History of Aldernord

See also: List of Queens of Aldernord

The Fall of Kataris and the Age of Anarchy: 544 AK to 688 AK

The genesis of the Sovereignty of Aldernord can be found in the decline of the Empire of Kataris, and the rise of the various successor states in its territory. During the so-called Age of Anarchy, the city of Kato Varos, the former Katari capital, fell to the forces of Tiberius Sellic, a renegade general who declared himself Imperator in the wake of the collapse of the mageocratic hierarchy. Sellic's legion stormed the city, and fortified the island at its centre, brutally executing any who dared resist and burning vast swathes of the city to the ground. Sellic's successors would title themselves as Regents of the Basilisk Queens, who were assumed to have gone into hiding and would some day return to take up their rightful place. Claiming to be the lawful successors of the Katari Empire, they ruled with an iron fist for over a century, before being deposed by Erastes Tideborn.
Elsewhere, other powers rose and fell. The Collegium Coniuratio in Kalamak likewise claimed to be the rightful heirs of the Basilisk Queens, as did the Collegium Transmutione of Lapis. Following Baltha's Landing  , much of the southern part of the former Katari Empire was annexed by Balthas, and over the decades that followed, some of the clans made it as far as the Ysberwaal, seizing land and founding settlements such as Ulfenbroeg and Ajakappel.

The Children of Fire: 688 AK to 711 AK

In 688 AK, Erastes Tideborn landed in the Bay of Ysben with a force of ten thousand Aldish knights, who had chosen to follow the "Children of Fire" - Erastes and her inner circle - on their campaign to conquer a new homeland for those who worshiped the Daughters of Null. Landing near Kato Varos under the darkness of the new moon, they made short work of the forces that sought to halt their advance; it is said that Erastes herself led her companions in a daring raid that struck directly at the ancient Katari citadel in the center of the city, overwhelming the defenders and slaying the Regent and their court before they had time to react.
Over the following two decades Erastes annexed a large swathe of West Kataris. The military strength of the Children of Fire was significant, but just as important were the strategic alliances that she made with various local factions. Among these were the magi of the Collegium Coniuratio at Kalamak, who in 689 AK agreed to submit to Erastes' authority in exchange for a degree of autonomy; the archmage of Kalamak entered into a marriage with Ambiphane, Erastes' second-eldest daughter, leading to the creation of what would later be known as House Canthor. A similar alliance with the Princes of Ulfbroeg led to the creation of House Ysern and annexation of the Ysberwaal in 691 AK.
The mid 690's saw the foundation of three more High Houses: House Zaal was founded in 693 AK, when a knight named Rykwyn Zaal saved Erastes' life after she was wounded in battle; House Sarren from an alliance with the Jarl of Sassenheim in 694 AK; and House Riddacci from an alliance with the di Scorra family of Staggia in 696 AK.
In 697 AK the Alderni became embroiled in conflict  with the Jarls of Balthas; the war lasted until 709 AK, and resulted in the capitulation of the majority of the Jarls of the western parts of Balthas - though probably an equal number dissented from the "Treaty of Tolheim" and continued to exist independently, in a more-or-less belligerent fashion. A number of the Jarls married into Erastes' family, resulting in the founding of the High Houses of Bheuren and Mettvergen as well as several minor houses where the Balthans married into the male line.
Erastes Tideborn fell ill in 710 AK; the precise nature of the malady that she suffered from is unclear, though it would seem that it gradually sapped the strength from her body but did little to dampen her formidable intellect. She died in her sleep in 711 AK following several months of gradual decline; her last official act was to grant permission for her youngest daughter, Leukomene, to marry her lover Vitalio - forming what would ultimately become House Vottellian.

The Tyrant Queen: 711 AK to 721 AK

Following the death of Erastes Tideborn, her daughter Pyronike ascended to the throne. Pyronike, reputedly a magician of great power, moved to consolidate the control of the sovereignty under her rulership, and was indeed able to prevent the disintegration of Aldernord into numerous smaller provinces. The early years of her rule were characterized by a fair, but unyieldingly firm, stance towards the somewhat fractious Balthan Jarls, but over time her stance hardened and she became increasingly autocratic, to the point of tyranny. Towards the middle of her reign she became increasingly obsessed by the notion that the Collegia of Magic were plotting to undermine her rule, with the Collegium Necromantiae being particularly subject to her suspicion; this ultimately led to her granting House Bheuren the authority to purge Rostog of the necromancers  , whilst executing dozens of mages - including her eldest daughter Polypraxea - whom she suspected of conspiring against her.

The War of the Queen's Knife: 721 AK to 724 AK

Pyronike's reign was eventually brought to an end in 721 AK, when her granddaughter Heliodora and a handful of co-conspirators stormed the palace and demanded that Pyronike abdicate the throne and go into exile. When she refused, Heliodora struck her down and declared herself Queen of Aldernord. Whilst Heliodora, daughter of the executed Polypraxea, was by Aldish tradition the heir to the throne, her actions shocked the nobility and led to her aunt Kydomene denouncing her and raising an army against her. Lacking allies, Heliodora fled to the east where she was able to rally support from the Baltho-Alderni nobility who had particularly suffered under Pyronike's rule. She gained a great deal of respect for her willingness to entreat with the Balthans on their own terms, and ultimately was the second - and so far, latest - person to be declared Jarl of Jarls by the Althing.
In 724 AK Heliodora marched on Ysberinge with her Balthan allies, her army now greatly outnumbering those who were loyal to Kydomene - who was, by all accounts, proving to be an even more heavy-handed ruler than Pyronike. After several successes in battle it became clear that Heliodora's victory was all but inevitable; to avoid further bloodshed Kydomene surrendered to her niece. Heliodora chose to spare her aunt's life on the condition that she renounce the throne acknowledge Heliodora as the sole legitimate successor of Erastes Tideborn; this was done, and Kydomene was freed, living out the rest of her days in the city of Perleren.

