Bonfyr Verboo
All is quiet, and sweet memory fades...what remains is a shadow...
The historical Trivium alliance can be viewed here: #/Alliance/Alliance/846
There you will find The Trivium Hall of Heroes, Honored Family Core Members, the original Trivium land claim, which resulted in the war ultimately ending the alliance, Myr's editorial in support of land claims, the Trivium recruiting pitch and the link to the guestbook. Along with all of these points of interest you will find the detailed History of Trivium. Written 18 months before the door was finally closed on Trivium, it includes the prehistory origins, before and during The Long Road, the war that led to the formation of Trivium and the exodus to The Broken Lands. Links to pertinant accounts and alliances are included as well. Further entries during the final year and a half describe events in The Broken Lands.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MAGIKAL KINGDOM
Click the link above to read a 5 part fictionalized account of the history of this kingdom
War in Illyria is not something to fear
Fleeting possessions do not make the warrior
It is those connections to others
The loyalty of a warrior to his brothers and sisters
The certainty that his word is his bond
In the end it is himself, not his things that make the warrior
Fear not the war, fear the warrior
A brief history of the war on Harmless?
and her allies, including the
rise and fall of The Night Crusaders
and the mass exodus of TRIVIUM
It was an age of bloody swords and mule powered
grist mills. An age when boys became men in little
more than a decade only to be crushed at the whim
of some Lord or Lady, life torn away by horses led
to charge line after line of spears. Settlements had
become towns, had become cities, sprawling,
legendary. Those shining cities on hills, frosty in
morning dew, bustling activity, rich of iron, gold and
wine, birthing armies of thousands, tens of
thousands and more. Armies marching to and fro,
lighting siege engines afire and then lingering to
protect peasants gathering the broken and bloody
weapons scattered about.
In those days of hand dug quarries and skilled
craftsmen came a small group of Lords and Ladies
with military might rivaling any that had ever been
fielded before. They pledged as one to ride to the
defense of cities and kingdoms and alliances of
kingdoms whose strength to protect their own was
less than the strength of those intent on subjugating
them. The Night Crusaders was founded on a
principle of protection by Sir Bradly, a mighty
warrior whose vision forever changed Elgea. Over
two years the Crusaders fought on behalf of several
alliances that otherwise would have been
eradicated by unjust acts of aggression. Along with
his comrades ELECTROK, Wild Monk and a dozen
or so others, they took a zest for life and adventure
and transformed it into the template with which
all others shall come to be be measured.
Such an endeavor could not be undertaken without
at least the inkling that an ending would come and
that it would not come without blood. Blood spilled
during the last stand of The Night Crusaders
amounted to ten times or more than that which may
have been lost by alliances of equal and larger
numbers throughout all times of the past. The
Crusaders ensured their Illyrian immortality by
maintaining their integrity and staying faithful to Sir
Bradly's vision unto an end brought on by the
hordes pouring over borders and walls, ravaging
farmer and fighter alike. These hordes would claim
victory by piling body over body, dragging down the
heroes with sheer force of numbers until time ran
out and finally the last soldier was dead.
The Night Crusaders did not go down alone.
Choosing to take up the sword and stand with
them, some fighting more bravely and valiantly
than many had guessed they were able, were
hardly more than a handful of alliances dedicated
to preserving at extreme and sometimes all costs,
the vision of freedom the Night Crusaders
championed so eagerly and so well. Some of these
alliances, Harmless?, the Dwarven Lords, The
Colonist Empire and The Order were massive,
extremely formidable on their own. Others, like
Dark Blight and TRIVIUM were average in size but
rose above in determination. They all stood with
their brothers and sisters to declare they would not
be quiet as despots and charlatans duped so many
to follow a vengeful, evil path of destruction.
Alas, numbers were not on their side and eventually
the fight began to draw down. One by one, at times
of their own choosing the allies accepted whatever
terms were being offered and took a knee to swear
a spiteful oath to the new Illyrian Overlords. Some
of the defeated, seeing the inevitable flayed out
before them saved a majority of their people before
the hordes could breach their walls. Others were not so
fortunate. The Dwarven Lords and TRIVIUM, having
determined to stand for as long as their brothers and
sisters could endure took the brunt of the vengeful
aggression in the northern regions.
