List of monarchs III
- Thread starter Shiva
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Uther II is the son of Roland Paladin, so he's not a Pendragon, bu his mother was Aldewa, the younger sister of Pryderi II and Uther Vye and the older sister of Rhodri.
Uther II was named after his uncle, Uther Vye, who was his mother's brother and his father's best friend. His claim to the throne was through his mother. So Uther II was the cousin to Liam Pendragon AKA Leif Bloðorn and Leif's two younger siblings. I'll do a family tree and post it.
Oh, then I take what I said, it would really be another house
Let me add that the younger son of Pryderi I was Girart (petty) King of Aremorica. He had no descendants as he never married. Uther was not descended from him. Since it was clear he would have no natural heirs, his father made Uther Vye his heir. Uther Vye was the grandson of Pryderi I, the second oldest son of Wledig III and thus the younger brother of Pryderi II. He died before before his uncle and when war started again, Pryderi II appointed his even younger brother, Rhodri, as the new heir. But he too died before his uncle.
We haven't determined who replaced Girart as King of Aremorica when he died without issue.
Roland was the son of Leir who was the Lord of the Breton March. Leir's older brother was Ogda and he had been King of Aremorica before the Franks conquered the east, where his seat was. Leir and Ogda were supposedly descended from Lanslod Lak. They were Brythian, but had no Pendragon blood.
It was when Ogda was dethroned and his heir, Leir, was only made Lord of the March, that Pryderi I appointed Girart as the new King of Aremorica.
High Kings of the British
490 - 532: Arthur I (House of Pendragon) [1]
532 - 554: Brittanicus I "The Great" (House of Pendragon) [2]
554 - 589: Aurelius II "The Lame" (House of Pendragon) [3)
589 - 614: Æthelmund I "The Pious" (House of Pendragon) [4]
614 - 647: Coel II (House of Pendragon) [5]
647-661: Maelgwn I "The Unmourned" (House of Pendragon) [6]
661 -675: Arthur II "The Traveller" (House of Pendragon) [7]
675 - 690: Vortigern II (House of Pendragon) [8]
Emperors of the Holy Brythonic Empire
690 - 691: Vortigern I (House of Pendragon) [8]
691 - 736: Rhiannon I "The Liberator" (House of Pendragon) [9]
736 - 758: Pryderi I "The Unifier" (House of Pendragon) [10]
758 - 779: Wledig III (House of Pendragon) [11]
779-790: Pryderi II (House of Pendragon) [12]
790-819: Uther II (House of Paladin) [13]
819-856: Arthur III “The Rightful” (House of Pendragon-Bloðorn) [14]
[14] The legend goes that when Uther’s reach and knocked Excalibur onto the floor, the blade dug into the ground and was unable to be lifted by even the strongest of men present, with the generals unsure of their next move, the Jorvik danish army, engaged causing mass panic. A figure riding a white horse aimed directly for the tent; dismounting with such speed, the Brythonic generals were in shock, when this man single handily pull the sword out and ordered them all to kneel and do began the reign of Arthur III.
But the story begins 19 years earlier in a long hall, in the settlement of Ribe; Arthur Harold Halfdan Leifson is born to 16 year old, Leif Pendragon and 20 year old, Ysra Ericdóttir, daughter of Eric Bloðorn, whom arranged the marriage following the raid in 790, Eric had his sights on his grandson being future Emperor and taught him the way of ruling and fighting.
Arthur was a keen horse rider and swordsman, training daily with his grandfather, father and his grandfather’s trusted warriors.
As well as this Eric taught him of the “Pendragon Past” how Danes had visited the Brythonic Empire years before man was even on the island and how most Brythonic people descend from the northmen.
In 815, Arthur’s father died in a storm and the body washed up on the shoreline, with the bad waves causing a sword to slice his throat.
Eric believed that at the age of 18, Arthur was ready to travel with a large army to the settlement of Jorvik to see his birthright, the fleet that left was one of the largest array of boats any living man at the time had seen, with many joining when they heard Eric promise land in Brythonic once his grandson held the throne.
At the battle of Jorvik, Arthur was already wearing the crown of Emperor Pryderi II, which Eric had “secured” during the “rescue” mission at Kilmadock, all those years ago.
With superior number of warriors, Arthur and his Danish allies were able to “Liberate” the Empire and secure the throne for the rightful heir.
Uther’s widow, Princess Briggetta of Ansfidal Castle, was sent to a secure nunnery. While the older two sons of Uther and Briggetta, were sent in exile, the younger two were adobted by Arthur to be raised as his own and the daughters were married out to lower Viking lords who were loyal to Arthur and his cause.
Arthur built his new capital, a fortified city located by mthe River Witham on the Eastern coastline calling the settlement Arthurius (otl Boston)
Here Arthur arranged the trading empire that stretched from the fishing villages of Ireland, going all the way around the Baltic to ports of Novgorod Slavs, creating merchant jobs for his Danish population while the Brythonic population prospered from the new cheap goods coming into their empire and selling their items on.
The two people although divided by religion, Celtic Christianity and Odinson or Paganism, were able to tolerate one another under a just and noble Emperor, who allowed freedom of religion.
His death in 856, came following a long battle with an illness that caused him to lose weight and weakened him into a mere shadow of his youthfulness. This illness forced him to be seen less in public and allowed his son and heir, ________, to rule in presence only.
490 - 532: Arthur I (House of Pendragon) [1]
532 - 554: Brittanicus I "The Great" (House of Pendragon) [2]
554 - 589: Aurelius II "The Lame" (House of Pendragon) [3)
589 - 614: Æthelmund I "The Pious" (House of Pendragon) [4]
614 - 647: Coel II (House of Pendragon) [5]
647-661: Maelgwn I "The Unmourned" (House of Pendragon) [6]
661 -675: Arthur II "The Traveller" (House of Pendragon) [7]
675 - 690: Vortigern II (House of Pendragon) [8]
Emperors of the Holy Brythonic Empire
690 - 691: Vortigern I (House of Pendragon) [8]
691 - 736: Rhiannon I "The Liberator" (House of Pendragon) [9]
736 - 758: Pryderi I "The Unifier" (House of Pendragon) [10]
758 - 779: Wledig III (House of Pendragon) [11]
779-790: Pryderi II (House of Pendragon) [12]
790-819: Uther II (House of Paladin) [13]
819-856: Arthur III “The Rightful” (House of Pendragon-Bloðorn) [14]
[1] Little accurate information exists about the historical figure we now call Arthur I, due to the scarcity of written records during the 5th and early 6th Centuries in sub-Roman Britain. We will use the accepted names for this figure, his High Castle, and his House. But it is important to know that these are only first recorded decades after the event. The dates are based on the late 6th Century records of Brythonic monk, Gildas of Cor Tewdws.
The records tell us that Arthur was a Silurian tribal chieftain, most likely born in the 460s, who rose to prominence as a war chief at the Battle of Mons Badonicus in 490. At this point the various sub-Roman British kingdoms united under Arthur as a High King to continue a unification to counter the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who'd conquered the eastern portions of the former Roman colony. Arthur established his High Castle at Caerleon, which later came to be known as Camelot.
It is hard to separate legend from fact. We do know that warriors from all the Brythonic petty kingdoms worked with Arthur at the Battle of Mons Badonicus and lesser border wars with the Saxons. We also are certain that a rebellion occurred against the concept of a High King in the 520s by a warrior chieftain from the Old North who claimed to be the bastard of Arthur, who is later assigned the name Mordred. This rebellion failed and afterwards the High Kingdom became more a central governing authority.
Arthur died in 532 in his late 60s or early 70s. His heir is also is shrouded in a mix of legend and sparse historical fact, but the records indicate he was Arthur's Grandnephew and was named Brittanicus.
[2] The true name of the man who later came to be known as Brittanicus I is unknown, with suggestions ranging from his granduncle's name of Arthur to Constantine to Patrick.
Widely thought to have been fictional, he has since been proven to have existed by modern scholars.
Succeeding his Grand-uncle at the young age of 20, he soon began a series of conquest and law making.
He is said to have married a saxon by the name of Rowena, though this too is disputed, with some sources claiming that he married his aunt, Morgana.
He is said to have started his reign with a proclamation of introduction of High-Kingship to Brythia. This was met with lukewarm reception of his subjects, with many of the elder lords remembering the rebellion of 520 and disagreeing with it and most of the younger lords agreeing with the introduction of High-Kingship.
By 534, Brittanicus had consolidated his reign and had set his eyes upon the eastern de jure lands of Brythia which had largely been invaded and thereafter settled in. He declared war, giving the reason of Holy War and Reconquest.
