Darvin
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« on: May 29, 2007, 01:31:04 am » |
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Rise of Balkurn
The Balkurn clan was one of the lesser of the dwarven houses. It had been decimated during the War of Elders, and held no home to call its own. It survived through a tradition of martial discipline, and members of the house were to be found in almost any dwarven army. Despite this, they did not prosper in the years following the War of Elders. The need for soldiers had deminished, and the landless Balkurn were left poor. They took whatever work they could find as guards and scouts and patrolling agents along the dwarven border. It was a hard time for Balkurn when everyone else was reaping the rewards of a victory born equally by their work.
It would be in the conflicts of human lands that a great leader for the Balkurn clan would emerge. His name was Ryus Balkurn, a weary veteran of the conflicts of the south. There had been conflicting news of the battles going on there, but all that was certain was that they were dwarf against dwarf kin, something that had not been seen in many years. Ryus returned, but the great many of the dwarven warriors that entered the human lands did not.
Detained by the house Hablith, which had much interest in the expansion of the dwarven nation into Maridacan, Ryus was made to answer for the many accusations left against him by others who had returned from the south. They spoke of Ryus Balkurn's treason, and of his vicious and cunning ploys. The house Hablith was in a rage, for many of their brethren had filled the political offices in their cities in the human lands, and they were now dead. Yet Ryus was calm and waited his fair turn to speak in his own defence. The house Hablith thought that he would only make fool of himself through excuses and thinly veiled lies, but instead he made a bold assertation which none could find evidence to deny.
He spoke of countless victories he had against the humans, and bolstered the pride of all dwarves seated to judge him as he told his tales. Yet always, he told, there were new orders, more difficult than the last, without even a word of thanks or acknowledgement. When he entrenched and demanded reinforcement, he receive no answer. His men grew weary, he said, and at last he withdrew and marched back against his orders, and when he did it was he who was attacked first. As with any good lie, there was a strong grain of truth to the matter, and he knew that the meticulous documents that might prove him wrong were burned in the many sieges he had made. All that were left were dwarves who remembered the long and drawn out battles with the humans and the disinterest of the noble generals. The house Hablith called many witnesses, but none could provide any indication of the veracity of Ryus Balkurn's claims.
Despite the pleas of the representative of the house Balkurn (which had little formal power in the proceedings), the house Hablith would not be moved. It sentenced Ryus Balkurn to death, with a reprieve of eleven days. The news travelled quickly, and many lords of many houses were disconcerted by the ruling. By dwarven law, any noble without criminal past was given presumption of innocence. By this time honoured tradtion, Ryus Balkurn's version of the tale must be disproven thoroughly, or accepted as truth. Yet the house Hablith had forgone this ancient protocol for their own convenience. They had not - and could not - disprove the words of Ryus Balkurn. And yet, it ignored his tale entirely in their rulings and justifications. For the impartial houses, they felt that either the house Hablith must bare equal blame to Ryus, or Ryus should bare none, for it was a dwarf of Hablith that would have sent any such order to attack and kill Ryus, sparking the conflict. The house Balkurn was a firestorm, claiming that Hablith had long held grudge against them and now twisted the laws to lay blame upon Balkurn where Hablith had done wrong.
For the house Balkurn, this was the final act of underhandedness that they would suffer from Hablith. There had long been a rivalry between the two houses. Balkurn won honour through victories in battles which Hablith had not the courage to fight, and their valour became legendary. Hablith had long despised this habit of the members of the house Balkurn to upstage them, and they struck back through less conventional means. Through incentives and blackmail they forced merchants to charge those of house Balkurn higher fees, and they undermined the attempts of Balkurn to once again find a land to call their own. The expedition into Maridacan was originally planned by Balkurn, but through their vast resources Hablith had made certain they moved first. Never could Balkurn prove the illegal aspect of Hablith's acts, and so always they held to the tradition of immunity granted to nobles from wild accusations. But now, they felt justified in breaking the rules, and they would not waste their time with such meager words when the life of one of their own was at stake.
