Murmomets the Almsgiver

In the Church of the Divine King's tradition and teachings, each of the recognized lives of the Divine King are referred to as being a Saint(e). The Great King of Abenton, Murmomets the Fifth, was famous and respected throughout the Lakelands for decades before he was posthumously declared one of the sacred reincarnations of the Divine King by the early High Farrells of the Church.

Summary

Murmomets of Abenton was known as a high lord of men in the early years of the Divine King religion. As a youth, he was quick to survey the lands that he would inherit from his father, the warlike King Asardis the Third. He was highly skilled in the warlike arts, but also had a keen mind for agriculture, stargazing, and engineering -- specifically aqueducts and bridges as they were built by the dwarves in earlier, more peaceful times. At the time of Asardis the Second and Third, Abenton had expanded her borders significantly in the Lakelands -- their victories often outpacing the wagon train, let alone the governors who administered the conquered lands. By the time of Murmomets' ascension to the crown, that expansion had led to a severe exhaustion of the food supply that led to the people of Abenton beginning to starve. Upon investigation, however, it was not due to drought or blight that people were starving -- food was being hoarded by the landlords who took up the governance of conquered lands and sold for a profit. Murmomets' soldiers were being fed and fed well by the farms and ranches of the original territory of Abenton, but the rest of the population was suffering under the predations of the petty lords left behind while he and his father were on campaign. Murmomets and his armies had secured the borders of the far north of the Lakelands, and were treating with the Dukes of the Port City of Orliac when he received word about the peasant rebellions afflicting his domains. He turned his armies, planned his approaches, and took to suppressing these rebellions with the same skill and acumen that allowed him to topple whole kingdoms, fervent theocracies and well-defended city-states alike. It was after he pacified the second of the cities that he realized that the people he had been fighting against were mere shadows of who they once were. Driven desperate by hunger and poverty, these people rose up and took vengeance upon their oppressors. Murmomets stayed his hand, signalled to the other wings of his vast army to rest their arms, and sent word ahead that the King's justice was coming for those petty lords who starved their own people and their children for silver and prestige. As quickly as the uprisings began, the rebels put down their arms. Those petty lords who had not already been killed by the rebels or punished by the King quickly changed their tune and attempted to make amends. Murmomets investigated, and he acted. Those petty lords now had to sell their food at a set price to the King, who would then take those items and trade them to allies and partners for goods and services. The children of the petty lords were taken by the house of the king as young children and taught the proper methods of rule, based on an understanding of commerce, agriculture and stargazing. The former to understand how commerce and trade works, and the latter to understand the yearly cycle, both to directly support agriculture. The families of those petty lords would take oaths to go on crusades against bandits and pirates and monsters to ensure the safety of the humble commonfolk and to ensure that the yearly cycle of growth would be protected. Before he passed away in his old age, Murmomets had set about creating the most productive agriculture in the known world. He built roads, bridges, aqueducts and ensured every town and village had safe and secure storage for hard winters. He ensured that irrigation systems were well-engineered and managed fairly. He made sure that the realms under his control followed a farming calendar and had strict systems of crop rotation. These practices would be mimicked across the human world, and would lead to the explosion of human population in places like the Lakelands, the Free Realms and the Imperial Remnant.

Cultural Reception

There is some controversy amongst the two Divine King sects as it has been the tradition of the Prophets of the One Faith to call into question the veracity of Murmomets as a true incarnation of the Divine King. Their reasoning being that the life of Murmomets coincides with the life and death of both the half-elven Watchtower King and Warden of Okar, Fortias the Brave, and the orcish matriarch of war, Yarna Greatspeaker -- both lives were intertwined with the rise and fall of one of Nymarga's surviving lieutenants, Leshrac Blackheart. While it does not come up all that often in conversation, the difference between the orthodoxy of the two sects has led to many heated debates and even violence in the trading centers of Westervale and Aramon.

Related Ethnicities