Mairdwell

Mairdwell is a large, wealthy country where our story takes place. It is largely feudalist in its economic leanings, though with a very significant number of free commoners. It is presently divided into four duchies, often referred to as Princedoms.

Recent History
About fifty years ago Mairdwell was engaged in a period of political upheaval as the young Duke Arabell of Alantaine, who controlled a large portion of the southwestern coast (a little more than a third of what the duchy of Alantaine is today) lead a massive campaign against King Alekos Katerini, wiping out his line entirely and seizing control of the country. Arabell was a talented general and politician, but it is suspected by many that his wife, Lady Melanie of Bredon, was the real power behind his winning the war. In addition to having inherited the largest duchy in the country from her mother, Melanie was personable, clever, ambitious, and an exceptional negotiator. It is unclear whether Arabell would have been nearly so successful were it not for Melanie's efforts in bringing much of the nobility of Northern Stoll into their cause. The Katerini family had strong ties to the Empire of the Earth, which lent them assistance in the form of money, but also notably sent several well known paladins and clerics to their aid, including most notably the orcish paladin Strovan of Torn Bridges and the dwarven cleric known as the Red Star (the former perished in the battle for the capital, while the latter is rumored to still be alive somewhere, having survived the war). Had Arabell's forces not been able to hold a united front on the northern and western fronts, it is unlikely they would have been successful, especially if, as has been theorized by historians, the siding of the Northeastern holdings with Arabell is what convinced Lord Meulin Sion to hedge his bets and refrain from sending wizards to oppose the rebellion.

Whatever the case may be, Duke Arabell was eventually successful in his campaign for the throne after a war which lasted two years, and immediately set about dividing up the land of those who had opposed him and demanding oaths of fealty from those who had remained neutral. For the first seven years of his rule, Arabell's relationship with the Empire of the Earth was rocky to say the least, and there was a period when some feared he would start hunting down members of its ranks who had fought against him in his bid for the throne. They were eventually able to come to an accord, however, and their uneasy tension was broken another three years later when Arabell's first son, Davos, was chosen as a paladin of Qashira, and Arabell sent the son who would one day be king of Mairdwell to study in the Empire.

King Arabell and Queen Melanie proved to be effective rulers, but not kind ones, and during their reign they engaged in a process of aggressively culling layers of nobility to consolidate land and power in the hands of those who were loyal, or else too powerful to do away with entirely entirely. They established laws requiring the nobility to meet annually to discuss affairs, and they toured the country frequently, staying with each noble family, understanding their situations, and making deals or adjudicating when conflicts between the nobility arose. With the exception of two small rebellions, the new monarchs were able to successfully hold onto their power without serious challenge.

King Arabell outlived his wife, dying in his late seventies. Before he died, he split his domain into four duchies, which were given to each of his his sons in order of importance and birth--Davos received the greatly expanded duchy of Alantaine, as well as his father's title. Arabell II received his mother's territory, Bredon. The third son, Marcus, inherited Rian, which in spite of being a smaller territory, contained the Barony of Sion, giving Marcus control of the heart of magical and alchemical research in Mairdwell, leaving Beldon, the youngest son, the expanded territory of Stoll.

Very Rough Timeline
more later it's 2am.
 * About 700 years ago, the area that will be known as Mairdwell can be divided into three parts. One, which contains parts of Rian, Bredon, and Trell was a country called Rend. The second, which contained most of modern day Alantaine and parts of southern Stoll, was in the possession of the Empire of the Earth, which at that time possessed large portions of Osstkur and enormous swaths of land to the south. The last was a loosely arranged group of local feudal warlords, which stretched the space in between. Around this time a particularly successful warlord, Weslyn Meir, began a campaign to unite the barons of the central plains. Historical fun fact: In addition toshrewd politician and general, Weslyn was an early form of what we would now recognize as a paladin. While it is possible that some clerics which predated him were indeed paladins and oath-based magics are well recorded, records predating about 750 years ago do not suggest the kind of focus on destruction and repulsion of magical beings which characterizes the paladins of today.
 * Around the time of Weslyn Meir's campaign of unity, the Empire of the Earth was beginning to face opposition from the dwarves of Osstkur, who rejected the calls for the end of the Old Ways. They also faced contest with the forces of the Ivvenoni, a quickly growing empire to the South. This left them unable to properly control their borders, opening them to some invasions, but more importantly, defections. Kelsey Landon, an ambitious general responsible for defending the northern territories, defected with many of their commanders and men (and most importantly the northeastern territories) in hopes of starting their own kingdom.
 * Kelsey, with more experience and more existing infrastructure and a parent government unable to deal with him at the moment, was able to establish his own territory whilst Weslyn was still trying to convince the central plains barons to fall in with him. Seeing the infighting in the nearby territory, Kelsey attempted to attack places with their forces committed elsewhere in order to gather himself more land. This backfired on him, as his early successes convinced the barons to unify under the Meir banner to deal with him.
 * A long period of bloodshed between the two ensued, with a number of major skirmishes. This "fifty year war" really entails a pattern of many, many smaller conflicts, often years apart. The war was eventually settled with a marriage of Kelsey's daughter to Weslyn's son and his son to another major baron within the Mair region of control.
 * About 570 years ago the neighboring countries of Meirdwell and Lantain actually joined together in an alliance when Lantain suffered large-scale religious uprisings instigated by the Empire of the Earth which were followed by an attempted crusade against Lantain. After a several year period of conflict, Avalon Meir, the queen of the time, offered to lend aid to Lantain in exchange for the Landon family swearing fealty to her. They did, on the condition that they would maintain some control of Lantain as a duchy, and by their powers combined they actually pushed the Empire of the Earth back to the sea, taking what was left of the empire's northern territories.
 * About 550 years ago we began to see the first evidence of the great war of the Eastern continent, as there was a mass-migration of elves to the east coast of modern day Mairdwell. Some ethnic violence ensued.
 * Around 500 years ago Osstkur, flush from having both taken back its own ancestral lands but also pushed into new lands to the south, attempted to expand into now-Mairdwell. It did so successfully, capturing all of continental Rend, before attempting to expand into Mairdwell when they suddenly lost interest in the island of Trell for reasons that continue to baffle scholars. It was somewhat successful, capturing most of modern-day Bredon.
 * At around the same time, we see the Thiers coup, which resulted in the eradication of the Mair line of succession. While it resulted in some political reshuffling, it was a quick and effectively executed coup which left little room for response. The Thiers family claimed divine legitimacy in the form of their magical bloodline, which had produced a number of sorcerers.
 * Around 460 years ago Mairdwell began a series of invasions into Osstkur's captured territories. These would be attempted on and off for almost seventy years under four different monarchs and be met with response invasions as well. While this is not considered one continuous war as conflicts were often as much as five years apart, it did birth a major rivalry between the two nations which would last another two hundred years after. Mairdwell's invasions went very poorly at first, but the tides would turn as the Empire of the Earth, having largely given up on widespread territorial control, saw their opportunity to become an empire not of territory but of power and results. Instead of engaging in a traditional crusade war, the empire lent Mairdwell highly skilled troops with magical talents, which combined with a strategy of cutting off the northern territories from central Osstkur allowed Mairdwell to isolate the territories in question and eventually take them over. This is the point at which the mainland Mairdwell we see today finally took shape. The Empire was able to use this opportunity to extend the presence of the Keepers of the Earth, as between wars their troops would often set up temples or bards guilds or take up presences in the courts of local nobility.