Brythia and Saxona remained in warfare with each other, till 537 or 540, depending on the source, when the Saxons submitted to the Brythians. The saxons were allowed to live in the region though they came under heavy scrutiny for his reign.
After the end of the war, Brittanicus focused on making new laws which made the lives of his subjects easier while trying to limit the power of his nobles. He is said to have abolished the slavery system in Brythia, and was said to have been a champion of equal rights for the Vandals who had begun to migrate to Brythia.
Most historians dispute this, claiming he himself owned slaves till the end of his life.
A devout christian, he was responsible for the creation of many churches throughout Brythia, and even beyond, to the whole of Albion. He was the reason for the acccelerated christianisation of the saxons, angles and picts.
He was called "The Great" within his own lifetime, owing to his reunification of Brythia and favorable law giving, something which is said to have pleased him greatly.
He died in 554, at the age of 42, leaving a stable and prosperous realm to his heir, Aurelius.
He was Beatified in 1280 and Canonized in 1554, a thousand years after his death.
[3] The first British monarch whose origins are relatively well known, being born in 534 from an unknown mother (although it is mostly believed he was born to one of Brittanicus' concubines, and his mother was probably a slave) under the name of Aurelius, and possessing a lame leg due to problems during his birth. His early infancy is mostly unknown, and he returns to the annals of history only at the age of 15, when he married his wife, Ninniane, a princess of the Kingdom of Dyfed.
Considered unremarkable by many, as the second of Brittanicus seven sons, and incapable of many physical activites due to his lame leg, Aurelius managed to gain the throne throne cunning and deceit, as shortly before his father's death (as Brittanicus took some two years to die from an infected leg) he started making alliances with the nobility, rather miffed over his father's ambitious plans in relation to their power, and with the exiled Vandals who had fled to Britain in the aftermath of Justinian's reconquest, having been since the mid 530s a minor but existing group in some coastal regions on the south of Albion; a landless people who lived now mostly as merchants or mercenaries, he soon gained their support through promises of land and the marrying of one of his daughters to the great-grandson of Gelimer, the last king of the Vandals, who had lived in the Brittonic court since 550.
On the night following his father's death, he enacted a coup, entering the royal residences with a force of Vandal soldiers and massacring his relatives on a swift move. Following the bloodbath, from which only one of his brother's survived (the youngest, Constantine, was saved by his mother's begging and his half-brother's pity), he successfully declared himself High King, dealing swiftly and brutally with some rebellions on his first years to secure his position
A capable ruler, whose reign would be marked by the finding of a balance between the High Kingship and the petty kings and princes under his overlordship, Aurelius's reign was a mostly peaceful one, which saw a development of culture and religion on his domains, which (like most of those in Albion) was slowly drifting away from the trends of mainland Europe into the unique customs of Brittonic Christianity. He strenghtened ties with the Irish, who at the time were only starting to become christian, and would be the one responsible for ordering the writting down of Brittonic oral traditions and legends, which over the cours of the next three centuries would become the gigantic Mabinogion (one of the three great sagas of Albish mythology, as the Irish and Pictish would follow on this enterprise, if more slowly)
Married at least twice (his second wife, who may have been a concubine, being of a unknown name), he died in 589 at age 55, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Æthelmund .
[4] Born in 552, Æthelmund was the eldest son of Aurelius and his first wife, Ninniane, a princess of the Kingdom of Dyfed, he was named after Bishop of Eboracum, who had been by the king and the birthing mother, praying for the birth of their son.
Æthelmund would be tutored in the way of the bible by the Bishop and would see his life as God's Divine Right.
In 568, at the age of 16, he married Chlothsind of Franks, a daughter of Ingund and King Chlothar I, and sister of Charibert I, king of Franks, Guntram King of Orléans, and Sigebert I, king of Austrasia.
This marriage was arranged by his father, without consulting the Prince, the marriage was said to be unhappy, although Æthelmund was able to see his bloodline continue, with ample heirs.
When he succeeded to the throne in 589, at the age of 37, he was surrounded by religious clergy who would begin running the country, under a theocratic absolute monarchy, working closely with the views of Imperial Roman Pope, Gregory I.
Much of his life was recorded by private monks, who lived with the royal family, they were able to show his charitable views with forming schools and hospitals.
The royal purse grew, with Æthelmund, believing the royal family should not spend more that what is needed, setting examples to the upset lords, who wished to live extravagantly.
There were rumours of many plots to kill the king during his reign, however with the eyes of God (and well placed religious servants) he lived to the age of in 62 in 614, seeing his crown passed to his oldest son, Coel.
[5] Coel Pendragon was born in 574. He was the first child of King Æthelmund and Queen Chlothsind. At his parents marriage in 568 his father was only 16 and his mother was only 12. She remained living at the court of her father, King Chlothar, until her sixteenth birthday in 572. Being named after the legendary ancient King of the Britons, Coel Hen, led to an interest in his heritage. The religious clergy who dominated his father's court introduced him to the then obscure writings of Gildas and to the Mabinogion, where he learned about the legends of the Brythonic kings and heroes.
To the Prince these stories were history and when he became High King he made them the official history of the realm. Including a list of Kings. (OOC: for us this list in the link is the same as Coel's official list only up through Arthur.) Thus when he became High King he declared he was the second of his name and retroactively declared his grandfather was the second of his name, accepting that Arthur's uncle had been named Aurelius and was High King before Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. It also was Coel who declared his family's house was named Pendragon. He also introduced calling the High Castle Camelot. He also had a Round Table built for his hall to replicate the one in the legends of Arthur and it this Round Table that many later came to believe was Arthur's table rather than Coel's homage to the legends.
Coel also promoted the story of the Holy Grail and had a shrine built at Ineswitrin (OTL Glastonbury), claiming a chalice that had been used there by the church there was in fact the Grail that Arthur's knights had found a hundred years previously, that it was the chalice that Jesus used at the Last Supper, and had been brought to Britain by St. Joseph of Arithemaea when he returned to the island after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Included in this legend was that the Saint was the older brother of the Virgin Mary, had been a trader who visited and resided in Britain before the period of Christ's ministry, had also lived in Alexandria, Egypt and that it was with him that the Holy Family resided during their exile in Egypt. Included in this legend was that his son was the disciple Matthias who replaced Judas as the 12th Apostle, that Matthias and Jesus were like brothers growing up, and that both had visited Britain with Joseph of Arithemaea when they were teenagers. Included in these legends promoted by King Coel was the idea that the Grail itself was already Holy when Jesus used it, as Jesus had brought it with him to Palestine from Britain, where it had been a sacred object of Druidic worship since the time of Atlantis. Among these legends was the idea that the Druids were in fact worshipers of the true God of the Bible.
There had remained non-Christians in Roman and sub-Roman Britain. These mixing of the legends fully made Brythia Christian helping convert the remaining pagans to Christianity and also helped Brythonize the Saxons in the East, who'd been part of the High Kingdom for decades. It was also during Coel's reign that the official name of the realm became Brythia.
Coel was a warrior king. He had three issues he had to deal with. Gaelic Pirates from Ireland were raiding the West Coast of Brythia. He had a series of forts or castles built along the West Coast and a navy constructed to counter this. When this didn't stop the pirates he invaded Ireland in 616 and in a decisive victory at Clonmore in Laigin defeated King Úgaine Mór, who claimed to be High King of Ireland. Úgaine Mór swore fealty to Coel and promised to control the pirates, which he accomplished.
His second issue was with the Saxon King of Winchester refusing to pay tribute to Brythia, which if not checked could lead to other Saxon kingdoms rebelling. In 623, Coel himself led an army and conquered Winchester, establishing a Brythonic Kingdom in place of the Saxon one with his own younger brother, Cors, made petty King of Winchester, renamed Caerwynt. It was after this that the Brythonization of the Saxons became more rapid. More and more petty Kingdoms' Courts began speaking Brythonic and the clergy began encouraging pilgrimages to Ineswitrin.
Brythonic people had lived on the Aremorica peninsula since Roman times (OTL Brittany). In 631, Coel went to war to add this region to the High Kingdom. Among the legends of Arthur was that one of his best warriors was Lanslod Lak who ruled most of far western Aremorica and had sworn loyalty to Arthur, making Aremorica by rights part of Brythia. The addition of this continental region to the High Kingdom meant more involvement in continental issues in the future as the Frankish Kingdom looked to expand.
Coel married a Brythonic Princess when he was 21 in 595, Guenewera of Trewar Venyd Castle (OTL Tintagel) in Kernow (OTL Cornwall). They immediately had many children. From this time Trewar Venyd Castle became a second High Castle of the Pendragon House.
