The Age of Condemnation

This is the Age in which the Houselands see their decline. Thalen Trabberge refuses the crown at High Seat with the words, "I will not take this crown as it still bears the tainted sweat of the foul Tailaq Ennorren." He goes on to say that he will not sit on the throne while the House Ennorren still exists. This poses a problem for the other Houses. With the war ended, the prospect of having no king to rule and the instability it would mean, Means the Houses are concerned. Thalen's explicit request to destroy the Ennorren House is impossible.

Two years pass, and Thalen remains fixated on his request. Undeterred by the other Houses refusal, he once more calls upon his pact with the Fiends. These extra-planar beings cause havoc within the Ennorren patrimony. Upheavals are all too real, causing the destruction of the herds, people's homesteads and the capital of Ennorren. The few survivors are forced to leave as there is little left for them in the land and fear won't let them remain. The Houses come to Thalen to voice their outrage at what he has wrought. He agrees, much to their puzzlement. He states that this will never do and that something must be done to right this grievous wrong. He announces that he has uncovered a plot and that he will deal with the perpetrators. He tells the Houses that he has learned that Houses Altra and Molnury have been the chief instigators in what has befallen Ennorren. To prove this, A Fiend is brought forth, which intones that he was told to do this to Ennorren by the Molnury and Altra leaders. Thalen's reaction is immediate and melodramatic. He orders that the Fiend must, "Go forth and do unto Molnury and Altra what was ordered to be done to fair Ennorren." So it was that the lands of these two patrimonies were to fall into condemned ruin as Lost Ennorren had done before them. The other Houselords saw revealed in this action that Thalen could be counted on to bear a grudge. That even the slightest rebuke, such as the one made by the two Houses two years earlier, could result in his total hatred.

As if part of an agreement, the Fiends and the Monstrous roam the Houselands, lowering it into a state of utmost confusion and fear. Bitterness and strife is everywhere but no one is foolish enough to call Thalen to answer for what is obviously his doing. As years mount and the roaming violence becomes a thing of daily life, murmurings for change begin in earnest. Chief among the dissenters, are the Houses worst treated in the conclusion of the war. Houses Maynor and Tear begin to plan to restore the throne. If Thalen won't take the crown, they feel that they must. They realise that this means that they must deal with Thalen first.

The lessons that Thalen has taught have been learned well. The plot by Maynor and Tear is kept well-hidden for over a decade. Then, just as Maynor believes they have things well situated to strike at Thalen, Fiends descend on House Maynor destroying and despoiling. A defector has revealed House Maynor's part in the plot to overthrow Thalen. Luck is on House Tear's side and their involvement is not known by the informer and so they remain alone to plot Thalen's demise. In this they succeed. How this is achieved is hidden within the secret that allows them to win out. What is known is that Thalen seems unable to call on his other worldly allies to deal with the Tear House as he has done many times before. In some manner, House Tear was able to nullify his access to them. Whatever the facts, Tear manages to rid the world of Thalen and his unbridled hatreds.

Tear's Gift

House Tear calls for the other Houses at High Seat for the vacant throne to be filled. Once they have all arrived, even Trabberge -- minus Thalen, who has met his end -- House Tear indicates that they are not interested in the throne. No single House is seen as capable of running the others effectively. In the end, the Houselands are divided into regional provinces. While there is some complaint as to these divisions, which do result in some odd situations, all the Houses agree to the demarcations. This is mainly due to House Tear making up the new regional divisions and taking no province for their own. This allows the other Houses to trust that there is no ulterior plotting going on and the continent begins to know peace for a time.

A century or more goes by. Due to the distances involved, for the Houses to maintain direct control over the outlying towns and cities becomes more and more of a demanding responsibility. As the decades move by, the interests of the Houses remain predominantly within their old patrimonies and not nearly so much in the more distant portions of their control. The city centres in these more far-flung areas begin to look after themselves more and more. At the same time, the Houses remain distrusting of one another and lose focus on anything outside of their traditional borders, eventually losing their grip on the provincial regions under their 'control'.

Nation-states form, winning their independence easily from their former governing Houses. Heralds, Warlogues and Airthane plead again for their joint concept of a peace agreement to be enacted by all parties on Coaseth. The pride of the Houseland families will not accede to this idea and the stresses of the continual ebb and flow of power on the continent will continue until the 'Southloss War' sees the Age of the Houselands' dominance come to a conclusion.