Kingdoms of Cassel
Xana
"One of the Seven Faithful Nations under the light of the Tower of Heaven in the shade of Meliheal, defenders of the wellspring, scions of Saint Nora, followers of Sillnos."Also explorers of far away dark lands, discoverers of exotic foods, and they perfected the art of making chocolate! This place is the best!"
Cassel is a nation in Eastern Vreathe that currently consists of three human kingdoms and two elven vassal kingdoms. It is one of the largest nations in the known world aside from the Empire of Irellith just to the west, and the Empire of Xinopta in the Dark Lands. The largest city is the Mesa city of Wrethilin in Aluviane. Other major cities include the Fortress City of Lornar in Verdina, and the Shining City of Tesiadem in Baileon. There are also the large elven cities of Delphia in Lyonne and Karrask in Ledo.
The nation was founded over 2700 years ago in the ruins of the Bronze Age city of Rekalo. The city was renamed Wrethilin and from there, Cassel slowly grew into a world power. Currently the nation is going through a crisis that started eight years ago with the death of the Northern King. The nation is difficult to manage due to the incessant power struggles between various nobles who constantly fight small wars against each other. Combined with the corruption in the government, the land is crushed under the weight of feudalism.
"Defendimus, Custodimus, Imperamus,
"Sancte Nora Per Virtutem Sanctæ Matris."
"Sancte Nora Per Virtutem Sanctæ Matris."
"By the Power of the Holy Mother Saint Nora,
We Defend, We Guard, We Rule."
We Defend, We Guard, We Rule."
History
AUTHOR's NOTE: (1/10/2024) A much longer history of the nation is still planned for a chronicle and a separate article. Until then, here is a look at the start of the kingdom and its recent history
Founding (330 I.A.)
The City of Wrethilin was founded by a wanderer named Vernador. He was the son of Saint Nora, the Elder Goddess given human form. Vernador wasn't content in the civilized lands of Milcea and Irellith and desired to explore the frozen wilds of the world. With the blessing of his mother, he left, and wandered.
Vernador wandered for centuries until he desired to settle down and call a a place home again. This was when he found an abandoned castle peaking out of the waters of The Karras, the bronze name of the inland sea of Cassel and the surrounding floodlands. This castle was the uppermost portion of an ancient bronze age city, which itself was built on an even more ancient silver age structure.
The exact details for how he became Cassel's first king is unclear. One legend states that years before Vernador settled the island, human villages on the edges of the sea were being attacked by serpents. They went to Vernador for help, who they knew was a son of Saint Nora. He responded to these attacks by diving in the water with nothing but a spear. He surfaced three days later dragging a thousand serpent skulls out of the water behind him. The people were so thankful for his actions that they wanted him to be the king of the Karras.
The castle that Vernador found still stands to this day as the uppermost level of the city of Wrethilin. Even as a Bronze Age Structure, it is still more impressive than anything Iron age humans are capable of building.
During this time, most of what would later become modern day Cassel was made up of many smaller kingdoms and unorganized tribes. The largest kingdoms were of the Elves. Lyonne and Ledo had existed since the earliest years of the Bronze Age, but like all elves, they were wary of humans and their borders were built up with walls and forts. It was Vernador that approached them with offers of trade and an alliance. The two elven kingdoms took that offer. Lyonne, Ledo, and Cassel have been loyal allies to each other in the 2700 years since.
The rest of the kingdoms at the time were splintered leftovers of mighty Bronze Age human nations that fell apart in the final war of the gods. Some of these kingdoms like Gwerra hardly play a part in the history of Cassel, while others like Dorias, Marsan, and the Diamond Kingdom, were in constant states of war with everyone for many centuries.
Cassel slowly grew over the 2700 years since its founding, until it ended up covering the entirety of the Intiabre peninsula and a little beyond. Every kingdom and every tribe here was integrated into the Kingdom. Some of the kingdoms like Gwerra were integrated without a fight, while others like Dorias and Marsan took centuries to fully subjugate. Others were allied with Cassel in the beginning like Aeris, only to later attempt to betray the nation and end up paying for it.
