Pylatea History
Conquest of the frontier by Euphius Praetlyn and Nathan Blackhammer.
1916, shortly after the Second Tri-fief war begins, the mass colonization of the frontier begins. Nobles fleeing persecution and plebians seeking title press to the mountain borders. Promises of glory and riches entice young families to join the advance and march into the frontier lands, heading north and east.
In the Epillus/Liandra region, the army of Euphus Praetlyn and Nathan Blackhammer arrived at the camps along the border of Julaspium. They offered the Barbarian tribes citizenship for the 'protection' of the empire.
The Barbarians refuse.
The mighty 'Kuraths Reach' legions and the Order of the Hammer Mobilize to claim the barbarian lands and bring 'enlightenment' to the savages.
The major battle of the conquest was the "Battle by River", taking place by the barbarian encampment of Pol, along the river dividing the Epillus and the Galdosian Mountains, and south of the Wemic lands of Ter'Shada, and Ter'Shen'Bak.
The armies of barbarians were a mix of the plainsmen and the wemic tribes, both strong and fierce warriors on the field. However, the battle was mismatched. The indigenous tribes excelled at hit and run tactics, but pitched battle spelled death for them. The legions were disciplined and strong, and did not waver. Backed by teh knights of the Order of the Hammer, the Kuraths Reach legion was to strong for the Barbarians to withstand, and a seige was eventually initiated around the village of Pol.
The story of the battle is as follows.
The barbarian army crosses the great river they named Upollu, under the eyes of the scouts sent from the Order of the Hammers finest riders. The size of the plainsmen and Wemic host was such that a vast plain was too narrow to accomadate them. The dust of their march blocked the sun.
They marched forward accross the hills until they eventually reached the ecentual site of the Fort Davicus, a small valley section between hiils, named the Epillitian Crown. Kuraths Reach marched forward, trying to press to the settlement, in an attempt to cut the barbarians supply chain. However, fearful of small skirmishers hitting them on their flanks and rear, and dwindling their nymbers, they moved slowly and in a tight formation, with their cavalry horses protected inside the column, to prevent the loss of their finest horses; a most valuable asset to the knight Equites.
Soon the Reach approached the Crown as night fell. The Kurathene soldiers were exhausted from the hot days sun, and without a drop of water in sight, were struggling in thirst. During the night, the barbarians encircled the Kuraths Reach, and hollered and yelled all night, driving the fear of The'ton into the hearts of the weaker willed legionnaires.
As the sun rose on a sleepness night, the Kurathene army could not see where their enemy hid. The plainsmen were experts in their territory, and hid in small groups around the hills. The Barbarians were waiting.
Eupheus and Nathan dicerned that the enemy general was waiting for the sun to rise until it was directly in the faces of the legion. They did not, however, expect it when the barbarians lit sections of the tall grasses on fire. The flames were not a concern, but the smoke clouded out the legions view to their goal in the east, only letting the bright rising glare of the hot sun pierce its thick cloak.
The legion began to panick, and in the ensuing confusion, Euphius order the footsoldiers in the vanguard to form a wedge and push towards the hills of the Crown., to escape the fires and gain a higer ground to defend from. The Vanguard was too hasty, however, and the footsoldiers became seperated from the rearguard and calvary behind.
Euphus ordered his soliders back to defend Nathans knights, but they refused/
"We are dead men! We have no water! The barbarians are all around us!"
Soon, the Barbarian wemics poured from the smoke and decended upon the rear formations. The cavalry, without a charge, were nearly defencless, and the footsoliders were exhausted.
The Barbarians pulled back, and as the rear unit attempted to mass a feeble charge, the plainsmen follwed with a volley of arrows. The Knights of the Order of the Hammer were breaking.
Seeing this, the vanguard's men's fear faded. They knew if the knights fell and routed, they would not alone be able to stand against the horde. They charged back to defend the knights.
