A Sixth World History of Talingarde

Approximately three centuries before the dawn of the Sixth World, the Vendalic ogre clans of northern Algoboa leave their twilit boreal homeland to go "a-viking" abroad. Many simply seek treasure and thralls, but others seek to resettle in greener lands. Vendalic raiding parties land as far afield as Seotan and Perdita, even some in Tetrathia, but the majority focus on Talingarde. The Vendals claim they were pushed out of their homelands by a terrifying force they call "Nerthusa," and those who explored old Vendalia claim it to be empty and still to these days. Their fiercely matriarchal and warlike culture leaves marks on many Talirean peoples, especially the ancestors of the Sarumites, who themselves were migrants during the Fourth World who displaced the Cradish to more remote corners such as Laithlind and Brecheliant. However, they were also highly adaptable, and both their ogrish clans and the many "ealdoring" thrall clans integrated quickly to northron Talirean culture, though much of what is considered "northron" is taken from their traditions (as well as that of the Brecilien elves and indigenous Cradish).

The Western Fall is what the Brecilien people call the arrival of the elvish skyships to the northern reaches of Brecheliant. In those days, it was known by a different name, but lost much like much of the culture of the Old Cradish. The elves do not come as conquerors: instead their chevaliers spread throughout the land and tend to the villages of the Cradish as protectors, while also dealing fairly with the counts of the Grand Old Dominion who claim this as their patrimony from their citadels. Through a strategy of diplomacy, intermarriage, and simply outlasting other powers there, the elves transform the cultures around them, and from their city of Novossia become a center of northron culture and quiet resistance to the Dominion. Events that will soon transpire will further entrench the elves as the aristocracy of the north, as they defend the Cradish people against the many battles to come.

With no help coming from abroad to stop Asmodeus, the free peoples of Talingarde attempt to form an alliance against the Dominion. Many of their leaders are from those kindred of humanity other than the quicklings, who most readily adapted to the bureaucratic dictates of the Asmodean Church and have been purposefully given pride of place, playing upon their natural ambition and envy of the longer-lived kindred. There are the elvish chevaliers (and wizards) of Brecheliant, the ogres of the various Vendal Queendoms, the wild gnomish warriors of Laithlind, the stalwart dwarves of the Moresain, and even the mystic halflings of Cimmeria. Soon the old druidic circles of Cradlund and various bands of "bravos" from the Ninevar join, and an increasing number of escaped slaves. Even inhumans such as the kinnara, the "centaurs" of the First World who have often left humanity consigned to its fate, appear to join, as do Seelie fairies and fetchling caravaneers unwilling to let this world come to darkness as well. This Last Coalition is able to stem the tide but cannot make any appreciable progress, attempting a war of attrition in disrupting the mining and slaving efforts of the increasingly fiendish and tiefling dominated patricians of the Dominion and their orcish host. The hope is that with enough time and effort, an external aid might come. The Vendals hope for Zolyan, the Brecilien elves hope for Dantalion, the Moresain dwarves pray to Triglav, the Laithish gnomes simply fight for freedom, while the Chimur halflings believe only that soon a new world will be born, and await its coming.

St. Idrian is thought to have been born at this time, born a slave in the Ninevarine city of Syrene. He would eventually escape as a young child through the help of his relatives and payment to dwarven Omthel smugglers (a few clans, including Clan Khazakver, claim this honor) and be raised on the island of Aitne, where under the tutelage of a mysterious mentor known as Karthimon he will hone his body into a weapon, originally purely for vengeance, but after a religious experience undergoing the Aittic Mysteries, for love of a magical bird and being that suffuses him with holy light. Buer, as the alerion, created these delirious visions originally to manipulate, but knowingly or not becomes part of a millenia long plot by the Empyreal Good to redeem even a demon prince.   Traditionally, the birthday of St. Idrian is marked as the 21st of Idrisil, but this is somewhat apocryphal and more chosen to correspond with the estival solstice.

The first new polity of Sixth World Talingarde, if one does not count the Axiomatic Church, is the Duchy of Lucador, in what is now the Marches of Rusante. The nobility of Rusante take no small pride in how their patrician houses kept their castles in the chaos of the late Thaumomachy, and while Asmodeus's defeat dealt a significant blow to the church's credibility, most kept the old faith in the Overfiend. Through their fortresses and what they could recover of the orcish war machine, they conquered the surrounding marches, protected by geography from outside interference. Many disparate people lived in these lands: Cradish clans near the forests, river-and-island pastoral nomads related to the Rodkhora known as the Merenski, Vendalic settlers in the highlands, and the Ninevarine coastal colonies. The melange of cultures would first be known as the Rusan, and later the Quintoro when the kobolds joined this group of varied folk, though each "tribe" would maintain its identity in Quintoro culture.

