Gwynt Ainros - 17th Known Ruler of Revellia
Called Gwynt the Ghastly
King Gwynt Ainros
Reign: 898 RA - 923 RA
Wizards: Jaell Shadowmaster, Anjiil Shadowmaster Gwynt was the firstborn son of Prince Golbran Ainros, called the Ruby Prince. Golbran was a dashing and heroic man who died valiantly in battle, and so his son was widely believed to be equally great by the commons. Those who knew him, however, understood this to be far from true. Even in his youth, Gwynt was seen as blunt and mean-spirited. King Gwydion the Great died when Gwynt was thirteen years old, and Mox Master Wiilak Oghnar declared Gwynt uncle, Prince Ruarc, the regent until Gwynt came of age. Traditionally, the age of ascension was fourteen years, but one of Ruarc's first acts was to raise this age to eighteen. Many of the court approved of this, but Gwynt saw it as a deliberate attempt to steal the throne. Ruarc had had all his power and responsibilities stripped from him before this for marrying the widow of Prince Geralt the Black Dog, his own brother, so Gwynt and his flatterers saw this as a bald grab for power. Many of the peasants, who still loved Gwynt as the Ruby Prince's son, felt the same way. During the nearly five years of the regency, Gwynt would try several means of seizing power, including outright shows of force. His most famous attempt, however, was his secretly bargaining a betrothal between himself and Lady Bellana of Revelback, first daughter of Lord Barthos Beth. Gwynt fled in the snow, accompanied only by his sworn shield, Sir Tadag Han'dlyth (a distant cousin). Gwynt passed out from the cold and was eventually nursed back to health, but as soon as he awoke from his ills he insisted on being carried to the altar at once, planning to lead Beth's armies back to the capitol the instant the marriage was complete. Before the ceremony could finish, however, Mox Master Oinan Vaugh (who had replaced Wiilak after the old man fell down a flight of stairs and cracked his head) arrived with fifty armed men, five-hundred more outside the city, and seized the prince. "I shall remember this, Oinan," was Gwynt's famous response, one he would repeat to Oinan more than once while awaiting his crown. On the morning of his eighteenth birthday, Gwynt marched a small army into the cabinet to demand his Uncle Ruarc give up the crown. Ruarc calmly explained they had been discussing this very thing and would be happy to coronate him as soon as the Host Master arrived from Great Cross. The recent Southern Rebellion had caused many northern sensibilities to travel down to Revellia, and this new fashion of coronation was one of them. Gwynt was unwilling to wait, however. He grabbed a nearby hostess, an old woman named Ulma, and had her crown him before noon. Once crowned, Gwynt arrested everyone he considered an enemy: Prince Ruarc, his wife Princess Ideina, and their children: Garlad, Dienna, and Ronart, were all thrown into the Cold Moat, the cruelest of dungeons at Castle Aerwoth. Mox Master Oinan was stripped of his position and his clothes, forced to march in his linens to Revelback and beg Lord Barthos to wed his daughter Bellana to the new king. Barthos saw this as an insult and refused. Three more times Oinan was forced to make this march, denied a fire at night, and on the last failure he was beheaded, his head sent to Ruarc and his family in the dungeon. The northern notion of knighthood, which had been popularized by Prince Ruarc, was dissolved, and anyone who clung to his title was arrested. Mox Men returned to prominence, and Sir Tadag Han'dlyth was made Mox Master in place of the dead Oinan Vaugh.
