The Autumn Wars

Military action

Niamh of the Golden Hair abducts Ri Gheimhridh, setting off a series of kin wars between the autumn lands of Fomhar and the other three queens.

Early in the reign of Ri Gheimhridh, the faery queen Niamh of the Golden Hair took interest in the powers of the Huldra. She waged a war against the Unseelie Queen, Fúamnach Corcrai. All of Faery was in uproar over their hatred. Niamh saw the new power of Caonach as a tool for her rival’s undoing, and so the faery courts snuck amongst the Huldra, weaving plots.   Niamh’s conspiracies led to war between the Autumn Queen and her sister queens, a Wild Hunt that tore across the Vale, a great many half-fairy children being born in a short time, and the temporary vanishing of Ri Gheimhridh himself, spirited away to the Otherworld. The Winter King was entrapped in Niamh’s seelie court while Fúamnach whispered to the Winter, Spring and Summer Queens.   This internal struggle was the first time Huldra spilled the blood of Huldra in great numbers, and laments for the kinslaying still echo in song and poetry under the leaves of Angren and among the Emerald Pools. In the end, the warrior Gisirgis Tel’Maerlyth discovered the treachery. He journeyed alone through the Faery Wilds, entreating both Seelie and Unseelie queens to resolve the conflict themselves. Through bravery, persuasion, and more than a little trickery, he stole away Ri Gheimhridh and rescued the Autumn Queen on the fields of battle.   Gisirgis swore his own oath to all the fallen Huldra of the Vale, and when the Autumn Wars came to a close, the Four Queens blessed him. His oath was taken up by the bravest Huldra warriors, who flocked to Tel’Maerlyth to train under Gisirgis. From that day forward, the Paladins of Gisirgis were the protectors of the Queens, sworn to keep them safe from the guiles of Faery or the plots of Huldra’s Foes.