Welcome to TAYLAEL
Home of KANDWYN, Heir to the March
And the
Chronicles of the Lords of the March
… AND IN
THE LAST YEAR AND DAYS in the oppressive reign of Emperor Omrondyl the First,
the puppet of the Holy Church of the Western Reaches, High Cardinal Laou Unis
did decree that Count Loedwyn of Kanvia in the Highlands was to be tried for
Heresy and Treason for his renouncement of the Church’s induction of his son,
Glynn, into the Order of Servants of the Emperor and for the martial attack
upon the Guards of the Emperor where they protected the Holy Ordained
Omrondyl. Loedwyn and his clansmen were
captured and imprisoned within the cathedral of Fairfeld, where they submitted
to inquisitions and tortures upon their minds and persons.
Then did the Lady Gracyne, betrothed of Geored, eldest son of the Duke of Fairfeld, Irael, and youngest daughter of Loedwyn, come unto Irael with true word of the deeds of her father and kinsman and the reasons for his infamy to the Church. Glynn was taken late in the night from his cell at the University and taken to Omrondyl, where he was drugged and abominable practices were performed upon his body until a ruptured vessel did bleed him to his death. The Kanvian cleric, Father Jaymes, long time friend and consul to Loedwyn, hearing of the atrocity had ridden to Count Loedwyn and had spoken the truth of the matter before the Holy Induction could be presented to Glynn’s father. Upon the entrance of the messenger, Loedwyn’s kinsmen set upon the clerk and brought him low before their Lord, where he recounted the knowledge he allowed was the same as from Jaymes. Grief overcame Loedwyn at the death of his eldest son and he did call to arms his clan and ride forth to Fairfeld and to the Cathedral where Omrondyl did use as blessed sanctuary. In his blind rage, Loedwyn assailed the guards at the entrance and his force slew those there, gaining them entrance to the foyer whereupon they were ambushed by Omrondyl’s personal Protectors. The survivors of the ambuscade where chained and dragged to the bowels of the Cathedral’s dungeon to await their fate.
When Duke Irael had heard the voice of his son’s love, he did gather to him the trusted nobility of the Western Reaches, seeking to keep secret the discussions from those that drew close and pandered to Omrondyl. Under the guise of petitioning a boon of Omrondyl, Irael came before the Emperor and Laou Unis, asking to the Writ of Treason and Heresy for Count Loedwyn and to the demise of his son, Glynn. High Cardinal Laou Unis spake from the right hand of his puppet, Omrondyl, saying that Glynn had chosen and himself petitioned to be inducted into the service of the Holy Emperor. He could not presume to understand the unrighteous charges that Loedwyn had brought forth, for the youth was at that moment performing his attrition in seclusion in preparation for his investiture and could not be disturbed for fear of hearing of his father’s treachery, lose his innocence and piety. Laou Unis spake further that a court of Ecclesiastical Clerics had found Loedwyn guilty of the charges brought against him and his clan, wherein forfeiture of their lives, all lands and titles, as well as excommunication of all heirs had already been read into law. He then addressed Duke Irael, saying that the execution of those lost to God would be carried out upon the morrow and with a nod from Omrondyl was Irael excused and his audience was at an end, where he was escorted back to the steps of the Cathedral. Irael then returned to his conspirators, where they finalized their plans and dispersed through the capital.
Dawn of the next morning, Irael, the Duke of Fairfeld, led forth an army of those that had closeted with him and had drawn their own decree to throw down the puppet Omrondyl, his controller Laou Unis and denounce the Church, removing it from their lands through whatever means required to dispel the ecclesiastical evil back to whence it came.
Gaining bloody entrance to the Cathedral, slaying all that stood before them, Irael’s army found the Emperor and Cardinal had made haste in the night and departed Fairfeld at word from one that had portrayed himself as one of their like and had joined the escape and was not counted with those present. With intent to free Loedwyn and his kinsman, Irael with his four sons made their way to the dungeon and found the work of the church torturers. All the prisoners were impaled with the exception of Count Loedwyn. The atrocity visited upon his body made ill Irael, for his friend was crucified, head low, and his body opened navel to throat. Irael’s sons reverently removed the body and did enclose it in Irael’s own cloak. The four carried the husk that was Loedwyn up into the new day, where Gracyne cried in grief when her father was laid before her. Irael brought her up and spake to her that Loedwyn’s legacy would be the freedom of the Reaches from the tyrannical and oppressive rule in the guise of ecclesiastical right that had plagued the land so long. Then by her hand she set the torch that razed the cathedral to the ground and lit that evening’s sky as the increased army of Irael swept out of Fairfeld to reclaim their land from those that had brought low their realm into pious darkness.
The army faced many of the Omrondyl loyal and defeated and slew those that fought to a man. Those that stood with Irael were given responsibilities and kept their land, those that stood aside were granted parole with lands taken and those that stood against, died. Bloody was that year and those days and finally they came to Yrucsel, where Omrondyl was in hiding with his master, Laou Unis, and the army besieged the fortification. Long days were spent below the walls and towers waiting for the accursed to surrender, when at last the gates opened to the army without, Irael, his sons and fellows rode in to find the head of Omrondyl upon a pole in the center of the assembly and Laou Unis on his knees beseeching the surrounding Lords to hear his tale of woe. That Omrondyl did have the control and had bewitched him, a servant to God, and made him the instrument of his dominion. Irael listened and took the words unto his heart, which wrenched in his breast with the damning words and filth spilling from the mouth of the wretch before him. Irael spake forth to Laou Unis in a steady voice, the voice that had commanded the army that now stood about, filling the assembly and spilling out of the gates and upon the plains of Yrucsel, that he, Laou Unis was the Under-God’s disciple, that his piety and fervor were false and that he would rest with his own master this day. Irael then drew forth his great sword and cleaved Laou Unis in two, ending the Empire of the Holy Omrondyl.
There followed many days of discussions and negotiations and at last, those other Dukes that had fought with Irael were given their lands, dividing the Western Reaches into holdings that would become nations, kingdoms and realms based upon ancestral rights and division of garnered lands for equality; Seabreak, Losentia, Seronia and Kortia. Irael then named his lands The March, for the eastern boundary of mountains that marched from the Ice Fields in the north to the Southron Sea and he did crown himself King under Rights of Conquest and so ended the Division Wars.
The Chronicles continue in Volume I: Heir to the March
Last
revised: 14 January ‘03