Sanguinate Kings and Queens
Gold on the ceiling and walls had been enchanted to glow with white light. The immense stained-glass windows – portraits of the first Kings and Queens of Al’ain – cast red and blue and green hues over Aetha’s closest allies. They dipped cups in bowls of fine blood and lifted a toast.Driven from Sof Sator, blood-drinking anthrals descended on the The Golden Reef, at the time ruled by angels. Then the impossible happened all too quickly, the angels dead or captured, their blood feeding their sanguinate conquerors. The Isle of the Spheres now belonged to the sanguinates, and the Marble City was wholly undamaged. The sanguinate kings feasted on divine blood in a throne room meant for seraphs.-Blood Queen and Vermillion Beast, Chapter 1: Monsters
by Jack O'Shadows
History
Years 693CR - 920 CR, the Line of Al'uy: Sanguinate immigration, coastal raids, and alliance with Revan
The Kingdom of the Golden Reef was first declared in the year 693 CR, with its first ruler being the former admiral, now King, Avul'al'uy, who was also declared Prime Sanguinate and Supreme Seraph of the First Sphere. Thanks to his regular diet of preserved angelic blood, Avul'al'uy lived nearly three times the normal lifespan of lesser anthrals, and ruled from 693CR to 785CR. This was an age of rapid economic expansion for the young Kingdom, with Avul'al'uy's ambitions matching the hunger of his fellow sanguinates, who were given ranks of nobility inside the Kingdom. As word spread of a new nation of sanguinates, Avul'al'uy ensured this word carried an invitation to all sanguinates across Sof Sator, as well as a promise of easy food and wealth. This drew thousands of immigrants quickly, as bloodthirsty sanguinates arrived by ship from all across the continent. In order to feed the expanding population, Avul'al'uy organized a navy to conduct coastal raids along the western coast of Sof Sator, as well as throughout the Satorseas. Newly immigrated sanguinates eagerly volunteered for these raids, many having never before been allowed to feed freely, much less in cooperation with their fellow sanguinates. These raids also became a way to recruit new sanguinates to the Kingdom, as Avul'al'uy targeted cities that kept populations of sanguinates in prisons or that employed sanguinate-hunters. A favorite target of Avul'al'uy during this time was Redfall Reach, which hunted sanguinates and kept them imprisoned for religious sacrifice. During this age, the termins were still cementing their absolute control over the nation of Revan, which ruled Redfall Reach. Seeing the growth of the Kingdom of the Golden Reef as inevitable, King Hysmal of Revan became the first ruler in Sof Sator to recognize the rule of Al'uy and began formal diplomacy in the year 752CR. A trade agreement between Revan and the Golden Reef required that raids against Revan-aligned populations cease, but also required that Revan abandon Redfall Reach. A subsequent agreement ten years later turned Revan into a sanctuary for sanguinates, with King Hysmal promising that any sanguinate who reached Revan would be sent directly to the Golden Reef. Thanks to these agreements, immigration from many sources, and natural growth, the Golden Reef reached a population in excess of five thousand sanguinates and tens of thousands of servant and livestock anthrals by the year 780CR. Feeding this population and paying for trade agreements with Revan required a revolution of agriculture across the Golden Reef, with exports dictated almost entirely by the demands of Revan and its own trade partners. The Golden Reef's tropical climate made it ideal for the growth of sugar, tobacco, coffee, and many different fruits, and the population of servant anthrals were put to work clearing the divine alder groves of outlying islands to erect plantations in their place. After the death of Avul'al'uy in 785CR, infighting among the Spheres (that is, the noble houses) of the Golden Reef claimed the lives of Avul's oldest and middle children. The line of Al'muth almost succeed in displacing the line of Al'uy. However, the youngest son of Avul'al'uy, Lorivul'al'uy, took the throne in 785CR and executed the Supreme Seraph of the Second Sphere, which was the line of Al'muth, along with the two oldest heirs to the line. Lorivul'al'uy ruled from 785CR to 843CR, continuing trends set by his father. The Golden Reef's population reached capacity during this time, with over ten thousand sanguinates requiring an ever-greater population of livestock to feed on and servants to produce wealth. During Lorivul'al'uy's rule, the primary problem was maintaining the infrastructure for an incredible growth of the servant population, with enslaved or livestock anthrals numbering around thirty thousand in 790CR but growing to over 150,000 individuals by the end of his rule. Coastal raids mostly ceased during the final two decades, as the servant population had