Queen Feywil I

Feywil Marias Ruemtoc, Queen of the Welds

Queen Feywil I was the only daughter of Dunald II ("the Weak"), and the first Queen of the Welds since the Age of Heroes. Her father earned his epithet for his poor command of the Duxi, who effectively controlled the Kingdom of Weldmere. Power had been increasingly devolved to them since Markus IV - but the warmongering (and potential curse) of Markus V (Feywil's grandfather) had increased their power almost to the level of the ancient Weldic Petty Kings. Thus, when an ill Danuld insisted that his daughter would succeed him - as had been the lawful custom of the Welds since before the Exile - the Duxi sought to impose their own candidate Harfon the Blue. This led, via a series of miscalculations, to the The Calds' Rebellion, and (two years later) the Peace at the Cal.
Establishing her reign under these difficult circumstances, Feywil dedicated the rest of her life to enhancing the power of the Weldic Crown - and its power to help the commoners of her realm. The Duxi had agreed sweeping limits to their power as part of the Peace and - with the assistance of a friendly Grand Sanctor - Feywil determined to cement these reforms. She sponsored the Grand Congregation of the Holy Sanctorum which first established the Cult of Justice - the Sanctorum's own legal and judicial enforcers.
At the same time, she appointed the first Royal Justiciars in more than two centuries to ensure that royal justice (including the Peace) was being upheld. To further diminish the power of the Duxi (and to prevent them harassing a single Justiciar) there were 10 judicial provinces across the 7 Duxiae (meaning their jurisdiction crossed borders), and three Justiciars served each province at a time, in rotation. While the Courts of Feywil faced some initial opposition from her original supporters during the Cald's rebellion (after over-zealous and culturally ignorant Justiciars were dispatched to Talhorn Duxia), they were an enduring legacy for four centuries - and to this day, the Crown reserves the right to send Justiciars anywhere in the realm without a request from a Duxi.
She was, however, not vindictive in victory. Her legal reforms were designed to ensure that no future Duxi could seize control of the throne, but she was not intent on destroying their power. She indulged their displays of prestige, and made few attempts to disarm retinues from Duxi who were not guilty of wrongdoing - indeed, recognising their need for military glory, she authorised raids into the Jellnev Desert, aimed at securing Farhad's Fist, and the trade on both sides of the river Het. While hardly more successful in this than her grandfather Markus, she secured in the minds of the Duxi and all her people that Queen was no less a true 'King of Peace and War' than a man could be.
The greatest testament to her success in taming the Weldic high nobility is that - despite being the product of a contested succession herself - she felt able not to marry, and to leave the crown to a cousin, who had distinguished himself in her Jellnev campaign, and who commanded the respect of the realm, and the blood of Conrad.

Date of Birth

22 Harvest 197 AC

Date of Death

19 Cold 262 AC

Life

11688 11753 65 years old

Sex

Female

Eyes

Green

Hair

Long, flowing, brown

Belief/Deity

The Creator