The History of Gwynelad

Gwynelad is a land recovering from the darkest of Dark Ages. Almost two thousand years ago, the world was invaded by the armies of the Demon Gods, and for fifteen centuries they ruled with an iron fist. Humans were slaves, servants, and livestock, fodder for all the Demon-Gods' heinous appetites. They came out of the Chaos, Demon-Gods that controlled the world with fists of fire. They twisted the minds of mortals with brutal magics, making slaves of all the mortal races. Gods of chaos and bloodshed, for more than a thousand years the twisted and insane ways of the Demon-Gods were all that mortals knew.

The Age of Demons

The six Demon-Gods came to this land with hordes of demon followers, and soon swelled the ranks of their armies with slaves and volunteers. Their war of invasion was waged haphazardly, working against each other as much as the embattled mortals. That changed when TiThurye, the Princess of Torment, was killed in battle. The Demon-Gods forgot their differences and the united armies rolled over the mortal resistance; the Demon-Gods spent the next thousand years venting their rage for the loss of one of their own.

Five Demon-Gods remained after the death of TiThurye. Over all the Gods ruled Turranos, the King of Demons, and his consort Tanpaar, the Mistress of Poisons. Beneath them were Zhaos, Son of Destruction and Master of Chaos, and Mordaar, the Lord of War who washed the world in blood from his games. Beneath them all was Gwen Dur, the Slave; it was he who made slaves of mortals, twisting them and ripping them apart for his own amusement. Although there were small pockets of resistance and freedom, there was no salvation in sight.

Banishing and Unification

However, from these free men came salvation in the form of Riva, a regular man who was called to greatness. His dreams led him to the plains of Thurii, named for the Demon Princess of Torment who died there, the only Demon God ever slain by man. There he found two alters, one dedicated to the Light, and the other dedicated to the Dark. They demanded sacrifices of Riva, an act of greatest good and an act of greatest evil; in return, the Powers of the Light and Dark would banish the Gods back to their Demon-realms. Riva did as the Powers commanded, but his evil act was tainted by regret, and the Banishing was incomplete. Still, the Demon Gods and their most powerful servants were cast out of this realm; the world was free once again.

Although the Gods were Banished, Riva's work was not yet done. He gathered twelve men and women of extraordinary strength and wisdom, the Twelve Peers of Riva, and they set out to cleanse the land that would become known as Gwynelad of the taint of the Gods. The Peers destroyed monuments to the Gods, drove out the Gwen Duri (humans dedicated to Gwen Dur, the Slave), and reached out to the shattered kingdoms of Soren, Andregaard, Ember, Lothoras, Amber, among others. From these shattered pieces, Riva forged the Kingdom of Gwynelad using a combination of diplomacy, trickery, and force. After nearly twenty-five years, Gwynelad had the same borders as it does today, although several cares (notably Soren and the "barbarian" north) would not be fully assimilated for years or decades.

The First King: Riva the Great

His kingdom complete, Riva retired to his capital of Gwynelon to be King. Old when he returned to Gwynelon, he still raised a family and reigned as King for another thirty-five years. Riva was not a great King, though, relying mostly on his ministers and son (and heir) Galen to run the kingdom while he pursued other interests. On St. Swithen's Day of the year 58 A.B. (After Banishing), Riva called Galen to him and descended from the throne, after which Riva mounted his horse and left Gwynelon for good. His fate was unknown for years, until word came back that Riva's tomb was discovered in the Nine Isles. It had apparently been built with his own hands, and the island where it was found was renamed Rivan in his honor. To this day, Riva's Tomb is the resting place of the Royal Family.

The Second King: Galen I

Galen the First reigned for thirty years, building the Seat and consolidating his father's kingdom; by the end of his reign, only the "Barbarian Frontier" still refused to bow. Things came to a head in the summer of 85 A.B., near the end of Galen's reign, with open rebellion in the territories that will become known as Uthuk and Khelik. The Summer of Blood, as it became known, killed many clansmen and soldiers, and was only ended by the early winter that would become known as the Hungry Winter, the harshest winter before or since. As many lives are lost to the cold and hunger as to the fighting, but both sides were ready to resume the war when the spring thaws came. The rebellion was derailed by a massive influx of starving non-humans who poured out of the Cormyrian Mountains; by the time they were driven off, both armies were decimated. Total war was averted, but the region remains unstable, and hostilities continue to simmer just under the surface. In light of the massive failures in the north, and his own waning stability, Galen was forced to abdicate in favor of his nephew, Theoric "the White," in the year 88 A.B. Galen's body has been ravaged by time, and without his duties as King to occupy him, he is dead before the end of the year.