become self-sustaining through natural growth. While the population of the sanguinates had mostly stopped growing -- the rapid immigration of the previous century had now slowed to some hundred individuals per year as most of Sof Sator's sanguinates now lived exclusively within the Golden Reef -- the appetites of the sanguinates continued to grow. The death of Lorivul'al'uy and succession of King Alor'al'uy occured without drama, as the sanguinates were content and wealthy during this time. The primary work of Alor'al'uy's first years were to concentrate power into a more specialized population of sanguinate nobility. In order to achieve this, Alor'al'uy pushed more distant members of the noble families into a newly created noble servant class, which became the palace servants and an order of Golden Guards whose wealth was significant, but stopped short of the ceaseless opulence enjoyed by true nobility. This noble servant class became increasingly necessary as Alor'al'uy continued to grow the Golden Reef's wealth and attempted to grow the slave population further. The Golden Guards became taskmasters and overseers of the slave and livestock populations; this was the beginning of a trend that saw the military turning away from coastal raids and toward self-policing, which would not be fully actualized until after the Ossean Campaign. King Alor'al'uy's reign would end in the year 920CR, killed overseas during the war with the Osseans.920CR, the Ossean Campaign: Military alliance with Revan, the first war, the end of a royal line
In the year 920CR, King Alor'al'uy and King Hysmal of Revan were unified in their ambitions for infinitely growing wealth. For this, they desired easier access to the Satorseas and southeastern Sof Sator for the purposes of trade (in the case of Revan) and raiding (in the case of the Golden Reef). This desire paired well with the near-universal disgust toward the Osseans, which were seen as a supernatural menace haunting the Seafont Mountains, the Sea of Ossea, and the Calcrane Sea. These seas and coastal regions were mired in a dismal fog and repulsive magical aura, within which the bone-like Osseans drifted as a poorly understood and ghostlike presence. A military alliance between Revan and the Golden Reef was formed, and throughout the year 920CR the sanguinate navy sailed in a unified force with non-sanguinate anthrals under the command of Revan's termins. The Golden Reef had conducted other "Wars" in the form of coastal raids, and some coastal nations had considered themselves in a state of open war with the Golden Reef for the past century or more, but this was the first time the sanguinates recorded an event as a "War" in their own history. One nation that saw itself at war with the Golden Reef was Redfall Reach, which took this opportunity to ally with the Osseans and fight against both their tormentors and their former masters. The small nation of Arin, whose alchemists were students of the Osseans, initially joined with Redfall Reach and resisted the naval encroachment. Cradsoun, which was then a trade partner of Revan and a small naval power on the coasts of the Cradsea, believed that Revan and the Golden Reef were only invading Ossea because they regarded the Osseans as animalistic entities to be exterminated. Cradsoun sent a token force in the defense of the Osseans, assuming that if Revan were faced with fellow anthrals and trade partners they would turn away. This was a mistake; Cradsoun's small force was quickly destroyed by the Golden Reef, and Cradsoun did not send more. After only a month, Arin turned against the Osseans and joined an assault on Redfall Reach, quickly defeating the former colony of Revan. After this, the Golden Reef was meant to withdraw from the campaign and leave the Sea of Ossea to Revan, but King Alor'al'uy was unexpectedly killed in a ground battle on the northern coast of the Sea of Ossea, near Arin. Alor did not die without heirs, but his heirs were back home in the Golden Reef, and the Supreme Seraph of the Second Sphere, Cae'lor of the line of Al'muth, took command of the Golden Reef's naval forces. As a close ally of King Hysmal, Admiral Cae'lor Al'muth remained in in the Sea of Ossea, and together with Revan conducted a full campaign of extermination against the Osseans. Whatever role the Osseans served in the magic that underpins the world, their absence proved to be more than the world could sustain. In the latter months of the year 920CR, the Seafont Mountains began to pour forth boiling blood and the Satorseas drained into the Larlost Expanse, forever changing the face of Sof Sator. While environmental devastation struck all of western Sof Sator, from Revan to the Rumbling Hills, the Golden Reef was wholly unaffected. Cae'lor'al'muth returned to the Reef as the Dire Eradictor of All Ossea, a figure so feared and respected by his lieutenants that seizing the throne was as simple as walking into the throne room and executing the heirs of the line of Al'uy with his own blade.920CR - 960CR, the Mad Kings of Al'muth