Ryus was to be hanged from Sarin's overlook, a massive tower built over a citadel on the side of a spirilling mountain. As he was lead to its heights from the dungeons below, the house Balkurn made a sudden move. Its warriors knew well the secret passages of Sarin's tower, for once it had been their's before it was overtaken by an Elder God. The house Hablith had retaken it some eighteen years later, and claimed that Balkurn had no right to it. So the tower turned into the undoing of Hablith; their main garrison was captured unarmed, and their tower became a fortified stronghold of Balkurn, and rather than hung from the top, Ryus was pronounced its lord and head of the house Balkurn, if only to cause great anguish and insult to Hablith which they now hated.
The news of this event sent awe throughout the entire world of dwarves, and with fury Hablith marched its entire army to the stronghold taken. They sought to destroy any warrior who held the mark of Balkurn, but they had all disappeared from outside the citadel, which now overflowed with their numbers. The army of Hablith assembled upon the lower pass, preparing for the siege to overtake the Balkurn warriors. Yet while they prepared, Balkurn once again upstaged its Hablith counterparts.
A single dwarf took a manifesto to the lords of Hablith stationed there; to acknowledge Balkurn's lordship over Sarin's overlook, or be destroyed. Decrying this apparent arrogance, the Hablith general ordered his archers to open fire. Now sooner had this happened, he realized in terror his mistake. There was a flurry of arrows from the rocks above, and a sudden crack like a great whip had been released. Stones were flung into the air from catapults, and the forces of Hablith were sent into disarray. Marching forward from their cover, the Balkurn warriors rounded up and captured thirteen high nobles of the house Hablith, and it forced them in exchange for their freedom to sign papers of acknowledgement of Balkurn's right to Sarin's overlook, and they left begrudgingly.
Long did the discussion of the acts of Balkurn send shockwaves throughout the dwarven nation. Many felt that Balkurn had merely taken back what was rightfully there's, while others felt it was no less than treason against their own kin. In the end, a call went out for peace anew among the dwarven nation, which Balkurn embraced. Faced with a unanimous decision against it, Hablith conceded, but always would it mark the house Balkurn as its enemy.
News came from the south that the wars of humanity were over, and that the lands were now a single Wain, Tharwain. To the dwarves, this was good news, and many sent their agents to the lands of men. To the wizard's surprise, one of these agents was an emmissary of Lord Ryus Balkurn. The wizards understood quickly that Ryus could cause them a great deal of trouble, but they also learned of his lies before the dwarven courts which had divided the dwarven opinion on its judgement. So they sent him a warning; "do not interfere with our work, or we will expose you". Understanding this well, Ryus kept secret to the end of his days the involvement he had with the human wizards, and bore them no grudge openly, and the truth was not to be revealed until a date much later.
Yet Tharwain's prosperity also brought new threats. They were raiders from a distant land, somewhere near Varnost. They were quick on horseback and understood how to divide an enemy. They knew that a battle was won before it was fought, and above all else knew how to cut their losses. They realized early that while dwarven fortresses were nigh impenetrable, their roads were easy prey. The dwarf patrols were slow and obvious, and swift raiders could make much of the coming traders.
While the dwarves could set ambushes and pursue for days on end closer to its heart to the exhaustion of their enemies, they found they could not control their fringes, and so traders began to turn away. In time, there were even fewer traders than before Tharwain had come into being. The dwarves had always been dependant on shipments of extra food, for they had settled in lands less fertile than the humans and elves, and now times were grim. Despite their struggles, the dwarven nations would continue to decline for years to come.
Ryus Balkurn died during this long decline, an unhappy and unfulfilled dwarf. He had sought to change dwarven society and bring about a new order, but Balkurn still lived under the shadows of the other clans, and even as its head his voice was weak and often ignored. In his dying memoires, which he commanded be sealed away for a hundred years, he detailed the truth of his betrayal at the behest of the wizards, and of his full motivation which had not seen fruition. He wished to create a new dwarven nation which would give full credit upon merit, and not from noble bith, but the lands now occupied by Balkurn were surrounded by traditionalists which would not budge, and he could achieve nothing. One hundred years later, his descendants would open the document and they understood the darker aspect of their history. They thought it prudent, as Hablith was still among the strongest of the houses, to keep the truth a hidden fact. The original was memorized by the elders and burned, and only passed orally from one generation to the next lest it be known by their foes.
The dwarves passed into obscurity while Tharwain rose to its prominence. Its influence became known across the great span of the continent, and its great bounty was known afar. Hundreds of years passed as human generations came and went, and always the dwarven lands were considered cold, void, and starving. That is, until the Jioran expedition.
Jioran was strangely curious about the dwarves. He was a rare type of creature, having some dwarven blood in his mostly human veins, and sought to understand his own history. Bringing a large host of warriors with him he made a trip across the wild lands into the dwarven domain, and he discovered that his dry and tasteless foodstuffs would trade for gold and jewels and mechanical constructs beyond the works of even the wise scholars of Tharwain.
Swearing his men to secrecy, Jioran made several trips over the years, earning vast fortunes for himself and his men. Though his men understood the need for silence, many foolishly flaunted their wealth, and soon it was learned that the riches Jioran returned with were from the dwarven nation. Not everyone was so kind to the dwarven kin as Jioran. Many felt that the dwarves were a lesser race, and using plans for siege weapons brought back by Jioran himself, a huge host entered the dwarven realm.
The time of pandemonium was an age where even Tharwain kept its borders well protected and sent very few abroad. The stirrup, the crossbow, the trebuchet; they were the weapons of the dwarves which had long been forgotten to the realms of men and elves which were now known to the rogue kingdoms along the fringe of the continents, and with these weapons their armies could fight evenhandedly with even the great kingdoms with vast forges. Plate armour proved no better than patched leather against the bolts of crossbows, and lesser nations were devoured by the roaming barbarians.
The dwarves suffered the worst of all. They were rich in all things but agriculture, and so their numbers had declined. Now their great works of engineering were used against them, their fortresses captured, and all advantage they might claim against the humans and elves which harrassed them were gone. Yet one house did not suffer.
Balkurn, true to its long-standing traditions, had a discipline in battle that the other clans did not match. True to the wishes of their founder, it was merit, and not nobility, that determined rank in their armies. They were clean, efficient, and brutal fighters. Yet Balkurn was still the smallest of all the dwarven nations, and they carefully rationed their precious numbers against the invaders. Time passed, and Balkurn slowly grew as other clans turned to them for protection.
It was near the end of the time of pandemonium that a final tilt in Balkurn's favour would drive the foreign invaders from its lands. One of its most brilliant engineers, Ayuth Camirn, had devised plans for a great greenhouse, a tower which would rise over the rest of the citadel. Through mirrors and refraction it would focus the light of even the high mountains at all times of the day into its chambers where it would grow foodstuffs. By spreading the greenhouses throughout their cities, Balkurn was the first of the dwarven nations in countless generations to feast. Their numbers swelled, and in thirty years when their military felt this boon, so a great offensive was made.
No longer was there a dwarven nation of fractured clans and houses. In its wake Balkurn implemented the reforms long awaited by its dead patriarch. There was no dwarven clan, just a single dwarven nation, the Balkurn Nation. The noble houses still existed in name, but their influence would never again be formal.
Upon the consolidation of the core territory of dwarves, the rulers of Balkurn became interested in the outside world. The dwarves of the conquered clans had been dispersed, and they wondered just how far the dwarven influence had spread. To their amazement, the dwarves were mostly slaves in far off lands, as great in number as the humans and elves which occupied them, yet treated as filth.
Moved by passion, the Balkurn Nation began a long campaign to free their brethren and establish nations where all races would be ruled by their merit, and not by caste divisions. Knowing that colonial rule was one of the problems that created the system of clans and houses in the first place, Balkurn made certain that these new nations were independant.
In the recent years, Balkurn has finally turned its attention back to Maridacan. Tharwain had declined, and Balkurn sees only lawlessness upon its borders. Feeling that the humans are incapable of providing the welfare for the dwarves who yet reside in that region, they have returned to establish their strongholds once again that realm. This decision has been long in coming, as Balkurn has had nothing but friction with the state of Nisyrra. They know that expanding into this region will finally place them on a border with Nisyrra, which treats the dwarves within its lands as slaves without freedom. It is felt among the leaders and people of Balkurn that a conflict between the greatest nation of elves and the greatest nation of dwarves is inevitable.
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History Part IV - The Rise of Balkurn
