The History of Morianoc
	When the Kyvenic peoples came to the 
end of their great migration they found a land of 
gentle hills, unassuming mountains, deep river 
valleys and convoluted coastlines, which they 
found suited their nature.  They tethered their 
herds of swine and kine and set about clearing 
the land, building traditional domelike houses of 
stone and sod, and becoming prosperous.  The 
first settlers called their land 'The Land 
Between the Rivers', because although it was 
crisscrossed with smaller rivers it was defined 
by the powerful currents of the River Efernui to 
the north and the River Cynfael to the south.
	When they were wanderers the Kyveni 
travelled as clans, united together by 
relationships of blood and tradition.  The 
greatest of these clans were the Mori (People of 
the Sea), the Keredigi (People of the Stone), the 
Marsi (People of the Plains), the Dyvani (People 
of the Woods) and the Ustri (People of the 
West).  When they came to their new land each 
clan staked out a region for itself, the Ustri in 
the southwestern peninsula, the Dyvani in the 
eastern woodlands, the Marsi in the southern 
plains and the Mori along the rough northern 
coast.  Of these great clans legend holds that 
the Mori were the oldest, carrying the blood of 
Belimor, the first man to rise out of the sea and 
tread the earth.  Tradition placed the Mori 
ahead of the other tribes,  and the chief of the 
Mori was the first among all the chiefs of the 
Kyveni.
	As time passed the Kyveni tamed the 
land, grew in numbers and prospered.  Towns 
rose up along the coasts, boats set forth to fish 
and trade, and life became more complex.  Soon 
the chiefs began to style themselves princes and 
kings and their strongest followers became 
lesser lordlings, staking out territory for 
themselves.  Among these emerging lords 
Tharian of the Mori was the first to style himself 
Rian (King), but other clan leaders quickly took 
the title for themselves, and the five Kyvenic 
kingdoms came into existence, Morianoc, 
Keredigian, Ustradui, Dyvan and Marsioc.  
Each of the kings wanted to be first among 
equals and wars and skirmishes ensued, 
followeed by alliances, treaties, marriages and 
ultimately politics and diplomacy.  Clan feuds 
became national rivalries as the new nations 
competed for wealth and power.  Each nation 
developed a particular character.  Morianoc had 
the greatest sailors and traders and a well-
developed army because of the danger of the 
Caludians to the north.  Keredigian had the 
largest towns and the best overland trade, as 
well as the best access to the foreign merchants 
in the growing city of Tolemeias on its borders.  
Ustradui was a rough land of swamps and hills, 
somewhat backwards and steeped in ancient 
tradition.  Dyvan was a friendly land of peaceful 
farmers and hunters.  Marsioc was a harsher 
land of rocky farms and stubborn herdsmen.
	Then in about the year 220 by the 
Tolemeian reckoning the course of development 
of the Kyvenic nations was changed forever by 
the arrival of the Saesians from the north.  Out 
of the steppes hordes of mounted warriors 
poured into the peaceful plains of Dyvan, 
ravaging the countryside, taking the riches of 
the people and pressing ever southward in 
search of greater plunder.  Saesian warleaders 
like Maerveg Bloodyfist and Fulk the Bastard 
brought the Dyvani to their knees almost before 
the other Kyvenic nations could react.  As they 
began to carve out kingdoms for theemselves 
and pressed southward into Marsioc 
responsibility fell on Tharian's grandson, King 
Maudric of Morianoc (c215-c242), who had the 
largest army and the best position to do 
something about the Saesians.  Maudric had 
grown up fighting the Caludians and was 
already legendary for this cleverness in battle.  
At a council of kings at Hlaye he agreed to lead 
the fight against the Saesians and bear most of 
the expense in men and resources on the 
condition that he and his heirs be given the title 
of Airian (High King and Warleader) from that 
day forward.  Morianoc would provide fully half 
of the army and each of the other kingdoms 
would be expected to provide an eighth part.  
After several months of preparation Maudric 
commanded an army of close to 8,000 men, the 
largest army ever assembled north of the 
Cynfael, and almost twice the combined Saesian 
force, though by Maudric's reckoning barely 
sufficient, since the Saesians rode into battle, 
while only the Kyvenic nobles had horses and 
even they knew little or nothing of fighting from 
horseback.
	The army was gathered in Porfordd in 
south central Morianoc, near the small range of 
mountains which had helped keep the Saesians 
from moving too far westward.  At the height of 
summer, with both moons propitiously full, 
Maudric took his armies into Dyvan, cutting off 
any retreat to the north from the Saesian 
advance into Marsioc.  Hearing of this challenge 
to their conquest of Dyvan, the main body of the 
Saesian horde, commanded by Fulk the 
Bastard, turned to the north to dispose of the 
Kyvenian army who they disdained as unmanly 
farmers and traders.  The two forces met on the 
Plains of Carandiaghor.  Much to Fulk's surprise 
the size of the Kyvenian army was so large in 
relation to his few thousand mounted men, that 
though they inflicted huge losses, at the end of a 
day of battle, the Kyvenians still stood and held 
the field, and every man or horse the Saesians 
lost diminished their force by more than they 
could afford.  At dawn on the second day, both 
commanders realized that another day of battle 
would leave both armies virtually destroyed.  
Maudric was willing to accept this risk, but Fulk 
feared that once he was weakened Maerveg 
would come in behind him and seize the 
opportunity and all the land he had gained.  So, 
shortly after dawn, before the armies clashed 
again, Fulk sent riders to Maudric to begin a 
parlay.
	The parlay was held on a bridge over the 
River Efernwy at the town of Evionarac.  While 
the two leaders discussed a possible truce, the 
armies waited about a mile away on opposite 
sides of the river.  Having little love for the 
Kyveni or respect for the rules of war, a 
contingent of the Brotherhood of Janradr left 
the Saesian camp and made their way along the 
river bank, concealed by willows and reeds.  
They crossed the low-running waters and came 
up on the Kyvenian side of the river, falling 
King Maudric and his party in a treacherous 
attack.  Seeing battle breaking out on the 
bridge the two armies charged forward and met 
in and around the river.  Meanwhile, on the 
bridge, Fulk and his men temporarily joined 
forces with Maudric's retainers to slay the 
Janradrists before both parties returned to their 
respective armies.  In the fighting on the bridge 
Maudric was wounded fairly seriously.  The 
battle raged on, but by the end of the day, 
although the Kyvenian losses were enormous, 
neither side could claim victory.
	That night, another parlay was entered 
into reluctantly by both sides, this time 
conducted by a series of couriers, for fear of 
treachery and because King Maudric was now 
bedridden.  By morning an arrangement had 
been reached.  Because King Rhodri of Dyvan 
had died in the initial Saesian invasion and his 
son Blaethar had died on the first day of the 
battle, Maudric took it upon himself to dispose of 
Dyvan, by giving the southern portion to the 
mercenary general Lais Ulfaras of Karystau if he 
could reclaim it from Maerveg, and giving the 
northern portion to Fulk as a place to settle his 
people.  This treaty, which was officially signed 
the next spring at Moelfre led to the creation of 
the modern kingdoms of Saisiloc and Marsioc.
	With peace established Maudric 
returned to Baelnoc to recover from his wound, 
while General Ulfaras pursued Maerveg with a 
smaller army of about 5,000 men, including 
Auscian mercenaries and some Saesians from 
Fulk's army.  This southern campaign lasted for 
three years as a virtual stalemate, with Ulfaras 
and Maerveg trading ground back and forth, 
bringing a great deal of difficulty to the 
Kyvenian population of the region.
	A solution to this situation presented 
itself in the Spring of 224 at the hands of Fulk's 
second son Nuri.  Many of Fulk's followers had 
become disenchanted with the settled lifestyle 
of their new kingdom and wanted to move on to 
plunder farther south.  Rather than risk a war 
with their new Kyvenic neighbors, Nuri 
proposed that they take their escapades farther 
south where the pickings were richer and the 
resistence weaker.  To achieve this end Nuri 
negotiated with General Ulfaras who agreed to 
use his connections in Auscia to open a safe 
passage through Auscia into the Aetruvian 
Empire where the Saesians could ravage and 
plunder to their heart's content.  What's more, 
merchants from Iskularia, Dioskuria and 
Tolemeias were willing to offer a large amount 
of tribute in the form of gold, gems, horses and 
weapons if the Saesians would pass their cities 
by and direct their interests southward.
