CROSSOVER WORLDSTATE — THE CROWN AND THE FLAME
THE ORIGINS OF THE FIVE KINGDOMS, AURELIA, AND THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACKSPINES
As the Tevinter Imperium swept through the south in the -700s TE, countless Alamarri retreated from the land they’d called home. While the majority moved into the Frostback Mountains, the Korcari Wilds, or were conquered by the Imperium, a great many took to the seas in search of somewhere safe and untouched by the Imperium. In their search, they found a modestly sized island, which they settled. It was far enough from the mainland continent ( roughly seven hundred miles ) that the Imperium kept their focus on holding what is now Ferelden — and that, while the existence of this land was suspected by some, it was considered a fantasy for several hundred years.
The Alamarri began to settle throughout the land, various holds and clans banding together to create communities. With their movement restricted to the island, a relatively isolated community, and a desire to be prepared should the Imperium ever find them, most decided that they were best suited in developing settled communities. These five groups, which would become the Five Kingdoms, each put forth one representative, and struck an alliance: they would support one another and maintain alliances, and they would remain peaceful. A sixth group took to the mountains lining the western coast instead, certain that the Imperium would come back soon enough, and determined to adapt to the less hospitable mountain regions, which provided the Blackspine people with a more defensible position.
For hundreds of years, the various communities carved out a space of their own. The Five Kingdoms developed feudal societies, focused in large part on creating defensible fortresses around which the people could live. Each kingdom took a slightly different approach, leading to five very distinct groups. In the mountains, named the Blackspines for the people that lived there, the people split into various smaller factions, all of them allied as the people of the mountains but all developing individually. A group of these smaller factions moved south, settling in a valley well-hidden from the rest of the land’s inhabitants, establishing the independent city of Aurelia in the early -200s TE. Roughly two hundred years later, as the Aurelians began mining, they discovered that they were living over a massive deposit of gold. With little use for so plentiful a metal that was neither strong nor sturdy, the Aurelians used it strictly for decorative purposes, and Aurelia became known as the Gilded City.
( For the sake of ease in adapting the world of TCATF into Thedas, I am eliminating the steampunk elements of TCATF. This includes the desert labyrinth and the Technocrats. The Blackspines now make up most of the eastern border. My map editing skills are extremely, extremely limited, so you’ll have to imagine that there’s some flat coast past the mountains; my changes to the map are the absolute best I can manage, and that’s still very bad. )
Five distinct kingdoms rose. These kingdoms — Fydoria, Stormholt, Bellemere, Ebrimel, and Abanthus — coexisted in relative peace for more than a thousand years, and only became known to the Thedosian continent during the reign of Asha Campana, in 4:81 Black. A short note on each of the Five Kingdoms ( adapted from the Choices wiki ):
FYDORIA The highly arable land of Fydoria allowed the people who settled there to live in relative comfort as they built their home. Even more so than a desire to build a defensible fortress, the people of Fydoria turned their attention to record-keeping. The capital city, Ennan, was initially the home of a massive monastery, at the center of which sat a scriptorium. Fydoria developed initially as a theocracy, with the king chosen from among the priests; eventually, the monastery was adapted into a university, with the scriptorium becoming the great Library of Ennan. Fydoria is often considered the heart of culture within the Five Kingdoms; royals throughout the Kingdoms will send their children to be educated at Ennan, and Fydoria was the first of the Kingdoms to reach out to Asha Campana and strike a trade alliance with Thedas. Its wealth is unparalleled among the Kingdoms, challenged only by Aurelia. However, little attention is paid to Fydoria’s military, which is often considered more decorative than functional, as Fydoria’s close relationship with Bellemere to the south and Stormholt to the east keeps them protected from invasion from Abanthus or Ebrimel. In 5:25 Exalted, after the end of the Fourth Blight, Fydoria renegotiates its borders with Bellemere, promising Bellemere priority access to and pricing for Thedosian goods in exchange for control of the river and the forest on its western banks. ( New border & Fydorian land marked in green on map. ) Though Fyroria’s king, Amanth, is killed by Luther Nevrakis, rule remains within the Drammir family throughout the war, falling first to his son Tevan and after to his daughter Aurynn.
Capital city: Ennan.
Known for: Culture and scholarship, weak military.
Ruling family: Drammir; current queen, Aurynn Drammir.
STORMHOLT The smallest of the Five Kingdoms, the Kingdom of Stormholt is, in actuality, a single city with surrounding villages. Stormholt Castle is an impenetrable fortress which has withstood invasion from Bellemere, Ebrimel, and Abanthus alike. The castle’s walls are extremely thick, and the castle itself is surrounded by a moat and a second wall, almost as tall as the first. The small villages surrounding the city of Stormholt are primarily agricultural, and largely peaceful, as the villages trade their surplus grain for a military presence which discourages foreign attack or invasion. In theory, this military force is dispatched by the ruler of Stormholt; in theory, most of Stormholt’s soldiers simply return home when not in active war and remain as guardians of their communities. Due to its small size, the monarchy of Stormholt splits its focus between military might and diplomacy: Stormholt’s military is powerful, though not quite as powerful as that of Abanthus, but the Rys dynasty, ruling Stormholt from the Steel Age onwards, prove to be masterful diplomats. Under the Rys line, Stormholt develops alliances with Fydoria, Bellemere, and even Ferelden and the Free Marches, even going so far as to marry one of the younger daughters of the Rys line to a Theirin king during the Storm Age. It is under Queen Adriana Rys that the Five Kingdoms are once again united, through complicated treaties and alliances. Stormholt’s queen, Adrianna, is killed by Luther Nevrakis, and the kingdom is briefly ruled by his son, Marco, acting as regent.
Capital city: Stormholt.
Known for: Impenetrable fortress, impressive diplomacy.
Ruling family: Rys; current queen, Kenna Rys.
BELLEMERE South of Fydoria and Stormholt, Bellemere was originally the largest of the Five Kingdoms, and is constantly expanding into the forests just west of the Blackspine Mountains. ( Expansion marked in purple. ) Ruled from its capital city of Thorngate, named for its ruling family, Bellemere is heavily forested, and the only home of the Heart Oak. The Heart Oak, developed through all kinds of cross-breeding plant stuff I know nothing about, is the aptly-named heart of Bellemere: a wood which is as strong as iron but which grows very slowly, Heart Oak is the most dearly prized resource in the kingdom, and is very carefully, sometimes viciously, guarded, to ensure that it remains in Bellemere alone. Their military, though powerful, is best served in long-range combat, and is made up primarily of archers, armed to the teeth with Heart Oak longbows and arrows; the landscape is dotted with small fortresses, full of these archers, to maintain Bellemere’s borders and the safety of the people. Of the Five Kingdoms, Bellemere and Abanthus are most frequently locked in skirmishes and battles at the border, which rarely break into all-out war. This has, however, happened twice: first, in the Glory Age, when the Heart Oak was first developed, and again in the Blessed Age. This second Bellemere - Abanthus war cost Bellemere the last control it had over the major river running through the Five Kingdoms ( the rest of that control belonging to Fydoria and Stormholt ) as well as the land between the river and the mountains. ( New border & land lost to Abanthus marked in dark blue ). Before Adriana Rys’ successful bid to unite the Five Kingdoms, Bellemere and Abanthus were locked in decades-long battle over contested land between the mountains and Ebrimel, which both kingdoms claimed — Abanthus insisting that the land was included in the admittedly poorly-worded treaty, Bellemere insisting that it was not. ( Contested land marked in light blue. ) Bellemere’s king and queen, Ewan and Daphne, are killed by Luther Nevrakis, and the kingdom is briefly ruled by his brother, Vassilios, as acting regent.
Capital city: Thorngate
Known for: Heart Oak, archers.
Ruling family: Thorn; current queen, Rowan Thorn.
EBRIMEL Home to one of the two major ports in the Five Kingdoms ( the other at Fydoria ), Ebrimel has become the largest of the Five Kingdoms. In friendly ( albeit constant ) competition with Fydoria, Ebrimel’s focus has become trade, and is best known for its ships. Each ship takes a significant amount of time to build, but is proudly deemed unsinkable, and the fastest ships in the Five Kingdoms. The ruling families of Ebrimel have for centuries sought an alliance with Bellemere to give them access to Heart Oak, and each attempt has been rebuffed. Bellemerans often joke that their fortresses exist solely to stop Ebrimelan rogues and thieves from stealing the Heart Oak, and Ebrimelans pretend offense; the attempted theft, once quite serious, has become something of a running joke between the two countries. Largely peaceful, Ebrimel maintains a trade alliance with Abanthus, and is the only of the Five Kingdoms to have a trade relationship with Orlais. The trade alliance with Abanthus developed into a political one, leading Abanthus to attempt to annex Bellemeran land to the south to make travel and trade between the two easier; Ebrimel has remained allegedly neutral, but practically allied with Abanthus, throughout the conflict over the land. Ebrimel’s queen, Kalalei, is killed by Luther Nevrakis, and the kingdom is briefly ruled by one of his allies, Florian Tartassis, as acting regent.
Capital city: Panrion.
Known for: Ships and shipbuilding.
Ruling family: Keawe; current regents, Noa and Kailani.
ABANTHUS The most cosmopolitan of the Five Kingdoms, Abanthus is firmly the center of both intrigue and military might. Its capital city, Lykos, is home to a massive network of spies and assassins called the Order of the Black Asps; overlooking the Amaranthine Ocean, Lykos is a sprawling city built into the rocky shoreline, and a thriving metropolitan as beautiful as it is dangerous. The city guard is notoriously brutal, and easily bought; the military is well-trained and absolutely merciless. The ruling monarch and the Order of the Black Asps are in constant competition with one another, with neither one ever fully defeating the other. Abanthus is the only kingdom that has remained under the rule of a single family since its inception — Abanthus and the Nevrakis line are wholly inseparable, and though rule has shifted from one branch of the family to another due to murder and espionage within the family, there has always been a Nevrakis on the throne. Due to its military might and strict regime, Abanthus appears as something of a threat to the other Five Kingdoms even in times of absolute peace. Through aggression against Bellemere and alliances with Panrion, Abanthus’ boundaries have expanded, slowly but surely, over the centuries.
Capital city: Lykos.
Known for: Spies, crime, military might.
Ruling family: Nevrakis; current king, Diavolos Nevrakis.
THE BLACKSPINE HOLDS, THE RUINS OF RAJKUR, AND AURELIA
While a great many of the relocated Alamarri began to build feudal societies, a sixth faction moved into the woods and the mountains, where they fractured into smaller clans that operate not unlike the modern Avvar. A short note on the Blackspine holds, Rajkur, and Aurelia:
THE BLACKSPINE HOLDS Numerous small clans and villages can be found within the Blackspine Mountains, named for the people to inhabit them. Each clan is unique, but all are bound by codes set into place every year when the leaders of each clan gather together to re-establish alliances, settle minor disputes, and approve and initiate new thanes. The Blackspines value the use of magic, which they believe to be the best and most valuable weapon to defend against the Tevinter Imperium. Each hold fosters the use of magic, with many family lines combining in the hopes of producing more mages. The mages are trained in elemental magic primarily, with an emphasis on fire magic, and the best of their mages are trained in shapeshifting. Only those Blackspine mages who have ‘found their wyvern’ through their training are eligible to hold positions of authority within holds, including as thane. The Blackspine mages are held accountable to a small force of guardians, spirit mages whose responsibility is to neutralize and contain mages who are out of control or causing harm to the hold. Despite some infrequent and relatively minor violent disputes, the Blackspine people have maintained a functional and relatively peaceful community, though throughout the centuries, more and more insulated communities have left the mountains to integrate into the Five Kingdoms, tired of the difficult life within the mountains.
As such, many of the remaining Blackspine holds, though growing in size as people unwilling to enter the Five Kingdoms are left without communities and holds and join other existing ones, have become more isolated, and less willing to engage with three of the Five Kingdoms. The only exceptions are Fydoria — the Drammir family having encouraged Blackspine mages to attend their University to train as healers and spirit mages, and offering support in the way of trade into the mountains — and Stormholt — the Rys family having offered support and patronage to the Monks of Rajkur, discussed below. This cultural and economic exchange has allowed for members of each society to integrate into the others. The Blackspine relationship with Fydoria was seriously threatened around 9:14 Dragon, when Lord Horas Alacantar murdered his late brother’s wife, Idara — a Blackspine mage who had married a Fydorian lord — and, allegedly, her infant son. The child’s body was never found, and the thane of Idara’s former hold demanded that her body be returned and that Horas be turned over to the hold for execution. Since then, relations have been reestablished, though are tenuous. Relations with Bellemere and Panrion have been hostile for centuries, with each of the two kingdoms attempting to expand into the mountains or forests claimed
Known for: Fire magic, shapeshifting.
Notable rulers: Thane Anu Rhuka.
THE RUINS OF RAJKUR Around the early Glory Age, the Blackspine holds moved into the forests just outside the mountains and began building three temples: one dedicated to Korth the Mountain-Father, one to the Lady of the Skies, and a third to Hakkon Wintersbreath. Initially, the monasteries were intended as a place to begin recording their history and their practices; fearful of another Tevinter invasion, the Blackspines were determined that their culture, which they had worked so hard to preserve, would not be wiped out. The monks, then, split into two groups: the first, dedicated to record-keeping, and the second, dedicated to defense. Within a century the Monks of Rajkur were among the most powerful and feared fighters to be found anywhere in the Five Kingdoms — including Abanthus.
Near the end of the Towers Age, the king of Bellemere began expanding into the forest again, in search of more land in which to plant their Heart Oak. The Monks of Rajkur warned against further expansion, insisting that they would not bend to his whims and abandon their temples. In response, the Bellemeran army — strong, certainly, but no match for the Monks unless they were outnumbered — launched an assault on the Temple of the Lady of the Skies. It was destroyed, the monks within slaughtered, many of them guarding the records they had dedicated their lives to creating. The monks at the Temple of Hakkon Wintersbreath matched the Bellemeran army, driving them back; all the surviving records were hidden, and the monks at the Temple of Korth the Mountain-Father sent an ambassador to the nearest kingdom: Stormholt.
The Rys queen responded quickly, sending a force with her and the monks back to Rajkur; by the time they reached the monastery, the Temple of Korth the Mountain-Father was rubble, the monks dead in droves. Only the monks of Hakkon Wintersbreath ( all of whom had studied war in honor of their god, and all of whom were fading ) remained; the Rys queen joined the fight with her army and pushed the Bellmeran forces back. The remaining Monks of Rajkur forged an alliance with Stormholt that lasted centuries: the ruling family would send its guards and heirs to Rajkur to work and train, to learn among the fiercest warriors before they returned to Stormholt, and the Monks of Rajkur would trade with Stormholt, turning to Stormholt for protection when needed.
Known for: Ruins, highly-prized secrets and records, martial might.
AURELIA After the discovery of gold in the mountains, the Aurelians isolated heavily, refusing to engage with the Blackspines or the Five Kingdoms except in moments of absolute necessity. Guarded on all sides by mountains and hidden from the world, Aurelia faded into myth: the famed Gilded City, settled atop a seemingly endless deposit of gold, whose people thought of nothing besides pleasure and hedonism. Even the rest of the Blackspines forgot about Aurelia, and the mountain passages that kept Aurelia from the rest of the Five Kingdoms remained closed. In reality, the people of Aurelia struggled — first, to find arable land to provide for the people, and later, to guarantee that they would be protected from invasion. Aurelia’s most precious resource was not its gold, but volcanic aurum: a metal so strong it would not break, able to be sharpened to a deadly degree. Aurelian armor and weapons were built exclusively from this volcanic aurum ( gold in color ), and the highly-prized Golden Mountain Fang, a glaive rumored to be able to cut through anything, became the weapon of the whole of the royal army. But beyond preparing for a defense, warfare was secondary to Aurelians until the Nevrakis invasion; instead, the Aurelians focused on art and architecture, building elaborate and magnificent palaces, tending to rare and beautiful gardens, and finding ways to combine armor with high fashion. While the ruling family, the Adairs, once boasted powerful warriors, the current queen, Annelyse, is known more for her skill in diplomacy than her ability to swing a glaive.
Known for: Immeasurable wealth, architecture, gardens.
Ruling family: Adair; current queen, Annelyse.