Auredain
The kingdom of Auredain, born of refugees and survivors from a hundred lost kingdoms including that of lost Laurus, were forced to stand their ground when they could go no farther south. Held together by a royal line descended from Laurus itself, the kingdom of Auredain wavered on the knife’s edge of obliteration. Even today, it spreads slowly from the banks of Dain Lake where its capital city and greatest fortification, Heraldsport, hovers over the water as if poised between leaping to their doom and setting foot on dry land once again.
Structure
The KINGDOM OF AUREDAIN is a feudal monarchy with the penultimate ruler of the realm being the King or Queen that sits upon the Throne. All power bestowed upon nobility, titles and grants flow from the individual seated upon the Throne. At just over a century old, the Kingdom has only recently grown and lasted to the point where the lesser descendants of the King’s Line and other nobility are growing in numbers.
The only individuals eligible to sit upon the Throne are the direct descendants from KING ORIEN. It is the lineage and primacy that determines one’s title within the royal bloodline—the Kingdom does not differentiate between genders for inheritance purposes. While all descendants of the Auredain lineage are eligible for the Throne, the line of succession passes most directly through the offspring of the last reigning monarch in order of birth. Only after the children are ineligible does the wider family become eligible to take the Crown.
AUREDAIN does not recognize the spouse of the monarch as King or Queen. These men and women are titled as Royal Consorts or Prince-Consort and Princess-Consort. The Presumptive Heir is titled the Crown Prince/Princess of the Realm. All other children of the reigning monarch or a past monarch are titled as Prince or Princess.
History
Before The Taking
In the years before the Taking, the lands surrounding Dain Lake were mostly independent freeholds and prosperous farming communities. Other than these communities, the area was home to several small domains of petty princedoms mostly consisting of a small fortification and a supporting rural population. The smaller domains were generally cooperative as any unrest could affect travel and trade from Aendor to more civilized points south. Such interference was sure to get the Overkingdom’s attention and result in a ‘protective’ annexation of the land. Set between the various domains of the Overkingdom of Aendor and the civilized states to the south, the region was fairly safe although it suffered from the occasional raiding and mayhem of subhumans. But the nearby presence of the Overkingdom went a long ways towards ensuring its safety.
As the Taking spread south, the hordes decimated the Overkingdom and caused a flight of refugees from many of the former subjects of Aendor. These people fled south and into the lands surrounding Dain Lake . Those capable of fighting stayed behind to act as a rearguard and in the hope of a long-sought victory but most of them saw their families off with the knowledge that it was for the last time.
One of the refugees was a nine-year old boychild of the Laurus royal bloodline; his family name is unknown but he was called Orien. He had been sent south with a company from the Spears of Auran to safety by his family which had stayed behind almost completely. While not a direct heir to the throne, he was of the blood and his parents had chosen to send him south into the unknown rather than face the danger that strode down upon them all.
As the Overkingdom suffered and died, those who fled ran into the realization that the area south of them, what is now the Remnant Thrones, had also suffered incursions and was too dangerous to pass through. So they hunkered down, built what defenses they could and prepared for the end.
The last acts of the Overkingdom are lost to history but it is known that either they or the hordes enacted a terrible magic. This working lifted the very earth beneath them and slammed it back down again. While the loss of life amongst the hordes was stupendous, it did little to stop the onslaught. The true consequences of the working were that the very face of the land was fundamentally altered by it. Mountains crumbled or rose, the mighty rivers that fed the many kingdoms of Aendor shifted their flows or disappeared altogether. This is now known as the Collapse.
The tales of these catastrophes were brought to the refugees by those who arrived after them. Clambering out of the choking air and muddy earth, the people weeped at the knowledge that their home was forever gone; and with it all of their kin.
The Founding of Auredain
As they sat waiting, a long pause of days settled in where the streams of refugees dwindled and then ceased altogether. Many of them wondered at the quiet for the end must have surely reached them by now. It was too far past the great working of Aendor for it to have stopped the horde as others had told of how it did little to stop their advance. The people moaned and weeped for the end and many took their own lives rather than face the horrors to come.
It was during this time that the young Orien began to walk amongst the camps and bring comfort to those so bereaved. The tales told of these days remark on the confidence and surety of Orien's reassurances. Always, the tales said, he would point to the north and claim that word of victory would arrive anyday. While many sought to disabuse the boy of his dreams, the young noble usually succeeded in lightening even the darkest of hearts.
And then, the tales say, that one morning the people roused themselves to yet another day of dust-choked skies to find the young ORIEN on the shores of Dain Lake waving and shouting to a small fishing boat that came closer and closer. The people awoke and gathered their neighbors and all came down to the shore to see what bespoke all of the excitement.
In that small boat, commandeered far up the Auran River in the old territories of the Overkingdom, were three survivors of Aendor’s Defiance. They spoke a great battle that was fought hard but at great cost and eventually lost nearly to the last man. These three escaped it and the hordes that came behind it. They pushed south, though exhausted and wounded, until they stood atop a rocky range to the north and looked down at the hordes to see chaos, confusion and internal fighting. The hordes of the Taking had turned upon themselves in the blink of an eye and within the day had scattered from their advance. The hordes were no more and the Taking had, for all purposes, come to an end.
As that news settled onto the crowd, Orien turned to the people who now understood that somehow he had known all along. Many whispered that it was the eldritch nature of the royal houses of old, or that Orien had been gifted in other ways. But all of them became aware that he had been right all along. When they rushed forward to thank him, the Spears with him had to hold the crowds away with the edges of their blades when the blunts would not do. The chaos was so great that it took a great many minutes before two of the Spears were able to raise Orien above their heads on a shield so that he could address the entire crowd.
Orien implored the crowd that it was not his doing but a sign that a new day had come. He gestured to the two soldiers in the boat and proclaimed them ‘heralds of this new day’. And the crowd embraced all three of them and bent knee in gratitude.
It was on that spot, with those words, that the foundations of Heraldsport and the Kingdom of Auredain were first laid. It would be some years before King Orien the First would be crowned the King of Auredain but it was a beginning nonetheless.Territories
Auredain is centered around the large body of freshwater known as Dain Lake. The lake itself is fed by one of the longest rivers known to exist in the Approach; the Auran River. The river begins far in the north somewhere near the Clagspike Range. Though no one has followed it to its fount, the river is known to run over one hundred miles north through the lands that once belonged to Aendor.
The lake provided a solid base of food and resources in Auredain’s early days as well as security for putting out to the water when raiders appeared was a time-honored tactic. Bereft of their slaughter, the subhumans would vent their frustration in destruction and then continue on their way. The people of Auredain learned the hard way to wait until the flames of their homes petered out and went cold before returning to land. But they learned something else along the way. They learned that anything could be overcome so long as one still had air to breathe and so, time and again, they rebuilt their homes and lives after each raid.
Never Hindmost
Maps
-
Dyram Village
-
HERALDSPORT
The capital of AUREDAIN and principal river port-town. HERALDSPORT has a population of approx. 14,000 people.
Founding Date
9
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Capital
Demonym
Dains, Auredani
Leader
Ruling Organization
Head of State
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Market economy
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
Related Species
Related Ethnicities
Related Myths
Peace
Peace
The kingdoms of Caemaranth and Auredain have co-existed peacefully since the formation of AUREDAIN. While relations have expanded as Auredain has expanded, this has also led to more tension between the Kingdom's western provinces and Caemaranth.
Comments