Worse still, while the nobility had no interest in war, the commons had become riled up against Yvruel. Gwynt was not well known, but his father was still loved, and many of the peasantry viewed the boy king as his father reborn, stifled by the treacherous Prince Ruarc. Gwynt's agents roused the citizens to demand war against Yvruel. Without the support of Bastis, Urudun, or Ethel, this was of course impossible, and lords found themselves compelled to put down peasant revolts incited by the king. Taxation increased to levy armies for such a war, and the boy king demanded the closing of borders in angry response to Urudun's and Ethel's disinterest in war. This all came to a head in 908 RA, when the lords of Revelback, Berleigh, Saolmoth, Great Cross, and even Dubraigh marched their armies to the capitol. There were peasant revolts every few months there at the time, and so the armies were marched under the pretext of protecting Aerwoth from one such revolt. Once present, however, they politely demanded that King Gwynt listen to their grievances. Gwynt reacted violently, by turns bellowing and even attempting violence against the far larger forces of his vassal lords. After several days, Lord Barthos of Beth accessed the Cold Moat with several of his soldiers and released Prince Ruarc from imprisonment. The prince agreed to speak with Gwynt, only if the rest of his family were freed. Geralt's son Garlad had died from the cold, but Ruarc still swallowed his pride and tried to reason with the king. After nearly a month, an agreement was reached that history would call the First Compact. It was agreed that the king ruled by consent of his lords, and certain rights were perpetually bestowed upon said lords in the governance of their own lands. Lord Barthos offered to seal this by wedding his daughter Bellana, still a maid, to the king, but Gwynt refused. Reportedly, he insulted the lady and said she may wed his younger brother Sammis. Despite this outrage, Ruarc managed to broker a wedding between Bellana and Sammis. Shortly after, Ruarc was returned to the Cold Moat, though Princess Ideina was given freedom of the castle, and Dienna and Ronart were confined to private suites. Sammis and Bellana would bear two sons (Sammil and Aarthur), and Gwynt was yet unwed. It was said that fear of insurrection is what led Gwynt at last to marry. Gwynt's isolationism kept things cold with Urudun and Ethel. Gwynt sent spellers to Berleigh, where the Elkwood's had a young daughter that might be old enough for betrothal. Within the season, she was given to a hostel. Gwynt considered the Sirtals in Dubraigh, to strengthen the bond between east and west, but the cabinet insisted the Sirtals were far too new a line for the chief of Clan Ainros. Gwynt quickly grew impatient with these political considerations. History is muddy on who first suggested that the king wed his cousin Dienna, and muddier still on how he was won to the idea. Dienna was the daughter of Gwynt's dead uncle Geralt the Black Dog, a man of frightening repute. Moreover, rumors ran wide that Dienna was in truth the child of an affair between her mother Princess Ideina and Prince Ruarc, whom Gwynt hated notoriously. Perhaps he meant to insult Ruarc by "taking" his supposed daughter. Who can say? Public reasoning was that Gwynt wanted to keep the bloodline pure. His mother, a Liddinawth named Illel'Nyl, had renewed Clan Ainros' distant connection with the mysterious island nation, whose inhabitants were said to be descendants of the Viisianari that had once ruled the world. Some claimed the royals had sent to Liddinawth in search of another such wife but were refused. Others said that, by wedding his cousin Dienna, any controversy over her parentage would become moot as she was reabsorbed into the family. A scant few dared suggest that Gwynt hated strangers, outsiders, and mere conversation so much that he seized upon a known entity rather than attempt to woo a more politically advantageous queen. Gwynt had spent very little time in politics and was already sick of it. Though lionized throughout Revellia as the Ruby Prince's son, King Gwynt had no friends among those he knew. Blunt, short-tempered, and oft called dull-witted behind his back, there were none charmed by his boldness. Even his brother Prince Sammis was said to despise him, though he rose high at court and would eventually be named Mox Master. Many said Sammis was promoted not through flattery, but merely because he was familiar and to-hand. Certainly, Gwynt had no kindness for his sister-by-marriage Bellana, whom he had spurned so oft, nor for their children, whom he was said to glare upon with an evil eye. Whatever the true purpose, it was decided that King Gwynt would wed Princess Dienna. Dienna was given freedom of the castle after consenting to the marriage. She and her mother Princess Ideina pleaded for the release of Prince Ruarc, but he remained imprisoned, and the young Ronart was still confined to his suite. It is unknown, what most thought of the betrothal. Even Gwynt's and Dienna's views are unclear. We know only that Princess Aedein, Gwynt's sister, objected strenuously, and though some will point to Clan Ainros' involvement in the Southern Rebellion as the beginning of their end, it was Aedein's objection and the wars to follow that ultimately destroyed them.
916 RA - 920 RA
The wedding between Gwynt and Princess Dienna was planned for mid-Spring of 916 RA, but during the Feast of Fairess at Spring's beginning, Princess Aedein kidnapped Dienna and stole away with her. Prince Sammis and his sons would eventually find her at Malbrand, where she had somehow taken over the castle and its forces. Aedein was calling herself the Queen of the West and was rumored to possess evil powers. Sammis rode to Aerwoth and returned with a great army, but both his sons died under mysterious circumstance during the conflict. While much of Gwynt's army was away at Malbrand, the chiefs of Revellia gathered once more to press change upon him. Prince Ruarc was again freed from his cell to convince Gwynt to sign what would become the Second Compact. The two screamed openly at one another, and even fought a hollymock to resolve their difference. Ruarc prevailed and won freedom for himself and his family. Eventually, Gwynt signed the Second Compact, which named Lord Barthos of Beth his heir, until such time as Gwynt could sire a son. Barthos' armies rode west with Anjiil Shadowmaster, a Wizard that had defected from the king to serve Clan Beth. The Last Battle of Great Cross would put an end to the Witches' War, laying Great Cross to rubble for the last time. Gwynt repaid Anjiil's and Aedein's treachery by outlawing magic. Wizards were expelled or executed, and spellers were likewise punished. Anjiil herself managed to evade the king's wrath, but this time would come to be known as the Second Death of Magic.
