Mortal Kingdoms of Monos

A nation surrounded by nine other nations, it is difficult to say if Monos' warlike nature has helped it survive or nearly brought on its doom.
The Mortal Kingdoms of Monos are: Embelmadro, Vipers Nest, The Hilldren, Albanesca, The Shadowveil, Westheart, Gemosia, Terminallia, Farfield, and the Holy Isle of Acciano.

Structure

Monos is comprised of ten kingdoms, all of them ruled over by the King of Kings, a legendary title from the Wild Age, recreated after the Great Collapse of the New Orckid Empire.

History

From "A brief history of the nation, from the beginning of time until the Fall of the Orckid Empire and the Reemergence of the King of Kings, and a longer overview on the Fifty-Five known Reigns and Thirteen Dynasties of the Kings of Kings, covering the Second Crown Age and the beginning of the New Age, also called the Free Age." By the Wizard Bethany the Crooked.

SEAR AGE
As with all Kynaj, Monosi history begins in the Cradle of Yaalk. The Great Migration took place sometime in the Sear Age: when the first folk split into three itinerate groups that history calls the Three Great Peoples of Kynaj. The first moved south and became the Yenai, the second north and became the Viisianari, and the third moved east through the Shadowgate Mountains to become the Monosi and their cousins.
Many historians suggest the ancient Monosi migrated north around the Shadowgates, not through them. Myths and legends of the devils and monsters that live in the mountains, combined with the harsh terrain, move many to question whether ancient peoples could survive such a trek. Yet the legends persist, of ancient Monosi fighting demon warriors and beasts that could swallow a behemoth whole, of dark gods striking from the sky or erupting out of the mountains. Of course, the existence of tall tales does not prove anything.
However they did so, the Monosi would eventually settle in the fields around the southern end of what is now the River Basilisk. It is believed they remained there for several generations before splitting again. Several groups moved east to eventually become the Brevessarians and their cousins, who would one day become the modern Vainans. It is postulated that another group would enter Samaya, but so little is known of this nation that their origins remain shrouded, with many suggesting the Samayans sailed into their homeland from the far east (similar absurdities are bandied about the Vainans as well, and little credence should be granted them). The brunt of the Monosi moved southeast, however, and settled around the great salt lake that would one day be called the Sea of Trials. Although they would expand in later centuries, the ancient Monosi appear to have spent their early generations within a day or two from any of the rivers feeding into the Sea of Trials.
WILD AGE
Monos the nation is considered to have started with the First King of Kings, who appeared sometime in the Wild Age. It is widely believed that he descended from the heavens to the Isle of Acciano, and from there trod across the water to tell the scattered tribes of his dominance. He claimed to have been created by the Host of Hosts in the heavens, and that it was his divine right and duty to unite the many kings of the earth under his single rule: that all kings must answer to him and his judgment.
Naturally, the veracity of this is ever disputed. Many suggest that the idea of the Host of Hosts did not exist in Wild Monos, that this concept was stolen from the Yenai Faith when contact was made with Zalja, and still others suggest that Monos’ patriarchal culture was imported from the New Orckid Empire after the Mornal Invasion; both of these events taking place well after the Wild Age.
That there was a great warlord in Wild Monos who called himself the King of Kings seems likely. Nearly all religions in Kynaj feature a pantheon of feminine creators, but Monos alone features a half-mortal patriarch ruling over them. It may be that this warlord united other chieftains through intimidation, conquest, or religious fervor, and that such a rule would eventually fall apart after his death. Such an event would prove to be a recurring theme in Monosi history.
The emergence of this King of Kings, whenever it occurred, is generally considered the beginning of the First Crown Age in Monos. Many legends abound of this time, both credible and otherwise, both epic and amusing. Curiously, several myths of this time mention the Monosi repelling demon warriors, not from the Shadowgates in the west, but out of the east. Some suggest this points to the dark origins of mysterious Samaya, a nation essentially inaccessible to outsiders, while others point out with some mirth that the east of Monos is occupied by various apes and monkeys, who may well have seemed like monstrous invaders to our ancestors.
FIRST CROWN AGE (LATE WILD AGE AND EARLIER IMPERIAL AGE)
The First Crown Age is an amorphous time, virtually free of records of any kind. The people of Monos expanded, presumably into most of the areas that now constitute its modern borders. There were chieftains, no doubt called kings, who may or may not have deferred to the sons of the King of Kings, if such people existed. Iron was discovered in the Hilldren, and basic metallurgy was developed. Leather working would likely have given the Monosi some dominance over their neighbors as well, on the occasions they met.
If the First Crown Monosi knew anything of spelling, such knowledge has been lost. Orckid records might suggest they carved runes on stones and trees, but any such artifacts have been lost as well. The First Crown Age would last over a thousand years into the Imperial Age, when the Old Orckid Empire finally made its way into the region.
The kings (or chieftains) of Monos proved very resilient against Orckid invasion, holding onto some of their lands for over a century. Their iron weapons were the greatest the Empire had yet encountered, and some few Imperial reports suggest they may have been unusually resistant to Orckid magic (the reports are not entirely clear if it is the weapons or the people themselves that were so resistant).
Regardless, Monos’ fall to the Empire proved as inevitable as all those who fell before them. Around 1200 IA, supposedly, a man calling himself the King of Kings laid down his magic sword, called Hollyfire, before the foot of Virtuoso Salliarr Fe Irradril, and accepted the Orckid Empire as the rightful rulers of Monos. Imperial reports suggest that almost the entire area was already under Imperial control. All the same, this is generally seen as the end of the First Crown Age and the beginning of the Orckid Age, or the Spell Age.
ORCKID AGE (LATTER IMPERIAL AGE)
As with most of their conquests, the Orckid Empire introduced several advancements in architecture, medicine, record-keeping, roads, and of course spelling. The Monosi proved quite resistant to Viisianari occupation, however, and many have sited this as evidence that the nation’s gender roles existed before the Mornal Invasion.
One particular report by Overlord Ferion Yr Athrodaiya, sums up the Orckid occupation well. “Settlement of the Great Salt Sea continues to frustrate. Common folk balk at the structural improvements, frequently opting to remain in their midden heaps, avoiding our housing out of seemingly superstitious fear. Many flee at the sound of magic, even healing spells, and their shamans insist we are trying to magically enslave them. There is a small island near the Great Salt Sea’s center, and several of these savages have constructed crude rafts to sail out to it, insisting some legendary king will meet them there to rescue them. Uprisings are frequent, but never effective. Their metal weapons are formidable, but they have no discipline, no patience, and scarcely any martial intuition. This is a nation of savages, and it may be many generations before they are tamed.”
Although the Orckid Conquest was allegedly motivated by a desire to share their advancements with the world, it must be remembered they sought resources as well. Monos’ abundance of acacia trees, especially in the eastern reach of what is now Terminallia, were of great value to tanners and (according to Prefect Hallia Iffinadra) revolutionized the Empire’s leatherworking.
It is not truly known if Monos ever became more manageable. Complaints from regional governors appear to have diminished over time, but we of course do not know if this means the people became subdued or if the newer governors were more accustomed to the wild Monosi. Slavery was more common in Monos than any other province, being a common punishment for rebellion, murder, and some forms of theft and vandalism, acts in which the Monosi frequently participated.
Between the end of the Imperial Age and the beginning of the Second Crown Age, records of Monos are extremely bare. It can reasonably be assumed that the Mornal overlords were less tolerant of Monosi resistance, and that their superior steel was a sharp answer to any further uprisings. It is believed that the man who would become known as Regradis the Great led an uprising against the Mornal overlords sometime after the Great Collapse, and that the success of this revolution likely prompted his invasion to the north, to carve out what would become Northern Monos.
THE SECOND CROWN AGE, INTO THE NEW/FREE AGE
Much of what we know hereafter we owe, somewhat ironically, to the self-proclaimed hundred-and-first King of Kings, Regradis the Great. The gender roles that would come to define Monos (and Milos to the south) were, if not created, certainly codified by Regradis, yet without him there might well be no spellers in Monos, and thus history might have remained a muddied mystery.
Monos is a remarkably warlike nation, even more-so than the New Orckid Empire. This is likely due, at least in part, to its geography: trapped between the advanced nations of Zalja and Khabar, the collapsing but still powerful West and East Orckid Empire, the great kingdom (later principality) of Vaina to the east, mysterious and deadly Samaya, and of course the barbaric Peninsula of Milos to the south. No other nation in Kynaj is so accessible to so many potential enemies.
Monos’ strictly separated gender roles have been blamed upon the Orckid Empire, both old and new. It has been said that their oppression of women was a response to the Viisianari and their magic, though it has also been called an integration of Mornal culture after they took over the Empire. Sadly, with so few records before the time of Regradis, we may never know the truth.

