The Unification of the Kingdom of Galifar

Era beginning/end

Galifar, now proclaimed to be King Galifar I, and his five scions—Prince Cyre, Prince Karrn, Prince Thrane, Princess Aundair, and Prince Brey— officially took control of the unified Five Nations in the name of their father in the first year of theGalifar Calendar. Fourteen years after the war of unification began (the war did not officially conclude until 4 YK because some pockets of resistance took longer to overcome), the Five Nationslaid down their arms and surrendered to Galifar ir’Wynarn. True to his word, Galifar did not come as a conqueror from Karrnath—he proclaimed himself the king of a new kingdom composed of five equal parts.

Galifar, now proclaimed to be King Galifar I, and his five scions—Prince Cyre, Prince Karrn, Prince Thrane, Princess Aundair, and Prince Brey— officially took control of the unified Five Nations in the name of their father in the first year of theGalifar Calendar. Fourteen years after the war of unification began (the war did not officially conclude until 4 YK because some pockets of resistance took longer to overcome), the Five Nationslaid down their arms and surrendered to Galifar ir’Wynarn. True to his word, Galifar did not come as a conqueror from Karrnath—he proclaimed himself the king of a new kingdom composed of five equal parts. (Originally, it was simply “the Kingdom” or “Galifar’s Kingdom.” The new state did not officially adopt the name the “Kingdom of Galifar” until the second decade of the new king’s rule.)To ensure loyalty and to push his postwar economic development programs, Galifar I appointed each of his five children to manage the affairs of the Five Nations. As governor-princes, they would administer their portions of the realm in his name, as well as serve on a ruling council that would advise and support the new king. It helped that, in the end, the common folk respected and grew to love Galifar I and his scions, seeing them as just, fair, and ultimately visionary rulers. Galifar I established that the oldest living scion would ascend to the throne upon the current monarch’s death or abdication, whichever came first. Thus, the traditions and patterns surrounding the succession of power were set in place, helping to keep the kingdom stable until King Jarot’s scions unexpectedly broke the pattern in 894 YK, setting off the cataclysm that was the Last War.   For all of Galifar I’s visionary idealism, the Kingdom of Galifar remained a feudal monarchy, as were most of the nations that re-formed after the Last War shattered that legendary kingdom. In addition to the feudal nobility and the rural peasant farmers, a middle class of laborers and craftsmen developed in the larger towns and cities. The mercantile barons that controlled the dragonmarked houses aligned themselves with no constituent nation of Galifar, which allowed them to operate independently and in all the kingdom’s regions equally, though most could not help but associate more strongly with one nation where they had first come into existence—for instance, House Deneith was strongly associated with Karrnath, Lyrandar with Aundair, Cannith with Cyre, Sivis with Zilargo, Medani with Breland, Tharaskh with the Shadow Marches, etc.   The dragonmarked houses constituted an economic aristocracy of commerce and industry inGalifar and across Khorvaire. The blood members of each family had wealth and social status that put them firmly in the middle to upper classes of Khorvarien society. The house nobles and their immediate relatives shared the highest status in the land, equivalent to the royal houses and the highest-ranking clergy. Dragonmarked house scions further removed from the main bloodline shared and took advantage of this status as the house nobles allowed, but on their own, they ranked in the middle class.   Farmers dominated the countryside of most of the Five Nations of Galifar, raising crops and providing food for all the people of central Khorvaire. In some nations like Karrnath, the farmers were serfs indentured to the lords that controlled their lands. In others like Breland, the farmers were free peasants who owned or leased their land from the local nobility and paid taxes for protection and other services they required of the ruling class. Farmers toiled through the daylight hours and rested when darkness covered the land. They usually lived within a mile or so of a trading village, which was guarded in turn by a local lord and his keep or castle. When legal disputes arose, it was the manor lord (or his appointed officer or bailiff) who settled disagreements and issued binding rulings. Some farmers used minor arcane magic to help them with their chores. This magic might be provided by their lord or purchased from a dragonmarked house. The average farmer did not wander far from his or her home, but every family has a member that went off to fight as a mercenary or seek employment in a city or town, and everyone knew someone whose brother or sister decided to become an adventurer and leave home in search of fame or fortune.   