	Nuri offered to bring an army of over 
1,000 men south to join with Maerveg's forces, 
and the combined army would move south 
under Auscian protection to invade the Empire 
in Thalesia and Sarkosia, with the ultimate 
objective of striking all the way into Aetruvia 
and sacking Tibrum itself, a very rich and hard 
to resist prize.  Newly crowned King Fulk of 
Saisiloc and King Maudric of Morianoc 
promised to do everything they could to support 
this effort, since it would take pressure off of 
them and potentially bring riches flooding 
northward from plunder.
	Maerveg was discouraged by the slow 
progress he was making against Ulfaras and 
knew a good opportunity when he saw it.  After 
getting Nuri to agree to acknowledge him as 
overlord, he welcomed the additional forces and 
together they proceeded southwards.  Their 
successful campaigns in the south, the Great 
Evarian Uprising and the eventual sack of 
Tibrum and establishment of the Saesian 
Empire came to pass as a result, and can be 
illuminated by reading a good history of the 
period, such as Giodias' Chronicle of the Fall of 
Tibrum.
	In Kyvenia the impact of the Saesian 
invasion was considerable.  The kingdoms of 
Dyvan and Marsioc had now both come under 
foreign rule.  While their populations were still 
mostly Kyvenic, Saesiloc now had a small ruling 
class of Saesians and Marsioc developed a fairly 
large Auscian population, mostly in the middle 
class and in several growing towns.  Politically 
the ambitions of the kinds of Morianoc had been 
forwarded considerably.  Because of the 
extraordinary powers Maudric had taken on 
himself during the war and the relative success 
of his campaigns and negotiations, his line 
retained an augmented level of authority over 
the other Kyvenic Kingdoms which was 
eventually formalized by treaty and legislation.  
By the early 4th century the Kings of Morianoc 
had been granted the power to raise armies and 
some funds from the other Kyvenic Kingdoms 
and the right of justice in hearing appeals from 
royal courts in the other kingdoms.  This 
increase in power was important because it 
helped the Kyvenians significanly when faced 
with other threats in later years.
	After the Saesian invasion King Maudric 
was succeeded in Morianoc by a series of 
unremarkable caretaker kings.  His grandson 
Caulic the Just (271-294) was responsible for the 
assembly of the Caulian Laws, the first written 
compilation of traditional Kyvenic religious and 
secular law.  These laws were eventually 
reformulated and simplified by his son Maudric 
II (294-311), and eventually adopted in some 
form by all the Kyvenic kingdoms.  The period 
of the reigns of Maudric I, Tharian II (242-255), 
Mador I (255-261) and Maudric II is generally 
seen as a sort of golden age for Morianoc and 
the other Kyvenic kingdoms, despite the rather 
unpleasant reign of Mador I's brother Blaenith 
the Mad (261-268) and the brief war between 
Morianoc and Saisiloc during the regency of 
Uwras Urich (268-271) and the first few years of 
Maudric II's reign.  This war did not end 
entirely unhappily, as it saw the Saesian ruling 
line in Saisiloc removed from power and 
replaced with a cadet branch of the Utharian 
ruling family of Morianoc.  At this point it should 
be mentioned that inheritance among the 
Kyveni is not from father to son, but from elder 
brother to younger brother, and from youngest 
brother to eldest son of eldest brother, a system 
which almost guarantees a mature heir, but also 
makes for short reigns and disputed 
successions.
	New troubles for Morianoc began in the 
reign of Maudric II's brother Cradoc I (311-317) 
and the first of a series of wars between 
Morianoc and various neighbors to the north.  
This was the period of the Aescian conquest of 
much of Caludia.  Once the Aescians were 
established, they became aggressive and 
expansionistic, and very interested in seafaring.  
