A HISTORY OF THE CALUDIC PEOPLES
by Nildias of Balduran

	In the time of the Great Ice the Caludic tribes crossed the 
glacial wastes of Ysgarth searching for a pleasant land to make their 
home.  They had heard that a mass of hostile tribes had settled in the 
valleys south of the steppes so they travelled westwards, following a 
difficult route north of the Cyhirian Mountains to eventually reach 
the coast of the Western Sea.  The climate was still harsh, but the ice 
had already withdrawn from parts of the coastline because of warm 
currents of air and water which flowed from the south.  The Caludae 
were farmers, but though they found the coast an improvement over 
the frozen steppes where they had followed the wild herds for 
several previous generations, the growing season was too short to 
support their population adequately and there was a hostile 
population of primitive natives who the Caludae named Echyrion.
	A precarious existence was established on the coast.  It was an 
unpleasant life of constant warfare with the Echyrion and inadequate 
harvests augmented by hunting and fishing.  With increasing 
population the Caludae were doomed if they remained in the hostile 
climate of the northern coasts.  Even though the popultion of Caludae 
was fairly small, no more than a dozen clans of fewer than a 
thousand adults each, it quickly became clear to their leaders that 
they would have to find a better place to live.
	As the clans prepared for a seemingly inevitable move 
southward to try to carve out a niche in already crowded lands, a 
leader emerged among the Clan Liron named Manawan.  Manawan 
was a fisherman who had travelled up and down the coast and come 
into contact with members of a native tribe which had regular 
commerce with another native tribe which they claimed lived on a 
large island almost a hundred miles out in the Western Sea, an island 
where the land was fertile and the air was kept warm because it was 
surrounded by waters which flowed from the south.  As Manawan 
had heard it the population of natives there was small and could 
easily be overcome by the Caludae if they could get there.
	When the clans met together they were overjoyed at 
Manawan's news of a fair land across the sea, for they had once been 
great seafarers.  But their hopes withered when they realized that 
they had only small boats of sticks and hides because the years of 
cold had stripped the land of trees.  Tiny hide boats would never 
cross the rough waters of the Western Sea, so their hopes were 
dashed, or so they thought.  For Manawan and his cousin Guidon 
were great shapers of magic.  Manawan had learned all the secrets of 
the seas and Guidon the secrets of the air.  Together they had the 
answer for the Caludae clans, for Manawan's skill with water and 
Guidon's mastery of cold air would let them carve great boats from 
the living ice of the glaciers.  With the labor of all the clans they 
would drag these boats to the coast, and with magic they would 
preserve them through the warm waters until they could reach the 
Summer Isles.
	It was a desperate plan, but seemed like the best hope for the 
clans, so Manawan and Guidon labored for a year and a day until 
they had shaped three score and more boates.  They were rough 
boats with sails of rime and hulls of adamantine ice, but they would 
serve.  For another year the clans labored and many died, dragging 
the frozen boats to the shore (near the sight of modern day ****).  In 
the dead of winter they set out, men, women, children, dogs and 
livestock shivering for four days through uncharted waters, beyond 
the sight of land.  On the fifth day the green mountains of a great 
island rose from the waters and they knew they were home.
	In this way the earliest ancestors of the Caludic people found 
their way to the Summer Isles of Iniscael, Imaly and Thaned.  They 
quickly dominated the native tribes and their nation grew and 
prospered in a sort of golden age of heroes and legend.
	A more accurately recorded period of Caludic history begins 
with the melting of the ice and the warming of the world around the 
years 2000 to 1800bt.  As the climate warmed, conditions on the 
mainland improved and regular contact with the mainland resumed.  
Caludic fishermen spent summers there drying their catches and by 
about 1000bt they had established permanent colonies which were 
absorbing the growing population which was overflowing the 
Summer Islands.  Then, around 50bt the Great Cataclysm took place.  
The direct effects the Caludae more than a thousand miles from the 
Abyss were fairly small, but the earthquakes and volcanoes changed 
the climate and the flow of the warm currents from the south, so that 
they turned westward before they reached the Summer Isles, which 
quickly became more like the Autumn or Winter Isles.  At about the 
time of the founding of Tolemeias the Caludic clans began to migrate 
over a period of several generations until most of their population 
was living on the relatively warm mainland and only a few clans 
remained behind on the islands.
	Over the next few years a loose-knit confederacy of clans 
developed with its center in what is now the Kingdom of Galetach 
where the Clan Ma'Liron was recognized as the first among equals, 
leading a population which had grown considerably and now 
numbered more than two score different clans.  Warfare and feuding 
between clans was common and when disagreements couldn't be 
worked out at the yearly meeting of the clan chiefs in council 
bloodshed was an ready solution.
	By the year 220at growing population had led to increased 
rivalry over territory and Uigan Ma'Liron declared himself to be King 
of all the Caludae.  With the help of his champion Maech Ma'Hengar 
this claim almost became a reality as Uigon conquered all of the clans 
from Southern Combria to the Northern Wastes, though he was 
unable to shake loose the small clans of mountainous Badenoc or the 
clans remaining on the Western Isles.  Uigon's kingdom lasted exactly 
as long as Uigon did, which was for 32 years that some look back to 
as a second golden age, or at the least a silver age.  On his death 
Uigon divided it between his three sons, Uigon, Blaedwach and 
Maenwarad.  Despite the efforts of the aging Maech Ma'Hengar they 
were soon at each others throats, and the clans were in rebellion.  
Chaos reigned for a dozen years, until 264 when Blaedwach's son 
Blaegnar was able to acquire two thirds of the old kingdom by 
marrying his cousin Uishla.  As he was preparing to conquer the 
lands held by his aging and rather unpopular uncle Maenwarad, 
disaster struck.