Some Galifaran townsfolk and city-dwellers engaged in a craft or trade of some kind, though for every professional there were three or more common laborers working in the city. Merchants and shop owners, smiths, leatherworkers, and artisans of all descriptions lived and worked in the cities of Galifar. Many used some minor magic to ply their craft; magewrights cast magecraft to produce minor magic items; others less gifted in the arcane arts hired magewrights to assist them when the funds were available. People lived in close proximity in the cities, shopping in the markets, working, and relaxing as the rare opportunity presented itself. City-dwellers had a bit more access to the conveniences of arcane magic than their rural counterparts did. The dragonmarked houses maintained pavilions and emporiums in many good-sized towns and cities, where their services could be purchased on a regular basis, and also controlled most of the non-agricultural economic activities that occurred in a town or city through their royal monopoly over the guilds. Magewrights were more abundant in the towns and cities, and even the least well-to-do city had everbright lanterns to light at least the major thoroughfares and exchanges. In a city, law and order prevailed—or at least it tried to.   A city watch usually patrolled the streets of most urban areas, while a local Galifaran Army garrison protected the trade roads and caravan routes passing nearby from bandits, goblins, and other“monster” attacks. Royal courts and justices of the peace held sway over matters of law, deciding disputes and determining guilt or innocence through something akin to due process through the Code of Galifar, the uniform code of laws and punishments for infractions and crimes created by King Galifar I soon after the establishment of his kingdom and upheld by each of his successors as fairly and as impartially as possible, though the Code did discriminate between people based on their legal status as a commoner, noble or member of the clergy. The Code’s most blatant transgressions were policed by the Sentinel Marshals, an elite law enforcement order administered by House Deneith and established at the request of Galifar I. Only the most trusted dragonmarked heirs of that house were honored with a position in the Sentinel Marshals, either after serving in both the house’s Blademarksand Defenders Guilds or by special dispensation of the house. The Sentinel Marshals were elite agents sworn to the service of the Galifaran Crown and the Code of Galifar who were authorized by the ruling monarch to enforce the law across Khorvaire according to the needs of the regional authorities. The Sentinel Marshals had the right to ignore all borders and all other forms of authority save for that of the Crown in the pursuit of fugitives. They were never authorized to break the law themselves but were held accountable only to the Galifaran throne. Wherever brigands evaded local law enforcement, smugglers moved contraband across borders or criminal guilds attempted to expand their reach, the Sentinel Marshals could be called in by local authorities to deal out the Galifaran Crown’s justice.   The Sentinel Marshals imprisoned the worst and most dangerous criminal offenders in the prison of Dreadhold. Dreadhold was a prison island which floated off the northern tip of Cape Far in the Lhazaar Principalities. Established first by Karrn the Conqueror as a place for exiling deposed rulers or courtiers fallen from favor following the creation of his empire, it was converted by the early kings of Galifar into a nigh-inescapable prison set in the middle of a planar manifest zone linked to the wild lands of Lammania. The prisoners were usually powerful individuals who had to be magically restrained—in some cases even turned to stone—to prevent them from breaking out. The prison was managed, after the second century YK, by the dwarves of House Kundarak, who bore the Mark of Warding. It is also said that the dwarves used the prisoners to mine Khyber dragonshards from deep chasms beneath the island. Following the break-up of Galifar during the Last War, the new rulers of the Five Nations agreed in the Treaty of Thronehold to continue to send their worst prisoners to Dreadhold for the dwarves to guard, as long as they continued to pay Kundarak and to continue to use the Sentinel Marshals to track down and apprehend the worst criminals who fled across national boundaries.     From the rural communities that dotted the Galifaran countryside to the villages, towns, and cities that rose across the Five Nations wherever need and circumstance came together, the people of Khorvaire fell into three economic categories: poor, middle class, and wealthy. There were ranges and degrees of wealth in each category. Six out of ten people in the Five Nations were common peasant farmers, unskilled laborers, and tradesfolk who were in the poor economic class, having no more than 40 or 50 silver pieces on hand at any given time, and most having considerably less.   