Ollaugh Wulk - 11th Known Ruler of Revellia
Called the Mad and the Sunset King
King Ollaugh Wulk
Reign: 744 RA - 768 RA
Wizards: Margget the Wise Ollaugh was the second Western King, and his actions would come to define their savage dynasty. For most, the Wulks are a happily forgotten footnote between the first and second reigns of Clan Ainros. For those who consider such things, however, Ollaugh's twenty-four-year rule as king would cast an indelible pall over his clan, such that the West would never think to challenge Clan Ainros again, even when Dubraigh's wealth and power came to rival that of Aerwoth and Revelback.
Ollaugh was not yet a man when the War of East of West began, but this did not keep him from fighting under his father Otgam's command. Even as a boy, he was noted for his brutality in battle. Many of the forest folk celebrated his valor, and an unnamed Bard was said to praise him for "eating the hearts of his greatest foes, men twice his age and thrice his size." In his earliest days, Ollaugh was called Hoprobin by his fellows, for leaping up at his larger enemies and bearing them to the ground. By the war's end, Ollaugh was ten-and-seven, and they called him Ollaugh Red Hands. His grandfather Oran had died in the war, so the crown passed his father Otgam. In the span of a few years, Ollaugh had gone from Hoprobin to Red Hands to Prince of Revellia.
Prince Ollaugh would not wed until his twenty-fifth year, and then only under command of his father. His bride, Lady Heather of Clan Capall, was as opposed to the marriage as the Prince. A noted magician who spurned the company of most, Lady Heather had ambitions of wizardry, and was known to frequent even the lowest of taverns to practice her magic. As for Prince Ollaugh, his lack of a bride had notoriously not stopped him from sowing his seeds wherever he might. He bedded women high and low, and many bastards of the day were said to carry his "gleaming eye."
At first, one might wonder why Ollaugh so opposed marriage. His father King Otgam had three wives, which was entirely common in the West. However, Otgam intended to reconcile the East to his new rule, and one of the chief means by which he hoped to do this was through his son. Ollaugh would marry one woman only, and she an Easterner.
It is unknown, the impetus of the disdain between Prince Ollaugh and Lady Heather. In time, they would sire several robust children, and it was oft said that their loudest fights were followed by their greatest periods of amity. Prince Ollaugh's paramours, for that matter, seemed to run the gamut of all sorts of women; even a few men it was whispered, though this was unspeakably taboo in the West before the impending Khabarese influence of a few decades later. Lady Heather's objections are somewhat clearer, though her specific complaints of Ollaugh himself remain a mystery. At least, at first.
What history remains of the Wulks calls him Ollaugh the Mad, but both Pollen the Proud and Sivan Strider allege that, though his misdeeds were truly terrible, they were the entirely expected result of giving a crown to a man torn between Eastern and Western customs, a man celebrated for his savagery in youth, a man whose gruesome appetites had been stoppered by his stern father until the latter's death at six-and-forty.
It is commonly held that Ollaugh was abed with three women when news came that his father had been killed by werewolves in the Fiirwood, and most surviving histories say he "finished what he was about" before planning his coronation with Margget the Wise, the celebrated Western wizard.
Though they were the lords of Dubraigh, King Otgam had spent the entirety of his eleven-year reign as a guest of Palor Graunt at Saolmoth. Prince Ollaugh had likewise spent most of his time there, when not riding east to put down minor rebellions from Berleigh (where he would come to be called Ollaugh the Werewolf). Shortly after Ollaugh's coronation, Palor broached the possibility of the royal court's return to Dubraigh. The new King would remain at Saolmoth for the first two years of his reign, however. In fact, it would be Lord Palor who traveled west to Dubraigh, though exactly why is a point of contention. Some suggest he bitterly insisted that Clan Graunt would invest the western port city, since the royals had grown so fond of his seat. Given what we know of King Ollaugh's character, however, it seems unlikely that Lord Palor could do such a thing and survive. Ollaugh had already slain a man who sneezed at his coronation (or laughed; reports vary), and had beaten men to death on three separate occasions for bedding one of his paramours (allegedly one of the three men was a paramour of his as well, but if so it was a well-kept secret). No, more likely Kyu Yev Quarry has the right of it, when she suggests that Lord Palor was kicked out of his own castle and sent west on some arbitrary order to seek news of Dubraigh's development over the past several years. The western port was comfortably being governed by the Chief Justicar Walys Eskmai then, who sent frequent couriers to Saolmoth with updates, so any such mission would have been a humiliating waste of time.
