Tharron
Oath and honor.Tharron is a kingdom in Eastern Eletheros, named for its location sat along the Great Tharronese River which serves as its shared border with the Durranian Empire to the west. It is the westernmost of the so-called 'Midland Kingdoms', a collective of culturally related territories nestled between the Midland Plains, Grand Bay, and Emmar Mountains in what is more or less the midpoint of the greater continent which Eletheros, Khaddal, and Yojin collectively form. Formerly the western half of the kingdom of Andras, the kingdom of Tharron separated from its larger country of origin following the Andrasi Civil War in 1415, a two-year conflict which saw the kingdom split along its middle in 1417. The east remained Andras, a state now ruled by the usurpsing Roussopoulos family, while the west became Tharron under the rule of the Kanakaris family, whom had held power in the united kingdom of Andras prior. Peace between Tharron and Andras in the five decades since has been an uncertain and unstable thing, with border conflicts not infrequent and campaigns of subterfuge levied in either direction remaining as a simple reality of either nation's politics. Many scholars of recent history believe that the war drew to a close with the establishment of two distinct kingdoms not due to any true terms of truce or sues for peace by either side, but because so many of the border lords under either banner effectively refused to continue raising or marching levies after the infamous massacres conducted by the eleven dhaeva brought to the fields by the Roussopoulos forces, which brought the front lines to a standstill.
Structure
King
Once known as the Boy King of West Andras, Marcos Telemachus Kanakaris has ruled over the kingdom of Tharron since the moment of its formation, though he was but a youth of four years when his father Orestes was killed by the usurping forces and the civil wars began. Whenupon he came of age in the years ensuing the stalemate, he thought for the longest while to remain without heir entirely under the fear that a continuation of the Kanakaris bloodline would at worst reignite the fervor for all-out war, and even at best would leave any children he sired in constant mortal danger.
Though he remained committed to this outlook until far later in his life than most holding royal titles would ever persist without heir, such an outcome became inevitable when, in 1448, an allegiance with the far-away power of Strytzheim found King Marcos to wed the Lady Gisele Reichardt, cousin to the Strytz Emperor.
Queen Gisele was blinded in the moments during and after the birth of her first and only daugther in 1451, though managed a better fate than her handmaiden, royal surgeon, and the host of three midwives who had all died in the immediate aftermath. Her daughter, the princess Anastasia, had been born an archon, and unthinkingly and uncontrollably had suimmoned forth a burst of energy that shattered the wall of the queen's bedchamber in her infantile tantrums not moments after taking her first breath. by the quick action of King Marcos and his hands, the lives of both his wife and daughter were saved, though such an event left his daughter's birth a far too public affair for her nature to be withheld from the public eye as one usually might with an archon of royal blood.
Princess Anastasia Theodora Viola Marianna Reichardt Kanakaris was left hidden away for the most of her childhood and young-adulthood as a result; rather than fraternizing more freely, the princess was kept entirely restricted to the capitol city of Kovarth with a royal escort and to castle grounds without, permitted to entertain foreign visitors only under the direct watch of her handmaidens or the Kings First and to attend royal or noble events only alongside her father.
The King's Fist
Above the regional liege lords typical of a feudal system sit the King's Fist, a long-standing order of Andrasi leadership meant to serve as guardsmen, advisors, and governors all. Often appointed at an early age, to take oath as a member of the King's Fist is to willing enter oneself into a lifetime of service to the bloodline of the reigning monarch, but also to find oneself privy to knowledge in well-kept secrets of the mystic arts, and to be elevated to a status second only to the royal bloodline itself — each among the King's Fist speaks with the authority of the king themselves, and may be disobeyed under penalty of treason.
Damion Whent
Damion Whent, the current head of the King's Fist and First Sword to the Kanakaris line, first made a name for himself as squire to Sir Rudren Gerhalt, a veteran of the civil war. The two had found themselves beset upon by Andrasi brigands while patrolling in the northern borderlands when Damion refused to heed the word of his knight, casting aside his spear and drawing his sword from its scabbard after Sir Gerhalt had been felled from his horse. The brigands numbered six in total, and at only fourteen years of age, Damion was able to save Sir Gerhalt's life and fell two assailants in the process before the remainder turned tail and ran.
