The Trevastine Chronicles: The Downfall of an Empire
Sept 12, 2017 13:11:49 GMT
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Post by Fyremage on Sept 12, 2017 13:11:49 GMT
The Trevastine Chronicles: The Downfall of an Empire
"And lo I saw a great cloud of smoke carry cross the land and I swore I saw a devil in those ashes. Across his brow it was written "I am destruction". In both hands he carried a sword. The right, its name was Famine, and in the left, its name was Strife." - Maester Ordano, 512th Year of Arturas in the Second Age
The history of Trevast is rich and extensive - with the best place to start being, quite obviously, the beginning. It should be noted that, while the recorded history of Trevast spans over two thousand years, very little is collectively known as to the history of Trevast prior to its unification as an Empire, with the only truth known of the time being that it was an age of only strife and war: barbarism and chaos. Due to this ‘time of darkness,’ the vast majority of any written or otherwise recorded accountings of that age have been lost to the decay of time. With this in mind, recorded history of the realm of Trevast begins with the account of an all powerful Emperor, known by his beloved subjects of the time as Emperor Arturas, uniting the petty and quarreling despots of that time into a unified realm under his benevolent rulership. This event in history marks the beginning of the second age, known by all as as time of enlightenment and peace that has stood unparallelled down to this day. This was the first era of heavily recorded history, and because of this many common-folk and even the less educated or aware upper class of society hold the mistaken belief that time itself began with the uniting of Trevast, with some assigning near god-like devotion to Emperor Arturas, while other, more skeptical minds believe him to be a mere representation or allegory of an idealist beginning to civilization as we know it.
Though it remains a matter of some debate, a number of people believed that Emperor Arturas had been chosen to lead them by the widely-worshipped god of the Trevast heartlands, known as Artis. The common belief of this region was that Artis had created mankind as equals among each other, and decreed that their purpose was to live in harmony and spread across the earth in his name. According to the holy scriptures of this faith, it was also Artis who taught mankind the basics of civilization, how to make fire, fashion tools, and hunt for food. It was also agreed that when he was finished with his work, Artis left the earth and ascended to the heavens above, where he watches his people through the sun and stars. It seems only fitting that the man who eventually united the people of Artis, then, would be crowned as Emperor “Arturas”. Although the greatness of his legacy has never been doubted throughout the centuries following his death, this idea spread over time that Arturas had actually been chosen by Artis himself. This interpretation has been a cause for division amongst those of the Trevastine faith.
With all of these beliefs being as they are, many regard this second age of Trevastine history with an air of myth, and as earlier identified: idealism, bearing the weight of what is read with scrutiny. Such skepticism may be well justified, as the histories of the second age detail events involving men (and women) of extraordinary ability, with storied accomplishments that mark them more as heroes than actual historical figures. Additionally, one can also read about the existence of beasts of abnormal size and appearance, with some accounts of giants and men not of your common sort. Although most rational men discount such accounts as they are beyond the realm of what is mundane, historians are hesitant to fully discredit the works of that time due to a variety of irrefutable facts that correlate to what is recorded in later ages and through fossilized remains. Returning to the point - the reign of Emperor Arturas served as the gold standard for future monarchs, with his death recorded in the 31st year of his reign. Succeeding him was his firstborn son, who adopted the title of his father upon being crowned Emperor as his surname, namely ‘Emperor Arturas,’ yet he incorporated his given name at the end of the title. He was therefore known as ‘Emperor Arturas Thredan,’ and although he is properly recorded as Emperor Arturas II, he is commonly referred to as ‘Emperor Thredan.’ The reason for this is unknown, although many scholars muse it was due to the unimpressive start to his reign. Emperor Arturas I had several children, with several sources of the time recounting that many in the upper echelons of Trevastine society favoring his third-born son as Arturas’ successor over the two eldest sons. Some works which favor this line of thought delve into the supposed facts that the second-born heir was a woman, known to the annals of history as ‘Meron the Wanton,’ who lived her days under the influence of alcohol and in leading a life of hedonism and debauchery. And in the case of Thredan, there were some in the higher courts of Trevast who questioned his true legitimacy as a claimant to the crown, with the rumor that Arturas himself sired Thredan out of wedlock with a lowborn woman (It should be noted that those who held this view were squarely in the minority, with many historians believing that they held this view in secret as the only sources detailing this viewpoint are found from journals and private texts between court officials and noblemen.).
House Cassian & the First War of Succession
Therefore, this left the third-born son, known as Caspian, as the true heir to the Arturas dynasty in the opinions of a growing segment within the Trevastine nobility. It doesn’t take much effort to further understand why Caspian was popular amongst the lords of Trevast as compared to his elder brother Thredan after investigating the type of men both princes were. Prince Caspian was known to be gregarious and personable, able to play the court and the hearts of a crowd as if he were playing a lute. Comparatively, Thredan was altogether a private person: oft known to be a man of few words, and even fewer actions. Reclusive by nature, and with all manner of books as his muse, Thredan stood in stark contrast to the accomplished, formidable warrior his younger brother had grown to be. Even still, Thredan was crowned Emperor upon his father’s passing. The first year of his reign was, on the surface, troublesome. Raiders ravaged the lands along Trevast’s southern border unmolested, with the lords of the south forming a confederation amongst themselves to stop these raiders, which threatened to break apart the Empire’s peace in the south thereafter. Petty wars in the east further destabilized the Emperor’s peace, with Thredan’s responses to both crises’ lackluster at best. Despite the relatively strong economy and plentiful harvests experienced during this first year, open rebellion surged against Thredan’s rule. Several major lords rose up in support of Prince Caspian, with the lords of the south and several eastern houses throwing their support behind him. The ensuing war, known as the War of Ashes, was short, but among the bloodiest and most destructive in Trevast’s early history. While most of Thredan’s loyalist generals assumed the threat would come from the South in the form of a massive army of Southron lords marching upon the capital, their assumption was their downfall as wholly half of the Capital’s garrison rose up and adorned cloaks bearing the black and red colors of Prince Caspian’s heraldry. The fighting was intense - brother against brother, with guardsmen unable to discern who was friend or who was foe until it was too late. As confusion engulfed the great city for days on end, with fighting devolving to brutal urban tactics - with every street corner and every building a likely battleground for bloodshed, Caspian himself marched upon the city with an army from the east, with the gates easily overtaken and his army overwhelmingly ending the battle for the capital, and effectively the War of Ashes. Emperor Arturas Thredan was overthrown, with Emperor Arturas Caspian crowned in his stead. Those who were loyal to Emperor Thredan were either executed or forced to swear fealty to their new Emperor, with the victim of all of this - former Emperor Thredan, held as an ‘honored guest’ within the Imperial palace of the great city.
Thredan lived the remainder of his life in captivity within the very palace he had grown up in as a child, with his newly crowned brother ruling with a firm hand over the realm of Trevast. Emperor Arturas Caspian’s reign was relatively long and prosperous, albeit with a different focus entirely from that of his predecessor. Caspian’s reign is profoundly remembered for its focus on the Empire’s armed forces, and in particular the uniformity of its armed forces. One of the very first things he reformed as Emperor was the general mindset which granted a large amount of power to the nobles of the Empire in raising armies to fight on behalf of the Emperor himself, but not inasmuch so as to provoke the wroth of those it affected. His reforms began with the creation of military schools throughout the Empire (the most prominent of which located within the realm of House Cassian, who claim direct descendancy to Emperor Caspian) which focused on the instruction and training of the officers that served within the Empire’s armies. The instruction those who were inducted into these academies received was based on cutting edge military theory, battle stratagems, and command doctrines which serve as the bedrock for most militaries today. Yet, on top of all of this, was the underlying yet ever pervasive curriculum that emphasized loyalty to the Emperor above all else - even oneself. While the overall dogma of such a teaching seemed relatively harmless to the majority of nobles throughout the realm, it laid the groundwork for more drastic reforms later. By focusing on instilling near-unconditional loyalty within the mid-tier and higher officers of armies throughout the realm, that meant logically that the rank and file soldiers who filled every lord and lady’s armies would lean the same way.
Over the years, this resulted in several failed coups and rebellions, wherein the treacherous lords who had hoped to supplant their liege, were thus foiled by their own men. Although this contributed to the descendants of Emperor Caspian sitting on the throne for the longest period of continuous succession as compared to any other house, it ultimately did not prevent them from eventually being supplanted by others who had claim to the throne through other means than simply civil war. In fact, the stain of their treachery never did leave the minds of many within the realm, with House Cassian bearing a level of mistrust from other houses due to the bloody means of their ancestor’s ascension. Their downfall from the line of succession was altogether ignominious, similar to their rise. The final Cassian Emperor, named Emperor Arturas Rephael, suffered a natural death after a long and relatively uneventful reign. His presumptive heir, which at that time was based upon primogeniture (eldest male succession), was a young and impulsive man. He had built a reputation of recklessness and decadence which had fostered a lack of faith in the Caspian (also known as Cassian) dynasty, especially in the minds of those who still saw the taint of alleged treachery so long ago. After mounting pressure laid upon the Cassian heir from some of the most influential nobles within the Empire, he was forced to abdicate his rightful inheritance in favor of Trevast’s first ruling Empress - Empress Arturas Aurelia Galathion, who eventually came to be known as Aurelia the Glorious: arguably one of the most beloved monarchs in Trevast’s history. She was the daughter of the last Cassian Emperor, the third-born child of Arturas Kedar Cassian through an arranged marriage between Kedar and Saria Galathion.
House Galathion & The Peaceful Years
Aurelia’s reign began with the promise of greatness, starting with structural reforms that transitioned the initial Bureaucratic system of the Empire into the makings of a more flexible feudal system based on hereditary inheritance. This henceforth resulted in the major dynastic families of the Empire settling into the kingdoms they rule today, namely House Cassian ruling the realm known as Rjillund (translated literally as ‘The Riverland’), and House Galathion (which eventually became the branch formed by Aurelia) being assigned the de jure realm of Alendron, the descendants of Meron the Wanton forming House Merov (as it came to be known in later years) claiming the Ettinlands to the south, House Valdez uniting the lands that form the Kingdom of its own namesake, and House Vyre forming the realm of Luska. Her further defining accomplishments came in the form of sweeping economic reforms that opened up the many different districts and provinces into a free market system - promoting internal trade. This laid the groundwork for the financing and expansion of public universities and schools for the masses, on top of maintaining and expanding the Imperial roadways stretching throughout the Empire.
Aurelia has been known as one of the most beloved monarchs ever since her reign, despite the many obstacles and impasses that threatened to destabilize her goals. Even after her ascension as Empress, a sizeable group of noblemen and officials (largely Cassian by blood of friends of the Cassians) questioned her legitimacy to rule in the stead of another Cassian, namely Benor Cassian, Aurelia’s younger brother. Galathion influence is attributed to this dispute, largely because it was Galathion tradition for women to rule if they were the eldest living heir, whereas Cassian tradition demanded the heir be a male of right mind and health. At the end of the day, although several factors came into play, Aurelia’s knack for political maneuvering and guile won the day, forever earning the ire of the Cassian branch of the family.
While each successive heir to Aurelia strove to further her legacy and continue her work, none of her line were able to match her accomplishments and popularity amongst the common man, although several had tried. Most merely served as reminders of their matriarch’s rule and legacy, rather than furthering it save for the final Emperor of Aurelia’s line. Arturas Caspian IV (It should be reiterated that Arturas Caspian the IV was of the Galathion line of Emperors - not to be confused with any of the Cassian Caspians) made it his mission to build a monument to convey his legacy and solidify it alongside that of his ancestor Aurelia. He had always been enamoured with different fields of study - very much the type to wield his mind as his weapon instead of a sword. In his youth, he had spent much time within the libraries Aurelia had founded during her reign, and had received an unmatched education in his day at the feet of some of the greatest minds of the age. After his coronation, at the crucial point in his life when he wondered what he desired to be remembered for, he was immediately inspired to build the greatest monument to learning and study the realm of Trevast had ever seen. Yet, the cost required to make such an inspiration a reality would prove to be his undoing - and the undoing of his dynasty.
While the Empire’s economy under the Galathion dynasty had risen to great heights reminiscent of the accomplishments of Arturas the first, no amount of financial acumen could prevent the inevitable declines free market systems are often prone to. The Empire had fought three costly wars against their arch-enemy The Boteri Ab’nalate throughout its several century spanning history up until Caspian IV’s time, which meant that the Empire was recovering from a massive financial deficit. Given time, the deficit could have been overcome over the course of Caspian’s reign had he paid closer attention to it, yet the deficit would remain for yet another Emperor to fix as we will later recount. Instead of paying attention to the minor crises facing the Empire, Caspian IV decided to pull funding from the battered and recovering Imperial armed forces in order to finance his grandiose project. Many within the military hierarchy vehemently opposed this decision (with many of Cassian blood in positions of authority in the military command structure, including the head of the armed forces William Fydor Cassian), yet all of their outcries stopped short of treason as they begrudgingly made the best of their now worsened situation - at least, as it appeared.
A plot was sprung in secret to effect change within the Capital, one that resulted in a fateful night in which Caspian IV lay dead in his bedchambers, a glass containing the droplets of tainted wine, and a sealed letter at his side containing his final words for the world he was leaving behind. While most thought it to be suicide as the evidence suggested, whispers within the court of the Imperial palace spread of foul play on the part of House Cassian - largely due to the well known animosity held between the Cassian leadership and Caspian IV. This unfortunately led to a very shaky and unfavorable reputation of House Cassian in the eyes of the public and the nobles within the Capital, to the point where as the date approached to name a new Heir to replace Caspian (as he had yet to produce a living heir prior to his passing), the fate of such a decision was by no means certain or predictable despite the Cassian’s overt confidence to the contrary.
House Vyre & the Second War of Succession
The Cassians were all but certain the vote would go in their favor by merit of conspiratorial meetings and veiled promises levied to several key figures in the Imperial court. Yet, their certainty turned to ash in their mouths as the nobles were quickly swayed to support an unlikely, but altogether attractive candidate to succeed to the throne. Franz Vyre was of a very secretive line of succession from Arturas I, with many of the impression he was of distant relation to the Cassians (which further legitimized his claim based on the arguments the Cassians themselves were making for their own ends, which thusly backfired), yet with some indications that Franz’s claim preceded even that of the Cassian line. Regardless, with the burden of what is required by law satisfied, Franz was unexpectedly able to secure a strong majority amongst the council of nobles, with the Cassians throwing their support behind him as they felt he was easily manipulated due to the secretive history shrouding House Cassian and House Vyre under the rulership of Prince Vytoras. Their enigmatic history goes back to the first succession of the Empire, when Arturas Caspian I seized the throne from his elder brother, Thredan the Unworthy (As he is known to House Cassian.) It has only recently come to public knowledge that Vytoras, along with his bloodline, hold direct blood ties to Arturas Thredan. This was not widely known at the time, nor for many centuries after the Cassians took power, due to the fact that Vytoras was the bastard son of Thredan, born secretly months prior to the overthrow. After Caspian took power, Vytoras was raised under the Emperor’s wing as if he were his own blood (which he was), although the young boy would never come to learn his true parentage, even though Thredan lived within the palace for several years into the boy’s life. Eventually, Thredan died alone in his quarters, and peacefully all things considered - never coming to really know his son: with neither his son ever coming to know his father. To Vytoras, Thredan was merely a usurper to his uncle’s throne, never fully understanding the true story surrounding his claim.
Objectively, his claim to the Imperial throne was not so strong as many would think, considering his illegitimate birth. Yet, none of that would matter until Caspian himself legitimized Vytoras after his father’s death, and granted him governance of Trevast’s northernmost mainland province as a reward for his service to the Imperial throne. This untold story would eventually come to light upon Franz Vyre’s ascension to the Imperial throne, with the Emperor discovering a seemingly unassuming series of scrolls recording the bits and pieces of the tragic tale. Needless to say, this enlightenment resulted in a brief period of instability in diplomatic relations between House Cassian and House Vytoras, which came to be known as House Vyre over the following centuries. Many concessions and acts of appeasement from House Cassian eventually smoothed relations between the two closely bound houses, with the eventual understanding that despite the treachery on the part of Caspian I, the bloodline of Vytoras owed the Cassians much by simple virtue of the way they handled the offspring of Thredan and treated him throughout his life. The Cassians, if they had been so inclined, could have snuffed the Vytoras bloodline from existence then and there. But as the Lord of House Cassian explained eloquently in a private meeting with the Emperor: “While I cannot engage in supposition as to the inner workings of Caspian I, I would guess he saw in your ancestor what I see in you today, your Majesty - the propensity for greatness, and the ability to surpass the failings of Thredan at that time.”
With the initial instability of his ascension to the throne quickly surpassed, Emperor Franz was therefore able to engage in the arguably far more challenging endeavor of governance. Franz’s reign was very promising, in actual fact, and for many of the right reasons. Similar to the dynasty which preceded him, Franz cemented the start of his reign by revamping the economic system yet again by focusing on overseas and coastal trade, and expanding the reach of the Empire by means of overseas colonies. In order to finance these new colonies, Imperial financing of the construction of the citadel halted almost immediately - with the allocated funds returning to the military, but with some being diverted to the navy much to the Cassian’s annoyance. In fact, the Imperial navy saw a massive revamp to their maritime naval fleet and in their ships of war, which allowed for the greatest expansion of Trevastine influence overseas that the Empire had ever known. Eventually, this led to one of the darkest ages in Trevastine Imperial history, namely the implementation of a massive slave trade.
This is commonly attributed to the colonies established in close proximity to the Boteri Ab’nalate, the Boteri holding a longtime history of slavery throughout their society. Despite the great advances in overseas trade and prosperity, this single infringement upon the values of Trevastine society resulted in arguably the largest civil war to ever engulf the Empire. Honorbound to fight for Emperor Zoran Vyre, House Cassian stepped in to defend the crown with it’s (likely exaggerated, although still formidable) massive armies, which reportedly formed the backbone of the Imperial legions, against the combined might of Houses Galathion, Valdez, and Merov, who supported the brother of the emperor, Marko Vyre. The war began quickly and with a near-fanatical fervor on the part of some, with only the harsh reality of the opening conflicts showing all the real cost of war between brothers. The armies of Galathion and Valdez moved for the capital from both sides (as both kingdoms flank the Imperial Capital. Yet, their armies were soon met with fierce resistance from the Cassian armies of Rjillund deployed and dug in between the two armies. It was during this time that House Cassian fully solidified themselves as military standouts - not simply due to the legacy of their ancestor Caspian I, but due to their ability to inspire discipline and maintain a high standard of training in their soldiers, as evidenced in the early stages of the war.
(It should be noted that, while the armies of this time period still were quintessentially standardized Imperial Legions under the ultimate command of the Emperor, the segmentation initially implemented in Aurelia’s reign of the different provinces of the Empire into hereditary fiefs resulted in definitive cultures forming between each state, along with the militaries of these regions developing subtle differences in their overall performance and overall operational strengths and weaknesses. This should not be taken to mean that the Cassians were the only house to deploy highly disciplined and effective troops, as House Valdez is attributed with fielding arguably the most disciplined and well equipped forces and that time and to this day, as the Empire had delegated partial financing of each region’s army to the local jurisdictions.)