Lord Palor would return before the following Winter and remain a ghost in his own castle until his death in the Summer of 746 RA. He was succeeded by his third son and chosen heir Sairas, another of Ollaugh's alleged paramours (the Graunts would not adopt primogeniture until the reign of Garland II). The King's relationship with the new Lord Sairas, whatever its deeper secrets, was well known to be a positive one. They had oft hunted werewolves in the Fiirwood together, supposedly traded women in the brothels, and even executed a warrior in service to Clan Barkside after his liege refused to pay a ransom. Supposedly, the two took turns firing arrows at the man in an effort to keep him alive as long as possible. Yet despite this gruesome amity, King Ollaugh would remove the royal household from Saolmoth only a few months into Lord Sairas' rule. Perhaps there had been a falling out. Perhaps there was some growing unrest in the west. Perhaps even Ollaugh the Mad was capable of some humanity, and did not wish to undermine the rule of his friend. For whatever reason, the Rule of the West finally took up residence in Dubraigh after spending thirteen years at the center of the Canton. Queen Heather is reported to have stayed almost another year before joining her royal husband on the western coast.
Whatever the queen's home, the rest of the royal blood was commanded to come west with Ollaugh. Even his father's two other wives were ordered to follow, along with their surviving children. Ollaugh's own mother, Queen Doola, had died six years past. His sister Aemiira was wed to a son of Clan Eskmai, a powerful clan at Dubraigh, and had already taken up residence there ten years earlier. Very little is known of Ollinaar, Ollaugh's only full-blooded brother, or what the two thought of each other, save that he was ever in his brother's presence. Ollinaar was never given a position of importance, never even made a Breyv, yet he would ultimately die defending Ollaugh's son Orman during Garland's Conquest. As for his half-brothers and half-sisters, the King's relationships become somewhat more strained.
Queen Doola had been the first wife of Ollaugh's father King Otgam, and by all reports his least favorite. Higher in favor and respected by all, even Ollaugh, was the second wife, Queen Aemai, a Wulk on both sides. Her first and only son, Conrac, served as an unofficial Chief Justicar to Ollaugh both before and after his coronation for many years, though he never held the title until the crown passed to Orman. Maery was moon-touched, and frequently walked along the Nightfall barefoot, deep into the Fiirwood, and was rumored to have even contracted bad humours once, something unheard-of in the nobility. Unlike most, however, she managed to survive, and was betrothed to Lothar Marnock of Malbrand, a suitably noble match. Maery was escorted down to Malbrand by the royal party, who stayed to attend the wedding before heading west to Dubraigh. In her histories, even Margget the Wise notes that this was an unusual act of familial kindness in the new King. Aemai's younger daughter, Aemily, had a much different fate. Rumors claim she had given her innocence to a careless noble (possibly Lord Sairas Graunt), for which she was beaten cruelly; by whom is unclear. If by Ollaugh, perhaps this caused a rift that explains the departure from Saolmoth. If by Lord Sairas, it is remarkable that no reaction is recorded in the famously bloodthirsty Ollaugh. Could it have been her own mother, Queen Aemai, chastising her daughter? Or were they rumors, and nothing more? Whatever the cause, Aemily fled east from Saolmoth shortly before the royal party's departure, where she lived briefly on charity in Sure Town. She would eventually make her way to Revelback, where she would wed Uthor Beth and convert to the Host Keeping Faith; an act which may have helped precipitate Lord Nodraigh Beth's rebellion, years later.
