King Gowyr

Come with me, and you shall be afforded all that your people need and more!

All I ask is that you sit with me at the high table and take up the mantle of my knight. You shall be given the best weapons and armor, made by my greatest mage-smiths.

Barded in my finest weapons of war, we shall stand against all that would bring low the kingdom we shall build.

— The Threemetal Cycle, a 4th era play

There is no figure more legendary than Gowyr, Greatcrowned king of Camlann whose mythical strength, intellect, and charm is often regarded as the lynchpin to his empire. The first, and so far only, kingdom to span the whole of Avallus.

The legends speak of him as near godlike in his ability to forge his nation. Always able to turn enemies into the staunchest allies, or destroy them so utterly that they could not stand against Camlann for even a moment.

The history doesn't speak of him much differently. Even after stripping away the mythology that has been painted upon King Gowyr's memory, much of the detail remains the same.

Where he hailed from is unknown, though many point to the general architecture that Camlann left behind to be similar to that of the ancient kingdom of Scirwine, perhaps implying some sort of connection between the two, though most will stay away from surmising from such common yet inflaming conspiracy.

When he arrived on the shores of Avallus, he disappears for a time before appearing within the court of a small kingdom called Camlann. At the time, it was a small regional polity, really just a city-state and its surrounding lands. He appears, in most accounts, as a simple knight within the court. While his eventual rise to power is important to his journey, the arguably more important event is that of his introduction to one Lady Somerild. It is said Gowyr was smitten immediately, and as everyone knows, he would eventually make her his wife and queen, with a whole tome's worth of quests and legends existing solely around the interactions between the royal pairing.

In more material terms, his eventual marriage to Somerild would grant him the first land that he commanded upon Avallus, given to him as a dowry for their marriage.

Over the next decades, and then centuries, that plot of land would grow and grow, through deals and treaties in equal measure with strength of arms and open conflict. The legends tell of that same plot of land holding a special place within Gowyr's heart. Supposedly, that plot of land sits beneath the stones that built Caer Aelwyd, the fortress-city where Camlann kept its greatest treasures.

As Gowyn's kingdom expanded, it began to earn more and more detractors. New lands became aware of Camlann's desires and braced themselves for it, becoming more and more resistant to the idea of falling under its banner. Even so, Gowyn always seemed to make the effort to offer a peaceful joining. Many of those who accepted such offers would join under his counsel as a knight, sitting at the High Table. Not everyone was amenable to such a change, however, and thus many others were simply crushed. To facilitate the more peaceful joining of empires, Gowyr made a habit of making his more amenable rivals and less bloodthirsty enemies an offer of joining his realm as his knights, and sitting at the High Table. Many of these knights would carry their cultures and histories forward, into the bright future of Camlann, and past it's fall.