Gwydion Ainros - 16th Known Ruler of Revellia
Called Gwydion the Great
King Gwydion Ainros
"Perhaps the strangest thing about King Gwydion is his enduring legacy as a great warrior king, stemming almost entirely from the slaying of his cousin Connon in single combat, an event that likely never happened. In his entire thirty-seven year reign, he led only one campaign, and never engaged in open battle. Yet when the warriors of Clan Ainros are discussed, Garland the Conqueror is inevitably followed by Gwydion the Great."Reign: 856 RA - 893 RA
Wizards: Agathe the Younger, Penny the Wise, Heather Snowfall, Jaell Shadowmaster Critics and praisers alike agree that Gwydion's first decree was a wise one: confirming Prince Allad as Chief Justicar and retaining his service as a key adviser. Gwydion would come to rely heavily upon his wizards in a way Allad and even Garland III never did, yet Prince Allad would provide a level of trust and reliability that Gwydion found lacking in all others. Gwydion's first great test came the Winter after his coronation, and even his greatest supporters will say he failed. A major drought came the Summer of his coronation, affecting Urudun and Ethel just as greatly. There were few sources of food. Liddinawth had all but vanished as their influence in the royal line waned, and Khabar had begun its slow withdrawal from the Peninsula as early as the century's start. Prince Allad had no answers, so Gwydion came to lean on Agathe the Younger. Sadly, Agathe's years of relative inactivity under Allad's rule left her poorly suited to the task. Having served as little more than a glorified messenger, Agathe had come to focus her efforts on arcane research. When it came to raising crops or summoning rain, she proved less than hopeful. Indeed, as the Winter approached, Prince Allad summoned her to stand before Gwydion's throne and present him with something, anything, or suffer the consequences. With a remarkable air of confidence, Agathe came to him with a charmed sword. Charmed swords, supposed relics of ancient Milos, had become increasingly rare after the Great Collapse, and Agathe proclaimed this to be a new-spelt weapon. "Out of the Shadow" was supposedly glyphed upon this blade. "A sword to lead your people," she said, "and deliver them from your foes." Gwydion, it must be said, was charmed indeed by the gift, but Prince Allad ordered the woman imprisoned in the Cold Moat and sent to the Green Isle for a new wizard. Many say Allad had hoped Wynid Wild to answer this call. She was vanished, some say dead, yet many were also convinced she had the power to control storms, and such was what they needed in this drought. The call was instead answered by a woman calling herself Jaell Shadowmaster, who demanded her own holdfast in payment for her service. Allad sent her home to the Green Isle and sent to Dubraigh, hoping a western wizard might help further unite the realm. Yet this wizard, who would come to be called Heather Snowfall, was blocked by a great blizzard and unable to reach even Malbrand. Gwydion became wroth at these twists, and ordered Great Cross to deliver their Wizard to him at once. Wizard Penny, upon arrival, was styled Penny Cross. The Hard Winter of 856 RA was a dreadful and deadly season, and although Wizard Penny's counsel would prove diverse and helpful, it was ultimately too late. Deep debts were accrued importing foods from Bastis, north of Urudun, yet these were imported to Dubraigh, and in the west blizzards blew aplenty, keeping supplies from passing Saolmoth into the east. By the time food began entering Aerwoth's port, the Winter was more than half over, and a third of Aerwoth's people had starved. Worse still, there are dark whispers of just where this food had come from. Yvruel (today known as the Yfri Fields) was notoriously isolationist, and the next available eastern ports were in the mysterious and ill-reputed swamps of Samaya. The foods imported were strange and foreign, and many feared poisoning. So there were those, even then, who refused to eat the much needed food. More starved. These deaths were oft called Penny's failure, and Allad's, though there is no question the king endured the worst of it. Despite this, Gwydion would one day become revered, and Penny Cross would come to be known as Penny the Wise. Her critics would say she suffered under Allad's shadow, and indeed she did not seem to attain her reputation until the Prince's death in 870 RA. Allad's second son Connon Ainros was made Chief Justicar, supposedly as a nod to the Prince's memory, but his function was exclusively military and administrative. When it came to wisdom and aid in governance, Gwydion would rely on his wizards henceforth. Allad did much to help the realm