King Gwynt was desperate to produce an heir, lest the throne pass to Clan Beth, yet he hated the outside world so much that he seized upon his younger sister, Princess Gilda. His plan to wed his cousin Dienna had caused much whispering, but wedding a sister was not heard of. The matter devolved to horror when the king took the princess against her will, murdering her dignity. Prince Sammis, who had been living in the Fiirwood since the Witches' War, returned to demand Gwynt be deposed and the marriage dissolved. Gwynt responded by dissolving Sammis'' marriage and ordering Prince Ruarc to return Princess Bellana to Revelback. Ruarc did so, but returned with an army. Gwynt was arrested, and Ruarc helped organize a grand court to try Gwynt for his crime. The trial lasted almost three years, ending in Gwynt's conviction for the murder of Queen Gilda's dignity. The marriage was dissolved and Princess Gilda was given to the hostel at Revelback. Sammis demanded the throne, but was denied even the lordship of Aerwoth; he fled to Revelback to remarry his wife Bellana. Prince Ruarc was offered the lordship of Aerwoth but refused, taking his family into Ethel. Gwynt was executed by beheading, performed by an anonymous man. There were rumors the head was meant to be displayed at the castle at Revelback, but it disappeared before it could be delivered. With Gwynt's death, the three-century reign of Clan Ainros ended; not in exultant glory, but in a whimper of shame.
Wizards: Jaell Shadowmaster, Anjiil Shadowmaster Gwynt was the firstborn son of Prince Golbran Ainros, called the Ruby Prince. Golbran was a dashing and heroic man who died valiantly in battle, and so his son was widely believed to be equally great by the commons. Those who knew him, however, understood this to be far from true. Even in his youth, Gwynt was seen as blunt and mean-spirited. King Gwydion the Great died when Gwynt was thirteen years old, and Mox Master Wiilak Oghnar declared Gwynt uncle, Prince Ruarc, the regent until Gwynt came of age. Traditionally, the age of ascension was fourteen years, but one of Ruarc's first acts was to raise this age to eighteen. Many of the court approved of this, but Gwynt saw it as a deliberate attempt to steal the throne. Ruarc had had all his power and responsibilities stripped from him before this for marrying the widow of Prince Geralt the Black Dog, his own brother, so Gwynt and his flatterers saw this as a bald grab for power. Many of the peasants, who still loved Gwynt as the Ruby Prince's son, felt the same way. During the nearly five years of the regency, Gwynt would try several means of seizing power, including outright shows of force. His most famous attempt, however, was his secretly bargaining a betrothal between himself and Lady Bellana of Revelback, first daughter of Lord Barthos Beth. Gwynt fled in the snow, accompanied only by his sworn shield, Sir Tadag Han'dlyth (a distant cousin). Gwynt passed out from the cold and was eventually nursed back to health, but as soon as he awoke from his ills he insisted on being carried to the altar at once, planning to lead Beth's armies back to the capitol the instant the marriage was complete. Before the ceremony could finish, however, Mox Master Oinan Vaugh (who had replaced Wiilak after the old man fell down a flight of stairs and cracked his head) arrived with fifty armed men, five-hundred more outside the city, and seized the prince. "I shall remember this, Oinan," was Gwynt's famous response, one he would repeat to Oinan more than once while awaiting his crown. On the morning of his eighteenth birthday, Gwynt marched a small army into the cabinet to demand his Uncle Ruarc give up the crown. Ruarc calmly explained they had been discussing this very thing and would be happy to coronate him as soon as the Host Master arrived from Great Cross. The recent Southern Rebellion had caused many northern sensibilities to travel down to Revellia, and this new fashion of coronation was one of them. Gwynt was unwilling to wait, however. He grabbed a nearby hostess, an old woman named Ulma, and had her crown him before noon. Once crowned, Gwynt arrested everyone he considered an enemy: Prince Ruarc, his wife Princess Ideina, and their children: Garlad, Dienna, and Ronart, were all thrown into the Cold Moat, the cruelest of dungeons at Castle Aerwoth. Mox Master Oinan was stripped of his position and his clothes, forced to march in his linens to Revelback and beg Lord Barthos to wed his daughter Bellana to the new king. Barthos saw this as an insult and refused. Three more times Oinan was forced to make this march, denied a fire at night, and on the last failure he was beheaded, his head sent to Ruarc and his family in the dungeon. The northern notion of knighthood, which had been popularized by Prince Ruarc, was dissolved, and anyone who clung to his title was arrested. Mox Men returned to prominence, and Sir Tadag Han'dlyth was made Mox Master in place of the dead Oinan Vaugh.
