World History

Ritmark (centered around the fork of the Bright and Greatflood rivers) and Vassalton (now Regelsburg) also established as Kingdoms. These are different from the zillions of other kingdoms and principalities and empires and whatnot in that they are anointed kings by the Church of Bob - thus both establishing their legitimacy and establishing that of the Church of Bob. [Don’t confuse this Ritmark with the later one: this is first; same name. The latter is related, but very tangentially.]

Lenay forms a stable, fairly centralized government, in Lenay City. They accept Bobbism, but with twists drawn from their own culture (which is far more bardic than that of the east), and the writings of early Lenic mystics such as Alanis and their followers like Jordachi.

Easterners and Orcs mount a huge campaign into the west. The easterners again invade south of the Sapphire hills - they wipe out most of the border lords and reach the Bright river. In the north, another group, based around Farmington now, invades Regelsburg, destroying all before them, and approaching Ernest from the north. The northern forces - in Dassal and Regelsburg, among the Indians and Elves, etc. are not keen to help Ernest - but the savagery of the Orcs and Easterners finally brings them in. A party of Easterners caught a party of high ranking elves - they tortured a couple to death, carried several off into slavery, and subjected on high born maiden to several days of sexual torture before turning her loose - naked, bleeding, out of her head - not far from an Indian camp. This brought the Elves and Indians into the war in earnest. They launched a devastating and effective attack on the rear of the Easterners’ army - an elite force went all the way to the Kingdom looking for enemies - these attacks totally demoralized the invaders, and Ernest was able to drive them out, though not out of Farmington or the areas south of the Sapphires. During this war, Byron fought with the wood elves and began to gain a reputation as a fighter.