Due to the geographical location of Luska in relation to the Capital, it primarily fell to Cassian forces to hold out against the Valdez/Galathion (otherwise known as ‘Allied’) forces that set about to depose Emperor Zoran Vyre and to place his brother Marko on the throne while the Luskans set about defending their lands from a naval invasion from the forces of House Merov, and from attempting to invade the lands of Valdez from the north. Eventually, under the combined might of the Merov and Galathion naval forces, the Luskan navy buckled and were forced to reduce their sphere of influence to their localized ports, which allowed allied forces to blockade Cassian ports. Luskan ground forces were soon bogged down along the Valdez border, unable to gain much traction in moving south in support of House Cassian. Despite this, during the early phases of the war, the Cassians were holding their own and even pushing allied forces back in the east and segmented portions of the west. However, this was not sustainable, as over time this constricting tactic employed by allied forces strained Rjillund’s economy to a near breaking point, exacerbating the far more obvious problem of House Cassian fighting on multiple fronts. And so, after the opening months of the bitter struggle, the armies of House Cassian deployed south around the capital were forced to withdraw a sizeable portion of their forces back north to Rjillund to shore up coastal defenses and stave off highly successful probes into their lands by House Galathion, the foremost of which under the command of Aelin II, which opened an opportunity for the emboldened allied forces to throw nearly all of their might behind another series of offensives further south at the Imperial Capital.
This time, both the western and eastern Cassian fronts buckled under pressure, forcing the commanding general Reiksmarshal Friedrich Kolsch to order a general fighting retreat back to the capital itself. Cassian losses were staggering, with nearly one-third of their forces deployed in the south either killed or captured as they retreated to the walls of the capital, while the northern forces regrouped with the garrisons digging in for a likely incursion through Rjillund’s southern borders. Although thrown onto their heels in a forced fighting retreat, Cassian forces were still able to inflict sizeable casualties on the allies as they neared the city - to the point of blunting the push to a slow crawl as they reached the city walls, allowing Cassian forces to further prepare their defenses and lick their wounds for what promised to be a decisive and likely deadly battle for the capital city.
Before events escalated to that point, however, the Cassians sprung their trap. From the onset of the war, Lord Ulric Cassian IV knew his forces would be unable to maintain two fronts on either side of the capital without suffering severe casualties, and ultimately losing the war in the effort. So, while the Cassians maintained a strong force near the capital and allowed many to retreat to the Capital, as they redirected forces northward into Rjillund, they organized the bulk of their southern garrisons into a mighty host lead by highly skilled and well trained nobles known as Knights. As the Cassian front lines both west and east finally buckled, they retreated as both the Valdez and Galathion forces pushed inward in an attempt to fully cut off the capital from the Rjilland, and therefore reinforcement. At that point, the knights of Rjillund pushed forth and broke through the rearguard of the united front of both Houses Valdez and Galathion, and engaged in a double envelopment maneuver on both the western and eastern sides while Cassian light cavalry supported by skirmish infantry harassed and harried the flanks. The counter offensive was highly successful, with allied forces completely unexpecting the Cassians to be able to mount such an offensive. Yet, this came at great cost to the Loyalist war effort. The Cassians redirected several regiments to support the eastern forces reeling from Aelin II’s raids, and while they were able to successful intercept several raiding parties, it did not take long for Aelin II to rally her forces into a single army and push further west - outmaneuvering Rjillund’s defenders and threatening to make for Carenna. While not a certainty that House Cassian’s crown jewel would fall into allied hands, this forced Ulric to immediately redirect what forces he could spare to shore up Carenna’s defenses and intercept the allied force. Yet, he was not going to allow his initiative go to waste.
A meeting was called, with both Cassian and allied forces accepting the invitation, with Ulric himself and several of his generals meeting with Aelin II, known as ‘the Smiling Wyvern’ alongside Joaquin Quintanilla de Santos Valdez and several of their generals. The meeting centered around coming to terms to end the brutal conflict, with the allied cause having lost many of their forces on the ground in fighting for the capital and in the recent Cassian counteroffensive, and the Cassians having grown desperately short on supplies after being cut off from their homeland in their dogged defensive posture, alongside having to deal with the blockade of their ports; effectively cutting them off from their seeming ally, and from the threatening push into the heart of their lands which risked the very safety of their capital.
During that meeting, the two parties came to terms, with Lord Ulric agreeing to exit the war on the side of the loyalists in exchange for the naval blockade being lifted from their ports, and with both sides agreeing to return to the previous boundaries of their respective fiefs. While the final terms of the Cassian involvement in the war were amiable and as good as they could expect, this was still technically a defeat for the military forces of House Cassian - their first major defeat at war in actual fact, with their ferocity and ingenuity in holding the line (and even at times forcing the combined might of Galathion and Valdez back into their own lands early in the war) cementing them as a major force of the Empire: one to be respected even in defeat. That being the case, the Second War of Succession, otherwise known as the Brother’s Quarrel, would go down as the most significant military defeat in Cassian history, with most Cassian lords and nobles agreeing that it was a war they should never have fought, or at least questioning the decision as to which side they chose.
