Section 2

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Tyrnavalle History section 2:  1 to 405 RT

Note:  All years noted are according to the Renk calendar (RT)

1                The very first time Hali saw the northern shores of Tyrnavalle, after his harrowing crossing of the Straits of Rabyn, he fell in love with them, or maybe he was just glad to have land under his legs again.  Right on the water, with river access, and nestled up against the breathtakingly beautiful Malachai Mountains, this was the perfect place to make a fresh start.  And, wouldn’t you know it, after taking care of that nasty business with the God-Emperor, he finds himself in precisely that situation.  They want him to take over, but Hali wants out of Sangrithar.  He sticks around until they divvy things up to his satisfaction and then sets sail for the virgin harbor in Tyrnavalle, along with his new wife and a fleet of ten score ships.  No simple retired life for Hali, he’s too dang popular for that.  Once word gets out that he’s leaving, they sign up by the droves to go with, including friends and leaders of the resistance (names withheld to avoid spoilers).  Okay, I’ll give you one.  Estan Phaerizol, remember him?  The mercenary wizard from Endiron that Hali first met during the siege of Cormane.  He hitches a ride on the ships and then becomes the first Royal Mage of Halitai ( the –tai doesn’t stand for anything, they just liked the sound of it).  Pretty fancy sounding title, ain’t it?  Not bad for a former mercenary.   The colonization of Tyrnavalle isn’t a “once and done” affair.  For the next forty years, until shortly after Hali’s death, boatloads of settlers arrive from the continent, typically in the spring, just in time to help with the planting.

26               Pioneers from Halitai found the city of Renk in the midlands of Tyrnvalle, in the valley between the Achmad Mountains, the Potani Forest and the Dansk Hills.  Kalvador Woodhaven, a short, barrel-chested man is credited with its founding.  His rotund stature gives some reason to think he possesses a trace of Dwarven blood, but that’s absurd.  No man in his right mind would wax his carrot with one of the Forge Folk and, as for reversing it, that was just as improbable.  Dwarven men preferred the pick and axe to women of their own kind so it’s hard to imagine (and very disturbing) to imagine one of them making it with a human woman!  Kalvador sailed to Tyrnvalle on the ships with Hali, making him pretty advanced in years by the time he strikes out for the lush plains in Tyrnavalle’s midlands.  He isn’t the group’s leader, but when he dies (bad heart) setting the cornerstone for the new city’s outer wall, the others bestowed him with the title of city founder posthumously.  Renk grows slowly, remaining reliant on Halitai for many years, but time proves it the most resilient of Tyrnvalle’s ancient civilizations.  When the Long Night arrived, Renk still stood and had been the leading city on the sub-continent for centuries.  Its important to note that Renk and the other cities founded by settlers from Halitai were independent city-states, not tributary lands.  Halitai was the largest and oldest, but did not rule over the other cities.

32               After hearing about the successful colonization of Renk, the exploration bug bites Brueger Annisman, a true Sangritharian born and raised near the water.  He led a group of similar minded people east from Halitai and built an outpost overlooking the beautiful harbor facing the eastern sea.  Carrack offered something for everyone.  For those who loved the sea, the waters teem with fish and the winds blow fair.  For the landlubbers, endless acres of fertile farmland were just what the doctor ordered to build a new future.  As the legend goes, when Brueger first comes upon the harbor, a flock of gulls circling over the water squawk “carrack, carrack” and that is how the city earns its name.

42               Hali dies at the ripe old age of two hundred twenty five.  When he toppled the Pearl Throne, god-fire left the world.  Thar’s birthright depended on Sangrithar as much as Sangrithar had relied upon it and after crossing over to Tyrnavalle, all that remains to Hali was his long life span, a gift he did not pass on.  His son, Halimac, born on Tyrnavalle, lives a long, but not exceptionally so, healthy life while earning the love and respect of his people.

43               The wizard Horatin, a relative of Barginali who’d hitched a ride south on the ships, takes up residence in the Dansk Hills after clashing with Estevan Phaerizol.  If there’d been a better screening process in place when Hali’d left Sangrithar, Hortain never would have made it aboard.  His family, the Barginali’s, represented the worst of Sangrithar’s nobles and had history (not good) with Kaphiri Fellstar.

