Notes on the calendar and dating system: The Calendar is divided into twelve lunar months of exactly twenty-eight days each. Additionally, there are four holidays which are considered part of no month, taking place on the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes. Together this forms a three-hundred-and-forty-day solar year. Within the lands of the High King of the Elves, Imperial and former imperial territory each month is named after a particular constellation, each of which has superstitions associated with them.
Winter months: The Stronghold, The Grail, and The Knave
Spring months: The Maiden, The Mare, and The Stallion
Summer months: The King, The Warrior, and The Dragon
Autumn months: The Hierophant, The Tome, The Spider
In human lands the years have historically been divided into the Imperial and Pre-Imperial eras, based on the semi-mythical founding date of the Imperial City. However, in Velois, Lusitan, Whitegate, and other smaller human nations who have liberated themselves from the Imperium they use the new Modern Era dating system which traces its origin to the break-up of the original Catholic (or Universal) Human Imperium.
Timeline of recent history
First day of the Maiden, 399th year of the Modern Era – Veronique is born in the barony of Loix
Summer, 412 ME – Vero begins training with Master Slayer Aquinas
Spring, 413 ME – The War of the Bastards begins in Velois
Spring, 416 ME – The War of the Bastards ends
Summer, 416 ME – Master Slayer Aquinas is killed in battle with a loup garou
Autumn, 416 ME – Vero cleanses the tower of Kaer Longus and becomes the mistress of the Marquis de Fer.
Spring, 417 ME – Vero leaves the Marquis to become an independent slayer once again.
Summer, 420 ME – Vero destroys a coven of vampires in Whitegate and begins traveling with the prostitute Dora
Autumn, 420 ME – Vero reaches the city of Burgorad in the company of a rogue student named Ramiro
Burgorad: A city in northwestern Teutonia, built in the foothills of the Night Mountains. Owned as a fief by the city’s cathedral of the sun god, but ruled through a mayor, elected by a city council of the wealthiest merchants and craftsmen. The bishop of Burgorad is an elector in the selection of a new Teutonian Kaiser. Population: ~10,000
Emmoi: A region in northeastern Velois. It borders Imperial territory, and is located between each nations’ respective capitols. The area contains several moderately sized towns, and is considered very picturesque by the many Velian nobles who keep country estates there. There is a heavy military presence in the area, due to the proximity to the Imperium, and travel is very safe. Ruled by the hereditary Duc de Emmoi.
Fer: A region in northwestern Velois. The area is large and sprawling, wrapping itself around the northern end of the Ruby Mountains. While the Velian culture is dominant in the region, its political borders reach into both Umbria and Teutonia. The area has a very strong martial tradition reaching back centuries, and its cosmopolitan nature is the result of previous conquests. Fer is the richest and most prosperous portion of Velois; the result of trade routes passing around the notoriously impassible mountains, and the rich deposits of iron and copper in the foothills. Ruled by the hereditary Marquis de Fer, also known as the Margrave der Furwher, or the Count of Faarer.
Guild, the Poisoner’s: A criminal organization. It consists of dozens of mostly independent guild-houses, which generally align their interests as often as possible for mutual benefit. The Guild do act as murderers for hire, as their name implies, but the greater part of their income comes from extortion. They threaten legitimate businesses, as well as small gangs of cutpurses and highwaymen. The Guild is also closely intertwined with the priestesses of Affliction who serve as advisors and chemists, and are often believed to be the true masters of the organization.
Helios: The Sun God and chief deity of the Pantheon. His worshipers are found all over the planet, but only in small numbers. His worship is deliberately restricted to only the elite, since only they are worthy to directly petition the King of the Gods. His human church is centered in the Imperium. Only men can become sun priests, and they are not permitted to marry or consort with women. Helios is associated with the eastern direction, authority, the color yellow, the element fire, sunflowers, lions, hawks, the high caste of elves, offerings of gold, and the male gender in general.
Imperium: A nation located east of Velois, on the border between human and elven territory. At one time the Imperium ruled the majority of the human race, and most human languages are dialects of Imperial. Currently, the emperor has direct control of only a small region immediately surrounding the Imperial City, as well as the nominal loyalty of the Kaiser of Teutonia and the free cities to the south. Imperials are loathed by most other human nations, but have good relations with the elves, who they often trade with in slaves. The Imperium retains its prestige due to its continued role as the center of religious authority for the pantheon of all legal human churches. Population: ~1,000,000 Imperial City alone, ~4,000,000 including the other semi-independent city states and rural communities in the elven borderlands.