King Cae'lor'al'muth had been a ruthless Admiral overseas, and he was a ruthless ruler at home. He gave great power to the Golden Guards and taskmasters that oversaw the slaves and livestock of the Golden Reef, and his short reign was defined by the gluttonous overfeeding of sanguinates and a suddenly dire standard of living for slaves and anthrals. In addition to ruthless feeding on livestock and workforce anthrals, Cae'lor also demanded great monuments be constructed to past rulers and demanded greater agricultural quotas to be sold to Revan. In the fifteen years he reigned, Cae'lor's policies lead to the deaths of around thirty thousand anthrals, decreasing their workforce by nearly a fifth of its population. A sudden rise of violence (which, strangely enough, he failed to predict) in 935CR saw many nobles killed by their livestock. Cae'lor mocked these deaths, and after this continued for a few more months, Cae'lor became the first sanguinate ruler deposed and imprisoned by nobility. A struggle for succession took place. Cae'lor's eldest son, Lor'al'muth, ruled for two years, from 935CR to 937CR, but made no effective decisions before he was deposed and imprisoned by his sister, Rovaz'al'muth. While in prison, Cae'lor and Lor fought, and Cae'lor killed his son in 938CR, after which Rovaz had him tried and executed. Rovaz'al'muth's own rule only lasted from 937CR to 950CR, during which she struggled to stabilize the nobility and rebuild the slave population through coastal raiding. While Rovaz was overseas leading a raid on Gray Watch, her daughter Ravel rallied the nobility in revolution. When Rovaz's ship returned to port, it was fired upon in the harbor and the queen was sunk with her crew. Ravel'al'muth ruled from 950CR to 960CR. Ever since 920CR, the slave population of the Golden Reef had continued to decline and the Golden Reef struggled to maintain trade agreements with Revan, a trend which showed no signs of changing. Ravel ceased all coastal raids and turned the Golden Guards into an insular force of taskmasters, focusing on organizing the slave population into specialized groups of farmers, laborers, manufacturers, and artisans, believing that further specialization would enable them to meet intense quotas. Ravel also tried to repair the reputation of her grandfather, Cae'lor, reinstating many of his failed policies and demanding new monuments built in his name. Her system was ordered and regimented such that its inevitable failure dragged out across the decade, but eventually the nobility made plans to depose her like they had once deposed Cae'lor. When Ravel'al'muth realized the end of her rule was near, she murdered her husband and her three children, and then hung herself by the neck from a statue of her grandfather. The line of Al'muth ended in 960CR.960CR - 1066CR, the Line of Al'ain: Repairing the Broken Legacy
With the line of Al'muth suddenly cut short, the nobles were unusually adverse to fighting over a throne that had been so troubled for the past four decades. The rank of monarch seemed cursed, and most nobles with the clout to vie for the seat were comfortable enough in their wealth that such ambition eluded them. For once, they decided to follow the line of succession and force the rightful ruler into the seat. At this time, the Supreme Seraph of the Fifth Sphere was Caevel'al'muth, who was the granddaughter of an unloved sibling of Cae'lor'al'muth; while Caevel was not in the royal line, her grandfather once would have been. Though Caevel's family name was tainted, she had married a man from the line of Al'ain, and their daughter was Caerath'al'ain. Much to her own surprise, the young Caerath'al'ain was named Queen of the Golden Reef in the year 961CR. Caerath'al'ain leaned on the varied expertise of noble advisors to unmake the legacy of the line of Al'muth. She renegotiated trade deals with Revan to a more manageable scope and instituted policies of livestock conservation, making more regular the use of phlebotomists to harvest blood without killing or damaging livestock. A renewed navy conducted careful coastal raids to collect specific numbers of new slaves for specific purposes. During these decades, the dietary allotment of all inhabitants -- be they sanguinate, laborer, or livestock -- were carefully codified and adjusted over time. All sanguinates were provided a certain amount of blood to sustain them for a certain amount of time, with higher echelons being permitted more, and only the very highest of nobles allowed unrestricted feeding. Caerath'al'ain's rule produced an incredible number of ledgers, offices, and professions of auditing and census-taking, such that each individual was accounted for and described by the resources they required and the value they created. In the year 