Combining Aescian knowledge of warfare and 
Caludian ship-building techniques they began 
to produce small, shallow-keeled sailing vessels 
with which they attacked the coastlines of their 
southern neighbors.  Aescian raiders began to 
hit the coast of Morianoc around 314 and raids 
became more intense over the next decade.  
Cradoc I died in a successful defense of Baelnoc 
itself when it was attacked by an Aescian fleet in 
317.
	Yearly raids by the Aescians were 
already commonplace by the reign of Maudric 
III (327-343), and they were hitting not only the 
Kyvenic coast, but farther south into Amerioc 
and even Auscia.  The only fortunate aspect of 
the ongoing Aescian raids was that they were 
relatively disorganized and took place mostly in 
the spring before planting began.  Had the 
raiders been united their effect would have 
been still more devastating.  Carador I (343-351) 
found some temporary relief by forming an 
unlikely alliance with the Dothian King of 
Seregond.  The Aescians had attempted to raid 
Seregond a number of times and King 
Silodirasean IV was desperate enough to seek 
human aid against other humans.  Together the 
Seregondians and Kyvenians established the 
first permanent settlement on the Island of 
Uchelglan as a base of operations for a special 
fleet to patrol the northern sea, warn of Aescian 
attacks, and attempt to intercept them.  The 
alliance with Seregond continued for a number 
of years, eventually breaking down with the 
relative decline in Aescian activity during the 
reign of Lamarac III (396-415).
	It was during the reign of Lamarac III 
that a whole new threat arose, to some degree 
neutralizing the Aescian problem, but bringing 
new difficulties of its own.  In 410 (check date) 
the Saesian Empire was at its height of power 
and ambition and had decided to colonize the 
barbarian lands to the north.  Realizing that the 
Kyveni were too well-organized to conquer, and 
fearing the Aescians to some degree, Saesian 
adventurers settled on the border regions of 
Greater and Lesser Combria as a target for 
colonization.  The governments there were 
remnants of pre-Aescian Caludia, fighting 
among themselves, impoverished and easy to 
topple.  After several waves of Saesian invasion 
two new kingdoms were carved out of the area, 
the more significant being Pridian on the 
northern border of Morianoc.
	Pyridian was established by several 
martial religious sects and powerful Saesian 
families, who brought with them strange ideas 
of government and a desire to expand their 
territory and the size of their churches by war 
and blood, if necessary.  The northern kingdom 
of Olegir posed a similar threat to the Aescian 
kingdoms, making the Aescians and Kyvenians 
involuntary allies in fact if not in name.
	The Morianoc-Pyridian wars began in 
412 and continued on and off for almost the next 
400 years.  This ongoing conflict was not 
characterized by a large exchange of territory, 
but by ongoing bad-feelings and border 
skirmishing.  As the Pyridian port of Arkinkolme 
began to become more and more economically 
successful it drew trade away from the 
Morianian ports of Baelnok and Hartlec.  This 
loss of trade was resented by the noble 
merchant class of Morianoc and they initiated 
small-scale warfare along the border with 
Pyridian to cut off trade-routes to Arkinkolm 
and harass the Pyridian nobility for most of this 
period this activity was quietly endorsed by the 
crown, and in two periods, the First Northern 
War (412-427) and the Second Northern War 
(502-517), the royal army and nobles whose 
holdings were not on the border were directly 
involved.
	The First Northern War began in the 
reign of Lamarac III in a dispute over claims to 
barge rights on the River Efernwy.  It was 
resolved in the Peace of Clontara when 
Lamarac's son Rhyngal I agreed to allow 
Pyridian barges on the river if King Garintar of 
Pyridian acknowledged Morianoc's control over 
the river and their right to charge fees and 
taxes to barges travelling on it.  The Second 
Northern War was touched off by the refusal of 
King Ulfram II of Pyridian to take any measures 
to control bandits raiding out of Badenoc into 
the northern counties of Morianoc.  King 
Adinar II (498-522) entered into a series of 
campaigns inside Pyridian, first to pacify the 
bandits and later to successfully seize Badenoc 
and some adjoining territory from Pyridian, 
although most of that land was eventually ceded 
back in the Treaty of the Three Oaks in 517.
