Battle of Fort Aling

Military action

A battle that took place in Western Trondalen.

The prince of Norland had ventured down to Trondalen to negotiate a possibility for organising elections in the palace. Not only did this request fail, he also began to suspect the old prince of Trondalen wanted to usurp the throne for his son. That night men of the prince of Trondalen snuck into the guests’ quarters at Trondalen palace, and managed to take some high ranking hostages, including Gundar and the duke of Gothenland-Arenheim. The prince of Norland and most of his men however managed to escape.   They were imprisoned in Fort Alinghall, home of the burgrave Alinghall, who was charged with keeping them locked up safely. The fort was deemed impregnable based on its hilltop position and surrounding swamplands that were known to devour entire wagons and horses if rain had soaked the earth well enough. The area had experienced relative drought however, so the prince was able to group together a small army of a few hundred knights, mostly his own and those of the imprisoned duke, now commanded by the marquis of Stormark in his absence.   The fort itself was a circle of wooden walls with guard towers adorned with wooden spires. Inside was a longhouse for the guards and a large, round, stone tower where the burgrave and his prisoners stayed. The charge began late in the evening. The prince’s forces had moved closer through the dense woods without being noticed. When most guards were eating they charged out of the woods on horseback. The guards had no time to react as the knights and lords charged up the hill. Archers shot guards off their towers. The wooden gate was quickly rammed open,and they flooded into the courtyard. Just then the guards came out of their hall, prepared for battle. As the warriors dismounted the first rain in weeks fell down. Blood and mud were washed down the hillside by rain.   Within the tower the burgrave had received personal orders from the duke of Fyresland to torture the young Dragnaland. He was to poke and drag out his gifted eyes, of which the duke was so jealous. He tied him to a chair and prepared his instruments. All the other hostages could do was sit and watch helplessly with their shackles. As he approached the earl, giggling sadistically, the boy became enraged. A bolt of lightning came down from the rainclouds and struck the side of the keep with a thundering roar. A large section of wall fell down onto the court. Some stones flew inside, and when the dust had settled, the burgrave was found on the floor. A sharp rock had embedded itself in the side of his head and killed him.   The young earl had been freed from his bounds by strength unknown to him or anyone else. He stood up and walked to the hole in the tower. The men in the courtyard had stopped fighting after the bang and looked up to him, and saw his eyes glowing. He raised his hand and pointed at the spire of a watchtower in front of him. Seconds later another bolt splintered its spire, raining woodchips over the men. The other hostages behind him watched in awe. As he moved his hand to the right more bolts blew up the rest of the wooden fortifications. Onlooking guards dropped their weapons and ran out of the smashed gate, screaming in terror. When he pointed at the mead hall his lightning caused the thatch roof to burst into flames. It was then that his friend, Einar came in and urged him to stop. He regained control over his powers and fell backwards onto the floor. It had become clear to those present that this was no ordinary royal. He had powers never before seen, and some began to see that he could be king someday. The prince of Trondalen and his son were enraged, but they hadn’t lost the game yet.   After word spread of the incident with the gifted bastard, lords began looking into their family trees for the first time since the establishment of the electorate. They rediscovered the fact that of the 1,200 noble families in the Eylands 350 were related to kings, mostly by marriage. 120 were related to kings of the house of Eyland by marriage and 22 were bastard branches in direct male descent of the house of Eyland. These bastard families would use their claim to prepare for a war for the throne. This was the begin of a new civil war, which would decide once and for all whether the electorate would survive, or whether a new house would claim the firstborn right to sit upon the throne.