Bethraal Beth - 26th Known Ruler of Revellia
Rey Bethraal Beth
Reign: 44 NA - 71 NA
High Magi: Lord Carnas Odon, Lord Rissard Capall, Lord Tirril Ainrei, Brother Wiilam Farre
Mox Masters: Conrak Oishlog, Samden Ainden Bethraal the First was the fourth Revellian king in a row to inherit before entering his majority. Of course, thanks to the Grand Geas of Cantef, there were no more kings in Revellia. Indeed, eleven years before Bethraal assumed the throne, Yvruel had finally affixed its titles to the Geas as well, becoming the Yfri Fields Canton and ending the last royal line in the Peninsula. In Revellia, a ruler was now called a High Lord, with the ceremonial honorific of Reynar (from an ancient Orckid term meaning "ruler"). This did not stop people from calling their High Lords kings as often as not, however. Nor for that matter was Bethraal meant to rule. Like his father Maitiu the Second, Bethraal was a second son. When the Great Sunset Plague swept into Revellia, many lords would blame the increased commerce with Ethel and Eysland. This was not without cause, as plagues and illnesses are oft first found at ports, and certainly wiser than the peasantry, many of whom blamed evil spirits in the Fiirwood, or the hostels who (as ever) blamed sin. Maitiu had been a weak man who died trying to prove himself strong. Many feared his children were weak as well and might be taken by this Plague, especially Princess Lianna, who had been delicate from birth. No one can say how Prince Bethraal caught the illness, not even the boy himself. In truth, he did not know he had it until two days in, when at last his face began to purple and he found he could not walk. He shook so violently the leachers feared he might bite off his tongue or snap his own neck, but the Queen Drusellia thought at once of the household. Everyone was isolated, and the Queen attended to her other children herself. Prince Bethraal was very much a middle child, but he loved his elder brother and sister and had often kept company with them, so it came as little surprise when the dread purpling, sweating, and shaking befell both Princess Dorrena and Prince Greeyan. Both were placed under the leacher's care. The Queen sent word to healers in Urudun, Mediciners in Ethel, and even sent orders to the Green Isle to seek out the wild wizards that were said to still roam the Rocky Woods there. It was all vain, for the Plague never took longer than a week to claim its victims. If the children were meant to die, they would be gone long before any of the Queen's messages could reach anyone. Prince Bethraal survived, as did Princess Dorrena. Prince Greeyan, alas, would prove to be as ill-named as his uncle Prince Garland, who had died of wyrmrot long before Bethraal was born. The young prince would blame himself for his brother's death for the rest of his life. Two of his caretakers were killed by the plague as well, though it is rumored Bethraal was kept unaware of this until adulthood. King Maitiu was dead. His heir, Prince Garland, was dead. Bethraal was eleven years old, yet another boy king, and many looked upon the lightening complexions of he and his siblings and concluded that the Beth line seemed to reject the divine blood of the Liddinawths at a rapid rate. Even their hair was common, with the dead Prince Greeyan alone possessing the ruby shade that had legitimized Ainros rule for centuries. Clan Beth was weak, it was decided, and unfit for rule. But the High Magus, Lord Carnas Odon, was not weak. Named as High Magus near the end of Barthos the Bastard's reign, Lord Carnas would serve as the ruler of Revellia during the minority of King Maitiu, Heir-Apparent Prince Greeyan, and Bethraal himself. As High Magus, he commanded the royal spellers, which had been strengthened under Lord Arthos Sorshan and Brother Aaran Dylaen. Communication with the other cantons was greatly improved, especially after the Yfri Fields signed onto the Grand Geas and began to lease out their mares for messenger relays. Lord Carnas held the realm in steady hands as the royalty shook and tottered, more unsteady than it had been since Barthos the Beneficent first took the crown from Gwynt the Ghastly. None doubted Lord Carnas' strength, nor his loyalty, for not once did he seek to seize power or enrich his family when the Beths were at their lowest. Bethraal would never be robust, never truly be king some would claim, but he survived to adulthood and assumed the crown. Lord Carnas would continue to serve him for another decade after this. Like his father before him, Bethraal began his reign with a marriage, this time to Lady Pallas Graunt, first daughter to Lord Parthan Graunt. The marriage was arranged by Lord Carnas, and many considered it his one true blunder. Lady Pallas was half Siir on her mother's side, one of the vassals of Clan Maraigh at Malbrand, who all had a grizzly reputation. Yet Lord Carnas felt the Beths were growing too distant from the Western clans, and that the Graunts of Saolmoth could not be ignored for long. Nor would they be: Lord Parthan came to Revelback with his daughter and would eventually secure himself a position on the King's Council as the Lord Treasurer, where he would be a thorn in Lord Carnas' side until the High Magus' tragic demise in 54 NA. While Lord Carnas was keeping the realm together, King Bethraal was failing to perpetuate it. The royal couple's first child, named Barthos from the day the Queen's belly had begun to show, was born a moon early, shriveled and ghast. He would die within the fortnight, leaving his mother so weak that another child would not be attempted for a full year. That child, a girl named Dianna, was frail too, but the leachers and nursemaids watched her day and night for eleven months, until it looked as though she would persist. Even then, a healer from Urudun named Arinna was summoned to look over her. She would grow up hale and hearty, a delight to all. All told, the royal couple suffered three miscarriages attempting to produce an heir. When the healer Arinna herself declared that another pregnancy would likely kill the Queen, King Bethraal called the matter done, and it was whispered among the lords that he would not so much as touch his wife for two years. The King would propose naming Princess Dianna his heir, but the outcry at this was so intense that even Lord Carnas was moved to speak against him. Lord Carnas' word had ended the matter, making the King weaker than ever in the eyes of high and low alike. Lords summoned their young daughters to court and paraded them openly before the King, loudly lamenting the fate of the realm without a legitimate heir to the throne. The worst of them would parade these daughters before Lord Carnas. It seemed thus likely that the crown would pass to Reinard Capall, first son of the King's eldest sister, Princess Dorrena. In the end, it was by Queen Pallas' own insistence, coupled with Lord Carnas', that the King was compelled to try again. Whatever had changed was unknown, but the Queen gave birth to twin boys in the seventh month of 49 NA. Wisely avoiding Ainros names, the princes were called Dorreon and Carn. Less than two years later, she would birth another pair of twins in the second month of 51 NA, this time a boy and a girl, named Maitiu and Torintha. They would have no more children, yet rather than grow weaker as she had before, the births seemed to grant Queen Pallas new strength, and she became an active and engaging presence in the castle, even sitting in on royal councils, which had not been done since the puppet-regency of Queen Zun'jel. King Bethraal would live and rule another twenty years after this, though he was perpetually bedridden, often giving his rule completely over to Lord Carnas Odon and the three High Magi that would follow: Lord Rissard Capall, Lord Tirril Ainrei, and Brother Wiilam Farre. Lord Rissard Capall served as High Magus from 54 Ra to 68 RA. He was five-and-forty when he took up the office, and much like Carnas Odon, he proved stronger and healthier than the poor king. Under Lord Rissard's rule, Revellia marshaled three major forays into the Rathlands to put down bandit uprisings. Lord Rissard likewise sent royal armies into the West when Lord Holraigh Baene complained of brigands fleeing south into his domain from Urudun. Royal troops would ultimately occupy all of the Noddlands for most of Lord Rissard's reign, leading to rising discontent from Siiari and the peasants as a whole. Rumors grew of peasant revolts, which justified more troops. Dubraigh was growing increasingly wroth, and many feared another war of East and West. More than once King Bethraal suggested that these troops ought to be withdrawn, but never with fervor enough to overrule his High Magus. Ultimately, Lord Rissard would effectively be removed not by the king, but by the king's firstborn son. Prince Dorreon had been betrothed to Raesa Capall, a pious and shy granddaughter of Lord Rissard. Prince Dorreon was a lusty, gregarious, charming man, one with strong