When offered a knightship for his bravery and valor, the young Damion declined, requesting instead that he be allowed to continue service by Sir Gerhalt's side until he came of proper age. Although his request was granted, the king was certain to keep both Sir Gerhalt and his prodigious squire close at hand, appointing Damion to service within the castle not long after. At 17, never knighted, he became the youngest member ever appointed to the King's Fist and has served dutifully in the years that followed.
Although he has never fought in war, Damion Whent is a learned scholar of sword and sorceries alike and is believed among many to be a fighter without peer in the modern age. Known often by the moniker "X," Damion is adept in methods of visomancy used to greatly bolster the speed and strength of his well-practiced strikes, and has felled no less than fourteen assailants sent to make attempts on the line of Kanakaris on various occasions — among them, a hired assassin of the Ebonblades and a former member of the Pratani Carnifices.
Among detractors who view the shut-away princess as a lessor inheritor to the once-noble house she is known just as often by the moniker 'The Blue Dove' as she is by her true titles, a name given in mockery of the Blue Eagle which sits on the Kanakaris sigil and family creest.
Baeryn Blackrock
Baeryn was born the second son to the Blackrock family, his father a Kanakaris loyalist and veteran of the civil war — one in a long line of a family closely pledged to the Kanakaris bloodline. Though Baeryn is the first in generations of the Blackrock family to hold a position within the King's Fist, his appointment thereof was considered little surprise and near an expected formality due to both the man's prowess in combat and the close ties between the Kanakaris and Blackrock families.
Towering head-and-shoulders above most other men, Baeryn cuts a doubly imposing figure when donning his family's set of heavy, black-iron armor, the polehammer he carries more than capable of cracking bone with every swing. Simultaneously is he known as a carefully spoken and kindhearted man among the castle grounds, often lending his ear to the common folk of Kovarth and perhaps the figure sighted most often with the princess outside of her father and personal handmaiden. Even so, his anger towards his foes is spoken about just as often.
Arnaldo Alescio
Once a Paladin of the Golden Church of Pratan in direct command of Praetor Aurelius, Arnaldo became the most recent appointee to the King's Fist after pledging his service to King Marcos and sending his resignation to the Golden Church while south on errantry. As resignation from the church is not typically allowed for one committed within the Four Arms of the Faith, and the typical penalty for excommunication is death, there are those who deride the king for his decision to accept Alescio's pledge due to the tensions it may cause with neighboring Pratan.
Kaitlyn Emmery
A daughter to the family of Emmery, the wealthiest noble house of Lakeview, Kaitlyn is both an experienced duelist with saber and rapier as well as an invaluable asset to the realm of diplomacy and politicking, holding the king's ear in reagards to any number of domestic policies and assisting frequently in the management of the crown's finances.
Aaron Redmund
Once a knight in service to the crown of Durrania, Sir Aaron found his way into King Marcos' service during attempts to track his father, Sir Hektor, who appeared to have fled far into the east following the disgrace of House Redmund for the Massacre at Havenbridge in Wayford, Ardran. When his father's trail was lost into the far east, past the Midland Plains and Emmar Mountains, he abandoned his search. With his house disgraced, he remained in Tharron rather than crossing the river to his homeland, serving as sellsword for minor disputes until he was able to make a name for himself in tournaments.
Military
Were full-fledged war to come agian, it is doubtless that the majority of the Tharronese armies would be garnered through the raising of levies and conscripts by local lords and leaders of regional baronies, duchies, and houses. Whether in times of peace of war, however, the prowess of those amongst the professional Tharronese fighters – knights and men-at-arms alike – is renoun across the continent and further. Any man or woman outfitted in the colors of Kanakaris is likely to be well-educated in matters of combat and come to the field sporting a healthy decade or two of training with sword, spear, lance, and mace on foot and horseback both to the field, their sleek armors and blue cloths a rallying cry to their own forces and warning to whatever enemy they face.
Although this martial dedication is considered in old fashioned by most, and whispers still pass between detractors both domestic and foreign that a true clash between armies would see the modern Tharronese forces beaten back by any capable of fielding modern firearms or adept sorcerers, there are by the same notion very few who would deign to cross blades with a Tharronese knight.
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