44               Pylos is founded on Tyrnavalle’s western coast, just south of the Highpeaks.  Aberforth Dunleavy (sounds like a pipe-smoking innkeeper from Yorkshire, doesn’t he?), more scholar than explorer, is remembered as Pylos’s founder.  He claims it was an accident, right up until his dying breath.  He left Halitai along with a few score hardy souls searching for one the Forge Folk’s ancient clan halls rumored to have survived the Reckoning.  The dig is suppose to have last two seasons and finish before Kandalla the Winter Lord reared his hoary head, but the excavation takes longer than planned.  Aberforth’s group hunkers down for the winter and resumes work the following spring.  They strike paydirt in the fall and are disappointed to discover that the so-called ancient ruins were utterly human and not that ancient.  The dig team finds many urns, tools and other household items crafted in the Shurlind style.   As they prepare to return to Halitai, a series of bad storms prevents the dig team from heading home as planned.  By the spring time, Aberforth’s group included infants, toddlers and more pregnant women.  A handful of buildings replaces the temporary quarters and after two years, the place (one of the digger’s daughters came up with the name.  As the story goes, she’d been trying to say Halitai and it came out Pylos.  Don’t ask!) begin feeling like home.  They put it to a vote, but the outcome is never in doubt.  They stay and send a message telling the leaders in Halitai not to wait up.

47               Norawann is founded in the heart of the Norbing Forest in the western part of the sub-continent.  Known as a city of friendliness and hospitality, Norbing providew a haven for cultural exchange between the human settlements in the north and the Elves of Quendi, now led by Emerre.

76               Horatin the arch-mage slays Estevan Phaerizol in a duel arcane.  Before before he can cause more damage, Halimac runs him out of town and then names Cantellex as the next Royal Mage of Halitai.

78               Orcs infest the Highpeak Mountains and attack fishing villages along the coast.  Emerre, lord of the Quendi Elves, arrives just in the nick of time with Elven warriors who send the Dark Ones running into the deep places.  Halimac, the leader of Halitai gives his signet ring (House Halvyl’s gold kelp ring) to Emerre as a token of the bond between the two people.

86               Halimac dies after a lengthy rule and his son, Halarand, follows as Halitai’s leader.  Raised by a lord of men to be a lord over men, Halarand exudes a regal presence, one that inspires loyalty.  He’s most famous for two things.  One, he is the first king of Halitai.  When Hali led the ships south to Tyrnvalle and founded Halitai, he had no intention of setting up another kingdom, empire or other euphemism for tyranny.  He’d seen firsthand how power corrupts absolutely and did not want a new tyrant.  Instead, he clung to the somewhat naïve belief that Halitai would more or less govern itself.  For the first century, life on Tyrnvalle unfolds pretty much the way he’d hoped.  But, this small government approach has its limitations and eventually, the city-state of Halitai evolves into the Kingdom of Halitai.  Halarand’s other claim to fame is instituting true religious freedom.  When Halitai is first founded, the people build temples for the Maiden and Umbar, but no other gods.  After centuries of religious persecution in Sangrithar, the people didn’t know other gods well enough to offer them prayers.  Halarand changes all that by ordering a temple built to praise golden Finbardin, the King of Heaven.  Once the cat was out of the bag, the people take to polytheism with great enthusiasm.  Within a few years, temples to dozens of gods can be found in and around Halitai.

107             Weary from defending against pirates, marauders and Dark Ones, the leaders of Halitai, Renk, Carrack, Pylos, Norawann form a great council,  where, in an unprecedented display of democracy, they decide to form a monarchy.  The Kingdom of Halitai encompasses all the civilized lands in northern Tyrnavalle.  The council votes in Halarand, Hali’s grandson, as king in a landslide in the first and only royal election.

131             Remembered as Halitai’s first and greatest king, Halarand dies after ruling 45 years, the last 24 as king.  I’m sure it goes without saying given how long he led Halitai, but he did die of natural causes and his son, Halagard is crowned after him.  Halagard is as unremarkable as his father was remarkable.  I blame it on coming into his power at an advanced age.  His father lived so long that Halagard grows, dare I say it, a little bored playing the heir.  He chafes to sit upon the throne and bides his time drinking and whoring.  By the time the throne came his way, Halagard’s best years are behind him.

