Dariah the Halfdwarven

Dariah Ebenwald Oncett, more commonly called Dariah the Halfdwarven, was the third monarch of united Lysandus. She would reign from 1A 5537 to 5637. She was the daughter of the Dwarven Princess Frela, and the only child of King Adran I. Because of her marriage to Duke Mortimer Oncett, she would start the Oncett dynasty of kings. She was also one of the longest reigning monarchs in Lysandan history.   Though at first opposed for her Dwarven blood, Dariah proved to be a dominating queen who marked her path on civil war and rebuilding in the Kingdom from dragon attacks. The Dariahan era would prove to be a time of great struggle and change for the land.

History

Early Life

Dariah Ebenwald would be born in the First Age year 5501, with her mother being the Dwarven Duchess named Frela. She would prove to be an only child, as her father and mother found themselves struggling with the stress of centralizing the kingdom to raise any more children. Dariah therefore became more of an independent young girl, going out and about the city of Ebenwald to learn of culture and sword fighting.   It came as a shock to Dariah that she would seem to be disliked to most of the human citizens. Being called a half-breed, she found herself becoming more stubborn as she grew. Much to the concern of her father, who tried to teach her to be a monarch with a lighter hand. Evidently, she would soon get involved in the courts of her father when she matured. She tried diplomacy, but soon learned it was not a strong suit of hers.

My father, the merciful judge, wanted a lighter hand for his successor. Yet I am half dwarf. My hands are nothing but heavy and the people of this nation burden me because of my blood.

Dariah would make up her mind of the kind of monarch she would be when she witnessed her father's poisoning at the harvest festival of 5537. She stated it was a political assassination toward his nature toward dwarves, and therefore she would need to rule the people with a heavy hand.

The Hundred Year Reign

When Dariah was crowned queen days after her father's death, she was immediately met with opposition in the city of Ebenwald. Riots broke out in the streets, protesting the placement of a dwarven queen in the land. Dariah would use her own guards to put down these riots. She publicly arrested some of the perpetrators, and, taking them in front of her courthouse, took them by the sword. By 5538, Dariah broke down in her own palace, distressed by the hard position she would have to take to defend the crown and stability of the nation. These breakdowns would happen regularly for the rest of her life.

The Keller Rebellion

In 5545, the chiefs of Keller began to discuss overthrowing the current Ebenwald regime and placing one of their own chiefs in as King instead. So by the September that year, the city of Keller's Coast began to have it's guards fight Lysandan sheriffs, killing them in the process. Dariah would quickly be alerted. With an iron hand, she sent her troops to surround the city, holding it hostage until the chief would surrender himself. For 2 weeks Chief Mortimer Oncett starved himself waiting out her troops, until he eventually conceded. Mortimer would be imprisoned in Ebenwald for a period of 5 years for his treachery, but became a national hero.   Similar but smaller rebellions like this would take place. This increased the unpopularity of Dariah, who would continue to put down these rebellions in order to keep the state of Lysandus in order. However, it would prove to only worsen the situation. In 5551, Dariah would make a crucial error: she turned to the counsel of the King of Boldurun for help. The men of Keller accused Dariah of being a puppet of Boldurun, and declared they would make their own state: the Kingdom of Keller.

The First Lysandan Civil War (5552-5554)

With Mortimer being crowned king, other smaller villages surrounding Keller's Coast would side with him in 5552. Dariah broke down, confessing to her advisers that she feared for her head. Keller's Coast was a city that could easily amass armies to march to Ebenwald, so she commanded any remaining troops to come to the capitol and protect it from any invasions from the East.   During one of her breakdowns, legend has it that the god Amagus came to her like it once did to her grandfather. Amagus at first scolded her for her iron fist, but then blessed her for her willpower. Amagus promised Dariah that he would ensure her victory if she would lighten her hand and use less troops. Dariah at first was doubtful that less troops would protect her, but Amagus called her to take faith.   Dariah would be faithful. Two years after minor battles in the surrounding areas of Ebenwald (in which Dariah was losing), the armies of Keller broke through and came near the city. Dariah commanded her troops to ease back, retreating back into the city or marching away from the country side. Reports state that King Mortimer became hysterical as he saw the troops turning away, becoming anxious as to what Dariah was planning. He ordered his men to retreat. As they ran back toward the forests of Midwestern Lysandus, they became dispersed and eventually picked off by smaller regiments. King Mortimer would be captured by a band of rangers as he was running off in the night, fearful of his life due to the dwindling army. The rangers would proceed to turn Mortimer back in to Dariah.   Dariah, in a move that surprised everyone, would end up proposing a political marriage to Mortimer. Mortimer took five months to contemplate the marriage while Dariah started to lower her troops and bring peace back to the cities in Keller's Coast. Mortimer took a few more months to stay within Dariah's court, proclaiming he would marry her if it was possible that he could love a dwarf woman. At the end of 5554, Mortimer, on a carriage ride with Dariah, wrote this message to his court mage:

"May family denounce me, George, but I do love this dwarf. The ways of old Lysandus are far in the past, buried with Ebenwald Lysandus, may he rest well. Amagus bless us with a good future, for I will be her Duke." -Mortimer Oncett, September 19th 5554

In a now much-celebrated wedding, Mortimer Oncett would marry Dariah Ebenwald in the year 5555, putting the civil war to an end and ensuring the stability of Lysandus for another fifty years.