In Agurain, the four cities of Dhuzam's Bay, Nakis Bol, Khartal and Mirari begin to reach out to one another. In the more than a century since their exile, the Guranese dwarves who made their lives in the deserts integrated with the cities there, long abandoned by their Moresain thanes or their Dominion overlords. Through a sometimes painful political process, the burghers managed, with the acquiescence of the dwindling patricians and the burgeoning merchantile class, to create a new society, a sort of communal citizen's republic. In this Free League, with citizenship tied to membership in a guild, and thus the practicing of a craft, a new kind of order very different than the feudal one developing in the wreckage of the Dominion begins to take shape, and the Guranese will always feel apart from the rest of Talingarde because of it. The various city-state republics, inspired in part by old Ornassi traditions, dwarven worship of craft, and a communal ethic born out of necessity in the desert of the Desolation, resolve to never recognize a suzerain above that of their people. It is Guranese mariners who reopen trade and contact with the Ornassi Main and Magna Orna, though Hyklos has devolved into a den of piracy.

In the absence of the Dominion, what would become known as Sarum was divided between various petty fiefdoms. Upper Sarum was mostly ruled by Ninevarine princes while Lower Sarum was seen as the protectorate of the Duke of Lucador. However, many of the warriors who resisted the Dominion, descended from the "ealdorming" clans of thralls ruled by the Vendal Queens, began to take empty fortresses and build fiefs of their own. As the infrastructure had crumbled, by the time the Axiomatic Church had made the roads safe again and reached out, the Earls of Sarum, named for their ancient capital Auld Sarum, had named their first High King, Brynwalder, through the first Gamut, a tradition that would embed itself in the Holy Lawful Empire.   Brynwalder claimed to be a "half-giant" (and appeared to be an ogre besides) and a figure that seemed to be cut from the Fifth World, capable of such powerful primal magic along with his limitless martial prowess that he is said to have reshaped the landscape in his wake. Indeed, the many tall tales and feats told of him are often exaggerated but also often true. More commonly known nowadays as "King Waldo" and the subject of many songs and sayings, some say he was a survivor of the Fifth World who through geas kept his life extended far beyond its natural span. Considering how tall he was and the tendency of ogres to never stop growing, that may be true. His reign is similarly the stuff of legend, and it's said he personally built several Sarumite castles by hand, but it's difficult to get any real knowledge about the Sarum of Waldo's time.   King Brynwalder's reign ended when two of his geasa contradicted one another. A hag offered him a mince meat pie, but it had horse meat in it. He was forbidden by one geas to consume the meat of horses, and another to never refuse hospitality by an older woman. Soon after, it is said he turned to stone, withering from flesh into another form entirely. The Walbeorg is a great hill in Lower Sarum said to be formed around his body.

Guldred is a very controversial historical figure in Sarum, where gender roles are rather more pronounced than they are elsewhere in Talingarde. By all accounts, Guldred lived as a man, was crowned as king, and refused to acknowledge anything else. However, it is also true by most accounts that Guldred was born as a woman. A dwarf whose clan were exiled from their mountain homes in the Blasgaunt due to their dissent from the Great Mistake, they had made their lives among the bucolic countryside of Upper Sarum. Guldred became a fierce and loyal warrior and bannerman, becoming a champion of his Earl and through that sponsorship being an unexpected dark horse candidate during the Gamut to replace Harthan. Despite some traditionalists rankling at the idea, the druids who oversaw the Gamut sanctioned his candidacy. Guldred, like Harthan, never truly had the complete loyalty of the Earals, but unlike Harthan, was much more capable of manipulating the political situation. He married a Lucadorean princess to close off the north, and extended the reach of Sarum all the way down south to Myrrick, where he named his adopted son the new Earl. An enemy of the Holy Cities and Axiomatic Church, Guldred's avowed paganism and antipathy towards the Ninevar means their legacy is somewhat tainted nowadays.