152             King Halagard dies after taking a bad fall from horseback while out on a royal hunt.  Reactions to his passing are mixed.   Some thought him foolish for hunting at his age, many grieved at his passing and a few were relieved, having seen a bright future in Halagard’s son, Halimac II.  Halimac is made of sterner stuff than his father and restores some of the grandeur Halitai lost under Halagard’s floundering leadership.  Under Halagard, Renk, Pylos and the other outlying provinces had lost confidence in Halitai’s ability to protect them.  Everyone participating in the great council of 107 had passed on and their successors, the next generation of civic leaders are openly questioning their father’s wisdom in forming the Kingdom of Halitai.  Halimac II puts those fear to rest.

161             King Halimac II dies only nine years into his reign, a great loss for the people of Tyrnvalle.  Though young, Halimac had started turning the ship named Halitai towards better shores.  It’s a shame that one so capable squanders his life in such a meaningless gesture.  Halimac II has only one flaw, a fierce pride, and that was his undoing.  A shaggy-haired man from the hills strode into the great hall at the palace in Halitai and demanded recompense.  It seems that the Halitai militia had trampled his fields while practicing maneuveurs.  Halimac offered what he thought was a fair price, but the man (Shakrat Ironballs, he earned his name horizontally but that’s another story) thinks Halimac’s price an insult and challenges him to a duel.  Halimac’s advisors begs him not to accept the gauntlet thrown, but Halimac’s pride requires him to accept.   He has nothing to fear from a mere farmer, he thinks.  Shakrat doesn’t even need to strike a killing blow.  That rock does all the work for him.  Halimac turns his ankle on it, slips and falls, and hits his head on the rock.  He bleeds out before they can treat him.  His son, Halatarrim, is crowned immediately afterward.  People call for Shakrat’s head, but Halatarrim won’t give in to their cries.  He pays Shakrat what he’d sued for and sends him on his way.

162             Azmerath is plundered by the pirate Blackblade, who sailed south from the islands near Erinport.  The people of Halitai have yet to explore this far south on Tyrnvalle.

173              For five years, beginning in 173, Carrack is attacked by raiders from the islands to the east of the sub-continent.  With help from Halitai, the raiders are at last repelled, but time would prove this only the first of many attacks Carrack would endure.  The low wetlands are coveted, fertile lands with few natural defenses.

181             Dalin, King of the Forge Folk in the Highpeak Mountains, meets and enters into negotiations with Halatarrim, King of Halitai.  Dalin starts with the position that humanity’s rapid expansion is concerning to the Forge Folk, but discussion reveals that it is less Mankind, and more the monsters disturbed by humanity’s exploration that troubles them.  Since the founding of the human settlements in the mountains and the coast, there’s been an increase in the number of dragon sightings.  Once the true concerns are on the table, King Halatarrim and Dalin forge a treaty to both peoples’ satisfaction.

184             Haliran succeeds his father, Halatarrim, as King of Halitai.  He only rules a short time before dying from food poisoning.  Little is known about him other than the fact that he is a great patron of the arts.  During his short reign, he commissions a museum for Halitai.  Work begins under his watch and finishes while his brother, Halikan sits upon the throne.

186             Halikan becomes king of Halitai after his brother Haliran dies without an heir.  As Halatarrim’s younger son, Halikan never expected to be king and the news of his brother’s death finds him miles away, at a wilderness shrine of the Maiden.   The messenger arrives just in the nick of time.  Had he arrived a day later, Halikan would have been on a ship bound for Pel Aesylle.  Taking the crown cut Halikan’s pilgrimage short, but he never forgets the Maiden or her prayers.  While he rules, the Devotees in Halitai enjoy a resurgence.

202             Bard, a druid from Azmerath appears in Halitai, a mysterious figure no one can quite figure out.  He’s an outdoorsy kind of guy who really enjoys singing, especially raunchy tunes about big breasted women.

203             Halamas, son of Halikan, becomes King of Halitai after Halikan abdicates.  Halikan never forgets his plan to visit Pel Aesylle.  When his son, Halamas, is old enough to rule, he hands Halamas the keys to the kingdom, gets on a ship, and sails north by northwest to Fanar, where Kandol Elf Lord waits.  Halikans hopes to visit fabled Ardilun.  He is never seen again.  Halamas studies wizardry, a craft for which he has natural talent, making him the only King of Halitai to touch the Spires of Thought.