TRIVIUM especially, crushed so overwhelmingly by
warfare on multiple fronts that they scarcely remained
in existence, seemed assured to indeed be destroyed
down to the last soldier. They would have certainly
shared the fate of the Night Crusaders had they not
gathered all that was remaining of their various kingdoms
and retreated with haste to the far south, leaving the
Ursor homeland behind. Miles long caravans, carrying
everything they could heave on the backs of their oxen,
aimed for Arran and points south. Some would be
raided as they tore down buildings and packed belongings,
loosing much of what they had hoped to save. To protect
the citizens, future craftsmen, soldiers and leaders, two of
TRIVIUM's founding members, lemur and wonka, brothers
in arms as well as blood, sacrificed themselves on their
swords. With this act of desperation it was their hope that,
once the hordes discovered their permanently exited
corporal dressings the rest of their brothers and sisters
would be allowed to escape un-harassed. The remaining
leadership, hat in hand asked to be allowed an escape
and it appeared granted. In a relatively short time none
who carried the TRIVIUM banner remained in the horde
infested north.
For most, the war was done. The revenge delivered
on their heads by petty barons left them weary and
doubtful that there would or even could be a future
worth living in Elgea. With trepidation the world
watched the war progress to the point that only one
alliance remained engaged against the hordes. That
alliance, Harmless? seemed determined to go down
to the last citizen, as TRIVIUM nearly did, as The
Night Crusaders had, to defend a way of life in Elgea
that most with knowledge of such things were sure
was already eradicated. Up until this war there had
been few who were, by any previous alliance, Lord or
Lady, deemed worthy of complete, unlimited destruction.
War, by nature is chaotic, unpredictable but most
practitioners, the extreme majority of warlords past,
had not carried through with their wars to the extreme
that every last city of a kingdom were captured to
never be returned or completely and utterly razed.
Now, with this new type of warfare unleashed on
the continent, none should feel able to breathe easy
given the knowledge that life in Elgea has been
fundamentally altered.
After the allies had retreated or surrendered, save for
the brave souls of Harmless?, news reached the
southern shores of Elgea that a new land had been
discovered. Long had rumor drifted ear to ear about
a mass of land, across an unnamed southern sea,
where a cataclysm beyond belief had broken the
land. These broken lands were inhabited by a harsh,
unforgiving race of people, not willing to give away
their secrets, yet once safe harbor had been
established, Elgeans began making the week long
journey to a new world, a world open for exploration,
ripe with resources and ready to be tamed by those
with a hearty appetite for adventure.
Into these Broken Lands comes TRIVIUM. Already
exiled from their homelands, devastated almost
beyond belief, the Lords and Ladies of TRIVIUM had
nothing keeping them, no reason not to go, piling into
ships, casting regret to the salty winds and setting
foot on new lands. Now located in a region called
Oarnamly by its indigenous peoples, TRIVIUM's
capital city reestablishes a once and future great
alliance. With old and new allies alike, the family of
brothers and sisters who braved the storms of war,
the storms of an unnamed sea and then traveling
over uncharted territory, discovered a new homeland,
shall rebuild themselves into a stronger, more resilient
and ever more watchful alliance. The Broken Lands will
heal a broken alliance and TRIVIUM will once again shine.
Come all you refugees of war, you weary Lords and
Ladies who fear you will be denied that which by rights
should be yours. Come south to a new land. Piece
together a new world out of a broken one. Leave
behind the body politic that decries every
independent act of a free kingdom. Join TRIVIUM,
as a member of the family, as a member of the
group of alliances making their home in and around
the new TRIVIUM hub, or as an independent
kingdom, forging the land to your will on your own
terms. Join us in making the new world a better
world than the one left behind. Join us and welcome
to the future of Illyriad.
2014
A short story by Skint Jagblade, Squire of the Night, warrior & trainer extrordinaire