	Skirmishes continued in the years after 
that, until the resumption of outright warfare 
between the two nations in the Badenoc War 
(660-671) during the reign of Mador Edmyg I, 
which resulted in the establishment of the 
Duchy of Badenoc as an independent buffer 
state.
	During this period Morianoc also went 
through some internal difficulties and conflicts 
with their Kyvenian neighbors.  The Great 
Southern War (554-561) pitted Morianoc 
against an alliance of Keredigian and Ustradui 
over who should have control of the mineral 
rich areas of the Icenian mountains which 
border all three nations.  The war was 
precipitated by the activities of Lord Isberyr 
Nurinn, a claimant to the throne of Keredigian 
who was encouraged by the government of 
Morianoc in pressing his claims with a small 
bandit-army based out of the Icenian 
mountains.  Nurinn was successful enough that 
he kept clear control of the mountains for a 
number of years, opening them to trade from 
Morianoc, but excluding Keredigian.  When 
Nurinn was assassinated in 554, Morianoc 
moved in to take direct control of the region, 
which prompted armed resistence by 
Keredigian and eventually an attempted 
intervention by the opportunistic Ustraduians.  
The Great Southern War came to an end when 
Saisiloc threatened to press their claim to the 
mountains as well, resulting in a treaty signed 
at Moelfre which partitioned the mountains 
more or less fairly between the nations involved, 
including Saisiloc.
	The 7th century was a particularly dark 
period for Morianoc, characterized by internal 
problems, including dynastic warfare and 
regional revolts.  Some have argued that by the 
early 600s the blood of the Utharian monarchs 
had been getting weaker and thinner, and the 
quality of the rulers that family was producing 
was certainly in decline.  Cradoc IV (598-605) 
and Rhotrig III (608-618) were both clearly 
mad, and other kings of the period were of 
unsound judgement or killed tragically.  
Cradoc's brother Ustis killed Cradoc and also 
his younger brother Maelic before he himself 
was killed by a mob which tore him apart in the 
streets of Hartlec and then proclaimed his three-
year-old nephew Iomac to be king.  Iomac ruled 
for only three years before he apparently 
disappeared, to be displaced by his one 
remaining uncle, Rhotrig, who had previously 
been declared unfit to rule, but was 
rehabilitated as a puppet ruler for an alliance of 
powerful nobles who wished to control the 
crown.  Rhotrig's wife Eunela fled her repulsive 
husband while she was pregnant and went to 
live with relatives in Galetach, raising her son 
Adinar in exile.  Adinar returned from exile in 
621 to take the throne after a 3 year civil war.  
He ruled under the regency of his mother until 
624, and in his own right until 632, when he was 
killed fighting the army of a group of rebel 
barons, leaving his only heir his son Maelic who 
was only eight and ruled under the regency of 
his grandmother Eunela until 640.  During his 
period Eunela ruled with the assistance of her 
new husband, Earl Rhis Edmyg of Porforth, who 
commanded the royal armies in ongoing conflict 
with rebellious nobles.  After Maelic took the 
throne, it became apparent that he was 
somewhat feebleminded, and although he ruled 
until 657, most of that period he was essentially 
under a regency of Rhis Edmyg and then later 
Rhis and Eunela's son Lawis Edmyg.  Maelic's 
only heir was his daughter Bloidra, who 
married Lawis Edmyg, although he was 
considerably older than she.  She was frail and 
mentailly unsound, and died in chilbirth when 
her son Tharias Edmyg was born in 663.  
Tharias was the first king of the Edmyg line, 
and ruled fairly successfully until his death in 
682.  During his reign he had to deal with the 
last of the baronial revolts of the period, but he 
managed to leave a fairly stable kingdom to his 
son Lawis I (682-705).