Three out of ten people were in the middle class, including skilled laborers, prosperous traders and shop owners, skilled artisans, most nobility, low-level adventurers, and some members of the dragonmarked families who normally had a few hundred gold pieces or more on hand.   One out of ten people fell into the wealthy category, those with access to a few thousand gold pieces at any given time. This class included merchant lords, barons of commerce, the patriarchs and matriarchs of the dragonmarked families, the most popular and successful urban artisans, mid- to high-level adventurers, and the ruling feudal nobility and royalty.   Throughout the Five Nations (or at least what was left of them after the Last War ended), formal schooling in basic literacy and arithmetic was considered a right and a necessary part of every child’s training, a tradition begun under Galifar I. Even rural manors maintained elementary schools for the sons and daughters of the peasants and laborers at the expense of the local lords. Private tutors provided an education for the children of the royals, landed aristocrats, and the economic nobility of the dragonmarked houses. In towns and cities, schools catered to all who wished to attend. In no case was education mandatory; however, most people understood the advantages offered to them by the remnants of the Galifaran education system.   Higher education and study was available at a number of colleges and universities, as well as among the religious institutions—particularly the Church of the Silver Flame, for the Purified considered it a religious duty for every individual to be able to read the Church’s scriptures. For those who did not want to become scholars, apprenticeships and on-the-job vocational training replace higher education. The exception to this system involved magewrights and wizards, who often attended one of the magical academies—the floating citadels of Arcanix in Aundair or the Twelve in Korth—for at least some of their training.   Without the inroads of the “technology” of arcane magic that saturates Eberron, the shape of society in Khorvaire and elsewhere would be far simpler. But though Khorvaire’s civilization has much in common with our own world’s late medieval period, make no mistake—the Five Nations of Khorvaire are not representative of a typical medieval or preindustrial society. Whether king or common, the people of Khorvaire almost universally rely on arcane magic to protect their health and conduct their day-to-day lives (sometimes without even being aware of it). Even so, Eberron is by no means a modern society, and though arcane magic grants many of the same benefits as the early industrialization of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries did on our own world, it generally does so in very different ways. Of course, Khorvaire’s “pseudo-medieval” culture already shares many of the cultural and economic elements of a later Renaissance or even eighteenth-century human society as it developed on Earth. This is an important point because it underscores the fact that the benefits granted by the wide-scale manipulation of magic are not provided by arcane factories of mass production. Instead, Eberron’s magical wonders remain the purview of individual practitioners, artisans, and expert crafters. While skycoaches may fly among the soaring towers of Sharn, it is important to remember that each skycoach is the product of individual effort by skilled designers, craftsmen, and spellcasters. Though House Cannith’s blacksmiths might chant spells to improve the way they work, their individual forges continue to spit out items just one at a time. While airship travel allows fast, safe, and expensive transport across large distances, each airship is a one-of-a-kind product produced for House Lyrandar by Zilargo workshops that are themselves unique foundries of often-competitive talent. While the streets of many Khorvarien cities are illuminated with everbright lanterns, their magic is individually cast and maintained by ranks of professional spell chandlers. No central reservoir of arcane magical energy powers these and other wonders through some magical analogue of an Industrial Age “ power grid.” Professional spellcasters called magewrights differ from adventuring spellcasters in that they earn a daily living by casting spells for payment. A true wizard is a master of this art, able to grasp the metamagical principles behind any spell he can find or create. But this level of arcane talent is a rare gift. Still, most commonfolk can learn to cast one or two minor spells, if they work hard enough.   