A Brief History of the King’s of the Southland

The first King of the Southland started as a baron, the Black Baron, Alexander Roesone formed a confederacy between the free-city of Ilien and the theocracy of Medoere to assault the Duchery of Diemed.  While the combined naval blockade of the confederacy kept Diemed pinned down; the Black Baron would march an army across the lands of Medoere into the heart of Diemed.  But instead of laying a conventional siege to the impressive stronghold of the Duke of Diemed; Alexander Roesone would employ magic assistance to ruin the walls of the Duke’s castle.  In the ensuing retreat of the Duke of Diemed, Alexander Roesone, upon a nightmare mount, would commit bloodtheft.

Thus the Black Baron of Roesone upon claiming investiture of Diemed would elevate himself to the status of the King of the Southlands.  Serving as an agent of change, the High Cleric of the Church of All, Kareem Wali Jabbar would gain sweeping powers, influence, holdings, and followers as the Southlands would grow.  In time the Church of All would grow past the boundaries of the Southlands and into the colonies of Mieres and the Barony of Ghoere.  The King of the Southlands, Alexander Roesone, would outlaw all public religious practice not conducted in Church of All facilities.  Alexander would also decree the faith of Cuiraecen outlawed and all of the land and holdings of the Militant Order of Cuiraecen be handed over to the Church of All.

Alexander Roesone now with ultimate authority as King of the Southlands reorganized many institutions and in different cases would privatize and nationalize different institutions.  The new Kingdom of the Southlands was commissioned a private bank, the Brother’s Investment Groupe, and sought out to regulate and standardize a single unit of currency.  The Brother’s Investment Groupe operated outside of the normal jurisdiction of the Southlands and would raise its own troops, fortify holdings, issue loans and paper scrip, and determine deed of land.  The amount of power the Brother’s Investment Groupe could influence on the economy of the Southlands was staggering.

These new decrees by the King of the Southlands mainly affected the lands of Roesone and Diemed, leaving Medoere and Ilien in a very uncomfortable position.  But as luck would seem to strike; the fabled Sword of Enlien was claimed by of all people the Captain of Abbatour, Count Raphael Saberstrike.  The title Captain of Abbatour is an old hereditary title passed to the Count of Abbatour whom then would serve as naval commander for then the Barony of Roesone.  Upon uniting the Southlands, Alexander Roesone simply transitioned the Captain of Abbatour from commanding the Roesone Navy to the Imperial Navy of the Southlands.  Known as a wise and compassionate fellow, Raphael would gain much fame and be hailed as the People’s Champion upon claiming the Sword of Enlien.

But while it seemed in time that Raphael might be capable of stopping or defeating Alexander, the Militant Order of Cuiraecen did not have time as their very temples where being converted into holy sites for the Church of All.  A select group of paladins, true believers of Cuiraecen’s decided to strike and assassinated the King of the Southlands Alexander Roesone.  But as you and I know, dear reader, that this was just a clone.  A clone created by the Baba Yaga under the guise of the Swamp Mage to gain further influence upon the very lands of the Southlands.  But dear reader, the story of Baba Yaga is for another time.

With the death of Alexander Roesone a new King of the Southlands needed to be appointed and as chance would happen, Alexander left his kingdom to the one and only Raphael Saberstrike.  So now the people rejoiced as the People’s Champion was the King of the Southlands, but that happiness only lasted a few golden years until the legendary dragon Skiesbane heard of this new popular king.  The dragon Skiesbane would ransack the major trade lanes in the Straits of Aerele, demand tribute from the various baronies and kingdoms, and devour whole livestock herds.  When the dragon Skiesbane confronted Raphael, the dragon did find a surprise or two but was able to best Raphael and capture him up.

The dragon Skiesbane came looking for a god-king and found a pretender in Raphael.  The Sword of Enlien that had won the people’s hearts was a forgery.  The surprise trap that Raphael tried to spring on the dragon was the assistance of an evil demi-god, but Skiesbane was able to dispatch that demi-god’s avatar.  Skiesbane took the truly evil Raphael and placed him in front of magic mirror that created a truly good copy of Raphael; Skiesbane then dispatched the evil Raphael and took the good Raphael back to the Southlands.