The two elven kingdoms became vassal states in all but name, relying on Cassel for protection, but were also exploited by the human nation.
Modern Day Cassel (2973 I.A.)
On King Vernador XX's sixtieth year as King, he without warning made a decree that Cassel be split into three smaller kingdoms. He then gave each to one of his children. King Eldon Vernador XXI took South Cassel with the Mesa city of Wrethilin as the capital. King Brenon Vernador took North Cassel with the Fortress city of Lornar as the capital. Queen Larielle Vernador took West Cassel with the shining city of Tesiadem as the capital.
This caused quite a bit of strife at first. Brenon was in a long stable marriage with the love of his life, Eryka. The issue was that Eryka was an elf, and Brenon's children were half-elves. By divine law they had the silver trace, marking them as beings unable to rule a human kingdom. Brenon had to end his marriage and take on a new wife. Eryka used her influence to become queen of the elves in Lyonne, while Brenon married a woman named Maria to have a new heir. He then figured that if his father thought he was worthy to be king, he should have the entire country instead of just part of it.
King Eldon was furious that his birthright was divided with his siblings and regularly sent threats to his brother. A year later, this escalated into a short Three Day War that no one fought in. The two main generals never showed up to battle. By tradition, the kings were by their wives' side when their first heirs were born. Vyerin was born in the north and Aerynn was born in the south. Days later, Larielle forced her brothers to sign a treaty to end the war and ensure Cassel's stability as Three Kingdoms like their father wanted. In 2974 I.A. the Treaty of Three Kingdoms was signed.
The Murder of King Brenon (2984 I.A.)
On August 17th, 2984, King Brenon and Queen Maria were assassinated, and Vyerin disappeared. What is known is that the King shot a flare in the sky bearing his symbol, but when the city guard got to the scene, the King and Queen were found filled with arrows. The young Princess Marla was safe, protected by the bodies of her parents. A search was conducted for the King's son, but Vyerin wasn't found.
During the funeral, King Eldon made the decree that he was taking over his brother's lands in the North. As Marla was crowned Queen of the North at eight years old, Eldon became the Regent. This only lasted a few years. in 2987, Maria was murdered and the palace at Lornar was burned to the ground...by order of the king of South Cassel. With no one else to take the North, Eldon made himself king of those lands. At the same time Larielle gave up her title as Queen of the West and disappeared. Larielle had no heirs, so Eldon also took control of those lands. People currently see this history as a bitter man taking control what he believed was rightfully his, but things are not usually what they first appear...
Invasion of the Iruakint (2991 I.A., Ongoing)
It started around ten years ago, when the Elven kingdom of Iruakint, the Iron Kingdom, started their conquest of the world. They conquered Pellensk, chased the Gallesken king into the Mountains of Cil, made the Seven Elven Nations of Teross bend their knees, and much more.
Their conquest seems to be unrelated to any of Cassel's troubles. The Iruakint want to rid the world of every last human with the golden trace. So far, they have found no one with golden ancestry, but with the approach of the Lesser Moon Nodan and the return of their Lord Tazil, they are getting desperate and are starting to invade every human nation to find the last one. Cassel is weak and the Iruakin have found little resistance as they started their invasion.
They reached the borders of North Cassel last year, conquering most of it except the Valley of Kings. The Elf-Kingdom of Lyonne stepped aside and allowed the Iruakint to pass through, betraying King Eldon and the humans. Some human lords, such as the Ferretors, have allied themselves with the Iruakint in secret in the hope of ending King Vernador and taking Cassel for themselves when the Iruakint move on. This hope is misplaced...
Powers in Cassel as of the year 2990 I.A. A conflict was brewing before the Iruakint's invasion. The Ferretor Family, along with their various branch families and loyalists, directly controlled almost a third of Cassel and wanted to challenge King Eldon's power. A further third of the country was neutral, unwilling to join a side, wanting to see how the conflict played out. The invasion of the Iruakint threw everything in the country into chaos...
In March of 2991, a member of the Golden Race of humans appeared in Cassel, possibly the last. Her name is Chryssa Sil. She was in the north at first, but has made her way around the east coast over the last few months. Her appearance in Cassel now of all times is strange but the people have welcomed her. Chryssa along with her three companions (Saya, Raini, and Myles) have performed numerous heroic deeds, making quite the names for themselves.