	In 267at, at the height of civil war among the Caludae the Aesc 
came pouring across the Cyrhinian Mountains with weapons and 
ferocity which the Caludae were ill-prepared to meet.  The Aesc were 
late arrivals to the region, part of the first wave of the last great 
migration, cousins to the Saes, the Fersians and the Gott.  While those 
other peoples migrated southward, the relatively small population of 
Aesc moved towards the western coast which they had heard was 
similar to their ancestral homeland where they had been great 
fishermen and seaborne raiders.  The Aesc numbered no more than 
10,000, fewer than the original tribes of the Caludae many 
generations before, but they were better armed and armored and 
maintained a strong tradition of martial discipline and organization 
which gave them advantages greter than those of number.  They also 
brought with them a coningent of trained cavalry who fought with 
long spears or lances, an innovation entirely new to the Caludae.
	The great Aesc chief Skjold led the conquest of the Caludae.  
They began by harassing the outlying regions of the Caludic kingdom 
near the Cyrhinian mountains.  Once they had established control 
over the eastern lake region of what is now Airgedelia they 
approached King Maenwarad and offered him an alliance against his 
nephew King Blaegnar.  Maenwarad knew that he was doomed 
without some sort of aid so he eagerly accepted an alliance with the 
Aesc.  Much to the surprise of the people of the northern territories 
which Maenwarad ruled (modern Bancor and Airdmacha) they 
suddenly found Aesc warriors everywhere and Aesc nobles taking 
control of their territory.  Those clan leaders who resisted were 
ruthlessly put to the sword and no one was much surprised when 
one morning Maenwarad was found dead of mysterious causes in the 
castle where he had become a virtual prisoner of his supposed allies.  
Quickly the leaders of the northern clans realized that they could 
maintain control over their territory if they cooperated with their 
new overlords, or they could choose to rule small plots of land just 
large enough for their coffins if they resisted.  Thus, the Aesc army 
was augmented by Caludae warriors from a number of clans who, not 
surprisingly, found themselves at the forefront of most of the 
subsequent battles.
	The traditional Caludic ways of war did not serve King Blaegnar 
well.  Caludae warriors prided themselves on individual prowess in 
battle, hewing furiously into the enemy ranks with their great war 
axes.  This emphasis on individual achievement meant that there was 
little military discipline and Caludic armies tended to just charge 
towards the enemy in a mass, shouting battle cries to strike terror 
into their hearts.  This was strikingly ineffective against the Aesc.  
The heavy Aesc shields were excellent for parrying axe blows, the 
Aesc cavalry was hard to unseat and could attack axemen from 
behind or above, and the Aesc infantry formed spear walls on which 
charging Caludae Gealts would impale themselves. 
	The Aesc won a series of battles across the central regions of 
what is now Galetach.  At Culnodaran, Dumarass and Uiscar they 
defeated larger Caludic armies, but with significant casualties on both 
sides.  In fact, by the time the Aesc had reached western Galetach 
and were on the verge of driving the Caludae into the sea their 
resources were stretched very thin.  Not only had they suffered large 
numbers of men dead and wounded, but they had also found it 
necessary to leave men behind to garrison towns they captured and 
to deal with guerilla attacks on their rear flank.  The result was that 
by the time they reached the fortress of Tormorugal on the northern 
coast of Galetach their available numbers were half what they had 
been, even counting the remaining levies from the northern clans.  
At the battle of Tormorugal the Caludae under King Blaegnar and the 
aging general Maech Ma'Hengar numbered almost three times the 
force of fewer than 5,000 Aesc.  As battle raged on the plains around 
Tormorugal it became clear that battle was likely to go neither to the 
strong nor the numerous, but more likely to the ravens who fed on 
the corpses of the unburied dead.  
	On the third day of the battle a truce was called and a parlay 
was gathered.  King Blaegnar had been advised that although the 
Aesc preferred to fight as an army, they had an old tradition of trial 
by combat, so that if he were to challenge them to resolve the battle 
by a contest of champions it would be difficult for King Skjold (for so 
he was now calling himself) to refuse.  King Blaegnar issued the 
challenge that the champion of the Caludae and the champion of the 
Aesc should fight and that the fate of the nations and of the two 
armies gathered there should rest on that contest.  King Skjold 
accepted, knowing that his army would not have been able to hold 
out much longer.  King Blaegnar designated Maech Ma'Hengar as his 
champion and King Skjold chose his wife's brother Tunstir as his 
champion.  The two heroes boarded a small boat and were rowed out 
to a large rock just off the coast called Hochlan's Head where the 
armies could see them, but none could interfere.  There they bared 
arms and decided the fate of two peoples.
	Maech Ma'Hengar had the advantage of years of battle 
experience, but he was past his prime and had to rely mostly on 
cunning, already being near exhaustion after three days of battle and 
three months of discouraging retreat.  Tunstir had the advantages of 
youth and size, but he was known to be rash and incautious, though 
he was relatively well rested having only reached the battle in the 
final day, after returning from smaller clashes in the east.  The duel 
began not long after dawn and wore on well past noon.  After the 
first hour both men had been bloodied by inconsequential wounds.  
After the second hour both men were staggering in exhaustion.  
After the third hour they were weakened by their wounds and could 
barely lift their weapons.  In the fourth hour Tunstir was wounded 
deeply in the neck and seemed no longer able to turn his head..  But 
towards the end of that hour, with the sun high over head Tunstin 
seemed to find a second wind, and calling upon all of the gods of the 
Aesc he fell on Maech with a flurry of blows which the older man 
could barely parry, and as the Maech fell to his knees under the 
pressure of the attack, Tunstir made a final swing with his 
greatsword and sheared through the Caludic champion from his right 
shoulder to his left hip.  Tunstir imemdiately collapsed in exhaustion, 
but Maech fell never to rise again and it seemed the day had been 
won by the Aesc.
 	King Blaegnar was not satisfied with this result, and while the 
Aesc were cheering their champion Blaegnar's private guard fell on 
them, trying to fight through and kill King Skjold.  When they saw 
this a portion of the Caludae clans joined the battle, but more than 
half stood away from the conflict, shocked by the treachery of their 
king.