The Erastes Dynasty: 724 AK to 806 AK

Heliodora ruled for a further two decades before dying in 743 AK; the remainder of her rule is recorded as having been a relatively settled period in Alderni history, in which peace prevailed and the realm was prosperous. Heliodora's reign saw the formalization of a number of aspects of the feudal contract between the High Houses and the lower nobility which endure until the present day; it also saw the creation of the office of the Queensknife, and the founding of the Gilded Tower.
Heliodora was succeeded by her daughter Theodike I Erastes (ruled 743 AK to 767 AK), the first ruler to refer to the "Royal House of Erastes" to indicate the ruling family and their near relations. Sometimes known as "Theodike the Builder", she oversaw the completion of the great fortress of Tonnenkreek Schloss and numerous other projects. Several aspects of her life have proved somewhat contentious, and are hotly debated to this day: she was betrothed to marry a nobleman of House Bheuren, but her would-be-husband died in a hunting accident before they were wed. She never married, claiming that she was so heartbroken by this loss that she could not love again; however a number of historians have speculated that she and Ilse Sarren van Malaborg, the architect of Tonnenkreek, were probably lovers. Certainly, Theodike and Ilse were extremely close friends and she was by all reports heartbroken when Ilse died in 756AK, mere days after the completion of Tonenkreek, taking to her chambers for an entire month and refusing all visitors.
Theodike died childless in 767 AK; some have claimed that she had intended to leave the throne to Ilse, but in any case Theodike outlived her. Her sister Margaretha I Erastes, known during her lifetime but never to her face as "the Strict", who ruled until 787 AK, before being succeeded by her daughter Margaretha II Erastes. Known as the "Golden Queen", Margaretha II was an immensely popular monarch, who succeeded in winning the support of the Dragonborn Clan Kepeshkamolik, who rebelled against the hegemony of the Five Great Dragons in 799 AK.

The Interregnum: 806 AK to 808 AK

In late 806 AK disaster struck; whilst returning from a diplomatic visit to Freeport Reserta where she had been attempting to negotiate a peace treaty between Clan Kepeshmolik and the clans loyal to the Five Great Dragons, Queen Margaretha's ship was caught in a storm and lost, with no survivors. Complicating matters further was the fact that the heir apparent, Agathea, was likewise onboard, as were several other members of the royal sept.
The only surviving member of the sept who could have inherited was Margaretha's granddaughter Chrysomatea; however she was only twelve years old, a sickly child who suffered from numerous medical troubles. Indeed, in 806 AK Chrysomatea was so ill that even under the care of the greatest physicians and healers in the land it was considered doubtful that she would live to adulthood, and a near certainty that she would never be able to have children of her own. The Matriarchs of the High Houses met to discuss the fate of the throne, and after weeks of bitter argument it was eventually agreed that the council would rule as vice-regents until such a time as Chrysomatea was able to designate an heir.
Chrysomatea never took the throne, but surprised many expectations as her health gradually improved under the care of the Hospital of Ekirena in Gildenschloss. Two years later, at the age of fourteen, she addressed the Matriarchal council and stated that she had accepted that she could not in good conscience take the throne, and that furthermore she would not tolerate the further "sniveling pretence of friendship" that some of her regents had shown her in the hope that she might name them her successor. She convinced the Matriarchs to swear a binding oath before the Nine Daughters that they would abide by her decision - "whomever in this chamber I might name as Queen" - before shocking all there present by naming as her successor none of the Matriarchs, nor members of their immediate family, but Hildegard Ysern, an acolyte of the clergy of Hrenisha only a few years older than her, who was only there to act as a scribe for the proceedings.

The Ysern Dynasty: 808 AK to 900 AK

Whilst Queen Hildegard I Ysern's ascent to power was unprecedented and caused great political turmoil, none dared openly challenge her due to the binding oath that Chrysomatea had demanded of the Matriarchs. It was perhaps fortunate that despite her complete lack of preparedness and political acumen, Hildegard proved remarkably level-headed and had the full support of the High House; indeed in recent years a handful of historians have speculated that Chrysomatea's decision was perhaps less spontaneous than it appeared, and that House Ysern - from which her father hailed - had orchestrated the entire thing. In any case, Hildegard faced little opposition within her lifetime, likely greatly helped by her obvious piety and the support of the Nine Priesthoods, whose power increased substantially during her reign. Her reign saw the continuation of the long-running border dispute with Mandragore that had exacerbated the Kepeshkamolik Rebellion  , and the escape of many of the defeated dragonborn into Aldernord. She abdicated the throne in favor of her daughter Emelia in 835 AK, choosing to retire to a life of cloistered academia to which she felt more temperamentally suited.
The reign of Emelia I Ysern (ruled 835 AK to 858 AK) was defined by further conflicts with Mandragore and the eventual liberation of the city of Paralberti from the hegemonic control of the Five Great Dragons. A Paladin of the Order of Heliodora Tyrantbane, Emelia was renown for her courage and dedication to achieving liberation for those that she considered her people; her reign was also marked by an increasing burden of taxation to pay for her military campaigning which made her increasingly unpopular at home. She died in the disastrous Battle of Skinweaver Marsh  , ambushed by a large Mandragori force whilst trying to break the siege of Fort Briani.
Hildegard II Ysern (ruled 858 AK to 887 AK) took the throne following her mother's death, and spent most of her reign attempting to pacify the increasingly fractious High Houses who were demanding increased autonomy from royal control. Her reign saw the formal creation of the Grand Council, initially consisting of three nobles from each of the High Houses, whom she agreed to seek the consent of before raising any new form of taxation; it also saw the creation of the Royal Tribunal. These concessions did much to assuage the complaints of the High Houses, and many scholars believe that if it weren't for her reforms, the nation would have likely descended into civil war at some point during her reign.
Hildegard III Ysern (ruled 887 AK to 900 AK), daughter of the previous queen and Archmage of Kalamak at the time that she took the throne, has something of a reputation of being far more concerned with esoteric matters than with the day-to-day ruling of the nation. She delegated many of her royal duties to the Grand Council, whilst pursuing her own research into the arcane. She best remembered as a patron of educational establishments, both magical and mundane, and for the unusual circumstances in which the throne passed from her: in 898 AK she commissioned a number of scholars to investigate certain ruins that dated back to the Katari Empire and before, apparently under the belief that there was a hidden network of gateways that if reactivated would allow instantaneous teleportation between various locations without the need for a skilled magician to operate them. In 900 AK one such experiment led to the creation of a stable portal linking the ancient stoneworks of Ket Azel and Ket Brezi, which allowed a dozen knights to cross the hundred-mile gap between the two sites in a matter of minutes; impressed by the demonstration, the Queen asked to witness it herself, and entered the portal with several of her advisers. Alas, something went awry, and minutes after the Queen had entered the portal, it collapsed in on itself and could not be reopened - and neither the Queen nor her companions were ever seen again. To this day there is no consensus on whether this might have been an accident, or whether the portal may have been sabotaged by one of the Queen's political enemies.

