Saturday, July 30, 2011

SampleSunday EXCLUSIVE: Never-Before-Seen excerpt from the MATHION Appendices

A Brief History of Ánovén, up to the Birth of Mathion

This book chronicles the early years of Hâr-Mathion Mavonduri, last king of the ancient realm of Ánovén, the southern continent of the Lands of Émae, in the days when myth was history, and legend was lore. This has not been so for over ten thousand years, since Émae was swallowed by the earth as payment for the treachery of Azgharáth, Lord of the Kânín, or Werewolves.

Before Hâr-Mathion there were thirty-nine kings of Ánovén, and Mathion was the fortieth. There was only one High King: Etheôn the Renowned, father of the Seven Royal Lines. His eldest son, Eredôn, was meant to receive the Wolf-crown after his father’s eventual death, but he, having a large degree of foresight, and grieving for the loss of his father in the Kemmar Degoso Enatho, handed the crown to Erios, his younger brother, and Eredôn decreed that his line would receive the kingship last. Erios appointed his brother Dúrevon to be the Regent of Ánovén. That office was abandoned when Hâr-Málašir, a descendant of Kir-Dúrevon, became the first king of the Line of Dúrevon in the year AE 1098. It was not until the reign of Hâr-Quarios, in 4303 of the Second Era (Amaviya Enkâro in Old Cénárol), that the line of Kan’hadjion was given the office, and a Second Line of Regents was begun.

The Council of Elders, or Methir Edaeron in Old Cénárol, was established by Hâr-Valaxor II in AE 4615 with the outbreak of war on the eastern borders of Kôvudén. As king, Valaxor was obligated to ride to war if he was in good health. This he was, but there was no law indicating whether or not the Regent of Štélue would be given lordship of Ánovén, since his son was then too young to rule. Thus, Valaxor called to assembly the eldest living members of each of the clans of Etheôn, and decreed that when the king rode to war, the elders and the Regent would hold dominion over Ánovén, until such time that either the king or one of his successors returned to Ánovén. However, the Council’s power grew when Hâr-Etharon, first King of the line of Athion, ascended to the High Throne in AK 3094.

Etharon had inherited the pride and ambition of his ancestor Athion, and he desired to be remembered forever in song and history. He led mighty campaigns against the Kânín of the North, most notably against the costal city of Padakis on the Bay of Tisîr. Many Cénáre were lost on those campaigns, but this did nothing to quell Etharon’s aims. Finally, in Etharon’s three hundred and eighty-first year on the High Throne, two hundred Sentárin were lost on a failed sack of Ak’horokaš, and the Council finally acted. They decreed unanimously that the King’s power would be restricted so that it could not be abused; one of these being that the King would need the approval of the Council in order to attack enemy territory. This was marked as the first time the power of a King of Ánovén had ever been checked.

Many lives of kings passed before the Elders intervened again. During the reign of Hâr-Mežolo, a dispute arose between him and the Elders of Kôvudén. The Kânín had once again attacked Kôvudén, this time the costal city of Taqár. Mežolo sent a great force of well-trained Sentárin to the region to aid Peledos the Kôvudénean king, and they fought the most against the Kânín. But the Kânín kept attacking, and eventually the small battle became a war that lasted for half a century and scarred Kôvudén for many centuries after. Peledos was slain before the gates of Kalendu, and Mežolo claimed by right the overlordship of Kôvudén, declaring it to be “a protectorate of the South-realm”. This did not sit well with the elders of Kalendu, and the Methir Edaeron agreed, judging that Mežolo had, like Etharon, abused his power as King. Eventually, the rule of Kôvudén was committed to Peledos’s great-nephew Kathiru, and it is from him that the Kings of Kôvudén in Mathion’s time are descended.

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