Llael: at a glance
A proud realm with a complex history, Llael has perhaps suffered more than any other nation in the Iron Kingdoms in recent years. Even before the Khadoran invasion and occupation, the kingdom experienced the sudden and unexpected death of its monarch, King Rynnard, who left
behind an unclear line of succession when he perished in 595 AR.
The feuding Council of Nobles quickly fell to further infighting, and shortly thereafter to cold-blooded murder. Within a few short months, virtually anyone who might have possessed a legitimate claim to the throne had been slain. Even those with no ambition for the crown were struck down, many succumbing to poison or an assassin’s blade.
With no clear road to ending the conflict, Archduke Deyar Glabryn, Minister of the Treasury, assumed the mantle of prime minister, claiming that he was acting as regent until the proper succession could be determined. To many Llaelese citizens, the name Glabryn would soon become one of the most reviled in the nation’s history. Even as the prime minister worked to line his own pockets and increase his power—all the while showing no signs of abdicating in favor of any monarch, legitimate or otherwise—he was secretly working with Khadoran agents to undermine Llael’s defenses in preparation for the coming invasion.
In the winter of 604 AR, Khador attacked Llael in force. The war that followed was the most brutal that the citizens of Llael had ever known. The Khadorans were more than willing to slaughter defenseless noncombatants merely as an example to others, and after months of bloody conflicts and protracted sieges, Prime Minister Glabryn announced Llael’s surrender in 605 AR.
Khador took all of western Llael during the war, but portions of the south and east remained free from the Motherland’s soldiers, and pockets of Resistance fighters sprang up in even the most heavily occupied cities. Then, in late 606 AR, Hierarch Severius brought the armies of the Protectorate’s Northern Crusade to Llael and offered the Llaelese Resistance a partnership. Together, Severius claimed, they could drive the Khadorans from the kingdom.
In 607 AR, the combined Protectorate and Resistance forces recaptured the city of Leryn without firing a shot, as Severius undermined the city’s defenses from within by appealing to several Menite practitioners of the Old Faith among the Greylords Covenant. The relief of the Resistance fighters was short-lived, however, as Severius declared the city the capital of the Northern Crusade and burned its Khadoran governor alive in the town square. Despite promises to the contrary, the Llaelese Resistance had merely traded one occupying force for another.
Ironically, the events leading up to the Claiming ultimately freed Llael from its oppressors. As the wars across the continent persisted, the forces occupying Llael found themselves stretched thin. Severius took much of the Northern Crusade back to the south to defend Tower Judgment from the skorne, a battle in which he fell. When the infernals began to attack en masse, neither Khador nor the Protectorate could continue holding out against the forces of the Resistance, and both began withdrawing troops to protect their own interests. Resistance fighters took back most of Llael bit by bit, but the land was changed forever, and the scars left behind by war will take years—if not generations—to heal.
The feuding Council of Nobles quickly fell to further infighting, and shortly thereafter to cold-blooded murder. Within a few short months, virtually anyone who might have possessed a legitimate claim to the throne had been slain. Even those with no ambition for the crown were struck down, many succumbing to poison or an assassin’s blade.
With no clear road to ending the conflict, Archduke Deyar Glabryn, Minister of the Treasury, assumed the mantle of prime minister, claiming that he was acting as regent until the proper succession could be determined. To many Llaelese citizens, the name Glabryn would soon become one of the most reviled in the nation’s history. Even as the prime minister worked to line his own pockets and increase his power—all the while showing no signs of abdicating in favor of any monarch, legitimate or otherwise—he was secretly working with Khadoran agents to undermine Llael’s defenses in preparation for the coming invasion.
In the winter of 604 AR, Khador attacked Llael in force. The war that followed was the most brutal that the citizens of Llael had ever known. The Khadorans were more than willing to slaughter defenseless noncombatants merely as an example to others, and after months of bloody conflicts and protracted sieges, Prime Minister Glabryn announced Llael’s surrender in 605 AR.
Khador took all of western Llael during the war, but portions of the south and east remained free from the Motherland’s soldiers, and pockets of Resistance fighters sprang up in even the most heavily occupied cities. Then, in late 606 AR, Hierarch Severius brought the armies of the Protectorate’s Northern Crusade to Llael and offered the Llaelese Resistance a partnership. Together, Severius claimed, they could drive the Khadorans from the kingdom.
In 607 AR, the combined Protectorate and Resistance forces recaptured the city of Leryn without firing a shot, as Severius undermined the city’s defenses from within by appealing to several Menite practitioners of the Old Faith among the Greylords Covenant. The relief of the Resistance fighters was short-lived, however, as Severius declared the city the capital of the Northern Crusade and burned its Khadoran governor alive in the town square. Despite promises to the contrary, the Llaelese Resistance had merely traded one occupying force for another.
Ironically, the events leading up to the Claiming ultimately freed Llael from its oppressors. As the wars across the continent persisted, the forces occupying Llael found themselves stretched thin. Severius took much of the Northern Crusade back to the south to defend Tower Judgment from the skorne, a battle in which he fell. When the infernals began to attack en masse, neither Khador nor the Protectorate could continue holding out against the forces of the Resistance, and both began withdrawing troops to protect their own interests. Resistance fighters took back most of Llael bit by bit, but the land was changed forever, and the scars left behind by war will take years—if not generations—to heal.
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