With House Cassian out of the war, this left Luska alone under the leadership of Zoran the Slaver, as he came to be known. The war lasted hardly two more months as he was eventually betrayed by his own war council and executed, with his brother Marko succeeding him as Emperor. The remaining history of the Vyre dynasty can be characterized by a major domestic shift in the governance of their home regions. The civil war took a tremendous toll economically on Luska, to the point where influential nobles with major stakes in the sea trade and mercantile industries grew in their power and prestige in the local courts. This forced Marko to focus moreso on maintaining control in Luska, which meant that his reign was short lived due to the stress this entailed. He died after only reigning 10 years, with his legacy fairly positive in trying to reverse the rigors of slavery and in salvaging the family name. Yet, with House Vyre’s focus required within their home regions, their dynasty faded quietly in a transitional period which heralded the rule of arguably the most fanatical of dynasties the Empire ever knew - the rule of House Valdez, starting with Charles Ferdinand III, who came to be known as Charles Arturas I.
House Valdez & the Grand Inquisition
Charles Ferdinand III, also known as Charles Arturas I, was altogether a benevolent ruler: a man known for many things, chief among them piety above and beyond that of the other noble houses. It was for this reason that Charles is synonymously known as Charles the Pious, as his rule is accredited with the focus given to the Faith of Artis: spreading its influence across the realm. While the masses of Trevast have all held varying degrees of familiarity and knowledge of Artis’ benevolence, Charles Arturas I made it his mission to have his gospel spread abroad throughout the land where even the lowest born peasant could develop a relationship with the divine. Monasteries, Parishes, Temples, all sprung up throughout the realm along with men and women devoting themselves to the will of the Divine and engaging in a mission to cleanse the empire of ignorance and life in darkness. During this time of reawakening, Charles I also spearheaded a host of Crusades, committed to purging the heresy of pagan tribesmen and nations further south of the Empire. Within the 15th year of his reign, Charles’ reign was cut short as he was killed in the Riverlands to the south as he was riding back to his capital. Further investigation led to the verdict that the murderers were pagans who awaited for the King to pass in ambush, yet the untimely death of the Emperor within the Riverlands soured relations between Houses Merov and Valdez. When the new Emperor was Crowned, namely Juan Philip du Valdez I, the firstborn son of Charles, he made it his mission to purge heresy and paganism within the Empire itself, which he blamed for the death of his father - starting with the lands of House Merov.
By the order of the newly crowned Philip Arturas I, an order of fanatical servants to his will with near equal devotion to the faith was formed, known as the Grand Inquisition. A reconquista was declared with the mission of purging the unfaithful and heretical elements throughout the empire, with the majority of Inquisitors within the order being sent to Merov lands, and Philip’s uncle Hector Cortez du Valdez to oversee operations on behalf of the Imperial Family. Hector’s reputation up until that time had always been that of a stern man, capable and willing go to nearly any means to accomplish his ends. Some would even go so far as to say that his dedication bordered on the radical, as several unconfirmed reports shrouded his name concerning public burnings of men, women, even the children of those who were accused of being heretics but could not be found. Eventually, House Merov took proactive steps to reach out to the Imperial Family, as they soon were able to discern that this very literal ‘witch hunt’ was likely spurred by the death of the preceding Emperor in their lands. Soon, a marriage was negotiated between Houses Merov and Valdez, with the firstborn daughter of Arno III named Orlene, a fair skinned young woman of the age of 18. Despite her beauty, and the overt political posturing to try and smooth relations on the part of House Merov, Hector was convinced this was in actuality a ploy for House Merov to once again execute the sitting Emperor with aspirations to place one of their own on the throne.
It was due to this suspicion that Hector led his men from the Inquisition to take Orlene into their custody. Then, in an all too well known crime against the nobility of House Merov, she was tied to a pyre and lit aflame - her screams piercing the night air, and fear gripping the people of the Riverlands. Overnight, the flames of her violent departure from this world also seared away the years of peace the Empire had since enjoyed. House Merov called their banners, with their people in entirety rising up in defense of their lord. The Inquisitors were killed in the streets, and those few who were able to escape did so with the armies of House Merov rallying behind them to the drums of war. Soon thereafter, the armies of house Galathion rallied to similar purpose, with House Cassian remaining neutral (although providing passive support to the Merovs in the form of supplies and allowing passage through their lands). The following years resulted in a brutal conflict in the plains surrounding the capital, with House Valdez fighting admirably as it slowly but inevitably gave ground and was pushed to the walls of the capital itself. The Emperor was faced with a hard decision, to either remain in the Capital or flee for his life back to the lands of House Valdez.
Yet, as the fates would have it, he would never make the decision as agents under the service of House Merov, along with discontented members of his own house had him assassinated in his own council chambers, along with his uncle Hector being burned alive at the stake. Emperor Philip’s family barely escaped the capitol with their own lives as the Valdez forces engaged in a full retreat of the capital, opting to instead cloister themselves within their own lands. The coalition of House Merov and Galathion soon thereafter captured the capital, with the Luskans engaging in harrying campaigns against the Northern segments of the Valdez frontier. Skirmishes erupted along the Valdez borders, which were lined with near impassable mountains and treacherous passes far too dangerous for an army unaccustomed to such terrain to pass through. Eventually, the war ended with House Merov laying claim to the capital, and consequently the throne, and with House Valdez secluding themselves from Imperial politics for the remainder of the Empire’s existence. This transition of power ushered the final dynasty of the Empire - and arguably the most controversial the nation had ever seen.