If King Ollaugh's relationship with Queen Aemai's children was mixed, his feelings toward the children of Queen Gretan were much clearer. He hated them, uniformly. Gretan was a much younger queen, five years younger than Ollaugh himself. Even Margget the Wise recorded the rumors that Ollaugh secretly sought Queen Gretan's hand less than a year after his father's death, and that she refused in outrage. This would no doubt awaken some ire in the young king, if true, but his disdain for the queen and her get long preceded his father's death. He tossed her firstborn son Padraigh amongst the dogs to fight over bones when the boy could not yet walk; Ollaugh himself was already a grown man at a time. Years later, King Ollaugh would accuse Padraigh of bedding Queen Heather and, without trial or evidence, gelded his half-brother then and there. Well into Ollaugh's reign, Queen Gretan would die of a common fever, and her second son Ghilart complained it was due to her poor upkeep, that her royal apartments were scarcely better than a pauper's pit. The two would find each other late that night, both drunk, and in a fool's brawl, King Ollaugh would slay his half-brother Ghilart, then a mere seven-and-ten. When a courtier dared complain of Ghilart's age, King Ollaugh pointed out that he had won a war at seventeen. As for Danei, Gretan's only daughter, she was said to have lived her life like a rat, sneaking from crevice to crevice, hoping to avoid notice. She became betrothed to a son of Clan Baene, but before she entered majority, she snuck aboard a merchant ship sailing around the Triangle Sea. She was never heard from again.
As for the King's own children, their lives were equally shadowed. Ollaugh and Heather bore five sons and one daughter, yet all six children would die without issue. Their firstborn son, Ollagar, was deemed unfit for rule when a blow to the head infantilized him. Afterward, Ollaugh ambitiously began training his second son Ragnat for rule. The Prince would die at only twelve years, seeking to recreate his father's honor in combat, engaged against the rebellious forces of Lord Nodraigh Beth. It would be their third son, Prince Orman, who finally inherited the crown, a responsibility for which none felt he was fit. Their fourth son, Warragh, despite being two years younger than Orman, was ever his protector as they grew, and would ultimately die defending Orman during Garland's Conquest. Their youngest son Otgar died of a Winter chill before his eighth year. Ulva, their only daughter, grew up and wed Dorreg Faolan, heir to his clan, but they bore no children, and a great scandal emerged when the husband accused Ulva of being barren, only to have it eventually shown that Dorreg himself was incapable of siring heirs, leading to his disinheritance. Ulva would later die when attempting to flee during the sack of Dubraigh under Aormek Luutar at the end of Garland's Conquest. None of King Ollaugh's children would survive the Rule of the West, and the pious were wont to suggest this was an act of Hostly retribution for the king's cruelties.
Far from cowing the East, rumors of Ollaugh's savagery emboldened the ancient clans, and the Beths had already shown that they feared no king. Lord Nodraigh Beth of Revelback had fought against the Wulks in the War of East and West, even under Kurnek the Usurper, but had ultimately escaped consequences as the West focused on the Elkwoods and the Khabarese forces Oran Wulk had invited into the canton to assist with his war. Like the King, Nodraigh was a man of strong appetites, but a serious wound taken in the War of East and West had greatly diminished his prowess, and those appetites would affect his body far more severely. Yet this did not stop him from finally uniting his bannermen in the Spring of 755 RA and declaring himself the King of the East. The chiefs of Berleigh, Great Cross, and Aerwoth did not rally to join him, but neither did they march against him. Ollaugh's reputation had soured greatly over the years, and even the stewards of Aerwoth, installed by King Otgam, were unwilling to risk their armies for Ollaugh the Mad.
Nodraigh was a controversial lord, himself. He fought against his elder brother Valoron during the War of East and West, and slew his own sister Sabrina, called the Screamer, after she tried to seize the lordship from him. His first wife had died of bad humours, and his second had been given to a hostel (or fled there herself, as the rumors said). His third wife, the first to give him any children, would vanish in the Fiirwood with their only child, a daughter. What exactly an Eastern lady was doing in the Fiirwood with a child, was a subject of dark whispers. Nodraigh's fourth wife would manage to bear three children for him and ultimately outlive her lord, but their apparently harmonious marriage did little to improve the man's repute. Whatever his nature behind closed doors, however, he was thus far an undefeated battle commander.
The first several months of the rebellion were fought exclusively in the East, with Clan Graunt and its vassals ordered to put down the enemy. Ollaugh sent his second son Ragnat to serve under Lord Sairas Graunt (his firstborn Ollagar had already been injured at this point), watched over by the King's half-brother Conrac. In the Second Battle of Badger Ridge, young Prince Ragnat would be taken and slain by Uthor Beth, Lord Nodraigh's brother, who famously did not realize who the boy was. History is unclear at this point, with some saying Conrac responded to this by fleeing west to tell King Ollaugh of his son's death, and others saying Lord Sairas delivered the harsh news, whilst Conrac turned rogue and took his forces all over the Eastern plains, burning and pillaging all who refused to fight against Clan Beth.
