Galadron
All kings, all crowns, all warriors and warlords in the North bend the knee to Galadron, Kingdom of Heroes. For almost four hundred years, the heirs of mighty King Magnen have held the throne by right of conquest. Their lands stretch out from the shores of the Seolach, a great lake at the heart of the north, and reach to the mountains of the hobgoblins in the north, the beaches of the Endless Ocean in the west, the Elven forests of Fomhar in the south and the Bulwark Mountains in the east.
Throughout these lands, knights and warriors rule their own castles in Magnen's name. Proud nobles challenge each other to jousts and duels, humble peasants work the land, and dangers internal and external test the will of all.
Structure
Feudal Monarchy
Public Agenda
Conquest! Galadron believes in strength and pride, and most folk in Galadron fear the power of the elves and other supernatural creatures. They want to tame whatever land lies within their bounds and prove their might as warriors.
History
Demon's Fall
Long ago, the Northern Kingdoms were ruled by the Infernals and their mortal servants. Empires of blood and vile magic schemed against each other. Mighty roads bore captives across the land, to die on the altars of Uzhul , Anachronous, Tillibec and other terrible gods. But there came a day when the sound of a mighty bell, as tall as the sky and as deep as the ocean, tolled across the Four Kingdoms. Ramius , son of Erecura , wrote his name upon the Emerald Tablets and became the Overlord of the Dead. By his writ and will, the Fiends were dragged into the Underworld. With their masters banished, the warlock kings of the North were powerless, and the people under their rule tore them from their thrones. Chaos consumed the Demonic Imperiums and left tribes and villages scattered in the ruins and woods. Many a king and chieftain waged war against his neighbor, to take their cattle, to gain their loyalty, to seize their brooches of gold and blades of bronze. Men and women fought and worshiped gods of the wood and waters. Fairies wrought mischief among the people, even as their courts danced and dueled each other. No king or crown held sovereign over the great forests, nor stood against the mysterious Huldra in their forbidden Vale or Autumn Woods.Dotain's Reign
With the Humans free but weakened, the Giants returned to the Mortal World. King Dotain of the Giants gathered all children of Vindur to his hall at the heart of a great rock, said to have fallen from heaven and disrupted the magic of the world. The giants spread outwards, plundering human villages and bringing them to heel. Dotain had come to rule over the small folk, and it seemed nobody could stop him.The Rise of Magnen
To the south of Dotain's Rock, near the forbidden woods of the Huldra, there dwelt Chief Magnen. Cunning, strong, and ambitious, he led his people against their rivals and against the conquering giants. One day, four strangers came to his village seeking refuge and food. Though Magnen's magicians told him to shut the gates and drive them away, Magnen made them his guests and broke bread at his table. For four days and four nights the strangers from the south stayed with Magnen, sharing tales of their journey. They were wise sages fleeing the fall of Ioth, the empire of the Alfar, who understood the mysteries of Dawn magic. The sages brought with them secrets and wisdom from the Sun Swept lands, and for Magnen's great generosity and hospitality, they offered to share their knowledge. For four weeks Magnen studied at the feet of the sages, and then drove away his magicians and named the strangers his new advisers. For four moons he traveled the lands around his village, speaking with other chieftains and clans and gathering them to his banner. For four seasons they trained in the arts of war, and then under four banners they marched against the giants of Dotain's Rock.Dotain's Fall
Magnen planted his banners across the valley, and across the legions of ogres and trolls, of hill giants and ettins, he saw Dotain's Rock. He blew his horn and went with four loyal retainers to meet the Giant King. The two kings spoke at the feet of the rock, the giant towering over the man. There did Magnen first speak of his great ambition--that all the lands of the North cleave to his will, that mortals claim dominion over stone, stream and branch, that giant-kind yield before him or return to the Sky Kingdom. Dotain refused, for his soldiers were tall, his armies great, and his purpose granted by Vindur himself. They parted, and Magnen promised to return in four days, to force his claim. Dotain was cunning and knew Magnen could not be trusted, so he chained up his most ferocious trolls for three days, feeding them only the blood of cattle, then drove them into Magnen's camp at night. They ripped arms from their sockets, bit through bones, and gorged themselves on mortal flesh. The survivors fled into the hills screaming in terror, but Magnen was not found among them. For Magnen had never left the rock--while Dotain plotted his death, Magnen hid in the stone halls, learning their secrets and plundering their treasures. On the fourth day, he stole Dotain's enchanted crown of precious stones and nailed it over a chasm. Dotain went mad without the magic of the crown and climbed the perilous chasm to reach it. There, pinned against the rock, he met Magnen's blade, and the Giant King fell to his death. As the giants of the rock bellowed in rage, Magnen's horn sounded from the heights of the rock, and the banners of his warriors rose over the eastern hills with the sun at their backs. He collapsed the tunnels of the rock as he fled, trapping Dotain's mightiest warriors and most powerful giants, and without them Dotain's armies were slain and broken. So Magnen conquered the Giant King, and the legend of his name spread across the North. They did not tarry in the Rock, for the unearthly magics of the place rejected Humans, and the spirits of the dead giants drove them out.The War of Stone