	Faced by roughly equal numbers, the Aesc were able to 
regroup and made quick work of King Blaegnar and his traitorous 
followers, the legend being that King Blaegnar was found hiding 
among the dead horses.  When he was discovered King Skjold had 
him impaled on a lance which passed between his buttocks, through 
his body and out his mouth, and he was displayed in this 
unattractive position until the carrion birds had rendered him 
unrecognizable.
	Once the battle was over the chiefs of the eight clans which had 
stood aloof met with King Skjold and a treaty was negotiated.  
Blaegnar's line was forever forbidden the throne of Caludia and King 
Skjold was recognized as the new King of Caludia.  As reward for 
their support King Skjold named his six most loyal war leaders as 
Earls over six of the provinces within Caludia (two of which had not 
yet actually been conquered) and took Galetach for himself, declaring 
himself King of all the Aesc and Caludae.  From the lower ranks of his 
best warriors he picked a dozen men and made them Thegns ruling 
over lesser territories within the realm.  The remaining 12 provinces 
within the Earldoms were returned to their original Caludic lords 
who had eithe sided with the Aesc from the start or had stayed out 
of the final betrayal.  These lords King Skjold named Barons (or 
Bregnara).  Together these formed the 30 great houses of Caludia 
from tht day forward.
	In the aftermath of the conquest the remnants of King 
Blaegnar's supporters and family fled to the Western Isles where 
their rule was welcomed reluctantly and they began a meaningless 
government in exile.  The strongest of the new Aesc Earls with 
picked men from the army marched south to conquer the as yet 
unclaimed regions of Pyredian and Olegir in an easy campaign which 
might have added yet more territory had they not found their way 
blocked by the large and well organized army of the Kyvenic 
kingdoms of Morianoc and Saisiloc.
	Thus began the reign of King Skjold, the founder of the 
Skjoldung line which has ruled the Caludic lands to this day.  King 
Skjold's reign was actually rather brief, ending with his untimely 
death in 279at.  His son Rugnir was a weak man, but an adequate 
king and managed to keep the kingdom unified and functioning 
fairly well for 20 years.  With his death in 299at his son Hadding 
should have ascended the throne, but by Aesc traditiona ascensionl 
to the leadership of the people had to be confirmed by the Ulvitan, a 
council of family leaders.  Traditionally this approval was assumed to 
be a rubber stamp, but Hadding was known to be so dissipate and 
unreliable that debate dragged on and on.  While the debate was 
deadlocked Hadding was conveniently slain (perhaps not by 
accident) when he fell from a cliff while hunting near the coast, and 
the succession passed to his brother Ingonar who ascended the 
throne in 304.  Ingonar had not been raised to rule.  He had lived 
much of his life with his mother's family in Auscia, had been 
educated as a clerk and diplomat, and as a result was the first Aesc 
king to be literate.
	Ingonar spent most of his reign instituting political, legal and 
institutional reforms.  He drew on traditions of both Aesc and 
Caludae society and ideas he had picked up during his youth in 
Auscia and put together a functional legal code, eliminating some 
barbaric traditions like trial by fire and trial by combat and 
instituting a system of reliable civil law and simple administration.  
He also instituted a controversial system of funding government by 
aportionment of responsibility for raising treasury money to the 
different nobles by means of a Great Assize.  This was an assessment 
made every three years of the worth of property held within each of 
the Earldoms.  The results of this assize were passed on to the Earls 
who were expected to provide a certain amount of wealth and 
support for the government proportional to the resources the assize 
claimed were within their Earldom.  They were expected to pass this 
cost on to the Barons and Thegns beneath them who would raise the 
money by the means of their choosing from the common people.
	The Great Assize was looked on with considerable suspicion 
and discontented voices spoke out quietly about theft of property 
and violation of sovereignty, but when the Assize went into effect in 
312 the amount assessed was sufficiently small that the expected 
rebellion did not break out.
	In fact, the assize and assessment system worked well through 
the reign of Ingonar, his son Skjold II and into the reign of his 
Ingonar's grandson Laendor.  Laendor found himself involved in an 
expensive war with the Kyvenic Kingdoms over the southern 
Earldoms of Pyredian and Olegir.  To provide for the defense of these 
territories, in 371 Leandor doubled the size of the assessment, which 
had already been increasing gradually for the previous 30 years.  
Nobles complained that they were being asked to raise three or four 
times what their fathers had provided and as much as ten times 
what their grandfathers had paid under the first Assize.  They 
threatened to go into rebellion, which Laendor could ill afford with a 
war starting on the southern border.  In the end a compromise was 
reached in which Leandor gave up the right to raise the assessment 
unilaterally and an Assize Court was formed which would oversee 
the assizes and hear grievances regarding financial matters.  The 
membership of the Assize Court consisted of representatives of the 
six Earls, plus one representative for the lesser nobles of each of the 
Earldoms.
	The reign of Skjold II represented the height of power for the 
Aescan kings of a unified Caludic nation.  Laendor was forced to give 
up power to his nobles, and while his son Ingonar II showed great 
promise he was obsessed with military glory and died in a naval 
battle with the Kyvenian fleet off of Seregond.  His brother Thalric 
had a long, but undistinguished reign bogged down with economic 
problems stemming from the unreasonable military spending of 
previous reigns.  In 425 Thalric died without legitimate offspring and 
the throne passed to his sickly and mentally unsound younger 
brother Harbest the Mad who only ruled for a matter of months 
before Thalric's illegitimate son Ingoman went into rebellion, at 
which point a cabal of old Caludic nobles and clan leaders also went 
into rebellion.  The battles of the Interregnum began with the 
assassination of Harbest by unknown partisans, probably Caludic, 
followed by 11 years of warfare, at the end of which Conhurrach 
Ma'Faelid came to the throne with the support of the money and 
armies of Morianoc.  Conhurrach was a powerful Caludic noble with a 
marginal relationship to the mostly fictional Caludic royal family.  
During his six year reign Ingoman continued to fight for Aesc 
supremacy and gradually gathered the power of the Aesc earls 
behind him as they remained uneasy with a Caludae on the throne.  
When Conhurrach died in 442 Ingoman assumed power as regent for 
Harbest's grandson Skjold whose father Mangrim had been as mad as 
Harbest and had lived most of his life in exile, scared literally out of 
his wits by the thought of returning to his chaotic country.
	The regency of Ingoman marks the second period of gains in 
power for the Aescan Earls, to whom Ingoman was forced to give 
concessions in the name of his ward Skjold in order to keep the peace 
and secure control of the throne.  When Skjold reached the age of 16 
in 451, the aging Ingoman stepped down and assumed a position as 
Earl of Olegir, which had been conquered at the end of his regency.  
Skjold III maried Colhira, the daughter of Conhurrach and they ruled 
jointly for 5 years, until Colhira died in childbirth, at which point 
Skjold took the throne alone.  Skjold's reign ended with his death 
from plague in 462 and as his marriage had been without issue the 
throne passed to his younger brother Laendor, much to the chagrin 
of the Caludic population.
	Despite grave misgivings about him among the Calidic elements 
of the population Laendor II proved to be a relatively good king.  He 
was not afflicted by the madness of many of his immediate 
predecessors and was successful at consolidating power and reaching 
an accomodation with the Earls and Barons in the realm.  Laendor 
was sometimes called 'The Lawgiver' or 'The Just', or most commonly 
Laendor Lawman.  Laendor's main skill was at diplomacy and 
compromise, at reaching accomodation with factions within the 
greater kingdom and with contentious neighbors.  No major wars or 
uprisings occured during his reign, because he was able to identify 
sources of trouble and resolve problems by negotiation or by well 
timed, limited use of military force.  In retrospect Laendor may be 
criticized for being too accomodating, for in his reign the pattern of 
diminishment of the power of the throne continued and more and 
more power gravitated towards the Earls, particularly the Earls of 
Airgedelia whose wealth and connections to the royal line gave them 
great aspirations.  Laendor can also be faulted for ruling so long that 
when he died his son Laendor III was already in late middle age and 
ill-health, dying of a chill in the third year of his reign.
	Laendor II's eldest son, Hulric, was weak an sickly like his 
father and hardly ruled at all, leaving most of the work of governing 
to his brother Aedulman who took the throne when he died 
unmarried and unmourned in 511.  Aedulman was the first of a 
series of four kings with the same name and much the same 
character.  He was a firm, competent administrator, inclined by 
nature to favor a life of ease over a life of action.  It was in 
Aedulman II's reign that the Combrian dominions went into rebellion 
and not long after they were invaded and conquered by Saes 
adventurers.  Aedulman II and his son Aedulman III fought an off 
and on war with the Saes conquerors of Olegir and Pyredein, but 
ultimately they could not command sufficient support from their 
Earls to hold on to that territory.  This conflict was concluded with 
the death of the promising young Aedulman IV in a battle with 
Saesan cavalry in northern Olegir.
	When Hulric II took the throne in 612 he had other things to 
worry about than the Combrian problem.  The expense of fighting an 
unwinable war in the south had mounted and his predecessors had 
raised taxes and fees to the point where the nobles were on the 
verge of open rebellion.  Hulric did what he could to lower the rates, 
but the nation owed a great deal to Tolemeian bankers who 
threatened to fund a Saes invasion of Airgedelia.  When news of this 
possibility became public Earl Ingoman III of Arigedelia began 
openly talking about seceding from the kingdom.  Hulric attempted 
to maintain control over the kingdom and pay off the debt, but 
Airgedelia became increasingly uncooperative and the other 
Earldoms followed suit.
	By the accession of Hulric's son Aeluric to the throne control 
over the kingdom was only nominal, and though Aeluric and his son 
Ingonar were competent administrators and able leaders they lacked 
the resources to reassert control over the wayward Earldoms, a 
situation which continued for more than 60 years, until the reign of 
Tostin the Rude.
	Tostin was the third son of Ingonar IV.  His eldest brother 
Skjold had died in a questionable hunting accident and after four 
years as king his brother Kambling died of a mysterious ailment 
which had rendered him infertile before it killed him.  Tostin, like 
most second and third sons of noble houses was raised to serve in 
the navy, and for his first thirty years he made quite a name as a 
buccaneer and pirate, while building up a loyal following throughout 
the military classes in Galetach.
	Once his brothers were out of the way and he had taken the 
throne Tostin waited only days after his coronation to announce that 
he was going to reassert direct control over all of the Earldoms and 
bring about a true and complete reunification of the kingdom.  This 
message was not well received by the Earls who joined together in a 
rebellion which lasted on and off for the next 14 years.
	In 696 Tostin was defeated at the Battle of Hringan's Ford and 
imprisoned on the Isle of Hy while his uncle Hrundar served as 
regent for his infant son Tostin.  After several months in prison 
pirate raiders and elements of the royal navy attacked the island and 
rescued the imprisoned king.  They managed to recapture the 
northern coast of Galetach and gather a fairly large army among 
nobles who were dissatisfied with Hrundan's ineffectual leadership 
and the role played by Tostin's Kyvenic wife Muilda in actually 
running the kingdom.  Tostin ruled for four more years of constant 
warfare, with his wife in prison and his uncle in exile.  Finally in 701 
he was killed in battle when he slipped on an icy patch of ground 
and fell on the spear of his squire, greatly simplifying matters for the 
kingdom.  During the last year of the reign of Tostin, the Earls 
declared their independence one by one and assumed the title of 
King instead of Earl, beginning with Airgedelia.
	Tostin's son was not yet of age when his father died, so 
Mundan, King of Banchor acted as regent until Tostin II took the 
throne in 704.  Tostin II was known as Tostin the Mad, and was 
deposed by his younger brother Skjold and imprisoned in the 
Fortress of Reknoraic on Hy for the rest of his sad, short life.