	Lawis I ruled during a period of peace, 
prosperity and increasing southward trade with 
Tolemeias.  Lawis remembered the troubles of 
the early years of his father's reign and worked 
hard to make sure that although his family was 
new to the throne they would remain there.  By 
establishing new universities for the education 
of the children of the noble and working classes 
he laid the groundwork for establishing a 
professional bureaucracy on the model of the 
Saesian Empire to the south, though traditional 
Kyvenic interests in history and literature took 
a place of special prominence.  By the end of 
Lawis' reign the dividing line between the 
urban merchant class and the nobility had 
become somewhat blurred by special priveleges 
granted to merchants by the crown.  At the 
same time young nobles were attracted to the 
entertainments of an increasingly active court, 
and drawn into jobs in the royal administration 
to justify their continued presence there.  As 
court life became more sophisticated, complex 
political relationships began to develop, with 
factions and allegiances within the 
bureaucracy.
	Lawis' sons Crathir and Ustrich grew up 
in the stimulating environment of their father's 
court and received a more thorough education 
than had been common for their class a 
generation before.  Ustrich even went on to 
study at the new university in Hartlech and 
eventually entered holy orders in the Church of 
Guyon.  Unfortunately, Ustrich's religious 
vocation was not to be fulfilled.  Only three 
years after taking the throne when his father 
died in 705, Crathir was killed in a fall from his 
horse while hunting, and Ustrich was called on 
to rule.  Ustrich brought a certain level of 
austerity back to the court, and replaced the 
noble-born courtiers with churchmen and 
academics, attracting philosophers and 
scientists in the place of entertainers and 
courtesans.  Ustrich embarked on a number of 
ambitious domestic improvement programs, 
including dams and navigationc channels on 
the River Efernwy, as well as overdue repairs on 
fortresses along the norther border.  He also 
embarked on a massive and expensive build-up 
of the navy in response to a growing threat from 
Caludian pirates.  All of this building was rather 
expensive and depleted the treasury, requiring 
both tax increases and a certain amount of 
borrowing from Tolemeian banking houses.  
Despite this, when Ustrich died in 729 he was 
greatly mourned and in later years his reign 
was remembered fondly.
	However, Ustrich had left a legacy of 
debt which his nephew Blaesis was blamed for 
when he ascended to the throne.  Blaesis' reign 
was troubled by an inability to raise revenues 
and a general economic decline.  The national 
economy was stabilized to some degree by 
spending for an ongoing naval war with 
Galetach, but ultimately that spending depleted 
resources and the war damaged trade and did 
little reduce Caludian piracy.
	Blaesis' son Madawg came to the throne 
in 756 and found himself faced with a real crisis.  
To deal with it he instituted extensive changes 
in the tax and revenue system, changes which 
had been resisted in Ustrich's reign, but which 
the nobles and merchants were now too 
desperate to resist.  By taxing imports heavily he 
encouraged the growth of domestic industries, 
particularly textile manufacturing, and by 
taxing that growing industry he began to raise 
government revenues.  At the same time taxes 
on exports were lowered somewhat and taxes 
which had traditionally gone to regional nobles 
were gradually taken over by the crown.  
Favorable treaties with Galetach towards the 
end of Madawg's reign helped solidify his 
successes.
	Madawg died at the relatively young age 
of 48 in 778.  He had four sons, Mador, Rhis, 
Cradoc and Lawis.  Mador had inherited many 
of his father's qualities and hopes for further 
mercantile and social progress were high as his 
reign started.  However there was poison in the 
bosom of the royal family.  Rhis had a great 
ambition to rule and was jealous of his brother 
Mador.  Mador had kept Rhis near him and 
elevated him as his chief advisor, while finding a 
prime position for Crador in the Church of 
Guyon and grooming Lawis for an academic 
career.
	What Mador did not understand was 
Rhis uncontrollable ambition to rule in his own 
right.  As would later be discovered, Rhis had 
brought about their father's early death by use 
of a subtle magical poison, a technique which 
his agents began to apply to Mador not long 
after he took the throne, with the result that 
Mador grew weaker and weaked, sickening 
slowly over a matter of several years as the 
poison ate away at his body and soul.