Now this dear reader is where we reintroduce High Cleric Kareem Wali Jabbar.  This new good version of Raphael Saberstrike as King of the Southlands was set to change the laws and usher in a new prosperous era for the Southlands but that would mean religious freedom and the High Cleric Kareem with the newly powerful Church of All would not stand for that.  So yet another assassin’s blade took yet another King of the Southlands as Kareem would kill the good Raphael.  But dear reader, didn’t Skiesbane really kill the second King of the South?  Now the Southlands would have to decide on a new leader for neither Alexander nor Raphael had left any other heirs.  From amongst the nobility of the Southlands was picked a new King.  But really the Brother’s Investment Groupe and the Church of All would select the new King. 

Once the warrior Trogdor was known as the Spearwielder but that said spear was stolen by none other than the very first King of the Southlands, Alexander Roesone.  That very spear is the weapon that Alexander used to commit bloodtheft of the Duke of Diemed and kick off this whole Kingdom thing in the first place.  Unable to reclaim the spear from Alexander, Trogdor would have to settle in inherit the kingdom that spear created.  One thing Alexander did do for Trogdor was while as King of the Southlands, Alexander appointed Trogdor as the new Duke of Diemed.  Trogdor had already married into one of the largest land holding noble families of Diemed and this helped get the Diemed nobility to support Trogdor as Duke of their land.  Trogdor served the people of Diemed faithfully until called upon to serve all the people as the third King of the Southlands.

The High Cleric Kareem would ordain the ceremony as he had done for the pervious Kings of the Southlands.  Kareem and Trogdor would conspire to pull all of the lands of the south under the sway of both the King of the South and the Church of All.  Kareem would put out a decree that a holy army was to gather to defeat the heathens like the worshipers of Rournil in Medoere, the followers of Nesirie, Haelyn, and Cuiraecen.  While Trogdor gathered the forces of the Southlands and appeared to prepare to invade Medoere, the holy army would begin to muster in Roesone.  But instead of invading Medoere, Trogdor launched in invasion of Aerenwe.  When the forces of Medoere tried to counter assault, the holy army of the Church of All along with hired mercenaries defeated the Medoere forces.  In no time Aerenwe would fall to the Southlands, with the royal family being killed personally by Trogdor.  Another note dear reader, that one of those royal family members was the half-brother of the now infamous first King of the Southlands, Alexander Roesone.

With the conquest of Aerenwe near complete, the main assault forces began the invasion of Medoere and quickly forced the siege of the lands.  When the forces of Medoere refused to surrender, the holy army of the Church of All constructed altars and began sacrificing prisoners in full view of the besieged Medoere forces.  This would lead to the a powerful priest, Rhouber Nichaleir hearing the calling of Rournil and gaining the true Sword of Enlien and standing up to the forces of the Southlands.  In an epic battle, the High Cleric Kareem defeated Rhouber Nichaleir in a mid-air struggle that began with Kareem in shadow dragon form ended with Kareem taking a shadowy-human form and committing bloodtheft of Rhouber.  The act of the bloodtheft of a divine infused being, the forming of a dynasty in the Southlands and the Church of All, and by promoting evil gods; Kareem was elevated to living-saint status and in time would become and evil god of his own.

Trogdor, the King of the Southlands, would unify the lands of Diemed, Roesone, Medoere, Ilien, and Aerenwe and also gaining the lands of Ghieste and Bhalaene after the fall of the Barony of Ghoere and expanding influence to the colonies of Mieres.  When the Time of Troubles begins in the land of Birthright, the Kingdom of the Southlands is a major player.  With hundreds of thousands of citizens, with some cities as populous as ten thousand people, a vast network of roads and ships to move goods and forces around.  And most importantly to the gods it truly serves, the Kingdom of the Southlands has one unified religion in the Church of All.