The Great Kingdom Crumbles

The Great Kingdom survived some 250 years before it began to lose lands in the west. The Viceroyalty of Furyondy was established in 100 CY, and over the coming decades it bore the brunt of challenges from non-Aerdi Oeridians allied with Bakluni horsemen who raided from the north and west. Resentment grew in the lands far from Rauxes, and a perception that the Overking did not do enough to protect the western lands also grew. Finally, in 254 CY, Thrommel I of Furyondy was crowned in Dyvers, taking a whole range of secondary titles which loudly announced his people’s goals; Prince of Veluna, Marshall of the Shield Lands, Warden General of the Vesve Forest, and more. Furyondy and Veluna both became independent states, Perrenland reasserted its independence, and to the north, the rulers of the Duchy of Tenh took their cue from events to the west and asserted independence also. The Overking could not reestab- lish control over his distant former dominions. The break-up of the Great Kingdom, which would take over three centuries to complete and would end in madness and terror, had begun.

The decisive phase in the break-up of this mighty empire can be dated precisely to 356 CY. In this year, the ruling Aerdi dynasty, the House of Rax, was sundered by an internal feud. The junior branch of the ruling house declared its lands free of the Overking’s rule, and the kingdom of Nyrond was born.

The Overking reacted swiftly, amassing a great army to crush the seceders. But he had the misfortune of encountering a powerful Flan barbarian foray into the North Province of the Great Kingdom itself that same winter. The Overking’s armies beat off the invasion, but were too weakened to assault Nyrond. Feints, skirmishes, and small battles were plenty, but Nyrond could not be brought back into the Overking’s domain.

The Theocracy of the Pale seceded at the same time, and the Urnst states likewise; Nyrond held both at one time, but accepted their independence at the Council of Re1 Mord in return for pledges of mutual cooperation.

To the west, the oldest of all the major kingdoms established in the Flanaess, Keoland, grew more powerful and predatory in the mid-fourth century. Expanding its influence to the north, it ultimately became involved in the so-called “Small War” (or Short War) with Furyondy and Veluna. Military reverses and the objections of the small but powerful demihuman enclaves in Ulek and Celene soon put an end to that expansionism.

The troubles of the times tended to be those of skirmishing; the Bandit Kingdoms had formed as a group of petty fiefdoms in the vacuum left between Furyondy to the west and Tenh and the Theocracy to the east, and in response, good nobles to the south began to coalesce their forces in the Shield Lands.

Elsewhere, the Free City of Greyhawk, already in existence for centuries as a trading town, entered its arguably most glorious (and certainly most infamous) phase of development under the mad Archmage Zagig Yragerne, who began the building of Castle Greyhawk in 375 CY. It seemed a strange folly at the time. Yet two centuries later, the changes in the city of Greyhawk and those back within the Great Kingdom would be pivotal in the future history of all the Flanaess.

Paradoxically, the disintegration of the Great Kingdom paused a while, despite a wretched change at its very crown. The House of Rax became decadent, self-absorbed, weak, and ineffectual. Petty nobles began to scheme, to openly flout the Overking’s edicts, and to enact their own laws and pursue their own mean-minded grudges. It was only a matter of time before Rax was overthrown and a new tyrant installed as Overking and, in truth, many petty nobles were glad when it happened. After decades of point- less strife, it was almost a relief to have central power and authority again. However, few of them would have chosen hid I as their new master.

No direct evidence links hid, ruler of the North Province at the time, with the assassination of the entire House of Rax in 446 CY. But hid ensured his ascension by the simple expedient of killing every other minor princeling who made a claim on the throne, and plenty more besides. Madness had gripped the Malachite Throne when Ivid I, scion of the House of Naelax, was proclaimed His Celestial Transcendency, Overking of Aerdy, and many knew it.

The Malachite Throne became known as the “Fiend-seeing Throne.” It was whispered that the House of Naelax had willingly entered into a pact with fiends-lords of the infernal tanar’ri-a pact that would endure down all the generations of their descendants. A time of terror had begun. Blood would wash the feet and hands of the madman enthroned in Rauxes. Little wonder that further secessions beset his lands.

Civil war erupted in the Great Kingdom. The North Province, now ruled by Ivid’s nephew, soon established independence, as did the wily Herzog of Ahlissa in the the South Province. He allied himself with the seceding Iron League: the lands of Onnwal, Idee, Sunndi, and the Free City of Ironwall.

The Holy Censor, High Priest to the Over- king, sought freedom for the See of Medegia. Almor grew in strength and freedom, supported by Nyrond as a buffer state between itself and the declining power of Rauxes, although hid managed to drag it back under his influence in later years. Momentous change beset the Great Kingdom. Not until hid V ascended the Fiend-seeing Throne would the Great Kingdom appear to increase in might again. This would take a century to happen and also be ultimately a temporary hiccup in the terminal decline of Aerdy. If all eyes were on the Great Kingdom for decades after Ivid’s rise, it would help explain why they missed seeing the rise of a new power far to the west and north.