Kaer Longus: A castle town in eastern Umbria. Its most remarkable feature is considered its high tower. It was originally built to control the point where three nations’ borders meet, to prevent the incursion of foreign troops into Umbrian territory. However, it was quickly subdued by the Velians soon after its construction, and the land has been a fief of the Marquis de Fer ever since. Ruled by the hereditary Earl of Kaer Longus. Population: ~5,000
Loix: A small rural barony in southern Velois, bordering the Whitewood. The area is devoid of any major trade routes or towns, but is well known locally for its bountiful agriculture. Ruled by the hereditary Baron de Loix.
Loup Garou: An individual under the curse of lycanthropy. A Loup Garou takes on the features of a wolf during the three nights of a full moon and is driven into a murderous rage. Although wolf curses are the most common, there are rare variations where the individual may take on the aspects of another animal such as a rat, boar, or big cat. In all cases, no matter the animal, the curse is levied in the name of the moon and is driven by the change in lunar phases. The Loup Garou possesses tremendous strength, as well as restorative abilities unless wounded by silver. A Loup Garou may also display fear of wolfsbane, but the plant is not harmful to the creature, unless utilized as part of an arcane ritual.
Luna: The Moon Goddess and Queen of the Gods. Her followers are found all over the world, they are even more common than those of Helios, by design. The churches of the Helios and Luna are closely linked. As the moon reflects the sun, she is meant to be the intermediary between the lower social classes and the ruler of the universe. Her priestesses are renowned for their knowledge of midwifery and pediatric care. Under normal circumstances, only women can become moon priestesses, men can be ordained only after undergoing ritual castration. All priestesses are also required to take oaths of celibacy. Luna is associated with the southern direction, the color purple, the element air, mimosa, lionesses, owls, offerings of silver, child care, and the female gender in general.
Lusitan, Kingdom of: A large and powerful nation located on the western side of the Ruby Mountains. Its southern extremities reach the small Isthmus which connects the northern and southern continents. The country reaches the coast in the west and the Ruby Mountains are almost totally impassible which gives them powerful natural borders. In the north, however, Lusitan has easy access to Umbria giving them a natural avenue for military expansion. Ruled by a hereditary king. Population: ~12,000,000
Oasis Cities: A loosely aligned league of city states built along the northern coast of the southern continent. Each city is mostly independent, and cooperates with the league only so much as necessary to resist foreign invasion. Leaders have tried to turn the league into something more permeant on several occasions, but all have failed. The governments of each city are unique, but tend towards dictatorships, either in the form of a hereditary monarchy or a plutocratic oligarchy. Population: ~11,000,000
Ruby Mountains: A nigh impassible range of mountains which runs north to south between the kingdoms of Velois and Lusitan. The last known dwarven nation is located beneath the mountains and jealously guard its territory, making them dangerous to cross even in good weather.
School of Alchemy: A school of magic dealing with the combination of reagents into complex compounds. It is among the most common schools of magic, and in some universities it’s study is subdivided into the Minor School of Transmutation, dealing with inorganic reagents, and the Minor School of Herbalism, dealing with organic reagents.
School of Astral Knowledge: The rarest school of magic, dealing with the study of spheres beyond the material. The study of astral spheres is very tightly controlled, and contains mainly forbidden rituals referred to as the Minor School of Conjuration. Conjuration allows the student to actually summon beings from beyond the barrier of physical reality, an act with potentially disastrous consequences, and so is strictly illegal in all civilized lands.
School of Dispelling: An uncommon but useful school of magic which delves into the fundamental mathematic and symbolic principles which underpin all other magic. This is often done with the purpose of dismantling a spell at its most basic level, but a good knowledge of this school often leads to a deeper understanding of magic in general, and can help when weaving one’s own spells.
School of Divination: A school of magic dedicated to perceiving distant places or times. It is not an uncommon subject for study, but it is unusual in that the majority of its practitioners are female. This school can also be used to communicate across far spaces, but attempts to contact or interfere with the past are almost always fatal for the magician fool enough to try.
School of Elementalism: A school of magic dedicated to the channeling of elemental forces. Because of its practical uses in warfare, students of elementalism are often sought after by princes as battlemages. The school is only relatively common, but because of the lack of subtlety in their spells, elementalists often have an outsized place in the imaginations of the common classes regarding wizards.
School of Enchanting: Although it is banned under Imperial law, this school of magic is still studied by the dwarves. It deals with the binding of non-corporeal entities into material objects. It’s practices often require the forbidden conjuring of spirits for the binding to take placing, thus the school is viewed with mistrust in most human lands.
School of Geomancy: A common school of magic, but one often viewed as superstitious and backwards by urban scholars. Geomancy deals with the understanding of the earth and natural cycles, and eventually altering them to increase fertility, bring rain to parched ground, etc. Because its workings are so subtle, and occur over such long periods of time, many wizards deride the school as hedge magic performed by local witch doctors and wise women. Regardless, the peasant farmers swear by the rituals. The most frequently used spells are sometimes grouped into a Minor School of Weather Manipulation, but this limited and utilitarian form of study severely inhibits the student.
School of Healing: The most common school of magic which studies the bodies and humors of both men and animals. The name is something of a misnomer since the same spell which may cure a man with a certain ailment by rebalancing his humors, might cause a healthy man to suddenly lose balance and fall ill. Colloquially, spells that sicken or harm a subject are sometimes referred to as the Minor School of Harming, but the separation occurs only in the intentions of the wizard, rather than something intrinsic in the spells themselves.
School of Illusion: An uncommon school of magic dealing with the perceptions of living creatures and how to manipulate them. By the nature of their studies, illusionists are often feared and mistrusted by most common folk. Recently, a catalogue of studies in this field have been grouped into the Minor School of Hypnotism and then strictly forbidden. Any attempt to directly dominate the mind of another through magic is dealt with very severely by law enforcement in human lands.
School of Warding: A common school of magic dealing with the establishing of wards and arcane barriers, either for safety or comfort. Practitioners are highly sought by princes for the designing of fortifications, by merchants for the construction of their vaults, and by the upper classes in general to keep their homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Star Mountains: The Star Mountains are located in northwestern Teutonia, and form the natural barrier between human territory, and the forests beyond the mountain controlled by powerful ancient vampires. Many of these vampires have ties to the oldest human noble families. More than once, an undead has attempted the claim the right of an elector in Teutonia.
Teutonia, Grand Princedom of: A nation located north of Velois, Umbria, and the Imperium. The country is geographically very large, but not as densely populated as the south. Because of its large size the government of Teutonia is extremely decentralized. Unlike most other human nations, Teutonia still pays nominal loyalty to the Imperial City, and the Kaiser, referred to as the Caesar in the Imperium, is technically a vassal of the Emperor. The connection is more formal than practical, especially considering that the grand prince himself barely controls his own subjects. The Kaiser is an elected position, chosen by the largest landholders in the north on the death of the previous Kaiser. At times the man elected grand prince has been a bishop, in those cases he traditionally styles himself the Archbishop of Teutonia. Population: ~16,000,000
Terra: The Earth Goddess, and consort of the Sea. She is the most widely worshiped deity in the world in terms of sheer numbers, however most of her followers are rural farmers and hunters with little political power. Priests of the Earth Mother have access to many lost spells, rituals, and natural cures; but thaumaturgists from highly analytical or hierarchical schools of magic often balk at the level of superstition they find when studying the faith. Both men and women may be ordained as priests in the church. The Earth Mother is associated with the southeastern direction, the color green, wheat, bears, the lower castes of elves, fertility, pregnancy, nature magic, and offerings of living wood.
Thesmos: The Goddess of Reason. Her church has a shared hierarchy with the Goddess of Art, and priests of both work together to bring education to their worshipers, but neither has any presence outside human territory. Besides expanding the boundaries of knowledge, the church also provides their legal expertise as judges and mediators in the majority of major human settlements. Priests of either gender may be ordained by the faith, but they are not allowed to marry. The goddess is associated with the southeastern direction, the color light blue, black bile, lilies, pigeons, humans in general, inorganic alchemy, and offerings of glass.