After seeing his uncle properly buried in the Royal Tomb, Theoric's first task was to protect his subjects in the northern frontier; to that end, he ordered the construction of the Keepline, a series of fortresses across the north lands. Caer Steadfast is the first to be completed, in the summer of 98 A.B.; the Keepline itself is completed three years later, in 101. Although effective in protecting the area against raiders, the very existence of the Keepline is taken as an affront to the clans, and Khelik the Bruce harnessed that resentment, whipping up the clansmen to chase the Gwynelans from the north, starting the conflict known as the First Clan War. Theoric tries time and again to crush the rebellious clansmen, but was out maneuvered at every turn by Khelik the Bruce. Khelik is so successful that within two years he controls most of the frontier, and all but two fortresses in the Keepline have been destroyed or cut off and rendered untenable by the clansmen.

The First Clan War: Suppression of the Clans

A desperate Theoric offers governorship of the frontier to whomever can tame it, leading to all manner of atrocities by ambitious men and women. On Yule Night of 102, at the annual granting of indulgences, Theoric is approached by his secretary, a man named Rommel, who offers to conquer the clans if Theoric would only provide him with an army on St. Swithen's Day. Theoric was understandably skeptical, as Rommel was already an old man, and had never held a sword in his life. He had, however, spent a lifetime in the Royal Court, under three different kings, and was a master of intrigue. Theoric granted the request, and Rommel departed immediately for what was already being called "Khelik's Land", not even waiting for his promised army.

No one is sure what happened next, save that Rommel put his plan in motion; by St. Swithen's Day Khelik the Bruce was dead and the clans were at each other's throats. The army sent by Theoric spent most of their time fortifying Rommel's capitol, occasionally sweeping out to repulse raiders or suppress the clans. Theoric named Rommel the governor of Care Khelik, and Rommel spent the next twelve years playing the various clans off each other. By the time Rommel was murdered by a clansman in 115, the clans had been both broken and integrated into the kingdom. Adding insult to injury, the capitol of Khelik was named Rommel, a constant reminder of the clans inferiority. New Bruces would rise and fall, but more than a century would pass before the clans recovered enough to be a true threat again.

The King of Exploration: Galen II

The remainder of Theoric's reign was peaceful, as was his successor's (Galen II took the throne after Theoric died in his mistress' bed in 130). Nearly seventy years of relative peace led to a flowering of culture in Gwynelad; paved roads connected every care, contact was established with the Astegoni elves, and explorers and envoys were sent across the Cormyrian Mountains to Jarred, across the Jordian Mountains to explore the plains of the Na-Ti and make contact with the kingdom of Zacat, and across the Occidental Ocean to exotic Nin-Po, with varying degrees of success. The failed envoy to Jarred in 168 leads to reinforcement of the Keepline, but the expected invasion fails to materialize.

In the end, Galen II became a victim of his own curiosity. Fearing invasion by Jarred after Galen's disastrous envoy, a cabal murders the king in 170 and places his young grandson, Loren, on the throne. The cabal expected that Loren, a boy who had barely reached his majority, would be a pliable puppet; they were shocked when he had them imprisoned and executed for treason.

Dusk and Demons: The Reign of Loren

Loren's reign was fairly peaceful, but everything changed in the year 208. A group of adventurers, following an ancient prophecy, released the third great Power, Dusk, from its long internment. Within days, the greatest of the Demon-Generals, the Reaver, broke free of its prison and rampaged across the countryside. The Gwen Duri, long since banished to the Cormyrian Mountains, exploded into Gwynelad, slaying indiscriminately and kidnapping victims for sacrifice. Despite the best efforts of the greatest heroes in the realm, another Demon-Lord, the Teaser, was released. By the end of the year, the Gwen Duri and their Demon masters completed a master stroke, opening up dozens of portals to the Bloodrealm and flooding the northern cares of Gwynelad with denizens of the Demon Realms.

