The Solustine High Kingdom

Introduction

The Solustine Kingdom is the largest and most powerful mortal fiefdom, and is surrounded by allies and rivals alike. It is named after the warrior saint Andyraes Solust whose followers have created a kingdom based on her chivalric order. The followers of Solust eventually chose a king, Delaris, whose family, the Delarians have ruled the Solustine Kingdom ever since. The Graces saw the establishment of a mortal kingdom as a joke, then an obscenity, but the struggles with the Keeper meant that they didn’t have the energy to do anything about it. The Kingdom is ruled from the capital city Hordalis, on the Losivaa of Otharad, and the kingdom itself is a floating archipelago of nine Losivaa, one of which exists on the edges of the Frost Margin. Life in the nine Losivaa is relatively peaceful and stable, and the Kingdom is the most prosperous and advanced of any mortal settlements in the Celestial Realm. Seven of the Losivaa are connected by bridges that are strong and durable enough to have survived as the Celestial Realm itself has become less ordered and more chaotic; the rulers of the Solustines are under no illusions, however, that if the bridges eventually break, then the kingdom itself will rupture. The Solustine Knights garrison all of the Losivaa, and the combined farming land of each island is vital to the survival of the kingdom. They are a powerful chivalric order and whilst they obey the orders of the Solustine King, they are fully aware that the knights predate the crown and each Solustine King or Queen owes their rule to the order; weak and indecisive or untrustworthy monarchs have either been controlled, replaced or dispatched by the knights. King Lyrand Delaris rules over the Solustine Kingdom, having first proven himself as a formidable warrior in the Solustine Order itself. He ascended to the throne ten years ago after the death of his father Jorun Delaris, an arrogant bully who ruled as a tyrant. Lyrand, an astute diplomat and skillful negotiator, has worked hard to repair the damage that his father did in the final years of his reign; the old man’s warlike and suspicious nature alienated the lordships and fiefdoms that would once have flocked to the Solustine banner against the kingdom’s enemies.

Hordalis

Hordalis is a city built around the Tralanvannir fortress of Atharacke, a huge, red stone keep with wide battlements, spires and bridges. Its original inhabitants died long ago in the battles against the Devourer and lie in their tombs, deep under the castle where no mortal dare tread. Atharacke sits on an island in Lake Thaos, which is fed by three huge waterfalls, and which lead to the River Thao, a long and winding waterway that eventually plunges over the eastern side of the Losivaa. Hordalis is a city based on a series of connected islands and most of the traffic to the city comes by riverboat and skiff. As the capital of the Solustine Kingdom, Hordalis is the centre of diplomacy for all the mortal civilisations across the Celestial Realm and dignitaries and diplomats are frequent visitors to the court of the Solustine Kings and Queens. The wealth of Hordalians comes from the richness of the land and the waters around them and the abundance of food that the Solustine Losivaa produce. Even though the capital is a place of wealth and relative security, Hordalians also live in a shadow of fear and doubt and look anxiously to the skies, in fear of Y’Luran’s return.

The Lycaeus

One of the most mysterious locations in the Solustine Kingdom is the Lycaeus, a temple which sits on top of Mount Tyras. The Lycaeus is a large white marble complex that was built by the Thaladic Graces before the Devourer War, when suspicions about the Keeper, the Shuravai and the missing Tralanvannir were mounting amongst the followers of Y’Thaladican. The structure at first glance appears to be a temple to the Keeper’s majesty, but this was merely designed to appeal to the vane god’s egotism. Instead, the Lycaeus had a different purpose. At its heart is the Alganstone, a huge stone sphere that sits in shallow waters, which the Graces used to disrupt the power of the Athervannir’s vision. The Athervannir used their gaze to block the Thaladics from finding out where their brethren were. When five Thaladics touched the stone they were suddenly able to see where their comrades were. It was through using the Alganstone that the Thaladics uncovered the Keeper’s deadly truths.

Orosne

Orosne is a port town at the edge of Otharad. The River Thao has formed a large freshwater lagoon right at the precipice of the island and during wet seasons the run off from the mountains floods the river and the lagoon and causes a huge waterfall off the side of the Losivaa and into the void. Perched between the edge of the lagoon and the precipice is the small town of Orosne, a place where those who have no other place to live in the Solustine Kingdom are forced to dwell. A handful of minor disgraced nobles run the town like their own private fiefdom and it is a haven for smugglers, mercenaries and gangsters. Orosne is the Solustine Kingdom’s dirty secret, a ramshackle collection of houses and a small keep where the dubious activities of the town’s criminal gangs is largely ignored by the Solustine throne. The government in Hordalis is happy to officially ignore Orosne’s existence, but its agents often find that the streets and taverns of the town are excellent recruiting grounds for expendable adventurers, who can carry out secretive work on behalf of the crown.

Notable Solustines

Saris Kolmar

The scion to a minor branch of the Euclides family, a Solustine merchant clan based in the Solustine Kingdom, Saris understood from an early age that to follow in the footsteps of her family would be to settle for a staid and ordinary life of commerce under the watchful eyes of her father and brothers. Undertaking work as her father’s bookkeeper she was able to embezzle considerable sums, laundering it through crafting of reliquaries for Dromonite monasteries, and establishing an extensive network of contacts from the criminal underworld in Orosne, leading her to become a member of the Acolytes of Dresa, the iron fist of the Dromonite Order. Rising through the ranks quickly through the ruthlessness and theatricality of her crimes, Saris took control of the organisation through a series of denunciations at the Dromonites seven-hundredth ecumenical council, arguing that the group’s leader, Alois Rathik, had turned the Acolytes of Dresa into a criminal outfit and that it no longer served the interests of the Dromonite Order, she argued the group’s future lay in cultivating devotion to Dromonism and harnessing the religious fervour of the Solustine laity to give them an advantage over other criminal enterprises in the city. Saris branded her predecessor and his supporters heretics and pledged that her first act as leader would be to expose and execute heretical elements in the Acolytes of Dresa. Through a combination of terror and indoctrination, Saris transformed the Acoyltes of Dresa from a criminal outfit to a cult, obedient solely to her. She set about creating food shortages and lobbying for punitive measures against the poor of Orosne, forcing them into the arms of her organisation’s charitable houses, ensuring that an increasingly large number of Orosne’s poor became dependent on her, swelling the ranks of the Acolytes of Dresa, and consolidating its power within the city. Saris came to cultivate a cult of personality, claiming to be a descendent of Dromos, causing many in the Dromonite Order to see her as a threat. However, her success in mass mobilisation, caught the attention of the Dromonite Order’s secretive backers, whose favour made her position unassailable.

Descar Amares

Descar left the Asavaa known as Telurinth after a many centuries of life there as a philosopher and political thinker. Whilst vanity and pride are thought of by many Suraians as unseemly traits, Descar allowed his own arrogance to overcome him and he believed that it was not simply his role to understand and record the world around him, but to shape and manipulate it. He presented himself to the Solustine court and offered his services as an intelligence gatherer. He is the most skilled spymaster in the Mortal Fiefdoms and his network of agents extends even beyond the Celestial Realm. His arrogance is reinforced by his flawless talent, but it has made him cold and ruthless over many years of working in the shadows.