211             Carrack is attacked again by raiders from the east, led by the pirate lord Sarthan, and this time, help from Halitai doesn’t come quick enough.  The royal navy of Halitai arrives at Carrack too late to save the city, which has been leveled.

212             Cantellex (Estan Phaerizol’s successor as Royal Mage) and Horatin, of Barginali fame, kill each other in a duel arcane.  Eramelles, the daughter of Birae of Halitai and Erellan, son of the Elven High King Emerre, becomes the third and most powerful royal mage of Halitai.

218             Horatin’s apprentice, Gishtan, seizes his master’s stronghold in the Dansk Hills and immediately starts making plans to avenge his master’s death.

226             The Sea Mage, a wizard of mysterious origins, raises an island in the sea off the western coast of Tyrnavalle on which he makes his home.

235              Halamas dies peacefully and his son, Halakemmor replaces him as King of Halitai.  Unlike his father, Halakemmor could not tap the Spires.  He tries, again and again, but simply put, he has no talent.  Wait a minute, that’s unfair.  Halamas did possesses talent, just not in magecraft.  His special gift is stargazing.  Esel fascinates Halamas and he spends more time looking through the magikal spy glass his father fashioned than he does on the throne.  He knows the name of every star and the path of every constellation.  If he’d been professor at Colcester, his knowledge would have been respected, but he is a king, not a teacher, and no one in his realm cares that he’s memorized the celestial map.

236              Pirates from islands north and east of Tyrnavalle begin a series of raids that escalate into the Halitai War over the next two and a half decades.  The War Vicar Daram, cousin of King Halaromar, finally puts them down in the year 260.

241             Halakemmor’s reign is cut short when he falls from a palace tower to his death  while stargazing.  The poor SOB is so wrapped up in what he’s doing that he doesn’t even notice that he’s stepped off the edge of the tower.  Supposedly, he is just trying to get a better view of Kal the Archer through his spyglass.  His son, Halaromar, a maritime warrior in the proud tradition of Sangrithar and named the Victorious after defeating pirates based on the islands in the Straits of Rabyn, follows him on the throne.

255             Beginning this year, and continuing for the next three generations, the people of northern Tyrnavalle feud with Orcs from the Highpeaks.

267             Halarand II is crowned King of Halitai when his father, Halaromar the Victorious is lost at sea during a terrible storm that sinks a third of the Halitai fleet.  Being the second to wear the name Halarand, the people expect much from him, both for the tradition of his namesake and for his success as a young man, and he doesn’t disappoint.  However, when Halarand II ascends the throne, he changes for the worse, becoming a besotted lech more interested in chasing skirts than ruling the land.  It’s sad.  Halarand II possesses good instincts.  When he pays attention, he performs adequately as king, but focus is not his strong suit..

280             Halavard, son of Halarand II, becomes king of Halitai after his father dies from an STD.  The royal physicians, with access to both medicine and magik might have healed him, if they’d tried, but they don’t bother.  After all Halarand’s fooling around, he leaves a swarm of heirs.  If Halavard doesn’t work out, there are plenty others to choose from.  The elders are right to worry, Halavard is a bigger cad than his father, but hides it well.  By the time his true nature surfaces, in an incident involving two sheep and a peasant’s daughter, it is too late.  Obadiah Elmwood, an elder of the city tries replacing Halavard with one of his bastard half-brothers, but the plan falls apart when a guard sells him out in exchange for a quick promotion.

293             On the shores of the Highpeaks in northwest Tyrnavalle, Srengar, a warlord, founds the city of Uves after forty years of hassles with the Orcs in the nearby mountains.  By banding together and forming a city, Srengar hopes to better withstand the Orc raids.

299              Dalin, King of the Forge Folk, visits King Halavard of Halitai, unhappy with human encroachment into the Highpeaks and in particular, the founding of Uves.  He takes it as confirmation of the fears expressed to Halatarrim a century earlier.  After some negotiating, an uneasy settlement is reached.

