Post by Bannanachair on Mar 21, 2019 0:27:38 GMT -4
Today, I wrote nearly 2,000 words worth of a fictional book about an obscure part of an obscure part of history. It will have literally zero plot relevance moving forward. The OP is over twelve thousand words long at this point, and it will keep getting longer. I've taken quite a few excuses to deviate from the main storyline just for the sake of telling a story or adding more worldbuilding, from Mosocron the Nocturnal to both of the songs that Accovres sang for Arthur.
Is this too much? It's certainly not not enough (see? double negatives for negating negation are useful, English teachers!), but I also don't want to just be obnoxious and distracting from the RP and the story currently unfolding. I could have very easily given a three-sentence summary of everything that I wrote (see spoiler 1) as opposed to what the post actually was (spoiler 2). I chose to write the preface and about a quarter to a third of the first chapter of that book.
That was far from the only instance of me doing that, and is one of two in that post alone. If I were able to actually write song lyrics instead of being horrible at it, you guys would all know the words to the songs sung by Accovres. As it is, I spent a few paragraphs telling the same story that was meant to be told as a song. I didn't have to write about Mosocron the Nocturnal or any of the other handful of long-winded writing things that I've done.
So, should I cut back on this type of thing at all? It took until now for me to realise just how excessive it truly is, if it is. Then again, maybe I'm just doubting myself because of my own psychological issues and it has nothing to do with the worldbuilding at all, who knows.
Spoiler 1
Spoiler 2
The book that you selected was titled The History of the Dragon-Coven of Corodare, written by a Sir Ludger Seanton. The name Seanton was familiar, though it took you a second to recognize it as the name of a noble family of counts from somewhere in northern Eredal. You don't recognize Sir Ludger's name, though, nor are you familiar off the top of your head on where Corodare is other than that it's a county likewise in Eredal:
In the early days of the reign of King Aswell IV, following the overthrow of his cousin King Oswyn in the year 1097 after the enslavement of Neoran, there were many issues that faced his realm. Among the most overlooked of them by modern historians was that in Corodare there were five dragons who united to terrorize the region.
This book which I am writing seeks to discus the origins of the Dragon-Coven of Corodare in the context of the political instability of the Diarchy and the specific political situation in Strongvale. I will also analyze the possible motives of each of the dragons in this unique arrangement. Furthermore, I will detail the actions of this group over the dozen years of their operation, culminating in each of their deaths due to the actions of King Aswell and Duke Foral, and the aftermath of the whole affair and it's relevance to the overall Diarchy.
My reasons for this writing are immensely personal: My grandfather's maternal ancestor was the Sir Arnold Cresberg who slew Tyddroim, my mother's half-brother and his ancestors were the counts of Corodare since the reign of King Ronar I and the Owlen rebellion. Furthermore, my father, as the count of Seanton, conducts much trade with Corodare, and so will my elder brother when he inherits, so it is in the interests of my family that this knowledge is recorded, remembered and known.
Before beginning in earnest, I would also like to give my thanks to my sponsors, among them Sir Horthon Nickart the chair of the Organization for Draconic Studies at the University of Belgate, my uncle Count Wallace of Corodare (who has generously allowed me to inspect the relevant sites myself), Baron Luitwin of Olsnerth and, most importantly, King Ronar V, to whom this book is dedicated.
Table of Contents
- Section One: Before the Coven: Motives for the Dragons, and their earlier Histories
- Chapter One: A history of Galross and Maldrurth
- Chapter Two: A history of Garvosdig
- Chapter Three: A history of Tyddroim
- Chapter Four: A history of Rhythonth
- Section Two: Birth of the Coven: The Coven in the late years of King Ballus III
- Chapter Five: The formation of the Coven, and settling in Corodare
- Chapter Six: Efforts of resistance by Count Bolsner
- Chapter Seven: Servitude of the peasants
- Section Three: Glory of the Coven: The Coven through the first reign of King Oswyn
- Chapter Eight: A new Arkhosia
- Chapter Nine: Ousting of Count Bolsner
- Chapter Ten: Efforts of resistance by Count Valnor and Sir Thain
- Chapter Eleven: Establishing formal rule
- Chapter Twelve: Alliances with Ekontyss the Younger
- Chapter Thirteen: Courting Mosocron the Nocturnal
- Section Four: Death of the Coven: The Coven in the beginning of the reign of King Aswell IV
- Chapter Fourteen: Attracting the attentions of the king
- Chapter Fifteen: The Battle of Irostale
- Chapter Sixteen: Deaths of Galross and Maldrurth
- Chapter Seventeen: Deaths of Tyddroim and Rhynthonth
- Chapter Eighteen: Flight of Garvosdig
- Section Five: After the Coven: Its effects on the Diarchical conflicts, and its continued effects in Corodare
- Chapter Nineteen: Strongvale united behind the Black Owls
- Chapter Twenty: Rebuilding Corodare
- Chapter Twenty-One: Relations with Nizeston
Chapter One: A history of Galross and Maldrurth
Galross and Maldrurth were united for several decades prior to the formation of their group in Corodare, and it is fitting that they were also the first to die. As is known to many draconic scholars, the vast majority of instances where dragons are not solitary is when they are with their mate. There are only approximately two-hundred-fifty recorded instances in the past three thousand years where groups of three or more dragons coalesced into an alliance, and they are by far the exceptions to the rule and not the general rule.