Umbria, Kingdom of: A small nation located at the crossroads between three major powers. Squeezed between Teutonia in the north, Lusitan in the south, and Velois in the east, Umbrian independence is under constant threat. In fact, the only reason they haven’t be conquered outright is because no two powers can afford to allow the third to really control the country. Ironically, the land is poor and swampy and constant fighting has left very little of value, other than the opportunity to outflank one’s geopolitical rivals. Besides of its other problems, Umbria is highly decentralized and many of the earls and barons also swear fealty to one of three major powers. Ruled by a hereditary monarch in practice, legally the kingdom remains an elected monarchy, but kings’ moots have become a purely ceremonial affair, so long as the king produces a healthy male heir. However, in order to be crowned, the Umbrian king must still swear to uphold the ancient charter of the kingdom which promises broad independence to his landholding subjects. Population ~7,500,000
Valance: The capitol of the Kingdom of Lusitan. The city is located on the coast of the White Sea, and was founded as a colony by adventurers from the Oasis Cities. Although it is the residence of the king, the city is actually the independent fief of the Pontifex of Vedio, and owned by the church. Population: ~20,000
Vampire: A sentient and corporeal form of undead. A victim drained to the point of death by a vampire lays dead for a day before rising again as a new vampire, under the control of the monster who killed them. They often form covens, with multiple spawn living in the same haven and serving a single elder. However, if the elder is destroyed, the spawn are then free to leave and form their own covens. The abilities of a vampire vary, but they invariably become more potent with age. The weakest vampires may be destroyed by a stake through the heart, but the greater undead must be decapitated, exposed to the sun, or incinerated. The true origin of the most ancient ‘original’ vampire or vampires is unknown.
Vedio: The Lord of Medicine. His priests are the undisputed masters of healing spells as well as more mundane forms of medicine. The church operates hospitals across the human world, and his faith encourages cooperation with other religions, making his worship the most common of all the gods, even if the depth of any individual’s devotion is typically quite shallow. Only men may become priests of Vedio, although it is very common for women to serve as un-ordained acolyte nurses. Priests are allowed to marry, and encouraged to do so. Celibacy is viewed with suspicion, but so is any form of birth control. Vedio is associated with the southern direction, the color black, blood, aloe, cats, healing magic, offerings of obsidian, or charcoal for the impoverished.
Veiled One, the: The Goddess of Death, also known as the White Woman, the Lady of Bones as well as many other euphemisms. The white priestesses are masters of anesthetic and divination, besides their more well-known services performing funeral rituals and abortions. Although it is extremely rare, men do sometimes become ordained priests of the faith. Her church-militant is known to be the most fervent hunters of undead on the continent. The Goddess of Death is associated with the center direction, the color white, bone, poppies, vultures, blackbirds, astral studies, and offerings of marble.
Velois, Kingdom of: A populous and militarily expansionist nation located on the eastern side of the Ruby Mountains. It is bordered by Teutonia in the north, the Imperium and elven borderlands in the east, and the Republic of Whitegate in the south. The kingdom has recently emerged from a civil war, see Appendix A: War of the Bastards, and is moving towards an absolute monarchy. The country is ruled by a hereditary monarchy, and the law of Velois is unique in that it does allow for the crown to be passed to a female descendant, in the absence of any male issue. Population: ~15,000,000
Vermillion: The capitol city of Velois, and one of the major cultural centers of the northern continent. The city is owned directly by the crown of Velois. Besides the king, the city also contains the papal palace for the pontifices of the goddesses Art and Reason, making it a center of clerical and secular bureaucracy. The catacombs beneath the city are extensive, and the largest library and set of archives on the northern continent are located beneath the temple district. The city’s university is also among the most respected in the world. Population ~50,000
War of the Bastards: A civil conflict in the Kingdom of Velois over the monarchy’s line of succession. See Appendix A.
Whitegate, Sovereign Republic of: A nation located on a peninsula extending south into the White Sea. The coastal city is the preeminent naval power on the planet and exerts control over most of the islands in the White Sea as well as many of the formerly Imperial city states near the water in the elven borderlands. The city holds the papal palace of the pontifex of the Veiled One who is the patron goddess of the city. The republic is ruled by the Doge and a council partially consisting of hereditary nobles and partially of elected representatives. Any member of the patrician class may become Doge, and the position is held for life. Voting in elections are open to all male citizens, but votes are weighted by economic class. Anyone born inside the city walls of Whitegate, or anyone who can prove the parentage of at least one citizen, is considered a citizen at birth. Citizenship may also be earned through service, often military, to the republic. Population: ~100,000 city, ~2,500,000 republic total.
White Sea: The White Sea is a body of salt watcher which separates the northern and southern continents. It contains many islands, mostly dominated by the Republic of Whitegate. However, Lusitan, the Oasis Cities, and the papal states of the Sea God also exert their own influence. The White Sea opens into the Ocean on the eastern side.
White Wood: A forest covering the point where the peninsula of Whitegate connects to the mainland, it forms the natural land border between the Republic and Kingdom of Velois. The White Wood is actually something of a misnomer, the predominant species of tree are redwoods, the name honors the Veiled One who is the patron deity of Whitegate. Much of the forest is controlled by the White Church, but there are some nobles in the region as well, including the countess of Shadowtree, who is the most powerful secular power in the area.
Wraith: A sentient, but non-corporeal, form of undead. Even if a body has been properly opened to release the soul, an individual’s spirit may simply refuse to leave the mortal world and become a wraith. A wraith ties itself to an emotional anchor, and can be exorcised either by resolving the bonds of passion which bind a wraith to the physical world, or by destroying their anchor entirely. A wraith may display multiple different abilities depending on their unique emotional resonance. Only those with strong egos can become wraiths. An individual without a strong sense of self, but who does experience a strong emotional death, may remain as a separate, non-sentient and non-corporeal, form of undead known as a poltergeist.
Appendix A
An excerpt from A Brief Medieval History of Velois 2nd edition by Master of Historical Divination Salvador Devalance. Published by University of Whitegate Press, 1549 ME.
The War of the Bastards was a conflict between the Duc Philippe de Flan-Gothe on behalf of his nephew, Louis VII, and the Comte Louis the Iron-Hearted who served as the guardian for the underage Henri IV.
The previous king, Henri III, came to power following a series of brutal dynastic struggles and an on again off again civil conflict which had lasted for decades. He came to the throne by accident rather than by anyone’s intention. His uncle and elder brother had each coalesced a faction around themselves, and each worked to execute anyone who could form a threat to their power. Finally, they met each other in battle and by happenstance each was killed within an hour of the other, although neither side was aware of the fact until it was all over.
The dynastic genocide had left only a single claimant behind, a shy terrified boy of fifteen who had never had a day’s instruction of how to rule. The boy was always quiet and introspective by nature, and the colossal familial bloodletting he had witnessed as a boy only exasperated these traits. His reign was marked by a determined avoidance of conflict. If this had been represented as a strong policy of peace he might have been more well regarded. However, his vassals quickly realized that it was the result of a weak and desultory executive, and took advantage to increase their own power at the expense of the traditional rights of the crown.
During his reign, Henri III fathered several bastards of both sexes, but only two of his natural sons survived into adulthood. Soon after his coronation, he had married the widow Margaret de Emmoi, who was almost twenty years his elder, but she gave him no legitimate children. She had also failed to produce heirs for her first husband, and so it is almost certain that she was barren, besides quickly passing beyond her years of childbearing.
Despite this failure, their marriage was, to all indications, a happy one. When Margaret was taken in an outbreak of plague the king was inconsolable. He fell into a deep despair and forewent even the pretense of trying to govern.
A few years later, he also fell ill and it seemed that he would soon die. His ministers insisted that he must name a definite heir and legitimize one of his two sons. The king relented, one may presume out of a desire to be left alone to die in peace, and called the mother of his youngest surviving son, Henri IV, to be brought to him. Jeanne was a peasant servant girl living at the royal palace, and one can imagine her surprise at being brought to the king’s room, only to be told that she was marrying him and would soon be queen, at least briefly.
They were married, her son was legitimized, and a writ of succession was signed and witnessed. Later that night, the king died. The eleven-year-old boy was crowned, and power came to rest with a low-born dowager queen and a regency council.
Whatever her nature before her brief marriage, the dowager queen quickly turned tyrant. Using her influence over her son, she shaped the regency council until, after only two years, it consisted entirely of her own minions. She knew the precarious nature of her son’s position as well as her own, and responded with vicious retaliation at the slightest trace of dissent, but this only sowed further seeds of rebellion.
Many landowners who might have been won over by careful diplomacy, were instead exiled from the king’s court. Cast adrift, they quickly found themselves drawn to another locus of power. The Duc Philippe had been biding his time carefully for this moment. Rather than bend the knee to the boy king he had retreated to his own land with the new king’s elder half-brother Louis VII.
Now that the time was right, he emerged. The Duc Philippe declared that Henri IV had never been legitimized. The marriage to the dowager queen had obviously never been consummated after the vows had been taken, because the king died on the wedding night. He denounced the writ of succession as a forgery, and explained that his own signature had been extracted under threats of force, supposedly the day after the king’s death. Therefore, by rights of primogeniture, the true king was his own ward.