Through small raids and hits, the units again merged and formed a tight formation, protecting the cavalry again inside. Euphus and Nathan ordered the men to march forward, without charging their agressor. They were defenceless until they hit more suitable terrain.
The barbarian strikes continued. Men died along the perimiter of the forces, and as they dropped, soldiers took place with shields up, marching at a literal creep. Euphus and Nathan struggled to prevent the forces from disintigrating.
The morale of the men was wavering, and their numbers were falling, but the discipline and training of the legions and knights kept cohesion strong... but Euphius noticed somthing else... the barbarians were growing confident. They lingered after a charge, instead of fleeing, to offer insults and battlecries. The Plainsmen archers stood openly, not hiding into the tall grass.
Euphius waited for the next strike. The barbarians fell like jackals onto the army, but rather than force back, they again stayed and taunted. The Kuraths reach could not well stand another raid.
Then Euphus Pulled his sword and held it high into the risen sun. The scream of charge echoed throug the Epillitian Crown, and the footsoldiers forced their shields into the onslaught of wemics and thrust their blades into the wall of barbarians.
The wemics were not expecting a counter, and their forward unit was enveloped by the footsoldier.
Seeing the opening, Nathan ordered his knights to ride out and around into a flanking position. The wemics attempted to stop them, but were cut off from the Kuraths Reach Centurion elites.
As the forward legions pushed up the hills towards the plainsmen skirmishers, they were met by the full onsaught of the barbarian army. The smoke filled sky and the baking sun slowed the legions centurions, but could not stop them. They bravely held their line until the tremendous thunder of the Knight-Equites of the Order of the hammer came leaping over the line, striking like a thrown spear into the heart of the barbarian army.
The wemics and plainsmen splintered like a broken shield.
It ended with the fracturing of the wemic tribes, and the routing of the Epillus plainsmen. The Plainsmen villages of Jetra and Pol were razed and rebuilt, as well as renamed. Jetra was renamed Port Euphius, and Pol was renamed Port Kirkun, as both were river ports, connecting the region with the southern frontier fiefdom of Valorian.
The Powerful southern Wemic tribe of Ter'Shada was forced to submit, and also forced to allow a shrine and mission of Toran to be built on the outskirts of their lands. They were also forced into service as auxilla to the Kuras Reach Leagion.
To maintain the western steppeland and control the plainsman and wemics that roamed, as well as to keep the region from Julaspiums grasp, Euphius established a keep in his name, Fort Praetlyn. It is a strong and large fort on a hillock outlooking the border, and north of the great Epillus wildflower seas of Ter'Shen'Bak, "the hunting grounds" of the wemic tribes.
After it's construction it was basically the frontier capital for Pylatea, and the only real defence of the steppland frontier, as the minor settlements of Port Kirkun and Port Euphius were to small to maintain a serious garrison.
Rebellion of the Mountain Tribes
It is said the cheifs from the tribes of the moutains wept when their plainsmen brothers were crushed under the blood soaked metal of the Kurathene boot.
They knew they would be next if they did not act fast to repel the foreign invaders from the Epillus steppe and the Liandryan lands.
The tribes of Hammerpaw united with the mountain tribes and the remaining scattered plainsmen tribes.
They formed an army, and moved out from their village along the lake Illius.
They marshalled all they could, and eventually stirred rebellion among the new colonies in the lands these foreigners dubbed "Pylatea"
Nathan Blackhammer and his knights were sent to confront this new barbarian army.
Only days after they march from Fort Praetlyn, however, full rebellions spreads across the colonies of the steppes. Euphius is left to try and hold his recently captured lands without the aid of the Order of the Hammer. The legion is spread thin, and struggles against the barbarians, suffering heavy losses.
Evenutaly the village of Port Euphius is abandoned, as it is overrun from the nearby mountains residents.
Nathans army, however, was unaware, as rather than take the roads from the south, he marched north into the mountains instead, attempting to take the barbarians by suprise. Of course, he did not know that his supply had been severed for the first few weeks of travel.
Soon they discovered their peril, but were to far advanced to do much about it. Nathan ordered a press into the mountains, hoping they could take supply in the moutnains light forests, and eventually strike the barbarian capital of Lake Illius. His knights marched day and night for 7 days, to the point of death, until they neared the mountains that protected the capital.
Nathan had an ace up his sleeve.
The Wemic tribe of Hammerpaw were established in the moutnains near the border of the lands of Julaspium, and had recently begun to benifit from trade with the Empire. They slowly were being lured into the Kurathene fold. Nathan called his lieutentants, Benedict Algar Rheineg, Artair Marcellus Julian, and Domenias Logan Calnarghy, to approach the Hammerpaw pridemother and offer an alliance.
The rest of his army marched towards the city.
By the next morning, the siege was laid. Nathan knew the mountain tribes would not long sit inside their small walls, and awaited eagerly for the return of his lieutentant. He was, afterall, currently outnumbered 30 to 1.
No word came by the end of the 10th day, and evenutally, the gates began to swarm with activity. Nathan pulled his forces to the only clearing, in a terrible position by the ridges and cliffs that protected the city. His army was mainly cavalry, and he needed the open land for a charge. By the suns first light, the tribesman poured from the gates and slammed into the raging cavalry like the waves of the great oceans onto the cliffs. The knights were strong in their armour. The weak bronze and tin swords of the tribesman vould barely pierce the solid plate and scale armour of the knights. However, manpower was not in Nathans favour, and any slight mistake would spell disaster. He slowly alternated his fighting lines to generate as many cavalry charges as possible, but it was not helping. The tribesman were too many.
Bodies stacked higher than the walls of the city, and the blood stained the lake crimson, but it was inevitable. The morale of the kights was fading, and their chargers were dwindling. By late afternoon, Nathan prepared to order the retreat.
Seeing the inevitable route, the tribesman rallied out of the city en masse, and tride to engulf the knights as to slaughter them once and for all. This only spurned the knights on, as only the fear of death can do to well disciplined troops.
As the entire army of barbarians surrounded the knights, the hills filled with roars and howls as the wemics of Hammerpaw began to spring from the trees. The mountain men did not even turn to face them, as they beleived this to be the reserves sent by Hammerpaw to chase and slaughter the fleeing knights.
They were mistaken.
The wemics shredded the flesh from the bones of the barbarians rear units, and cut a bloody path to the front, where the remaining few knights stood valiantly fighting on, Nathan himslef dismounted and cutting limbs from his enemies. Stories say the bodies were piled around him higher than the hight of a hill giant, and the blood set to his waistband.
The barbarians were routing, and scattered into the trees. The leader of this band charging the line to prevent the rally, saw Nathan fighting, and charged towards him, hoping to slay the general and in turn break the strong confidence of the prevailing knights.
As he lept at Nathan, Nathan swung with every ounce of strength, and supposedly cut the general in half cleanly.
At the sight of this, all at once, the armies fell silent, and the horrific slaughter ended. The barbarians submitted, and Nathan, standing in the middle of the chaos, stood victorious. He lead his small remain unit, and the wemic reinforcements into the small city, and used it as a staging point to reclaim the Port Euphius from the rebellion, and eventually met and ended the barbarian seige of Fort Praetlyn.
Euphius renamed the Barbarian capital on Lake Illius, Lake Blackhammer, in honour of Nathan Blackhammer.
The tribes were now utterly crushed, and submitted completly under the might of the Kurathene Empire.
The stolen throne
After the total conquest of Pylatea, Euphius leaves the region under the guidance of Nathan and his lieutanants to deal with matters elsewhere.
Soon after he leaves, whispers of dissent among the locals in the new colonies begin. The End of the conquests saw Nathan and his lieutenatns become the local lords.
Considering his position, the nobles of Pylatea, and the pridemothers of Hammerpaw, push for Nathana to Usurp the title of Pylatea and claim the land for himself.
He begrungingly does, almost more out of fear of the nobility then desire to gain title.
The people respect him, and soon all strain of rebellion is quelled, and the nobles once again work together to maintain control of the newly settled lands.
Because of the relative weakness of the controlling nobilities, and for fear that upon the return of Euphius, he'll loose his title under the political and military weight of the general, he creates the General Assembly of Lords, giving the nobility a centralised power over the people of the region, under his guidance.
The first act of the General Assembly is the writing of the "Grand Contract". A Feudal Contract of nobles, tieing themselves to a cheif noble of the Pylatean lands. A new title is created, a Duchal title, and Nathan declares himslef Grand Duke of Pylatea, offering lesser Duchal status to the other nobles. The Feudal contract basicaly puts Nathan as the head among equals, giving him great faith of the nobility, and assures his position among the nobles in the eventual return of Euphius.
Euphius did return to challenge the Usurper, but was shocked to see the strong centralized nobility rally around Nathan as the rightful claimant of the Lands of Pylatea. Nathan, needing more support to outnumber Euphius militarily, grants the pridemothers of Hammerpaw and Ter'Shada lordship under the General Assembly, also gaining their support.
The nobility rally completely, in support of the Feudal Contract, and Euphius is forced to submit. He relinquishes claims to the title of Grand Duke, but demands proper compensation from Grand Duke Blackhammer. Nathan, still holding doubts over the entire intrigue, gladly grants Euphius a Duchal title over the western Steppes, and declares him the head of the General Assembly, under himself.
He declares Euphius the new head of the Order of the Hammer, and makes him the Earl of Pylatean Liandrya.
Nathan then takes control of the Kuraths Reach Legion, and begins the process of developing the small frontier duchy of Pylatea.
Second Rebellion of the Mountain Tribes
Even though Nathan struggles to gain control of the region, the general populace eventual tire under the Feudal Contract granted to the lords, and once again desire freedom.
Eventually, rather than work another mans land for no gain, they rally and rise up, raiding and looting the colony of Lake Blackhammer.
The rebellion lasted for several days, and the looting was brutal. The nobility and merchants fled to the outlaying villages, and the legion simply stood back and waited for the barbarians to subside and end the revolt. Eventually, through little combat, they were pushed aside, but Lake Blackhammer was decimated.
Nathan calls a massive rebuilding program, but to try and maintain a slight grasp of the peasantry, orders the workers to be from the citizenship, and grants any barbarian that works in the rebulding citizenship under the law of the Empire.
Eventually, total freeborn rights are granted, so all children born in the Duchy would be born free. The rebellions and strife slowly steamed out. Now all barbarian children born were free, unless they serf themselves to a lord to pay debts, or other legitimate and legal serfdom.
On the outskirts of the cliffs of Lake Blackhammer, on the site where Nathan staged his miraculous conquest of the village, the Hammerkeep is built as the gateway to Lake Blackhammer, and the access point from the Highway to the eastern fronteir. The Knighthood takes up residence their , and a large market is eventually formed to maintain trade to the outside regions.
Slowly, as the conquered locals begin to feel some freedom once again, rebellion slowly simmers and fades, and the grasp of the Empire on the region grows ever more present.
The Pylatea Gemstone Rush
Eventually, merchants and entrepreneurs established in the new colony, seeking wealth and title, and the prospects of glory in the new conquered lands.
One such individual was a man named Calvus Gilonem. He was a merchant of some means, and a bit of an explorer.
He funded a small trip to the region, and based himself out of Lake Blackhammer, trying to start a trade in selling barbarian artifiacts and dipping into the local fish market.
However, one day he decided to build a home along the great cliffs of the city.
The building was going splendidly, and the construction cut through the clliffs, establishing a nice villa for him and his pregnant wife.
Eventually, however, the construction stopped. His crew could not cut into a segment of the rock. After careful cutting and excavation, He discovered why. Diamond.
Diamond gave way to emerald... and soon he discovered large seems of many types of gemstones throughout the cliffs.
News rapidly spread, and soon a huge rush of prospectors flooded the colony seeking riches among the cliffs.
It rapidly began to get out of hand, and the city was totally bogged under by immigrants. This greatly upset the locals and nobles, as banditry and chaos began to spread into everyday life. Taxes were not properly carried, and the Census and Excise office was become sloppy and corrupt.
Natives felt it was their right to have first dibbs to the riches, and begand to revolt and picket against the immigrants.
Nathan feard a full blown riot was at hand.
He created the merchants Agreement. He granted lisencing rights to Calvus, the discoverer of the gemstones, and began the building of an official miine. He outlawed prospects outside of the jurisdicted mine, and forced many of the immigrants out. He also declared rights of citizenship, more or less giving locals, both Kurathene and indigenous alike, first dibbs on the rich gemstone quarry.
Soon, as legislation passed to assure wealth stayed in the fiefdom, and the Census and Excise bearau was replaced, order began to return, and the rush subsided.
As the chaos ended, more and more seams were discovered, and Pylatea establlished itself as the gemstone capital of the Empire, and a new haven for Powerful Merchant princes, the primary of them all being the Gilonem family.
Seeing this, Nathan granted them total lisencing rights, meaning the General Assembly would not claim any taxation on him and his exploits of the mine, only other merchants. He also granted Calvus Gilonem a position in court as the Steward, to manage financial situations with his equally economically wise wife, Chrystal.
SOon, the economy of the fief, bouyed by the gemstone rush, began to flourish.
Thieves and Barbarians
Even though order was returning and law was again prevailing, the rush estabished a criminal element in the city, pushed harder by the granting of Merchants rights.
Many disgruntled ousted prospectors, and indigenous locals feeling they are not getting their fair share, establish a "thieves Guild" of bandits and smugglers, to funnel the wealth into what they beleive to be the rightful pockets.
The crime began to escalate to the point where Nathan declared martial law among the colonies, and soon established the Blackhammer Watchman as a guards regiment to act as a judiciary to the residents.
The army is weakened by the transition, and as more trouble decends on the small colony of Pylatea, the Malekite hordes living deep in the Galdosian mountains begin to stir, trying to seize the chance and exploit the chink in Pylateas armour.
Soon, the King Orgoron the Maneavolent sends his armies, and after some minor skirmishes with Kuraths Reach, pins them inside the city and lays siege to the Colony of Lake Blackhammer.
Fearing defeat against the strong armies of the Giant King, Nathan pulls his army and residents out of the city into the hammerkeep, and calls the troops from around the Fiefdom to lift the seige. As the nobles arrive in Hammerkeep, he announces something else... a change in laws of inheritance to a strong Primogrniture, meaning his children will directly inherit all titles. He establishes a Semisalic law, so even his daughter can claim title, and also, his wife.
A little upset at the declatation, the nobles nonetheless sent forth their armies, and soon removed the malekites from Lake Blackhammer.
Nathan, not one to fear the front lines, is seriously wounded in the battle, and many begin to fear his death, and what will happen when his still living wife claims the title of Grand Duchess...
Rebuilding Lake Blackhammer
The city was totally leveled after the scourge of King Orgorons horde.
The citizens returned to nothing but dust. Everything they had worked for was gone.
Nathan, seeing his life at an end, and wanting to finally see his colony established as a power within the empire, hands his entire monetary estate to the citizens of Lake Blackhammer, to undergo a dramatic rebuilding of the city.
Soon plans are drawn, and the city is slowly transformed from a razed tribal colony, to a large stone city-keep, intended to keep out any further attacks. The walls strech from the cliffs to the lake itself. Even the bridges and docks are built from strong stone. A large quarry is established north in the mountains to supply the rock, and once again, the economy and population begins to struggle uphill and return the land to fertility.
To further defend the land, the Order of the Hammer establishes a tower in Port Euphius to watch over the mountains at all times, as an early warning of future raids accross the lake.
Slowly, the region begins to recover, and trade once again begins from the Hammerkeep throughout the empire.
The indigenous locals once again begin to stir the pot. The petition the dying Grand Duke Nathan for redress, and demand complete citizenship, not just freeborn rights.
In a last ditch attempt to unify the barbarians, wemics and Kurathene immigrants, he grants all within the feif legal citizenship.
This, coupled with his dramatic donation, secures him and his heirs among the populace... however the nobles are outraged.
To prevent a spiral of control, he modifies the law of citizenship, and declares serfdom among the peasantry. Any peasant serfed would need to purchase his or her freedom through labour to their respective lord.
The results are a mix of Nobles and peasants both agreeing and disagreeing, but for now, rebellion does not seem to be rearing its familiar head in Pylatea.
Nathan further begins to appoint many of the local barbarians titles and land, and grants many baronets and merchant rights, securing more and more of the land under the barbarians population, but still keeping the bulk of the wealth flowing up into the lords of the General Assembly.
Peace finally seeps into the fief, and into Nathans life... all to late.
The Death of Nathan Blackhammer
Shortly after the rebulding of Lake Blackhammer begins, and the establishing of citizenship laws, Grand Duke Nathan Elliot Blackhammer dies.
Popular support is poured from the people to maintain his wife, Chrystal, as the true claimant to the title. The nobles, still irked by the changes to the laws of heredity, from an elective among the vassalage, try and force the title to be recognized back to Euphius, claiming Nathan was a usurper after all, and not the rightful heir.
Eventually, however, the wemic nobility and merchant classes rally around the Blackhammer family, fearing that Euphius would change the Feudal Contract and remove the Merchants Rights.
The merchant prince, Calvus Gilonem petitions to the nobles, and convinces them that granting the title back to Euphius would lead furthe to a change in the Feudal Contract, and ending in total regal supremacy, as well as an elimination of the General Assembly, so Euphius could restructure the land to his likeing.
The locals, outraged at this prospect, begin to stir revolt against Euphius and his backers. Also, many of his previous allies fall to the side of the locals and Merchants, and begin to support the Blackhammer line
Soon, Chrystal Isodoria Blackhammer is declared the Grand Duchess, as Euphus, seeing a full revolt on the horizon, gives up his claim once again, and submits.
The new Grand Duchess resumes the immense rebuilding process and begins a total economic restructuring with the assistance of the Merchant Prince and Steward, Calvus Gilonem. Rights are once again reaffirmed to the Merchants and craftsman, and the Feudal Contract is resigned among the nobility.
Trouble still seems to curse the Blackhammer line, however. They are basically bankrupt, after Nathan offered the estate to rebuld the city. Through all of the economic restruction, financial disaster looms on the horizon for the family, so the Duchess begins a massive political campaign to marry the daugher, Auwenilda to a rich noble. However, to make sure the money goes into the fiefdom, the noble must also become the claimant of the title.
Duchess Chrystal declares Auwenilda as the heir apperant to the title, transfering across from the rightful heir, her son, Gabriel. This means that when Auwenilda takes title, her husband would effectivly be given the title of Grand Duke, and as the male, complte control of the fief, and the mans forutne would be that of the blackhammer line. Under the laws of inheritance, marriages outside of the family became "adoptions" so the new noble would effectivly take the name of his wife, and not the traditional way.
To devote her time to this task, Chrystal cedes her title to Auwenilda immidiatly, and begins her travels. Auwenilda is corronated as the Grand Duchess.
However, Auwenilda was under and oath to undertake a pilgramige on the death of her father, and she decided she will not forsake the oath. She leaves for her pilgramige, and give her brother temporary title, as 2nd Grand Duke.
Immediatly, Euphius and the General Assembly begin a campaign to convince Gabriel to Usurp the title, as he is the rightful heir
Once again, chaos looms for Pylatea.