The Year of Six Queens: 900 AK

In the wake of her mother's disappearance, Princess Rozemarjin Ysern was crowned Queen; however she perished two weeks later in a hunting accident in Bos Grebur. Rozemarjin has no heirs of her own, and was Hildegard's only daughter; a council of accession was called, but became deadlocked, with no clear agreement on whom the throne should pass to. Whilst the Grand Council debated the issue, Duchess Flavia Riddacci arrived in Ysberinge with the support of her House's knights, claiming that Queen Rozemarjin had instructed her to take interim control of the nation should she die without an heir; with an army at her back, she was able to coerce the council into accepting her as Regent, and shortly thereafter declared herself Queen "until such time as a true heir can be found".
Suspicions rose that the letter of authority Flavia claimed was given to her by Queen Rozemarjin was a forgery, and it was not long before rumours began to circulate that Flavia may have in fact killed Rozemarjin; within two months the nation had turned against her, and she was forced to abandon the throne and flee the country when it became clear that she would be deposed.
Flavia was replaced by Queen Theodike II Erastes, whose claim to the throne was from an offshoot sept of House Erastes that ultimately descended from one of Queen Heliodora's younger daughters, winning the support of several houses but not her own; a day after her coronation she was killed in a duel with her sister Antigone, who claimed that she was born illegitimately. Antigone died of her own wounds hours later, and the succession once more became an open question.
It was at this point that the Grand Council dissolved as numerous factions began putting forward their own candidates for the throne; Altea I Votellian took the throne by force as the High Houses descend into open warfare, but was killed in battle a few months later. It was not until the close of the year that Kasimira Sarren succeeded in negotiating an end to hostilities, and was crowned Queen with the assent of the High Houses.

The Sarren Dynasty: 900 AK to 1039 AK

Kasimira Sarren (ruled 900 AK to 924 AK), known as "the Peacemaker", took a far more active role in the governance of the nation than her recent predecessors; she expanded the Grand Council to include the nine Apertori of the Daughters of Null, and passed a number of laws - including the so-called Kasimiran Convention, which under certain circumstances permitted the throne to pass to the Matriarch with the most generationally proximal line of descent from Erastes Tideborn - to govern the succession in order to prevent a recurrence of the events of the Year of the Six Queens. She was succeeded by her daughter Helena I Sarren (ruled 924 AK to 942 AK), who continued the trend towards constitutionalisation of the monarchy and increased autonomy of the High Houses, whilst also greatly expanding the number of cities that were granted royal charters; she was also responsible for the resolution of the War of the Serpent Reach  and the subsequent peace treaty with the Free City of Zar Tagar. It was under Helena I's rule that the influence of the Nine Priesthoods reached their apex, with the religious authorities becoming deeply embedded in the operation of the High Houses and the function of the Alderni state as a whole. Whilst Aldernord could never have been considered a theocracy, and the power of the churches would wax and wane over the following years, some of the reforms that Helena made became embedded in law and have persisted ever since, such as the requirement for the higher orders of the Nullic Priesthood being of noble birth.
The reign of Helena II Sarren (ruled 942 AK to 970 AK) saw significant conflicts  on the southern borders, primarily driven by various houses of the low nobility who sought wealth and power by claiming lands in Corlindale; by the end of the her reign, the Sovereignty of Aldernord stretched as far as the river Nyel. Her reign also saw the accession of Vash Hamokar  to Aldernord as an alloidial duchy, following decades of increasingly close alliance between the Alderni and the dwarves of the city. Her daughter Theodike III Sarren (ruled 970 AK to 1000 AK) sought to consolidate control over the newly-occupied lands, ordering the construction of the fortresses of Nyelslott (now Fort Hennedd), Raslott (now Rascastle), and the arcane citadel of Hennetoren(now known as the Howling Tower).
The reign of the last queen of the Sarren Dynasty, Hildegard IV Sarren (ruled 1000 AK to 1039 AK) saw further expansion into Corlindale, though none of it successful. The failure of the campaign  of 1000 AK to take the Labyrinth of Byial brought her strategic judgement into question, and lost her the support of many of the barons in the east. When a dispute over Nyelbridge in 1008 AK escalated to violence she saw an opportunity to win back their support by launching an incursion into the Hything of Jeddrum; though initially successful her army was defeated within weeks at the Battle of Leagallow Hollow  , and she herself was captured by the Corlish forces. Though ransomed back to Aldernord within a few months, her defeat was seen as a great humiliation and inspired a growing resistance movement among the occupied provinces; the remainder of her reign was plagued with small uprisings and rebellions, and her authority over the High Houses and their client barons was constantly undermined by her political rivals. She died in 1039 AK, remarking on her deathbed that it would have been better to have died at Leagallow Hollow and be remembered as a tragic hero, than live and be remembered only for her failings.