There are rumors that the missing heir of the north is with her. None of Chryssa's friends match Vyerin's description, but people claim to have seen one of them bearing the Northern Ring, an unbreakable marker of the rightful ruler of North Cassel. Some people claim that this same person wield's the Aciam Fulgriff a legendary sword from Cassel's distant past, that has the power to defeat all of the nation's enemies. Whether this is true or not doesn't matter much to the people who have been slowly watching their nation unravel over the years. They need a hero and leader in these uncertain times.
The Individual Kingdoms
Verdina (North Cassel)
Characterized by rolling forested plains, marshlands, snowy highlands, and a large chain of volcanic islands, Verdina is the second largest kingdom in Cassel. The capital is the Fortress City of Lornar in the Barony of Marsan. Marsan itself used to be an entire kingdom and an ancient rival of Cassel. This kingdom's distinct culture and language was heavly influenced by the elves of Lyonne, and that influence still has an impact on the rest of Verdina to this day.
Baileon (West Cassel)
Dry and warm, with deserts, dry scrublands, dragon corrupted wastelands, and coastal forests, Verdina is the smallest human kingdom in Cassel. The capital is the Shining city of Tesiadem in the Barony of Mataro. The city is the first stop for ships from the kingdoms of Irrelith and Milcea, bringing goods from as far away as the empire of Tensen. There is also the Aethercite from the mines on the Island of Rosika, the greatest concentration of magic crystals in Cassel. This makes Baileon rather rich for its size. A number of Cassel's guilds also have their HQ located in Tesiadem, such as the Explorer's and Cartographer's Guilds.
Aluviane (South Cassel)
Arid valleys and floodplains, large sandy deserts, and snowy lowlands make up Aluviane, which is the largest kingdom in Cassel. The capital is the Mesa City of Wrethilin. This is where the Kingdom of Cassel started and slowly grew. Even as its own entity, Aluviane is still much larger and more powerful than most nations in Eastern Vreathe. It still has vast deposits of resources and large areas of farmland, and the country is natrually defended by a number of tall mountain range surrounding it on all sides except the south and east, which is protected by the icy cold of Nivema's Sorrow.
Elf-Kingdon of Lyonne
Lyonne is the furthest north kingdom in Cassel and the oldest by a large margin. It was found at the end of the Silver Age by the first elves, who are the remains of the Silver Race of humans the Cataclysm destroyed most of them. The elves here never spready very far beyond their lands and the nation's borders are unchanged since the Bronze Age. Lyonne is mostly a large grassy plain in the eastern half of the country, and densely forested in the west. It is surrounded on three sides by tall mountain ranges and seems pretty secluded from the rest of Cassel, though the kingdom has been influencing the humans lands to the south for many thousands of years.
Elf-Kingdon of Ledo
Ledo was founded at roughly the same time as Lyonne was at the beginning of the Bronze Age, and there is great disagreement over which kingdom came first. This new kingdom of Ledo quickly grew to cover the forested valleys and highlands of the area and today Ledo covers much of Eastern Cassel. Similar to Lyonne, Ledo is surrounded almost entirely by mountains and even most of its coastal lands are actually almost a thousand meters up on high cliffs. The kingdom has had some influence on Cassel over the course of the Iron Age, but they mostly keep to themselves, knowing they can weather and outlast any trouble that hits the human lands.
Very nice article, i especially enjoyed reading about the recent history. However i cant help but wonder how a country split into many pieces by mountains managed to stay united for 2700 years. Is it magic? Probably
Thanks for giving it a read and leaving this feedback! Feudalism is the answer mostly. Also the country wasn't its present day size for all of those 2700 years, but I need to better write a way to get the information across. Explaining this country's specific style of feudalism in a government section is something I still haven't done. Now is as good of a time as any to do some work on it. Also, your comment made me realize "Ah crap, this article is almost a year out of date and I reference it everywhere!" So it's now one of my priorities to get updated this month.
Youre welcome, im glad i could help I cant wait to read more about it!