appetites, and many were the rumors of his dalliances with women high and low before his wedding. Such indiscretions were not uncommon among noblemen, but Prince Dorreon's appetites were greater than most, and the Capalls were proud. The final insult came when the Prince, at seventeen years, broke his betrothal and wed Tarana Dorn, a woman of lower birth and suspicious repute. Lord Rissard resigned his post at once, without the king's consent some said, and returned to his seat at Timber Town. Only a few miles south of Revelback, Lord Rissard's casual retreat to Timber Town was a show to all of how little he feared the King. At first, the King sent for Lord Arthar Odon to replace Lord Rissard. The grandson of the celebrated Lord Carnas Odon, Lord Arthar inherited the chiefdom after Lord Carnas' death, as his father Lord Padraigh had fallen fighting Rathi bandits with the King's father Maitiu the Second. He had grown into lordship and held a strong reputation. Moreover, there were rumors that the now forty-three-year-old lord was a speller; rumors that had plagued that bedridden King as well. Bethraal's cabinet urged him against this choice, however. The Capalls and Odons had developed an animosity under the command of Lord Carnas, and the High Magus' death had done little to assuage this. Granting Lord Rissard's post to Lord Arthar could only serve to fan the flames. The King was firm, however. Perhaps, after years of being undermined by both Lord Carnas and Lord Rissard, Bethraal was anxious to finally assert himself. Sadly, though the King might command his subjects, he cannot command the hosts above. That very moon, Lord Arthar contracted a wasting illness that would ultimately kill him and his mother Deina Odon. The news was said to have confused and weakened the King, sending him to bed for nearly a fortnight. When he at last emerged, he found Lord Tirril Ainrei presented for his approval. The lord of Cantef in Ethel, Lord Tirril was a jovial man, reputed both wise and conciliatory. The Ainreis were said to be descendents of the glorious Clan Ainros, and their station outside the canton would help insulate them from internal conflicts. The King was said to have reacted spitefully, even childishly, that the position should be filled whilst he rested, yet Lord Tirril succeeded in calming and befriending the King. They shared a fondness for magic and tales, and Lord Tirril too was said to be a speller. Most Ainreis carried this stigma, ruling the town that was once home to the Great Spellery. Lord Tirril managed a handful of minor weddings between Eastern and Western lords, and would begin to withdraw royal troops from the West before the year's end. The Hosts were not finished testing King Bethraal, however. Early the next year, Lord Tirril died of Springlight Fever. He was not yet buried when the King named Brother Wiilam Farre as his next High Magus. Brother Wiilam was a Siiari from the Green Isle who had come to Revelback in his youth and converted to the Host Keeping Faith. He had often attended the King in his illness, along with several hostesses, who read to him of the Hosts. The final years of King Bethraal's reign saw him isolated and humiliated. Through Brother Wiilam, he would do his utmost to rule from his bedchamber, but the high drama of his first two sons, the twins Dorreon and Carn, had eclipsed all. Prince Carn was suggesting that Prince Dorreon's bastard son, born of an affair with Gildorrea Capall three years after his marriage to Tarana Dorn, ought to be legitimized. Tarana and Dorreon's child was a ghastling, feared and distrusted by most. The Prince's bastard son, meanwhile, had been named after the King, and was already being called Bethraal the Beloved. The bastard's mother, Gildorrea Capall (another granddaughter of Lord Rissard Capall) held strong Liddinawth blood, and many considered her the Prince's true love, tragically denied by his marriage to the sorceress Tarana Dorn. Despite all this, Prince Dorreon made no suit to legitimize his bastard son, nor did he show any clear disfavor to his wife. King Bethraal made a declaration that he would never legitimize the bastard that bore his name, but it was said no one bothered to listen. King Bethraal Beth died in his bed early in 71 RA at five-and-forty. Brother Wiilam was immediately removed as High Magus, but before he departed, he was reported to say that the King died content, blessing his children and commanding they set their petty squabbles aside and serve the realm.