The Electorship: 1039 AK to 1132 AK

Though Hildegard IV Sarren had six legitimate sons, she had no daughters who would could have inherited the throne. An argument was made that her son Alvred (who had been raised as a daughter, before declaring himself a man-by-oath at the age of nineteen) should be offered the throne, though when Alvred made it clear that he had no intention of agreeing to this and that he indeed considered the offer insulting, the question of who might inherit the throne was once more raised. Following several weeks of debate, the Grand Council invoked the Kasimiran Convention and declared Emelia II Ysern (ruled 1039 AK to 1057 AK) to be queen; it is questionable whether or not she did indeed have the strongest claim on the throne, or if she was simply seen as a compromise candidate acceptable all nine High Houses, but in any case, her rise signaled a move from hereditary rulership to an elective monarchy which lasted until the rise of the Bheuren dynasty.
Emelia II's reign was marked by further military difficulties in the east, with the loss of the Howling Tower  in 1042 AK forcing the Alderni to retreat from the province and abandon Fort Hennedd, which was quickly seized by the Corlish. The following decade saw intermittent skirmishes between the Corlish rebels and the Alderni occupying forces in Ravenwood and Leonmort, resulting in the loss of much of what had been conquered in the Twelve-Year War . Emelia II died in 1057 during the outbreak of rheumatic plague in the Ysberwaal, and was succeeded by her daughter, Isobella.
Queen Isobella Ysern (ruled 1057 AK to 1082 AK), known as the "Scourge of the Seas", is renowned as one of Aldernord's most notable military commanders, though she was nontheless responsible for the loss of the nation's territories in Corlindale. Her early reign was characterized by a push to reclaim the lands lost under her mother's control, and indeed by 1070 AK she had consolidated power in Leonmort and Ravenwood, though the Howling Tower was never retaken. The situation changed markedly in 1074 AK, when a surprise invasion by the Sahuagin of the Empire of Xapikatlec suddenly threatened the Alderni heartlands. The War of the Seas  ensued; in order to defend the Alderni coast Isobella chose to relinquish control of all lands east of Skada Moor to the Corl, provoking anger from Baltho-Alderni client houses who had staked their claims in the Lionmarch but freeing up her forces to fortify the coasts. Some historians have argued that it was this split which ultimately led to the rebellion of the Heirs of Baltha decades later, as tensions between the nascant Baltan nationalists and the Alderni High Nobility began to rise from this point onward. She also chose to offer support to the rebels in Viraky when they rose up in 1076 AK  against the vampires of Nachtzahn.
When Queen Isobella died in 1082 many assumed that the Grand Council would accept her daughter Relinde's claim to the throne; however in an unexpected turn of events the council declared that Relinde - who reportedly had a reputation for hosting debauched parties that outraged the sensibilities of many of the High Houses - was not of suitable moral character to be queen, and instead chose to pass the crown to Altea II Vottellian (ruled 1082 AK to 1110 AK), who was at that time Archmage of Lapis. Altea II was renown both as a magician and political philosopher, and was responsible for steering the nation through a difficult two decades before abdicating in favour of her daughter when her health began to fail her in 1110 AK. Among her achievements can be counted the accession of Khut Oros  as an alloidial barony, a number of legal reforms including the creation of the Charter Courts, and the institution of the legal obligation for landowners to ensure that the children of peasants dwelling on their lands be provided a rudimentary education.
Queen Altea III Vottellian (ruled 1110 AK to 1124 AK), sometimes referred to as "the Hesitant" took the throne following her mother's abdication. The fourteen years of her reign were marked by an escalation in conflicts internal and external; a plague  that began in 1112 AK wrecked havoc across the nation, particularly concentrated in the agricultural heartlands of the south. With many peasants dying or falling sick, there was no one to harvest crops that soon lay rotting in the fields, leading to food shortages and spiraling prices. Though Altea intervened in 1114 AK, passing laws to fix the price of wheat, bread, and ale in an attempt to resolve the situation, it was too little, too late, and did little to improve matters. Tensions continued to rise in the southern provinces, resulting in the Revolt of 1119 AK  , in which a great number of peasants and low-nobility in Kjelslund rose up against the monarchy. Though the rebellion was quashed, it shocked the high nobility to the core, and led to the passing of the Edict of Surety  , permitting collective punishment of entire communities for the actions of their members. She died in 1124 AK having contracted a wasting illness, though rumours have persisted ever since that she was poisoned by one of her servants.
After the death of Altea III Vottellian, the question of succession was once more raised; she had made it clear that she wished to pass the throne on to her daughter Dorotea, but she was only twelve years old at the time of her mother's death. The Grand Council met to decide the issue, and at length elected not to pass the throne to Dorotea under the guidance of a regent, but rather to grant the throne to Beatrix Mettvergen (ruled 1124 AK to 1126 AK). Though a military leader of much renown, Beatrix was a divisive figure, especially among the Baltho-Alderni low nobility in the southeast; under Altea III she had been granted authority to hunt down the survivors of the Revolt of 1119, and purge the southern provinces of those among the lower orders who were working with the rebels. Tensions rose, and a month after her coronation twelve Baltho-Alderni barons met and swore a secret oath  to overthrow the rule of the Ald; known as the Heirs of Baltha, they would greatly impact the future history of Aldernord, though few at the time expected it.
Three months later, the Heirs of Baltha launched an uprising  near the town of Lyndhoff. They raided the town and fought a guerrilla war against the Alderni for two years, until they were at last defeated at the Battle of the Wyvernwald  in 1126. During the Battle of the Wyvernwald the Queen herself took to the field, but though she lead her knights to victory over the insurgents she collapsed and died shortly afterwards; she had suffered an arrow-wound during the battle but refused to withdraw despite the advice of her chiurgeon, and it is believed that she succumbed to a slow-acting poison that the arrow had been coated with. Some have since claimed that the Drow may have been involved in her death, though there is little in the way of proof of this.
Beatrix' sister, Ekatarina Mettvergen (ruled 1126 AK to 1132 AK), succeeded her and proceeded to spend the next two years routing out the remnants of the Heirs of Baltha. By 1128, the surviving insurgents were scattered and broken, and were dismissed as little more than a particularly stubborn gang of bandits in the Alterwald, and it was assumed that this would be the end of the matter.

