Ulmen Baraeth

King Ulmen Baraeth

King Ulmen Baraeth of Lysandria, also known as Ulmen I, Ulmen the Reckless, or Ulmen Chainbreaker, was the last Sovereign and first King of Lysandria.

Early Life

Ulmen led a busy life before becoming Sovereign of Lysandria leading a profitable company of mercenaries who specialized in escorting merchant caravans and couriers between destinations and fighting off and even sometimes negotiating with bandits for safe passage. This would result in him gaining both valuable strategic experience and connections that would serve him later in life.
When Ulmen's great-uncle, Sovereign Gelen the Old, died without a direct heir, the Sovereignty was thrown into a succession crisis which ended with Ulmen taking the throne, using his personal wealth, business connections, and mercenaries to outmaneuver and buy off his cousins until he had gained sufficient legitimacy to be crowned the new Sovereign.

Sovereign

Early Reign

The famous generosity of his predecessor had left the Sovereignty with empty coffers and deep in debt, and securing the throne had depleted much of Ulmen's personal fortune. The crown would struggle to raise and pay even a modest levy, while the local slaveholding families possessed vast wealth and respectable private armies that together could march on and depose him if he did something unpopular, such as raise the taxes Lysandria desperately needed to avoid slipping further into debt. The slaves of the Sovereignty were sold.
Ulmen played the families against each other as best he could, driving wedges in between the families with personal rivalries or land ownership disputes to prevent them from uniting against him. Ulmen took loans from everyone he could to stock the city with food to prepare the city should the families attempt to march in siege.

The Night of Broken Chains

One day, Ulmen declared a feast to be held in Castle Lys, inviting the heads of the most powerful slaveowning families. He had ensured the wine was particularly strong, and when everyone was thoroughly drunk, he had his aid announce the law which he had written in secret: that the institution of slavery in Lysandria was thereby abolished. All who owned slaves were to be imprisoned and their possessions and land were to be confiscated by agents of the Crown.
The families erupted into a violent riot in the castle dining room, and Ulmen's aide had been beaten severely by the time Ulmen's guards entered into the room and arrested the drunk and angry family heads on the pretense that their attempted murder of his aide was his justification for their imprisonment. With the families in disarray, many of their fortunes were surrendered by their guards without a fight. The rest were stormed by Ulmen's men whose ranks were bolstered by freshly-freed but armed former slaves in a small scale military campaign.
Ulmen had known that despite his victories over the families, he had also created blood enemies for himself. Wary of assassins that may lurk within the structures of the Crown Eyes, legends say he created a second, secret, personal intelligence service to be on the lookout for plots against him or his children or their children.

King

Because of the way Ulmen had written the law, if Lysandrian borders grew, more land would be confiscated from slaveholders and be given to the Crown to distribute to former slaves who fought well in his armies. Lysandrian agents infiltrated enemy cities, gave slaves promises of freedom and land, and even trained and armed these slaves, and had them wait for the proper moment.
One by one, under Ulmen Baraeth, Lysandria began marching on its neighbors, starting with the sovereign city of Munnuth. By the time the Lysandrian army reached the city, it was in the middle of a slave revolt which opened the drawbridge, allowing Lysandria's army, swollen with former slaves, to storm it, liberating still more slaves, and adding many of them to its army to invade the next city.
Per the ancient traditions of the Barley Sea, a man may not be Sovereign of two cities at once, so with the successful conquest of Munnuth, Ulmen declared Lysandria a kingdom and crowned himself Ulmen I, First King of Lysandria.
King Ulmen was succeeded by his firstborn son, Ulmen Ulmenic.

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Ludenians

Gender

male

Eyes

Steely grey

Hair

Black

Height

5' 7" (170 cm)