304              After Halavard is slain under strange circumstances, Hali II is crowned King of Halitai.  No one says anything, no one even suggests it, but you have to wonder, how often does a land lose its king to an infected hangnail?  Something else was going on.  Back then, no one wanted to talk about it, but I will. The truth is, Halavard was a lousy king.  House Halvyl had a good run.  From Hali through Halaromar, the kings of Halitai were good men and good rulers.  Sure, they had quirks here and there, but on the whole, the people of Halitai benefited from a long string of capable rulers.  The streak had to end sometime and does with Halarand II.  Halavard is second step in the wrong direction.  He isn’t mean-spirited or particularly bad tempered, he just isn’t very good at ruling and is interested in learning how to rule better.  It’s like the old saying – if you can’t trim a nail, you can’t run a kingdom, or something like that.  Halavard’s funeral is widely attended, he was, after all, head of state, but there aren’t enough tears to water a cactus.

320              An army of Dark Ones attack the human settlements in northern Tyrnvalle. Orcs swarm north from the Achmad Mountains to the Highpeaks and join forces with Giants.  The humans in the mountain villages beg Hali II to help them and he calls in some markers with the nearby Forge Folk led  by King Dalin and the Elves of Quendi and the men living on the islands to the northwest, led by the scoundrel Jaklin.  King Emerre personally leads the Elves into battle and dies when Jaklin, the leader of the pirates, betrays him.  The pirate lord has been on the Dark One’s payroll for a while and when the Elven king turns his back in battle, Jaklin’s spear finds its mark.  The Elves take Jaklin’s betrayal as indictment against humanity and withdraw immediately to the Quendi Forest.  King Hali II avenges Emerre’s death by lopping off the pirate lord’s head, but it is too late – humanity’s reputation with the Fair Folk is forever stained.

320              Halagrand succeeds his father after Hali II falls in the Battle of the Highpeaks.  His reign lasts a very long time, through the rebuilding following the Battle of the Highpeaks, the terrible cataclysm devastating western Tyrnavalle, and the sundering of the Forge Folk.  Through all these tumultuous times, Halagrand is a rock of stability for his people, ruling with an iron hand.  Besides being a great king, Halagrand is also a dog lover.  During his reign, many dogs roamed the palace at Halatai.  His favorites were Thar and Raena, a pair of wolfhounds named for Sangrithar’s legendary founders.

341              The year of the Great Cataclysm.  In hindsight, this is poorly named.  Yes, it was a cataclysm, but it should hardly be called the Great Cataclysm when compared to the Cataclysm precipitating the Long Night. At the time, Ullarin holds the position of Umbar’s high priest in Halitai (a rather exalted position.  Like Sangrithar, the people of Halitai revere Umbar though they welcome other gods too).  While journeying to Norawann in the Norbing Forest, the demon Nykarricieewiznarg (try saying that three times fast!), a Maldok horror summoned by Bartha, a sorceress devoted to the Dark Lord.  Bartha and Ullarin release tremendous energy in their battle, enough to transform the Norbing Forest into a vast badland.  The Fair Folk in particular are upset by the great hurt done to the land.  They use the destruction of the forest as another reason, along with Jaklin’s betrayal in the Battle of the Highpeaks to not trust humanity.  As far as they are concerned, Mankind has proved it can not be trusted to wield power safely.   By the  end of the age, only the old ones among the Fair Folk can remember the Norbing’s ancient beauty.   After the battle between Ullarin and the demon, very little is left of the city of Norawann.  It survives a few more generations as a small village before petering out.

 

348              Amidst the desolate ruins of Norbing, the wizard Calef comes to power.  He’s been around before Ullarin’s battle, but doesn’t come into his full power until afterwards.  The death and destruction caused by the battle between Umbar’s priest and the Maldok horror scars Calef, transforming him from a wizard with a decent reputation into a scourge of evil.  Some evidence suggests his transformation wasn’t entirely voluntarily.  Once account posits that he stumbled onto one of Nykarricieewiznarg’s eyes (a rune-scarred Maldok’s bejeweled eyes are virtually indestructible) and it corrupted him.

353              Dalin, King of the Forge Folk in the Highpeaks, the same Dalin who formed an alliance with Hali II and Emerre in the Battle of the Highpeaks thirty-three years earlier, is slain by Angalaron, a huge and terrible dragon, the very same dragon, in fact, that led to the truce between Dalin and King Halitarrim in the second century.   Angalaron has been in hiding for the last century, but a recent influx of human into the Highpeaks has drawn it from  its lair.  Once it takes flight, it lowers its fiery breath on the first target it sees, a Dwarven hunting party mounted on war weasels, one of which was the king.  Even Dalin’s armor, smithed on the Daladorn Forge itself, isn’t enough to save him from the wyrm.  Dalin roasts to death in his armor.  After his death, his sons Dan and Dalarus remain as heirs, but they disagree on the issue of human contagion and cannot come to terms.  Ultimately, leaves the Highpeaks to Dalarus and goes south to the Achmad Mountains, taking a large contingent of Forge Folk with him, and founds a new kingdom.

356              After Halagrand’s death (old age claimed him in his sleep), Halamer takes over as king of Halitai.  In his first act as king, he bans dogs from the palace, which he’d been itching to do for a long time.  Halamer suffers from terrible allergies and can’t stand being near anything with four legs and a coat of fur – cats, horses, you name it, and nothing aggravates his tear ducts more than canines.  Another factor playing into his decision is his father’s love for his four-legged friends.  Halagrand loved his dogs more than his family, so Halamer, naturally, can’t stand them.

357              Inor Flamehair, a knight devoted to Solare the Summer Lord, visits King Dalarus in the Highpeaks and convinces him to avenge King Dalin’s death.  The two of them head undermountain, seeking Angalaron’s lair and aren’t heard from for more than a year.  When they finally emerge from the caverns, they bear scars from battle but are wearing smiles of victory.  When Inor passed away some years later, a cult with both human and Dwarven members springs up in his honor.  Everyone in the cult grows long beards and dyes them red.

361              It happens everywhere and Tyrnavalle was no exception.  With the lands of the subcontinent now well settled, a criminal element enters the neighborhood.  Bandits now infest woods once safe for berry picking and set ambushes along the roads for unwary travelers.  To combat these ruffians of the wood, a group of fighting men flock to the banner of Bard the Archdruid who had come to the northern wilds decades earlier from the south.  These woodland warriors name themselves the Bards, in honor of the man they serve.  Once they are guarding the wilderness, few highwaymen, robbers, thieves or mercenaries are willing to risk their lives for a few coins.  Once again, the roads are safe.  Bard, a very long-lived individual (that is common for druids, thanks to a fiber-rich diet), finally passes away in the mid-sixth century, but the Bards continue safeguarding the outdoors in his name.  Four centuries later, the legend of Bard rose anew when many of those carrying on his bardic tradition become convinced that their founder hasn’t died.  These fanatics believe that Bard left Renk for Fanar and many sail across the Straits of Rabyn to search for him.  They never find him (I never believed that he’d survived his alleged death, but Tarik said I should consider the possibility.  Stranger things have happened, he’d say, and he was right about that, but I remained unconvinced.  If Bard had lived, I’d have found some trace of him).  Their quest carries the bardic traditions all across the main continent.

372              Halifan replaces his father Halamer as king of Halitai.  He bears a strong resemblance to his ancestor, Hali, with piercing blue eyes and chestnut brown curls, so much so that the people nickname him Hali Reborn.  Only four hundred years, a little less even, and they’d already forgotten the God-Emperor’s delusion.  Hali would have shuddered to hear them call him that.

374              Half-elven Eramalle, the Royal Mage of Halitai, abdicates her position when she decides to visit Sangrithar and learn about her roots.  Her resignation comes as quite a shock to everyone.  King Halamer asks her to stay, but Eramelle is a stubborn one and her mind is made up.  The King names Kerreloff, one of her acolytes, to take over in her stead.

381              The Halitai wizard Tymbar, a disciple of Kerreloff, flees to the northeastern peninsula of Tyrnavalle, where the city of Enlas would one day stand, after he and his master have a falling out.  Using wizardry as a threat, Tymbar strong-arms the locals into forking over their hard earned coin in exchange for his unwanted protection.  With all that power at his disposal, you’d think he’d come up with something more constructive than a protection racket ala Tony Soprano, but for all his power, he is not a man who thinks big.

394              Halamark succeeds Halifan as King of Halitai.  Halifan had been a strong king, in whom the old blood ran strong, but as it turns out, he is pretty much the bloodline’s last gasp.  He leaves two sons, Halamark the elder, a sickly lad, and Haligar the younger.

397              Uves, in the northwest, is nearly destroyed by pirates descended from Jaklin.  The marauders had the city on the ropes until the arrival of Srengarson III, the great-grandson of Srengar, the city’s founder.  He defeats the pirate leader in single combat, after which the pirates retreat, but is wounded in the battle.  He dies shortly after the pirates withdraw.  Srengarson’s choice of weapon was noteworthy, he fights the duel armed with only a magik dagger made by Dwarves in the Elder Days.  The dagger is lost in the brouhaha following the duel and never found.

399              Haligar becomes King of Halitai after his brother, Halamark dies without an heir early in his reign.  He’s healthy, strong as an ox, but not particularly regal.  His handlers take care of running the kingdom and only trot him out on special occasions.  In an attempt to rejuvenate the bloodline, they marry him to his first cousin, hoping to strike gold with the offspring.

401              Haligar, on the advice of his regents, commissions an expensive statue of Hali when the money should have gone to repair aging infrastructure.  Upset over wasteful spending, greedy regents and an powerless king, civil unrest breaks out in Halitai.  Having seen an artist’s rendition of the statue, I can certainly understand what all the fuss was about – it was horrendous!  The sculptor included Thar’s lightning bolt necklace and dressed Hali in the God-Emperor’s gold shorts.  If Hali had been alive, he’d have led the charge himself.  Eventually, Haligar restores order to the city, but this takes several years.  If he’d only destroyed the statue, the whole mess might have been avoided.

405              Tymbar slinks out of his hidey hole and assassinates Kerreloff, the Royal Mage of Halitai, gaining long sought vengeance for the insult Kerreloff allegedly leveled against him.  The truth is, Tymbar possesses an overdeveloped sense of entitlement and the so-called insult exists only in his mind.  After the death of Kerreloff, Haligar searches without success for a replacement Royal Mage of Halitai, but he isn’t willing to settle for just any wizard and this task stays on his todo list too long.  The Royal Mage’s office is still collecting dust when the kingdom falls.

411              Zerita, a wizard of some fame, rises to power in Pylos.  Atypical for an adept, she loves practicing magik for magik’s sake, not the power that comes hand in hand with it.  King Haligar of Halitai offers her Kerreloff’s old job, but she wants nothing to do with it.  She’d married Brannick, a simple farmer, and moving was out of the question.

417              Halifax succeeds Haligar as King of Halitai.  I mentioned that his father had married a first cousin, hadn’t I?  The regents made him do it, hoping to give the royal line a boost.  Haligar hadn’t been the sharpest tool in the shed, not by a long shot, so the regents’ poorly considered match is a real Hail Mary. It pays off like you’d expect.  Hillbilly science, pffft!   Next to his son, Haligar is positively brilliant.  Halifax possesses all the wit of a toad.

418              An unknown assailant breaks into the palace at Halitai and assassinates King Halifax.  He dies without leaving a direct heir and a number of claimants surface.  It should have been clear cut, but isn’t.  Every time they near resolution, someone discoverss another loophole or brings up a technicality undermining the proposition.  Everyone squabbles for days until Orzand Vinelock, the representative from Renk, speaks up.  At the time, Renk, Uves and Pylos are all tributary city-states belonging to the Kingdom of Halitai.  They pay taxes and receive protection in return.  That’s how it was supposed to work, but Halitai is up to its eyeballs in debt.  Haligar and then Halifax had raise taxes and left the outlying city-states to defend themselves.  They are tired of it, Orzand says ever so diplomatically, and the reps from Uves and Pylos second his suggestion.  To Orzand’s surprise, those in charge at the capitol agree with little objection.  Apparently, they find regency a thankless occupation.  Running a kingdom is a full-time job and even with the perks, they don’t have their hearts in it any more.  A few resist and are paid handsomely for their silence.  I find the whole situation ironic and very symmetrical.  The Kingdom of Halitai was both formed and dissolved as part of a democratic process.  The end of the kingdom means the end of the first wave of Tyrnvalle’s colonization.  The regents dissolve the Kingdom of Halitai and found the city-state of Halitai to take its place.  Halitai remains the largest of the city-states for the next eight hundred years, until the conquest by the barbarians from Fanar.

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