The sixth and in some ways penultimate High King of the early Kingdom of Sarum was originally named Urgest, the Earl of Myrrick, and was the adopted son of King Guldred. His story is a tragic one however. Either due to an enchantment laid upon him by Esclaban, or due to his dishonoring the pagan god Khyber in some ritual (or simply godly whim), he was cursed with therianthropy, a werewolf. He kept it a secret for a time and was a just and kind ruler by nature, who despite the conquest his father had exacted on the south made peace with the Ninevarine to instead deal with the Duke of Lucador, as Guldred's wife had born a child (most likely by Esclaban) that Duke Baracus wished to seat as his puppet king. Urgest would defeat Baracus in open battle and then single combat, eventually transforming and eating him alive. This horrific event made him an outcast even in his own kingdom, as he would forever be known as Wulfsang. Whether he was a tragic figure of circumstance or truly driven to Evil by the Dark Calling, it is hard to say, but eventually Duke Baracus's son would have his revenge.

Under Emperor Ahmosian I, called the Pious, a great amount of effort was directed into expanding the various cathedrals and tendrils of the church. Missions was sent as far afield as Seotan and Perdita. Emperor Ahmosian clashed somewhat with the Artifix of his time, as it became unclear where the division of church and state existed under the Holy Lawful Empire. Ahmosian's piety in the end became an object lesson in humility, as his decision to seek absolution with his tiara doffed at the feet of the Artifix when she refused to seat his son Cadorius as the "Prince of the Ibbis" (a ceremonial title that indicated him the heir presumptive) marked that the Emperors to follow would (for the most part) bow to the church on most matters.

Markadian II, called the Stout, started the tradition of regnal names, taking on the title of his great-grandfather, though this would be seen somewhat as a mixed comparison. Emperor Markadian II was not a wicked man, but he was a venal one who was the first Emperor to have not been first appointed as Duke of Lucador and the Rusan Marches. A second son, he was far more interested in courtly politics, fine tailoring, and most especially considering his prodigious size, feasting and drinking. Despite being somewhat dissolute, he was a brave and pious man who was a good judge of character, and did much in his decade of rule to clear the way for his son, the far more well-regarded and famous Leograce the Cavalier.

Emperor Pellas I, the Druid, is a controversial figure that to some is a great hero of cunning and acumen, and to others should be treated as an Esclaban, a villain who maneuvered his way into power. The older brother of Emperor Leograce I, who left his father's courts to join a druidic circle in the wilderness and explore the secrets of primal magic, he brought with him a re-institution of many Sarumite traditions to the Empire, including the Gamuts, which combined both the wisdom of magicians with the nobility to make decisions collectively for the whole. He also resolved the conflict with Abraxas's brood much as his predecessors had: through romance. He took the young black dragon Vythass as his consort (the Axiomatic Church refused to sanction it as a marriage, so he invoked the older traditions of concubinage to ensure his children by her were legitimate and married the Queen Mother to preserve the alliance with Brecheliant), and worked with her to defeat her many siblings. This, combined with the mysterious circumstances of his brother's death and his ascent to power, leads many to suspect him to be a conspirator, but many contemporary accounts point to Pellas as a heroic and Good, if unorthodox, figure. He was the first of the Emperors to abdicate once his son, the future Emperor Cador II, came of age, and disappeared with Vythass to parts unknown.

A cousin to Leograce I and Pellas I, Markadian III was never in the line of succession before political circumstances put him as the puppet of conspirators within the palace. Closer to Markadian II than Markadian I in temperament, he was mostly a bumbling ruler who marked a precipitous decline in legitimacy for the Barcan dynasty, though he had enough to secure the succession for his son, the future Leograce III. Whether knowing or not of his role in what was the come, most do not remember Markadian III fondly.

Originally crowned as "Markadian IV", Disemnius was the younger brother (half-brother?) of Emperor Leograce III. While they shared the same mother, Disemnius was born an aasimar, leading to some question about his parentage that had him an exile within his own family. Much of Disemnius's biography is unclear as it is the subject of both his enemies and allies distorting the truth. He may have been a true believer that saw himself as Mitra incarnate (thus mad), who would restore the Empire before it entirely lost its heavenly mandate, or he may have been a warlock who wore the religious justification as a witting partner to the Red Hand's plot. Most remember him as the latter, as the former is perhaps a bit too painful for many to accept, that the zeal of faith could turn one to the wickedness he perpetuated. While his deposing his brother was perhaps shocking, after the coup that overthrew Cador II most simply accepted this as the way of things now, and many were taken by Disemnius's preaching of a new order under a strengthened faith. However, it would not last more than a year.