While they lack the diversity or raw power of the wizard, warlock or sorcerer, these lesser spellcasters bring simple magic to the marketplace and into the world. These are the magewrights. Just like the term artisan, “magewright” is a generic term encompassing dozens of professions.“Magewright” describes a character’s magical skill but it tells you nothing about the actual trade he practices. A commoner seeking to learn magic would not go to “magewright school.” Instead, he would become an apprentice wordsmith or seek out a traveling tinker who might share the secrets of his trade. Without the daily spell maintenance of magewrights and others, Eberron would seem a very different place. While the possession of dragonmarks nearly guarantees a professional spellcaster's economic viability in one of the houses that dominate the trade and industry of Khorvaire, unmarked spellcasters can still earn a living by working for the various guilds (though dragonmarked houses own the controlling interests in these enterprises). The vast majority of magewrights only have a single level in the class. These are primarily commoners or tradesmen who trained as a magewright in order to learn a single useful spell. The most common choice is magecraft, a ritual that guides an artisan's hands and infuses his work with a touch of magic. An innkeeper might take a single level of magewright to gain access to spells that allow him to magically clean his establishment or create aninvisible magical server, while a translator could take one level in the class to learn how to magically speak, write and read other languages. These dabblers are not defined by their arcane knowledge; instead, they know a single trick that enhances their mundane skills. Because of professional spellcasters, most people in Khorvaire enjoy a standard of living above that which they could otherwise normally attain in a pre-industrial society. Most people have enough liquid money to purchase transport on a short-range skycoach, and all citizens benefit from the everbright lanterns set along the major thoroughfares of large Khorvarien cities. Of course, plenty of magical services which only the wealthy and motivated can afford also exist.   As the heroes of the world, adventurers often break most of the rules concerning life in Khorvaire—and when a rule does not exist to cover what they do, they invent one. Adventurers move easily among all walks of life. They can champion the common folk, protect the middle class, or engage in missions for the wealthy. Adventurers form into groups, knowing that whatever one can do, four or five can do better. No single adventurer possesses all of the skills and abilities necessary to succeed; the team provides the capabilities and companionship required to get the job done.   Groups come together through chance meetings, fortuitous circumstances, open calls, and guild connections. They stay together if they work well as a team and learn to trust each other. While many adventuring parties operate as freelancers who take up each quest as it comes their way, some acquire patrons who pay their expenses and provide the missions that drive them. Now, an adventuring party can hire itself out for a mission or two. A patron, however, often defines the party’s motivation and reason for sticking together. A patron can be a wealthy noble or merchant lord, an organization, dragonmarked house, or a government. Patrons command allegiance based on gold, an exchange of services, or a common goal. A dragonmarked house, a church, a university, the BrelishCrown, and the Korranberg Chronicle are all examples of adventuring party patrons. Whatever the case, the common folk love to read about or hear stories and ballads concerning champions of good and agents of evil. The Korranberg Chronicle, in particular, presents stories that follow adventurers from the towers of Sharn to the mysterious jungles of Xen’drik and back again on a regular basis.   Many towns and cities of Khorvaire had long traditions of town criers, news bearers who presented important or interesting information in town squares, nobles’ courts, or other public gathering places. It was not long before the magical arts allowed for a more permanent method of presentation, and the broadsheet chronicles were born in the early centuries of the long peace brought by the establishment of the Kingdom of Galifar. The simplest chronicles first appeared as scrolls nailed to public message boards containing the pertinent news of the week. More ambitious chronicles, including the Breland Ledger, the Sharn Inquisitive, and the Aundairian Scroll, are presented as folded broadsheets nested together to form simple, unbound books. Each edition is collected and stored, eventually being bound as a chronicle of news and information.   