The Fall of the Kingdom
As the warlike and rebellious Barons found themselves with no worthwhile enemies
to conquer, they began to turn on one another. The great strength of the first King
Aldred was not present in all of his heirs, who could do nothing to stop the conflicts.
The Victor's Crown came to mean less and less, as few of the barons swore allegiance
to their supposed king. The Aldrian dynasty lacked the armies to enforce their will
and so lived their lives in the undoubted safety of Silver Keep. As battles between
the barons grew in intensity, the more ambitious barons developed their own alliances
and treaties; several barons in this period became more powerful than the king.
Years of bloody and meaningless conflict ensued. As the kingdom faltered, the Galtic
clans in the far reaches of the kingdom reasserted themselves. With the borders
largely undefended, tribes of goblins, Orcs and beast-men raided deep into the land.
In fear, many peasants abandoned their land and fled to the protection of the larger
walled cities such as Lyongate, Stonereach and Coswitch. Many joined the increasingly
powerful crafts-guilds of these cities. The wizards, always the most far-sighted
of Men, called for peace and unity in Lyonesse, but this was a time of cynicism
and treachery, and they were not heeded.
This period of decline reached its lowest ebb when Lord Almquist, Margrave of Armsmark
and the most powerful baron of the time, laid siege to the Silver Keep in open rebellion
against the king. Time and again the Margrave, a man of unnatural strength, defeated
the king’s champions in single combat and demanded he be crowned king. Even the
king’s elder son, Fedrin the Brave, fell in a duel with Almquist. Despite the death
of his eldest son, King Merick the Iron-Willed refused to give up his crown. Unable
to seize the Silver Keep by force, the Margrave laid a three year siege in which
the last Aldrian king died of starvation. It is unknown what happened to the King’s
younger son, Prince Rickerd who at the time of the siege was only ten years old.
Many claim he was murdered when the Silver Keep was taken but others insist he escaped,
pointing to the fact that as Margrave planted the heads of the royal family on pikes,
his head was not among them. Victory eluded the Margrave at the last. Despite his
threats, bribes and demands the wizards refused to crown him. Furiously, he swore
that he would crown himself and stormed the Keep, but he failed to find the Victor's
Crown inside; a point of ridicule for the other barons, who refused to recognise
him. Less than a year later, the Margrave was murdered in his bed by a common whore
and the Armsmark was divided among his surviving sons.
Perhaps the Lyonesse appetite for war had finally been sated. An unsteady calm settled
over the land. Minor raids and skirmishes were still common practice but for the
most part, the complex chain of alliances and peace treaties between the Barons
made open war a dangerous enterprise for any one Baron. Instead, the Barons and
their warlike heirs direct their endeavours towards minor raids, wars with the wild
goblin, Orc, beast-men and human tribes on their borders or through grand tourneys
and jousts.
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