The Ascent of House Bheuren: 1132 AK to 1193 AK

In 1132 AK, Queen Ekatarina Mettvergen was assassinated by her First Blade Inga Haraldsson-Mettvergen, better known as Inga Gardiskind - who had secretly been recruited by the Heirs of Baltha and spent years winning the trust of the Queen in preparation for this act. In the space of a single night, Inga and her co-conspirators massacred a dozen members of the Queen's immediate family, effectively bringing an end to the royal sept and plunging the nation into a succession crisis once more.
Invoking the Kasimiran Convention, Mathilda I Bheuren (ruled 1132 AK to 1154 AK) convened a council of accession and as the Matriarch with the most generationally proximal line of descent from Erastes Tideborn, was crowned Queen of Aldernord - though not without some significant dissent from those who supported Dorotea Vottellian as candidate for the throne. Ruling from 1132 AK until her death in 1154 AK, Queen Mathilda's reign saw further troubles from the Heirs of Baltha, who successfully captured Rinunslott  in 1133, and Loshavslott  in 1149. In response to the ongoing failure of the nobles of the eastern provinces to deal with the Heirs of Baltha, she dissolved the Grand Council  in 1150 AK and returned to direct rule by decree.
Queen Hildegard V Bheuren (ruled 1154 AK to 1167 AK), eldest daughter of Mathilda I Bheuren, continued the transition from a pseudo-constitutional monarchy towards absolutism, gradually centralizing power under her direct control. One of her most controversial reforms was to the military of Aldernord; prior to her reforms there was no centralised authority over the armies of the High Houses and the smaller forces of their client houses, a situation which not infrequently led to poor cohesion on the battlefield where the chain of command became unclear, and a great deal of variability in the composition of armies which was aptly described by Ardito Votellian, appointed the first Grand-Marshall of Aldernord by Hildegard V, as "a steel motley". She reformed the military into nine Grand Regiments, each commanded by a general from one of the nine High Houses, and established a strategic council and the office of the Grand-Marshall. Her rule saw the beginning of specialisation within the Alderni militaries, with the Houses of Erastes and Sarren being granted overall responsibility over the fleets of the Aldenri navy. In another significant reform, she abolished the office of the Queensknife, merging it with her own bodyguards to form the Royal Guard, and likewise incorporated the Gilded Tower into the military hierarchy under the authority of the Ninth Grand Regiment. Many of her reforms faced strong resistance from the High Houses, who saw them as encroaching on their independence, but even her most ardent critics were forced to admit that the reforms were effective - whilst neither Rinunslott nor Loshavslott were retaken during her reign, the advance of the Heirs of Baltha north of the Alterwald was successfully halted. It was only with the Vaagesstad Rebellion  of 1164AK - attributed to increased discontent towards taxes levied by House Canthor - that the Balthan nationalists began to once-more pose a threat to the eastern provinces.
Hildegard's daughter, Margaretha III Bheuren (ruled 1167AK to 1178AK) spent several years unsuccessfully attempting to retake Vaagesstad  , before eventually conceding that the city was nigh-impregnable. Hoping to bring an end to almost fifty years of conflict, she convened negotiations  at the temple of Kriophona at Zallenkirk, inviting the Heirs of Baltha and the burghermeisters of Vaagesstad to attempt to agree a peace treaty. From the conference came the Treaty of the Kiska  , a peace treaty so universally unpopular it was referred to by agitators on both sides of the conflict as the "Surrender of 1170" - the Alderni nobility hated it for the fact that it ceded all lands east of the river Kiska to Balthas, whilst elements within the increasingly-fractious Heirs of Baltha decried it for agreeing to give up all Balthan claims on lands west of the Kiska. Though there was no formal resumption of hostilities, the treaty was violated constantly on a smaller scale, with Margaretha's remaining reign being constantly dogged by raids across the river, in both directions. In response to the increase discontent among the High Houses, Margaretha reconvened the Grand Council in 1175 AK, albeit with few formal powers. Margaretha died in 1178 AK following a short period of illness; it has often been claimed that she was poisoned, either by one of her political opponents in Aldernord or by agents of the Heirs of Baltha.
After Margaretha's death came some consternation around the succession. She had named as Crown Princess and her chosen successor her younger daughter Beatrix, who had been born one year after Margaretha took the throne, in line a tradition practiced by House Bheuren when appointing the successor to the Matriarch, in which a porphhrogenitous daughter (one born after her mother became Matriarch) was given preference over a daughter born prior to this; however on the death of Queen Margaretha, Beatrix was only ten years old. The Grand Council chose to appoint Beatrix' elder sister Altea as regent, but Altea refused, stating that she would rule in her own right or not at all; after several weeks of deliberation she was eventually declared Queen with the backing, however reluctantly, of all nine High Houses.
Altea IV Bheuren (ruled 1178 AK to 1193 AK), is sometimes referred to as the "Queen of the Wind". She oversaw the creation of the legendary band of knights known as the Aerial Lance, who took to battle from the skies mounted upon hippogriffs. She oversaw further military reforms, centralizing royal authority and gradually weakening the influence of the High Houses over the forces that were nominally theirs through the insistence that the monarch had the authority to appoint and remove generals at her sole discretion. The early part of her reign saw conflicts  on the northern border, which pulled much of the Alderni military presence from the south-east; when in 1185AK the Heirs of Baltha launched a series of well-coordinated surprise attacks across the Kiska they were thus unprepared. She died in 1193 AK after falling from her hippogriff during the Battle of Vasilika .

