History of Westemär

Westemär takes its name from a bastardization of its former name. Under the sorcerer-kings, the land was referred to as the Western Marches, opposite the Eastern Vales. As the old tongue of the Arcane Empire faded and regional dialects took hold, the term degenerated into the name it is known by today.

Conquest of Vladimir von Drakken

After the fall of the sorcerer-kings’ empire, the lands which even tually became Westemär became a collection of small domains and kingdoms. Indeed, the original borders between these old realms roughly correspond to the provinces which currently make up the nation. Each submitted or capitulated to Vladimir von Drakken, the founder of the nation, during his conquests in the 7th century.

Vladimir von Drakken’s violent campaign did not hesitate to put every advantage on the table. Ruler of an ancient noble house with roots stretching back to the sorcerer-kings, House von Drakken had a mageborn lineage mingled with draconic ancestry. Vladimir von Drakken himself was no mage, but was known as a ruthless, unrivaled swordsman. During his lifetime, rumors persisted that the man drank and bathed in the blood of his slain foes. Striking a bargain between several dragons and his own mageborn siblings, Vladimir von Drakken commanded a devastating combination of conventional military supported by arcane might and dragonfire.

After three decades of warfare, Vladimir von Drakken’s bur geoning kingdom was shaping up to become a despotic empire in its own right as he prepared invasions into Caspia and Elyria. That was until his own estranged daughter, Carmen von Drakken, returned from years of exile alongside a band of plucky adventurers. Carmen challenged her father’s might and put an end to the nas cent tyrant in a climactic battle above the spires of Castle Drakken.

Taking up her father’s crown, Carmen von Drakken appointed her adventuring companions to the highest offices and noble houses of the nation, thus cementing her own fifty year rule. During this time, Carmen tended the growing pains of the young nation, and is remembered as a healer and uniter who tore down the merciless ways of her father. Though she rejected Vladimir’s original dream of a new continent-spanning empire, Carmen laid her father to rest with the full honors as the founder of the nation, and few histories today record the full scope of the bloody atrocities Vladimir von Drakken committed.

Dynastic Upheaval

Generations later, the legacy of Vladimir von Drakken was reignited when Carmen’s great-great-grandson, Albrecht von Drakken, launched an invasion of Caspia. He used the power of the Crown of Westemär to bind dragons to his service like his ancestors did. However, he was unprepared to face the skillful Caspian dragonslayers, and Albrecht was beheaded on the battlefield. Having disposed of his own siblings in a bid for the throne, House von Drakken was left greatly weakened and shortly collapsed. This set off a series of succession crises in which rule passed rapidly between several short-lived dynasties. Multiple families and rulers seized the throne during this period, but only two houses from this tumultuous time held the throne for more than a decade and are recognized as legitimate rulers in the eyes of history. The others are regarded as pretenders.

House von Kessel ultimately secured the throne through a combination of careful diplomacy, key military victories over their rival houses, and claiming a spurious connection to House von Drakken through a distant cousin of a cadet branch. The first monarch of this new dynasty was Helena I, who brought many progressive reforms into Westemär during her long rule and steered the nation through a devastating plague. House von Kessel ruled Westemär from the capital of Drakkenheim for 150 years, until that woeful eve when an eldritch star fell upon the city.

Destruction of Drakkenheim

Fifteen years ago, an otherworldly meteor shower destroyed the capital city of Drakkenheim. King Ulrich IV, as well as his son and principal heir, were presumed killed in the disaster, leaving the nation without a ruler or clear successor.

However, many members of the royal household were not in Drakkenheim when the meteor struck, including the king’s younger siblings, Mannfred and Cecilia von Kessel. The two spent vast sums commissioning the clergy of the Sacred Flame and the mages of the Amethyst Academy to use divination magic to discern what happened, but to no avail. They nearly bankrupt ed themselves by launching multiple large-scale military expedi tions attempting to reclaim Drakkenheim, all of which failed.

Westemär Civil War

Eventually, Mannfred became convinced further efforts to re take Drakkenheim were futile, and proposed he would take up the crown and relocate the capital. However, Cecilia contested the claim, arguing there was no conclusive evidence which confirmed their brother and his children were dead. The nobility was divided over the issue, and a civil war ensued which raged for nearly a decade.

As Westemär itself descended into political and financial ruin, Mannfred von Kessel and his children were assassinated in a dramatic betrayal. Cecilia von Kessel herself died unexpectedly only a few days later, leaving behind no heirs of her own. Lacking a clear successor, the Civil War ended with a whimper.

Now, only a dim hope remains that the realm can be rebuilt and the nation restored. Gathering what little support he could muster amongst the nobility, Lord Commander Elias Drexel has launched a foray into Drakkenheim in a desperate final bid to retake the capital.