Kingdom of Gilramshyre

The Odel Dynasty

Briefly after the Withering, modern-day Odelia and Antillia were still known by their ancient names, given to them by the giants who largely controlled the regions. Vesdal and Kryglan, as they were called, were occupied by a number of human and halfling houses that claimed to have authority over the regions in the wake of the giants' departure. After decades of bloody war, in 87 DC the first unified Kingdom of Odelshyre was established through the military conquest and economic alliances made by King Odel the First. Although he did not rename the lands after himself and his wife Antoinetta, his grandson King Odel the Third eventually would.  

The Conquest of The Demon Rook

The Demon Rook was a knight of Odelshyre c. 150 DC. She was a fiendling with dark grey skin, silver eyes, clawed hands, and hooved feet. She claimed herself a champion of Sirae, donned pitch-black plate armor, and painted her face like a white deer skull. Her visage on the battlefield earned her the title of The Demon Rook. Seemingly unstoppable in combat and always eager to fight, she led the Odel Dynasty's successful campaign into Dalazar and waged a historic war against the lohiken. She kept control in the region with an iron fist. Her aggressive tactics and nearly ceaseless onslaught have left its mark on the cultural memory of Dalazar today, who often negatively refer to Gilramites as rooks. In 157 DC, the Kingdom of Odelshyre controlled the most land that it ever would. Due in large part to the ruthless, warfaring, and expansionist ways of the Odel dynasty, the kingdom controlled Odelia, both greater and lesser Antillia, western Dalazar, some of the Scarred Isles, the Weathered Coast, and some of Westmark. The region of Odelia owes its name to their legacy.  

Plane-touched and the Rise of Castellshyre

From around the time of the Withering to the third century DC, the plane touched in Odelshyre experienced prejudice from both the human and halfling majority. Most believed that they were cursed by the gods, who must be angry at the Odelians for allowing the giants to perish during the Withering, an event that was partially orchestrated by Odelians. Attitudes toward the plane touched in the region changed wildly after the struggling Odel dynasty was usurped by King Castell the First, a plane touched, in 200 DC. While initially unpopular among the people, his policies brought prosperity to the kingdom the likes of which it had not seen since the peak of the Odel dynasty.

Castell the Crybaby

In 271 DC, Castellshyre was ruled by the unpopular King Castell the Third, also called King Castell the Crybaby. He was well known to have a short temper and would punish his servants in cruel and unusual ways when they displeased him, which was famously easy to do. He's said to have cried when he didn't get his way, even well into adulthood. On Solcon 10th of 271 DC, during an otherwise unremarkable party held at the whim of the king, a very drunken Crybaby King pushed a servant, who then fell backward towards a table, knocking over a bottle of expensive wine which broke and spilled all over the floor. The king, through tears, demanded the servant be hauled away and punished.   When gossip of this affair reached the ears of common folk by the next day, people began smashing bottles of wine in the streets. The nonviolent protest swept the city by storm, and by sunset, there wasn't a street in the city that wasn't littered with glass and spilled wine, and over the coming weeks as news spread, the same happened in other cities and towns in Castellshyre. It became common to shout "There's no use crying over spilled wine!" as the bottles were thrown into the street.   Hundreds of years later, people in Gilramshyre, Talahm Saor, and Darkana still break bottles of wine in the streets on 11th of Solcon each year. The day is celebrated as a reminder to not worry about insignificant things in the past that cannot be changed, and to move forward. Families that cannot afford wine often use milk as a substitute.

Castell's Downfall

In 273 DC, King Castell the Crybaby was overthrown by King Tirel, the first and only halfling monarch to rule over Odelia. Tirel inherited a kingdom in disarray, and his reign was plagued by continued civil war, unrest, and natural disasters leading to some of the deadliest decades in the region's history. In Odelia, the period from 272 DC to 310 DC is known as The Great Civil War, a period of constant strife during which nearly every single noble house warred with each other for the crown. Although Tirel won many battles in his quest to tame the noble houses, he would eventually be slain in battle in 309 DC. Some historians argue that King Tirel never had a firm enough grip over the noble houses to make him a legitimate king, and so the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Tirelshyre is debated. This was a popular viewpoint for a long time, but more recently has been excused as dismissive to King Tirel's accomplishments during the difficult reign.

The Rise of House Gilram

King Tirel had no heir apparent and after he died in battle, the throne in Havenport remained empty for over a year as lords continued to fight over who should be king. In 310 DC, a lord from House Gilram won that fight and the Kingdom of Gilramshyre was born. King Gilram's reign would be dominated by policies that discriminated against halflings. He blamed his predecessor for the state of Odelia and Antillia and enacted laws that levied exorbitant taxes on his kin, and supported human noble houses which laid claim to halfling lands, and he stopped associating with houses that continued to support halflings. Over the first two decades of King Gilram's reign, land owned by halflings was reduced by 80%.   By the time of his death in 343 DC, King Gilram's policies had created a kind of caste system in Gilramshyre which would continue to grow worse over the next few monarch's reigns. Halflings were extremely prejudiced against, and many - though not all - humans in Gilramshyre came to view themselves as better than halflings, who they viewed as only good for farming and little more.   Though a few unsuccessful rebellions had been staged by the halflings, they would ultimately continue to experience extreme prejudice for hundreds of years until a cleric of Yona led a successful rebellion in the 6th century DC, leading to the creation of Talamh Saor.