Kirk II 'the Wise'

King Kirk Blakfort (a.k.a. the Wise)

Lived: 1112 - 1187
Ruled: 1138 - 1187

Overview

Kirk II was a wise ruler, who was beloved by his people for his Honesty and Generosity. He ruled his kingdom with an iron fist, but he was Just and was willing to Forgive his subjects whenever he deemed it warranted.
Kirk II lived a long and eventful life, which he documented in his journal, so his life is one of the best known among the rules of Blakfort.

Early Reign

Before his father died, Kirk II was already the lord of Orilum and started a war for Volitare, so following his coronation he proceeded to win the war in the same year. He decided to lead his armies personally but he took great care to listen to all of his generals. Following a short period of peace, he declared war on the Merendellian King to reclaim the lost territory of Avadell.
To his surprise, the King of Merendell pulled a Krovian Crossing and enlisted the help of the Hammers of Ostinatos against the Blakfort Kingdom. In his journal, he expressed great disappointment in the Hammers and planned to kick them out of their stronghold when the war ended.
He changed his mind in 1140, when the Hammers refused to fight the Blakfort army. Without their help, Merendell had no chance against Kirk's army. By the end of 1143, the war was over andthe majority of Avadell returned to its rightful place. Kirk decided to give the newly acquired title to his brother who has been his best friend since birth.
His next move was to ally himself with the Emperor of Westatoras, a large empire to the west. This move was disliked by his people, who thought that this alliance meant subservience to the Westatoran Emperor. This lead to the 'Independence Uprising' in 1144, which wanted the king to break his alliance. The rebel forces besieged Austium, but the Blakfort army quickly broke their siege and crushed their rebellion. In his journal, Kirk called the rebels a 'bunch of ignorant fools'.
In 1145, the Emperor of Westatoras sent a bird automaton to Kirk as a sign of friendship. Kirk was impressed by the machine and decided to display it in the throne room of Austium, where it stands to this day.
In 1148, he declared war on Krovia to take the rest of Brica for his family. The Krovians showed no resistance and the war was over within a year. While the centaurs of the Great Plains managed to kill a few hundred Blakfort soldiers, they weren't enough to hinder the war effort.

Times of Progress

Two years later, Kirk attacked Merendell again, to reclaim the rest of the lost territory from them. The war began slowly as the coming of winter hindered Kirk's progress, but his army gained enough momentum to finish the war by 1153.
Seeing his strength and wisdom, a few Brican nobles swore fealty to him and he began the creation of a Brican Kingdom. He viewed the Bricans as noble people, worthy of the Blakfort Kingdom and held their nobles in high regard.
In 1155, the Pilgrimite Legion asked Kirk's permission to construct a fortress near Austium, as many of their order hailed from that city and training them near their home would make it more efficient. Kirk sold them a small bit of land, where their fortress could be built. He also wanted the order to expand as many of their members found themselves in the Blak Guard throughout the years. The order began constructing the Pilgrim Fortress and the king supported their project with manpower and materials.
The construction was hindered a little bit, when Krovian peasants in Volitare demanded more pay for their work and sabotaged the transport of construction materials. The rebels were stopped by the Pilgrimite Legion shortly after.

Pilgrimage

While the king has began many projects since his coronation, he wanted to do something more, so he decided to make the pilgrimage to the temple of Yi'riila, which was made into a holy place by the Probare a few years earlier. While his journey was smooth and safe, he met a particularly interesting person on his travels. A preacher near the Atacodian coast heralded the end of the world. Kirk found his ramblings amusing, but took them seriously. In Yi'riila, he noticed that many of the Elves' practices started to appear within the city. The most shocking was the fact that humans started slavery as well, but took Dark Elves as their slaves. While these slaves' conditions were much better than those of human slaves, it worried Kirk, who expected to find a place most righteous and fair. A shining light in the Dark Land. He returned home and began searching through religious texts to find any tenet that supported slavery.
In 1159, two years after his pilgrimage, the Duke of Avadell successfully took the last bit of land that was lost when the previous Duke of Avadell became the King of Merendell. While this pleased him, he didn't pay much attention to political events since his return from his journey as he was obsessed with finding the right tenets.
In 1160, he finished his search and left empty-handed. While this was unknown to his subjects at the time, he came to the conclusion that the tenets are wrong as the Great Mechanism wouldn't allow such a holy city to practice slavery if it wasn't allowed. He slowly began deviating from religious dogma more and more.
Two years later, he was called into a war between two Atacodian nobles. He decided to help his ally among them and sent his army to support them. He managed to win a few battles in the following year, but a new turn of events changed the course of the war.

The Third Holy War

In 1163, the Probare called upon his the faithful for the Third Holy War in the name of the Order. The Giant Men of the Úar'gannau mountains began raiding the neighbouring kingdoms. A year later, all rulers who follow the religion ceased their wars and sent their armies to fight the enemies of the Order. Kirk was no exception and sent his forces to the eastern border to war. Kirk enlisted the help of the dwarves of his kingdom to help him in his war as they still retained their ancestral knowledge of fighting in the mountains. He also hired a bunch of merchants to help in the transportation of his forces. In 1165, his army arrived in the the mountainous Úar'gannau, the lands of the Goliath tribes.
With the help of dwarves, his army quickly marched towards the biggest Goliath tribe to fight their strongest enemy before the Goliaths could unite. He entered their camp and challenged their leader to a duel, but when their chieftain, "Bearwrestler Mathebunni" exited his tent to fight him in an honourable duel, he ordered his men to shoot the man where he stood. The rest of the tribe, outraged by the dishonourable fight, attacked the king and his forces, but they were surrounded and killed mercilessly. This event was the most important "battle" of the Holy War and later became known as the "Mathebunni Massacre of 1165".
In the next few years, the rest of the Goliath tribes were subjugated or eradicated and the Probare announced that a new, human ruler should occupy the mountains of Úar'gannau. As most of the fighting was done by Blakfort troops, Kirk II was given the honour to choose a worthy king for the newly created Gannau Kingdom. Kirk chose his distant relative, Ladomir Blakfort, a capable fighter and an intelligent administrator as the first Mountain King of Gannau. As the new capital of this kingdom, they started constructing a fortress at the site of the Mathebunni tribe named after its previous owners.
With two Holy Kingdoms under their belt, the Blakfort dynasty achieved a high level of fame and the reputation that few other dynasties could reach, making them quite Desirable in terms of Marriages in the future.
In 1172, a smaller kingdom to the west was under attack by the Westatoras Empire and peasant uprisings at the same time. Kirk was called by the small kingdom to help them, but he refused to declare war on the biggest human empire as they would certainly loose. He did send aid against the uprising, which was beaten back eventually.

Troubles at Home

Following the Third Holy War, Kirk didn't want to get into another war, at least until his realm recovered from the near-constant warring. He upgraded many of the castles within the kingdom to make them more defensible. He couldn't find peace in his home however, as a mysterious killer was terrorizing the court of Austium. Servants, courtiers and even a few nobles were killed by an unknown perpetrator in 1174. A year later, whilst the killer was still at large, things turned even worse for Kirk, who started showing symptoms of Jacob's Curse. He was treated by Strunitor, who gave up on his search for a cure for the time being and used the old elixir to alleviate the symptoms. The treatment was effective and Kirk was soon back on his feet.
Another year later, the killer took the life of one of Kirk's granddaughters, which was the last straw for the king and ordered an immediate and thorough investigation. A few weeks later, the Blak Guard dragged his own daughter before him as the culprit. He was utterly shocked at first, but his mages have deduced that she was under the effects of Jacob's Curse as well, but the more serious, demonic possession variant of it. The demon convinced her to take lives and she was no longer in control of her own body. She was immediately thrown into a cell for the rest of her miserable life as Kirk didn't want to kill his own blood.

End of his Reign

In the year 1179, Kirk fought a war with the quickly declining Krovian Kingdom and ended the war in a year.
A year later, his brother, the Duke of Avadell died from old age, leaving his title to Kirk. Kirk didn't want the title, so he bestowed it upon another one of his brothers, who was much younger than him.
Two years later, his wife died as well, leaving her own titles - in the Westatoras Empire - to their son. He was struck with grief and felt that death awaited him as well.
In 1183, his son and Heir was at war and he agreed to help him. Thankfully the opposition had no chance against the might of the Blakfort army, so the war was over within a year.
3 peaceful years later, Kirk II fell asleep in his bed never to wake up again.

Legacy

• Pilgrim Fortress
• Bird Automaton of the Blakfort Court
• Mountain Kingdom of Gannau

Major Events

• 1144 - Independence Uprising
• 1164-1167 Third Holy War in the name of The Order
• 1165 - Mathebunni Massacre

Territory Gained

Lower Krovia

Camptestribus

Arkalaum

Avadell

Striflucas

Cirflucas

Wolvewich

Conlus

Norwich

Upper Brica

Species

Humans

Ethnicity

Lacrian

Previously Held Ranks & Titles

• Blakfort King

Life

1112 AU 1187 AU

Family

Blakfort Dynasty

Parents

Baraton IV 'the Young'

Children

• Nemoj 'the Damned'

Related Historical Events

• 1164 AU
  Third Holy War in the name of the Order