By far, the most well-known and widely-read chronicle across Khorvaire is the KorranbergChronicle. Thanks to its relentless and mostly unbiased coverage of the Last War, and through a distribution deal with House Orien, the Korranberg Chronicle enjoyed a loyal and avid readership throughout central Khorvaire. A typical edition of the Korranberg Chronicle featured news from around the Five Nations, Zilargo, and the Mror Holds, as well as stories of adventurers and exciting expeditions, business solicitations, royal proclamations, and almanac information. While the main offices were located in the gnomes’ city of Korranberg in Zilargo, the Chronicle employed chroniclers of every race far and wide and maintained field offices in every one of the major nations that once comprised Galifar. House Orien distributed each edition (the Chronicle appeared three days a week; Mol, Wir, and Far) along its regular mail caravan and lightning rail runs across Khorvaire, allowing the Chronicle to reach a huge audience. Indeed, almost everyone in the Five Nations today knows the Chronicle slogan: “If it happens in the Five Nations, you’ll read about it in the KorranbergChronicle.”   Due to the widespread influence of the dragonmarked houses across Khorvaire, Common, a spoken and written tongue descended from the Sarlonan language and alphabet called Old Common and used by the first humans to reach Khorvaire with Lhazhaar, developed into the universal language of the Five Nations and then of the Kingdom of Galifar. Commerce and diplomacy used Common to communicate on a level playing field. It is prevalent and as universal as any language could be across the continent. Common was the primary language of the Five Nations. It was a necessary second language in the Mror Holds and Zilargo and was used extensively even among the halflings of the Talenta Plains. Other prominent languages in use on the continent included Draconic, Dwarven, Abyssal, Elven, Goblin, and Orcish.   The capital of the Kingdom of Galifar, Thronehold, was established by King Galifar I soon after he completed his unification of the new state. Thronehold rested in the middle of Scions Sound at the very heart of central Khorvaire. Though Galifar I had united the Five Nations and forged a new kingdom, he realized early on that the new monarchy could not rule from one of the existing realms. To do so would be to put one of the Five Nations above the other, and that would lead to political breaks and fractures that would eventually destroy the kingdom. From the moment young Galifar stood on the banks of Scions Sound and looked upon the mysterious island that rested just out of reach of the Five Nations, he knew that the island would play an important role in the realization of his dream of unification. On this island, he would build his capital—the fortress of Thronehold. Prior to the birth of Galifar, the island was considered to be haunted, a place of the old ways of Khorvaire before humanity arrived on its shores. That reputation, and its central location between the borders of the Five Nations, made it the perfect place for Galifar I’s purposes. The great castle of Thronehold became a shining symbol of the new kingdom, and the island around it developed into a wondrous showcase for the realm. It remained so until the Last War when it became a reminder of all the glory that was lost.   After King Jarot’s death and the rejection of the line of the ir’Wynarn succession that led to the Last War, the island and castle of Thronehold were largely abandoned. A special detachment of House Deneith guards, the Throne Wardens, remained in place to protect and maintain the castle, but all government functions ceased with the collapse of the united kingdom. The town of Throneport, a support community in the shadow of the castle, mutated as the Last War progressed. It became a place for dissidents, spies, criminals, and mercenaries, and the once opulent and safe port turned into a rough-and-tumble town without law or allegiance to any single nation. This neutrality has served Throneport well; by 975 YK it had grown into a small city in which all of the nations and dragonmarked houses had at least a small presence, turning it into a hotbed of international intrigue. The Treaty of Thronehold further solidified this position, establishing the city of Throneport as a multinational province under the control of small peacekeeping forces from Aundair, Breland, Karrnath, and Thrane, with House Deneith’s Throne Wardens in place to make sure the terms of the treaty were honored. Today, the small city is neutral ground, but the castle of Thronehold and its grounds remain off-limits and under the watchful protection of the Throne Wardens.   Ultimately, Galifar ir’Wynarn succeeded in establishing the united kingdom of Khorvarien peoples—humans, elves, eladrin, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, shifters, half-orcs, kalashtar, and changelings —that he had long dreamed about during his childhood. Unlike his ancestor Karrn the Conqueror, Galifar built the kingdom that bore his name, not through conquest but ultimately by persuading the peoples of the Five Nations that their societies could be greater than the simple sum of their parts.