The First Compact
Worse still, while the nobility had no interest in war, the commons had become riled up against Yvruel. Gwynt was not well known, but his father was still loved, and many of the peasantry viewed the boy king as his father reborn, stifled by the treacherous Prince Ruarc. Gwynt's agents roused the citizens to demand war against Yvruel. Without the support of Bastis, Urudun, or Ethel, this was of course impossible, and lords found themselves compelled to put down peasant revolts incited by the king. Taxation increased to levy armies for such a war, and the boy king demanded the closing of borders in angry response to Urudun's and Ethel's disinterest in war. This all came to a head in 908 RA, when the lords of Revelback, Berleigh, Saolmoth, Great Cross, and even Dubraigh marched their armies to the capitol. There were peasant revolts every few months there at the time, and so the armies were marched under the pretext of protecting Aerwoth from one such revolt. Once present, however, they politely demanded that King Gwynt listen to their grievances. Gwynt reacted violently, by turns bellowing and even attempting violence against the far larger forces of his vassal lords. After several days, Lord Barthos of Beth accessed the Cold Moat with several of his soldiers and released Prince Ruarc from imprisonment. The prince agreed to speak with Gwynt, only if the rest of his family were freed. Geralt's son Garlad had died from the cold, but Ruarc still swallowed his pride and tried to reason with the king. After nearly a month, an agreement was reached that history would call the First Compact. It was agreed that the king ruled by consent of his lords, and certain rights were perpetually bestowed upon said lords in the governance of their own lands. Lord Barthos offered to seal this by wedding his daughter Bellana, still a maid, to the king, but Gwynt refused. Reportedly, he insulted the lady and said she may wed his younger brother Sammis. Despite this outrage, Ruarc managed to broker a wedding between Bellana and Sammis. Shortly after, Ruarc was returned to the Cold Moat, though Princess Ideina was given freedom of the castle, and Dienna and Ronart were confined to private suites. Sammis and Bellana would bear two sons (Sammil and Aarthur), and Gwynt was yet unwed. It was said that fear of insurrection is what led Gwynt at last to marry. Gwynt's isolationism kept things cold with Urudun and Ethel. Gwynt sent spellers to Berleigh, where the Elkwood's had a young daughter that might be old enough for betrothal. Within the season, she was given to a hostel. Gwynt considered the Sirtals in Dubraigh, to strengthen the bond between east and west, but the cabinet insisted the Sirtals were far too new a line for the chief of Clan Ainros. Gwynt quickly grew impatient with these political considerations. History is muddy on who first suggested that the king wed his cousin Dienna, and muddier still on how he was won to the idea. Dienna was the daughter of Gwynt's dead uncle Geralt the Black Dog, a man of frightening repute. Moreover, rumors ran wide that Dienna was in truth the child of an affair between her mother Princess Ideina and Prince Ruarc, whom Gwynt hated notoriously. Perhaps he meant to insult Ruarc by "taking" his supposed daughter. Who can say? Public reasoning was that Gwynt wanted to keep the bloodline pure. His mother, a Liddinawth named Illel'Nyl, had renewed Clan Ainros' distant connection with the mysterious island nation, whose inhabitants were said to be descendants of the Viisianari that had once ruled the world. Some claimed the royals had sent to Liddinawth in search of another such wife but were refused. Others said that, by wedding his cousin Dienna, any controversy over her parentage would become moot as she was reabsorbed into the family. A scant few dared suggest that Gwynt hated strangers, outsiders, and mere conversation so much that he seized upon a known entity rather than attempt to woo a more politically advantageous queen. Gwynt had spent very little time in politics and was already sick of it. Though lionized throughout Revellia as the Ruby Prince's son, King Gwynt had no friends among those he knew. Blunt, short-tempered, and oft called dull-witted behind his back, there were none charmed by his boldness. Even his brother Prince Sammis was said to despise him, though he rose high at court and would eventually be named Mox Master. Many said Sammis was promoted not through flattery, but merely because he was familiar and to-hand. Certainly, Gwynt had no kindness for his sister-by-marriage Bellana, whom he had spurned so oft, nor for their children, whom he was said to glare upon with an evil eye. Whatever the true purpose, it was decided that King Gwynt would wed Princess Dienna. Dienna was given freedom of the castle after consenting to the marriage. She and her mother Princess Ideina pleaded for the release of Prince Ruarc, but he remained imprisoned, and the young Ronart was still confined to his suite. It is unknown, what most thought of the betrothal. Even Gwynt's and Dienna's views are unclear. We know only that Princess Aedein, Gwynt's sister, objected strenuously, and though some will point to Clan Ainros' involvement in the Southern Rebellion as the beginning of their end, it was Aedein's objection and the wars to follow that ultimately destroyed them.
The Witches' Wars
916 RA - 920 RA
The wedding between Gwynt and Princess Dienna was planned for mid-Spring of 916 RA, but during the Feast of Fairess at Spring's beginning, Princess Aedein kidnapped Dienna and stole away with her. Prince Sammis and his sons would eventually find her at Malbrand, where she had somehow taken over the castle and its forces. Aedein was calling herself the Queen of the West and was rumored to possess evil powers. Sammis rode to Aerwoth and returned with a great army, but both his sons died under mysterious circumstance during the conflict. While much of Gwynt's army was away at Malbrand, the chiefs of Revellia gathered once more to press change upon him. Prince Ruarc was again freed from his cell to convince Gwynt to sign what would become the Second Compact. The two screamed openly at one another, and even fought a hollymock to resolve their difference. Ruarc prevailed and won freedom for himself and his family. Eventually, Gwynt signed the Second Compact, which named Lord Barthos of Beth his heir, until such time as Gwynt could sire a son. Barthos' armies rode west with Anjiil Shadowmaster, a Wizard that had defected from the king to serve Clan Beth. The Last Battle of Great Cross would put an end to the Witches' War, laying Great Cross to rubble for the last time. Gwynt repaid Anjiil's and Aedein's treachery by outlawing magic. Wizards were expelled or executed, and spellers were likewise punished. Anjiil herself managed to evade the king's wrath, but this time would come to be known as the Second Death of Magic.
Gwynt's Cruelty and the Trial of the King
King Gwynt was desperate to produce an heir, lest the throne pass to Clan Beth, yet he hated the outside world so much that he seized upon his younger sister, Princess Gilda. His plan to wed his cousin Dienna had caused much whispering, but wedding a sister was not heard of. The matter devolved to horror when the king took the princess against her will, murdering her dignity. Prince Sammis, who had been living in the Fiirwood since the Witches' War, returned to demand Gwynt be deposed and the marriage dissolved. Gwynt responded by dissolving Sammis'' marriage and ordering Prince Ruarc to return Princess Bellana to Revelback. Ruarc did so, but returned with an army. Gwynt was arrested, and Ruarc helped organize a grand court to try Gwynt for his crime. The trial lasted almost three years, ending in Gwynt's conviction for the murder of Queen Gilda's dignity. The marriage was dissolved and Princess Gilda was given to the hostel at Revelback. Sammis demanded the throne, but was denied even the lordship of Aerwoth; he fled to Revelback to remarry his wife Bellana. Prince Ruarc was offered the lordship of Aerwoth but refused, taking his family into Ethel. Gwynt was executed by beheading, performed by an anonymous man. There were rumors the head was meant to be displayed at the castle at Revelback, but it disappeared before it could be delivered. With Gwynt's death, the three-century reign of Clan Ainros ended; not in exultant glory, but in a whimper of shame.
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
Most members of Clan Ainros are known for their red hair, deeper and brighter than most; a fuller red oft compared to rubies or blood.
Social
Family Ties
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
4880
4923
43 years old
Circumstances of Death
Executed after the Royal Trial, for murdering the dignity of his sister and wife, Queen Gilda
Birthplace
Aerwoth
Family
Children
Eyes
Pale
Hair
Ruby
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Earthen
Other Affiliations