High Magi: Lord Carnas Odon, Lord Rissard Capall, Lord Tirril Ainrei, Brother Wiilam Farre
Mox Masters: Conrak Oishlog, Samden Ainden Bethraal the First was the fourth Revellian king in a row to inherit before entering his majority. Of course, thanks to the Grand Geas of Cantef, there were no more kings in Revellia. Indeed, eleven years before Bethraal assumed the throne, Yvruel had finally affixed its titles to the Geas as well, becoming the Yfri Fields Canton and ending the last royal line in the Peninsula. In Revellia, a ruler was now called a High Lord, with the ceremonial honorific of Reynar (from an ancient Orckid term meaning "ruler"). This did not stop people from calling their High Lords kings as often as not, however. Nor for that matter was Bethraal meant to rule. Like his father Maitiu the Second, Bethraal was a second son. When the Great Sunset Plague swept into Revellia, many lords would blame the increased commerce with Ethel and Eysland. This was not without cause, as plagues and illnesses are oft first found at ports, and certainly wiser than the peasantry, many of whom blamed evil spirits in the Fiirwood, or the hostels who (as ever) blamed sin. Maitiu had been a weak man who died trying to prove himself strong. Many feared his children were weak as well and might be taken by this Plague, especially Princess Lianna, who had been delicate from birth. No one can say how Prince Bethraal caught the illness, not even the boy himself. In truth, he did not know he had it until two days in, when at last his face began to purple and he found he could not walk. He shook so violently the leachers feared he might bite off his tongue or snap his own neck, but the Queen Drusellia thought at once of the household. Everyone was isolated, and the Queen attended to her other children herself. Prince Bethraal was very much a middle child, but he loved his elder brother and sister and had often kept company with them, so it came as little surprise when the dread purpling, sweating, and shaking befell both Princess Dorrena and Prince Greeyan. Both were placed under the leacher's care. The Queen sent word to healers in Urudun, Mediciners in Ethel, and even sent orders to the Green Isle to seek out the wild wizards that were said to still roam the Rocky Woods there. It was all vain, for the Plague never took longer than a week to claim its victims. If the children were meant to die, they would be gone long before any of the Queen's messages could reach anyone. Prince Bethraal survived, as did Princess Dorrena. Prince Greeyan, alas, would prove to be as ill-named as his uncle Prince Garland, who had died of wyrmrot long before Bethraal was born. The young prince would blame himself for his brother's death for the rest of his life. Two of his caretakers were killed by the plague as well, though it is rumored Bethraal was kept unaware of this until adulthood. King Maitiu was dead. His heir, Prince Garland, was dead. Bethraal was eleven years old, yet another boy king, and many looked upon the lightening complexions of he and his siblings and concluded that the Beth line seemed to reject the divine blood of the Liddinawths at a rapid rate. Even their hair was common, with the dead Prince Greeyan alone possessing the ruby shade that had legitimized Ainros rule for centuries. Clan Beth was weak, it was decided, and unfit for rule. But the High Magus, Lord Carnas Odon, was not weak. Named as High Magus near the end of Barthos the Bastard's reign, Lord Carnas would serve as the ruler of Revellia during the minority of King Maitiu, Heir-Apparent Prince Greeyan, and Bethraal himself. As High Magus, he commanded the royal spellers, which had been strengthened under Lord Arthos Sorshan and Brother Aaran Dylaen. Communication with the other cantons was greatly improved, especially after the Yfri Fields signed onto the Grand Geas and began to lease out their mares for messenger relays. Lord Carnas held the realm in steady hands as the royalty shook and tottered, more unsteady than it had been since Barthos the Beneficent first took the crown from Gwynt the Ghastly. None doubted Lord Carnas' strength, nor his loyalty, for not once did he seek to seize power or enrich his family when the Beths were at their lowest. Bethraal would never be robust, never truly be king some would claim, but he survived to adulthood and assumed the crown. Lord Carnas would continue to serve him for another decade after this. Like his father before him, Bethraal began his reign with a marriage, this time to Lady Pallas Graunt, first daughter to Lord Parthan Graunt. The marriage was arranged by Lord Carnas, and many considered it his one true blunder. Lady Pallas was half Siir