The Inheritance War: 1193 AK to 1206 AK

Following Altea IV's death, the country once again fell into a succession crisis. Altea's fourteen-year-old porphyrogenitous daughter Ekaterina staked a claim for the throne, coming into conflict with her elder sister Agnetha who, as with her mother, refused to stand as regent for her younger sister, and with her aunt Beatrix, whom the throne had bypassed when Altea was crowned in 1178 AK. Beatrix, whom Altea had appointed Grand-Marshall of Aldernord, was not especially popular with the other High Houses but did have the loyalty of much of the military; whilst the Grand Council attempted to adjudicate between Altea's daughters, she gathered a force and marched on Ysberinge, taking Ekaterina into "protective custody". Unilaterally declaring herself regent, she ruled on Ekaterina's behalf for several months before the princess died - allegedly having succumbed to a fever, though most modern historians believe that she was murdered on Beatrix's command - whereupon she was crowned Queen Beatrix II Bheuren (ruling as such from 1193 AK to 1206 AK).
While Agnetha's allies marshaled their forces against the forces loyal to Beatrix, the Grand Jarldom of Balthas took advantage of the chaos to launch an invasion  of the southern coast, seizing control of the port-towns of Svarstad and Massenhaven. As Beatrix and Agnetha's armies clashed in the north, the Balthans continued to advance, and by 1197 AK almost the entirety of Alumark had fallen to their control. The only exception is the fortress of Bauslott, the seat of House Canthor, which housed some of the most powerful mages of the Ninth Grand Regiment, who were more than able to hold off the Balthan forces; the fortress was encircled, beginning the Twenty Year Siege  .
In the spring of 1194 AK, Agnetha Bheuren gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Helena. The fate of this child is one of the enduring mysteries of the Inheritance War; it is understood that she was given to be fostered by one of Agnetha's retainers, under conditions of absolute secrecy in order to protect her from harm. When, following Agnetha's eventual defeat in the 1199 AK Battle of Wissenborg Pass  , Queen Beatrix offered an amnesty to those nobles who had fought for her rival but were willing to swear fealty to her, a small faction calling themselves "Helenites" banded together as supporters of this "Hidden Heir", and made great efforts to locate the child with a view to her reclaiming her rightful throne. At the same time, Beatrix is said to have sent out her own spies to locate the child, with the intent of ending all possible claims against her rule once and for all. In the end, though, none ever did find Helena; and aside from one  or two  imposters, no sign of the Hidden Heir or her descendants has been seen since.
Though by 1199 AK Queen Beatrix II Bheuren's claim to the throne was effectively unopposed, she was not without enemies. In 1201 AK an assassination attempt against her was foiled after several elves were caught attempting to break into the royal palace under cover of nightfall. One was captured, and under torture confessed to having been hired by Duchess Relinde Ysern, who had sided with Agnetha during the Inheritance War. The queen has Relinde Ysern arrested and executed for treason; convinced that a conspiracy against her existed across all parts of House Ysern, she stripped all members of that High House of their noble rank and title, and claimed the entirety of the Ysberwaal as her personal demesne. Over the following weeks, many members of House Ysern were killed by Beatrix's agents, whilst others went into hiding or renounced their loyalty to Aldernord and sided with the Balthan Jarls. Emboldened by their newfound allies, the Grand Jarldom pushed north into Kjelslund, resulting in four years  of intense warfare in which the civilian population of Kjelslund suffered greatly.
Over the latter part of her rule, Queen Beatrix II became increasingly ruthless, orchestrating purges of several of the other High Houses as well as her own as she became increasingly convinced that there was an elaborate conspiracy against her. Many historians assess that she may have been partly correct in this belief - at least inasmuch as her increasingly tyrannical actions turned many of her former supporters against her. This reign of terror proved extremely counterproductive: in 1203 AK she declared war on the elves of Lith Tarsen and Lith Neygil, resulting in their alliance with the Balthans; and her purges of supposed enemies in the northern provinces lead direclty to the Scorran Rebellion  , which though brutally quashed, left scars of anger and hatred in the northern cities which would flare up decades later during the Triponzo Revolution  .
Beatrix II's reign of terorr came to an end in 1206 AK, when she collapsed and died  during an banquet in honour of her daughter Rosemund's eighteenth nameday. Only decades later on her deathbed does Rosemund admit that it was she who poisoned her mother, sickened by the horrors that she had inflicted upon the land.