Louis VII was a lad of seventeen, old enough to dispense with the need for a regency council. Besides this, his mother was the Duc Philippe’s sister and their family was among the oldest and most noble in the kingdom. These advantages recommended themselves to the disaffected nobles who flocked to his banner.
During the first year of the war, the fighting was very limited. Most nobles still preferred to remain neutral, so the armies mustered by each side represented only each king’s personal retainers and closest allies. Although he had effectively declared the onset of hostilities with his proclamation on the illegitimacy of Henri IV, the Duc Philippe preferred to wait and gather his allies while his enemy came to him.
The dowager queen Jeanne was happy to oblige. She first gave command of her forces to her lover, the sycophantic knight Ser William de Emmoi. He promptly departed on a punitive expedition, allowed himself to be lured into an ambush, and oversaw the destruction of the majority of his army in the first conflict of the war. The battle was decisive, and Ser William returned south with one in ten of the men he had set out with. The commander hadn’t even found the good manners to be one of the casualties.
With the king’s army routed there was no longer any force capable of stopping the rebels and they began to raid freely as allies flocked to their ascendant fortunes. Ser William continued to try and muster some kind of resistance, but only succeeded in aiding his opponents. Again and again, he insisted on mustering garrisons for pointless offensives, which only squandered their resources.
Ultimately, it was winter that stopped the Duc, at least temporarily. Ser William was called back to Vermillion and dismissed from his position. Now the dowager queen turned to the Comte Louis the Iron-hearted. Ser Ironheart had been a knight in the previous civil war and brought great glory to his name. After the war, he served as marshal under Henri III, where he did his best to hold the kingdom together. Queen Jeanne had removed him from the position because he expressly refused to indulge in the courtly intrigues which she encouraged, but now she had no choice but to return to the old warhorse.
Ser Ironheart remains one of the most enigmatic studies in chivalry today. We can never know for certain what drove him to serve a queen he famously described a “painted-up woman of absolutely no virtue whatsoever… the notorious adulteress”. All we can know is what his sons claimed after the war, which is that he felt his honor demanded that he must protect his king, whom he had acknowledged before the gods as a signatory of the writ of succession.
Besides their change in leadership, the armies of king Henri IV had other reasons for hope as the campaigning season began again. Many nobles had indeed flocked to the cause of Louis VII, but those nobles had their own enemies, and the rightful succession of Henri IV became an honorable cover for local feuds across the kingdom. Furthermore, during their ascendancy the forces under the Duc Philippe had not been discretionary in their raids for loot and made enemies of many neutrals. It’s at this point the conflict became a true civil war as old feuds, simmering since the indecisive end of the previous conflict, suddenly began to erupt everywhere.
The Duc Philippe and Comte Louis the Iron-hearted fought continuously across the whole of the next year, but never directly against each other. As armies proliferated and fighting spread like wildfire dozens of opponents presented themselves and each of the two great commanders preferred to hunt weaker prey. As winter began, the Duc Philippe retained the initiative, but neither had found a decisive advantage to suggest the victory might be near.
The fighting had not gone unnoticed by Velois’ neighbors, but none had yet interfered until this point. Teutonia was involved in a violent interregnum of their own and in no position to do anything, but Lusitan watched with growing interest. They had no interest in helping either king, but they did have an interest in extending the fighting for as long as possible. Seeing that Duc Philippe still seemed to hold the upper hand they offered generous loans to the dowager queen at a time when both sides began to find their war chests running dry.
At the worst possible moment, the Duc Philippe fell ill. Near the beginning of the next campaigning season, he developed a severe case of consumption which left him hovering near the point of death. With his money exhausted, and his commander incapacitated, Louis VII suddenly found himself bereft of friends. Meanwhile, fair-weather allies now moved to the side of his enemy, who suddenly seemed poised to bring war to its final conclusion.
Once again, the armies of Henri IV marched into Flan-Gothe. They won easy victory after easy victory in a series of minor confrontations, and it seemed as though nothing could oppose them.
At this point, Louis VII took personal command of his own army. The minor battles had been feints and delaying actions, while he had gathered up all the forces that still remained to him. Finally, he risked it all in one final confrontation.