990CR, Caerath'al'ain suddenly became ill and died of mysterious causes; it is now understood that she was one of the first to fall victim to the blood plagues, though this would not be realized until many decades later. Queen Aerfin'al'ain was the first monarch to take power without dispute in a century, and she continued her mother's legacy of careful, slow expansion. She inherited a wealth of information and iterative systems of rule that made regrowing the Golden Reef's wealth as simple as adding to the labor population in small degrees and then allowing it time to stabilize, and regularly renegotiating trade deals with Revan, who remained the Golden Reef's only trade partner. After the draining of the Satorseas, new nations had arisen in the fresh, salty deserts of southern Sof Sator; Aerfin'al'ain sent trade envoys to some of these nations, but was quickly reminded that none but the termins of Revan would do business with the Golden Reef. Anthral-ruled nations would not speak to sanguinates. Queen Aerfin'al'ain became the first sanguinate ruler to peacefully cede power, willingly stepping down when she grew tired and saw in her son a mind and ambition that she trusted to rule. She made her son, Aedol'al'ain, the King of the Golden Reef in 1032CR. It was in the first years of Aedol's rule that the blood plagues grew from a small, mysterious illness to a national problem, suddenly overtaking the Isle of Orchids. The blood plagues had, to this point, mostly only infected elderly non-sanguinate anthrals who were no longer used for feeding, and their symptoms were readily mistaken for old age. This new plague effected even young anthrals, and rendered the workforce stumbling and week. To make matters worse, it was highly infectious and did not show immediately, and any sanguinate who partake of tainted blood would soon die from the same symptoms that once killed Caerath'al'ain. It was found that the Isle of Orchids had recently received an infusion of new slaves from a coastal raid on Redfall Reach; Aedol sent investigators who found that Redfall Reach had not only one such blood plague in its population, but a great many. The origins of the plagues were unclear, but it was likely that the ritual practices of a blood cult that had suddenly surged to popularity in Redfall Reach had caused the plagues to perpetuate. Much too late, Redfall Reach was declared off-limits for coastal raids and the Isle of Orchids was quarantined. By then, the plagues had already penetrated the Isle of the Spheres, and they would soon become a fixture of the City of Marble. Suddenly, the division between workforce and livestock was all-important. Within years, most of the isle's workforce population was infected with the blood plagues and no longer fit for feeding, and the blurred line between workforce and livestock could not be maintained. A radical new organization was required, but just as he began work on this new system, King Aedol'al'ain suddenly died to the very plagues he was preparing to fight. On the longest day of the year 1066 CR, the elderly former Queen Aerfin'al'ain conducted her son's royal funeral in the morning, placed the crown on her grandson's head in the evening, and then quietly died in her bed sometime during the night.
The Golden Reef, map by Jack O'Shadows
1066CR - Present Day: Blood Plagues and Rivalry with Revan
Beginning his rule in the year 1066 CR, the King Aeyel'al'ain ruled closely with his wife, Eirda'al'nex, who herself had been the Prime Seraph of the Third Sphere and an official of all importance to the phlebotomists who were now tasked with testing all blood for plagues that they did not fully understand. The pair already had two daughters -- Aetha'al'ain and Eiri'el'al'ain -- for whom they greatly feared. Aeyel and Eirda rapidly implemented new policies of population containment, forcing all infected populations to serve as workforce on the Isle of the Spheres where the Golden Guard could closely monitor their movements. All of the other isles were completely quarantined from one another, and coastal raids of uninfected nations were conducted to provide these isles with fresh, healthy workforces. In the first years of Aeyel's reign, the navy tripled in size, as raids were conducted throughout Sof Sator to bring in uninfected livestock. The slave population of the Golden Reef suddenly surged to its greatest numbers in history, as 200,000 infected laborers were forced into the confines of the City of Marbles and thousands more laborers were brought in to populate the outlying isles. Livestock colonies were established on the Goldleaf Isles, though it was difficult to keep these populations stable and controlled. Most food resources went to the livestock colonies, which left the labor force starving and the livestock emboldened. The livestock were by far the healthiest and strongest of the Reef's anthrals, and since by law their lives could not be endangered, they regularly rebelled. Sometimes containment failed as infected anthrals of the City of Marble fled their dire situation, swimming or boating to the outlying isles and contaminating either the quarantined plantations or the livestock colonies. The enduring policies of livestock conservation had to be reconsidered. In 1072, King Aeyel'al'ain suspended the conservation laws and began to eradicate members of the workforce who were too ill to continue their productivity, and instituted new penalties of summary execution for infected workers who were disloyal or slow. Over the following months, these policies were rapidly expanded. Queen Eirda'al'ain codified health as a measure of value, granting workers greater rights based on the purity of their blood, and Aeyel went further by removing all penalties for killing any infected anthral. New policies punished sanguinates who harmed anthrals with clean blood, and unauthorized feeding on uninfected anthrals became a high crime. Because fewer sanguinates meant a smaller required livestock population, execution of sanguinates for crime became common for the first time. In 1075, Aeyel'al'ain completely purged the workforce population of two infected islands and personally led raids to repopulate them. This became policy when an island was infected, with entire populations being cycled regularly. A new problem presented itself: The Greater Sabine Trade Compact led by Revan. For the past hundred years, Revan had been signing nations into its trade compact, and the Golden Reef was bound by its own agreements with Revan not to raid these newly-allied states. But more nations began to rapidly sign on to Revan's compact, in part because it was known this would protect them from increasingly aggressive sanguinate raids. By 1077CR, most nations in western Sof Sator were a part of the Greater Sabine Trade Compact, with the only primary exception being Redfall Reach, which was mired in plague. Aeyel was forced to conduct raids more often on far-flung Cradsoun and Gray Watch, which had formed the Nor Sator League and had no allegiance to Revan. However, the Nor Sator league did count in its number the inscrutable Aldalneld Writhe, which had a supernatural naval primacy in the Starlost Expanse. Normally too far away to be any risk to the Golden Reef's raids, once Aeyel began to target the Nor Sator League regularly, the Writhe traveled north and lay in wait. In the last months of 1077CR, as he led a raid against Gray Watch, King Aeyel'al'ain was ambushed by the Writhe and dragged into the sea. Queen Eirda'al'nex took the throne and ruled from 1077-1081CR. She blamed Revan for the death of her husband, holding her grudge in silence while she began to push the limits of the Golden Reef's alliance with Revan. She chose not to acknowledge the Greater Sabine Trade Compact and raided Revan's trade partners, daring King Hysmal to stand up to her. For the duration of her rule, King Hysmal did not acknowledge this violation of their agreement, though he certainly noticed it. The ability to conduct regular raids did not assuage the advance of the blood plagues, however, and in 1080CR Eirda'al'nex restricted the blood of anthral livestock to only the highest nobility, members of the very Spheres. All lesser sanguinates, be they royal servants, soldiers, or members of the Golden Guard, would have to suffice on the blood of the animals that their laborers ate. With this new policy in place, Queen Eirda'al'nex disposed of the livestock colonies, with the only remaining dedicated livestock being a small population of prime specimens held in the palace and overseen by royal phlebotomists. One year after making this decision, in 1081CR, Queen Eirda'al'nex left the palace in the night and was not seen again. Barely an adult, the eldest daughter of Aeyel'al'ain and Eirda'al'nex, Aetha'al'ain, took the throne once she gave up hope that her mother would return. Queen Aetha'al'ain harbored a bitter grudge against all the rulers that had gone before her, particularly her parents and the mad line of Al'muth. In her first month as queen, Aetha'al'ain commanded that all monuments to rulers prior to the line of Al'ain be destroyed, promising the nobility that she would build a nation of wealth and power. Aetha turned out to be a queen of ruthless diplomacy, aggressively pursuing a positive relationship with King Hysmal of Revan and presenting an image of strength and aggression both toward rivals in the nobility and foreign rulers. She granted her sister, Eiri'el'al'ain, the title of Sister-Queen and authority second only to her own, specifically to keep the nobles in their place while Aetha was overseas. Aetha then personally conducted coastal raids and led a military campaign against the last surviving Osseans, finishing work that Cae'lor'al'muth had left undone more than a century earlier.
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