Worldbuilding Wednesday: The Southern Lands during the Midland Wars

Welcome to another Worldbuilding Wednesday. I’ve spent these last few Wednesdays looking at the Midland Wars – links to these posts can be found at the end of this post. Just because things has been happening in the Midlands, doesn’t mean the rest of the kingdoms and stories of Airthai has stood still, though. So, this week I’m looking at what happened to the Dragon Keepers and the dragons while the Midland Wars were raging.

The Midland Wars (Part 4) – The Southern Lands during the Midland Wars

While war ravaged the Midlands of the Continent, the Dragon Guardians of Reiaghy faced a difficult choice. After the attack on the dragons, told of in the story called “The Price of Freedom”, all eyes were on the dragons and their Guardians. Memories of the night in which the dragons had attacked the city twelve years before were still well remembered and another night of fire was feared even after the Guardians assured the people of the city that the dragons would not attack.

The eggs which had been stowed away by the Guardians were returned to the dragons’ nests and the bodies of the slain dragons and guardians were given proper burials. Much had been lost, but the Guardians also realised the grave danger that they had been in and were thankful that so many had been spared. Even so, much had changed between the Guardians and the City Elders. Where once the Guardians were the pride of the city and held in high esteem, they now were more feared than before and looked down upon by City Elders and common citizens alike.

Rumours began to spread – first within the city and then beyond – that the Guardians used dark magic to control the dragons and not their Talent and the tongue gifted to them by the Light. Many of these rumours were purported to have been started by the Guardians whose dragons had shunned them after they had turning from the light.

Soon the Guardians realised that they were no longer safe or welcome in their city and even some of the ships ventured into the ocean without a dragon escort. Many were attacked by the sea dragons and many lives were lost without reason. Dragon Guardians, walking alone in the city were also attacked and two were killed. Their murderers were not found and soon, not only the Guardians, but also the dragons themselves were demanding justice to be done and their safety to be guaranteed. Dragons remained at the House of the Guardians to keep the house safe from attack and during this time an even greater bond was formed between the dragons and their guardians.

 At last the Dragon Elder Lasnith decided that they could wait no longer. He sent for Caythan, the captain of the merchant ship Dragon Claw and chose four of the Guardians to go to the greatest of the Western Isles where the Green Dragons lived and to request lands for the Dragon Guardians and the dragons of the Southern Lands.

Links to previous Midland Wars posts:
Part 1: First Strike
Part 2: Sanctuaries
Part 3: The Rise of the Fáll

To read more about Nasja and the other Guardians, read “A Dragon’s Freedom” or “The Price of Freedom” by clicking on the links. Enjoy!

For those readers who can understand Afrikaans – check out today’s post at Kammastories, or click here for the English version.

Photo: "Ocean" Courtesy of Timobalk at http://www.sxc.hu

Worldbuilding Wednesday – The Rise of the Fáll

In the previous two worldbuilding posts about the Midland Wars, I’ve covered the outbreak of the wars in part 1 and the forming of the Sanctuaries of the Keepers in part 2. This week’s post is a bit longer and covers the rise of those known as the Fáll in the Midlands, as well as the succession of Guldargan kings during these wars.

The Midland Wars – Part 3: The Rise of the Fáll

At the end of the bloody decades of the Midland Wars, the great kingdom of Guldargan had shrunk drastically, while Treddian, Aefterra and Tarathlon grew in size. Where Ealdfesten grew the most in the first forty years, much of the land had again been conquered by Treddian by the end of the Midland Wars.

The Death of Gile
Much land along the new borders of Guldargan was disputed territories and it is here that the Fáll of the Midlands came to be. These Fáll, as they called themselves, joined the bands of outlaws which had long roamed the plains. The Fáll were a dangerous rebel faction from the start and followers of Gile long after his body was buried beneath one of the battlefields of golden plain. For it was that Gile, son of Marcus, died seventeen years after taking the throne of Guldargan during a battle against Ealdfesten at the Great River. A legend of the Fáll held that his once loyal guard, Ryger, who had turned against him and went into hiding, had returned during that battle and had first drugged the king and then slew him during the night.