on her mother's side, one of the vassals of Clan Maraigh at Malbrand, who all had a grizzly reputation. Yet Lord Carnas felt the Beths were growing too distant from the Western clans, and that the Graunts of Saolmoth could not be ignored for long. Nor would they be: Lord Parthan came to Revelback with his daughter and would eventually secure himself a position on the King's Council as the Lord Treasurer, where he would be a thorn in Lord Carnas' side until the High Magus' tragic demise in 54 NA. While Lord Carnas was keeping the realm together, King Bethraal was failing to perpetuate it. The royal couple's first child, named Barthos from the day the Queen's belly had begun to show, was born a moon early, shriveled and ghast. He would die within the fortnight, leaving his mother so weak that another child would not be attempted for a full year. That child, a girl named Dianna, was frail too, but the leachers and nursemaids watched her day and night for eleven months, until it looked as though she would persist. Even then, a healer from Urudun named Arinna was summoned to look over her. She would grow up hale and hearty, a delight to all. All told, the royal couple suffered three miscarriages attempting to produce an heir. When the healer Arinna herself declared that another pregnancy would likely kill the Queen, King Bethraal called the matter done, and it was whispered among the lords that he would not so much as touch his wife for two years. The King would propose naming Princess Dianna his heir, but the outcry at this was so intense that even Lord Carnas was moved to speak against him. Lord Carnas' word had ended the matter, making the King weaker than ever in the eyes of high and low alike. Lords summoned their young daughters to court and paraded them openly before the King, loudly lamenting the fate of the realm without a legitimate heir to the throne. The worst of them would parade these daughters before Lord Carnas. It seemed thus likely that the crown would pass to Reinard Capall, first son of the King's eldest sister, Princess Dorrena. In the end, it was by Queen Pallas' own insistence, coupled with Lord Carnas', that the King was compelled to try again. Whatever had changed was unknown, but the Queen gave birth to twin boys in the seventh month of 49 NA. Wisely avoiding Ainros names, the princes were called Dorreon and Carn. Less than two years later, she would birth another pair of twins in the second month of 51 NA, this time a boy and a girl, named Maitiu and Torintha. They would have no more children, yet rather than grow weaker as she had before, the births seemed to grant Queen Pallas new strength, and she became an active and engaging presence in the castle, even sitting in on royal councils, which had not been done since the puppet-regency of Queen Zun'jel. King Bethraal would live and rule another twenty years after this, though he was perpetually bedridden, often giving his rule completely over to Lord Carnas Odon and the three High Magi that would follow: Lord Rissard Capall, Lord Tirril Ainrei, and Brother Wiilam Farre. Lord Rissard Capall served as High Magus from 54 Ra to 68 RA. He was five-and-forty when he took up the office, and much like Carnas Odon, he proved stronger and healthier than the poor king. Under Lord Rissard's rule, Revellia marshaled three major forays into the Rathlands to put down bandit uprisings. Lord Rissard likewise sent royal armies into the West when Lord Holraigh Baene complained of brigands fleeing south into his domain from Urudun. Royal troops would ultimately occupy all of the Noddlands for most of Lord Rissard's reign, leading to rising discontent from Siiari and the peasants as a whole. Rumors grew of peasant revolts, which justified more troops. Dubraigh was growing increasingly wroth, and many feared another war of East and West. More than once King Bethraal suggested that these troops ought to be withdrawn, but never with fervor enough to overrule his High Magus. Ultimately, Lord Rissard would effectively be removed not by the king, but by the king's firstborn son. Prince Dorreon had been betrothed to Raesa Capall, a pious and shy granddaughter of Lord Rissard. Prince Dorreon was a lusty, gregarious, charming man, one with strong appetites, and many were the rumors of his dalliances with women high and low before his wedding. Such indiscretions were not uncommon among noblemen, but Prince Dorreon's appetites were greater than most, and the Capalls were proud. The final insult came when the Prince, at seventeen years, broke his betrothal and wed Tarana Dorn, a woman of lower birth and suspicious repute. Lord Rissard resigned his post at once, without the king's consent some