The Line of Seriel - House of Naradrilen
The Ahn’né people came to Enschka on the dawn of the first age. In what are now called the Lost Tribes lived Seriel. Little is known about her outside of the House of Naradrilen. It is said that Seriel was a leader in her community, although what her accurate title or responsibilities were has been lost to time. The reasons that pushed her to leave the Lost Tribes behind are mostly unknown, and what little is taught about it often conflicts with itself.
Some believe her community was persecuted, others say that a great evil was rising amongst the Tribes and Seriel protected her people by fleeing the growing threat. Others still say that what Seriel fled was an illness, a disease so swift and so deadly that her people were the only left to survive it, only because they left in time.
Whatever the truth may be, Seriel gathered her people, her family, and together the few hundreds of them began the Exodus. After crossing the Farewell Pass, the exiled people founded the Dreaming Woods in the Septentrion-most part of the continent of Enschka.
Seriel's family and closest friends she brought with her were instituted as the House of Naradrilen (ahnol for Children of the Trees) and Seriel was crowned first Queen of the Ahn’né on the 1st of Pyredays of 98 1AA.
Seriel was a brave and just queen. Her prowess in the use of irha made her integral to the early survival of the Ahn’né when they settled in the Dreaming Woods. She's remembered for her quick tongue and biting sense of humor. Seriel is often represented laughing and this is how her people still see her to this day; a fair ruler who always had laughter on her lips.
On the 23rd of Rainsbloom 201, Queen Seriel of House Naradrilen, First Queen of the Ahn’né, was assassinated. Even now, it is still unclear who was behind the murder, or what their motives were. Some people over the years have begun to believe that Queen Seriel was assassinated by the J'kaï and that it is the reason behind the Tribute War. Proponents of this theory say that it would echo the name given to the war, as well as conveniently explain the long-forgotten origin of the thousand-year war that has caused such tragedy for the Ahn’né.
Whatever the reason, after a brief period during which Consort Eikane of House Orane became Regent to help stabilise the Queendom, Seriel's heir and firstborn child, Maÿ, came to the throne. On the 18th of Firstsnow 202, Maÿ was crowned second Queen of the Ahn’né.
Queen Maÿ the Kind remains to this day the most beloved queen after Seriel. Maÿ was just good, purely and completely good. Under her rein, the Dreaming Woods flourished, growing rapidly in size and population while its culture and customs began spreading far and wide throughout Enschka. She nurtured most of the diplomatic relations with the Fées and the Ondines and brokered the longest period of peace during the entire Tribute War.
But above all, Maÿ the Kind's greatest gift to her people came after she met who would become Consort Itril Silnalui. Their love was the matter of legends, and it is legend that says that the ahns, upon seeing this love, moulded the irha of the Dreaming Woods and gave to Maÿ a secret knowledge. A knowledge with which the Queen created the Bonding, and made Itril and her the first ever Companions.
From their Bond came Merathÿ, Maÿ's heir, on the 4th of Awakening 910. And on the 4th of Awakening 910, Queen Maÿ the Kind passed away in childbirth.
Because Merathÿ was just born when she needed to take the throne, she was replaced by Relei, Seriel's second child, who acted as Regent starting on the 3rd of Harvest 1 1AF, and for the decades before Merathÿ was of age to inherit her duties.
On the 41st of Firstsnow 87, Merathÿ was crowned third Queen of the Ahn’né.
We do not talk about Traitor Merathÿ.
On the 6th of Slowdays 106, Nanse, Queen Seriel's third child, was crowned fourth Queen of the Ahn’né.
Queen Nanse the Great was a genius tactician, and in any other life, she would have been one of the greatest ahn’né warrior-queen. But barely fifty turns after Nanse's coronation, Enschka crumbled under the disastrous consequences of the Great Cataclysm. Nanse's entire rein after that was solely focused on rebuilding the queendom from the sheer destruction caused by the cataclysmic event.
Those who knew her said that Queen Nanse was always calm and gracious, that she would always take the time to listen no matter who talked to her, from commoners to her personal advisers. That she rarely smiled, but not for lack of wanting; because Queen Nanse the Great had lived through the death of her sister-queen, the betrayal of her niece, a war that had ran through generations, and without question the single most devastating and catastrophic event Enschka had ever known.
It is said that Nanse had a beautiful smile that pulled you in, and a laugh that invited you to join. It is also said that Nanse rarely had a reason to smile, and never had a reason to laugh. There was a melancholy that dragged her down like a dark miasma, a despair that dogged her every step no matter how much effort she put into dragging her country out of the rubble and ruins.
Already weary when she took the throne, a hundred times more weary the more she reigned, Queen Nanse the Great passed away peacefully in her sleep on the 39th of Warmer 567, having lived a long and heavy life.
Right after, Nanse's heir and second child, Erethil, was crowned fifth Queen of the Ahn’né.
Erethil was one of the youngest queens to come into power and it was immediately obvious to her Court and her people that she did not want to be there. Nanse, to date, remains the queen who lived the oldest and reigned the longest, and many believe of Erethil that she had taken her mother's long reign and even longer life for immortality.
In a way, she might not be completely wrong. Scholars in the study of irha believe that if Nanse didn't have to spend so much of her power during her reign to compensate for the Great Cataclysm, and if she didn't decide to have both of her children very late in life, she most likely would have lived eternally. But a child is a costly thing ever since Maÿ's death in childbirth outlawed the Old Way, and Nanse exhausting herself to create two lives in such close proximity expanded so much of her irha at once that her following death was to be expected.
Consequentially, Erethil lived in the belief that she would not access the throne for a very long time, if at all, and it showed during her reign. She was never cruel or unjust, but there was a distinct lack of care in her actions. She was clearly very unhappy, miserable in a role she despised. Erethil did the bare minimum and delegated everything she could to her Council and her elder brother.
Roughly 250 turns of the wheels into Erethil's reign (dates are fuzzy because of how private House of Naradrilen is and how little of this process was done publicly), Erethil's brother changed.
The specifics are, again, unclear, for this kind of procedure is normally undertaken so much younger in life. Some Scholars believed that surviving this was a miracle for Nanse's firstborn. Others say that the survival rate is always the same, but what mattered here was that Nanse's first child most likely believed it a course of action impossible specifically for her..
Roughly 250 turns of the wheels into Erethil's reign, the Queen got everything she wished for. Her older sibling was now a woman, and as firstborn of the line of Seriel, she was now entitled to the throne upon Erethil's death. Erethil did not see it that way. Her sister's transition was a gift from the White, in her own words, and she would not pass the opportunity this presented.
On the 13th of Blizzard 854, Queen Erethil abdicated the throne of Ahn-Seriel and stayed just long enough to see her sister to the throne in her stead. Right after, Erethil marched to the banks of the Maÿ that cut through Ahn-Seriel, embarked on one of the ondine barges that had apparently come only for her, and vanished into the night. No word has come from Queen Erethil ever since, no news recorded; although it is believed she is still alive.
Despite now being eligible to the throne, Antahnaril had never been raised as a queen. She named a Regent in her stead while she was taught all that she needed. In the first of many controversial decisions Ant would take in her life, she named Lieutenant-General Sileo of House Haravel as Regent.
The controversy didn't came from Sileo's aptitudes, as he was arguably one of the most competent people in the whole queendom. But despite his many qualities, Sileo was not of House Naradrilen, making him the first person to take the throne of Ahn-Seriel who wasn't a direct descendant of the Line of Seriel.
Ant managed to placate most complaints by simply pointing that Sileo was an incredibly competent man and that, given her unique position as the only queen-to-be to be of age while a regency was in place, she had still authority to veto a decision made by Sileo even while she was in learning. Sileo's regency was more of a joined affair between him and Ant while she learned the ins and outs of the Naradrilen monarchy.
With Erethil's abdication, her education now complete, Antahnaril was crowned sixth Queen of the Ahn’né on the 9th of Pyredays 916.
Warrior-Queen Ant was a brutal tactician, a deadly fighter and a prodigy Master of Arms. Her reign marked the most aggressive campaign of conquest and battle against the J'kaï army. Ant is seen as a savage warrior, a ruthless decision-maker, and a mostly absent queen. Her time was almost exclusively spent on the battlefield while she left the bulk of the government work to her Council and Consort. Oh, what a scandal her Consort was.
Ant met President Kela when he came to congratulate her. The Fée president had taken an entourage with him, and amongst them was his younger brother, Yosaël. Everyone present in the room, even those who grumble at the eventual conclusion, agrees that it was love at first sight. Less than a cycle later, the Warrior-Queen and Yosaël had begun the Bonding process, and the Ceremony happened not long after.
To date, Consort Yosaël is the only consort to a Naradrilen queen who isn't ahn’né. There might have been more pushback against his inclusion in the House of Naradrilen if Consort Yosaël wasn't as good as he is.
The Fée has managed, despite everything going against him, to garner from the people of Ahn-Seriel the same reputation as Maÿ the Kind. Yosaël is deeply beloved by the people he effectively rules over while his Companion fights the Tribute War personally (again, something the Warrior-Queen is the first to do). Yosaël also raised Ant's heir from birth and for most of her life while her mother was in campaign.
Despite her ruthlessness, it has always been evident how fiercely Queen Ant cares. Her people come before everything, even her own safety, her time with her family and at home in Ahn-Seriel. She hones in on any threat made against who she considers hers and, despite her many oddities, this has granted Queen Ant a high popularity amongst her people.
But after a lifetime of controversies and debatable decisions, Ant did the one thing that no one was able to let go of. During the customary visit to the Sanctuary made once every turn of the wheel, the Children of the Calling gave Ant and Yosaël a prediction. Although not frequent, the Sanctuary does, at times, contact the various leaders of the continent with any information they gleaned from the future and deem necessary to pass onto them.
The last queen to receive a prediction had been the Traitor, making it almost an Age since then and surprising everyone with it, Ant and Yosaël most of all. The predictions are kept secret between the Sanctuary and whatever leader received it, to ensure that, given the state of Enschka and its thousand-year war, nothing foreseen by the Seers amongst the Children of the Calling would fall into the hands of an opposing nation. Therefore, no one knows what words were gifted to the Warrior-Queen one that fateful encounter.
The sweet child of Ant, Heir Anathÿ, was believed to be blessed by the Gods because of her uncanny resemblance to Seriel, down to her frequent smiles and loud laughter. Much too young for the throne yet but the people were looking forward to her reign; it was public opinion that she would herald a prosperous time, perhaps even broker a continued peace with the J'kaï.
But when the royal family came back from the Sanctuary, sweet Heir Anathÿ had stopped smiling. There, on the Sanctuary island, hidden away from her own people, Anathÿ had her very last laugh. When the Ahn’né next saw Heir Anathÿ, they were shocked and horrified to see the small child with metallic wire sewing her mouth completely shut.
Aside from the obvious, something had irrevocably changed in the family. Yosaël was aggressively kind, as if to compensate for what he let others do to his child, no matter her blood. There was now a distance between Yosaël and the queen, despite their clear love for each other. Ant, on the other hand, became ever more absent.
Her campaigns went on for longer and longer, until Yosaël effectively became the ruler in her stead. A period of despair followed, as the people of the Dreaming Woods watched in horror their hope and dream of Heir Anathÿ becoming the next Seriel be destroyed by a prediction they knew nothing about.
What was supposed to be a prosperous time for the ahn’né people turned into tragedy, and disappointment. During one of her seemingly ever-lasting campaigns, the Warrior-Queen was taken down by a squad of J'kaï assassins. She died on the 29th of Slowdays 356 2AF, not having come home to Ahn-Seriel, her Consort and her daughter for over a decade.
Anathÿ wasn't of age when Ant died, so Consort Yosaël became regent for a short period of time. Finally, on the 5th of Harvest 359, Anathÿ was crowned seventh Queen of the Ahn’né.
(shown above, Anathÿ -right- and her son Eobel -left-)
Last in a long line with a heavy history, Anathÿ-Battlescar is a grave, serious ruler. Long gone are the smiles and laughter of her childhood, Anathÿ took the best of both worlds from her parents. Her queen-mother passed down to her a ruthlessness that shows in much of her decision-making, and terrifying skill in combat. From her father, blood relations or not, she got her unparalleled skill in the use of irha.
Anathÿ sees the world in black and white. There is only the war, and the continued survival of her people. Nothing else matters. These two sides of her rarely conflict, but the citizens of Ahn-Seriel, who most often interact with her, tell tales of a queen who spends half of every day in a public hall, where she meets anyone of her subjects who wants to speak with her, one by one and in private. No matter that she was back from the battlefield, injured and exhausted, you would always find her in the morning, in that great hall where her people gather.
The rest of her time, she mostly spends with her war council, planning the next attack, coordinating the next defence. Queen Anathÿ never Bonded, despite having two children. Heir Orril was born of General Alaric, while her son Eobel was created with Alinael-irhashal. Anathÿ has one of the longest reigns of the line of Seriel, with Heir Orril having come of age for a number of turns now. She's a popular queen, if not the closest to her people, a skilled ruler and deadly warrior.