	Skjold IV came to a troubled throne and found himself to be 
King of the Aesc and Caludae in name, but in actuality only ruler of a 
troubled and impoverished Kingdom of Galetach.  Skjold found the 
solution to the disunity of the Aesc kingdoms in the technique of 
political marriage, using the weight of his authority as theoretical 
leader of all the Aesc to arrange political alliances and cement them 
by marriage.  He began by marrying Burdegunda, daughter of 
Mundan of Banchor.  Though she was somewhat plain she proved to 
be quite fertile and provided him with the resources he needed, his 
four sons and three daughters.  Unforunately the mental instability 
which had cropped up in previous generations of the royal family 
surfaced prominently in the next generation.
	During Skjold IV's reign Galetach made great strides in 
economic and commercial development.  When Skjold's son Skjold 
the Younger married Princess Relinara of Airgedilia a section of delta 
land on the border between Airgedelia and Galetach was given to 
Skjold as a bride price.  It was a choice location featuring a growing 
trading community at the town of Clontara, to which he moved his 
capital in the 16th year of his reign.
	Although Skjold's reign was successful in building up the power 
of Galetach and of the Caludic nations as a whole, the king's own 
house was troubled.  By the 20th year of Skjold's reign it became 
clear that his eldest son, Skjold the Younger was temperamentally 
unsuited to rule, or to be more precise, he was mad as a march hare 
and becoming increasingly disassociated from reality.  Since Skjold 
the Younger showed no interest in his young wife, his father 
arranged to have their marriage annuled and Princess Relinara was 
quickly married to the new royal heir, Prince Onferd.  Onferd was 
given to wanderlust and wasn't totally pleased with his surprise 
marriage.  He promptly borrowed a ship from the royal navy and 
went off to ravage the northern coast of Morianoc for the next severl 
years.  Skjold's third son, Herrulf remained at home along with 
Ghrazak, the youngest of the four boys.  As a teenager Herrulf took to 
the military life and eventually rose to distinction in the navy.  
Ghrazak became somewhat of an embarassment to the royal family.  
Although he pursued a career in the military and certainly had an 
aptitude for fighting, he didn't take well to military discipline, was 
given to brawling and drinking to excess.  Ghrazak also displayed 
some of the family tendancy towards mental instability and was 
given to uncontrollable outbursts of rage and spells in which he 
seemed to lose control of most of his rational faculties.
	Eventually Onferd matured and returned from his oceanic 
wanderings to serve by his father's side in the last years of Skjold 
IV's reign.  Not coincidentally, when Onferd returned Herrulf headed 
for the sea, apparently unable to tolerate living on the same land 
mass with his brother.  Onferd's relations with his wife were still 
fairly cool, but they did manage to produce two daughters who grew 
up to be unusually beautiful and completely mad.  During his years 
of wandering Onferd had kept company with a number of women, 
including a dowager baronness from an old Caludic family in 
Airgedelia.  In the natural course of things she gave birth to a 
bastard son who was named Thalric.  Onferd did not officially 
acknowledge his son, but his existence was widely known and Onferd 
paid for his support and education, until at the age of 16 Thalric ran 
away from home, took a nom de guerre and spent a number of years 
wandering as a mercenary in the Saes Empire.
	When Skjold IV died a peaceful death in 765 Onferd took the 
throne in an atomosphere of great optimism.  He had already 
demonstrated his skill as a warrior and his worldly experience 
prepared him well for diplomacy.  While he was regarded as stern 
and willful his judgement appeared to be sound and well reasoned.  
Sometimes his judgements were harsh.  For example, within weeks of 
taking the throne his wife and two daughters were packed off to 
velvet imprisonment in a royal castle in eastern Galetach.
	Onferd's reign was marked by great improvement in the 
fortunes of Caludia.  Trade with Tolemeias and the Saes Empire 
increased enormously and Onferd entered into a program of 
encouraging the development of basic industries and manufacturing, 
especially in the coastal counties of Galetach.  In the 25th year of his 
reign Onferd admitted that his aging and demented daughters were 
unlikely to produce heirs.  He was able to track down Thalric, whose 
exploits had been filtering back through Onferd's information 
network for years.  Onferd persuaded his son to return to Galetach, 
acknowledged him, declared him to be legitimate and made him heir 
to the throne.  The Aesc nobles were pleased to have an heir who 
was not a lunatic, and the people were quite taken with the romantic 
tales of Thalric the Black, Prince of Clontara.
	Thalric seemed to have his father's aptitude for administration, 
but made some courtiers uneasy with his introspective and moody 
character.  He also showed some talent for diplomacy by bringing 
about a reconciliation between his uncle Herrulf and his father which 
ultimately resulted in the elevation of Herrulf to the post of Royal 
Admiral in command of Galetach's sizeable fleet.
	In that accomodations were the seeds of a great deal of trouble.  
Herrulf's resentment of his brother was still there, even if concealed.  
Starting in about 801 nobles and courtiers who dealt with King 
Onferd began to wonder if his family's history of mental troubles had 
finally claimed the King.  Onferd's rule became increasingly harsh 
during this period.  He developed a great fear of treachery and 
unseen enemies and began to refine and expand an extensive 
network of spies and covert operatives to keep track of any 
neighbors he thought were a threat and any of his subjects who 
might be disloyal.  The dungeons of Galetach began to fill up with 
traitors condemned for imagined crimes and improbable acts of 
sedition.  Thalric distanced himself from this situation by absenting 
himself to supervise the army on the eastern frontier.  In his absence 
Onferd seemed to become increasinly unstable and capricious.
	Admiral Herrulf began to clash with his brother over military 
policy.  Onferd insisted that the role of the navy should be to arrest 
and tax all foreign shipping which passed north of the Straights of 
Sergond.  When Herrulf pointed out that this was likely to lead to a 
war with Morianoc and Combria, Onferd declared him to be a traitor 
to the state.  When Herrulf heard of this he was at sea.  Within a 
matter of months he had gathered an army, donated mostly by 
Morianoc, and returned to Galetach ready to tear the country apart in 
civil war.  The nobles of the other Caludic kingdoms rose to his 
banner, tired of taking orders from a mad king.  Before Thalric could 
return with his forces from the frontier, Onferd had fled the country 
and taken refuge in Tolemeias.  Thalric wisely followed him into 
exile, setting up a base of operations in the Valmark.