recover from the Dry Winter, but it must be conceded that much of it was accomplished with Penny's aid. Upon Allad's passing, the Wizard herself was reported to say "Our brightest jewel has perished from the monarch's crown." The greatest achievement during the rule of Penny and Allad would be the Grand Hostel. After several reversals, the building was at last completed in 864 RA, and Great Cross became the religious center it was always intended to be. Yet indisputably, her most impactful action was having King Gwydion wed to Princess Maeve of Clan Timber in Bastis. Regular trade and communication began for the first time with the northerly canton, and with Urudun's harbors destroyed, Bastis' Madport became a vital connection. Clan Timber was known for chestnut hair and green eyes, and Maeve gave Gwydion three sons and two daughters of surpassing beauty and exoticism, easily winning the love of the peasantry. Yet this connection with Bastis would cost Revellia dearly, decades later. Penny the Wise followed Allad into death a mere three years later. Little more was accomplished in those three years, yet out of his shadow she had become far more celebrated than ever she had been when they ruled together. Penny was buried in the royal crypts, an honor rarely offered to mere Wizards, and Heather Snowfall was at last summoned to Aerwoth to serve the crown. Heather Snowfall's name would prove tragically prophetic, as 873 would mark the beginning of the Three Years' Winter, an age of perpetual snowfall and chill throughout the Southern Peninsula. Urudun was less affected, but Khabarese occupation was nearing its end, and the entire region was broiling with violence. Dubraigh and Aerwoth were iced over, the Green Isle was inaccessible, and Ethel had closed its ports to their southern neighbor. Starvation again ran free in Revellia. Interestingly, there was a huge revival in Deinain worship during this time, and myths and spells abounded of Milgroff Muler, the Deinain death god. There were reports of the god himself roaming the Fiirwood, pillaging the desperate who hunted there for game. Gwydion sent forces who recovered an old man and his mule, terrorizing others in desperation for food. The man was hanged off the battlements of Aerwoth, and it was said King Gwydion had "slain death." It was not long after this that the Three Years' Winter broke at last. The very next year, Heather Snowfall would face her true test with the breaking of Khabarese occupation in Urudun. The canton had in recent history seized the ancestral forests of Berleigh, and the Elkwoods had been poaching and raiding in woods that were no longer theirs. This precipitated an invasion from the weakening Urudunite army into and past Berleigh. The city was notoriously isolationist, yet this was such that could not be ignored. Gwydion took to war himself, leaving his cousin Connon the Chief Justicar in charge of Aerwoth. The Eskiwood (formerly the Elkwood) would remain in Urudunite hands, yet many Urudunite kings would give credit to Revellia for the expulsion of Khabarese governance from their canton. King Gwydion returned to find his castle seized by his Chief Justicar. Called Connon's Rebellion by those who bother to speak of it, the entire event lasted less than two moons. The castle was besieged by the king, and Connon was starved out quickly. The Spring following the Three Years' Winter was plentiful, yet the land was still recovering, and many of the household were still loyal to the king. Heather Snowfall herself, who many claimed had convinced Connon to rebel, was said to have put a spell upon him to drive him mad. This supposedly led to him leading a sortie out the front gates to do battle with his cousin the king. He was slain early, and all survivors immediately bent their knees. Most were pardoned. Wiilak Oghnar, a westerner of a fiercely impartial and fairly simple mind, was appointed to replace Connon. Whether Heather Snowfall had supported or betrayed the king, she remained in his service for five more years, before dying in her sleep in 879 RA. King Gwydion sent to the Green Isle for his next wizard. He was answered by Jaell Shadowmaster, who again demanded her own holdfast for service to the crown. She was again refused, but Gwydion eventually convinced her to serve.
"What truly compelled Connon Ainros to rise up against his cousin will never be known, yet those who admire the memory of his father Prince Allad would say he was not unjustified. The throne had rightfully been Allad's, they say, stolen by Gwydion's father, and thus Connon the true heir. From what remains, however, Connon lacked the love of the people that Allad commanded, and thus the father remains a respected hero, the son a reviled traitor."