(In later legends both this High Castle and the name of the Queen would be confused with the tales of Arthur.)
When Coel died the High Kingdom was more united and Brythonic than ever before. He had wrestled control from the clergy his father had yielded to and undone any Saxonification his father had allowed. He was succeeded by his grandson Maelgwn when he died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 73.
[6] Maelgwn was the grandson Coel, who had outlived all his sons was young and started well enough, marrying Nanthild daughter of Dagobert the Frankish King. Wishing for military glory he took effective steps against the only military threat (so it seemed) on the British Isles, the Picts. A series of lightning raids to the north and the leading Pictish Kingdoms quickly submitted and supplied hostages, among them Der Liei, daughter of the King of Circinn, a petty Pictish Kingdom.
Maelgwn was quickly besotted with the raven haired beauty, neglecting then ignoring Nanthild, eventually banishing her to a monastary. This effectively threw away the Frankish alliance. This lead to an invasion of Brittiany, which he again defeated and even led a successful counter attack. But disaster struck when a stray arrow killed his father in law Dagobert, setting off a long period of division and chaos in the Frankish Kingdom. This removed pressure on the Frisians and Saxons (of Saxony), who began raiding monastaries across the channel.
The petty kings, already taxed for the wars of the High King and increasingly disgusted with his behavior and increasingly plotted against him or turned inward to local matters.
Seeing the lack of a coordinated response, Saxons and Frisians settling South Eastern Bythia, primarily up the Thames and along the south coast, creating a new Saxon Shore.
Meanwhile, the Irish reasserted their independence by raiding once more.
Various cousins Coel had protected now came out of the woodwork to challenge the increasingly unpopular High King. In the end, he was stabbed to death by his own men, after seeing his mistress and young children put to death, earning him his nickname.
He was succeeded by his cousin, Arthur.
[7] By the time he took the throne, he was already 35 , and had been gone throughout the rule of Maelgwn I.
He had embarked on a journey to the east in the reign of his grandfather , with nothing but a ship,a crew, and his wife, an Aquitan princess by the name of Eleanor.
He had found great treasure and knowledge during his travels, and had been blessed with 7 sons and 7 daughters. He had been to the Byzantine Empire, India, Greece as well as many other States.
On his return to Brythia in 660, he became involved with his other cousins in their plot to overthrow Maelgwn. As he was the only surviving son of the second son of Coel II, he was touted as the heir to the king.
After his cousin, the king was killed in a violent coup, he became king. He tried to be a just king, making laws regarding inheritance and other matters. He stipulated that strict male preference primogeniture was to be followed, placing daughters before uncles . He also integrated eastern values into everyday Brythonic customs. This was a massive success, with many Indian Spices having been grown in Brythia and Aremorica by the end of the reign.
He also made many reforms regarding the schooling system and cleanliness in Brythia. He declared that basic education was a right of the Brittonic people and that basic cleanliness was to be maintained.
His end goal, it has been said, was to make Brythia a "New Rome". He also invaded the Frisian and Saxon kingdoms that had been formed in the reign of his cousins, bringing them back under the control of Brythia.
In order to smooth relations with the Irish, he married his heir, ___________ to the eldest daughter of the High-King there.
This turned out to be a master-stroke, as both her brothers died childless, leaving her as heiress to her father.
He defended Aremorica from a new Frankish onslaught, with help from his Aquitan allies. A few days before his death, he declared Brythia as "The Third Rome", leaving his heir, Vortigern to deal with the diplomatic fallout with the Byzantine Empire, once they heard about his announcements.
[8] Vortigern was a descendant of one of Maelgwynns other cousins, and his father successfully jockeyed for position among the nobles to recognise Vortigern rather than one of Arthur II's "bastard brood" as new High King. Vortigern did marry one of Arthur's daughters in order to attempt further legitimacy and recognized his attempts to transform the kingdom into an empire. Despite attempts by the Byzantine Empire to seize Vortigern's continental holdings (via their Frankish allies), the territory was successfully held and the Byzantines recognised, albeit reluctantly, the Holy Brythonic Empire in 690. Vortigern would then rule as Emperor Vortigern for five years before his death at 45, whereupon he was succeeded by his daughter, Rhiannon.
[9] The first female monarch of the Brythons (the titles of Emperor and High King were considered equivalent, with most within Brythia calling their rulers High Kings due to the complicated nature of the nation, with its many petty kings under their authority, while foreigners called them emperors due to their claim to the Roman Empire), being the sole child of Vortigern and his wife, Aelwyn, eldest child of Arthur II, inheriting her father's throne at the age of 22.
Originally contested by her father's brothers, as well as some of her maternal uncles and even some distant relatives (as while Arthur II's attempted to define the succession, her own father's ascension had made it all moot, even if he had married Arthur's eldest daughter, and proved to many that Brythonic succession was a matter of might as much as of bloodline), the first 3 years of Rhiannon's reign were marked by a civil war, during which the lands of Britain were painted red with royal and common blood, and there was a true fear that it was the end for the country.
Victorious in the end (and with the Royal Bloodline culled by around 70%), Rhiannon's reign, was, in reality, quite a peaceful one, at least internally, as she worked to rebuild the empire from the civil war and reestablish a relation with her neighbors in Albion and Ireland as well as mend the enmities made with the Byzantines (even marrying one of her daughters to Leo III after he deposed the Justinians), with the two recognizing each other as emperors in the same fashion as how the emperors of the East and West recognized each other (although both were entirely independent nations).
The main problem during Rhiannon's reign was a religious one, as for centuries Christianity in the isles had developed quite separately from the continent, developing in ways that for many could be considered pagan (Gaels went as far as considering their pagan gods being as being full blown deities, but subordinate to God as His creations, while the Brytons had found various ways to syncretize their pagan gods with angels, saints and holy figures) and heretic. Rhiannon herself was quite fine the lack of religious uniformity present in her domains and vassals, although why has never been agreed upon (some argue that that is a mark of the Pendragon lineage, inherited from Aurelius II's acceptance of Arianism)
The growing separation between the Celtic Churches and the Papacy reached its conclusion in 733, when, after another spat between them and the Papacy (Rhiannon herself had a rocky relationship with Rome already at that point, due to two different Popes supporting some of her would-be-usurpers) due to disagreements in religious icons (as Rome was in a period of being commanded by iconoclasts while the Celtic Churches were quite fond of their religious images), Rhiannon formally declared the Papacy a heretical institution and that all religious matters and institutions within her empire would be forevermore unconnected to it, causing the Great Western Schism (named that way to not be confused with the one that would come some centuries later between Rome and Constantinople) as the other Celtic (and Pictish) Churches followed suit and the Pope declared them all to be equally heretical.
For that, she was named "The Liberator" by the Celtics, as she (in the words of an Irish monk) "liberated them from the clutches of the Papacy"
Married at age 24 to Pwyll, King of Dyfed (a member of the House of Pendragon, descending from Constantine the Survivor, youngest brother of Aurelius II, and also her first cousin through one of her mother's brothers, Rhodi, who died before his son with Queen Elaine of Dyfed was even born), after he charmed her in a horse racing competition (their's would be the last time a member of House Pendragon would ask for a dispensation to marry close kin), with whom she had a large and healthy offspring, she died at age 67, being succeeded by her son, Pryderi.
[10] Succeeding his mother as Emperor at the age of 30, he immediately set his eyes upon the Picts to the north, claiming that, as they were a part of Albion, they were a rightful part of his Empire.
He began a series of conquests, capturing the petty kingdoms of Ce and Fotla within the first year of the war. The rest of the kingdoms took longer to capture, with the war effort lasting for 7 years, with Fortriu, Fidach and Cait being defeated and becoming his vassals between 739 and 743.
He began to encourage a sense of nationalism and brotherhood among the Picts and Brythians while also saving money for his Irish campaign, which began in 745. He began this campaign by allying himself with the king of Connacht, by marrying his son to the King's daughter, and therefore gaining an alliance. This war, unlike it's Pictish counterpart, was relatively unpopular among the people, but the emperor himself was well-beloved, and the people followed him faithfully in his conquest of Ireland.
By 750, he had largely succedeed in this, taking various kingdoms for himself or forcing them into vassalship.
These two wars, the Brythonic conquest of Picto and Eire, later came to be called the War of Albionese Reunification.
He was disinterested in other parts of ruling, leaving these tasks largely to his other siblings.
He died in 758, at the age of 62, and was succeeded by his heir, Wledig.
[11] Wledig III (also known by his roman name of Aurelius), ascended to the throne at the age of 36 after his father's death from an infection of the bowels, having been at the time visiting the court of his father-in-law, Ailill Medraige mac Indrechtaig of Connacht, as part of his tour through his father's Gaelic vassals. His early reign was marked by the final pacification of Ireland, as his father had not been the most interested in actually governing after he had did the conquering, with some of the major Gaelic kingdoms who still resisted his rule being fragmented among their ruling house's branches (Connacht being one of the few who remained territoriality intact).
A relatively unremarkable monarch in the personal level, being known for his personal piety as much as for his deep interest in the various versions of christianity under his aegis (his wife, for example, was a Gaelic Christian while he followed Druidic/Brythonic Christianity), Wledig's reign was marked by the start of the Nordic Raids (called also the Viking Age outside of the empire) in 773, a centuries-long intermittent conflict with the various pagan Nordic raiders that attacked the shores of the empire, their first attack being on the monastery of the Holy Island of Medcaut (OTL Lindisfarne), which was repelled with many causalities due to the local priestly militia, as besides healing the Medcautian monks were known for their warring nature (something that would become a trait for many of the monasteries in the shores and major rivers of Albion and Ireland.
Married in 745 to Gormfhlaith mhic Aillil in a deal made between their fathers that kickstarted the subjugation of Ireland, Wledig died at the age of 57 after hitting his head on a rock drunk during the celebration of Calan Gaeaf/Samhain, and was succeeded by his son, Pryderi.
[12] Pryderi II was, like his father, unremarkable but competent, though his attention was taken up to much by the resurgant Kingdom of Francia and its attempt to conquer Brittany, a threat that he largely contained but at the cost of ignoring the Norse threat, leading to permanent bases in the Shetlands, Orkneys and Heberdies and the great sacking of Iona. He seemed to to be returning his attention to the problem after signing a treaty of Eternal Peace and Friendship with Francia 790, even though his younger brother Rhodri died fighting the French just two years earlier. Indeed, he was planning a Northern Campaign during the Christmas of 790, when visiting the monastery at Kilmadock for evening services, when a lightning raid led to the death of the King, his Pictish Queen, many of his top officals as well as the capture of his three young children, the oldest being just six. They would grow up increasingly identifying with their captors while not forgetting their claims.
With that and with some debate and some halfhearted attempts at ransom, which their captor, Eric Blood Eagle turned down (and was possibly bribed not to take or turned down on the advice of his wife Aoiffe the Deep Minded, a renegade Irish novice, depending on which story you believe). The crown passed to Pryderi's nephew, Uther II Paladin.
[13] With the rise of the Carolingian Dynasty in Frankia, border wars between the Franks and the Brythians had resumed in 737 under Charles the Hammer, Mayor of the Palace and de facto ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. After the victorious Battle or Tours in 732, stopping the Moors from moving north out of Spain, Charles no longer felt the need to have the backing of the Eastern Empire nor its permission to fight the Brythians for Aremorica nor in any other Frankish expansion. This border war did not go well for the Brythians and by 741, when Charles the Hammer died, the eastern portion of Brythia in Aremorica was under the control of the Franks. This became known among the Franks as the Breton March.
Of course the Brythians did not accept this and the border skirmishes continued. The High King Pryderi I was focused on his unification of the British Isles, so he appointed his younger son, Girart, (petty) King of Aremorica in order for him to lead the fight against the Franks with his seat at Saint Briog Castle.
The main foe of Girart, King of Aremorica, was Lier, who lived at Lak Lle Gwych (OTL modern: Lac de Grand-Lie), one of the biggest lakes in all of historic Gaul and supposedly the lake that was home of the fabled Lanslod Lak and that was the seat of the previous Kings of Aremorica until the Breton March had been conquered by the Franks. Lier was the younger brother of the last previous king, Ogda. Upon the conquest of the March, Ogda was taken to Paris as a royal hostage and Lier was made Lord of the March. Lier's loyalty to his Frankish overlord was based on his brother being a hostage, but his duty was not to conquer Brythian Aremorica, but to prevent Brythia from retaking the March. However, Girart's duty, as he saw it, was precisely to retake the March. So the two Brythians were rivals, one loyal to Camelot and the other loyal to the Palace of Paris.
From that loyalty to the Palace of Paris, Lier acquired the name Paladin, from the Latin and meaning 'of the palace'.
By the time of High King Wledgig it was clear that Girart was never going to marry or sire an heir. So in 774 the King appointed his second oldest son, Uther Vye, as Girart's heir, and Uther Vye, at the age of 21, went to live in Aremorica and continue his uncle's fight as his main champion. (The Franks called Uther Vye by the name "Oliver.")
Meanwhile Lier's son had become a renown warrior and his loyalty to the Palace was based on a deep affection to the Frankish King after Pepin, Charlemagne. His named was Roland. He was raised in the Palace with his uncle, and although he was by birth Brythian, he was also in many ways culturally a Latinized Frank.
Roland and Oliver met in battle in 775, Roland was only 18. The battle dragged on and on and more Brythians died on both sides. The two warriors chiefs, Roland and Oliver, decided to settle the battle with a personal duel. Whoever won the duel would win the battle and the March would be accepted as swearing loyalty to the sovereign of that champion. For hours the two fought, finding themselves unable to overcome the other. During breaks when they were both too exhausted to fight, they'd converse with each other from a distance and felt a strange bond.
Eventually they came to so admire and respect each other they decided in one of these respites to call the duel a draw and for Girart and Lier to make peace. Brythian Aremorica would be reunited with dual fealty sworn to both Camelot and Paris and the two champions would visit together High King Wledig in Camelot and Charlemagne in Paris to negotiate a peace treaty between the two. Oliver, as he was known in Frankish circles, when they visited Paris was as enamored by Charlemagne as Roland and by his vision for a reunited Continent and the taking back of Spain from the Moors.
Meanwhile in Camelot, Roland was also enamored, but in his case by a woman. The Princess Aldewa, Uther Vye's sister was the daughter of the King and a strong woman in her own right, taking after her great grandmother in both looks and temperament. In Brythian Christianity, female priests had become normal and Aldewa was one of these. Legends said she could speak with animals, that she had discovered the resting place of Arthur and had taken his magic sword, Excalibur, into her possession, and that like her great grandmother she could transform into a skylark or a black cat at midnight until dawn. She had a magic horn that was said to be of ancient Atlantean artifact that she had inherited through her grand-aunt from Rhiannon. It was named Oliphant and it was rumored to have been blessed by Christ as a youth while he was in Britain and that when sounded in a crisis would call the Seven Spirits of God to aid a hero with their virtues and strengths. The horn was named Oliphant, as it was supposedly made from the tusk of an an ancient Elephant from Atlantis.
Roland asked for the hand of Aldewa and it was granted. Now that the two friends were to be brothers-in-law, their bond was closer than every. The two traveled through Brythia, Frankia, Aquitaine, and even Moorish Spain on various adventures, always returning to Brythia were Aldewa would be waiting to greet her brother, the future king of Aremorica, and her beloved, who had now become the Lord of the March as his father had died.
What no one knew was that in 778 when Roland and Oliver set out to join the forces of Charlemagne to begin the reconquest of Spain, that Aldewa had a premonition as she performed the sacred Eucharist in her outside chapel in the woods for the peasants and the animals. She immediately went to her brother and told him to protect her beloved, to add to Roland's courage the caution and wisdom that Uther Vye had. Then she went to Roland and the two were secretly wed. She is said to have given him the Magic Sword of Arthur, which she called Durendal, and the Oliphant Horn.
The story of Roland and Oliver's heroism at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass is to long for this history to retell and it is well known that the two warriors along with other sacrificed themselves to save the Franks and insure that Spain would in time return to Christendom
Charlemagne himself went to Saint Briog Castle to give the Princess the sad news, as that was where she was waiting for her brother and beloved. Charlemagne gave Aldewa the Magic Sword of Roland, totally unaware she had given it to Roland and it was supposedly the sword of Arthur, as well as the shards of Oliphant. (Oliphant had shattered when Roland blew it at the Pass.) As she was told the news and handed the sword and shards, Aldewa fell in a faint. When examined it was discovered she was with child. The Druidic Christian priest who married them swore to Girart that she and Roland had married and the child was declared legitimate.
Six months later Uther Paladin, grandson to the High King, was born in Camelot. Princess Aldewa died in childbirth. The sword was given to him. The shards were buried with his mother.
Before he was one year old, Uther's grandfather, the High King, died and his uncle Pryderi became the new High King.