	Herrulf was then crowned at the acclaimation of the nobles.  
His reign was troubled by ongoing civil war, with guerrilla attacks 
from Thalric's forces in the east and harassment and obstructions 
from Onferd's loyal partisans within his covert information 
organization, which had gone underground when Onferd was 
deposed.
	Down in Tolemeias Onferd seemed to be exhibiting a return to 
sanity, or at least to a kind of monomaniacal state fixated on retaking 
his throne.  He put together a list of every noble who had supported 
his brother and began offering their estates to mercenary captains 
who would join him in reconquering Galetach.  Through this means 
he was able to eventually build up a sizeable army of the greedy and 
ruthless, eager to place him back on the throne and claim their 
rewards.
	In the summer of 815 Onferd returned to Galetach with a large 
mercenary force, landing in Rehaig and winning a series of small 
battles against Herrulf and his supporters.  Thalric moved in from 
the east with his partisan forces and the three armies met on a hot 
afternoon in the month of Oust near the town of Kinesmara.  At the 
Battle of Kinesmara Herrulf was defeated and severely wounded.  
The barons who had remaind loyal to the Usurper to the last were 
executed on the spot and Herrulf, now an invalid, was sent into exile 
on Uchelglan.
	Onferd's rule continued for another 10 years, dedicated to 
rebuilding Galetach and reestablishing its preeminent role among the 
Caludic nations.  Although he was nominally king during this period, 
Onferd's interest in ruling and his ability to concentrate on matters of 
state were limited.  Although relatively mentally spry for an 
octagenarian, his decisions tended to be whimsical and unsound.  As 
a result, most of the job of governing was given to Thalric, who 
proved to be an able ruler, if given to a certain lack of tact and 
patience.  Eventually, in 825 Onferd was persuaded to abdicate and 
retire, and Thalric became king in name as well as in fact.


THE CULTURE AND NATURE OF CALUDIC SOCIETY
	After the Aesc conquest the Aesc remained a small proportion 
of the total population of the Caludic kingdoms, perhaps as little as a 
tenth and certainly no more than a fifth of the total population.  
While the Aesc formed a ready-made noble and military class, most 
of the Caludae went on about their traditional pursuits as farmers, 
fishermen and tradesmen.
	As this hybrid society has developed it became quite dynamic, 
producing a surprising level of economic and military ambition and 
enterprise.  The Aesc introduced improved techniques of organized 
warfare and of shipbuilding and this was the start of geographical 
and commercial expansion.
	Traditionally the Caludic nations had been primarily a 
marketplace for goods of other more advanced nations, brought to 
them by enterprising southern merchants.  By the 7th century Aesc 
merchant families and their Caludic subordinates were establishing 
their own trade routes and seeking out the sources of the consumer 
goods which the populations of the northern lands were eager to 
purchase.  By cutting out the Tolemeian, Auscian and Evarian 
middlemen they were able to increase profits and increase the 
wealth of the noble and merchant classes.  Unlike some societies 
where a clear line was drawn between merchant and noble and 
where the aristocrats are reluctant to sully their hands with trade, 
the Aesc were eager to expand their wealth by any means available, 
and too their land-based wealth and parlayed it into greater fortunes 
in trade.
	Despite this growth of wealth, the vast majority of society in 
the Caludic kingdoms has remained agrarian throughout this period.  
Small farms, minute and isolated villages and limited urbanization 
remained the norm until the reign of Skjold IV.  Only a few towns of 
any size were established under Aesc rule.  Most of the Aesc nobility 
were content to take over large portions of marginally farmable land 
and survive off of rents and tithes.
	Most of the mountainous land of the northern and eastern 
areas of the Caludic kingdoms is best suited to the growing of hardy 
grains and the herding of sheep and goats.  Because of limitations of 
transportation the lifestyle of the mountain Caludae has changed 
little over the centuries, consisting mainly of brewing beer and 
whiskey for local consumption and carting wool to the coast once a 
year as a primary source of income.  As is almost always the case, 
the majority of the profit from exports of wool ends up in the hands 
of merchant shippers, but the farmers of the mountains make 
enough to maintain their rugged lifestyle.
	Life on the long coast of the Caludic kingdoms centers around 
fishing, particularly focused on large fish like the elusive Norka and 
plentiful, potable varieties like the Ernbon and the Morling.  Small 
and medium sized fishing villages dot the coast every 30 Stades or 
so, each with territorial waters which they defend fiercely.  Small 
wars between these villages are not uncommon.  In these regions the 
Aesc nobility often take a more aggressive role, maintaining small 
fleets of genuine warships for the protection of their fishermen and 
for the preservation of peace by royal decree.  They make up the 
Frithmara or Seawatch and are theoretically responsible to the crown 
for the control and protection of the coasts.
	The richest lands in Caludia are those around the central lake 
region which borders Airgedelia, Galetach and Linon.  These choice 
parcels of land were given as rewards to the most prominent war 
leaders among the Aesc at the time of the conquest.  The rich 
farmland and abundant natural resources of these regions produce 
considerable wealth for the noble class, and the peasants are 
generally fairly prosperous as well.  There are a number of good 
natural harbors along the coast and large towns have sprung up in 
these harbors and at the mouths of major rivers.  These towns are 
the centers of trade in the Caludic kingdoms and also the main 
market for more perishable crops, including green vegetables and 
dairy products which come from the lake region.  This is also the 
area where most of the wars and internal conflicts under Aesc rule 
have been fought.  As a result, since the nobles of the lake region 
have the money to do so, they have built formidable castles to 
defend their territory against attack.  This is also land which is well 
suited to the use of cavalry and it is in this region that the Aesc 
tradition of mounted warfare has been most thoroughly preserved.
