Kaembryge History
Contents
The History of Kaembryge
Overview
The history of the area that is now home to the Province of Kaembryge can be neatly categorized into three periods, those being the rise and fall of the High Principality of Borderlands Keep, the dark age of monster occupation known as The Interregnum that followed, and finally the rise of what is now Kaembryge. While many of the facts are shrouded in the mists of time, a number of ancient texts and bardic tavern songs recount the deeds of these ages, both for good and ill.
A Note on Time
As this is a scholarly work, we seek to use the accepted Phoenician reckoning, starting with the founding of the Kingdom of the Burning Lands in the Era Phoenice 1, or referenced hereafter in this document as E.P. 1. While many calendars are shared among the various peoples of Amtgardia, this has become the most accepted and will be explained below.
Amtgardia shares its yearly cycle with that of Old Earth, being approximately 365 days in a cycle. Amgardia observes four months of 90 days in length, those being the months of Marching (2/12-5/13,) Sowing (5/14-8/12,) Harvest (8/13-11/10,) and Winter (11/11-2/9.) The remaining balance of days between Winter and Marching are the holy season of Festivus, where there are many Feats of Strength and Airing of Grievances (which one assumes is the cause for the wars that take place in Marching.)
The High Principality of The Borderlands Keep
The oldest records uncovered come from the Scrolls of Tul, placing the foundation of “the Shire of the Borderlands Keep” within the borders of the Kingdom of the Emerald Hills during the month of Sowing in E.P. 11. As the Southern-most province in the Emerald Hills, it was a vital watch post over potential aggression by the Celestial Kingdom, and so the monarchs of the EH invested heavily in its fortification, placing it upon a high overlook with good visibility, access to the Kingsroad and the two major riverways that pass Lover’s Hill, and natural choke points making any protracted siege difficult. In the Scrolls of Tul, they name the first Mayor as a Barbarian called Falador, who by the end of his reign over the young holdfast had guided its residents to being named a Barony. By the time of their third monarch, Bereg Crosstic, the city had expanded beyond the keep’s walls and was becoming so large that a petition was circulated to no longer be known as a Keep, but to instead be simply known as the “Duchy of the Borderlands.”
Sadly, rapid population growth without strong internal security led to the formation and fostering of darker and more sinister elements in the populace, namely the black company known as the Dark Hand of the Rose and the allied Sisterhood of the Serpent. Through guile and manipulation, they infiltrated as far into the Ducal court as the office of the Chancellor, altering records to obscure their nefarious deeds. The Duchy’s fourth monarch, the Grand Duke Sir Asmund Heimdal Harodsson, had been working toward securing the status of High Principality for the Borderlands. His hope was the formation of a new Kingdom in its own right coming from this move, despite rumors and intrigues in the courts of the Emerald Hills and Celestial Kingdom about an alliance with Mordengaard to the Southeast. However, in finalizing the work he discovered the corruption and tried to put an end to it, but by the time it had reached the Duke’s throne the damage was already done. Handing the matter to King Sir Cabal, Sir Heimdal abdicated, rising Deerslayer as the fifth monarch and first Prince of the High Principality of the Borderlands.
The depredations and rampant corruption led to a slow decline of the defensive stronghold’s population from E.P. 14-17, and while the revenue was no longer there to support the defense of so massive a metropolis, the Princes were watching the armies of the Celestial Kingdom mass at their borders and therefore fought the laws of the Emerald Hills that stated that smaller provinces must downgrade their standing, blinded by both pride and the fear of invasion. Little did they remember that smaller provinces pay less in taxation to the crown, which would allow them to afford a mercenary compliment to bolster their numbers. Many argued on both sides, but in the end, Grand Duke Sir Terarin of Shadowdale, Prince of the Borderlands, forced the issue and dismantled the High Principality in a highly controversial move, downgrading it to a Duchy.
The Dark Hand had fought so long to hide their dark actions, but were nonetheless suddenly forced into the light and exposed to make account for their deeds, sadly, by that point too few good souls had the strength to fight them, and they used that weakness to gain control, crowning their Duchess, Lady Sleet Gil-Shalos. With the Dark Hand and the Sisterhood in total control of the Duchy, their victory seemed all but assured. The White Light, however, delights in irony and karma, which came on swift wings.
In the month of Sowing of E.P. 17, savages and evil-loving monsters fell upon the Duchy from all sides. They forded the Bosque and Brazos. They swept through the Pecan Bottoms and scaled the Great Ladder that the Celestial Kingdom had feared for so long. The Chronicles of the Evergreen described the scene better than my tongue ever could:
“Atop the Lover’s Hill, a bonfire raged. Its hellish pyre could be seen for miles, and the stench of what those beasts burned atop that once mighty fortress went out even further, like a hateful curse upon the land in all directions. Scouts arriving after the fact said the monsters and primitives threw everything atop that blaze and cooked what few citizens that remained to defend the city, seemingly alive. For the Celestial Kingdom, it was a good omen; the Golden Dragon had cast aside the front line of defense against their conquest of the North. For those of us in the Emerald Hills, it was as the thunder before a mighty storm, the like of which had to be met with all strength and haste, lest it consume us whole.”
The Interregnum
Those who managed to escape were few and scattered far and wide. While it was later found out that Lady Sleet, the Sisterhood, the Grey Wolves, and the Dark Hands were sucked through a portal during the final defense of the keep and had made their way to another realm called Kalladen, Grand Duke Sir Terarin, Countess Dame Kayrana, and a small band of others had founded an outpost in the Emerald Woods some distance from the ruin of the old Borderlands Keep so as to not draw too much attention to their activities, which due to not having enough manpower essentially was relegated to patrolling the roads and keeping spies out of the EH and avenging the Borderlands on whatever monsters would crop up and pose a threat. Their watch endured for a full year before the attrition of their battle finally took its toll on those of Amtgardia not blessed with the true immortality of its heroes, and Sir Terarin and Dame Kayrana sought out other ways to serve the Kingdom and the Dream.
To state that the next nine years was a living hell across the remnants of the High Principality would be a major understatement. Indeed, E.P. 19-28 saw war after war fought between the Celestial Kingdom, the Emerald Hills, and even the Wetlands moved troops through the region. What few Scouts patrolled the area often found it still overrun with the creatures who had demolished Borderlands Keep. No explanation for their behavior has to date been uncovered, but the scars and desolation they left in their wake is unmistakable, even some seven years after the return of order to the region.
More important than the creatures, however, were the magical after-effects of the rift that sucked up the last Duchess and her entourage. Freak storms in strange colors will often pop up, ice cold weather arriving on a clear and warm spring day, or creatures and devices from exotic places and times will periodically appear in the area, warped and bent on destruction from their passage through the instability. Even worse still is the effect it has had on the common folk; those with no trace of the immortality-granting blood of heroes in them. Sometimes the commons will contract a plague that seems beyond natural remedies, or they may be warped and mutated by the magics dancing through the very air. Some just fall down dead after a sudden exposure ‘spike.’ By all accounts, it was a truly horrific nine years to find yourself all alone in the wilderness.
The Province of Kaembryge
Civility returned to the keep’s former walls in the spring of E.P. 28, when an expeditionary force led by several survivors from the attack on the Borderlands Keep returned and pushed their way to Lover’s Hill, recovering the Ducal coronet from what little remained of the pyre. What startled those provinces surrounding the keep on the hill was that the flag that rose atop the ruined ramparts was not the Borderlands, and not the Blue-and-Green of the Emerald Hills, but the White and Gold of the Celestial Kingdom.
Over the years, the Celestial Kingdom had pushed its borders closer and closer to the Emerald Hills, daring year after year to finally make a move on the keep atop Lover’s Hill. They had also not been idle and had recovered a number of the Borderlands survivors, promising them land and titles if they could retake the hall and rebuild a province there. The Survivors did what they had to do, using every trick at their disposal, and they prevailed, raising the Celestial Kingdom’s flag for all to see. Knowing they could not in good conscience call themselves the Borderlands Keep anymore, they instead named themselves “Kaembryge,” being an ancient word beyond my capability to translate.
The first monarch of Kaembryge was one of the survivors himself, Lord Sir Aessic, Mayor of Kaembryge, in summer of E.P. 28. Under his leadership throughout the year as well as the hard work of the rest of the conquerors, Kaembryge achieved Barony status by E.P. 28, 62nd of Marching. The Barony’s second monarch, Man-at-Arms Enobria, had his work cut out for him as the rifts from the fall of the Borderlands would frequently spill out invaders from other dimensions. Their fighting styles were strange, but their intent was clear; they brought war and death with them. Only the strength and power of the newly-stabilized Barony managed to give these barbaric invaders pause, and by the end of Man-at-Arms Enobria’s reign as Baron, many of these incursions were halted.
Marching of E.P. 29 saw the rise of Lord Sir Nella Darkblade I, known as “Gekko.” A former Dark Hand pirate, Lord Sir Gekko was pulled from Amtgardia in the fall of Borderlands Keep and had been stranded in the lands of Kalladen, where he had amassed many honors for himself and shaken the stigma of his fellow brethren. The frost of that winter saw the rise of Grand Duke Sir Terarin to the coronet of the barony, marking a reign of stability that would last until the powers that be within the Kingdom insisted that Sir Terarin complete his term and then vie for the crown of the Kingdom, which he did and won, making way for the Grand Duchess Dame Aurora.
The reign of Grand Duchess Dame Aurora was punctuated by the discovery of the Kingdom Artifacts within the barony’s borders, being held by several different individuals and monsters. To better organize the retrieval efforts, Dame Aurora worked feverishly to have a job board of sorts crafted and installed in the town, which would guide many of the visitors and natives alike to the right area to locate an Artifact. As the Winter chill of 30AR set in, Dame Aurora stepped aside to allow the ascension of Lord Squire Stylez Salzones. With the months of High Summer far away, Lord Styles organized many combat practices, games of warskill and fieldcraft in the hopes of staving off the bitter cold. Based upon the bar tales sung by the local bards, this was also a reign of merriment and joy, as it has been my experience that the more violent and bloody a reign is the more positively the reign is viewed among the Kingdoms.
E.P. 31 marked a tumultuous upheaval, as Lord Squire Stylez allowed the ascension of Houksia to the coronet. While his reign seemed like the dawning of a new age, a dark and malicious power had been working behind the scenes to depose him, and after only a few weeks of machination and conspiracy, Houksia abdicated, requiring the baronial regent Lady Bridgette to ascend the throne. While Lady Bridgette ruled justly and well, a shadow had been cast over the office, and after her time she passed the torch back to the only man who would seek to sit upon a cursed throne, Lord Sir Nella Darkblade II.
The second reign of Sir Gekko as Baron of Kaembryge occurred during Winter of E.P. 31, during the decline of the Ork King, Lord Sir Raban Ethindale Harkonnen, known among common, hero, and noble alike as the “Beast of the Bayou,” and the ascension of Lord Blackwolf Wyngarde, Orc King-apparent. What was most suspicious during Sir Gekko’s reign was the absence of the Ork King, and while gossip from the King’s court ranged from Lord Sir Raban’s disfavor towards certain residents of the barony all the way to the King’s Champion having an undue level of concern for the safety of the King due to the rampant and erratic magical “Living Storms” in the area, no one factor or truth has to date been exposed. The best I have managed to cobble together is that the White Light works in ways beyond the fathoming of even the greatest Sages and Seers, and the King was never able to attend this border holdfast as he intended.
During the month of Marching in E.P. 32, Lord Sir Nella Darkblade was challenged by Grand Duke Sir Terarin and lost the crown to the former Dominar.
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