The Southern Rebellion
(885 RA - 891 RA)
Rebels: Revellia, Urudun, Ethel, Bastis
Royalists: Yvruel Being so far south, Revellia would never fully know what started the Southern Rebellion. What was clear was the actions of the King of Kings, the divine ruler of all of Milos, had wiped out the royal family of Bastis, the Timbers. All that remained were distant offshoots and cousins of low, ill repute. The chiefs of Clan Bastian came south to implore aid from the Southern cantons. Revellia was of course resistant: Clan Bastion had once ruled their canton, and their people had fled in shame from the advances of Clans Graunt and Ainros. These Bastians claimed to have no relation to that vanished line, and instead compelled the aging King Gwydion to honor them for his love of his Queen, Maeve, whose family had been destroyed. Gwydion was four-and-forty, growing too old for war, yet his three sons were anxious for glory, as were the chiefs of Dubraigh, Malbrand, Saolmoth, and Berleigh. Great Cross and Revelback alone resisted war. What Clan Bastian suggested was more than rebellion: it was an act of sacrilege. Though Deinain worship had experienced a resurgence since the Three Years' Winter, Revellia still officially worshiped the Host of Hosts. Indeed, it was Maitiu Ainros who converted the nation. To turn against the King of Kings could defame their family as blasphemers. Moreover, the Second Rule of Ainros, though ostensibly Host Keepers, had long endured a dark reputation from their Liddinawth blood. Many called them savage sun-worshipers, whose legendary red hair was achieved by drinking the blood of fair maidens or lowborn servants. Rebelling against their divine overlord could lend credence to these claims. Ultimately, it was the Queen who was credited with convincing King Gwydion to side with Bastis. Ethel, historically opposed to war in general since the end of the Lost Age, seemed anxious to fight against Yvruel to the north. Urudun had only recently rejected Khabarese control, yet they too seemed eager to fight against the King of Kings. Thus the Southern Army was formed. Their adversaries seemed fewer in number, but they were unmistakably greater in power. Yvruel had ever been the largest and greatest of the cantons, managing to secure the favor of whatever entity ruled over Milos . They were first in counsel of the Viisianari governors during the reign of the Old Orckid Empire, and showed equal complicity to the New. Yet too, they invariably overreached themselves, turning their fortunes against them. At present, Yvruel had an unmatchable cavalry, something that would come to define them in the near future. They were the largest and most powerful canton, controlling the Pass of Peril through the Sentinel Mountains, essentially the only way to reach Monos, and commanded castles on either side of the mountains. Grand spells have been written on the battles and betrayals of the Southern Rebellion, which sank Bastis and Urudun into penury. Though Revellia was not utterly destroyed, the end of Clan Ainros was planted here. The king's first and second sons, the heroic Golbran and Geralt, were both slain. His third son Ruarc had been squire to the legendary Bastis knight Sir Seaghad, who introduced chivalry to the south. Ruarc would survive the war and be knighted as Sir Ruarc, but so of course did Golbran's young sons Gwynt and Sammis, as well as Geralt's son little Garlad. These four sons would oft be recalled as the Seeds of Ainros' Demise. Much of Gwydion's reign was peaceful and plentiful, and even now he is most often called Gwydion the Great. Yet it is his great Shame for which he is best remembered. Revelback and Great Cross remained thorns in the king's side, counterrebelling in favor of the King of Kings. Berleigh and Saolmoth would level Great Cross once again, destroying the Grand Hostel as a signal of their rejection of the King of Kings. The Grand Hostel would never be rebuilt after this. Most terribly, King Gwydion withdrew from the war in the Fall of 890 RA. Even at his advancing age, he traveled north through the Pass of Peril to kneel before High King Venedor the Second of Monos, declaring that he could not lose his last son. It is said the clans of Bastis have to this day never forgiven Clan Ainros for this action. After the failure of the rebellion, the final years of King Gwydion's reign were relatively peaceful. The Beths of Revelback were growing stronger than ever, yet Deinain worship too had flourished, compelling the Elkwoods and Graunts to act as counters against any ambitions from Clan Beth. King Gwydion died in his bed only a few days after his fifty-second birthday. His Chief Justicar, the aged Wiilak Oghnar, declared Prince Ruarc the regent until young Prince Gwynt, then seven years old, came of age.
"Spellers of a more poetic bent have lamented what might have been, if only Wiilak Oghnar had named another Regent, someone more tractable to the whims of the young King Gwynt. A more pragmatic mind might wonder how the canton could have flourished if only Oghnar had shoved Gwynt down a flight of stairs."
Social
Family Ties
Relationships
Conditions
Ethnicity
Honorary & Occupational Titles
King of Revellia,
Lord of Aerwoth,
Archon of the Green Isle
Lord of Aerwoth,
Archon of the Green Isle
Life
4841
4893
52 years old
Circumstances of Birth
Born to King Garland III's second wife, Queen Ellinor
Birthplace
Aerwoth
Family
Spouses
Maeve Ainros o Timber
(Wife)
Siblings
Eyes
Bright Blue
Hair
Ruby
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Earthen