	Culturally the Caludic kingdoms have truly become a hybrid of 
Caludae and Aesc elements.  While the Aescan language is still used 
for official court proceedings and in the courts of law, most of the 
Aesc nobles speak Caludic as their first language.  There has been 
sufficient intermarriage over the last five-hundred years that 
racially the Aesc and the Caludae are hard to tell apart.  The noble 
class still think of themselves as Aesc, but that distinction really has 
very little meaning.  Even the royal family has intermarried with the 
Caludae nobility at least four times, making them as much Caludae as 
they are Aesc.  Of course, there are many in the peasant class, 
especially in the more remote regions who are of pure Caludic 
ancestry, but that is of far less concern to them than their degraded 
social and economic status, which has nothing to do with race.  Aesc 
religion and Caludic religion exist side by side, through there is some 
competition between the two.  In fact, the purest strains of Aesc 
ancestry can be found among the hereditary priesthoods of some of 
the Aesc gods, and those priesthoods are also where the taint of anti-
Caludic racism are most likely to be found.  Traditional Caludic 
institutions like widespread basic education have been eagerly 
adopted by the Aesc and Aesc military techniques and nautical 
technology have been embraced by the Caludae.  For the most part 
the more versatile and less arcane Aescan script called Fodaric is 
used to write both the Aesc and Caludic languages, though the Calidic 
priest class preserves the use of their traditional Rhesimol script.  
Music, art and other entertainments have become a merger of the 
two societies, and festivals, holidays and traditions from both have 
been preserved.


THE CALUDIC KINGDOMS TODAY

Politics
	The Caludic kingdoms are all technically independent nations.  
Linon, Bancor, Ardmacha, Airgedelia and Galetach are independently 
ruled and administered.  However, since the reign of Skjold IV the 
central monarchy has regained some status.  By agreement the King 
of Galetach also functions as High-King of the Aesc and Caludae.  This 
position is more than just honorary.  The High-King carries out most 
of the foreign diplomacy for the group of nations and also supervises 
the regulation of trade and disputes between the nations.  It is a 
feudal-type arrangement.  Each of the kingdoms is expected to 
provide a set number of ships, men, horses and money to the High 
King's military for purposes of national defense.  In peacetime the 
tradition has been to accept money in lieu of all but a token amount 
of service.  There are also strict limits on the allowed size of the 
standing armed forces of the five kingdoms, but that allowance is 
quite generous.  In return for their loyalty the five kings also send 
representatives to the court of the High King.  These advisors have 
the right to be heard on any matter of policy which would effect 
their kingdoms, though they have no actual legislative role.
	There is an actual representative legislative body called the 
Vitan, which includes all of the nobles of the five kingdoms and 
representatives of the major towns.  The Vitan meets once a year for 
an indeterminate period.  These meetings are called by the king, and 
while he is traditionally obligated to call them, he may choose not to 
do so in extreme circumstances.  The Vitan has limited authority.  
Theoretically its approval is required over the naming of heirs to the 
thorne and over the coronation of a new High King.  It matters of 
high treason against the people it may function as a jury, with the 
High King sitting as judge.  It is also the only body authorized to 
change the obligations or levels of service which the five kings owe 
to the High King.  It also has the power the resolve disputes between 
the High King and the five lesser monarchs.
	Within each of the kingdoms political structure is fairly 
traditionally feudal.  The power fo the five kings is more or less 
absolute, and lesser nobles owe various degrees of service, usually 
resolved monetarily, which they pass on to the towns and minor 
lords within their area of control.  For the most part this each 
kingdom has a three tier hierarchy.  At the top are the Kings.  Below 
them are the counts, thanes and barons, whose distinctions of rank 
are hard to define.  Below them are the governments of the towns 
and the chiefs of various Caludae clans.  All of the kings claim 
substantial ties to Aescan ancestors, as do many lesser nobles, but 
early laws restricting Caludae from the upper classes have been 
repealed for generations and the main body of the noble class is 
more than half Caludae by ancestry and choice.
	The political climate in the Caludic kingdoms is generally 
friendly, but also very competitive.  Within the last decade there was 
major civil war pitting king against king and baron against baron.  
There are old resentments and loyalties which never really go away.  
Generally it seems that for economic reasons cooperation is the 
wisest course, but when opportunity and advantage present 
themselves chaos can be unleashed quickly.  Most frequently 
Airgedelia has been the source of problems for the other kingdoms, 
particularly Galetach.  Airgedelia is wealthy, agriculturally 
productive and the kings of Airgedelia have a claim to the throne of 
Galetach and the High Kingship.  Airgedelia also borders on Greater 
Combria and as a result is allowed a larger military force than all of 
the other kingdoms except Galetach.  As a rule, Airdmacha tends to 
support Galetach in most political controversies and the remaining 
kingdoms, which are more agrarian and less wealthy prefer to stay 
out of conflict unless forced to join one side or the other.

Religion
	Both Caludic and Aesc religion continue as independent forces 
in the society.  The center of all of the Aesc churches and sects is in 
the capital of Clontara, and while they are wealthy and politically 
powerful their presence is negligible in the more remote regions.  
Caludic religion is less organized and more diverse, with little central 
authority, except for several schools which specialize in priestly 
education.
	Aesc Religion: The central god of Aesc religion is a father deity 
called wither Oth or Janrad.  He is a powerful and destructive sky 
god, associated with great magic, and the father of virtually all the 
other gods.  Janrad is almost like the primal force of chaos and is 
inhuman and incomprehensible, without motivation towards good or 
evil.  Easier to relate to are his two sons, Tonar and Urlog who 
represent the elements of air/water and earth/fire respectively.  