Guided by the four sages, Magnen brought his army to a halt on the western edges of the rock, and sent loyal followers into the surrounding lands. Fearful villages and clans once conquered by the giants hailed his name and joined his warband, but they brought word of another mighty ruler to the north--Ramnulph, King of Vercing. Ramnulph's lands stretched from the shores of a sweetwater sea to the outlying villages near Dotain's Rock, and he would brook no challenge to his rule. Magnen paid singers and storytellers to flood Ramnulph's lands with tales of his victory over Dotain and the Giants. He made new banners from the massive spears of his fallen foes, armed himself with treasures from their vaults, and commissioned a war mask from his greatest smiths. The greatest weapon of his conquest was not the sword, but the lyre and the harp. No lord or chieftain wished to raise arms against the Hero of the Rock, and as Magnen's army marched across Vercinget it swelled with awestruck followers and practical warriors who saw which way the winds blew. By cunning, by legend, and by force of arms, Magnen fought his way to the very walls of Vercinget. Four times Magnen's trumpets sounded from across the plains, and on the fourth call a storm rolled in from the Seolach sea. Magnen called himself king and challenged Ramnulph to single combat, but the king of Vercinget refused. He answered with a hail of arrows and spears, cursed Magnen's name, and swore to die before bending the knee. Ramnulph's banners answered his call, and Magnen's army faced threats from all sides and eventually retreated. The War of Stone lasted several years, as the two rival kings struck at each other again and again. Ramnulph could not stem the tide of Magnen's supporters, yet Magnen could not break the stone walls of Vercinget.The Sages' Dream
When winter came, and no war could be waged, the two armies dug in and rationed their meager supplies. It is said that Magnen went to his sages and demanded a vision of the future, for he would not rest until the lands of Ramnulph were his. At dawn, the first sage followed the wind. He warned Magnen that Ramnulph's will was as great as his own. At noon, the second sage walked through the coals of a fire. He warned Magnen that no gods would come to his aid. At dusk, the third sage buried himself in the ground. He emerged and warned Magnen that Ramnulph held no fear of death. At midnight, the fourth sage bathed in a frozen spring. He warned Magnen that the blood of Ramnulph's people would stain him forever. So Magnen went into the plains alone, and stood in the freezing winter winds. He stood watch for four days and for four nights, until at last his strength failed, and he collapsed. And in his dream, a fifth sage appeared, a sage of shadows with a scepter of black ice. In the paths of Dreaming he led Magnen to the heart of Ramnulph's halls, to the hearth of his home, where Ramnulph's people gathered to share what little food remained, and above the hearth their hung the head of a great boar, killed long ago. Magnen awoke in his own camp, surrounded by his warriors and friends, and when his strength returned he led them into the forest, and they found there a great boar, and slew it, made spears of its tusks and made a great vat of stew of its meat. They waited until the snow ceased falling for a few hours, then marched through ice and wind to the walls of Vercinget.The Stone Boar
As the smell of the stew wafted across Ramnulph's walls, his hungry people gathered. Magnen offered to give them a feast in exchange for a throne, for they could not eat a throne. Some say the feast bore with it a magic fervor, a terrible curse, or a warrior's blessing, for the people of Vercinget threw open the gates, seized Ramnulph and his family, and gave up the city to Magnen and his army. Ramnulph died spitting curses in Magnen's face, and the Kingdom of Stone had fallen. Winter was not over, and Magnen's armies were still hungry. The coming months were filled with suffering for both the people of Vercinget and Magnen's followers. When the ice of winter thawed and the winds of spring came at last, they bore with them the smell of frozen blood and corpses, warming in the newfound heat.Galadron
Magnen refused to stop in Vercinget, and when the ice melted he built mighty longships to bear his army across the Seolach. Guided by the wisdom of the sages, they crossed the enchanted waters, and found a safe harbor on the far western shore. Beyond the great lake lay a dark forest and a chain of foreboding mountains. Magnen knew his strength would not last forever, but he intended to build a kingdom that would. There, in that first harbor, he built his fortress: Galadron, whose name is "Unyielding Purpose."Legacy of Iron
Though he waged war for years to come, Magnen did not live to see the Endless Ocean to the distant west, nor the spires of the goblin cities of the North. He expanded his territory around the Seolach and positioned his heirs to continue relentless conquest, granting land to his loyal subjects, writing laws with the aid of the sages, and establishing the new kingdom to last for years to come. Magnen died in battle against the Hobgoblin warlords of the distant north and his eldest took up the throne immediately, continuing a campaign that ended only with the death of his last heir, three hundred and eighty seven years later.The Fall of the Line of Magnen
As time wore on, even as Galadron's borders expanded, the fate of its rulers grew darker. Some whisper that a curse fell on the family, starting with King Magnen the Fierce himself. Whether it was King Ramnulph's dying curse, the mystery of the Fifth Sage, the machinations of the Fomhar Elves, or the wrath of Vindur for slaying his giants, misery and mishaps grew worse and worse with each passing generation. In the last days of the House of Magnen, treachery, illness, and debauchery consumed the family line. In the end only a single heir remained--Wigmund the Third, a sickly infant. The child perished at the age of four, leaving only distant cousins and relations by marriage. It seemed that the Kingdom was waiting for a chance to erupt into war, and before Wigmund even perished the land of Vercinget was in rebellion. Now, would-be kings and queens, warchiefs and sorcerers all vie for power in the chaos of the Northern Kingdoms. Galadron's time may be at an end.Disbandment
The last king of the Line of Magnen fell, and with his death the rebellious lands of Vercinget and Lyteri broke from the kingdom in open rebellion.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
6950 - 7337
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Demonym
Galadronian
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Mixed economy
Location
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