Monosi Kings

Periditio Dynasty
Sigil: a Crowned Fist of silver upon a black field
Archer the Good, 100th King of Kings [? – 118 RA]:
Known only as a popular and prosperous king. Posthumously named the 100th King of Kings by his son. Many doubt Archer’s existence, calling him an invention of his son to justify his reign. Certainly, if there were an unbroken line from the First King of Kings through to Archer, there would be far more than a mere ninety-nine such kings before him. It is assumed that Regradis used this myth to rally forces for his revolt against the Mornal overlords occupying Monos before the Second Crown Age.
Regradis the Great, 101st King of Kings [118 RA – 151 RA]:
Had himself crowned at the Holy City of Acciano. Established the Prince of Hosts. Integrated the Speller profession from Monos’ Mornal occupiers and essentially initiated the beginning of record-keeping of any kind in Monos. Started the Invasion of East Orckid that would acquire all of North Monos (“The Northern Conquest”). Died of a chill after a night-long battle. Also known as the Father of History.
Harmude Humble, 102nd King of Kings [151 RA – 173 RA]:
Achieved a few minor victories in the Northern Conquest.
Harmude II, the White, 103rd King of Kings [173 RA – 188 RA]:
Made leather gauntlets and a cloak from the skin of Mornal generals he slew. Also called Harmude the Ghastly, not in reference to his actions, but the pale “ghastly” quality of the skins he wore.
Cenedras the Shaker, 104th King of Kings [188 RA – 197 RA]:
Expanded the Northern borders all the way to the Darida Sea. His flatterers told him he commanded the sea, and he reportedly spent a night at the shore, ordering the sea to rise up and drown his enemies. He caught a chill and died a week later. Occasionally called Cenedras the Foolish and Cenedras Sleepwalker.
Cordon Dynasty
Sigil: a golden sunrise upon a purple field
Regradis II, the Outlook, 105th King of Kings [197 RA – 225 RA]:
Held the northern coast against numerous attacks for over twenty-five years. Supposedly, he would frequently accompany watchmen at night as they looked out for attack, and sometimes held the watch himself. Regradis II was born Darreo Cordon, but renamed himself Regradis after seizing the crown from Cenedras the Shaker’s underaged sons. Some legends say he had the sons thrown into the sea, and kept the watch ever after fearing their ghosts might return to haunt him.
Innifor the (un)Lucky, 106th King of Kings [225 RA – 237 RA]:
Called the Lucky because an invasion from the west caused the East Orckid Empire to drastically reduce their efforts on the Monosi front. Called the Unlucky because he died defending the town of Embelmadro against an incursion, less than two months before East Orckid officially surrendered and ceded their lands to Monos.
Gaered the Gallant, 107th King of Kings [237 RA – 240 RA]:
Started the Invasion of Vaina in 239 RA. Called the Gallant for challenging Vaina’s King Hestar to a duel upon reaching the capitol. Hestar was a far superior duelist and quickly defeated Gaered. Gaered’s death, reportedly, came much more slowly.
Witny, 108th King of Kings [240 RA – 264 RA]:
Finished the Vainan invasion and installed its governing overseers. Famously rode to the Holy Isle of Acciano to be crowned before returning to the front, making this an official requirement of kings, whereas previously it had been merely traditional.
Archer II, 109th King of Kings [264 RA – 280 RA]
Continued Vainan occupation.
Dalabar the Damselled, 110th King of Kings [280 RA – 300 RA]
Killed by a Vainan uprising, in which Princess Mariann slit his throat before two-hundred people during a religious feast.
Traveller Dynasty
Sigil: A pair of golden boots upon a brown field
Cenedras II, 111th King of Kings [300 RA – 345 RA]
Long, peaceful reign. Cenedras initiated centralized national coinage.
Cenedras III, the Northman, 112th King of Kings [345 RA – 362 RA]
Repelled the First Terminal Rebellion. Led a campaign north and recaptured some East Orckid territory. The Northman lost interest after conquering, however, and poor stewardship resulted in losing the rest of the land gained. Slain in the Mornal Reprisal by Garrimus the Mornal.
Morenalle Dynasty
Sigil: the white unicorn of Mornalith upon an indigo field
Garrimus the Mornal, 113th King of Kings [362 RA – 385 RA]
First foreign king of Monos. Garrimus was an Orckid margrave who took over stewardship of Monos for the East Orckid Empire, but quickly crowned himself king. He would not be the last foreign ruler to grow so enamored of the nation as to cast off his own nationality to claim kingship. Repelled the Second Terminal Rebellion.
Igetius, the Ape Man, 114th King of Kings [385 RA – 392 RA]
Igetius died in the acacia fields of Eastern Terminallia, studying the monkeys and apes there.
Calphian the Pious, 115th King of Kings [392 RA – 440 RA]
Famously converted to the Old Faith, ending ‘foreign rule’ in Monos. Died without a male heir. His eldest daughter Garrimetta married a powerful nobleman, who took the crown after Calphian’s death.
Denarando Dynasty
Sigil: a dancing ape, red, upon an orange field
Nicodemo the Bridegroom, 116th King of Kings [440 RA – 451 RA]
First instance of a man marrying into the crown. Died in the Third Terminal Rebellion.
Regradis III, the Vengeant, 117th King of Kings [451 – 452 RA]
Finished the Third Terminal Rebellion. Slain fighting Count Fermio Terminallia, who soon after died of his wounds.
Witny II, Wantwit, 118th King of Kings [452 RA – 467 RA]
Caused a scandal by marrying the Princess of Vaina, Livian II. Livian II, called Livian the Lusty, tried to seize control of Monos after Witny’s death. The Widow’s War lasted two years, fought first between Livian and Witny’s nephew Remo. Later, Livian II surrendered her cause and tried to crown her eldest son Jon, but by then the nation had soured to the “Vainan invasion,” and many lords favored Remo’s rule. Vaina eventually prevailed, due largely to their magical contingents, and Jon was set on the throne.
Remo, 119th King of Kings [467 RA – 469 RA]
Nephew to Witny II. Fought to defend his claim from Witny’s firstborn son Jon, who eventually prevailed. Remo was imprisoned for five years, but after seven escape attempts was sentenced to die. He escaped from his own beheading and started the First Cousin’s Rebellion, wherein he was defeated and executed by his cousin Jon, who became king.
Jon, 120th King of Kings [469 RA – 483 RA]
Victor of the Widow’s War. Repelled the First Cousin’s Rebellion, executing his cousin Remo by beheading. Repelled the Second Cousin’s Rebellion, executing Remo’s brothers Edward and Richard. Slain by his second-cousin Harmude in the Third Cousin’s Rebellion. Sometimes called Jon the Cursed.
Vuliparo Dynasty
Sigil: a great golden crown with a gilt fox resting beneath it, on a bronze field.
Harmude III, the Witch King, 121st King of Kings [483 RA – 489 RA]
Zealot of the Old Faith, obsessed with High and Low Magic. Harmude surrounded himself with spellers and magicians, trying to reawaken the legendary powers that allowed Orckid to dominate the known world. The transformation of the Old Faith into its shamanistic state began under Harmude III’s rule. Harmude was eventually murdered, along with his first son Harrion and his three daughters, by his second son Dalabar. Dalabar would be exonerated by the priests and the Monosi Prince of Hosts, who determined that Harmude and his other children were heretics.
Dalabar II, the Devil of Geumsil, 122nd King of Kings [489 RA – 504 RA]
Dalabar greatly diminished the coronation ceremony that had been started by Witny the First. He then began the New Terror (492 RA – 501 RA, later called the First Terror), a campaign against the Old Monosi Faith. Hundreds if not thousands of men, women, and children were burned, hanged, quartered, and (only occasionally) beheaded as confessed zealots of the Old Faith. They were called Witch Worshipers due to their obsession with magic, and sometimes Witches. Everyone celebrated Dalabar’s zeal, mostly because they feared doing otherwise might turn his suspicions on them. Finally, in 501 RA, his cabinet succeeded in convincing him to abandon his inquisition. He died in 504 RA of burst bowels. He was succeeded by his nephew (the eldest son of the brother he murdered): his first son had died of illness, and both his second and third sons had been killed in the New Terror. Also called Dalabar the Devil, Dalabar the Kinkiller, Dalabar the Witchhunter, and Dalabar Dastard.
Cenedras IV, the Liar, 123rd King of Kings [504 RA – 532 RA]
To distance himself from his uncle, Cenedras started a Campaign against the western nation of Zalja. He seized several towns and eventually took the great port city of Dalsaman via luck and deception, which he renamed Vargano. Cenedras famously offered to give up the city if the enemy commander gave herself up to him. True to his word, he gave up Vargano to the rule of his brother Ardromor and left. Cenedras also began the campaign to occupy Milos, which after five-hundred years was still heavily influenced by Orckid’s long-collapsed rule. Cenedras lived into old age and choked to death on a chicken bone. Despite his many military victories and occasionally wise rule, he is universally known as Cenedras the Liar.
Dardromor Dyansty
Sigil: A black shield, a raven resting upon it, on a silver field
Ardromor, the Second King, 124th King of Kings [532 RA – 543 RA]
Cenedras the Liar famously faked his death during the Zaljan campaign to convince his brother Ardromor to bring fresh armies to the front. Ardromor was crowned at the Holy City of Acciano before coming to the front and discovering his brother was still alive. This means that when Cenedras the Liar did actually die, Ardromor had already been crowned. He immediately declared himself king, usurping Cenedras’ son, and declared Vargano the new capital of Monos. During his time as governor, Ardromor had helped Vargano become an extremely successful and powerful port city, so when Cenedras’ sons arrived to dethrone him, they were easily repelled. The sons went to Acciano to be crowned, but Ardromor had foreseen this. Generous contributions to the Holy City over the years insured that they would side with Ardromor. The sons were imprisoned for the rest of their lives (some say they were murdered after everyone had forgotten about them). Ardromor’s reign was not especially long, having started when he was quite old, but it was prosperous, and led to one of the most celebrated (and tragic) dynasties in Monosi history. Also called the Other King, the Good King, and the King in the Shadow.
Tyrano the Great, AKA the Triple King, AKA the King of All Kings, 125th King of Kings [543 RA – 584 RA]
Born Tamero. Ardromor’s first son Tyrano died in a riding accident when young, and Tamero took his brother’s name when he assumed the crown (“It sounds more kingly,” he said). Tyrano also broke the tradition of going to Acciano to be crowned, instead being crowned in Vargano by a hostess named Bertolla (called “the King-Smith”), who was well respected in the city. This led directly to the Fourth Terminal Rebellion, which was fought all around (and sometimes on) the Sea of Trials. The Old Faith was losing popularity greatly, so Tyrano achieved immense fame in putting down the rebellion. He also put down the Liar’s Rebellion, when a man claiming to be the son of one of Cenedras’ IV’s imprisoned sons raised an army to take the crown; it was another unpopular rebellion, and Tyrano became even more beloved after victory. This popularity persisted despite the increased authority he gave to the nobility, allowing them to punish and tax their vassals more severely. His kindness to the nobility did not help, however, when he abandoned marriage negotiations with two noble houses to instead marry Avra Ra Calinar, a Zaljan commander that had fought with him in the Liar’s Rebellion. Objections to this union would eventually lead to the Nobles’ Rebellion. Tyrano prevailed again, but Avra Ra Calinar also fought in the rebellion and was slain. Tyrano famously mourned for six years (a holy number to the Zaljans) before remarrying. He had an elder son and twin son-and-daughter from his first marriage. Shocking the court, Tyrano once again married a foreigner: a third daughter of the Prince of Vaina, Elena Brevesse, with whom he had three sons and two daughters. There were more murmurs and complaints, but the lords had learned their lesson. In his later years, Tyrano made frequent pilgrimages to Acciano, leaving the realm in the hands of his eldest son, Prince Elwan. Tyrano died in his sleep at the age of three-and-sixty, at the Holy Isle of Acciano.
Elwan, 126th King of Kings [584 RA – 588 RA]
Elwan was a remarkably controversial king. He reversed several of his father’s edicts increasing noble authority, unifying provincial laws and increasing the rights of the commonwealth. This made him extremely unpopular with the nobles, who used his Zaljan heritage to slander him to the peasantry. He was highly celebrated one week and universally reviled the next. Elwan officialized the Zaljan concept of the Six, which his father had utilized often in an unofficial capacity: selecting a council of six trusted advisers to help govern the realm. Elena Brevesse, Tyrano’s second wife, was part of Elwan’s Six until her death in 588 RA. She loved Elwan like a son (some said their love was unnatural), but was unable to keep her own sons from rebelling against him. Called the Monterani Rebellion because the sons were based there, this war spanned nearly the entirety of Elwan’s brief reign. Elwan was slain in battle against his brothers by an unknown warrior. Elena, his trusted adviser and mother of the rebels, was imprisoned and executed by her own sons, who called her a traitor for failing to support their cause.
Irsud the Just, 127th King of Kings [588 RA – 612 RA]
Irsud came to power during the Monterani Rebellion. His first act was to reinstate his father Tyrano’s edicts granting increased power to the nobility. He used this to leverage support from the nobles against the rebels, prevailing against them in 590 RA. The elder rebel, Hestarro, was executed for treason, but his younger brother Ricard repented and was forgiven (the youngest, Jas, had been slain in battle). Irsud continued the practice of the Six, and remarkably, Ricard served as one of his Six for eight years before dying in a tourney mishap in 598 RA. Irsud’s twin sister Iranni also served on the Six, despite frequent loud objections. Irsud did manage to subtly introduce some laws increasing peasants’ rights, but not as much as his brother Elwan had. Irsud very consciously chose to marry a Monosi noblewoman from an established house, with whom he had three sons and three daughters. He died of a heart attack in 612 RA at the age of two-and-fifty.
Regradis IV, the Black Lion, 128th King of Kings [612 RA – 632 RA]
Born Remo, Irsud the Just’s first son took the name Regradis upon coronation, hoping to recapture the ancient glory of the men who previously wore the name. Also wishing to pay homage to his Zaljan heritage, he took the black lion as his personal sigil, a symbol associated with an ancient goddess of valor in that nation. Regradis IV is a most peculiar king. He was incredibly popular, yet he spent less than a year of his reign in Monos, leaving government in the hands of his Six (among them his Aunt Iranni, his father’s twin, who would prove to be the only link between Regradis and his nation for much of his rule). He dedicated his life to military campaigns, first in Embelmadro attempting to regain lands lost to East Orckid centuries ago, then in Vaina attempting to expand Northern Monos, and finally into West Orckid, where he spent his final five years in Ajman, an East Orckid city surrounded by West Orckid territory. There he spent his time with Orckid nobility and reportedly took an Orckid princess as his paramour (though it was never clear if she was a princess of East or West Orckid). His Six ruled competently without him. Whether Regradis ever took a wife or fathered heirs is unknown. He died in Ajman in 632 RA, and his youngest brother Leonardo took the crown (the middle son having given up his claim to become a hosterman with the Old Faith). Iranni ruled for much of Regradis’ life, and was often called the Shadow Queen or the Queen in the Shadows, despite that she never made any secret of her actions or her policy-proposals. Other members of the Six often tried to have her removed, but even when the Black Lion became unreachable, he would send annual edicts demanding she stay in place. Leonardo helped to ensure this.
Leonardo the Loveless, 129th King of Kings [632 RA – 666 RA]
Leonardo was an experienced ruler by the time he took the crown, and transition into his reign was very smooth. He continued his father’s mild improvements on peasants’ rights, managing to quell rebellious airs by inviting powerful lords to serve as his Six. At first, these lords spent all their time conspiring against one another for power, and Leonardo managed to play them against each other without seeming to take a part, nullifying their dangers while he continued to govern uninterrupted (occasionally, they gave good counsel as well). This all changed, however, when he set eyes upon a hostess named Myreya visiting Vargano with his older brother, the hosterman Sir Daedelo. Leonardo fell madly in love with this woman, and bankrupted the royal accounts trying to sway her from her vows, so she would marry him. Leonardo became so distracted that his Six began ruling in his stead, though this did nothing to soften their internal conflicts. After years of trying, Leonardo eventually convinced Myreya to marry him, which turned the Old Faith against him. His Six had bankrupted the realm with their internal conflicts, and growing threats from Vaina to the east had gone unnoticed and unchecked. Prince Marvelo of Vaina, a third son acting on behalf of the nation’s monarch, invaded Monos in 665 RA. He famously took the Isle of Acciano without shedding any blood, where he supposedly converted to the Host of Hosts and continued onward to Vargano. He managed to seize the crown from a disordered and virtually powerless ruling body. Already popular with the people, Prince Marvelo found lesser lords who opposed the Six and used them to consolidate power. The Six were all executed for treason against Leonardo (and now against Marvelo). Leonardo and his new wife were separated and imprisoned. Myreya, still pregnant, was given to the hostermen of Acciano and imprisoned on the Island; what happened to the baby is unknown. Leonardo was kept in a dungeon where he reportedly went mad and died of self-imposed starvation, ending the famous Dardromor Dynasty.
Breventio Dynasty
Sigil: a violet bird of fortune on a sea-blue field
Marvelo the Marvel, 130th King of Kings [670 RA – 708 RA]