House Merov & the Collapse of the Empire
Many historians argue over the significance of the Merov dynasty, or more accurately how the dynasty was significant in the Empire’s fading history, rather than simply whether or not it was significant which most historians collectively agree in the affirmative. As compared to the other dynasties, House Merov is altogether unique: The Cassian dynasty was known for its martial prowess and focus on national defense and security, with said culture remaining with them through the ages into the formation of their noble house. The Galathion dynasty has always been known for its contributions to the arts, sciences, and internal economic acumen which translate to them being an economic powerhouse today. The Vyres have become near synonymous through the ages with seafaring and coastal trade, along with the more sinister practice of slavery which stained their otherwise benevolent rule. And none can match the religious devotion of the ignominious Valdez dynasty, which burned white hot yet quickly in the annals of Imperial History. Compared to all of these great families, with their major accomplishments and dark trevails, House Merov is remembered for the complete and utter debauchery which characterized the time of their reign - hearkening back to the matriarch of their noble line: Meron the Wanton.
As earlier mentioned, Meron the Wanton was the second born child - the eldest daughter of Arturas I, and during the First War of Succession, supported Caspian’s claim to the Throne of Artis and in deposing Arturas Thredan I. In the years after the succession, Meron was happy to serve under her brother Caspian as he consolidated his rule over the Empire, with many historians alleging it was due to her focus on hedonism and catering to her base desires. During Caspian I’s reign, and later solidified through Aurelia I’s reign, her and her kin were granted the governance of the Southeastern-most region of Trevast, a dense and swamp-like region of wetlands known today as ‘The Ettinlands’ or simply ‘The land of the Ettins’ as a name for an ethnic group of people which themselves can trace their lineage to the base-born descendants of Meron the Wanton. The name itself is thought to originate far back to a derivative of a native group of people that had previously lived within the region, but were culturally assimilated into Trevastine culture. Nevertheless, Meron and her family ruled The Ettinlands from that period down through the ages until the inevitable collapse of the Empire. Throughout the five centuries of Merov rule in this region, an assortment of lords and ladies ruled these lands under a variety of methods, varying from the cruel and near-inhumane, to the benevolent and just (which were comparatively fewer and further between). And yet, the people of the Ettinlands endured, and under the rule of Arno III during the Grand Inquisition, popular opinion of House Merov increased tremendously throughout the Ettins, and spread throughout the Empire as he became the first Merov Emperor, namely Arturas Arno I. In the wake of Philip I’s reign, Arno was widely considered a popular Emperor amongst the populace, if for no other reason in that he greatly reduced the influence of the Faith of Artis throughout the realm - stripping them of their Inquisitorial Order (Save for in the realm of Valdez, who at this point secluded themselves behind their mountain holds), and reducing the financial support the Crown under Valdez rule had committed to the church. No, instead the Empire had reverted to a form of governance similar in form to that seen under the Vyre dynasty, namely with a focus to overseas trade.
With this shift in focus, however, a noted increase in crime and underworld activity spread throughout the Empire, from the Capital to Zarasai: The Eternal City to Avindril. Several of the major houses were somewhat adept at stemming the tide of criminal activity, namely the fanatical religious state of Valdez, and the harsh and efficient province of Rjillund, yet even their efforts were unable to stamp out the rising black markets spreading abroad. It was for this reason (along with the growing urgency to fill the Crown’s coffers) that Arno III’s successor Gion I legalized the formerly illegal (though unenforced) practice of prostitution. Formerly lucrative brothels were outshined by sanctioned bawdy houses throughout the major holds of the Empire. Unsurprisingly, this left Gion I rather unpopular with the more conservative members of Imperial nobility, yet resoundingly popular amongst the common man throughout Trevast. This resulted in the begrudging support of those conservative lords who would otherwise oppose him, which allowed for Gion I to pursue an ambition held by many of the Merov line - the conquest of a massive island nation known by the natives Tlem peoples of the region as Hrotil, with several warring tribes engulfed in a never ending conflict to gain mastery of the Hrotil and its constituent keys and smaller isles. House Merov had long maintained trading outposts in the region, with the largest of these trading ports growing becoming the first major city of The Trevastine Empire overseas. Gion I named it Amorana, in memory of his wife whom he loved dearly. Amorana served as the launching point for a military offensive directed by the Emperor to claim Hrotil for the Empire of Trevast. This was significant for multiple reasons, namely that the Tlem people had been their own independant civilization since their ancestors thousands of years prior had migrated to the Hrotilian isles from the Boteri Mainland, and had since repelled several attacks from the Ab’naki people throughout its history, the last incursion taking place multiple centuries prior. When the forces of Trevast made landfall in Amorana, this marked the first time since those many centuries that a foreign power had done so. As events would soon show, this war would be very costly, and play an integral part in the events to come. By order of the Emperor, all of the major provinces of Trevast dedicated men and assets from their armies to see the campaign through. House Cassian dispatched a massive land force ferried by naval forces from the Emperor and House Vyre, with House Galathion ferrying their own troops in support in making coastal landings.