Princess Aldewa's best friend was her cousin, also a great-granddaughter of Rhiannon through a maternal line, Viviane of Lak Afon Alaw, as the lake where the Afon Alaw monastery had by then also come to be called by the same name. Viviane was a dozen years older than her cousin and was the High Priestess of the Monastery in the Lake. Viviane had hosted Aldewa at Yns O Afon Alaw during Aldewa's youth and trained her in religious matters leading to Aldewa becoming a priestess. When her cousin died, Uther was delivered to Viviane's care, along with the magic sword Excalibur also known as Durendal. Although Viviane then was responsible for the overall care of Uther, it was to the care of a Poetic Bard that his education was given, Cian Gueinth Guaut.
Cian was very old at this point; as a young man he had been the lover and common law husband of Viviane's grandmother, Elawania, the daughter of Rhiannon, and thus the father of Viviane's mother, Myrhgwna, and so Viviane's grandfather. Cian instructed the young Uther in all matters from history to religion to wildlife to poetry to the stories of his family, including his father.
The peace that Uther's father and uncle had forged with Frankia fell apart in 781 without the two champions to pursue it as the shared monarchs of Aremorica as future King and as Lord. King Girart, Uther's great uncle, the uncle of the King, had a long antipathy towards the Franks and now Uther Vye was no longer there to convince him otherwise. Frankish emissaries of Charlemagne asked Girart to send warriors to help with the ongoing wars of the Spanish March, but Girart refused as he was more concerned about Northmen raiding his kingdom's northern peninsula. Charlemagne sent emissaries to Camelot, as Aremorica was supposed to have dual loyalty, and these negotiations failed. The wars of the Breton March began again. Rhodri was now sent to Saint Briog Castle as the new heir to Girart and his Warrior Chief. Then peace was achieved again. It was at the signing of this treaty that Uther first met his uncle the High King and Charlemagne, when the treaty was signed in Saint Briog Castle.
Young Uther was not thought about as a potential heir to the throne, as his uncle had three children, but then the King and Queen were killed by Northman raiders and the three children were captured.
Uther was 12 years old. He'd just been relocated to begin a new phase of his education, to live with another relative, King Pykierffer of the northern Pictish kingodm of Fidach. The Queen was Myrhkysa, the sister of Myrhwna, thus another daughter of Cian. Uther and Cian now were to live with them at Castle Ansfidal and Uther would be trained in the ways of the Warrior, horsemanship, tracking, and the art of war by Giwynne Kae, the younger son of the King, who was a dozen years older than Uther.
Brythia needed a High King and Pykierffer and Myrhkysa spoke for Uther's claim to a called council of the Kings. They were hesitant to chose Uther when direct heirs still lived, but then Viviane presented the Sword Excalibur to Uther in front of the council. They recognized him as the proper heir and appointed Viviane as Regent.
For the next few years, the High King and Cian lived with Giwynne and his family in Ansfidal while Viviane ruled in his name in Camelot. Uther continued his education under Cian and Giwynne. This ended on his 18th Birthday in 796 when he took the throne himself with Viviane, Giwynne, and Cian his main counselors.
Both Viviane as Regent and then Uther as the ruling High King concentrated on the problem of the Danes, now the common term for Northmen in Brythia, who now were raiding Efwrakon. (The Brythonic name becoming more common in usage than the Latin Eboaracum.) The Danes had created a settlement and named it Jorvik. More and more Danes raided there, as well as other Vikings in Ireland and the northern peninsula of Aremorica. Warfare was a constant problem. Uther himself would often lead in battle to pacify the settlements of the Danes, conquering them and achieving promises of fealty and peace. But then more raiding would continue. It was never clear if the Danes who'd promised fealty were doing the raiding or if more Danes were arriving from their homelands in the North. There Pryderi's oldest son, Liam, but who was known by the Danes as Leif Bloðorn, was living with his foster father, Eric Bloðorn (Blood-Eagle) and claiming to be the rightful High King or Emperor of Brythia. At Uther's majority, Leif was only 12 and the real power was clearly Eric. Lief and his younger brother and sister, had been told that it wasn't Eric who killed their parents, but Uther's people, doing it to steal the throne.
Uther married the princess Briggetta of Ansfidal Castle, the younger sister of Giwynne. She was two years younger than Uther and they had fallen in love while he lived with her family. They wed in 798 and had their first child of many in the year 800.
Uther Paladin and Briggetta of Ansfidal
Uther's entire reign was focused on fighting the Danes. He built a navy to counter their raids and made Ansfidal a fourth High Castle of the Royal Family, to give him a base in the north.
Under Uther the kingdoms of Brythia were united, except for the Dane settlements, in accepting his High Kingship. But there were small factions without power who always considered him a usurper as he wasn't a Pendragon but a Paladin. These tensions remained under the surface, but Eric and then Leif, when he reached his majority, continued to stoke them
At the age of 41 Uther suddenly died complaining of chest pains. It happened while once more he was engaged in battle with Jorvik and was with his Warriors on the field in their tent planning the next stage of the siege. His last words were, "My sword" as he reached towards Excalibur.
He was succeeded by Arthur, the rightful heir of the Brythonic Empire with Pendragon blood in his veins.
The records tell us that Arthur was a Silurian tribal chieftain, most likely born in the 460s, who rose to prominence as a war chief at the Battle of Mons Badonicus in 490. At this point the various sub-Roman British kingdoms united under Arthur as a High King to continue a unification to counter the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who'd conquered the eastern portions of the former Roman colony. Arthur established his High Castle at Caerleon, which later came to be known as Camelot.
It is hard to separate legend from fact. We do know that warriors from all the Brythonic petty kingdoms worked with Arthur at the Battle of Mons Badonicus and lesser border wars with the Saxons. We also are certain that a rebellion occurred against the concept of a High King in the 520s by a warrior chieftain from the Old North who claimed to be the bastard of Arthur, who is later assigned the name Mordred. This rebellion failed and afterwards the High Kingdom became more a central governing authority.
Arthur died in 532 in his late 60s or early 70s. His heir is also is shrouded in a mix of legend and sparse historical fact, but the records indicate he was Arthur's Grandnephew and was named Brittanicus.
[2] The true name of the man who later came to be known as Brittanicus I is unknown, with suggestions ranging from his granduncle's name of Arthur to Constantine to Patrick.
Widely thought to have been fictional, he has since been proven to have existed by modern scholars.
Succeeding his Grand-uncle at the young age of 20, he soon began a series of conquest and law making.
He is said to have married a saxon by the name of Rowena, though this too is disputed, with some sources claiming that he married his aunt, Morgana.
He is said to have started his reign with a proclamation of introduction of High-Kingship to Brythia. This was met with lukewarm reception of his subjects, with many of the elder lords remembering the rebellion of 520 and disagreeing with it and most of the younger lords agreeing with the introduction of High-Kingship.
By 534, Brittanicus had consolidated his reign and had set his eyes upon the eastern de jure lands of Brythia which had largely been invaded and thereafter settled in. He declared war, giving the reason of Holy War and Reconquest.
Brythia and Saxona remained in warfare with each other, till 537 or 540, depending on the source, when the Saxons submitted to the Brythians. The saxons were allowed to live in the region though they came under heavy scrutiny for his reign.
After the end of the war, Brittanicus focused on making new laws which made the lives of his subjects easier while trying to limit the power of his nobles. He is said to have abolished the slavery system in Brythia, and was said to have been a champion of equal rights for the Vandals who had begun to migrate to Brythia.
Most historians dispute this, claiming he himself owned slaves till the end of his life.
A devout christian, he was responsible for the creation of many churches throughout Brythia, and even beyond, to the whole of Albion. He was the reason for the acccelerated christianisation of the saxons, angles and picts.
He was called "The Great" within his own lifetime, owing to his reunification of Brythia and favorable law giving, something which is said to have pleased him greatly.
He died in 554, at the age of 42, leaving a stable and prosperous realm to his heir, Aurelius.
He was Beatified in 1280 and Canonized in 1554, a thousand years after his death.
[3] The first British monarch whose origins are relatively well known, being born in 534 from an unknown mother (although it is mostly believed he was born to one of Brittanicus' concubines, and his mother was probably a slave) under the name of Aurelius, and possessing a lame leg due to problems during his birth. His early infancy is mostly unknown, and he returns to the annals of history only at the age of 15, when he married his wife, Ninniane, a princess of the Kingdom of Dyfed.
Considered unremarkable by many, as the second of Brittanicus seven sons, and incapable of many physical activites due to his lame leg, Aurelius managed to gain the throne throne cunning and deceit, as shortly before his father's death (as Brittanicus took some two years to die from an infected leg) he started making alliances with the nobility, rather miffed over his father's ambitious plans in relation to their power, and with the exiled Vandals who had fled to Britain in the aftermath of Justinian's reconquest, having been since the mid 530s a minor but existing group in some coastal regions on the south of Albion; a landless people who lived now mostly as merchants or mercenaries, he soon gained their support through promises of land and the marrying of one of his daughters to the great-grandson of Gelimer, the last king of the Vandals, who had lived in the Brittonic court since 550.
On the night following his father's death, he enacted a coup, entering the royal residences with a force of Vandal soldiers and massacring his relatives on a swift move. Following the bloodbath, from which only one of his brother's survived (the youngest, Constantine, was saved by his mother's begging and his half-brother's pity), he successfully declared himself High King, dealing swiftly and brutally with some rebellions on his first years to secure his position
A capable ruler, whose reign would be marked by the finding of a balance between the High Kingship and the petty kings and princes under his overlordship, Aurelius's reign was a mostly peaceful one, which saw a development of culture and religion on his domains, which (like most of those in Albion) was slowly drifting away from the trends of mainland Europe into the unique customs of Brittonic Christianity. He strenghtened ties with the Irish, who at the time were only starting to become christian, and would be the one responsible for ordering the writting down of Brittonic oral traditions and legends, which over the cours of the next three centuries would become the gigantic Mabinogion (one of the three great sagas of Albish mythology, as the Irish and Pictish would follow on this enterprise, if more slowly)
Married at least twice (his second wife, who may have been a concubine, being of a unknown name), he died in 589 at age 55, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Æthelmund .
[4] Born in 552, Æthelmund was the eldest son of Aurelius and his first wife, Ninniane, a princess of the Kingdom of Dyfed, he was named after Bishop of Eboracum, who had been by the king and the birthing mother, praying for the birth of their son.
Æthelmund would be tutored in the way of the bible by the Bishop and would see his life as God's Divine Right.
In 568, at the age of 16, he married Chlothsind of Franks, a daughter of Ingund and King Chlothar I, and sister of Charibert I, king of Franks, Guntram King of Orléans, and Sigebert I, king of Austrasia.
This marriage was arranged by his father, without consulting the Prince, the marriage was said to be unhappy, although Æthelmund was able to see his bloodline continue, with ample heirs.
When he succeeded to the throne in 589, at the age of 37, he was surrounded by religious clergy who would begin running the country, under a theocratic absolute monarchy, working closely with the views of Imperial Roman Pope, Gregory I.
Much of his life was recorded by private monks, who lived with the royal family, they were able to show his charitable views with forming schools and hospitals.
The royal purse grew, with Æthelmund, believing the royal family should not spend more that what is needed, setting examples to the upset lords, who wished to live extravagantly.
There were rumours of many plots to kill the king during his reign, however with the eyes of God (and well placed religious servants) he lived to the age of in 62 in 614, seeing his crown passed to his oldest son, Coel.
[5] Coel Pendragon was born in 574. He was the first child of King Æthelmund and Queen Chlothsind. At his parents marriage in 568 his father was only 16 and his mother was only 12. She remained living at the court of her father, King Chlothar, until her sixteenth birthday in 572. Being named after the legendary ancient King of the Britons, Coel Hen, led to an interest in his heritage. The religious clergy who dominated his father's court introduced him to the then obscure writings of Gildas and to the Mabinogion, where he learned about the legends of the Brythonic kings and heroes.
To the Prince these stories were history and when he became High King he made them the official history of the realm. Including a list of Kings. (OOC: for us this list in the link is the same as Coel's official list only up through Arthur.) Thus when he became High King he declared he was the second of his name and retroactively declared his grandfather was the second of his name, accepting that Arthur's uncle had been named Aurelius and was High King before Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. It also was Coel who declared his family's house was named Pendragon. He also introduced calling the High Castle Camelot. He also had a Round Table built for his hall to replicate the one in the legends of Arthur and it this Round Table that many later came to believe was Arthur's table rather than Coel's homage to the legends.
Coel also promoted the story of the Holy Grail and had a shrine built at Ineswitrin (OTL Glastonbury), claiming a chalice that had been used there by the church there was in fact the Grail that Arthur's knights had found a hundred years previously, that it was the chalice that Jesus used at the Last Supper, and had been brought to Britain by St. Joseph of Arithemaea when he returned to the island after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Included in this legend was that the Saint was the older brother of the Virgin Mary, had been a trader who visited and resided in Britain before the period of Christ's ministry, had also lived in Alexandria, Egypt and that it was with him that the Holy Family resided during their exile in Egypt. Included in this legend was that his son was the disciple Matthias who replaced Judas as the 12th Apostle, that Matthias and Jesus were like brothers growing up, and that both had visited Britain with Joseph of Arithemaea when they were teenagers. Included in these legends promoted by King Coel was the idea that the Grail itself was already Holy when Jesus used it, as Jesus had brought it with him to Palestine from Britain, where it had been a sacred object of Druidic worship since the time of Atlantis. Among these legends was the idea that the Druids were in fact worshipers of the true God of the Bible.
There had remained non-Christians in Roman and sub-Roman Britain. These mixing of the legends fully made Brythia Christian helping convert the remaining pagans to Christianity and also helped Brythonize the Saxons in the East, who'd been part of the High Kingdom for decades. It was also during Coel's reign that the official name of the realm became Brythia.
Coel was a warrior king. He had three issues he had to deal with. Gaelic Pirates from Ireland were raiding the West Coast of Brythia. He had a series of forts or castles built along the West Coast and a navy constructed to counter this. When this didn't stop the pirates he invaded Ireland in 616 and in a decisive victory at Clonmore in Laigin defeated King Úgaine Mór, who claimed to be High King of Ireland. Úgaine Mór swore fealty to Coel and promised to control the pirates, which he accomplished.
His second issue was with the Saxon King of Winchester refusing to pay tribute to Brythia, which if not checked could lead to other Saxon kingdoms rebelling. In 623, Coel himself led an army and conquered Winchester, establishing a Brythonic Kingdom in place of the Saxon one with his own younger brother, Cors, made petty King of Winchester, renamed Caerwynt. It was after this that the Brythonization of the Saxons became more rapid. More and more petty Kingdoms' Courts began speaking Brythonic and the clergy began encouraging pilgrimages to Ineswitrin.
Brythonic people had lived on the Aremorica peninsula since Roman times (OTL Brittany). In 631, Coel went to war to add this region to the High Kingdom. Among the legends of Arthur was that one of his best warriors was Lanslod Lak who ruled most of far western Aremorica and had sworn loyalty to Arthur, making Aremorica by rights part of Brythia. The addition of this continental region to the High Kingdom meant more involvement in continental issues in the future as the Frankish Kingdom looked to expand.
Coel married a Brythonic Princess when he was 21 in 595, Guenewera of Trewar Venyd Castle (OTL Tintagel) in Kernow (OTL Cornwall). They immediately had many children. From this time Trewar Venyd Castle became a second High Castle of the Pendragon House.
(In later legends both this High Castle and the name of the Queen would be confused with the tales of Arthur.)
When Coel died the High Kingdom was more united and Brythonic than ever before. He had wrestled control from the clergy his father had yielded to and undone any Saxonification his father had allowed. He was succeeded by his grandson Maelgwn when he died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 73.
[6] Maelgwn was the grandson Coel, who had outlived all his sons was young and started well enough, marrying Nanthild daughter of Dagobert the Frankish King. Wishing for military glory he took effective steps against the only military threat (so it seemed) on the British Isles, the Picts. A series of lightning raids to the north and the leading Pictish Kingdoms quickly submitted and supplied hostages, among them Der Liei, daughter of the King of Circinn, a petty Pictish Kingdom.
Maelgwn was quickly besotted with the raven haired beauty, neglecting then ignoring Nanthild, eventually banishing her to a monastary. This effectively threw away the Frankish alliance. This lead to an invasion of Brittiany, which he again defeated and even led a successful counter attack. But disaster struck when a stray arrow killed his father in law Dagobert, setting off a long period of division and chaos in the Frankish Kingdom. This removed pressure on the Frisians and Saxons (of Saxony), who began raiding monastaries across the channel.
The petty kings, already taxed for the wars of the High King and increasingly disgusted with his behavior and increasingly plotted against him or turned inward to local matters.
Seeing the lack of a coordinated response, Saxons and Frisians settling South Eastern Bythia, primarily up the Thames and along the south coast, creating a new Saxon Shore.