The Later Bheuren Dynasty: 1206AK to 1301AK

Though a second inheritance war was feared on the death of Beatrix II Bheuren, these worries were eased when Rosemund publically acknowledged her younger sister Mathilda's porphyregene claim to the throne. Rosemund ruled as regent to her sister (who was thirteen years old when she took the throne), before stepping down to allow Queen Mathilda II Bheuren (ruled 1206 AK to 1235 AK) to reign in her own right, though her sister remained a close ally and advisor throughout her reign. The sisters proved to be the polar opposite of their mother, pardoning  House Ysern in short order and restoring  the Grand Council to appease the High Houses who had suffered under Beatrix' rule. The office of the Queensknife and the Gilded Tower were likewise restored  as separate entities, and the rights of the High Houses to directly appoint generals to the Grand Regiments were strengthened.
It was Mathilda II's reign that saw the disaster known as the awakening of the Knagger  , which resulted in the loss of Bauslott to the Balthan forces in 1218 AK. In general though, the conflict with Balthas became less intense during this time, and later in her reign Mathilda II convened the Second Zallenkirk Peace Conference  ; though ultimately no agreement on terms could be agreed, it resulted in a decade of relative peace until hostilities escalated once more in 1241 AK.
Tragically, Mathilda II's reign was cut short in 1235 AK when she and her daughter Altea both succumbed to the Second Lyskan Epidemic  . Rosemund inherited the throne, and ruled until 1241 AK; her reign was overshadowed by the epidemic, which many claimed was the punishment of the Daughters of Null upon Aldernord for the loss of Kjelslund - though this was strenuously denied by much of the priesthood. In any case, whilst Rosemund managed to more-or-less keep the peace during her lifetime, militaristic sentiments continued to rise - and after her death from a stroke of apoplexy in 1241 AK, this only intensified.
It is unclear whether Helena III Bheuren (ruled 1241 AK to 1262 AK) truly believed the plague to be divine punishment, though this was certainly the rhetoric which she preached; in either case, she tapped into an increased current of religiosity that was sweeping the nation, and turned this towards increasingly militant ends. She commissioned a number of militant religious orders, including the Order of the Three Swords, the Order of the Alphyn, and the Order of the Winter Spear, and in 1242AK launched a successful campaign  to retake Kjelslund. Her victories in Kjelslund were at the expense of the defence of the lands north of the Alterwald, with the castle of Dyrdenslott falling to Balthas  in 1243 AK, the walls undermined by dwarven mercenary engineers from Khut Helev. The war reached something of a stalemate once more in the 1250's AK, only to flare up once more in 1262AK, when the Balthan Clan Vildstrom and their elven allies spearheaded an incursion into the Lyskan valley, outflanking the Alderni forces in Kjelslund and cutting their lines of supply across the river Uil. Though now in her late 50's and had not picked up a weapon in anger in almost a decade, Queen Helena insisted on taking the field at the Battle of Bos Vild ; before the battle she was annointed as champion of the Nine Daughters by the collected Apertori, swearing to defend the legacy of Erastes Tideborn until her last breath - and either by the power of the gods or the strength of her conviction, she somehow managed to lead her knights to victory against a Balthan army who outnumbered them three to one, fighting on even when mortally wounded, only allowing death to take her after the Balthan army had been routed.
Helena had no surviving children, and the crown passed to her younger sister Hildegard VI Bheuren (ruled 1262 AK to 1267 AK). A scholarly woman and capable magician, Hildegard lacked her sister's martial talents and initially delegated the command of the military to her Grand-Marshall, Arcadio Sarren, who was able to restore control over the Lyskan plain. However as her reign progressed, her courtiers noted that she was becoming increasingly erratic in her decisions, whilst simultaneously demanding an ever-closer degree of oversight over all matters of state. In 1266 AK she abruptly dismissed Arcadio Sarren from his post and issued confusing and contradictory orders directly to the Alderni forces in the Lyskan plain in the days leading up to a major engagement against a further Balthan incursion. These orders were considered so nonsensical that many officers simply ignored them; others made their best efforts to follow them, but in any case the result was chaos, and a humiliating defeat at the Battle of the Bull  - leading to the loss of Kjelslund and most of the Lyskan valley. The Alderni generals scrabble to restore some semblance of order and manage to hold off the Balthans at Rostog , only to be reprimanded by the Queen and relieved of duty. Four months later, Rostog fell  to Balthan control, the city having been effectively abandoned by the Alderni armies. As anger at the Queen grew, questions about her fitness to rule began to be asked more and more openly; she reacted to any such implication with increasing fury, and in 1267 AK struck her court physician dead with a bolt of magical lightning after he dared suggest that she might benefit from a few weeks of rest and recuperation. It was at this point that her youngest daughter Mathilda, holding the office of Queensknife, decided that something had to be done, and attempted to persuade her mother to abdicate. It is said that the Queen flew into a rage and attempted to kill her daughter for such insubordination but Mathilda, herself a magician of significant skill, was not as easily dispatched as the court physician; the two duelled, and Mathilda eventually emerged victorious, the queen dying of sheer exhaustion shortly thereafter.
Mathilda passed the throne to her elder sister, Hildegard VII Bheuren (ruled 1267 AK to 1290 AK), who did all that she could to attempt to salvage the increasingly desperate war with Balthas. Her reign saw the loss of much of Hexenhugel as the Balthans advanced through the hills  - though the invaders paid a great price in blood for every mile. The so-called War of the Witch Hills saw one of the more unusual alliances of the Long War, in which the goblins of the tribe of the Wolves of Rubezh - who had been considered little more than bandits by the Alderni for centuries - abruptly pledged their allegiance to House Bheuren and began a campaign of sabotage and guerilla warfare against the Balthans. Quite why the Rubezh chose to ally with the Alderni is unclear, though some say that the Queen met with Rexerat Darkstealer, called the King of the Rubezh, who allegedly spoke of their aid being provided in fulfillment of an ancient debt to the ancestors of House Bheuren. Her reign also saw significant hardship in the Great Famine of 1276-1279 , when unseasonable weather across the western part of the continent caused widespread crop failure; however whilst Aldernord was extremely badly hit, outright starvation was avoided, in part due to the existence of price controls on many essentials which prevented the spiralling prices seen in other nations. This brought a temporary halt to the Balthan advance as the clans in Kjelslud and the Lyskan Valley fell into infighting ; but by 1282 AK the Balthan forces were once more on the offensive  in Zallen.
By the time of Hildegard's death in 1290 AK, the situation was dire; she was succeeded by her regicidal sibling Mathilda IV Bheuren (ruled 1290 AK to 1301 AK), a divisive ruler who held to a strategy of protecting the Ysberwaal (and to a lesser extent, Zudemoeras) at all costs. Considered overcautious by some, she drew a great amount of ire from House Canthor when she chose not to exploit an opportunity in 1292 AK when General Andromeda Canthor - who would later become that House's matriarch - proposed a daring plan to outflank the Balthan forces by reopening the portal between Ket Azel and Ket Brezi, which the Gilded Tower and Collegium Coniuratio had been experimenting with since the fall of Rostog. Ultimately her caution benefited her little, and by the time of her death the Balthan Jarls had full control of Hexenhugel and were encroaching closer to the Ysberwaal with every passing day.