The Riftwar

For two years, the northerner cares of Gwynelad were embroiled in the disastrous Riftwar. The Gwynelan army, supported by forces from both the Temple of Light and the Dark Church, fought a war that was rife with mistakes, bad luck, and downright betrayals. Many brave men and women died nameless and alone, as did some of the greatest heroes of the day. There was no news but bad news, and nothing was worse than the news of the Battle of Golden Brin.

At the end of the first year of the Riftwar, the relationship between the forces of the Light and the Dark were strained and deteriorating. The Gwynelan army tried to keep the peace as best they could, but eventually the armies of the Light and the Dark turned on each other at Golden Brin, decimating themselves and the Gwynelan army (which had the bad luck to be between the two sides). Losses were so bad that King Loren was advised to give up the northern front, and retreat behind the ancient walls that once divided the northern cares from the rest of Gwynelad.

The Riftwar ended as suddenly as it began. Just before Banishing Day, 209, the combined armies made a huge push to allow a group of heroes to enter the Bloodrealm itself. Many other heroes had died in similar attempts, but this group succeeded, and the rifts began spontaneously closing. With in hours, every rift in Gwynelad was closed, although there were rumors that one or more still persisted in the Cormyrian Mountains.

The Second Clan War

There was little time for celebration, though. Immediately after the rifts closed, the northern clans rose up against the throne, taking or sacking several castles in the Keepline and inflicting enormous casualties on the celebrating troops. Another two years were lost as General Highfang, hero of the Riftwar, tried to restore order; in the end, though, the Second Clan War was ended not through force of arms or diplomacy, but by sheer exhaustion. The northern cares simply could not support more war. Peace reigned, uneasily, because no one had the energy or resources for anything else.

The Coming of the Pretender

Everyone was exhausted by the one-two punch of the Riftwar and the Second Clan War, but none more so than King Loren. When the King collapsed at his birthday celebration in 211, some took it as a sign. Warmaster Belfar, banished from Loren's court in 207, had long been making trouble in the southlands. With the King's infirmity, he made his move, marching an army of ten thousand men straight up to the gates of Loren's palace, the Seat. When the guards refused to open the gate, Belfar blew them in with a powerful magic unknown in Gwynelad. He then declared himself King and used the same magic to raze the Seat to the ground. It is said that before doing so, Belfar slew decrepit King Loren in his own bed. Despite his best efforts, Galen escaped, spirited away with the aid of the Teaser, who had been pardoned by King Loren and named “Protector of the Children”.

The Interregnum

Belfar ruled more or less peacefully for almost twenty years before he died in 228. Although his coup was relatively bloodless, the purges he conducted after taking power earned him a number of enemies, as did his policies of brutal repression towards non-humans, especially orcs. Many people danced with joy when they heard of Belfar's death, but his policies continued under his successors. Most people believe that Belfar's advisor, a foreigner named Apenator, was the true power behind the throne, although some superstitious individuals believe that Belfar was in fact raised from the dead to continue ruling from behind the scenes.

The Glorious Revolution

Galen was raised in secrecy by several families of Loyalists, and the truth of his heritage was hidden from him for many years. His only companion was Baal, the half-human son of the Teaser, and the two grew very close. Finally, with the death of Belfar, the truth was revealed and Galen began preparing to reclaim his birthright. The Loyalist resistance finally had something to rally around, and as the months wore on its numbers were bolstered as more and more Gwynelans turned against the Pretender's Throne. Finally, on Midsummer of 230, Galen, Baal, and several allies entered the Seat and reclaimed the throne. Apenator was killed in the fighting, but not before killing all of the King's allies save for Baal.

The Present

It is now nearing Midsummer of the year 231 After Banishing, and Galen is holding an enormous Coronal Celebration in Gwynelon. Everyone is invited, regardless of caste, creed, race, or country of origin; it is said that emissaries from the Astegon, the Dwarven Kingdoms, Nin-Po, Zacat, and Jarred will all be in attendance.

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