Ollaugh joined the fighting himself, and would ultimately prevail against Lord Nodraigh, who is said to have fallen upon his sword rather than be taken by a king called the Werewolf. Somehow, the King was convinced to spare Clan Beth, taking only a single hostage from Nodraigh's heir, Lord Agravain. Despite this rare show of mercy, there would be no further rebellions. More than anything, Lord Nodraigh proved that the Wulks were the undisputed kings of Revellia now, and none might stand against them.
Little is said of Ollaugh's reign following the rebellion. It is said his wife Queen Heather would not speak to him afterward, as several of her kinsmen had died fighting for Lord Nodraigh. The King appears to have shown little interest in his children after Ragnat's death. His heir Prince Orman was raised more by his half-uncle Conrac, and educated to some extent by Margget the Wise. The wizard Daela Broadside spells that Ollaugh's appetites deserted him after this, that he grew gaunt and unfed, and that he slept alone in the final years of his life. She even goes so far as to suggest the King was haunted by his earlier cruelties, but the idea is only lightly examined.
Toward the end, Ollaugh had withdrawn entirely from rule. It is unknown if the savage warrior ever held any real interest in governance, but in his final years Dubraigh was ruled by Doolan Eskmai, Chief Justicar to the city, and the realm was governed largely by Conrac and Margget, along with their pupil Orman.
A litany of cruelties had been laid at Ollaugh's feet, yet he seems to have escaped punishment for them. The King died in his bed in the Autumn of 768 RA. Queen Heather is said to have sung the Last Song for him, defiantly remaining a Host Keeper until the end of her days. The crown was passed to Orman, and it seemed clear to all that Revellia would henceforth be ruled from the western city of Dubraigh.
Five years later, Garland Ainros would emerge.
Wizards: Margget the Wise Ollaugh was the second Western King, and his actions would come to define their savage dynasty. For most, the Wulks are a happily forgotten footnote between the first and second reigns of Clan Ainros. For those who consider such things, however, Ollaugh's twenty-four-year rule as king would cast an indelible pall over his clan, such that the West would never think to challenge Clan Ainros again, even when Dubraigh's wealth and power came to rival that of Aerwoth and Revelback.
Hoprobin and the Young King
Blood and Bonds
Nodraigh's Rebellion, called the Fool's War
A Death in Bed
Little is said of Ollaugh's reign following the rebellion. It is said his wife Queen Heather would not speak to him afterward, as several of her kinsmen had died fighting for Lord Nodraigh. The King appears to have shown little interest in his children after Ragnat's death. His heir Prince Orman was raised more by his half-uncle Conrac, and educated to some extent by Margget the Wise. The wizard Daela Broadside spells that Ollaugh's appetites deserted him after this, that he grew gaunt and unfed, and that he slept alone in the final years of his life. She even goes so far as to suggest the King was haunted by his earlier cruelties, but the idea is only lightly examined.
Toward the end, Ollaugh had withdrawn entirely from rule. It is unknown if the savage warrior ever held any real interest in governance, but in his final years Dubraigh was ruled by Doolan Eskmai, Chief Justicar to the city, and the realm was governed largely by Conrac and Margget, along with their pupil Orman.
A litany of cruelties had been laid at Ollaugh's feet, yet he seems to have escaped punishment for them. The King died in his bed in the Autumn of 768 RA. Queen Heather is said to have sung the Last Song for him, defiantly remaining a Host Keeper until the end of her days. The crown was passed to Orman, and it seemed clear to all that Revellia would henceforth be ruled from the western city of Dubraigh.
Five years later, Garland Ainros would emerge.Social
Family Ties
Ethnicity
Honorary & Occupational Titles
King of Revellia,
Lord of Dubraigh,
Patriarch of the Siiari
Lord of Dubraigh,
Patriarch of the Siiari
Life
4716
4768
52 years old
Birthplace
Dubraigh
Eyes
Brown
Hair
Black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Ghast
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations