A Time of Exile (57 page)
Authors: Katharine Kerr
POLITICAL CHRONOLOGY
OF THE KINGDOMS OF DEVERRY AND
ELDIDD
| -8. | The People of Bel flee Northern Gaul by magical means after Vindex’s failed rebellion against the Emperor Nero and arrive in their new world. |
| -5. | The destruction of the Seven Cities of the western elves by the people known as the Gel da’Thae, the Horse Kin. |
| Year 1. | Founding of the Holy City of Dun Deverry after King Bran sees the omen of the White Sow. |
| 2-254. | Dynasty of the White Mare. Direct rule of King Bran’s descendants as the small colonies around Dun Deverry spread and expand up and down the Belaver. Cerrmor founded in 25, Lughcarn in 106. |
| 54-297. | First Interregnum. Death of Bran’s last lineal descendant touches off the fighting, which eventually the Striking Wyvern clan wins. In disgust, the Hippogriff clan, accompanied by the men of the Dragon, leaves to found its own kingdom in Eldidd. |
| 98-402. | Dynasty of the Striking Wyvern. Expansion continues rapidly. Colonies in Cantrae and Gwaentaer as well as the founding of many cities and towns in Deverry proper. By the 380s the population spread reaches the Eldidd border. Bitter fighting over the defining of that border brings down Wyvern rule. |
| 301. | After much searching for omens, Cynaeval of the Hippogriff clan founds a royal city in Abernaudd. |
| 302. | Cadvaenan of the Dragon founds Aberwyn. Since he is Cynaeval’s foster brother and much the younger to boot, he cedes the kingship to the Hippogriff. This arrangement lasts until Cadvaenan’s death in suspicious circumstances some fifteen years later. |
| 317-322. | Civil war in Eldidd. At the end, the Hippogriff clan is the sole royal clan in Eldidd, but the name of the Dragon is allowed to live on for sentimental reasons. |
| 403-600. | Age of the Warring Clans. To some scholars, the Second Interregnum, it is not so much a true civil war, as there is always a titular king in Dun Deverry, as a time when the Great Clans do pretty much as they please. There is enough empty land available to make the constant fighting possible without tearing the society apart, as those who prefer peace simply move away from disputed territory. In this period Gwaentaer is heavily colonized; the population builds along the iron routes down from Cerrgonney; there is even limited settlement in the Auddglyn. |
| Early 400s. | In Eldidd, settlers to the north and the far west make the first contact with the elves, who withdraw to the west rather than fight over territory that they’ve barely settled. |
| 558. | First contact with Bardek, when a group of Deverry merchants, bound for Eldidd, are blown off course and carried to the far islands. |
| 602. | After many years of fighting, Adoryc I founds the dynasty of the Blue Wyvern, the first effectual dynasty in some two hundred years. His power is based on a coalition of the rising new merchant class, the priests of Bel and Wmm, and the lesser clans. Concessions to his allies include royal support of the new Bardek trade and a royal ban against head-hunting. He also divides the estates of some the conquered Great Clans to reward the lesser, among them the Falcons, Boars, and Wolves. |
| 621. | Adoryc II, Galrion’s father, ascends the throne. |
| 655. | Last time a warrior is ritually beheaded for taking an enemy head. |
| 610-664. | In general, this is a time of prosperity, relative peace, and growing trade with Bardek. The kingdom of Eldidd, however, begins to spread east rather than north, and border clashes are common along the Girysbel range. |
| 665-676. | First Eldidd War. The boundary is eventually settled as running down the middle of the mountains, a compromise that pleases no one. During this period Eldidd begins expanding to the west and comes into the first true conflict with the elves. |
| 720-728. | Second Eldidd War. Liddmaryc of the Hippogriff lays claim to Cenerrpaen, the odd triangle of coastal plain by the Girysbel. Eldidd wins and forces a humiliating treaty, one provision of which is the betrothal of Covramur of Deverry’s infant daughter to Liddmaryc’s grandson, Waryn. This marriage gives Eldidd a distant claim to the Deverry throne. |
| 750. | Covramur dies, ushering in the Time of Troubles, as his daughter’s husbands all lay claim to the throne. There are three claimants, one in Cerrmor, one in Cantrae, and one in Eldidd. While Cerrmor and Cantrae fight over the Holy City, Eldidd fights a war of attrition on the border. |
| 773. | Capture of Mael, Prince Aberwyn, produces a twenty-year truce between Cerrmor and Eldidd. |
| 793. | The province of Pyrdon rebels from Eldidd and declares itself a kingdom. The effect on the wars is a bloody stalemate that drags on for years of raiding, feints, but no decisive action. |
| 828. | Birth of the boy destined to be king of all Deverry, Maryn, son of King Casyl of Pyrdon. |
| 843. | Glyn II of Cerrmor dies without a son. Maryn evades those seeking to harm him by posing as a silver dagger and arrives safely in Cerrmor to claim the throne. |
| 849. | Maryn takes the Holy City. The Boars flee to Cantrae and attempt to establish a rival royal city there. |
| 851. | Maryn I, true king of all Deverry, is crowned in the Holy City. |
| 852-855. | The Final Eldidd War. When Eldidd refuses to make peace, Maryn conquers the kingdom and reduces it to the status of a province. |
| 853. | Casyl of Pyrdon abdicates in favor of Maryn; Pyrdon becomes part of the newly unified kingdom. |
| 862. | Maryn I dies of the aftereffects of many old wounds, leaving behind him peace and the dynasty of the Red Wyvern. The common people are convinced that the gods called him to the Otherlands so young in order to make a god out of him. |
| 856-900. | In general, a time of reconstruction. When Maryn gives the gwerbretrhyn of Cantrae to the Southern Rams, what’s left of the Boars as well as other disgruntled losers flee north to Cerrgonney and found a loose coalition of independent lordships, who then spend most of their time squabbling over who will be gwerbret. The kings ignore them, except for punishing the occasional raid down into Gwaentaer. Population generally begins to rebuild after the long bleeding of the wars. |
| 918. | Abortive rebellion in Eldidd. King Aeryc crushes it with the aid of the loyal Pertyc Maelwaedd, Lord Cannobaen, who is rewarded with the gwerbretrhyn of Aberwyn. |
| 921. | A flare-up of war with Cerrgonney when the newly determined gwerbrets attempt to impose their own taxes on the towns of the Camyn Yraen near their rhans. Aeryc crushes them within a few months. |
| 936. | All trade treaties with Bardek are reviewed and brought directly under the control of the king. Those between Bardek and Eldidd are made consonant with those in Deverry proper. |
| 962-984. | The Cerrgonney wars. In 962, King Maryn II, infuriated by the continuing efforts of the northern gwerbrets to control the iron trade to their own advantage, declares the rank of gwerbret abolished in Cerrgonney. His son, Casyl II, finally brings the matter to a successful conclusion. Thereafter, all Cerrgonney lords swear direct loyalty to the king. |
| 1007. | Gwardyn II, who has no sons, marries his daughter to his brother Savyl’s son, Lallyn, who becomes Lallyn I of the new dynasty of the Gold Wyvern. Although such a marriage is legal, the inbreeding takes its toll in succeeding generations. |
| 1039. | The founding of the province of Cwm Pecl. The Stallion clan is given the gwerbretrhyn. |
| 1057. | Lallyc II ascends the throne. |
GLOSSARY
Aber
(Deverrian) A river mouth, an estuary.
Alar
(Elvish) A group of elves, who may or may not be blood kin, who choose to travel together for some indefinite period of time. Plural: alarli.
Alardan
(Elv.) The meeting of several alarli, usually the occasion for a drunken party.
Archon
(trans, of the Bardekian
atzenarlen)
The elected head of a city-state (Bardekian
at)
.
Astral
The plane of existence directly “above” or “within” the etheric (q.v.). In other systems of magic, often referred to as the Akashic Record or the Treasure House of Images.
Aura
The field of electromagnetic energy that permeates and emanates from every living being.
Aver
(Dev.) A river.
Bara
(Elv.) An enclitic that indicates that the preceding adjective in an elvish agglutinated word is the name of the element following the enclitic, as can+bara+melim = Rough River (rough+name marker+river).
Bel
(Dev.) The chief god of the Deverry pantheon.