From 666 RA to 670 RA, Monos was ruled by the Prince of Vaina, with his youngest brother Marvelo acting as regent. But like the Morenalle Dynasty before him, Marvelo became enamored of Monos. For him, it was the new capital of Vargano, and its mixture of diverse cultures he had never seen before, that most enthralled him. The city made such an impression that he declared himself King of Monos in 670 RA and took a Khabarese woman of low birth for his queen. Ifalna Vaser was a chandler’s daughter, but rumors ran fast that she was a sorceress, a prostitute, a secret military commander, a murderer escaped from Khabar, and all manner of accusations even more fantastical. The scandal did not have time to germinate, however, since Marvelo’s brother, Prince Ben, declared war that same year to reclaim the nation. Having learned his lesson from his first conquest, Prince Ben marched to war himself, leaving his other brother Incerrio as regent of Vaina in his absence. Scandalized as Marvelo was, the nation still united against this second Vainan assault. The slandered Queen felt compelled to stay out of sight, but managed to funnel funds to several underground sources meant to encourage popular support for her husband. Many historians credit Ifalna for the Red Letters, a communication with Regent Incerrio that eventually convinced him to crown himself as Prince of Vaina, leaving Prince Ben with no nations to rule. Much of Ben’s army deserted at this, and in the end he had little choice but to lead his remaining forces back to Vaina in the hopes of reclaiming his throne (which he failed to do). Marvelo would put down several very minor rebellions in response to both his foreign origins and his foreign queen, but overall his rule was relatively stable and prosperous. He died in his bed of natural causes, his queen dead in his arms. Although no investigation was performed, rumors flew far that Ifalna had poisoned herself to leave the world with her husband. Some say she could not live without him, while others speculated that she feared what might happen to her, a woman of common birth, without her king to protect her. She had grown beloved of the people in her later years, but never forgot the slander she endured when first crowned.
David, 131st King of Kings [708 RA – 723 RA]
David had been governor of Coredillo for eight years when the crown passed to him. Having grown comfortable in the hills, he made his seat there and declared it the new capital of Monos. Though many squabbled at this, as many will, the more powerful (and nationalistic) considered it a wise move: having the nation’s capital and king’s seat on the very border of two other nations was asking for trouble, they felt. A notoriously cold, rational man, David’s reign was unremarkable. Instead of crushing rebellions, he prevented them through compromise and shrewd political maneuvering. Instead of conquering other lands, he bartered foreign brides for his most powerful lords. Instead of antagonizing the commons, he gave them fairs and plays (all while slowly repealing their freedoms and increasing the might of the lords, and himself). David is often credited with the creation of modern theater, as his wife Queen Ermisen frequently patronized the art and saw it flourish under their reign. David died of a stroke at a negotiation table regarding the reinstitution of the Six. Unsurprisingly, negotiations fell apart after that, and the Six remained a solely Zaljan and Khabarese notion, for the time being.
Loracio, the Zealous, 132nd King of Kings [723 RA – 728 RA]
Loracio was a devout Hostkeeper. He began his reign by centralizing power in the hands of the king, both as a repudiation of the idea of the Six and as a move to further oppress the Old Faith. From 725 RA to 728 RA, it was made illegal to profess the Old Faith, and many zealots fled to the Isle of Acciano, which became severely isolated from the rest of the nation. Nobles were also outraged to see their rights diminished, many of them even losing the right of pit and gallows, being forced to pass any rulings in their own domains on to the King for approval. Loracio’s brother Enrico managed to placate talks of rebellion, insisting he could curb the King’s piety. Rather than curb it, it seems Enrico managed to intensify it so greatly that in 728 Loracio, feeling he had accomplished all he meant to do, put off the crown to become a hosterman. He gained a dispensation from the Prince of Hosts to wander the Kingsfield of Milos to the south. It is presumed that he died there.
Enrico, 133rd King of Kings [728 RA – 750 RA]
Enrico was an amiable man who made many friends during his rule. He was not wise, but unselfish and intelligent enough to rely on the counsel of others in any matter in which he was not expert. He often considered reinstituting the Six for this very purpose, but with Leonardo the Loveless being the most prominent example of their works, he always decided against it. While Loracio’s edicts against the Old Faith remained in place under Enrico, they were poorly enforced. His father’s moving the capitol to Coredillo would seem to be prophetic (or perhaps merely a self-fulfilling prophecy) as in 735 RA the Third Zaljan Crusade attacked the port city of Vargano, which they managed to occupy off-and-on for forty years. Most of Enrico’s rule, however, was spent trying to undo the centralizing of power that took place under his brother. Brief though it was, it seemed the redistributing of power to the lords in a manner that would satisfy everyone proved to be an impossible task. This came to a head in 748 RA, when his second nephew Verrin, the Earl of the Hilldren, led several other lords in a coup which would unseat the King in 750 RA. Enrico, his Queen, and all their sons were executed, along with the Queen’s brothers. Their daughters and other close relatives were all imprisoned, and Monos became an oligarchy ruled by a council of lords for fifteen years. This time is alternately called the Rule of Peace or the Rule of Chaos, depending on who you ask.
Emilian Dynasty
Sigil: A silver lion with a sword in its mouth, on a green field
Tyrano II, the Tyrant, 134th King of Kings [765 RA – 802 RA]
In 765 RA, Umert Emilian the Count of Westheart, prevailed in a three-year shadow-war with the lords of Monos called the War of the Ten Kingdoms, in which the lords of nearly all the ten provinces decided to crown themselves as kings of their regions. More than once during the fifteen years of the oligarchy it looked likely that the nation would split apart, but unionists always managed to keep the nation whole; Count Umert was chief among those unionists. In 765, through politics and secret deals and shows of force, he managed to unite these kings under his rule. He crowned himself Tyrano II, King of Kings. He would spend the rest of his life putting down rebellions from one king or the other, and enacted many harsh laws to enforce his new order. Though he greatly limited the rights of the people (which for the most part were already quite limited under their respective ‘kings’), his title ‘the Tyrant’ undoubtedly came from the lord-Kings that surrendered to him. Tyrano II is also sometimes called the King of All Kings, both out of confusion with his namesake and because he was the first King of Kings since ancient times to actually rule over other kings in his own nation (the Monosi had of course ruled the kings of Milos since Cenedras the Liar’s Conquest). Among the many battles he fought were the Victory in Vargano, which finally expelled Zalja from Vargano and ended the Third Zaljan Crusade. The peace lasted less than twenty years, however, and Tyrano II would die in battle defending Vargano from the Fourth Zaljan Crusade.
Balthasaar the Brutal, 135th King of Kings [802 RA – 830 RA]
Balthasaar quickly earned his title fighting in the Fourth Zaljan Crusade. He was called “the Brutal” before kinghood due to the ferocious manner of his fighting. Balthassar first joined the Vargano front when his father Tyrano II had to ride to Oheias to put down a rebellion between three northern kings, but quickly became so invested in the fighting that he refused to leave. When Tyrano II died in battle in 802 RA, Balthasaar slew his father’s killer, took the crown from his head, and continued fighting. When another minor rebellion was brewing in Terminallia, he sent Baron Dinsmore of Gemosia, his “Good Right Hand,” with a strong contingent to immediately put them down. Tyrano II had used diplomacy and compromise to put down revolts as often as violence, but for Balthasaar there would prove to be one answer: chains. Baron Dinsmore slew any who resisted, and the rest were put in chains and marched to Vargano to fight on the front. Even after the Fourth Zaljan Crusade was repelled (Vargano was never once taken under Balthasaar’s stewardship), the Chainmen persisted. Any rebellion, big or small, armed or spoken, had its members chained and brought to Vargano to watch the border. Balthasaar would declare Vargano the capitol again after the Crusade was repelled, placing himself in the same city as the thousands of men he dispossessed and armed. This would lead to dozens of assassination attempts. His advisers often urged him to move the capitol back to Coredillo, but Balthasaar invariably responded “Murderers are cowards, and I shall never fly from a coward.” Failed attempts on his life inevitably led to long, drawn out deaths in Vargano’s dungeons, where his “Good Left Hand” Lord Marion Bentes would spend hours interrogating the criminals for any word of conspiracy.
Balthasaar’s confidence against assassins would prove as ill-advised as expected, when Baron Dinsmore himself stabbed the king to death in his bed. It was an open secret that both Dinsmore and Bentes were lovers of the king, though whether Balthasaar was with both at once or at separate times, and whether either man knew of the other’s involvement, is all muddied. It is shouted among the commonwealth that Dinsmore stabbed the king out of jealousy, but it is far more likely it was over Balthasaar’s growing cruelty toward the Chain Men, who became more like slaves as time went on (he often spoke of an edict he planned to make that would declare their infamy, and durance, inheritable), and his plans to use the Chain Men to mount a full invasion into Zalja. Regardless, Balthasaar died, and his son Ren arrested Baron Dinsmore. Rather than execute him, he gave the murderous baron to Lord Bentes in the dungeons. Dinsmore’s death proved longer and more painful than any would-be assassin’s.
Ren, 136th King of Kings [830 RA]
Sometimes call the Fortnight King, Ren’s reign lasted only two months. One of his first acts was to release the Chain Men and order them back to their homes. Years of hard living had turned many of them brutal, however, and thousands of them rose up and started sacking Vargano. Ren made the singularly unwise decision of sending to Khabar’s Holy City of Solulan, whose paladins were known to perform quests for piety’s sake. Five paladins and their adherents were dispatched to Vargano, but whether they would have defended the city or attacked it, we will never know. By the time they arrived, the Kings of Shadowveil, Farfield, Westheart, and Gemosia seized the city. Ren was imprisoned, and his child brother Erenio was put on the throne. At the city gates, the five paladins announced they had come to fight for King Ren. The lords told them Ren was dead, and politely but firmly told them to depart. Every Chain Man still in Vargano was arrested and executed. To this day, it is believed that the descendants of the Chain Men wander about Monos, homeless rogues called the Chainless, doing ill wherever they might.
Erenio, the Broken Doll, 137th King of Kings [830 RA – 836 RA]
Erenio was only six when he was crowned, and the Ten Kings of Monos ruled in his stead. Erenio’s power was ephemeral, but the Kings still curried favor with him to put weight behind their own ambitions. Infighting stymied all governance, and Erenio was quickly torn between ten different insincere flatters, each hoping to use him to their own ends. His mother Joanna would try to play the Kings against each other, as Leonardo the Loveless had once done with his Six, but six lords and ten kings are two very different matters. Joanna was slandered as an adulterer by a King after withdrawing her support from him, which led to another King accusing Erenio of bastardy. More and more kings supported this claim, each thinking to seize the high throne afterward. Joanna was executed for treason in 835 RA, and soon after Erenio was imprisoned. Several attempts to rescue him from the dungeons of Vargano were attempted, but in 836 Erenio (and King Harmid of Albanesca, his last champion) were unceremoniously executed in the dungeons by King Tesetero of the Viper’s Nest. This led to the decade known as the Reign of Kings (AKA the “Rain of Kings”), wherein the ten kings vied against each other for supremacy, but none could achieve dominance. Royals died left and right, and many called it a return to the barbarism of the Old Days, praying for a true King of Kings to come and rescue them. That rescue came in the form of King Arman Damasine of Westheart, who in 848 RA declared himself Arcerion, the King of Kings.
Darrow Dynasty
Sigil: a silver Arrow, firing upward, into the moon, on a midnight blue field
Arcerion, 138th King of Kings [848 RA – 859 RA]
Arcerion put an end to the Reign of Kings by playing the most powerful Kings against the weakest, as well as by brokering an alliance with Princess Seriadne of Vaina, who was anxious to regain the control her country once held over Monos. Arcerion and Seriadne were both happily married (and both remembered well the Widow’s War), so they betrothed Arcerion’s first son to Seriadne’s second daughter, and Vainan knights began to march through Monos. Arcerion’s alliance was likened to opening a bag of snakes, but Seriadne remained true to her word, turning over all the land she conquered to the new King of Kings. Arcerion installed his son Venedor in Vargano and ruled the nation from Coredillo, in order to be closer (but not too close) to Vaina. Many rumors flew of an affair between Arcerion and Seriadne, but there is no basis to this. The two only met in person twice (at their children’s wedding and when the Princess officially gave over the conquered lands to the King of Kings), having most of their negotiations go through trusted intermediaries. Arcerion died while listening to a celebrated magician play for him in his bedchamber, leading many to believe he was murdered via magical means. The magician was never arrested, but could no longer ply her trade due to suspicion; she was eventually accosted and murdered by an angry mob.
Venedor the Vainan, 139th King of Kings [859 RA – 875 RA]
Venedor was under suspicion long before he put on his crown. Having married a foreign princess due to his father’s alliance with Vaina, the commonwealth was ill-disposed toward him. He made more enemies when he tried to reduce the Kings of Monos back to lordship, under the remarkable suggestion that their current system was “confusing.” Venedor’s Queen, Harriette, was well-loved despite her “foreignness,” and many suggested she was a wise hand guiding their foolish king. Venedor became envious of Harriette’s popularity early, and much of her life was spent placating these concerns. She tried to reinstate the Zaljan concept of the Six, but most of the Monosi kings objected: depending on their origins, these lords would necessarily undermine the regions that had no representatives within the council. Her further suggestion of creating “the Ten” gained some traction, but the kings soon realized that this would mean men (and possibly even women) from their regions having influence superior to themselves. At a loss, Harriette assembled the ten kings of Monos together at the Gilded Table: a great table at Vargano featuring ten blunted spikes. The Ten Kings would meet to counsel the King of Kings once a year, where they would hang their crowns upon the spikes and act as Lords Counselor to Venedor and his heirs. This table featured an elaborate throne for Venedor (so there was no mistaking who was in charge) and two smaller thrones for the King of Kings’ selected advisers. Venedor selected his Queen (unsurprisingly) and (at her suggestion) his younger brother Olleron, who had no particular loyalties to any province. The kings’ attempts to sway Venedor could be very successful, if only they could get him away from his two advisers. Olleron was forceful and obstinate if not especially wise, yet he knew to trust Harriette’s judgment any time he felt out of his depth. Unfortunately, Venedor’s envy at his wife’s popularity and facility at governance, continued to sicken their relationship, and in 864 RA he replaced her with his firstborn son (also named Venedor). His brother Olleron had clearly learned from Harriette, however, and continued rebuffing the kings’ attempts at manipulation, until he too was replaced in 866 RA with King Harmen of Gemosia’s brother Ulret. The two still managed to counsel Venedor when they could, dissuading him from being so easily led by Gemosia, but the king’s relationships with both suffered greatly. Rumors abounded that Olleron and Harriette were lovers, though Venedor never acted on these rumors. However, he did seize an opportunity to separate the two in 869 RA, when the far East Orckid Empire occupied Embelmadro and killed its king. Venedor sent Olleron to the front, where he died in 870 RA, sending the King of Kings into a horrible spiral of remorse and depression. He abandoned all pretense of ruling, and refused his queen’s multiple attempts to repair the breach in their marriage. His son Prince Venedor was replaced by King Harmen of Gemosia’s firstborn son Ullimere, leaving the nation in the hands of Gemosia. This led to open revolt by four of the other regions. Harriette, seeing her husband rendered impotent by grief, took up the defenses herself. She faced resistance from all corners, even those loyal to the High Crown, especially when she sent word to her sister, the Princess Liminara of Vaina, to send military support. Many saw this as a Vainan invasion, and Harriette was forced to lead her own troops to the Vainan army and combine them, making it impossible to fight on multiple fronts. She was slain by a chance arrow in battle in 875 RA. When King Venedor learned of this, he leapt into the Vargano Bay. His body was discovered by a fisherman named Rafid the next day. Sometimes called Venedor the Vain. Harriette was at times called Harriette the Handler (the Meddler by her harsher critics), and by her defenders: the Queen of Kings.
Venedor II, the Fisherman, 140th King of Kings [875 RA – 910 RA]
Venedor came down to view his father’s body at the docks of Vargano Bay, and there requested the fisherman who had found the body to crown him at once. While still at the docks, he ordered the handful of lords there into action. Called the Fishermen’s Conclave, the decisions made on that dock would result in the defeat or submission of all the rebelling kings, as well as the rescue of Embelmadro, all within three years. Once peace had been established, Venedor ordered (and funded from the royal treasury) small palaces erected in the capitols of each province. When the first of these palaces was ready for residency, he began the Eternal Progress: he would rule from a different region each year, taking his household with him. He had two sons and three daughters (raised “in the Vainan style,” meaning treating women as equals, or as equal as Monosi law allowed), and his experiences dealing with his father taught him to use a gentle hand in their upbringing. Born into, and inheriting, great unrest, Venedor II kept his children close as long as he could, then secured offices for them in relative safety: ambassadorships to friendly nations (his second son Jon went to Vaina, his second daughter Penelope went to Zalja), advisory positions in his own cabinet (his first son and daughter, Arman and Seria, served for a number of years), or in his youngest daughter’s case, as a hostess on the Holy Isle of Acciano. His wife Jilana, first daughter of the King of Westheart, was often invited to council but demurred. His first son Arman would eventually break away to embrace a military career, and would die in battle reclaiming Embelmadro from the far East Orckid Empire. Seria, bizarrely, chose to act as ambassador to Milos, the backwater nation to the south.
Seeing his children as either safe or beyond his aid, Venedor II began late in life to make moves limiting the powers of the kings. The Code of Venedor, which he considered his masterpiece, was a unifying code of laws that he spent the last fifteen years of his life devising. It described in exacting detail what laws were determined by the King of Kings, what laws were at the discretion of Mortal Kings, and what judgments the commonwealth could appeal to the King of Kings. Key among this code was details on how Mortal Kings could resolve their disputes without open warfare; this above all else made the Code appealing to the regions’ rulers. So when Venedor II died without an obvious heir (Prince Jon refused to return from Vaina), governance remained fairly stable until Princess Seria returned from Milos, bringing with her a savage king from a peninsulan kingdom called Yfri. This hairy horseman, Arrik Feylder, would inherit the Monosi crown through Seria.
Feylder Dynasty
Sigil: A white horse wreathed in yellow flame, upon a blue and green field
Arrik the Horseman, 141st King of Kings [910 RA – 926 RA]
Sometimes called Arrik the Ghastly (meaning pale) and Arrik Yellow Beard, Arrik Feylder’s savage yellow beard and pale face made many a Monosi king think him an ignorant bumpkin that could be easily manipulated. Ignorant he may have been, but Arrik was proud and forceful. One of his first edicts was to funnel the sale of horses into his home nation of Yfri, mostly from Terminallia. This would result in a massive powerplay by the Milosian region, attempting to dominate its rival nations in the peninsula. Milos had been ruled indirectly by Monos for centuries, yet when the other regions cried out to the King of Kings for aid, Arrik did nothing. Some Monosi Mortal Kings tried to use this criticism to undermine his rule, but Arrik proved markedly unresponsive to conventional criticism. His sporadic, sometimes random decrees harmed the peasantry, but this made many of the Mortal Kings more popular by comparison (despite their own harsh rules). He antagonized both Zalja and Vaina as “women’s countries,” but his personal barbarism did not lead to open hostilities between nations, and again the Mortal Kings benefited from the deflected hostilities Arrik promoted. Arrik chose to rule alternately from the southern town of Collorio Lon (close to his home) and the Holy Isle of Acciano, where Kings had not reigned since Calphian the Pious, five-hundred years ago. Many whispered at this, but Arrik proved indifferent to the subtleties between the Old Faith and the Host of Hosts, saying “They both bow to me, then I will rule them both equally.” Arrik was fond of praising equality, despite its historically low levels in a nation already marked for its lack of parity.
The one criticism that affected Arrik’s disposition, was his inability to sire an heir. He fathered four daughters, and would not hear of any of their husbands ruling after him. As if foreseeing his own end, he called his nephews Huren and Warren up from Milos to attend him in his final three years of life. Both were wedded, with two and three sons respectively, and proved to have similar views on royal policy, if less abrasive personalities. Arrik died in 926 RA whilst riding in Yfri (he often visited there). It is generally said he fell and broke his neck, though his body was famously never found, and he was (if nothing else) an accomplished rider. Seria was riding with him, and many like to speculate she was somehow responsible. Seria had been a confident and forthright “Vainan” woman when she first returned with her savage husband, but the years under his brash rule turned her demur and even frightable. The tears she shed when returning from his death were real, but her answers on just where his body lay proved to vary over the years. Despite Arrik’s hopes to stabilize his dynasty with his nephews, one of the largest civil wars in Monosi history erupted after his death: a conflict so massive it was called the World War, or the War of Doom, though its official name was the Scion War.
The Scion War
Huren & Warren: backed by Queen Seria, Terminallia, Acciano
Jon: backed by Vaina (Princess Puressa, Duchess Corizon of Alazia)
Naterio (King of Embemadro): backed by Far East Orckid, the Wyrmway, Albanesca
Pais the Black Manticore (East Orckid Proper): backed by the Hilldren (conquered)\
Ardro the Liarson (claimed to be descended from the Liar): backed by Farfield
Tyrantis (Descended from the youngest daughter of Tyrano the Great): backed by Gemosia
Huren Holdfast, 142nd King of Kings [926 RA – 927 RA]
Huren was in Collorio Lon when his aunt returned with news of the king’s death. Well aware of the weakness of his claim, he moved immediately to the Sea of Trials and took a boat to Acciano to be crowned by the Prince of Hosts, while his brother Warren promised to shore up support in Terminallia. Word spread incredibly quickly, however, and by the time the coronation had finished, another claimant had emerged. A man calling himself Ardro claimed to be the descendent of one of Cenedras IV’s sons, escaped from imprisonment and now claiming his rights. Farfield rose for him (he was from Vargano), and many wealthy merchants supported his cause: their influence brought in a host of four Khabarese paladins and their adherents to fight for him. Huren elected to remain safe on Acciano and leave strategy to his brother Warren. By the time Warren had raised an army to answer “this pretender, who claims no more than to be the son of a Liar,” another claimant had arrived. Prince Jon, son of Venedor II, who had previously refused to come home from Vaina and take the crown, now came with his wife’s army (Duchess Corisen of Alazia in Vaina), announcing he had a moral imperative to rescue Monos from “these savage bandit kings.” Warren had the largest Monosi army, but Jon had the fabled speller-knights of Vaina, and Ardro brought well-trained (and well-armed) paladins with a host of Vargano mercenaries. Warren pleaded with Huren to march from Acciano and summon the northern kings, but Huren would not leave. Warren took his army south into Milos, into his homeland of Yfri, and tried to hire soldiers; he had ill luck as the region was broiled in its own troubles. His main strategy, however, was to let the two foreign armies collide, confident the victor would be easy spoils. Yet fearing said victor might claim the crown while he was away, Warren made haste in returning: too much haste. He arrived whilst Ardro’s army was fleeing Jon’s, and the route turned into a massive broil. The Battle of Kingsfield was a horribly bloody affair, but Warren managed to turn back both armies: Ardro retreating to Cittuvio in the west and Jon toward the east. Believing Vaina to be the greater threat, Warren pursued Prince Jon and engaged them again at Hell’s Cauldron, forcing the Vainans to retreat into the dangerous and unknown land of Samaya. After celebrating their victory, the troops insisted on crowning Warren as their king; Warren did not object. A crown was forged from the sword of a fallen Vainan, and Warren declared himself the true king of Monos. He sent a letter to his aunt Seria on Acciano, telling her of this and urging her to imprison his brother Huren, adding that if he found Huren walking free when he returned to Acciano, he would execute his own brother. Seria obliged him.
Warren the Cauldron King, 143rd King of Kings [927 – 928 RA]
After seizing the throne from his brother Huren, Warren continued in the Scion War. Before his coronation, he had received word of a third rebel force approaching from the north. It was not until he passed Geumsil into North Monos that he learned there were actually two. The first, Naterio, was the king of Embelmadro and husband to Warren’s second sister Antassa: Naterio had hired thousands of Far East Orckid mercenaries, promising them huge tracts of North Monos in return for helping him seize the crown. The other was a woman warrior from East Orckid Proper calling herself Pais III. Named after a mad empress from two-hundred years ago, Pais claimed to be the descendant of Regradis the Black Lion, who had supposedly ended his days in Ajman of East Orckid with a Mornal paramour: she called herself the Black Manticore. Knowing full well that Ardro Liarson was regaining his strength at Vargano, Warren moved north in the hopes of turning one or both of these forces southwest: the great port city of Vargano would be a fine trophy for any would-be conqueror. After several skirmishes, he lost them in the hills of northern Westheart, where word reached him of yet another claimant to the throne. Tyrantis, husband to Warren’s third sister Lotta, long descended from the youngest daughter of Tyrano the Great, was crowned by the King of Gemosia in Geumsil. Tyrano the Great’s entire family from his second marriage had been legally barred from inheriting, yet Tyrantis declared himself all the same; making similar claims of saving Monos from barbarians and brigand-kings. Warren now had two armies north of him, one to the east (and possibly another reforming in Samaya), and one far to the south in Vargano. Upon hearing of this fifth adversary, Warren was reported to have thrown up his hands and shouted “Let us fly west into the Shadowgate Mountains. I would sooner fight the devils than these odds.” He chose to strike south and eliminate Ardro in Vargano, hoping the three other armies would fall upon each other. Passing by the town of Valle, he learned that his brother Huren had at last left the Holy Isle, and was at Monterani trying to raise an army and regain the crown. Ecstatic with fury, Warren marched to Monterani and arrested his brother; thereupon he sailed across the Sea of Trials to Acciano and, finding his brother walking freely on Acciano, re-seized him. Warren beheaded his own brother on the Holy Isle, and was immediately excommunicated by the Prince of Hosts. Warren murdered the Prince of Hosts with his still-bloody sword, ordered a nearby stableboy to kneel, and conferred the title of Prince of Hosts upon him. When senior hostesses objected, he rounded up every holy person on the island and had them put to death. He then sacked the Holy City of all valuables and burnt it to the ground. Several commoners left with him, but many more fled to the edges of the island: some choked to death on the smoke, but a few survived and started to rebuild.
Warren sailed back to Monterani and continued his march to Vargano. There he found that, although Ardro and his men were in the city, they had not properly taken nor fortified it. The Battle in Vargano resulted in the near burning-down of the vital port city, which was still technically the capital, but eventually one of Warren’s generals found and slew Ardro. The wealth seized from Acciano had already bought most of Ardro’s mercenaries, plus many more; the Khabarese paladins, however, either died fighting “this devil who burns temples,” or else returned to their homes.
When Warren marched north, he learned that Tyrantis had seemingly retreated to the east and vanished, while the two northern armies had allied with one another: with Pais III claiming Northern Monos and Naterio claiming Southern Monos. The Third Battle of the Hills was another horrifying affair. Warren’s forces were a patchwork army of wounded men and mercenaries, while Pais III’s heavy cavalry rode on Orckid unicorns: fearsome grey beasts with leathery hides and enormous horns on their snouts which they used to gore Warren’s cavalry. Thoroughly routed, Warren fled back to Vargano. Pais III stayed in the north, but Naterio pursued the broken army. Warren was taken and engaged outside of Makh, where his army was wiped out. Warren was taken, in chains, back to Acciano. At the coast of the Sea of Trials, Naterio condemned Warren for crimes against the Hosts and Heavens, and struck his head off into the sea, kicking his corpse in after it. He had brought a few hostesses with him, but the stableboy-Prince of Hosts had survived the burning. To show his respect for the holy office, he had the boy crown him king.
Naterio, 144th King of Kings [928 RA]
Naterio’s “reign” is but a footnote in the annals of the Scion War. He elected to take his seat in Geumsil, so as to be far enough north to keep an eye on his new ally, the Black Manticore Pais III. He was not in Geumsil for a fortnight, however, before the vanished King Tyrantis fell upon the city from the east. With Tyrantis was Prince Jon, who had vanished into Samaya, as well as a great host of bizarre mercenaries called Eyschers. These colorfully-dressed men (and they were all men) were not Samayans, but in fact Eyschmen from the island nation of Eysland, which had been gaining great footholds on the eastern coast. Jon’s army was greatly diminished, but there were still magicians among them. Yet the principal butchery was committed by these terrifying Eyschers: each one more brutally depraved than the last. They used civilians as human shields, they hacked off body parts and used the dying soldiers to distract new opponents, many began looting and pillaging before the battle was done yet remained keen enough to put a knife through the eye of anyone who might sneak up on them. It was said “The Devils have returned to Geumsil,” a reference to the mad zealot King Dalabar the Second.
Naterio managed to flee all the way to Vargano with a skeleton crew of fighters. He had the riches King Warren had sacked from Acciano, and he hoped to hire more mercenaries in the great port city. Tyrantis and his Eyschers pursued him whilst Jon and his Vainans turned north to retake Northern Monos from Pais III. Tyrantis’ Eyschers brutally sacked Coredillo and every village and town they crossed on the way to Vargano, loudly claiming they were trying to root Naterio out of hiding. No one really knew who Tyrantis was at this point, so most civilians saw only a foreign army of brutal killers raiding their towns, and King Naterio doing nothing to stop it. Naterio had raised many more mercenaries by the time Tyrantis’ Eyschers descended on him, yet it did no good. Naterio had fortified the town, yet the Eyschers scaled and flew over the walls like the monkeys of Terminallia, viciously sacking the city. It was three days before King Naterio’s corpse was found, stabbed twenty-seven times. His crown was missing, but Tyrantis had his own.
Regio Dynasty
Sigil: a White Sun upon a field quartered red, blue, orange, and green
Tyrantis the Unifier, 145th King of Kings [928 RA – 962 RA]
After his victory at Vargano, Tyrantis hired ships for those Eyschers who were finished with their contracts and wished to return home. At least half of his men, however, stayed on, and he marched them and a few Vargano troops north to Geumsil, where he struck his banner and raised what armies remained from the Westheart and Gemosia regions. He marched them north to find Jon and Pais engaged at the Great Bend in the River Basilisk, where they reinforced the Vainan army. Pais III was defeated and fell back to Far East Orckid (where she was less popular than in East Orckid Proper), but Jon was slain in the battle. It is unclear just who killed him, and many postulate an Eyscher did the deed: either out of overzeal, or by Tyrantis’ direction. Regardless, the Vainans had no one to support, were greatly diminished, and had exhausted their desire to fight. The Vainans turned eastward, home.
Tyrantis knew very well what he had with the Eyschers: he could either continue the campaign into Orckid (or Vaina) or else try to march them all the way through Monos back home. He brought the mercenaries all the way south to Vargano, feasting them and keeping them merry the whole way, where he again hired ships to sail them home to Eysland. He kept a small company of a hundred Eyschers with him as personal guards for the first five years of his reign. They were called “the King’s Ice Men,” both for their origin and their heartlessness.
Most of the Mortal Kingdoms of Monos had been ruined by the war, lacking clear rulers. Tyrantis rewarded those who came first to his cause by seating them in the thrones of these realms. He reinstated the use of the Gilded Table, holding annual meetings with all ten kings. His reign was a harsh one, and he spent the brunt of it trying to help the land recover from the ruin he had helped to cause. He invested heavily in fairs and theater to distract the masses, and even funded raids into East Orckid to help fund the rebuilding of Acciano. Despite the bloody beginning of his reign, Tyrantis never marched to war again, himself. When rebellions arose, he relied on the Code of Venedor when he could: when he could not, he dispatched a neighboring king to put the rebel down, rewarding the champion handsomely (though never giving him the rebel’s land, so as to maintain the balance of power between ten separate families).
Considering the origins of the Scion War, the people were unsurprisingly terrified when Tyrantis took another foreign queen: the second daughter of the Prince of Vaina, Brevesine. They had two sons and five daughters. As shrewd as ever, Tyrantis offered his daughters to two Vainan lords near the Monosi border, two lords from Zalja and Khabar, and his youngest to an incredibly wealthy merchant in Nuvusma, Eysland. This helped to ensure peace with all Monos’ neighbors except East Orckid and Milos, of which he famously had no fear.
Tyrantis’ sons, Tyrano and Regradis, were as different as night and day, and despised one another. Tyrano was solemn, a speller, and shrewd as his father, while Regradis was a great warrior who made friends easily, yet was called thick as a stone by his few critics. He sent Tyrano to aid in the rebuilding of Acciano and Regradis to help oversee the defenses in Vargano, tasks well suited to their natures and far from one another. Tyrantis declared Geumsil the capitol of Monos, and reigned from there for the rest of his life (to keep an eye on Orckid for Pais’ return, some said). Though never religious in the slightest, Tyrantis’ son Tyrano rapidly restored Acciano to greatness, while Regradis distinguished himself in tournaments annually, and was greatly beloved of the people. He wed Tyrano to a Zaljan princess (the Zaljans “have very Vainan women,” and he thought Tyrano clever enough to contend with a headstrong wife) and Regradis to a governor’s daughter from Eysland (“whose women are docile as hostesses, godless though they are”), and hoped greatly to expand Monos‘ influence into these two largely unexplored nations.
Late in his life, Tyrantis was handed his one great loss in 958 RA, when Milos to the south abolished monarchy. The Kings of Milos declared themselves lords, and insisted that they were not subject to the King of Kings. His failing health prevented him from raising an army, and his son Regradis (who in truth had never excelled at warcraft) had joined a Makhese sojourn into the Shadowgate Mountains in search of the fabled golden city of Merrymore, and had been lost for nearly two years. Tyrantis was in Coredillo trying to muster forces when his heart gave out and he fell down a great flight of stairs after storming angrily out of a lord’s solar. They say he was dead before he struck the bottom step.
Tyrano IV, the Witch, 146th King of Kings [962 RA – 987 RA]
Having spent most of his adult life on the Holy Isle of Acciano, having a Zaljan wife with whom he had born three daughters and no sons, and being a rare man who could spell and made no secret of it, Tyrano IV was viewed with open suspicion from the start of his reign, and several kings (especially the northern ones) looked to undermine his rule from the start. He moved his seat to Geumsil, kept his wife out of open council, and married his daughters to the kings of Terminallia, Shadowveil, and Farfield, but it did little good. It was said even his new sons-by-marriage did not trust him.
In the first year of his reign the regions of Albanesca, Embelmadro, and the Viper’s Nest all began shorting their taxes, to which Tyrano responded by diminishing military funding and withdrawing support-troops. The three kings, who would later come to be called the Three Fools, first scoffed at this, saying they were happy to have fewer ‘foreign’ troops in their lands, perfectly capable of defending themselves.
It surprised few when the Black Manticore Pais III at last returned. Seeing weaknesses in these three regions, she began by overwhelming and reclaiming Embelmadro, then pillaging the other two regions and laying siege to their capitols. Embelmadro’s entire royal family was wiped out, but the other two kings were quick to solicit aid. Tyrano ignored them, until early the following year, when his brother Regradis at last returned from the Shadowgates.
All the sojourners returned with wild tales of demons and devils tormenting them. Regradis would not speak of his years in the Shadowgates, but neither did he deny the others’ tales. He was a changed man, and upon learning of Pais’ invasion, asked his brother permission to lead an army against the invader. It was said Regradis had never asked Tyrano permission for anything before, and so the king assented. Regradis hired a company of about a thousand Eyschers, but most of his troops were Monosi, especially from Gemosia and the Hilldren, who both had cause to fear the threat at their borders.
Regradis won several decisive victories, rescuing both Albanesca and the Viper’s Nest, but vanished while retaking Embelmadro. Much of his company returned (led by the Eyschers, demanding their pay), and Tyrano rewarded them. Many urged the king to send search parties into the north, but Tyrano judged the land too unsure, instead conferring honors and inheritance upon Regradis’ firstborn son, Arridon. Arridon thanked the king, then immediately sold most of his holdings to hire more Eyschers and march into the wild north to search for his father. It was said that “the commons wept, whilst Tyrano shrugged.”
Instead of searching for his brother, Tyrano funded the creation of spelleries in nine kingdoms (Acciano of course already had one). Resentment began to grow among the male population, who felt this was granting women undue advantages; though some couched these objections beneath supposed fears of magic and its destabilizing power. Many began to speak of the terrors of the Old Orckid Empire, though the specifics of those times and what those terrors supposedly entailed were largely forgotten, as Monos of course had no written records of them. This flourishing of women’s literacy was a great boon to the merchants who relied on spellers to track their wares and transactions, but the peasantry and lords (who had always had all the spellers they needed) continued to object. Grumbles turned to shouts when rumors began to circulate that women might be allowed to perform mercantile transactions or even run businesses, and some even whispered that Tyrano planned to let them own property. Tyrano was openly called a witch, yet he would not punish such talk, fearing it might lend credence to their fears. So objections grew more and louder, and Tyrano only grew more despised when his nephew Arridon returned from the wild north in 976 RA, bearing his lost father Regradis.
Having been gone for a decade, Arridon’s remaining properties that had not been sold had already passed to his only brother, Romeo. Tyrano now found himself in the unpopular position of having disinherited not only his more beloved brother, but his equally adored nephew. Tyrano would not ask Romeo to give up his properties, and Romeo did not volunteer, so Tyrano instead sacrificed some of his own private holdings and offered them to Arridon. Arridon refused, taking his father to Acciano where his mother had retired after his disappearance. The peasantry were cheering Arridon’s piety and bravery, and openly demanding that he or Regradis replace Tyrano; the lords and Mortal Kings, even Tyrano’s sons-by-marriage, did little or nothing to dissuade this talk. The merchants grew wealthier, having learned much and more from Eysland’s growing influence on the continent, but they too were now threatened by women’s enfranchisement, fearing women might take over their businesses; so while they did not openly call for revolution, neither did they say or do anything to stop it.
Tyrano had been decisive and firm throughout his reign, even in the face of the harshest criticism. After Arridon’s return, however, he became notably unsure in most things. At the urging of his Zaljan wife Temer, Tyrano reinstated the Six, drawing in counselors from Zalja, Vaina, Eysland, Acciano, and even Milos. His sixth seat he offered to Regradis, then Arridon. They both refused. In a move many considered political suicide, Tyrano placed his firstborn daughter Aemilia on his sixth seat. This confirmed the protestors’ worst fears. Aemilia had been renowned as wise and demur, brave and respectful, yet now she was seen as only a Zaljan, a woman, and Tyrano’s daughter, all sources of disdain for the Monosi populace.
Open calls for revolt came daily. Hostermen, hostesses, and even common peasants made pilgrimages to Acciano to plead with Regradis or Arridon to seize the crown. Acciano was firmly in the hands of the Old Faith, and generally known to reject most who came in pilgrimage, but now they welcomed all the princes’ solicitors. Regradis had become even more pensive and quiet after his return from the north, but Arridon was moved by the daily petitions and finally decided to act.
With a company of Eyschers, hostermen, peasants, lords, and cavaliers, Arridon marched to Geumsil. There he requested the return of his inheritance from his younger brother Romeo. After a brief bandying of words, Tyrano lost all composure and accused Arridon of attempting conquest. Though the prince continued to insist he came only to request his inheritance on behalf of his father, Tyrano refused to believe him. The King locked himself in his palace with four of his Six, and Arridon’s force camped outside the city.
The Hollow Siege, as it was called, continued for over a year. Three Zaljan paladins and their adherents came with supplies and were allowed into the palace without challenge, which only further harmed Tyrano’s popularity. One by one, his four on-hand advisers found ways to escape the palace and return to their homes. The final straw was when his daughter Aemilia, pledging loyalty to her husband the King of Farfield, walked out the front door to embrace her cousin Arridon. Aemilia claimed her father had gone mad in confinement and was a danger to himself and others.
Taking this pretext, Arridon and his forces stormed the palace. It must be said that, knowing of the Eyschers’ reputations, Arridon ordered them to remain outside on guard. It was an act of consideration for the Royal Palace of Geumsil, his uncle, and the entire household, yet one for which Arridon would one day pay dearly.
If official reports are to be believed, King Tyrano IV was found storming about his bedchamber, naked and unshaved with claw-like fingernails, throwing himself against the walls and muttering nonsensically. He was immediately put into the dungeons to spare his dignity; no one had seen him save Arridon and his closest supporters, who would later marry into the northern kingdoms Arridon had saved.
Arridon ruled as regent for five more years, refusing to officially remove the king. He also refused to forcibly reclaim his lands from Romeo, under the pretext that he was now too busy running Monos to govern them. In 987 RA, it was reported that King Tyrano IV had been murdered by two of his jailors, who were subsequently executed. The names of these jailors were not released for six more years, and then they were only reported to have been called Remme and Cloddet. Upon the king’s death, Arridon declared that the crown must pass to his father, the aged warrior Regradis.
Regradis V, the Lost King, 147th King of Kings [987 RA]
Regradis donned the crown of crowns at four-and-fifty years. This might not seem terribly old for a man of his hearty disposition, but Regradis had suffered two great terrors of which he never spoke: his disappearance into the Shadowgate Mountains from age twenty-seven to thirty-one, and his disappearance into the wild north shortly thereafter, from which he did not return until age forty-three.
When Prince Arridon presented his father for the coronation at Acciano, those few who were permitted to witness the event expressed shock at how the new king had changed. Tall, broad-shouldered, square-jawed, and sure he had been in youth, but now they saw a man whose muscles had melted to fat, whose shoulders slumped and mouth sagged, and whose confident eyes had turned as unsure as his mad brother’s.
Tyrano IV and Regradis V had been as different as two brothers could be in youth, yet their ends would prove remarkably similar. During his eight months as king, Regradis left all governing to his Six, all of whom had been selected by Arridon. On the rare occasions he was pressed to make a decision he would shrink in his throne with tears in his eyes, and his caretakers would remove him; he would not emerge again for hours or even days. Many tried to learn what had happened to Regradis during his absences, but supposedly even Prince Arridon never knew.
In the twelfth month of 987 RA, Arridon ordered his father confined to his apartments in Acciano, then for the first time since the Scion War, had the Prince of Hosts crown him king. More than once, Arridon would refer to this as his greatest shame, “that the Greatest Regradis should have his birthright stolen by his brother, then again by his own son.”
Regradis reportedly died of a chill in 988 RA and was privately interred on the Holy Isle.
Arridon the Heirless, 148th King of Kings [987 RA – 996 RA]
Arridon was enormously popular with the commons and merchants when he first assumed the throne, and even enjoyed the support of the Holy Isle. He was credited with turning back “the dangerous tide of women’s literacy,” though indeed he did little to nothing. The spelleries his Uncle Tyrano IV had funded were finished, and no other policies supporting women’s literacy had been achieved. The spellers produced by those spelleries were now a regular part of the merchant class and, just as under Tyrano, were still not allowed to run businesses or own property.
Arridon had wed a Mortal Princess of the Viper’s Nest that he had reportedly met and fallen in love with during his quest to rescue his father Regradis (later Regradis V) from the wild north. His queen, Isabel, had a Vainan father but was considered a “proper Monosi” by all. This “domestic marriage” would prove the precursor to an isolationist administration not seen in generations. The king and queen had one son and four daughters, a ratio consistent with the Regio Dynasty (and by now a subject of much muttering both high and low). Arridon and Isabel were uncertain how to dispose of their daughters’ hands. Tyrantis had wed his daughters to foreign lands to secure alliances, yet none of these alliances helped him reclaim Milos before his death, and they further exacerbated the split between Tyrano IV and Regradis V. Tyrano, meanwhile, wed all his daughters to Mortal Kings, who likewise repaid him with no loyalty at all. They elected to wait, and allow suitors to come to them.
Arridon had one of the towers of the palace at Geumsil refitted to house all four of his daughters, where he kept them securely watched. This would come to be known alternately as the Treasure Tower or the Princess’ Prison, depending on who one asked. It is still known by these names to this day.
Their eldest daughter Nimia was unexpectedly stolen out of the tower one evening. It was eventually learned that the kidnapper was an Eyschman adventurer, but communication suggested that they had spoken by letter several times (male literacy being slightly more common in Eysland) and that the man had stolen her at her own behest. She reported they were living happily in Vargano, but that if any forces were sent to retrieve her they would depart for Eysland and never return. Neither Arridon nor Isabel could recognize her writing (like most Mortal Nobility, Isabel did not spell), so Arridon sent soldiers to Vargano, who failed to locate them. Nimia’s guards and handmaidens were all executed for failing to prevent the abduction.
Their second and third daughters Ernesta and Regraed were only a year apart and became very close in captivity. Regraed, true to her namesakes, was bold and adventurous, and would often find ways to escape the tower, typically dragging Ernesta along with her. Ernesta was quiet, solemn, a speller and even a magician, and the king and queen considered sending her to Acciano more than once. With the eventual kidnapping of their elder sister, however, security was greatly heightened. Ernesta would one day die falling from her window whilst trying to sneak out with Regraed. Regraed became very meek and biddable for years after this, yet she disappeared the day before her betrothal to the King of the Hilldren. She would flee twice more and was rumored to have said her vows in chains. When being taken from Geumsil to her new husband’s seat, she stole a horse at night and rode south to Acciano, where she begged to be taken as a hostess. Because she was already wed, they refused, and tried to imprison her and send for her husband. She escaped yet again, however, and fled east. Reports grow muddied after this: most say she fled into Vaina, some suggest she somehow got into Samaya, and a few said “she is now the wife of some monkey in the forests of Terminallia.”
Their youngest daughter, Vincetta, was a competent arithmetician and speller, but after Ernesta’s death her tutors were all removed and her education ceased. Her windows were barred, and she was watched every hour of the day and night. There was even talk of wedding her to the second son of Romeo, Arridon’s brother, to heal the breach between the two of them when Romeo unintentionally disinherited Arridon, but Romeo called such a union unnatural (even though wedding cousins was not uncommon amongst the nobility). Years went by, and no suitable suitors arrived to win Vincetta’s hand.
As for their sole son, Ramon, a life largely unsupervised had turned him to drink and debauchery. He kept company with lowlifes and cavaliers of ill repute, and it was even whispered he knew the Eyschman that had stolen his sister away, and had helped him do it. When rumors were broiling of a rebellion in Terminallia, something that had not happened for centuries, Arridon sent his son there to quell it by any means necessary. He received no news of his effort for months, and the Fifth Terminal Rebellion spilled into Gemosia, toward Geumsil.
Arridon’s failure to control his daughters was noted, and his brother Romeo had done much to harm his reputation over the years. The Terminal Rebellion gained encouragement (though thankfully no physical support) from several other kingdoms. Arridon no longer trusted the Eysch, but he knew asking for support from Vaina or Zalja could do serious harm to his already weak reputation. Feeling himself backed into a corner, he sent word east to the Nuvusma Province (which could only be reached through Terminallia or through Vaina itself) and south to Vargano, looking to retain any Eyschers for hire, while mustering what troops he could from Geumsil. He even sent to Acciano, suggesting the hostermen might take up this holy cause like the paladins of the west. This too was poorly received, and Arridon lost whatever credit he still had with the Holy Isle.
There was no way the Eyschers could arrive before the Terminal army (assuming any were coming). Having no idea what had become of his son, Arridon chose to offer his daughter Vincetta again to Romeo’s son, this time offering the kingdom itself to go along with her. Romeo accepted, and his son Ben was wed to Vincetta a fortnight later, just before the Teriminal army was expected to arrive.
The two armies met on the Fields of Subia, around the River Subia, with Arridon himself leading the defense. The armies clashed twice with no result, but on the third day the Teriminals brought forth Prince Ramon. They said he had gotten drunk in a tavern and revealed his mission to a spy, who facilitated his capture. They set an extraordinary ransom for his release: disarm his army and pay one-hundred-thousand gold coins. Arridon very nearly refused, but his wife’s brother (a commander in his army) argued passionately for mercy. In the end, Arridon refused to pay the ransom, but offered himself in his son’s place. They accepted, and before he was imprisoned, Arridon publicly disowned his son Ramon, conferring his inheritance upon his nephew Ben and his new wife Vincetta.
That night, Prince Ramon snuck into the Terminal encampment and tried to free his father. He was captured, but challenged the King of Terminallia to a duel. Thinking the prince a joke, the king accepted. Prince Ramon slew the King of Terminallia, though he was mortally wounded. It is said the Prince hugged his father while dying.
The King of Terminallia’s heir, his nephew Heromas, took control of the army and marched them to Geumsil, where Arridon’s army had fled. There he found an army of Eyschers sacking the city. Romeo and Prince Ben had refused to hire the mercenaries when they arrived, and the Eyschers did what mercenaries always do when denied gold. Arridon’s army was already engaged with them, and Heromas’ army joined the fray. Utter chaos reigned, and fully two-thirds of Geumsil was burned to the ground.
The Royal army miraculously succeeded in repelling Terminallia, and Heromas was slain in battle. When the Terminal soldiers offered Arridon as ransom for mercy, Prince Ben flatly refused and watched, stone-faced, as they murdered Arridon before him. Afterward, every single soldier in the Terminal Rebellion was executed, and Heromas’ entire family was attainted.
Benicent Dynasty
Sigil: A golden crown, surrounded by ten golden stars, on a blue field
Benicent, 149th King of Kings [996 RA – 019 NA]
Talk of entering a “New Age” had been circulating from around the globe. From Milos, abolition of monarchy was said to herald a new era of freedom. Zalja had abandoned its Crusades a century ago and claimed to have evolved into an era of diplomacy. Meanwhile Eysland, gaining greater footholds on the continent, had staged an invasion of Far East Orckid, calling it an “Age of Accounting,” presumably in reference to Orckid’s history of slavery and conquest. Upon his coronation, Prince Ben changed his name to Benicent and declared that Monos was entering a new era of unity.
The Six had been effectively dissolved again during Arridon’s reign, and Benicent saw no need for the divisive system. Instead, he returned the Gilded Table to Vargano, reestablishing it as the capitol, and decreed that the kingdoms would meet at counsel once a week, instead of once a year. This meant the Mortal Kings must either send trusted delegates to represent them (most likely their heirs) or leave such representatives to govern while they attended the King of Kings in Vargano. Most elected to send their heirs. This meant Benicent effectively had hostages from all ten kingdoms; hostages he could influence and mold over time to favor his own policies.
The kings of Farfield and Shadowveil lived so close that both elected to attend the Table themselves, and quickly proved to be Benicent’s strongest adversaries. The King subtly tried to place limits on regional leaders’ power that had not existed since they declared themselves kings. The first seven years of his reign were spent debating and updating the Code of Venedor, which he meant to rename the Code of Benicent once it was deemed complete. Although Benicent won greater taxation rights and even the ancient right of pit and gallows over kings (though only in disputes between two or more kingdoms; a king could still abuse his vassals with immunity to any serious punishment), he critically lost the right to determine extradition of criminals, which he feared would lead to elevated conflicts between the kingdoms and make wars and rebellions likelier. Nevertheless, his desire to have a finished code with his name on it prevailed, and the Code of Benicent was signed by all ten kings and the King of Kings, as well as the Prince of Hosts, in the year 4 NA. He declared this the beginning of the New Age, in Monos.
Benicent and his Queen Vincetta had five sons and two daughters. It was often whispered, mostly in jest, that Benicent meant to breed a son for each kingdom and marry his children into every throne. Upon hearing this, he was once reported to have laughed, “What need I wed their daughters, when I have their sons?” Indeed, over time, seven of the eight heirs that attended the Gilded Table had grown close as they matured together, many of them appearing fonder of the king than their own fathers, and even the kings of Farfield and Shadowveil had softened over time.
Benicent and Vincetta disposed their first daughter Linda to the son of the Princess of Vaina, as they felt Vaina had overall proved a reliable ally. They were less sure of Zalja and Eysland, however, and dispatched a ship from Vargano to search for a worthy prince from the western continent of Olveria. Their two eldest sons, Ben and Remos, became military commanders and spent much of their time resettling the wild north (and exerting the King of King’s influence over the northern regions). Their third son Zenedras showed a bizarre interest in spelling and magic; fearing another Harmude III might enflame the Old Faith, Zenedras was confined to his apartments. Their fourth son Jon was fascinated by exploration and adventure, and took parties into Terminallia to restore the “City of Apes,” Cirocia; he soon grew bored, however, and pressed farther east into Samaya, and was never heard from again. Their fifth and youngest son Vincet spent much of his youth as a wastrel, but remarkably turned himself around after being wed (against his will; indeed, he almost fled the marriage) to a Khabarese princess named Elat.
Benicent and Vincetta’s marriage was a famously harmonious one, and many credit their large brood of sons for the love the commons gave them. Benicent’s use of the Gilded Table and his new Code ensured stability with the Mortal Kings, and Monos knew a rare peace for over twenty years.
Benicent died fairly young while at the Holy Isle trying to negotiate increased visitation rights with the Prince of Hosts. While there, he received word that his son Jon had been found, and which point his heart gave out. Tragically, the news was false, and Jon’s fate remains a mystery to this day.
Ben the Crownless, 150th King of Kings [019 NA]
Benicent’s firstborn son was at the front in Embelmadro when he learned of his father’s death, and refused to abandon the fight. He insisted he would go to Acciano to be crowned once the fighting had settled, but never did so. Less than three months after Benicent’s death, Ben the Crownless was slain by an Orckid commander who took his corpse back to Far East Orckid. Some claim the commander mounted Ben’s head on a wall. Many other far worse rumors about the body’s fate are also in circulation.
Remos, 151st King of Kings [019 NA – 052 NA]
Remos’ reign began chiefly with either continuing or relaxing the edicts of his father. The meetings of the Gilded Table were reduced from once a week to once a month, and sometimes even those went unattended by the King. Remos released his brother Zenedras from confinement, who shortly after fled to Acciano. He also sent several parties into Samaya searching for his brother Jon, but the few that returned did so empty handed, unable to enter the country.
For his chief advisers, Remos took his youngest brother Vincet (greatly improved by his marriage), Vincet’s wife Elat, and a young lord of the Shadowveil called Martio Galliatti, a braggart with bold ideas and an adequate mind, but a tongue ill-suited to court. It was widely rumored the two were lovers, as Remos categorically refused to marry, though others insisted Remos simply loved battle and wished to have a warrior nearby. It was true he often spoke of returning to the northern front, but was always dissuaded in the end by Vincet or Elat.
Most of Remos’ rule was peaceful and uneventful. Relaxing the Gilded Table had an effect on Mortal Kings’ control over their regions, especially as the Table’s original occupants were replaced by their heirs; these were not molded over time to be loyal to the King of Kings, and Remos lacked his father’s gift for doing so. Greater turmoil would emerge not from the Mortal Kings, however, but from Remos’ own family.
In 49 NA, Prince Zenedras emerged from Acciano with a small cadre of witches, and demanded Remos surrender the crown. He struck his standard (a white book, open, with a white eye over it, on a red field) in Terminallia, the only region outside Acciano where the Old Faith held any sway, and began raising an army. Despite the very recent pains of war in the region, and despite that almost every noble family there had been replaced with new ones loyal to Remos’ father Benicent, many still smelled an opportunity and answered Zenedras’ call.
Remos ignored all calls for patience and immediately called his banners. Seven of the ten kingdoms answered at once, and Remos stiffened this already overwhelming army with two Khabarese paladins and their adherents, and a small company of two-hundred Eyschers. He left at once, not even bothering to attaint Zenedras for his actions, leaving Monos in the hands of Vincet, Elat, and Martio Galliatti. Even Terminallia’s heir remained a member of the Gilded Table, though under heavy scrutiny.
The instant the King departed for Terminallia, the Gilded Table began conspiring. They used Zenedras’ witches to enflame the ever-present fear of literate women, soon forcing Elat to withdraw from the table under pressure both public and noble. Immediately after, rumors spread fast that Vincet was plotting to usurp his elder brothers in their absence. This drove a wedge between the Prince and Martio, the latter growing suspicious of the former. Vincet was quick to use Martio’s relatively low birth (and the obviously valid rumors about him and the King) to exercise power at the Gilded Table. The Table became divided against itself, with two primary factions and a third centering around the heir of Terminallia.
Thanks to overwhelming numbers, Remos prevailed against the rebels, and even managed to take Zenedras alive. Zenedras was confined to apartments in Vargano, while all of his witches were publicly burned. The very new royal family of Terminallia was attainted and their patriarchs beheaded. Remos gave Terminallia to the Galliatti family, installing Martio’s older brother Perreo on their throne. The King returned to Vargano in late 50 NA to find government halted by the conspiracies. The heir to Terminallia had fled, so Remos replaced him with Martio Galliatti, restored Elat to her seat as a counselor, and immediately set about initiating another inquisition against the Old Faith.
The Second Terror would occupy much of the remainder of Remos’ life. Burnings, hangings, and baser forms of brutalization once again returned to the Sea of Trials, with new horrors visited on the already-struggling region of Terminallia, whose new rulers were happy to reinforce the religious paranoia that had granted them power. The Gilded Table was very divided on both the morality and efficacy of the Second Terror, and the final years of Remos’ reign consisted of arguing with and avoiding the Mortal Kings. In early 52 NA, he reinstituted annual meetings of the Table. Despite this, the Table’s representatives did not leave Vargano, so contentious was the Second Terror.
Remos would die in the Summer of 52 NA of burst bowels. This would greatly fuel fervor against the Old Faith, since Dalabar the Devil (who instigated the First Terror) died the same way. It was spoken aloud, even by some who opposed the Terror, that witches or magicians had murdered the King with their magic, and even those against the Terror were great advocates for the limiting of women’s literacy.
Inexplicably, Remos still did not attaint his brother Zenedras even during the Second Terror. When he passed, the only witnesses in his bedchamber were Prince Vincet, Princess Elat, Lord Martio, and a Speller named Lerena. Vincet and Elat immediately called a council at the Table to announce that Remos had finally attainted Zenedras on his deathbed. At this same time, however, Lord Martio declared that no such attainder had taken place, and that Zenedras was the rightful heir. The speller Lerena spread this news about the city, whilst Martio broke into Zenedras’ apartments, removed him by force, and took him to Acciano to be crowned.
Several from the Table urged Vincet to be crowned at once, before Zenedras could reach Acciano, but Vincet would not have it said that he was an opportunist, or that he wrongly tried to usurp his brother, and refused to recognize any High Crown until the issue of the attainder was settled.
Zenedras the Witch Lord, 152nd King of Kings [052 NA – 068 NA]
Zenedras’ coronation began the Witching Wars: three civil wars that would last from his coronation to his death.
Zenedras surprised no one when he emerged from his coronation on the eastern banks in Terminallia, then rode to Collorio Lon to strike his banners again. Terminallia and Acciano rose for him at once, which were expected, but he won a surprising coup when Gemosia came to his cause. Zenedras agreed to wed the daughter of Gemosia’s king. Even more remarkable, he promised their firstborn son to the next daughter of the king of Albanesca, before even being wed, and managed to win the northerly region to his cause as well.
In this way, the King had secured a significant bloc of support. With both Gemosia and Terminallia, he controlled all leather production, and Gemosia’s capitol of Geumsil was of great economic and political significance, having frequently been the nation’s capital. Albanesca would prove far less important, but it helped his cause that all eastern kingdoms had risen for him. Most significant was Acciano itself. Despite its deep involvement with the Old Faith, and its connection to witchery, Acciano remained the religious capitol of the nation: this would invariably lead most of the commonwealth to assume the Hosts were on Zenedras’ side.
Nevertheless, Prince Vincet “the Usurper” had great assets as well. He controlled all the nation’s mines through Westheart and the Shadowveil, the nation’s two ports through Farfield, and the Capitol of Vargano was rapidly becoming a greater economic power than Coredillo and Geumsil together; and Coredillo was in his power as well.
Almost unbelievably, the first Witching War saw Terminallia rising against the central government for the third time in two generations. Basing their efforts in Collorio Lon, Lord Martio sent troops around the southern end of the Sea of Trials. This meant marching through Milosian Lands, but the lands in question were both poorly populated and heavily influenced by the Old Faith. Most of Martio’s forces were not only unopposed, but actively supported by the few Milosians they encountered. This also allowed them to attack from out of the underpopulated areas of southern Westheart, where very little defense was possible. In this way, Lord Martio was able to bring most of Zenedras’ army straight to Vargano with no serious opposition, while Vincet’s forces remained split between Vargano and Coredillo (the latter intended to defend against attacks from Geumsil that would never come).
Although Vargano was well defended at this point in history, Zenedras still managed to gain access through the walls and into the city proper. Most say that guardsmen loyal to his cause let him in, but there are many and diverse rumors of him using witchcraft to bypass the walls. Regardless, Lord Martio led the King’s forces through the streets, minimizing civilian casualties and sacking, and invested the Palace proper. Vincet’s supporters from the Table surrendered in rapid succession, except Vincet himself, his Princess Elat, and King Ardmor of the Shadowveil. All three were thrown into separate dungeons. Lord Martio gained assurances from King Ardmor’s heir, then executed Ardmor for treason; the new King of Shadowveil swore fealty to Zenedras along with everyone else. Vincet and Elat would remain in the dungeons.
True to his word, Zenedras wed the Mortal Princess Olianne of Gemosia, and their first son Orromir was promised to the Mortal Princess Claria of Albanesca.
Despite all fears, Zenedras’ rule began very peacefully. He sent forces into the Viper’s Nest and Embelmadro to continue taming the wild north, he established permanent ambassadorships to Zalja, Khabar, and Vaina, and his Queen Olianne became an active patron of the arts, which greatly improved common support. Further, Zenedras took advantage of a loophole in the Code of Benicent, which allowed him to force lower taxes on the commoners while also funneling a greater percentage of those taxes through the Mortal Kings into the King of King’s coffers. This caused much grumbling, but fear of his witchery (and fear of his greatest zealot, Lord Martio) kept the Mortal Kings in line. Zenedras further reordered the Gilded Table to weekly meetings. Like Remos, Zenedras lacked his father’s skill for molding heirs into supporters, but he still had fear on his side. For his chief counselors, he selected the brother to the Prince of Hosts and Lord Martio’s young nephew, Prince Tierro. By and large, the realm became reconciled to his rule.
It was not until 55 NA that Princess Elat finally agreed to confess: the writ of attainder against King Zenedras, allegedly spelt on Remos’ deathbed, was a forgery. Neither Vincet nor Lord Martio were spellers, so she confessed to the act herself, and begged mercy for her husband and their children (who had been imprisoned in apartments since Zenedras took the city). Martio advocated strongly for executing Elat, but Queen Olianne moved the King toward mercy. Zenedras confined Elat with her children. It was less than a year before they escaped imprisonment and fled.
This would lead to the Second Witch War in 57 NA, when Elat reemerged. Her daughter Harriette and two sons, Irvad and Ben, returned claiming usurpation and wrongful imprisonment. Supporting them was an incredible fifteen Khabarese paladins and their adherents, numbering nearly seven-thousand. The Vargano guard alone dwarfed this number, but Khabarese steel was vastly superior to city guard equipment, and paladins were said to surpass the training of any Monosi hosterman or war leader. They brought siege engines of Khabarese pine banded with Zaljan steel: fearsome instruments. They invested the city and demanded the release of Prince Vincet and the abdication of King Zenedras.
What Elat’s forces lacked, however, was sea power. They were unable to close the harbor, so while they might harry the ships, they could not cut off Vargano’s supplies entirely.
Elat responded by sending emissaries into Zalja, who would eventually return with a retinue that would change eastern history: Zaljan wizards. These folk bore a magic that was entirely different from the natural magic that had defined both northern and eastern Kynaj. Their magic came from stones mined out of the earth. Specifically, the wizards brought something called Fool’s Fire: small, oily yellow stones that were highly explosive. Using these, they were able to utterly destroy ships entering or leaving Vargano’s piers. It was less than a week before word spread of this destructive new weapon, and ships steered clear.
Until one night, when one of the few remaining ships tried to sail out of the harbor. It was hit with Fool’s Fire quickly, and the flames caught onto the harbor and the city itself. Half of Vargano burned down that night. Worse yet, it was soon discovered that King Zenedras had been on the ship that had sunk. He had become enamored of this new magic and wanted to learn more of it. Fortunately, Zenedras was among the few survivors of the explosion. He was taken by Khabarese forces and brought before the walls of Vargano.
Lord Martio brought Prince Vincet up to the walls and threatened to throw him off if the King was not returned at once. The Prince had become a skeletal waste in captivity, but Elat’s love was such that she agreed to trade the King for the Prince. Called the Lovers’ Compromise, this tradeoff would result in the death of Lord Martio, as well as Elat’s son Ben. To this day, it remains unclear who first broke the peace. Regardless, Zenedras was returned to Vargano, Vincet joined Elat, and the rebels vanished back into Khabar with their paladins and adherents.
Zenedras’ reign would take a sharp downturn after this. He became obsessed with Zaljan magic. He sent thousands of prisoners and peasants into the mines to dig deeper, but thousands of deaths yielded no such magics; meanwhile, huge swathes of Vargano were left burnt and destroyed. He ordered vast forays into the Shadowgates themselves, but none returned. On six separate occasions he tried to flee his own palace and run off into Zalja, but each time he was stopped. Queen Olianne became melancholy and despondent. Zenedras welcomed bizarre Hostesses and hostermen from Acciano: furtive, secretive, almost inhuman acolytes of the Old Faith that had never before left the Holy City, now roamed the capitol unchecked. Rumors abounded of blood rituals, new and maddening spells from ancient times, and children being kidnapped and enslaved, or worse, in the name of their evil sect. The commonwealth turned against the Old Faith with a fervor not seen since the Terror, and without Lord Martio to guide him, Zenedras largely ignored his nation as he spiraled into madness.
Queen Olianne took her own life in the late Winter of 61 NA, leaping from the very window from which Princess Ernesta had fallen to her death not a century prior. Many attributed this to her melancholy, but many more blamed the death on evil humors or even magical assassination from many of the sorceresses and sorcerers that stalked the city. As for Zenedras, he seemed almost not to know who she was when her death was reported to him. Unless the subject was magic, it was said the King could not hear you. When Vincet and Elat and their surviving children returned in 66 NA with eleven Khabarese paladins, six-thousand adherents, and more Zaljan wizards, it was said the King’s eyes shined with delight.
Zenedras’ chief counselors (Prince Tierro and now his uncle Lord Relio) were both great members of the Terminal royal family, and the nation had been firmly in the hands of Terminallia for at least half a decade. So when the King once again attempted to flee the palace and meet the Zaljan wizards, Prince Tierro had him restrained in his apartments, where he would remain for the rest of his life, and assumed the rule.
Tierro met with Vincet to insist that the Zaljans’ magics not be used against the harbor again, but Vincet flatly refused. He and Elat insisted that Remos had attainted Zenedras on his deathbed, and that only the King’s deposal would return peace to the land. Another siege set in.
During the five months of the siege, Zenedras attempted escape four more times. He was heard screaming for release both night and day, and once it was even discovered that he had broken his head open banging it against a wall. Miraculously, he did not die, and he was allowed to be visited by a pair of hostess-sorcerers named Margery and Bella, who claimed to be skilled in healing magics. Their efficacy was unclear, but the king did not die, and the sorceresses were allowed to attend him in durance.
It was soon after this, in the late Winter, that Zenedras’ second son Feredo fell sick. Although it seemed a Winter fever to all observers, rumors flew fast that Zenedras’ witches were sending evil spirits out against the boy. The commonwealth of Vargano began to rise up against “the Witch Lord.” Terminallia’s own reputation with the Old Faith meant Prince Tierro and his allies were implicated as well, and the Mortal Princes of Gemosia and Westheart seized this opportunity. They sent agents out to Vincet’s encampment to secure an agreement to allow food to enter the harbor, assuring the Prince that the city was rising up in his favor and would support his claim if he let them eat. Sure enough, less than a month after ships began entering the harbor again, the princes of Gemosia and Westheart led a rebellion in which the commonwealth seized the city gates and opened them to Vincet’s forces. They quickly took the city.
Although Vincet now controlled Vargano, Zenedras would remain king in name for over a year, confined to his rooms though he was. Vincet scoured up the speller Lerena and imprisoned her. It was another four months before the speller confessed that Remos had indeed attainted Zenedras on his deathbed. It would be almost a year before the Gilded Table, the Prince of Hosts, and the greater lords all conceded to have Zenedras dethroned, and Vincet refused to act until all major parties were in accord. He would not be remembered as a usurper.
In the Spring of 68 NA, Prince Vincet, Princess Elat, their eldest son Irvad (they now had an infant son named Jon, who would die of Winter fever three years later), and the princes of Gemosia and Westheart entered King Zenedras’ apartments to seize him. The chambers had devolved into a festering pit of evil. Foul potions were everywhere, and bizarre magical instruments were scattered, many broken, and the entire place was filthy and unkempt. It was said they discovered the King in lewd congress with both witches, though these were likely mere rumors. After all his escape attempts, Zenedras now refused to be removed from his apartments, and his heart gave out during the struggle. Prince Vincet was crowned in Vargano the next day by his wife Elat.
Vincet the Victor, 153rd King of Kings [068 NA – 091 NA]
The last and youngest of five sons, Vincet had not anticipated sitting the throne, but he had been well prepared by years at the Gilded Table, as well as years contending against his own brother, and especially by the counsel of his wife, Queen Elat.
Vincet began his reign by fixing laws regarding the Old Faith, which were largely unclear and had resulted in wildly fluctuating treatment of the minor sect. He made it illegal for members of the Old Faith to meet, worship, or organize publicly in any way, but permitted them to keep their faith privately. When his nephew Prince Orramir came of age, Vincet charged him with investigating the Holy Isle of Acciano and purging it of “unnatural magics.” Incredibly, he allowed the royal family of Terminallia, his greatest adversaries, to retain their rights and titles, declaring to all that they had acted in good faith, having been misled by Lord Martio and the speller Lerena. Many said the Terminal royals betrayed Lord Martio’s memory by accepting this mercy, but the murmurs eventually died. Prince Tierro would one day wed Vincet’s daughter Harriette, bearing two sons: Benedor and Remos.
Vincet and Elat had two more children after the coronation: a son named Geremo and a daughter named Qahira, bringing them up to four living children, including Prince Irvad the heir, and Harriette the eldest daughter. There was a great age gap between the two eldest and two youngest children, and Irvad and Harriette had never been close. Geremo and Qahira, however, were inseparable from a young age.
The reign of Vincet was a remarkably peaceful one. He reinstated the Six, in addition to the Gilded Table’s weekly meetings, adding such folk as his queen Elat, Prince Irvad, Prince Tierro of Terminallia, influential lords from Embelmadro and Geumsil, and a nephew of the Prince of Hosts to his council. He expanded ambassadorships to Zalja, Khabar, and Vaina, but remained wary of Orckid and especially Eysland: the reputation of the Eyscher mercenaries had not improved with time.
Vincet is often credited with “resettling the north at last,” which had been unstable for generations since the invasion of Pais III, the Black Manticore of East Orckid. Albanesca, the Hilldren, the Viper’s Nest, even the isolated Embelmadro reported improvements in trade and satisfaction amongst their commonwealths. Embelmadro went so far as to propose military expansions into Far East Orckid, but the King refused, well aware of the dangers such action would invite. Instead, he funneled more taxes into security for farmers. He also invested heavily in cultural projects for Albanesca, in the hopes of compelling central citizens to move north. It had some effect, though nothing remarkable.
The King also sent hostesses and hostermen into the varied Lordslands of Milos, the Peninsula, intending to sway these kings-in-all-but-name to renew their fealty to Monos. When all refused, the Table advocated strongly for invasion, but Vincet again refused. Some called Vincet an unwilling isolationist. Others called him a coward. Yet still, the land knew peace for over twenty years, a great rarity for Monos.
Scandal struck the throne in 67 NA when Geremo and Qahira eloped together, compelling a hostess of the Old Faith in Terminallia to wed them. The Holy Isle, the Table, and the commonwealth all spoke out against this, insisting that incest must be punished by death. Vincet disowned his children, granting their inheritances to Princess Harriette, and publicly advised his young children to “Fly into Vaina, where such abominations are tolerated.” The two followed his advice.
Despite his gruff response, it was widely reported that Vincet was heartbroken by his children’s departure (on the matter of their elopement, he remained more enigmatic). Elat, as ever, would prove more stoic, but also expressed great sadness at their loss. The two would have no more children.
In the latter years of his reign, Vincet became more feeble and insensate. Elat ruled in his name as much as she could, but Irvad was long past ready to take over the Throne and Table. The Queen and Prince presented a respectful and amicable face to the Table and the commons, but rumors of shouting matches behind closed doors often circulated. The early acts of Irvad’s reign would help to validate these rumors.
Vincet died in his sleep on a Summer evening in 91 NA. It was said that Queen Elat shed no tears for him in death, having wept them all during his imprisonment under Zenedras. Few recall that she was reported to have shed no tears then. Regardless, theirs was a harmonious reign that served the nation well. Elat had crowned Vincet king, and would crown Irvad as well.
Irvad the Terrible, 154th King of Kings [91 NA – 120 NA]
It was said that after Remos’ troubles and Zenedras’ madness, the Benicent dynasty had shown itself to be indestructible. This claim would face its greatest test in Irvad the Terrible.
Upon his coronation, Irvad was already wed to Lady Elmwith of Embelmadro, with four famed children: Bennis the Brave (a celebrated tourney champion), Vias the Valiant (a great warrior and hosterman), Benegon the Brilliant (a prodigious mind and a staple of Irvad’s Six from a young age), and their young daughter, Pious Perditia. Queen Elmwith died birthing Perditia, and it was often said that her kind and loving spirit went into the child.
Bennis, called the Brave, had a sword in hand from age five and a lance from age eight. He entered a tourney at nine, against the insistence of his steward and his master at arms, and unhorsed two renowned cavaliers. He was knocked eight feet off his horse in the penultimate tilt and broke his shoulder, but his wide smile upon standing won the commons’ hearts. He would win his second tourney three years later, and would feature as a frequent victor. Bennis served as an ambassador to Zalja on several occasions, where his easy smiles and gallant demeanor served him well; he even brought about a resurgence in jousting in Zalja’s capitol, where they had long been out of favor. Bennis was the first to admit he was not a thinker, but he was a good enough judge of character and humble when it came to heeding counsel; except when it came to his own safety.
Vias, called the Valiant, was less ebullient than his brother, but still a warm and courteous soul. He too took up sword at five, and famously disarmed a man who was chastising his wife with the flat of his blade. The man was so red-faced he took his sword back up and looked about to strike the Prince when his guards seized the man. “I’ll not be unmanned by a boy!” he howled, to which Vias famously replied “You unmanned yourself before I struck you.” Vias was a frequent champion of women and the defenseless, and was outmatching his instructors by ten. He sat a good horse, but never once entered a tourney. After wedding a lady of Albanesca, he would frequently spend a year at a time in the north, ensuring its stability, and forming a friendship with his cousin Orramir as well.
Benegon the Brilliant was a healthy baby, but small, quiet, and wont to cast suspicious eyes at folk. He became a speller, though he did not vaunt of it, and his fascination with the study of magic had many fearing another Zenedras (who had himself been a third son). Irvad warned Benegon of the people’s fears, and the boy endeavored to keep his studies and interests as secret as possible. Despite this, he proved a brilliant tactician and was correcting his tutors in arithmetic and challenging historians well before manhood. So sharp was Benegon’s mind that Irvad set him among his Six at age nine (Irvad’s mother Elat was removed upon his coronation, and Irvad famously had no women amongst his Six). Prince Errion of the Shadowveil was heard to jape “The King’s Six is meant for six men, not boys of six years.” Benegon’s counsel earned much mockery from the rest of the Six and especially the Gilded Table, at first, but as time went on he often managed to win over even the most recalcitrant men to his views.
Pious Perditia was a bright, beautiful, dutiful, kind, and courageous girl. In her youth, she was an enthusiastic student of any enterprise that came to her, and her brothers helped her pursue these interests. She learned horsemanship from Bennis, swordplay from Vias, and spelling from Benegon. She proved devoutly interested in the Hosts from an early age, and spent much of her time studying their names, natures, origins, and stories. The three brothers adored and doted upon her, and this would prove to be her undoing, and indeed the beginnings of Irvad’s fall.
The commonwealth and especially the Mortal Kings still remembered the scandal of Geremo and Qahira, Irvad’s brother and sister, and rumors flew wide and varied about the three brothers who allegedly showed “unnatural” levels of affection for their young sister. Perditia was only seven when these rumors began, which served to exacerbate the intensity and outrage of the rumors. Irvad first hoped to stem the issue by sending Perditia to the Holy Isle where she might pursue her passions isolated from her brothers. She wept and pleaded against this, and even her brothers defied him in court, only lending more credence to the rumors. Irvad remained firm, but it was the Prince of the Hosts who refused, calling the little girl a temptress and refusing to welcome her at Acciano. Irvad had spent some time at Acciano with his cousin Orramir rooting out elements of the Old Faith, and no love was lost between him and the Prince of Hosts.
Irvad next sought to send Perditia to Khabar as a companion to some Emir’s daughter there, but again there were loud objections. Further, there were no nearby Emirs with daughters of similar age. Irvad had similar ill luck in Zalja: he would have to send Perditia all the way to the other side of the country, and even the King felt that was too far for his only daughter. He did not trust Vaina, and none of the great families in Monos would take her, so poisoned was her reputation by the Prince of Hosts (and several of the Mortal Kings).
Talk became so pervasive that Irvad himself began to suspect his sons. He had grown so dependent on them, however, that he would not excuse them from their duties. He instead chose to seal Perditia in her apartments, attended only by hostesses, not to be seen by any man or boy. By the time she had turned ten, she was called Perditia the Prisoner.
Overnight, public opinion turned against Irvad. Rather than release his daughter, he grew furious with his own people. When Prince Bennis begged for Perditia’s release, the King sent him to far west Zalja, demanding that he find a place for Perditia after all. When Vias spoke for her, he was told not to return from his next trip to Albanesca. Benegon dared to speak for his sister on many occasions, though only in private, knowing his father had grown too dependent on his counsel and his power over the Table to send him away. In time many seemed to forget Perditia existed, but still Irvad would not release her for fear of looking weak.
At age fourteen, Perditia was betrothed to a minor family in Terminallia, but was still kept in her prison. Upon hearing of this, Prince Bennis returned from Zalja to voice his objection to the low match and to again insist upon her release. The King would not hear him, until Bennis demanded the right to fight for her freedom. Irvad refused, but Bennis brought his concerns to the public, and the commonwealth that had most virulently spoken against Perditia and her brothers a few years back now cheered his valor.
Bennis was a great jouster, but an indifferent sword. Irvad charged the head of his personal guard, Niro Calvion, to answer Bennis’ challenge; to disarm and shame him, though not harm him (too much). Bennis was clearly outmatched, but would not surrender. A mishap occurred in their fourth face, and Calvion accidentally slew the Crown Prince of Monos. Irvad had no choice but to execute Calvion, making him triply hated by the people. When Prince Vias returned from Albanesca to demand justice, the King confined him to the dungeons.
Benegon earned a reputation as a snake for refusing to stand up to his father, but knew where his own strengths laid. He conspired with the Prince of Geumsil and orchestrated a secret betrothal, even convincing the Prince of Hosts to dissolve the prior betrothal, also in secret, then had Perditia spirited away to Geumsil. Benegon kept his own role in this secret to preserve himself, and so became as hated as Irvad. By the time the King learned of her location, Benegon had convinced him to let her lie: it was a better match, and the matter of the rumors was settled.
The Near North, around Coredillo and Geumsil, became very unsettled. Bands of commoners rose up, called Bennismen, demanding that Vias be released. Many went so far as to suggest Vias take the crown, and there were even a few champions for Irvad’s cousin Orramir, who sat amongst his Six. Even members of the nobility joined the mob, calling themselves Knights of Bennis. Many of these bands roamed the countryside, harassing those they accused of supporting the king, quickly devolving into bandits. Others formed into giant, disordered armies and began marching on Vargano.
Irvad feared to call his banners: he might seem weak responding so strongly to “an unwashed mass, armed chiefly with hoes and hatchets.” Further, there was the dread that he might call and none would answer, leaving his rule all but finished. He stiffened the guard by offering prisoners freedom in exchange for service. Such criminals became known as Chain Men, and Irvad’s favor diminished further. He sent into Khabar to solicit aid from the paladins. Two responded, with less than three-hundred adherents, yet Vargano’s defenses were so meager that this was a significant improvement.
The Bennismen were many, but they were poorly armed, undisciplined, and outside the city walls. At first, the King let them sit outside the walls chanting and screaming, but support grew within Vargano, and Irvad knew he must do something. The paladins and their adherents were set outside to disperse the crowd, meeting with some mild success. Some of the Bennismen were slain, but many more retreated into the Farwood, and some even crossed the border into Zalja. They soon returned. The paladins scattered them several times, never killing more than a few dozen, and the people grew more incensed. After the tenth scattering, the paladins and their adherents unceremoniously returned to Khabar. Irvad would send similar requests to Zalja, but received no answer.
Matters soon declined further. The King of Geumsil had died, making Prince Niro the new king, and Pious Perditia the queen. Niro called his own forces and marched on Vargano to demand Vias’ release, and justice for Bennis. Feeling out of options, and against Benegon’s counsel, Irvad sent to Eysland for mercenaries.
Two-thousand Eyschers arrived by ships a few days after King Niro had invested the town, unable to block the bay. Arrows and stones alike fell on the ships, and a few catapults struck home, sinking one, but all the mercenaries arrived safely. The Eyscher commander, Durek Pim, counseled the King to open the southern gates. The southern approach to Vargano was narrow, being blocked on one side by the bay and on the other by the river, making it hard to invest. Pim assured the King his Eyschers would make quick work of an army of rabble.
Against Benegon’s counsel, Irvad agreed, adding another three thousand foot and five-hundred cavaliers under Pim’s command. As ever, the Eyscher’s unparalleled viciousness gave them a great edge: Pim placed the King’s soldiers at the front, while his mercenaries rained arrows on friend and foe alike. Thousands of Bennismen fell, and most of King Niro’s army was wiped out. It was said the Eyschers, “poisoned the bay with Monosi dead.” Many in the city itself rose up at this, declaring for Bennis, and the coldly efficient Eyschers put them down as well. Irvad lost most of his guard and half his cavaliers, while less than two-hundred Eyschers fell. Niro had escaped and fled back to Geumsil with his personal guard.
Irvad was trapped in a city that hated him, virtually defenseless, sharing the space with over eighteen-hundred mercenaries with particularly evil reputations. Fearing they might sack the city, he offered them fortunes to stay as city guards, paying from Vias’ inheritance. The Eyschers were cruel, corrupt, and ruthlessly efficient. The city was in terror, but there were no further revolts at the time.
The King was already being called Irvad the Terrible at this point. The Gilded Table was now functioning as hostages, all confined to their apartments and under Eyscher guard. Things grew even worse when Vias was slain by Eyschers whilst trying to escape his dungeon. The mercenaries tortured his guards to learn who had aided in his attempt, but they all died before confessing anything. Some speculate that Benegon had attempted to rescue his brother as he once had Perditia, but if so he once again kept his efforts under wraps.
Irvad liquidated all of Vias’ inheritance to bring in more Eyschers, raising their numbers to four-thousand. He used his hostages to further demand a hundred soldiers from each of the Mortal Kings; wisely keeping their numbers small enough to be easily outmatched by his mercenaries.
Money was running out, however, and Irvad was worried what might happen when he could no longer pay his mercenaries. With all other loyalties uncertain, he elected to pay them in land. The northern provinces were seeing huge influxes of Vainan immigrants, fleeing from their homeland as Eysch influence continued to take over there. Irvad chose to counter this by attainting the kings of Albanesca, the Viper’s Nest, and Embelmadro, along with several of their lords, and offering these lands to Durek Pim’s highest officers. To Pim himself, he offered Gemosia, King Niro’s seat. Pim responded by hiring four-thousand more men, leaving one-thousand in Vargano, and marching the rest northeast to seize their seats.
More Bennismen and Knights of Bennis arose, and battle after battle was fought against the Eyschers. Seven great battles occurred in northern Westheart around Coredillo, and it was said the Western Hills were washed red. Indeed, the Eyschmen were so frustrated trying to cross Westheart into Gemosia, that when at last the Bennismen thinned out, they instead marched to Coredillo and assaulted it, seizing the city.
The kings of Albanesca, the Hilldren, the Shadowveil, and Gemosia (with Perditia this time) all rose up to lay siege to Coredillo. Durek Pim was vicious, cunning, and brutal beyond compare, but his few thousand men could not stand against four armies. The Eyschers were slaughtered to a man, Pim’s head officers were drawn and quartered, and Pim himself was hanged to near death several times before being burned alive. The four kings installed a second cousin of the dead king on the throne, then marched on Vargano.
After surrounding the city, the four armies demanded that Irvad submit himself to a trial by the Prince of Hosts. The charges leveled against him included kin-killing, soliciting invasion, and even promoting incest between his sons and daughter. Irvad was so furious he meant to challenge King Niro to single combat, but Benegon persuaded him to give himself up on the condition that Benegon be allowed to speak on his behalf during the trial. King Irvad was taken into custody by a company of hostermen and removed to the Holy Isle, where he was set in a dungeon. Benegon left with him, leaving Vargano in the hands of Pious Perditia and her husband, King Niro.
Mountains of evidence were leveled against the King, and the entire nation was anxiously awaiting his execution. Incredibly, Benegon’s argumentation would prevail. He convinced the Prince of Hosts to consider all the charges jointly, rather than singly, then managed to prove that Prince Bennis had indeed died by accident, and that his killer Niro Calvion had been justly punished for his deed. Having disproved this point, the Prince of Hosts had no choice but to dismiss all other charges. Irvad was returned to the capitol with an escort of one thousand hostermen to protect him.
He returned to find the Gilded Table emptied and Perditia’s army in attendance. At first, she and her king refused to let Irvad take the throne. The hostermen prevailed, however, and the Gemosian forces all returned home.
Incredibly weak and more desperate than ever, Irvad began to spread the rumor that Perditia (an adult by now) had in truth been a temptress all along, and that her wiles had manipulated Bennis and Vias to betray their nation. Always ready to think ill of a powerful woman, the people of Monos took to this new story readily. Perditia’s sway diminished, and more opportunistic lords and kings began to seek Irvad’s favor. He and Prince Benegon reestablished the Gilded Table over the course of four slow, considered years, securing pages, gentlewomen, and other hostages from the ten kings in that same time. Benegon also ran a successful campaign to depict the King as pious. His success at the trial, and Perditia’s now fallen reputation, helped to support this new image.
The Spring of 108 NA would begin the decade known as Irvad’s Wrath. After four years of relative peace, Irvad initiated the Third Terror, a widespread inquisition against the Old Faith. The Old Faith was not especially powerful at this time, but the Terror stirred up fervor against it, which Irvad used to destabilize and wipe out his enemies. Anyone who stood against him was accused of heresy, imprisoned, attainted, or executed. He even had Benegon arrested, no longer trusting anyone, though as usual Benegon managed to argue himself out of imprisonment. It was during this time that Irvad took a new wife, Dowager Queen Lumennia of Terminallia, and set about siring new heirs. Lumennia had two sons already with the now dead king of Terminallia, but was in her early thirties and proved still fertile. They would produce two sons and a daughter. Upon the daughter’s birth, Irvad was reported to have mused aloud on throwing her in the bay, to prevent the conflicts that had emerged from his treatment of Perditia.
The sons, Tyrannis and Vittorio, were able warriors and apt to please their father. The daughter Isabel was, likewise, pious and obedient. Irvad often referred to these three as the children he had always wanted. Meanwhile, his reign of terror continued.
By the time Benegon got himself out of custody, several of the Mortal Kingdoms had had their kings attainted or even their entire ruling families rooted out and replaced. Chaos was reigning in every region. Benegon had been disinherited and disowned, and found himself in a poor position to effect change.
The Prince assembled a company of hostermen to escort him to Vargano, where he spent two years subtly gaining support. In 116 NA, he presented himself to the King and requested to be readmitted into his grace. Irvad refused several times, but eventually agreed to hear his son. As ever, Benegon’s rhetoric prevailed, and he was accepted back into the family and renamed the heir.
This went poorly with the populace. Queen Lumennia was popular with the people, and many hoped her children would represent a change. More still supported Perditia’s claim. Virtually no one supported Benegon. Even so, his counsel eventually compelled Irvad to end the Third Terror in the late Winter of 117 NA. Of the countless atrocities committed in that time, both by the King and many of his supporters, there is not ink nor tears enough to describe.
The final years of Irvad’s reign were spent turning regions against Gemosia (and Perditia) and attempting to coopt the new Queen’s popularity. Though hatred of Benegon settled a little, Irvad would be known as the Terrible until his last days.
The King died in the Spring of 120 NA, in his bed, apparently of natural causes. The Queen and he rarely shared a bed in these days, though she was indeed with him this night, and reported his death tearfully to his morning attendants. Returning to tradition, Benegon traveled to Acciano to be crowned.
Benegon, 155th King of Kings [120 NA – 126 NA]
In his youth, he was known as Benegon the Brilliant. By the time he took the throne, however, his long association with his father Irvad the Terrible had tainted his reputation beyond repair. To be sure, Benegon was not hated by most, but he was loved by none. Even his wife of ten years, Queen Elise (formerly of Westheart), rarely kept him company. Benegon had invited her to serve on his Six, but she refused.
The royal couple had two children, a daughter named Zenaed (born in 116 NA) and a son named Elatir (born in 122 NA). The queen had suffered three miscarriages, and more than one hostess suggested another pregnancy could mean her end. Benegon declared he was content: he had a healthy son, and two nephews besides should the unthinkable occur.
The nephews, Tyrannis and Vittorio, seemed well-disposed toward the King, as did their little sister Isabel. Their mother, the Dowager Queen Lumennia, however, would not forget the brief time her son Tyrannis spent as the heir under Irvad the Terrible, and would spend her time seeking out allies for her son’s cause.
A student of Monosi history, Benegon sought means to reconcile his family. He found good offices and matches for the children of his cousin Orramir, offered improved taxation rights to Gemosia (and his sister Perditia), and offered his nephew Vittorio as a squire to Sir Peltinor, widely considered the finest hosterman in the realm. Benegon took a special liking to Tyrannis, a thinker like himself, and saw that the boy was trained in spelling (much to the consternation of his mother).
Benegon increased tithes to the Holy Isle and reaffirmed the prior laws allowing the Old Faith to be practiced in private. He sent hostesses into the southern peninsula of Milos to persuade men to come join the Holy Isle as hostermen, but this was received indifferently both by the Milosians and the Prince of Hosts. As the realm recovered, he even went so far as to contact Eysch mercenaries related by blood or business to Durek Pim and his ill-fated troops, and offered them small payments in recompense for the loss of their armies under Irvad. This, too, was received with a grumble.
Vargano had largely recovered from its burning under King Zenedras at this point, again largely thanks to Benegon’s work. History may suggest that Benegon made the best of bad situations, doing great good when he was able, but most see him as an opportunist, a speller, and a coward. The realm did not flourish under his reign, but its recovery from Irvad was remarkable.
The King surprised many when he sought a princess of Vaina to wed his son, as Monos seemed to have abandoned such foreign marriages. “Vaina was once a great ally,” he said, “and we should work to recapture that.” Unsurprisingly, Vaina’s association with magic caused many to remember Benegons’s spelling, and how he had been as suspected as Zenedras the Witch Lord in his youth. Nevertheless, little Prince Elatir was betrothed to Princess Seresa, the second daughter of the reigning Princess of Vain, at age four (Seresa was six). Benegon sent hostermen into Milos in hopes of finding a fitting husband for Zenaed.
Benegon had known even in childhood that he would never have the people’s love, and indeed most often he seemed indifferent to praise. Yet there were rare moments where a profound melancholy overtook him, brief and heavy sighs, and those who saw him wondered if there were not a secret wish to be as loved as his brothers Bennis and Vias had been. Benegon had no confidants; not even a single member of his Six claimed to know him well. If his sister Perditia felt any gratitude for his role in her rescue, that had long since been melted by his work with their father. It may be only Irvad the Terrible ever trusted him, and even his trust had not been unconditional.
By and large, Benegon was a king to tolerate. So it still surprised many, when he died of poisoning in late Autumn of 126 NA. The culprit has still not been found, but as the resulting Second Scion War shows us, there were many with motives.
The Second Scion War
Upon Benegon’s death, Queen Elise made plans to bring her young son Elatir to Acciano to be crowned. On the road to the Sea of Trials, she was set upon by Terminal soldiers, flying the sigil of a white dove upon a blue and red field. They declared for Prince Tyrannis, insisting that Irvad’s disowning of Benegon delegitimized his children. A bloody bout ensued, but Elise and little Elatir escaped with a small escort. They found the Sea of Trials heavily invested, not by more of Tyrannis’ (and Dowager Queen Lumennia’s) men, but by those flying the sigil of a great red ape reaching upward upon a black field: the standard of Gemosia, and Queen Perditia. Flying at once, Queen Elise made for Westheart, where she had grown up, and received the protection of her Uncle Gartenn, the King of Westheart, in Coredillo. There, she sent at once for her daughter Zenaed.
Shortly after Zenaed’s arrival, Elise received the incredible news that a third army had arisen in Albanesca. Orramir, first son of King Zenedras, raised the black harpy upon the purple field (his wife Claria’s standard), once more insisting that King Zenedras had never truly been attainted.
Monos currently exists under this conflict. Elatir is largely accepted as the rightful king, but he is a child in his mother’s care: a mother too Monosi in nature to lead armies. Against him is Prince Tyrannis, a young but sharp man, assisted by his younger brother the martial Vittorio, and led by the Dowager Queen Lumennia (and supported by Terminallia, her home). Against him too is his aunt Perditia, a woman raised in the Zaljan style, unafraid to command armies and supported by the wealth of Geumsil and Gemosia. Against him too is his Uncle Orramir, an experienced and battle-hardened warrior, with fewer resources but allies all throughout the north.
How this will end, none can say, but it is a sad conclusion to those foolish enough to hope that Benegon’s reign might have brought another precious few years of peace. Monos’ location, caught between so many other nations, and indeed the very nature of its people, seems to make peace impossible, outside of the peace of the grave, toward which so many Monosi seem to fly so willingly.

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom

Alternative Names

The Mortal Kingdoms

Demonym

Monosi, Royalists (local)

Parent Organization

Mortal Kingdoms of Monos

Subsidiary Organizations

• Albanesca Kingdom
• Embelmadro Kingdom
• Farfield Kingdom
• Gemosia Kingdom
• Hilldren Kingdom
• Mortal Kingdoms of Monos
• Shadowveil Kingdom
• Terminallia Kingdom
• The Sacred Kingdom of Acciano
• Viper's Nest Kingdom
• Westheart Kingdom

Location

Sea of Trials

Related Ranks & Titles

• King of Hosts, called the Royarch or Imperator
• Mortal King

Controlled Territories

• Holy Isle of Acciano
• Monosi Midlands

Neighboring Nations

• Grand Principality of Vaina
• Kingsrift Canton

Related Ethnicities

• Monosi