Meanwhile, the Irish reasserted their independence by raiding once more.
Various cousins Coel had protected now came out of the woodwork to challenge the increasingly unpopular High King. In the end, he was stabbed to death by his own men, after seeing his mistress and young children put to death, earning him his nickname.
He was succeeded by his cousin, Arthur.
[7] By the time he took the throne, he was already 35 , and had been gone throughout the rule of Maelgwn I.
He had embarked on a journey to the east in the reign of his grandfather , with nothing but a ship,a crew, and his wife, an Aquitan princess by the name of Eleanor.
He had found great treasure and knowledge during his travels, and had been blessed with 7 sons and 7 daughters. He had been to the Byzantine Empire, India, Greece as well as many other States.
On his return to Brythia in 660, he became involved with his other cousins in their plot to overthrow Maelgwn. As he was the only surviving son of the second son of Coel II, he was touted as the heir to the king.
After his cousin, the king was killed in a violent coup, he became king. He tried to be a just king, making laws regarding inheritance and other matters. He stipulated that strict male preference primogeniture was to be followed, placing daughters before uncles . He also integrated eastern values into everyday Brythonic customs. This was a massive success, with many Indian Spices having been grown in Brythia and Aremorica by the end of the reign.
He also made many reforms regarding the schooling system and cleanliness in Brythia. He declared that basic education was a right of the Brittonic people and that basic cleanliness was to be maintained.
His end goal, it has been said, was to make Brythia a "New Rome". He also invaded the Frisian and Saxon kingdoms that had been formed in the reign of his cousins, bringing them back under the control of Brythia.
In order to smooth relations with the Irish, he married his heir, ___________ to the eldest daughter of the High-King there.
This turned out to be a master-stroke, as both her brothers died childless, leaving her as heiress to her father.
He defended Aremorica from a new Frankish onslaught, with help from his Aquitan allies. A few days before his death, he declared Brythia as "The Third Rome", leaving his heir, Vortigern to deal with the diplomatic fallout with the Byzantine Empire, once they heard about his announcements.
[8] Vortigern was a descendant of one of Maelgwynns other cousins, and his father successfully jockeyed for position among the nobles to recognise Vortigern rather than one of Arthur II's "bastard brood" as new High King. Vortigern did marry one of Arthur's daughters in order to attempt further legitimacy and recognized his attempts to transform the kingdom into an empire. Despite attempts by the Byzantine Empire to seize Vortigern's continental holdings (via their Frankish allies), the territory was successfully held and the Byzantines recognised, albeit reluctantly, the Holy Brythonic Empire in 690. Vortigern would then rule as Emperor Vortigern for five years before his death at 45, whereupon he was succeeded by his daughter, Rhiannon.
[9] The first female monarch of the Brythons (the titles of Emperor and High King were considered equivalent, with most within Brythia calling their rulers High Kings due to the complicated nature of the nation, with its many petty kings under their authority, while foreigners called them emperors due to their claim to the Roman Empire), being the sole child of Vortigern and his wife, Aelwyn, eldest child of Arthur II, inheriting her father's throne at the age of 22.
Originally contested by her father's brothers, as well as some of her maternal uncles and even some distant relatives (as while Arthur II's attempted to define the succession, her own father's ascension had made it all moot, even if he had married Arthur's eldest daughter, and proved to many that Brythonic succession was a matter of might as much as of bloodline), the first 3 years of Rhiannon's reign were marked by a civil war, during which the lands of Britain were painted red with royal and common blood, and there was a true fear that it was the end for the country.
Victorious in the end (and with the Royal Bloodline culled by around 70%), Rhiannon's reign, was, in reality, quite a peaceful one, at least internally, as she worked to rebuild the empire from the civil war and reestablish a relation with her neighbors in Albion and Ireland as well as mend the enmities made with the Byzantines (even marrying one of her daughters to Leo III after he deposed the Justinians), with the two recognizing each other as emperors in the same fashion as how the emperors of the East and West recognized each other (although both were entirely independent nations).
The main problem during Rhiannon's reign was a religious one, as for centuries Christianity in the isles had developed quite separately from the continent, developing in ways that for many could be considered pagan (Gaels went as far as considering their pagan gods being as being full blown deities, but subordinate to God as His creations, while the Brytons had found various ways to syncretize their pagan gods with angels, saints and holy figures) and heretic. Rhiannon herself was quite fine the lack of religious uniformity present in her domains and vassals, although why has never been agreed upon (some argue that that is a mark of the Pendragon lineage, inherited from Aurelius II's acceptance of Arianism)
The growing separation between the Celtic Churches and the Papacy reached its conclusion in 733, when, after another spat between them and the Papacy (Rhiannon herself had a rocky relationship with Rome already at that point, due to two different Popes supporting some of her would-be-usurpers) due to disagreements in religious icons (as Rome was in a period of being commanded by iconoclasts while the Celtic Churches were quite fond of their religious images), Rhiannon formally declared the Papacy a heretical institution and that all religious matters and institutions within her empire would be forevermore unconnected to it, causing the Great Western Schism (named that way to not be confused with the one that would come some centuries later between Rome and Constantinople) as the other Celtic (and Pictish) Churches followed suit and the Pope declared them all to be equally heretical.
For that, she was named "The Liberator" by the Celtics, as she (in the words of an Irish monk) "liberated them from the clutches of the Papacy"
Married at age 24 to Pwyll, King of Dyfed (a member of the House of Pendragon, descending from Constantine the Survivor, youngest brother of Aurelius II, and also her first cousin through one of her mother's brothers, Rhodi, who died before his son with Queen Elaine of Dyfed was even born), after he charmed her in a horse racing competition (their's would be the last time a member of House Pendragon would ask for a dispensation to marry close kin), with whom she had a large and healthy offspring, she died at age 67, being succeeded by her son, Pryderi.
[10] Succeeding his mother as Emperor at the age of 30, he immediately set his eyes upon the Picts to the north, claiming that, as they were a part of Albion, they were a rightful part of his Empire.
He began a series of conquests, capturing the petty kingdoms of Ce and Fotla within the first year of the war. The rest of the kingdoms took longer to capture, with the war effort lasting for 7 years, with Fortriu, Fidach and Cait being defeated and becoming his vassals between 739 and 743.
He began to encourage a sense of nationalism and brotherhood among the Picts and Brythians while also saving money for his Irish campaign, which began in 745. He began this campaign by allying himself with the king of Connacht, by marrying his son to the King's daughter, and therefore gaining an alliance. This war, unlike it's Pictish counterpart, was relatively unpopular among the people, but the emperor himself was well-beloved, and the people followed him faithfully in his conquest of Ireland.
By 750, he had largely succedeed in this, taking various kingdoms for himself or forcing them into vassalship.
These two wars, the Brythonic conquest of Picto and Eire, later came to be called the War of Albionese Reunification.
He was disinterested in other parts of ruling, leaving these tasks largely to his other siblings.
He died in 758, at the age of 62, and was succeeded by his heir, Wledig.
[11] Wledig III (also known by his roman name of Aurelius), ascended to the throne at the age of 36 after his father's death from an infection of the bowels, having been at the time visiting the court of his father-in-law, Ailill Medraige mac Indrechtaig of Connacht, as part of his tour through his father's Gaelic vassals. His early reign was marked by the final pacification of Ireland, as his father had not been the most interested in actually governing after he had did the conquering, with some of the major Gaelic kingdoms who still resisted his rule being fragmented among their ruling house's branches (Connacht being one of the few who remained territoriality intact).
A relatively unremarkable monarch in the personal level, being known for his personal piety as much as for his deep interest in the various versions of christianity under his aegis (his wife, for example, was a Gaelic Christian while he followed Druidic/Brythonic Christianity), Wledig's reign was marked by the start of the Nordic Raids (called also the Viking Age outside of the empire) in 773, a centuries-long intermittent conflict with the various pagan Nordic raiders that attacked the shores of the empire, their first attack being on the monastery of the Holy Island of Medcaut (OTL Lindisfarne), which was repelled with many causalities due to the local priestly militia, as besides healing the Medcautian monks were known for their warring nature (something that would become a trait for many of the monasteries in the shores and major rivers of Albion and Ireland.
Married in 745 to Gormfhlaith mhic Aillil in a deal made between their fathers that kickstarted the subjugation of Ireland, Wledig died at the age of 57 after hitting his head on a rock drunk during the celebration of Calan Gaeaf/Samhain, and was succeeded by his son, Pryderi.