26 Years of Peace

With the civil wars over, Dariah would spend the next 26 years fixing her public image and the kingdom itself. Her personal life began to become more public, as she would wander the streets of Lysandus with her husband Mortimer, being more open with her people. During pregnancies, she would talk with human and dwarf women in parlors in the cities, being guarded by her husband in his chainmail. The birth of her first son, Mortimer Jr., had a parade, with Dariah showing the public her new family.   In 5560, an assassin tried to murder Queen Dariah in her private quarters as she was watching over her children. The assassin was quickly put down, but it caused Dariah to go into another breakdown. Mortimer thus created the Paladins of the Crown, an elite group of guards who closely followed an oath to protect the royal family and the land. The protection of these guards eased Dariah and formed a stronger bond with her and her husband.   In the rest of the years, Dariah implemented much needed reconstruction of castles and bridges, which were being worn down by years of usage. She also decreed the building of the famed Amagus Tower, a citadel close to Ebenwald's border to Gothai. Though the building angered Gothai, they did not retaliate, fearing the military might of Lysandus.   Near the end of this period (around 5580), Dariah had her husband's influence in Keller's Coast to construct a navy to protect the waters surrounding Lysandus. Placing them near the head of the Silver River, she ensured that no further military assaults on the river would be made in the far future. Unfortunately for Dariah, the years of peace would end when Mortimer would die of a terrible plague in 5581. She would soon be faced with another crisis, all alone.

The Plague

Over the course of 5581, a deadly plague crossed the lands of Lysandus, the same one her husband faced. Leaving the people with horrible illnesses, Dariah spent some of the land's treasury in the training of more clerics to heal the people. Unfortunately, the plague proved too much for the clerics and worsened in the next five years. By 5586, the plague would end up killing a quarter of the people in the land. Mysteriously, the plague subsided in 5587, but by that time Lysandus went back into shambles economically and militarily. Dariah would find herself facing an even larger crisis in the years to follow: an invasion of dragons.

Dragon Crisis

In 5590, the town of Brymoor would be attacked by an ancient red dragon, a creature not seen for a thousand years. The destruction of Ebenwald Lysandus' hometown left the people in terrible morale. As Dariah tried to give orders to her military to deal with the attacks, they proved inadequate and only fed the dragons further. Dariah broke down once more. Then, in 5592, an ancient blue dragon destroyed the small town of Kirkwall. A band of mercenaries slew the dragon there, giving Dariah an idea on how to deal with the dragons realistically.   In 5593, Dariah began hiring bands of mercenaries to kill the dragons attacking the lands. Then, in 5594, Drala the Ancient One, the red dragon who destroyed Brymoor, was killed by a band of mercenaries hired by the Queen. The dragon attacks started to become less common, until they were driven toward the uninhabited mountains of the land. In 5595, Queen Dariah passed a charter, now called the "Mercenary Clause":

If dragon or monstrosity beyond the power of this kingdom's military arises, mercenaries and adventurers may be hired. If they succeed, they are to be given ownership of land or a small percentage of the kingdom's wealth as reward for their bravery.

This led to a change in the political climate, as an increasing number of people not native to Lysandus slaying the dragons began to become wealthy from mercenary work and gaining positions of power. It would come to 5609 when the dragon crisis would finally end with the creatures being driven away successfully from the land. At this time, Dariah started to have her age get to her, with years of breakdowns weakening her body as well as the stress.

The Later Years

Peace and rebuilding came to Lysandus once more in 5610, with the elderly queen taking her time to cooperate with many of the new warrior leaders, known as Dragonlords, to rebuild cities and the shattered economy. She would take this time to tinker with the House of Chiefs her father established, making it more clean and straight forward. In the last 27 years of her reign, she let the lords of the land make most of the legislation while she overlooked their charters and judged them accordingly. Regiments of the military would be stationed at different cities and controlled by new generals.   Dariah would then retire her crown in 5637 to her son Mortimer. She led his coronation with the Priests of Amagus, deeming him the King of Lysandus. Dariah would retire to a castle near Brymoor, where she would live until the end of her days. She would die of old age in 5648, leaving behind a rebuilt and very different Lysandus for her son to rule.