The Reign of Margaretha IV: 1301AK to 1344AK

When Queen Margaretha IV Bheuren took the throne in 1301 AK it appeared that Aldenord was on the brink of defeat; Gildenschloss was under siege, and a Balthan army had breached the defences on the river Boya near Meeren, rapidly advancing on Schwannenholt. In contrast to her mother's cautious approach, Margaretha made it clear that she would not abandon the eastern duchies to the Balthan advance. Prior to taking the throne, Margaretha had served as General of the Seventh Grand Regiment, and had gained a reputation as a daring and somewhat unorthodox tactician; within weeks of taking the throne she had authorized Andromeda Canthor's plan and launched a daring advance  through the portal, sending a force of more than twenty-thousand soldiers deep behind the Balthan lines, albeit with a great loss of life within the fluctuating portal. A further desperate counterattack  south of Schwannenholt results in the complete destruction of the Balthan army there, and turns the tide of the war in favour of Aldernord for the first time in many years.
The Queen ordered the advance be pressed, and by 1303 AK much of the Lyskan plain had been retaken . Further north, the Sternespass came back under Alderni control, though whilst an attempt to retake Rostog turns into a protracted siege . With both sides greatly depleted from the most intense period of warfare in several decades, a stalemate once more results, with occasional skirmishes but no substantial change becoming the norm until 1314 AK, when Queen Margaretha IV ordered an advance south in order to retake Kjelslund. Over the course of more than a decade, the Alderni armies retake Kjelslund , though the duchy is little more than a ruined wasteland by the time that the Balthans are at last driven back into Alumark.
Many believe that were the events of 1326 AK to have gone differently, Queen Margaretha would have ultimately been able to reconquer Hexenhugel and Alumark; however the cost of more than two centuries of warfare had slowly but surely created a widening rift between the High Houses of Aldernord and the lowborn citizens. In the Dragonmarch of the north, the situation came to a head in Triponzo when during the Festival of Hrenisha the arrest of a handful of members of the Society of the Flame Rekindled, an intellectual society with radical political leanings quite popular among dragonborn scholars of the city's university, lead to rioting in the city, something of a political powderkeg at the best of times. This turned out to be the spark that ignites the Triponzo Revolution , and a popular uprising promptly ousted the burghermeisters of the city - denounced as being little more than the puppets of House Riddacci - and installed a provisional government in the following weeks.
Perhaps thinking that a mob of riotous students could hardly pose much difficulty for the Riddacci House Guard to handle, the Queen declined to send a detachment from the armies to quash the insurrection until four months have passed, not wanting to delay an advance into Alumark - and when they met unexpected resistance  from the rebels who have had months to prepare their defences, they found themselves unable to retake the city. Further detachments were sent, but the northern rebellion spread unabated to Mesoscorrana and Campocavola, resulting in the Treaty of the Three Cities  in 1329AK and the foundation of the League of Savura.
Now facing a war on two fronts, the Alderni armies were unable to consolidate their earlier advance into Alumark, and were forced to give ground as the Balthans counterattacked  . In the north, trouble continued as Staggia and Baletto joined the rebels, tying up Alderni forces until finally a ceasefire  was negotiated in 1333 AK. For two years it looked like the peace might hold - until the Rebellion in Vinzaglio  and subsequent resumption of hostilities with Savura brought an end to that possibility.
Whilst the Long War with Balthas had waxed and waned over the course of decades, the war with Savura was by contrast fought at a lightning pace. Town after town fell to the Savuran advance, with Auditore being taken in the spring of 1338 AK, and Lapis defecting to the Savuran cause a few months later. The latter was particularly damaging, as it came with mutiny among elements of the Alderni military that had been raised from the duchy of Cameri, and who chose rebellion against Alderni rule over turning on those who they considered their neighbours. After the fall of Cameri in 1339 AK, a Third Zallenkirk Peace Conference  was held in which - grudgingly - a ceasefire was agreed between Aldernord and Balthas, but the war in the north raged on for another two years before the Zallenkirk Accord  finally brought an end to the long war once and for all.
Though by 1342 AK Aldernord was in no fit state to fight any further wars, the Zallenkirk Accord provoked a great deal of anger from some of the High Houses. Matriarch Andromeda Canthor in particular made no attempt to disguise the scorn that she felt for the Queen, going as far as to openly call her an oathbreaker for reneging on her promise not to abandon the Alumark to Balthas. Two years on, it remains to be seen what the ultimate political consequences of the Accord will be.