said, and returned to his seat at Timber Town. Only a few miles south of Revelback, Lord Rissard's casual retreat to Timber Town was a show to all of how little he feared the King. At first, the King sent for Lord Arthar Odon to replace Lord Rissard. The grandson of the celebrated Lord Carnas Odon, Lord Arthar inherited the chiefdom after Lord Carnas' death, as his father Lord Padraigh had fallen fighting Rathi bandits with the King's father Maitiu the Second. He had grown into lordship and held a strong reputation. Moreover, there were rumors that the now forty-three-year-old lord was a speller; rumors that had plagued that bedridden King as well. Bethraal's cabinet urged him against this choice, however. The Capalls and Odons had developed an animosity under the command of Lord Carnas, and the High Magus' death had done little to assuage this. Granting Lord Rissard's post to Lord Arthar could only serve to fan the flames. The King was firm, however. Perhaps, after years of being undermined by both Lord Carnas and Lord Rissard, Bethraal was anxious to finally assert himself. Sadly, though the King might command his subjects, he cannot command the hosts above. That very moon, Lord Arthar contracted a wasting illness that would ultimately kill him and his mother Deina Odon. The news was said to have confused and weakened the King, sending him to bed for nearly a fortnight. When he at last emerged, he found Lord Tirril Ainrei presented for his approval. The lord of Cantef in Ethel, Lord Tirril was a jovial man, reputed both wise and conciliatory. The Ainreis were said to be descendents of the glorious Clan Ainros, and their station outside the canton would help insulate them from internal conflicts. The King was said to have reacted spitefully, even childishly, that the position should be filled whilst he rested, yet Lord Tirril succeeded in calming and befriending the King. They shared a fondness for magic and tales, and Lord Tirril too was said to be a speller. Most Ainreis carried this stigma, ruling the town that was once home to the Great Spellery. Lord Tirril managed a handful of minor weddings between Eastern and Western lords, and would begin to withdraw royal troops from the West before the year's end. The Hosts were not finished testing King Bethraal, however. Early the next year, Lord Tirril died of Springlight Fever. He was not yet buried when the King named Brother Wiilam Farre as his next High Magus. Brother Wiilam was a Siiari from the Green Isle who had come to Revelback in his youth and converted to the Host Keeping Faith. He had often attended the King in his illness, along with several hostesses, who read to him of the Hosts. The final years of King Bethraal's reign saw him isolated and humiliated. Through Brother Wiilam, he would do his utmost to rule from his bedchamber, but the high drama of his first two sons, the twins Dorreon and Carn, had eclipsed all. Prince Carn was suggesting that Prince Dorreon's bastard son, born of an affair with Gildorrea Capall three years after his marriage to Tarana Dorn, ought to be legitimized. Tarana and Dorreon's child was a ghastling, feared and distrusted by most. The Prince's bastard son, meanwhile, had been named after the King, and was already being called Bethraal the Beloved. The bastard's mother, Gildorrea Capall (another granddaughter of Lord Rissard Capall) held strong Liddinawth blood, and many considered her the Prince's true love, tragically denied by his marriage to the sorceress Tarana Dorn. Despite all this, Prince Dorreon made no suit to legitimize his bastard son, nor did he show any clear disfavor to his wife. King Bethraal made a declaration that he would never legitimize the bastard that bore his name, but it was said no one bothered to listen. King Bethraal Beth died in his bed early in 71 RA at five-and-forty. Brother Wiilam was immediately removed as High Magus, but before he departed, he was reported to say that the King died content, blessing his children and commanding they set their petty squabbles aside and serve the realm.
Social
Family Ties
Conditions
Ethnicity
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Reynar of the Saoirai and the Siiari
Lord of the Boarswood and the Cape of Monsters
Overlord of the Frontier and the Green Isle
Shield of the Southern Promontory
High Lord of all Revellia
Lord of the Boarswood and the Cape of Monsters
Overlord of the Frontier and the Green Isle
Shield of the Southern Promontory
High Lord of all Revellia
Life
5026
5071
45 years old
Birthplace
Wedding
Family
Children
Eyes
Ice blue
Hair
Wheaten
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Earthen
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations