Riombara/First Age
First Age
Founding of the Rines Republic
Soon after Beluaterra was discovered, many nobles took ship to explore the new lands. Arriving, they saw that only a few cities along the east coast were advanced enough to have risen above barbarism, all other lands were still rogue. Those original cities were (from north to south): Lin Helon, Agyr, Mhed, Fronepu, Fwuvoghor, Enweilios, Rines, Athol Margos, Grehk, Irombro and Eno.
Soon after the first settlers had spent some time on the new continent, realms were created in those cities: Lin Helonon, Ar Agyr, Melhed, Fronen, Voghor, Enweil, Rines Republic, Athol Collective, Grehk, Irombro and Eno Chia.
The Rines Republic was founded under Panther II around April/May 03.
After some peacefull expansion soon the first conflicts arose, especially in the south were 6 cities lying next to each other vied for dominance. We took Cjelegy and Avengmil - then the first war on this continent was sparked on the small island that was divided between Rines and Athol Margos.
War against the Athol collective
Rines being the richer city by far, the chances of the Athol Collective to survive were low. After an initial round of negotiations, where an offer to merge the two realms as equals was refused, war ensured. Soon Athol was under siege and its palisade stormed. Since our income was still low, we never mananged to field an army big enough to actually _take_ Athol. To keep Athol from comming back, we had to maintain a significant garrison in this city for several months(!).
Then we took Ajitmon and Melegra and a treaty with Voghor was signed, establishing our joint border between Fwuvoghor and Melegra.
Around this time, Panther II left and Balin was elected as President. If we had but known what that would mean...how power did corrupt him and of the darkest betrayal ever.
Grehk's Grand Treck West
Grehk (then controlling Ardmore, Glongin, Bym and Mio Dupaki) had been under pressure from Eno Chia (then already controlling the city of Jidington) for quite a while. In addition they saw that between Enweil, Eno Chia and Irombro there was no place for them to grow fast enough to survive. Therefore they decided to gather enough men and money and head northwest to establish their realm once more in the wilderness. Before they departed into the unknown, they offered Irombro their old lands - mostly to defy the heavyhanded politics of Eno Chia. Then they left and were not heard from again for a long while before founding their realm anew around the city of Keffa.
During this time these nobles fought for Riombara: Balin, Raimona, Tan o'Kammar, Beast Rune, Llaerin Stark, Ryan B, Rip Cohn Thorn, Virath, Andy, Uanu, Cpt. Kronic, Durugar, Mufasa
Riombaras Founding
While Grehk prepared for their great treck, Enweil and Voghor both expanded ever faster towards the northeast, Eno Chia worked their way towards Grehk to ensure that Irombro and Rines would be shut off from expansion. Due to this, negotiations between the Rines Republic and Irombro started, aiming to merge our realms. After initial difficulties - no side wanted to be swallowed up - an agreement was reached. We would merge our lands and move our new capital to the city of Grehk. Grehk's regions were taken over with the consent of Grehk's nobles. Then Irombros nobles did join the Rines Republic and the new joint realm under the name of Riombara was officially established.
Rapid Expansion
May 03
We took the city of Grehk after their colony had been established in Keffa. Thus we incurred the anger of Eno Chia, who claimed that 'Grehk's nobles had no right to hand us the city as a gift' and 'Grehk is - of course - a part of Eno Chia'. As part of our treaty with Irombro we then moved the joint capital to Grehk - the city would see endless bloodshed during the next year. Now all Irombaran Regions were peacefully handed over: Rii, Rueffilo, the city of Irombro, Glongin, Mio Dupaki and Bym. But - very strange - Avengmil defected to the (practically non existent) Athol Collective.
Riombara now stretched from Melegra in the north to Irombro in the south, to Bym in the west excluding Athol and - crippling for us - Avengmil, cutting our realm in half. 3 cities, 9 regions.
During these times Tan o'Kammar became general
Food - what's that?
About this time, all peasants suddendly got the silly idea that they wanted to eat food. Right then, right now. Not surprisingly, the large city of Rines did start to starve at once. This did lead to the foundation of the Trading Ministry, headed by Durugar who heroically led several trecks of the newfangled caravans through the enemy gauntlet of Avengmil towards Rines to feed this hungry city. Without his and his fellow traders work, Riombara would have been badly beaten during the following months.
The Neverending War against Eno Chia
June 03 Right then Eno Chia declared war against us. Enweil joined on Luz' side, though they vowed to wage war only in former Grehkian regions. A vow they did keep. Voghor at least did stay neutral - but we would have to fight alone against a combined realm income three times greater than ours. We took defensive positions in the mountains of Bym and behind the hastily erected walls of Irombro. Several battles ensured, we were able to consistently inflict losses twice as high as we suffered while being heavily outnumbered. But slowly we were pushed back.
The End of the Athol Collective
Since Athol Margos had been starving for quite a while, its citizens were fed up and finally did join Riombara. When Avengmil went rogue soon after, the end had finally come to our enemy. Without leadership, driven only through hatred, Athols deaththroes had lasted for months....who would have thought that this city would become our proud capital in the distant future?
