both Kunban and Ferren, to foster future understanding and trust. Deals with both the raptoran tribes and the Federation of Kunban were in place, and work began in earnest. Entire divisions of the Ferren army were dispatched to The Wilds to assist in building the Long Walls, which would link Bundesward and the newest city of Ferren. Ships full of gnomes and Kunbanite laborers flooded in to aid in the construction effort, and within 3 years, a shining new city was born. Taliesin named it Tolesport, after his young son. Anatole himself was one of the first students of the newly established Ristani School, and he spent many years there with the noble children of Kunban under the tutelage of the finest instructors of two nations. (Now - King Taliesin has died under mysterious circumstances, and his son Anatole has ascended to the throne at the age of 14. This is where the PCs come in.) |