Duke Alan "Al Louarn" II
Duke Alan (a.k.a. "Al Louarn" (the Fox), "Varnek" (Wrybeard))
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Alan was born the grandson of King Alan "Mwar" I, ruler of Gwened and Naoned. Alan I ruled large swaths of Upper (Eastern) Breizh during a period of civil war on the Peninsula, waging a period of skirmishes and political tensions with his co-ruler, Judicael of Poher , who controlled Lower (Western) Breizh. This conflict dominated the early reign of both rulers, until a Formorian host, lead by Viking Chieftain Hastings Fireforged , arrived from Tevenn Du, conquering and raiding much of Northern Breizh. With the greater enemy on their doorstep, the bickering kings made an alliance, the civil war ending with the marriage of Alan I's firstdaughter Maëlys and Judicael's Firstson Mathuedoï I. The Bretoned armies entered into an extended campaign against the Formorians, leading to Judicael's death at the Battle of Kistreberzh, and the crowning of Alan as High King. Alan I continued his campaign, defeating the Formorians at Briovère in Normandi.
Alan II was born to Maëlys and Mathuedoï I in 597 SI, but a renewed conquest by Hastings Fireforged against the forces of the now elderly Alan I cut short his peaceful life. Naoned was sacked and he was forced to flee with his father to Logres as a refugee. Receiving aide from the Tuatha de Danaan King Athelstan of Kameled.
Alan proved adept at combat and diplomacy, securing the alliances of not only Kameled, but also Judicael Berengar, Count of Roazhon and Hugh I, Count of Cenomannie for a reconquest of the Armorican Peninsula. Alan made a journey to the remote region of Crozon and Kab Sizun , a rocky peninsula whose difficult terrain and treacherous waters had allowed two chieftains Amalgod and Wethenoc, to hold off the Viking forces. Recruiting these partisans, known as the Stormbreakers, into the fold gave Alan's alliance the edge in needed to retake Dol from the Formorians, marching along the Liger River to Naoned, finding the city abandoned and overgrown with a dense forest, covered in a thick bank of Feth Fiada. After a series of battles and campaigns, Hastings was defeated at the Battle of Trans-la-Forêt.
Alan's victory allowed for the retaking of Breizh from the Formorians, but led to a fracturing of the historical ties between Armorica and Albia. Driven to sea, Formorian piracy out of Normandi and Tevenn Du crippled trade between the two regions, forcing Alan to turn to Louis IV of Gallia, whom he had met in the court of Athelstan, marrying the powerful Gallian vassal Adelaide of Blaez. Swearing fealty to the Gallian King, Alan was made into Duke of Breizh. This alienated his allies in Cenomannie and incurred the wrath of Fulk II, Duke of Anjev, setting into motion the death of Alan's son, Drogon I who became Duke after Alan's death.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Alan's primary achievement was the reconquest of Breizh from the Formorians, re-establishing Bretoned control of the region. Under his reign, the city of Naoned was rebuilt, raising its own power and that of Roazhon, which served as the capital during Alan's reign. Alan's numerous alliances increased the standing of Breizh from a remote tribal peninusla into a state with unified geopolitical weight, taking part in conflicts throughout Letha and securing connections with Gallia, Anjev and Akitania.
Alan was credited for the foundations and reconstructions of numerous monasteries of the Southern Church and enclaves of the Druids, securing the cultural support of both Druidic Lower Breizh and the Faithful of Upper Breizh.
Failures & Embarrassments
Despite being credited with the foundation of Breizh as a modern state and re-asserting Bretoned control of the region, Alan's legacy also introduced instability. Driven from the land, the Formorians of Normandi redirected their efforts to piracy, devastating trade and driving a wedge between the historically connected Breizh and Logres, forcing the region into the wider politics of Letha. Ambitions of Gallia and Anjev put Naoned squarely in the sights of both the Gallian King and powerful Anjevin nobles, who would continue to interfere in local politics from then on.
Alan's decision to relocate his capital from Naoned to the more defensible Roazhon led to strife between the nobility of the two regions as the capital shifted back and forth, leading into the period of instability known as the Poisoner's Game, a succession crisis that through Alan's Breizh into further chaos.
The Formorian conquest of the region and Alan's counterattacks, and the instability that followed, destroyed much of the surviving records of pre-Tear Armorica, as the libraries and abbeys of the Liger were set to the torch.
Taboos
Alan refused to use or handle iron weapons throughout his life. While it has been surmised he himself may have been Milliget, the official position of the Southern Church's historians was that this was out of respect of a promise extracted by his Albian host, Athelstan of Kameled. While the specific reasoning is lost to history, Alan is always depicted holding a wooden quarterstaff.
Social
Hobbies & Pets
Alan had a reputation of hunting dangerous beasts, most notably bears and boars.
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