When the two armies faced off against each other, Louis VII was outnumbered five to one. It seemed hopeless, but in fac, the fighting was not nearly so lopsided. The largest single contingent of forces came from the elderly Marquis de Fer, who was on friendly terms with Ironheart, but had not declared allegiance to either king. Ironheart had gathered number for intimidation, but many were feudal levies who were ill-trained and had already been held far longer that their oaths demanded. He had also hired several mercenary companies, but as the fighting moved in his favor, Lusitan had withdrawn their financial support leaving their loyalty also questionable.
Still, the Ironheart had a clear advantage as battle commenced, until he was struck in the shoulder by a stray arrow and was forced to retire from the field of battle. As he left the field, the enemy line was in the process of collapse and all still seemed well. Within the hour, Louis VII had rushed into the heart of the battle himself and stabilized the line. Word began to spread that Ironheart had been injured and was perhaps dead, desertions began as a slow trickle, but by the evening they had become a flood. That night the Marquis de Fer swore fealty to Louis VII.
Over the course of the year, the Duc Philippe began to recover, but even as he did so, he found he was no longer so vital to the war effort as he had been. Louis VII led his army on a string of victories as he harried his enemies from Flan-Gothe, but wisely refused to over extend himself and instead began preparations for a major offensive the next year.
Ser Ironheart still lived, but his wound had turned septic and now he hung on the point of death. With no allies, and out of money, the dowager queen began a desperate secret negotiation with the Imperium. Finally, believing they had no other options, Henri IV swore a feudal oath to the emperor, although it was kept secret to avoid frightening away the few domestic allies who remained. It is a frequent topic of debate if the old Comte knew of the king’s vassalage to the Imperium, but it is a mystery lost to time.
One man who was aware of the secret alliance however, was the doge of Whitegate. The Republic’s network of spies had thoroughly compromised the Imperial court, and nothing the emperor did escaped the notice of the ancient enemy. Until this point, the Republic had remained neutral, but with their ultimate adversary now in alliance with one of the two kings they quickly aligned themselves with his enemy.
Louis VII launched a sudden strike on the capital. His forces were light, but with most defenders dispersed for the winter, there was no one to stop him. Vermillion was under siege, but that siege was hardly complete due to the lack of men in the attacking army, and supplies were still coming and going easily. Regardless, the dowager queen panicked and sent an urgent summons for aid.
The Imperial legions and the assembling armies of Henri IV made plans to rendezvous in the Velian Whitewoods, but these plans were also passed directly to the Republic. Ser Ironheart remained in Vermillion to lead the defense. Ser William was again given a chance to redeem himself by overseeing the link up of forces, but as he entered the forest the jaws of the trap had already closed.
The attack on the capital had been a feint, while Louis VII led a small army to offer himself as bait, Duc Philippe took the bulk of their forces to form one arm of an encircling pincer movement with Republican forces from Whitegate. Besides being takes by complete surprise, the forces of Henri IV were again hampered by the incompetence of their commander.
For their part, the Imperials fared no better. The best of their veteran soldiers were still engaged, fighting in Teutonia. The army that marched into Velois weas led by rich young nobles looking for easy glory leading untrained raw recruits.
The result was a total slaughter. This time at least Ser William had the decency to be among those captured in battle. He was held for a ransom, but when the dowager queen refused to even consider negotiations for him, he was beheaded.
The doge and Louis VII concluded an alliance and the Republic made Henri IV’s oath of fealty to the emperor public. Any hope of further loans from Lusitan vanished. With the heart of the Imperium exposed by the destruction of the new legions, the emperor now disavowed his new vassal and claimed that no promises of definite military assistance had ever been made.
The new allied army joined Louis VII at Vermillion and the city was placed under siege in earnest. With no hope of rescue, Comte Louis the Iron-hearted violated his queen’s orders and offered terms of surrender. Henri IV and his mother would renounce their claims and be allowed to go into exile, and their soldiers would be granted a royal pardon.
The terms were accepted, but once he was allowed inside the gates the new king changed his mind. He immediately ordered his younger half-brother hacked to death. He allowed the former queen Jeanne to live, but kept her imprisoned. Royal pardons were extended to the soldiers, but only after vows of loyalty and a renunciation of past resistance were extracted.
Ser Ironheart was horrified by the flagrant betrayal of terms, and refused to bend the knee to his new king. Louis VII ordered him tortured into submission, but the old knight escaped through suicide. A vial of poison was slipped to him in prison, supposedly by his old nemesis the Duc Philippe, who had begun to realize that he no longer quite controlled the nephew he had put into power.