Emperor Emrys, the Count of Styrmonium and famulus of House Azanaster, succeeded Segurades when he passed of his years, elected after a heavily contested session of the Imperial Gamut. Emrys was elderly as well, but where Segurades was animated by his desire to do Good and political acumen, Emrys was a wizard of tremendous will and calculation. He did much during his reign to incorporate the practice of arcane magic from the realm of superstition and black sorcery to a regulated and acceptable practice. Before Emrys, one became a wizard by seeking a master, or going to the Emerald Academy at Zedile in Brecheliant. Under Emrys, a College of Wizards was opened in Styrmonium, and imperial edicts made it the authority on all matters arcane (the Brecilien have always bristled at this since their reintegration with the Empire, as the imperial laws remain mostly unchanged). Emperor Emrys however was not personally popular, and many suspected him of engaging with darker arts, which is tarred by many wizards. His death is recorded as being a natural one, but the circumstances are somewhat mysterious and sudden.

The grandson of Segurades I, Emperor Segurades II was an attempt by the Imperial Gamut, after the wild swings of both Emrys and Ahmosian II, to once again try and bring a measure of peace to the still turmoil-stricken Empire. It is difficult to say whether Segurades II would be up to the task: Well known as a kind and amiable man, he lacked the same level of drive and intense charisma as his grandfather, and was more a tool of the Renic faction. Without these, progress was slow, and most of what Segurades II was interested in was rebuilding what was lost during the civil war. Such work lacks in glory, and was interrupted besides when he was captured and beheaded by Temurcan Barcas, the Usurper. His posthumous title "the Good" is sometimes used ironically, both that he was too Good to get enough done during his reign, but also that he never ruled long enough to prove he was anything but Good.

Like Disemnius before him, Temurcan is sometimes not recorded as a "true" Emperor. Even Disemnius was actually coronated by the Artifix. Temurcan can claim the same, but only at swordpoint. Temurcan, the grandson of Duke Jaraad, used his draconic bloodline and sorcerous ability to "tame" a black dragon as his steed, and utilized this trump card along with the Lucadorean war machine to first depose House Morgade as High Kings of Sarum, and then march down the Ibbis to conquer Blessed Mitanni. After capturing and executing Segurades II and threatening to raze the holiest of cities, the terrified Artifix went along with his wishes, crowning him as Emperor. An open worshipper of Asmodeus, Temurcan attempted to force a reformation of the Church to worship of the Demiurge, but this caused spasms of revolt in every corner. Only fear of the Commonwealth kept some of the Ninevarine princes in line, but as soon as his armies were occupied elsewhere, the Earls of Sarum and even the various marcher lords of Rusante soon revolted against him, and the Church acted as a mechanism for this resistance even as its top echelons played a dangerous game of placating his majesty.

The eldest son of Markadian IV by the Dowager Empress was Ectoris, who was surprisingly large for a quickling, especially a veela one besides. Beautiful as he was powerful, Ectoris followed his father's footsteps, joining the Knights of the Alerion (which became part of the heir presumptive's rites of passage) and pursuing the Aittic Mysteries. He served faithfully as the right hand of the Holy Lawful Emperor as well as the Prince of the Ibbis. By the time his time to rule came, he was in his early eighties, though his elf blood ensured he would rule for a significantly period. The newly crowned King Ectoris lived in the shadow of his legendary father, and almost immediately the House of Barcas attempted to revolt and take advantage of his perceived weakness. Emperor Ectoris responded harshly, crushing the rebellion and then proceeding to do what his father could not: he dismantled the Duchy of Lucador for good, making the Rusan marches crownlands that owe homage directly to the Holy Lawful Emperor, meaning that King Ectoris and his successors could revoke their titles if they further displeased them, all sanctioned by the Imperial Gamut. The House of Barcas would no longer be landed nobility, though those who remained loyal to the imperial crown were rewarded by being made a bannerhouse of the imperial Darians themselves, to be their shieldbearers. Many of the greatest marshals of the Darian empire would be of House Barcas.

Dagonel was never meant to be a king. He entered the clergy, as many second sons do, and by all accounts had the disposition for such more than to be a king. Yet when his older brother passed due to the plague, he asked and received dispensation from the Artifix to doff his vestments and take up the crown instead. King Dagonel was beset with many crises, not least of which being his efforts to bring relief to a plague stricken land and maintain the loyalty of his subjects during this dark time. Even worse, the Beast War happened during his reign, though it was his clever maneuvering that won the loyalty of the Harakyuan Shogun against the sounders of the swynherd. Though he was never a larger-than-life figure, he is remembered fondly as an example that good leaders can come from unlikely places.

King Dagonel sired many children (despite his priestly background), but it was his firstborn son who succeeded him as Leograce IV. A gentle man who like his father seemed an unlikely king, but unlike his father never quite grew into the role. He much preferred to tend to his flowers, though he did much to renovate the palace in Auld Sarum as well as be patron to a high water mark period of art in Talingarde. Even when the giants invaded from Fath Emayn, he remained as ever engrossed in his works, leaving rulership mainly to his privy council and leaving these challenges to his heir, Prince Landevale, to answer.

First as Prince and then as King, Landevale was a knight first and a ruler second. Always questing, Landevale earned his moniker due to how often he wished to work from the field, rather than within any castle or fortress. Early in his reign, he personally lead cadres of knights against the frost giants, driving them from the shores of Brecheliant, and won the heart of his maiden fair, soon married to an elvish princess (though most believe it was an unrequited love, as he left no children and was known to prefer the company of men). Though his reign was long, Landevale was an absentee king, and not just losing himself in hobbies as his father had. The imperial bureaucracy, under the auspices of the Axiomatic Church, began to expand greatly and while later emperors would be more "hands-on" it would never quite recede.

As King Landevale left no issue, the succession went to one of his nephews. King Pellas II was beloved of the sea, a mariner at heart who spent much of his youth in the Free Cities. It is said that he had a merrow princess for a lover, and when he became king, had to break her heart and marry an elvish bride instead to honor the Joyous Union. This is sometimes cited as a reason for the Merrow Incursion, but it's never been substantiated outside of bardic songs; it's still taken as fact. After repulsing the invasion from the waves, King Pellas would expand the trade networks of Talingarde far and wide by offering charters to Guranese guilds to form overseas companies, a Cazzeri innovation. He also kept the counsel of druids, consorted with fairies, and was said to pay respects to pagan deities, much like his original namesake. He was the first, and last, Holy Lawful Emperor to leave the shores of Talingarde, to be consumed by the Kraken Curse shortly after the shore disappeared behind the Misty Mantle. This only strengthened the taboo in the cultural imaginary, and the connection between the land and the monarch.

Like his father, Pellas II, Leograce V was fascinated with ethereal, occult forces, and pursued a bardic education along with his knightly and kingly tutelage. Though not a voyager of the seas, he would spend time plumbing his dreams (and that of others), and was said to have lived an entire life in Faerie before he was crowned Holy Lawful Emperor. A changeling as well as a quickling, Leograce V was the first of his name in a long time to embody the original Cavalier, but he resembled far more Segurades the Wise in trying to build towards a long-term future. Under King Leograce, a policy known as the Landfriede was enacted, which continues into the current day. His reign marks the point of absolute peace for Talingarde, and it is say he bargained with the Firstborn to make it a reality. Indeed, he followed in the footsteps of High King Waldo in binding his life to several geasa, giving him eternal youth. He would joing Good King Magnus, Markadian Victor, and Pellas the Druid in being a truly larger than life, even inhuman figure, who many would believe would reign forever. Until one day, he hosted a tournament for all of his relatives, and one of his grandsons won. He abdicated immediately, naming said grandson as his heir, and disappeared, said to have left for Faerie... or perhaps merely his stolen time had come to an end.

Although his grandfather, Leograce V, abdicates two years previously, the future King Markadian V, born as Ser Arcade Darian, will not be crowned immediately. After making arrangements to leave his mother, Bonny Queen Maith, as regent, he takes the voyage to Aitne first to be inducted into the Aittic Mysteries, before returning to Blessed Mitanni to be coronated. When he returns, he also has a newborn child with him, that he claims to be of his wife. This scandalizes many in the Axiomatic Church, as the marriage to this unknown wife (who he shares no details about, including whether she would join him as queen) is not sanctioned by the church. However, the rather unorthodox (and longest-reigning, in part due to her being the first elf in this position) Artifix, Amatherusia, gives her tacit blessing by crowning Ser Arcade as Holy Lawful Emperor, and as Markadian V he has thus served. More a "knightly" than a "kingly" Emperor, King Markadian suffers from being a heroic soul in a time with no need for heroes. His tendency to become bored of politics sometimes leads him to arbitrary decisions which lends him a bad reputation among the aristocracy, but his Goodly heart and attention to ceremony and the needs of his people keep him in the good graces of most Talireans. Stuck as he is in Auld Sarum, however, he grows distant to the goings on of his own Empire, much as seated on their celestial throne, Mitra has grown distant to the praises in their name.