The eye-witness accounts of that battle, however, told that Gile had taken to the battle field for the first time on the sixth day. Knowing that he was fighting a losing battle, but having no where to turn and waiting for reinforcements, he realised that he had no other choice but to fight if he did not want his men to flee or to give up their arms.

Gile was escorted onto the battlefield by his personal guard and his men took heart, but before the sun reached its zenith in the sky and his son, prince Galdra reached the battlefield with reinforcements, the king fell.

Prince Galdra is crowned and the Fáll is created
At midday the prince reached the battlefield and the men of Ealdfesten was driven back for the time being. But a great blow had been dealt to the kingdom of Guldargan. In front of the soldiers of Guldargan and his personal guard, prince Galdra was crowned king by the Werlea-magician who had served the late king since the Midland Wars started. This was the first time since the Great Sundering that a servant of the Shadow crowned a king on the continent.

Galdra’s first order as king was to have the surviving members of Gile’s personal guard executed because they had failed to keep his father safe. He was a cruel man and ruler and much of Guldargan’s land was lost during his reign.

But it was also during Galdra’s reign that the Fáll rose to prominence in the Midlands. They were first a rebellious part of the soldiers of Guldargan, who called themselves the Sons of Gile. They also followed the Werlea and, while Gile had a black dragon tattooed on his face like the lords of the Werlea, they had the dragon tattooed upon their right arms. Because of this, they were called Fáll – the Fallen – by the others of the Midlands, both of Guldargan and the surrounding kingdoms who saw the folly in their ways. Even more of Guldargan’s lands fell into the hands of the surrounding kingdoms during this time.

Maeldra is crowned king of Guldargan
King Galdra had three sons, two of whom died before king Galdra was buried. His third son, Maeldra, was crowned after Galdra was killed in an ambush organised by Maeldra, his most trusted men and some of the Fáll who believed that Galdra had strayed from his path as true leader of the Midlands.

During Maeldra’s reign darkness enveloped the lands of Guldargan. Now only a crippled kingdom ruled by a cruel man, a new leader arose in the lands north of the Great River. Called Ikaira, in remembrance of the first of the Tellerassar – who stood against King Markus the Elder – this man from the kin of Aldrich rallied the people who did not wish to follow the Werlea to him. Soon he became very strong and it was said that he held so much Talent that none of the Werlea spells had any effect on him.

Maeldra sired a son by one of the Vídolf who had joined the Fáll as seeress and sourceress. He was named Markus, after the old king of Guldargan. Soon the time would come when Maeldra and Ikaira would meet on the battlefield and Maeldra knew what a king bearing the glorious name of Markus would mean to the people of Guldargan.

The Battle of the Shadow Plain
And so it was that, in the fifty-fifth year of the Midland Wars, King Maeldra of Guldargan met the forces of Ikaira on Argavér, the Shadow Plain. The battle was terrible, but Ikaira was victorious and took up the crown of Guldargan. Maeldra was killed during that battle and the Fáll retreated into the Great Wood. A semblance of peace fell upon Guldargan for a short time and the skirmishes with the surrounding kingdoms petered out and many diplomatic missions were sent to the surrounding kingdoms. By Ikaira’s request, the Keepers of Théotriewe and Holt Haliern helped to bring peace to the north of the Midlands and secure what little was left of Guldargan.

But this was not the end of the Fáll, for they crowned Maeldra’s young son Markus their king and believed him the one true king of Guldargan as he was a direct descendant of King Gile. They built a great fortress on the blood drenched plain of Argavér and secured much of the land around it for themselves through their dark magic. Soon all the land under the Fáll’s control was called Argavér or the Shadow Lands.

Maps showing the kingdoms during the Midland Wars