The takeover of Hrotil was rapid, in part due to many of the Tlem Kingdoms supporting the initial invasion in the belief that the Trevastines would spare them or at least allow for some autonomy should they lend aid. They were sadly mistaken. All of Hrotil was controlled by Trevast by the end of the decade, and it was incorporated into the Empire as the Province of Rutilia. The annexation of the islands brought a significant amount of wealth into Trevast, creating a steady stream of goods like honey, tea and whale oil, goods that once had to be traded for. Colonists from all over Trevast were eager to settle the islands, hungry for the promises of wealth and new land to farm. With the colonists eager to stake their claim, the sad reality of the original inhabitants of the islands having their lands stripped from them and their rights diminished was of little concern to the people of Trevast.
Gion’s reign gave way to that of Meron II, his daughter and only child. There were concerns from the outset, as Meron was anemic and prone to fainting spells but the Merovs refused to give up their grasp on the Empire and as such her coronation went ahead. Meron was to be the final ruler of a unified Trevast - yet it was not greed or corruption that ended her reign, but the cold, cruel hand of nature: or in the eyes of many others, the will of Artis himself. The mountains in the southern regions of Trevast had always been volcanic, but none had erupted since Arturas’ coronation. Tales had been told in the centuries past of seas of fire and ash consuming those who had offended the Gods of old prior to the onset of the Artisian faith. Some attributed such a phenomena, or the lack thereof, of the Empire securing the approval of Artis - reasoning that the Empire would forever endure. That changed when Mt. Gehenne exploded in a cacophony of fire and smoke, with a sort of ocean surging forth from the flaming shoreline that was Gehenne’s mouth. Within moments, the Imperial City was choked with poisonous gas and caustic ash, and as the top of the city’s last hour neared, liquid fire turned the golden statues and monuments into nothing. Of the city’s almost one million inhabitants, only a scant few dozen survived. The surrounding towns were similarly devastated, their farms burnt to cinders and their inhabitants smothered. The crown jewel of Arturas’ empire was annihilated in a matter of minutes as though it had angered Artis himself - righteous fury for the decadence the formerly illustrious Empire had fallen into.
Chaos consumed Trevast. So great was the Deluge of Ash that it rose into the sky and blotted out the sun. There was no summer that year, with harsh cool winds and ash storms engulfing the formerly lush and serene lands surrounding the Capital. The ashes formed from the sheer magnitude of the eruption blocked the sun across the southern reaches of the Empire, with some legends recounting its spread across the whole of Trevast, creating a year without a summer. Crops failed, exacerbating already tenuous relations across between the powers that were. The Galathions declared war upon the Merovs, moving to seize their territories in the wake of the Catastrophe suffered. The Merovs responded by fleeing to the newly incorporated province of Rutilia, where the effects of the eruption were far less dire. This did nothing to help the problem of the Empire as the subjects saw their monarch abandon them for the safety of distant shores. In the wake of this mass exodus - the Cassians moved against House Galathion in a war that would spark a rivalry that endures to this day - forever spoiling any notion of peace and unification between the two houses: The Valdez would descend ever inward in their efforts to contain what many within their lands thought to be a judgement from Artis, with mass prayers and supplications ordered state wide, and the Inquisition actively ensuring the piety of those they policed. House Vyre would look to the seas for their fortunes, with their only land-based neighbor content to keep to themselves. To many outside cultures to the west, they would be seen as the face of an Empire that once was, but would never be again. And as for House Merov, the Ettinlands would forevermore be denied them after their ignominious exit as the final Emperors of Trevast. Instead, they would plant new roots in their former colony of Rutilia, which would eventually come to be known as the Kingdom of Routaille for many centuries thereafter.
And so the second age came to an end, with the centuries it spanned forever being remembered as the Age of The Fallen Empire. The millennia that followed would be divided into the third and fourth ages of history, with the major events of note filled with the histories of political intrigue and petty wars between the remnants a vision that once was. And although that vision seems faded and forever consigned to dreams and idle fancies of what once was, there has ever since been the unexplored question of if ever the Empire could be reforged from the ashes of oblivion. Still even more ponderous of a question - who would rule it? Would it be the rigid, stately nobles of House Cassian who already pride themselves as the ‘blood of the old Empire’? Or could such a task be accomplished by a patron who could educate us all in the failings of our past errors such as the Galathions? Would our fate be better entrusted in the hands of those who truly descended from the firstborn of Arturas in house Vyre? Or perhaps reconciliation with Artis himself through the guidance of House Valdez? Or shall we dare indulge what an empire would look like in the hands of the same family that destroyed it?
Such questions are often explored on the tongues and upon the ears of old men with little else to do, but they are questions that one cannot ignore despite the manner in which events have carried on since time immemorial - as the fool who refuses to learn about the past, is oft prone to repeating the same mistakes made by those who preceded him.