The treck of Panther II
Seeing the bloodbath that the south had become, Panther II and several other Riombaran nobles did decide to head east to found a new realm untouched hatred. We were loath to loose them, but they were equiped with gold and men and soon left for the far east. There they did found the realm of Marca de Pantera centered around the desert stronghold of Tahgalez. This realm would be an important factor in the resurrection of Riombara later... About 20 nobles did stay in Riombara, while these left towards the west: Panther II, Raimona, Mufasa, Rip Cohn Thorn, Jarom Stark.
Bloody battles around Grehk
After more than 6 weeks of fighting Eno Chia had only taken Bym and Mio Dupaki. Their southern front had made no progress at all...they were not proud of that achievement - they had thought to have us on our knees and at their mercy after that time). But then a combined army of Eno and Enweil did besiege Grehk for the first time, though our defenses did hold. Again and again they came, somtimes gaining the walls, but soon being driven out again. Then Enweil finally had enough of Eno's bungling - they withdrew from the war. Soon afterwards Enweil did establish a colony in the east.
The Founding of Luz de Bia
August 03 (?) Disgusted with the slow movement and general incompetence of Eno Chia's king, their general Doc's Biatch did seceed Jidington from Eno Chia, more or less with Eno's blessing. Thus was created the realm of Luz de Bia. Since Doc's Biatch was the main force behind Eno's war against Riombara, the division of our enemies was not the good sign we had hoped it would be. Since Luz' founding, Eno's attacks would become fewer and less vicious - but that was more than made up by Luz which became our primary enemy with the aim to destroy our realm once and for ever. Doc's Biatch continually accused us of unsensibly resisting the paradise of eternal peace she wanted to erect...under her iron rule. To her we were warmongers pure and simple, since we tried to fight off her endless attacks... It should prove impossible to come to any diplomatic arrangement with Luz under her leadership, though we continually tried. So for 4 more months, this senseless war should drag on. During those months, interestingly, our relation to Luz' nobles became ever better. Respect did grow on both sides, but our hatred for Doc's Biatch only became greater....
After 5 months of fighting against forces a lot stronger then ours, we had lost only 3 regions.
Balins Oppression
While we were largely successfull on the battlefield, internal strive did ever increase. This was caused by our President becomming ever more heavyhanded. He nearly stopped working on diplomacy and worried more about keeping his post than anything else. Running as candidate against him during monthly elections was frowned upon, later even constructive criticism or ideas was branded as treason. Elections became pointless, as Balin did concentrate dukedoms and high offices in the hand of 2 other nobles with the effect that 3 nobles did control more votes than the rest of our nobles together. New offices were handed to newcomers, those that had fought and bled for Riombara for months were consistently passed over. Tan o'Kammar did become something like the spokesman for the vast majority of nobles (more by default than by design) during two weeklong heated discussions in June and August, but all was for naught - Balins iron grip on his power was not to be swayed. But even though Riombara was a boiling cauldron internally, even while nobles were being persecuted unfairly still all warriors fought and marched with burning fervor for their home.
Voghor Attacks
October 03 After Doc's Biatch did realize that Eno Chia and Luz would be unable to wipe us off the earth, they sought more allies. And found them in our northern neighbour, Voghor. Though we always had had good relations with Voghor, our northern border was invaded. We now did face a 3 front-war: Against Luz in the west, Eno Chia in the south and Voghor in the north. We did decide to concentrate all our defenses against Luz and keep a token force in the south, to prevent especially Luz from gaining another foot of our lands. So while holding in Grehk and Irombro for week after week, we lost our 3 northern island regions to Voghor.
Balins Great Betrayal
Then Balin struck. Unable to bear any criticism, unable to see that he was to serve Riombara, not the other way round he rather prepared betrayal than to face a single truth - no single man is greater than the realm he does serve. Out of this vanity, he did contact Luz and was promised honour and gold.
Our esteemed Prime Minister Balin did asassinate our banker, disband our militia, set tax to 99% (maximum tax was lowered to 30% by the gods because of this), hire a large unit from our last money and scurried like a rat towards Doc's Biatch open arms. Unable to reset tax while our Prime Minister was gone and our banker wounded, we hurridly started a rebellion but it did prove to late. All our remaining regions rebelled - the cities of Rines, Athol and Irombro plus the regions of Avengmil and Rii. All that remained was the city of Grehk plus the regions of Ardmore and Glongin - and a band of roughly 15 nobles who did elect Tan's Brother as Prime Minister and were determined to weather whatever might come. Little did we know what fate had in store for us, but we would still have fought it if we had known.
Balins Fate
From now on Balin fought as a troopleader of Luz', but he was loathed by everyone except Doc's Biatch even there. Other realms closed their borders to him, his name did become a synonym for betrayal of the worst kind. His was the fate to never find respect again, his dark deeds should follow him wherever he went. In the end he should die miserably and alone, dispised and cursed - a fate he richly deserved. The fact that Lady Doc's Biatch had stooped so low as to use this miserable traitor brought our - and quite a few others - opinion of her 'golden rule of peace' even lower.
Rats in the ruins
November 03 Left with only Grehk and two other regions, soon a combined force of Voghor and Luz with a strenght of 22000 CS did besiege Grehk once again, overran our defences and scattered our last warriors. But we had prepared...even though sometimes hiding like rats in the ruins of Grehk, the moment Voghor had to retreat towards home, new warriors were recruited and drove Luz from the field. We did interrupt 3 of Luz' takeover attempts in Grehk this way. We had learned to cling to every single foot of land by our bloody nails if need be....even Luz' nobles were starting to question their queen as to whether her decision to destroy us did make any sense anymore.
During this time Eno Chia had finally taken the then rogue city of Irombro, and arranged a ceasefire with us. 7 Months of warfare, they alone were stronger than we were for a long time and it took them 7 months to gain a single region - and even this only after we stopped defending it.
Then Voghor gave up and withdrew from the war, leaving Luz alone and not a region richer.
An End to Slaughter
December 03 This was the last straw - questioned by her own nobles as to the sanity of the war against Riombara, disgusted with our unsensible and extremely effective resistance against her golden plans for us, Doc's Biatch suddenly left Luz to head for distant shores. Luz' new king would be Danang Isig - he did immediately end the senseless fighting and after some time, respect for each other did grow. It never became love, but at least we were able to start to trust each other...however tentatively. We should even fight side by side during the undead invasion - an experience that was both extremely strange and heartening for Luz and Riombara.
A new Beginning, slightly cut short
We were now down to the city of Grehk and the region of Ardmore - but we had survived. Against overwhelming odds two, three or four times our size, we had prevailed. Our nobles had gone through fire and hell, where bound together by bands of loyalty stronger than steel and had forged a fighting force more efficient and deadly for its size than any other on this continent.
Our defense against ever more senseless aggression had gained the respect of several other realms - Fronen, Marca de Panthera and Enweil especially. We started to expand again, retook Glongin and were prepared to reenter the isles and move towards Irombro, when the gods decreed disaster.
The First Comming of the Undead
December 03 Dark prophecies did abound, then a temple rose in Aesh. There spoke a prophet with the voice of god Tom, speaking of dark dangers that would engulf this continent soon. True to his word, ever increasing hordes of monsters and undead appeared, first rather randomly, then ever more organized. Later undead Lich Lords or Dark Wizards took command of several troops to forge them into mighty armies. It was our bad luck that these leaders were attracted mostly by the two rogue cities of Athol Margos and Rines. That island became known as the Dark Isle throughout the continent.
The Vampire Lord
Against the first bands of undead we were largely successfull, expanding our borders, retaking Glongin, Rii and Avengmil. But more and more we were pressed back. The first Lich Lord did arise in Rines, marched south but was defeated by a combined force of Grehk and Luz before the walls of Grehk. It was a great pleasure to have him beheaded after he was captured in the battle. Surprisingly, he even died. Though the days became ever darker then...still we held our own stubbornly, and only lost one region while other realms lost 2-3, but we were pushed ever back.
The Old Mummy
Then the Old Mummy arose in Rines...gathering a massive host, it did march against Grehk, then our last region. Though outnumbered 5 to 1, we killed half of its host, but our army was ripped to shreds in the doing. Undead raged through our city for the first time and an undead takeover was started....but the horde curiously left in the morning. It was not to be the only takeover attempt we would suffer by undead. Once Grehk did even revolt and join Luz, but Danang Isig - once our enemy, then our friend - handed Grehk back to us. Once more we recruited and did await the next onslaught.
Under Siege
As Grehk was overrun for the 5th time, tidings were brought to us by the prophet that an undead king would come. This he did...he arose in the west, gathering all undead strength in the lands. Where he marched only ashes remained. A desperate coalition of Marca de Pantera, Ashborn and some Einweilian nobles did break him in battle before the walls of Firbalt (?) - a deed that would be sung about for ages. With his death, slowly the growth of the undead slowed - but grow they still did. The hordes did roam the lands thicker than flies. Around this time, Eno Chia did fall. We managed to field 2500 CS, then 2000, then 1500. Again and again we thwarted takeovers in Grehk. Slowly, their strength diminished and we had hope....but it was not to be. The 9th Takeover done by monsters, the 12th takeover attempt within 6 weeks, was successful. After Grehk did turn rogue we managed to start 3 takeovers ourselves, but alas, all did fail. Riombara was gone.
The end of the first age
Realms that fell during the first undead onslaught: Eno Chia, Wudenkin, Grehk, Lin Helon - and Riombara. Survivors: Luz de Bia, Enweil, Fronen, Mesh, Voghor, Melhed, Ashborn, Marca de Pantera, Old Grehk, Ar Agyr. Thus the first age did end in darkness and a new age was born.