Bel
(Elv.) An enclitic, similar in function to
bara
, except
that it indicates that a preceding verb is the name of the following element in the agglutinated term, as in Darabeldal, Flowing Lake.
Blue Light
Another name for the etheric plane (q.v.).
Body of Light
An artificial thought-form (q.v.) constructed by a dweomermaster to allow him or her to travel through the inner planes of existence.
Brigga
(Dev.) Loose wool trousers worn by men and boys.
Broch
(Dev.) A squat tower in which people live. Originally, in the Homeland, these towers had one big fireplace in the center of the ground floor and a number of booths or tiny roomlets up the sides, but by the time of our narrative, this ancient style has given way to regular floors with hearths and chimneys on either side of the structure.
Cadvridoc
(Dev.) A warleader. Not a general in the modern sense, the cadvridoc is supposed to take the advice and counsel of the noble-born lords under him, but his is the right of final decision.
Captain
(trans, of the Dev.
pendaely)
The second in command, after the lord himself, of a noble’s warband. An interesting point is that the word
taely
(the root or unmutated form of
daely)
can mean either a warband or a family depending on context.
Conaber
(Elv.) A musical instrument similar to the panpipe but of even more limited range.
Cwm
(Dev.) A valley.
Dun
(Dev.) A fort.
Dweomer
(trans, of Dev.
dwunddaevad)
In its strict sense, a system of magic aimed at personal enlightenment through harmony with the natural universe in all its planes and manifestations; in the popular sense, magic, sorcery.
Elcyion Lacar
(Dev.) The elves; literally, the “bright spirits,” or “Bright Fey.”
Ensorcel
To produce an effect similar to hypnosis by direct manipulation of a person’s aura. (True hypnosis manipulates the victim’s consciousness only and thus is more easily resisted.)
Etheric
The plane of existence directly “above” the physical. With its magnetic substance and currents, it holds physical matter in an invisible matrix and is the true source of what we call “life.”
Etheric Double
The true being of a person, the electromagnetic
structure that holds the body together and that is the actual seat of consciousness.
Fola
(Elv.) An enclitic that shows the noun preceding it in an agglutinated Elvish word is the name of the element following the enclitic, as in Corafolamelim, Owl River.
Geis
A taboo, usually a prohibition against doing something. Breaking geis results in ritual pollution and the disfavor, if not active enmity of the gods. In societies that truly believe in geis, a person who breaks it usually dies fairly quickly, either of morbid depression or some unconsciously self-inflicted “accident,” unless he or she makes ritual amends.
Gerthddyn
(Dev.) Literally, a “music man,” a wandering minstrel and entertainer of much lower status than a true bard.
Great Ones
Spirits, once human but now disincarnate, who exist on an unknowably high plane of existence and who have dedicated themselves to the eventual enlightenment of all sentient beings. They are also known to the Buddhists, as Boddhisattvas.
Gwerbret
(Dev. The name derives from the Gaulish
vergobretes.)
The highest rank of nobility below the royal family itself. Gwerbrets (Dev.
gwerbretion)
function as the chief magistrates of their regions, and even kings hesitate to override their decisions because of their many ancient prerogatives.
Hiraedd
(Dev.) A peculiarly Celtic form of depression, marked by a deep, tormented longing for some unobtainable things; also and in particular, homesickness to the third power.
Javelin
(trans, of Dev.
picecl
) Since the weapon in question is only about three feet long, another possible translation would be “war dart.” The reader should not think of it as a proper spear or as one of those enormous javelins used in the modern Olympic Games.
Lwdd
(Dev.) A blood-price; differs from wergild in that the amount of lwdd is negotiable in some circumstances, rather than being irrevocably set by law.
Malover
(Dev.) A full, formal court of law with both a priest of Bel and either a gwerbret or a tieryn in attendance.
Pan
(Elv.) An enclitic, similar to
-fola-
, defined earlier, except that it indicates that the preceding noun is plural as
well as the name of the following word, as in Corapanmelim. River of the Many Owls. Remember that Elvish always indicates pluralization by adding a semi-independent morpheme, and that this semi-independence is reflected in the various syntax-bearing enclitics.