For much of their history together, Galross and Maldrurth conformed to that general rule as a mating pair without other draconic contacts. Blue dragons both of them, it is hypothesized that they met some time in the years 1020s after the enslavement of Neoran in the Qhirst Mountains, then contested territory between the kingdoms of Ostcliff and Mallowater.
Prior to that, Galross (the wife) had lived for approximately four hundred years, and Maldrurth (the husband) had lived for maybe six hundred years. Maldrurth's history first, as it is longer and more well-recorded, and then I shall go back around to Galross's history.
There is speculation as to where his egg was laid, and whose line he is from. The most popular theory is that his egg was laid and hatched in Forfait, likely from the line of Pimmontyr the father and Torgyloss the mother. Another theory of Maldrurth's origin is that he was born in the northwest of the kingdom of Elsutia, in either the woods by modern Oakwell or closer to the Nubarb Delta.
Regardless of where he was born, and whose egg he was, the consensus is that Maldrurth was born near the Nubarb, and not north of it. Possible mothers, if not Torgyloss, are Tillaneth, Ondoris and Caenaenth. Possible fathers are counted as Peokyss, Genuntiess, Irserrin or possibly even Ekontyss the Elder.
That said, the most likely scenario of Maldrurth's birth is that he was born on Forfait, perhaps in the ruins of Dorevis or Uvefis where blue dragoneggshells have been found at the right time, and to Pimmontyr the father and Torgyloss the mother. He may have been born just before or right around the fall of the empire of Tarthel, or perhaps around the beginnings of the kingdom of Estermere.
Maldrurth may have had siblings who were slain early on as well. Baron Luitwin of Olsnerth attested in his book The Life of the Dragon Maldrurth that he was one of a clutch of four, and that his siblings all died before reaching one hundred. That in mind, he acknowledges that the evidence is circumstancial.
Maldrurth first appeared in the records terrorizing Estermerians around the fall of Tarthel. He was young, likely no older than a century and possibly younger given descriptions of his size. He mostly preyed upon merchants attempting to conduct trade, primarily stealing gold, silver and spideroak.
Gold and silver are common things for dragons to steal, but spideroak is a less common desire for dragons and particularly for ones that young. He may have gotten an interest in it from an early age due to being located conveniently downriver from the Spiderwood Forest (then much larger) or perhaps he was guided towards stealing it by his sire, particularly if it is Pimmontyr.
Regardless of his reasoning, he left that lair after merely a decade operating there and was not recorded again for nearly fifty years. Any reasoning for this that I can give would be pure speculation, and so I shall not do so.
Maldrurth was attested in the annals of Saint Ordmaer as one of the dragons who fought over the ruins of the Green Tower in the 560s after the enslavement of Neoran. He was purportedly chased off by Mazaer Checzic Rokij, though it must be remembered that Ordmaer was biased in favour of that Mazaer due to his early conversion to Darism. It is more likely that he was chased off by Traketan knights or his draconic enemies.
His next appearance is significantly more notable, and perhaps an early indicator of his peculiar behaviour. In the year six-hundred-fifty-five after the enslavement of Neoran, it is recorded in the annals of Goldport that a blue dragon took up residence in the northerly regions of the Truqolp Mountains, where he terrorized man and cyclops in equal measure.
Thirty years later, however, the letters of the famed traveler Brelor the Bald paint a different picture. They paint a picture of a blue dragon, about two hundred to two hundred fifty years old, working in concert with a tribe of cyclopes to terrorize those on both sides of the Truqolp Mountains. The dragon named there is "Malturth, or Maldurth, or Malthur". It is not hard to imagine that it is indeed Maldrurth that Brelor was describing.
While in the Truqolp Mountains, Maldrurth came to style himself as a king over the cyclopes. Indeed, it was there that he remained for the longest consistent stretch of his career, and it is not hard to understand why. As a dragon he could get what he wanted from most people; as a dragon commanding hundreds of cyclopes he could sack large towns even in Eredal without much fear.
Ruins in the Truqolp Mountains are hard for mortal men to visit, but objects within them can be traded for, and among those objects are clay tablets with writing on them. Much of it has yet to be deciphered, but from what has been deciphered it is not from the days of the ancient Cyclops empire, but from the "kingdom of the blue storm-god". Maldrurth's ego led to him giving writing to at least his tribe of Cyclopes, though they seem not to have retained that ability in his absence.
A full account of this era of Maldrurth's life would be a book of its own, and for that I can only recommend The Life of the Dragon Maldrurth by Baron Luitwin and the third chapter of the second volume of Modern Kingdoms of the Cyclopes by Lady Areagne of Cironth. A full set of Lady Areagne's cyclopedia is hard to come by, though, so I suggest just reading Luitwin.
To make the long of it shorter, it took an army to chase Maldrurth away, and many bribes to ensure the Cyclopes did not revert to their prior loyalties when he returned to the Truqolp Mountains three years after his exile.
The longer of it is that King Biltorn VII of Eredal and King Mazaer Schizhik III of Traketus had to simultaneously attack either side of his nation in the Truqolp Mountains. They each led ten thousand men, thinking that to be more than enough, but it was a difficult fight nonetheless when the cyclops army turned out to number near two thousand instead of the two or three hundred first guessed by them.
You were hardly a dozen pages in when you were interrupted by a servant. "Lord Othan, we've been looking for you everywhere. Your brother and Sir Raethus are rather concerned that you aren't with everyone in the doctor's room."
Is this too much? It's certainly not not enough (see? double negatives for negating negation are useful, English teachers!), but I also don't want to just be obnoxious and distracting from the RP and the story currently unfolding. I could have very easily given a three-sentence summary of everything that I wrote (see spoiler 1) as opposed to what the post actually was (spoiler 2). I chose to write the preface and about a quarter to a third of the first chapter of that book.
That was far from the only instance of me doing that, and is one of two in that post alone. If I were able to actually write song lyrics instead of being horrible at it, you guys would all know the words to the songs sung by Accovres. As it is, I spent a few paragraphs telling the same story that was meant to be told as a song. I didn't have to write about Mosocron the Nocturnal or any of the other handful of long-winded writing things that I've done.
So, should I cut back on this type of thing at all? It took until now for me to realise just how excessive it truly is, if it is. Then again, maybe I'm just doubting myself because of my own psychological issues and it has nothing to do with the worldbuilding at all, who knows.
Spoiler 1
@ Othan: The book that you selected was titled The History of the Dragon-Coven of Corodare, written by a Sir Ludger Seanton. The name Seanton was familiar, though it took you a second to recognize it as the name of a noble family of counts from somewhere in northern Eredal. You don't recognize Sir Ludger's name, though, nor are you familiar off the top of your head on where Corodare is other than that it's a county likewise in Eredal.
The book describes an alliance of five dragons in a region of northern Eredal about two hundred years ago, though the book itself may have been written fifty or so years ago by the dedication. It included prefaces about what the dragons in the alliance did in the centuries prior to their alliances. You were in the midst of reading about how one of those dragons, Maldrurth, had conquered a kingdom of cyclopes, hardly a dozen pages in, when you were interrupted by a servant.
"Lord Othan, we've been looking for you everywhere. Your brother and Sir Raethus are rather concerned that you aren't with everyone in the doctor's room."
The book describes an alliance of five dragons in a region of northern Eredal about two hundred years ago, though the book itself may have been written fifty or so years ago by the dedication. It included prefaces about what the dragons in the alliance did in the centuries prior to their alliances. You were in the midst of reading about how one of those dragons, Maldrurth, had conquered a kingdom of cyclopes, hardly a dozen pages in, when you were interrupted by a servant.
"Lord Othan, we've been looking for you everywhere. Your brother and Sir Raethus are rather concerned that you aren't with everyone in the doctor's room."
Spoiler 2
The book that you selected was titled The History of the Dragon-Coven of Corodare, written by a Sir Ludger Seanton. The name Seanton was familiar, though it took you a second to recognize it as the name of a noble family of counts from somewhere in northern Eredal. You don't recognize Sir Ludger's name, though, nor are you familiar off the top of your head on where Corodare is other than that it's a county likewise in Eredal:
In the early days of the reign of King Aswell IV, following the overthrow of his cousin King Oswyn in the year 1097 after the enslavement of Neoran, there were many issues that faced his realm. Among the most overlooked of them by modern historians was that in Corodare there were five dragons who united to terrorize the region.
This book which I am writing seeks to discus the origins of the Dragon-Coven of Corodare in the context of the political instability of the Diarchy and the specific political situation in Strongvale. I will also analyze the possible motives of each of the dragons in this unique arrangement. Furthermore, I will detail the actions of this group over the dozen years of their operation, culminating in each of their deaths due to the actions of King Aswell and Duke Foral, and the aftermath of the whole affair and it's relevance to the overall Diarchy.
My reasons for this writing are immensely personal: My grandfather's maternal ancestor was the Sir Arnold Cresberg who slew Tyddroim, my mother's half-brother and his ancestors were the counts of Corodare since the reign of King Ronar I and the Owlen rebellion. Furthermore, my father, as the count of Seanton, conducts much trade with Corodare, and so will my elder brother when he inherits, so it is in the interests of my family that this knowledge is recorded, remembered and known.
Before beginning in earnest, I would also like to give my thanks to my sponsors, among them Sir Horthon Nickart the chair of the Organization for Draconic Studies at the University of Belgate, my uncle Count Wallace of Corodare (who has generously allowed me to inspect the relevant sites myself), Baron Luitwin of Olsnerth and, most importantly, King Ronar V, to whom this book is dedicated.
Table of Contents
- Section One: Before the Coven: Motives for the Dragons, and their earlier Histories
- Chapter One: A history of Galross and Maldrurth
- Chapter Two: A history of Garvosdig
- Chapter Three: A history of Tyddroim
- Chapter Four: A history of Rhythonth
- Section Two: Birth of the Coven: The Coven in the late years of King Ballus III
- Chapter Five: The formation of the Coven, and settling in Corodare
- Chapter Six: Efforts of resistance by Count Bolsner
- Chapter Seven: Servitude of the peasants
- Section Three: Glory of the Coven: The Coven through the first reign of King Oswyn
- Chapter Eight: A new Arkhosia
- Chapter Nine: Ousting of Count Bolsner
- Chapter Ten: Efforts of resistance by Count Valnor and Sir Thain
- Chapter Eleven: Establishing formal rule
- Chapter Twelve: Alliances with Ekontyss the Younger
- Chapter Thirteen: Courting Mosocron the Nocturnal
- Section Four: Death of the Coven: The Coven in the beginning of the reign of King Aswell IV
- Chapter Fourteen: Attracting the attentions of the king
- Chapter Fifteen: The Battle of Irostale
- Chapter Sixteen: Deaths of Galross and Maldrurth
- Chapter Seventeen: Deaths of Tyddroim and Rhynthonth
- Chapter Eighteen: Flight of Garvosdig
- Section Five: After the Coven: Its effects on the Diarchical conflicts, and its continued effects in Corodare
- Chapter Nineteen: Strongvale united behind the Black Owls
- Chapter Twenty: Rebuilding Corodare
- Chapter Twenty-One: Relations with Nizeston
Chapter One: A history of Galross and Maldrurth
Galross and Maldrurth were united for several decades prior to the formation of their group in Corodare, and it is fitting that they were also the first to die. As is known to many draconic scholars, the vast majority of instances where dragons are not solitary is when they are with their mate. There are only approximately two-hundred-fifty recorded instances in the past three thousand years where groups of three or more dragons coalesced into an alliance, and they are by far the exceptions to the rule and not the general rule.
For much of their history together, Galross and Maldrurth conformed to that general rule as a mating pair without other draconic contacts. Blue dragons both of them, it is hypothesized that they met some time in the years 1020s after the enslavement of Neoran in the Qhirst Mountains, then contested territory between the kingdoms of Ostcliff and Mallowater.
Prior to that, Galross (the wife) had lived for approximately four hundred years, and Maldrurth (the husband) had lived for maybe six hundred years. Maldrurth's history first, as it is longer and more well-recorded, and then I shall go back around to Galross's history.
There is speculation as to where his egg was laid, and whose line he is from. The most popular theory is that his egg was laid and hatched in Forfait, likely from the line of Pimmontyr the father and Torgyloss the mother. Another theory of Maldrurth's origin is that he was born in the northwest of the kingdom of Elsutia, in either the woods by modern Oakwell or closer to the Nubarb Delta.
Regardless of where he was born, and whose egg he was, the consensus is that Maldrurth was born near the Nubarb, and not north of it. Possible mothers, if not Torgyloss, are Tillaneth, Ondoris and Caenaenth. Possible fathers are counted as Peokyss, Genuntiess, Irserrin or possibly even Ekontyss the Elder.
That said, the most likely scenario of Maldrurth's birth is that he was born on Forfait, perhaps in the ruins of Dorevis or Uvefis where blue dragoneggshells have been found at the right time, and to Pimmontyr the father and Torgyloss the mother. He may have been born just before or right around the fall of the empire of Tarthel, or perhaps around the beginnings of the kingdom of Estermere.
Maldrurth may have had siblings who were slain early on as well. Baron Luitwin of Olsnerth attested in his book The Life of the Dragon Maldrurth that he was one of a clutch of four, and that his siblings all died before reaching one hundred. That in mind, he acknowledges that the evidence is circumstancial.
Maldrurth first appeared in the records terrorizing Estermerians around the fall of Tarthel. He was young, likely no older than a century and possibly younger given descriptions of his size. He mostly preyed upon merchants attempting to conduct trade, primarily stealing gold, silver and spideroak.
Gold and silver are common things for dragons to steal, but spideroak is a less common desire for dragons and particularly for ones that young. He may have gotten an interest in it from an early age due to being located conveniently downriver from the Spiderwood Forest (then much larger) or perhaps he was guided towards stealing it by his sire, particularly if it is Pimmontyr.
Regardless of his reasoning, he left that lair after merely a decade operating there and was not recorded again for nearly fifty years. Any reasoning for this that I can give would be pure speculation, and so I shall not do so.
Maldrurth was attested in the annals of Saint Ordmaer as one of the dragons who fought over the ruins of the Green Tower in the 560s after the enslavement of Neoran. He was purportedly chased off by Mazaer Checzic Rokij, though it must be remembered that Ordmaer was biased in favour of that Mazaer due to his early conversion to Darism. It is more likely that he was chased off by Traketan knights or his draconic enemies.
His next appearance is significantly more notable, and perhaps an early indicator of his peculiar behaviour. In the year six-hundred-fifty-five after the enslavement of Neoran, it is recorded in the annals of Goldport that a blue dragon took up residence in the northerly regions of the Truqolp Mountains, where he terrorized man and cyclops in equal measure.
Thirty years later, however, the letters of the famed traveler Brelor the Bald paint a different picture. They paint a picture of a blue dragon, about two hundred to two hundred fifty years old, working in concert with a tribe of cyclopes to terrorize those on both sides of the Truqolp Mountains. The dragon named there is "Malturth, or Maldurth, or Malthur". It is not hard to imagine that it is indeed Maldrurth that Brelor was describing.
While in the Truqolp Mountains, Maldrurth came to style himself as a king over the cyclopes. Indeed, it was there that he remained for the longest consistent stretch of his career, and it is not hard to understand why. As a dragon he could get what he wanted from most people; as a dragon commanding hundreds of cyclopes he could sack large towns even in Eredal without much fear.
Ruins in the Truqolp Mountains are hard for mortal men to visit, but objects within them can be traded for, and among those objects are clay tablets with writing on them. Much of it has yet to be deciphered, but from what has been deciphered it is not from the days of the ancient Cyclops empire, but from the "kingdom of the blue storm-god". Maldrurth's ego led to him giving writing to at least his tribe of Cyclopes, though they seem not to have retained that ability in his absence.
A full account of this era of Maldrurth's life would be a book of its own, and for that I can only recommend The Life of the Dragon Maldrurth by Baron Luitwin and the third chapter of the second volume of Modern Kingdoms of the Cyclopes by Lady Areagne of Cironth. A full set of Lady Areagne's cyclopedia is hard to come by, though, so I suggest just reading Luitwin.
To make the long of it shorter, it took an army to chase Maldrurth away, and many bribes to ensure the Cyclopes did not revert to their prior loyalties when he returned to the Truqolp Mountains three years after his exile.
The longer of it is that King Biltorn VII of Eredal and King Mazaer Schizhik III of Traketus had to simultaneously attack either side of his nation in the Truqolp Mountains. They each led ten thousand men, thinking that to be more than enough, but it was a difficult fight nonetheless when the cyclops army turned out to number near two thousand instead of the two or three hundred first guessed by them.
You were hardly a dozen pages in when you were interrupted by a servant. "Lord Othan, we've been looking for you everywhere. Your brother and Sir Raethus are rather concerned that you aren't with everyone in the doctor's room."