Tonar is generally seen as a god of virtue and Urlog is seen as a god 
of treachery and evil.  Neither is entirely black or white in their 
character, but most Aesc rever Tonar as a symbol of the manly 
virtues, while Urlog is seen as womanly and deceitful.  Aesc society is 
very male-oriented and while there are other deities of some 
importance, lesser sons of Janrad, female deities play only a very 
small role in their mythology.  Aesc religion is essentially dualistic, 
focused on the struggle between Tonar and Urlog.  The rest of the 
deities all have areas of power and significance, but they basically 
align with Tonar or Urlog and usually share their temples and 
priesthoods.  Ironically, while Urlog is portrayed as a god of evil, he 
is also the god of crafts and business, so he does have a devoted 
following, perhaps larger in modern times than Tonar, who is mainly 
treated as a war god.  Both churches are wealthy, Tonarians drawing 
wealth from the aristocracy and Urlogians from the new money of 
the merchant class.  There are also small sects devoted to certain 
peripheral Aesc deities, including cults devoted to Janrad and to his 
daughter Hefiona.
	Caludic Religion: Caludic mythology has a superficial similarity 
to the Aesc cosmological cycle.  Again, there is a father god, Tuadar, 
with two sons, Lodens and Doan.  The difference is that most of the 
deities are the children, both male and female of Lodens and Doan, 
and there are no particular associations of good or evil with either 
family.  There is a large pantheons of roughly equal gods, each with 
particular interests and areas of power.  In Caludic mythology the 
sources of evil are external, usually the deities of other peoples 
distorted into demonic parodies, such as the monstrous Balran who 
appears to be based on the Aesc god Janrad.  The Caludae are said to 
have a god for everything, many of which are more like protective 
spirits of particular places, peoples or ativities.  There are lemeents 
of animism and polytheism mixed together in their religion, and the 
result is a pleasing, if somewhat primitive melange.  Caludic priests 
are generally very well educated and thoroughly trained in the 
complex mythology of their people.  They are literate and widely 
read, and traditionally function as advisors to kings, preservers of 
history and tradition, and in some cases ambitious sources of political 
strife.

Economy
	The Caludic kingdoms are becoming increasingly wealthy and 
successful and are on the verge of emerging as a major world 
economic power.  From the days when they were heavily in debt to 
Tolemeias they have learned and gorwn to take advantage of their 
resources and redirect some of the mercantile techniques of their 
former exploiters to their own advantage.  There is a growing urban 
merchant class which takes the valuable resources and products of 
the outlying parts of the region, such as wool and valuable minerals 
and does very well exporting them southward.  This has led to the 
growth of port cities and the beginnings of improvements in internal 
transportation, such as canals to make water transport more feasible 
and also improved roads in some areas.
	Government has grown with business, because the government 
in all the Caludic kingdoms is in business as well.  The royal families 
are among the largest exporters and in combination with specially 
favored merchant companies they control more than half the total 
trade going in and out of the region.  This access to personal profit 
has reduced their need to tax business in general or place prohibitive 
fees or customs on ships operating cout of Caludic ports.
	This is not to say that there are not some regulations.  Dating 
back to the time of Ingoman there have been customs duties on 
certain exported goods, particularly wool and fish, and there have 
been tariffs on some imported goods, designed to raise prices on 
those goods and encourage competitive domestic production.  Each 
kingdom has its own tariffs and customs duties and these are 
increased further by similar fees from the government of the High 
King.  Overall these duties do not exceed 10% on imported goods and 
5% on exported goods, and many items are exempted.  One of the 
most powerful political tools of the kings is to exempt chosen 
merchants from these fees for a specific time period, a great reward 
for loyal service.
	In most burgeoning economies it is a truism that the rich get 
richer and the poor get poorer.  As yet that is not the cast in the 
Caludic kingdoms, but that situation is right around the corner.  This 
is mostly because of the clan structure of society in the more remote 
regions and the fact that rural gentry are only just beginning to catch 
on to the opportunities for profit they can obtain by more rigid 
control over the wool and agricultural production of their lands.  
There is a growing trend for local lords to act as middlemen for their 
peasants in marketing their products to urban merchants, taking a 
sizeable cut for themselves and inevitably reducing the profit for the 
lowest people on the economic ladder, the peasants.  This system is 
generally more efficient for the merchants than having to deal with a 
random assortment of suppliers, and the result is more overall 
revenue, but worse conditions for the actual sources of the product.  
Under Aesc law the peasantry (many of whom were slaves under old 
Caludic law) are technically free, but tradition and economic 
conditions essentially keep them bound to the land.  Occasionally a 
peasant may wander off to look for a different life in the growing 
towns, but there are always others eaget to put his land to good use.  
Peasants do not own the land they work outright.  It actually belongs 
to their lord, or to their clan, but unless they commit a crime to 
forfeit that land, or fail to work it productively, or fail to pay their 
traditional obligations to their lord or clan, it may not be taken away 
from them.


THE LINE OF THE KINGS OF GALETACH
	Skjold I 267-279
	Rugnir 279-299
	Regency of Hundin 299-304
	Ingonar I 304-341
	Skjold II 341-364
	Laendor 364-385
	Ingonar II 385-391
	Thalric 391-425
	Harbest the Mad 425
	Interregnum 425-436
	Conhurrach (Caludic) 436-442
	Regency of Ingoman 442-451
	Skjold III and Colhira 451-455
	Skjold III 455-462
	Laendor II 462-505
	Laendor III 505-507
	Hulric I 507-511
	Aedulman I 511-544
	Aedulman II 544-572
	Aedulman III 572-612
	Aedulman IV 612
	Hulric II 612-626
	Aeluric I 626-634
	Ingonar III 634-652
	Aeluric II 652-688
	Ingonar IV 688-690
	Kambling 690-694
	Tostin 695-696
	Regency of Hrundar 697
	Tostin 696-701
	Regency of Mundan 701-704
  	Tostin II 704-709
	Skjold IV 709-765
	Onferd 765-808
	Herrulf the Usurper 808-815
	Onferd 815-825
	Thalric II 825-Present