[12] Pryderi II was, like his father, unremarkable but competent, though his attention was taken up to much by the resurgant Kingdom of Francia and its attempt to conquer Brittany, a threat that he largely contained but at the cost of ignoring the Norse threat, leading to permanent bases in the Shetlands, Orkneys and Heberdies and the great sacking of Iona. He seemed to to be returning his attention to the problem after signing a treaty of Eternal Peace and Friendship with Francia 790, even though his younger brother Rhodri died fighting the French just two years earlier. Indeed, he was planning a Northern Campaign during the Christmas of 790, when visiting the monastery at Kilmadock for evening services, when a lightning raid led to the death of the King, his Pictish Queen, many of his top officals as well as the capture of his three young children, the oldest being just six. They would grow up increasingly identifying with their captors while not forgetting their claims.
With that and with some debate and some halfhearted attempts at ransom, which their captor, Eric Blood Eagle turned down (and was possibly bribed not to take or turned down on the advice of his wife Aoiffe the Deep Minded, a renegade Irish novice, depending on which story you believe). The crown passed to Pryderi's nephew, Uther II Paladin.
[13] With the rise of the Carolingian Dynasty in Frankia, border wars between the Franks and the Brythians had resumed in 737 under Charles the Hammer, Mayor of the Palace and de facto ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. After the victorious Battle or Tours in 732, stopping the Moors from moving north out of Spain, Charles no longer felt the need to have the backing of the Eastern Empire nor its permission to fight the Brythians for Aremorica nor in any other Frankish expansion. This border war did not go well for the Brythians and by 741, when Charles the Hammer died, the eastern portion of Brythia in Aremorica was under the control of the Franks. This became known among the Franks as the Breton March.
Of course the Brythians did not accept this and the border skirmishes continued. The High King Pryderi I was focused on his unification of the British Isles, so he appointed his younger son, Girart, (petty) King of Aremorica in order for him to lead the fight against the Franks with his seat at Saint Briog Castle.
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The Breton March between Brythia & Frankia
The Breton March between Brythia & Frankia
The main foe of Girart, King of Aremorica, was Lier, who lived at Lak Lle Gwych (OTL modern: Lac de Grand-Lie), one of the biggest lakes in all of historic Gaul and supposedly the lake that was home of the fabled Lanslod Lak and that was the seat of the previous Kings of Aremorica until the Breton March had been conquered by the Franks. Lier was the younger brother of the last previous king, Ogda. Upon the conquest of the March, Ogda was taken to Paris as a royal hostage and Lier was made Lord of the March. Lier's loyalty to his Frankish overlord was based on his brother being a hostage, but his duty was not to conquer Brythian Aremorica, but to prevent Brythia from retaking the March. However, Girart's duty, as he saw it, was precisely to retake the March. So the two Brythians were rivals, one loyal to Camelot and the other loyal to the Palace of Paris.
From that loyalty to the Palace of Paris, Lier acquired the name Paladin, from the Latin and meaning 'of the palace'.
By the time of High King Wledgig it was clear that Girart was never going to marry or sire an heir. So in 774 the King appointed his second oldest son, Uther Vye, as Girart's heir, and Uther Vye, at the age of 21, went to live in Aremorica and continue his uncle's fight as his main champion. (The Franks called Uther Vye by the name "Oliver.")
Meanwhile Lier's son had become a renown warrior and his loyalty to the Palace was based on a deep affection to the Frankish King after Pepin, Charlemagne. His named was Roland. He was raised in the Palace with his uncle, and although he was by birth Brythian, he was also in many ways culturally a Latinized Frank.
Roland and Oliver met in battle in 775, Roland was only 18. The battle dragged on and on and more Brythians died on both sides. The two warriors chiefs, Roland and Oliver, decided to settle the battle with a personal duel. Whoever won the duel would win the battle and the March would be accepted as swearing loyalty to the sovereign of that champion. For hours the two fought, finding themselves unable to overcome the other. During breaks when they were both too exhausted to fight, they'd converse with each other from a distance and felt a strange bond.
Eventually they came to so admire and respect each other they decided in one of these respites to call the duel a draw and for Girart and Lier to make peace. Brythian Aremorica would be reunited with dual fealty sworn to both Camelot and Paris and the two champions would visit together High King Wledig in Camelot and Charlemagne in Paris to negotiate a peace treaty between the two. Oliver, as he was known in Frankish circles, when they visited Paris was as enamored by Charlemagne as Roland and by his vision for a reunited Continent and the taking back of Spain from the Moors.
Meanwhile in Camelot, Roland was also enamored, but in his case by a woman. The Princess Aldewa, Uther Vye's sister was the daughter of the King and a strong woman in her own right, taking after her great grandmother in both looks and temperament. In Brythian Christianity, female priests had become normal and Aldewa was one of these. Legends said she could speak with animals, that she had discovered the resting place of Arthur and had taken his magic sword, Excalibur, into her possession, and that like her great grandmother she could transform into a skylark or a black cat at midnight until dawn. She had a magic horn that was said to be of ancient Atlantean artifact that she had inherited through her grand-aunt from Rhiannon. It was named Oliphant and it was rumored to have been blessed by Christ as a youth while he was in Britain and that when sounded in a crisis would call the Seven Spirits of God to aid a hero with their virtues and strengths. The horn was named Oliphant, as it was supposedly made from the tusk of an an ancient Elephant from Atlantis.
Roland asked for the hand of Aldewa and it was granted. Now that the two friends were to be brothers-in-law, their bond was closer than every. The two traveled through Brythia, Frankia, Aquitaine, and even Moorish Spain on various adventures, always returning to Brythia were Aldewa would be waiting to greet her brother, the future king of Aremorica, and her beloved, who had now become the Lord of the March as his father had died.
What no one knew was that in 778 when Roland and Oliver set out to join the forces of Charlemagne to begin the reconquest of Spain, that Aldewa had a premonition as she performed the sacred Eucharist in her outside chapel in the woods for the peasants and the animals. She immediately went to her brother and told him to protect her beloved, to add to Roland's courage the caution and wisdom that Uther Vye had. Then she went to Roland and the two were secretly wed. She is said to have given him the Magic Sword of Arthur, which she called Durendal, and the Oliphant Horn.
The story of Roland and Oliver's heroism at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass is to long for this history to retell and it is well known that the two warriors along with other sacrificed themselves to save the Franks and insure that Spain would in time return to Christendom
Charlemagne himself went to Saint Briog Castle to give the Princess the sad news, as that was where she was waiting for her brother and beloved. Charlemagne gave Aldewa the Magic Sword of Roland, totally unaware she had given it to Roland and it was supposedly the sword of Arthur, as well as the shards of Oliphant. (Oliphant had shattered when Roland blew it at the Pass.) As she was told the news and handed the sword and shards, Aldewa fell in a faint. When examined it was discovered she was with child. The Druidic Christian priest who married them swore to Girart that she and Roland had married and the child was declared legitimate.
Six months later Uther Paladin, grandson to the High King, was born in Camelot. Princess Aldewa died in childbirth. The sword was given to him. The shards were buried with his mother.
Before he was one year old, Uther's grandfather, the High King, died and his uncle Pryderi became the new High King.
Princess Aldewa's best friend was her cousin, also a great-granddaughter of Rhiannon through a maternal line, Viviane of Lak Afon Alaw, as the lake where the Afon Alaw monastery had by then also come to be called by the same name. Viviane was a dozen years older than her cousin and was the High Priestess of the Monastery in the Lake. Viviane had hosted Aldewa at Yns O Afon Alaw during Aldewa's youth and trained her in religious matters leading to Aldewa becoming a priestess. When her cousin died, Uther was delivered to Viviane's care, along with the magic sword Excalibur also known as Durendal. Although Viviane then was responsible for the overall care of Uther, it was to the care of a Poetic Bard that his education was given, Cian Gueinth Guaut.
Cian was very old at this point; as a young man he had been the lover and common law husband of Viviane's grandmother, Elawania, the daughter of Rhiannon, and thus the father of Viviane's mother, Myrhgwna, and so Viviane's grandfather. Cian instructed the young Uther in all matters from history to religion to wildlife to poetry to the stories of his family, including his father.
The peace that Uther's father and uncle had forged with Frankia fell apart in 781 without the two champions to pursue it as the shared monarchs of Aremorica as future King and as Lord. King Girart, Uther's great uncle, the uncle of the King, had a long antipathy towards the Franks and now Uther Vye was no longer there to convince him otherwise. Frankish emissaries of Charlemagne asked Girart to send warriors to help with the ongoing wars of the Spanish March, but Girart refused as he was more concerned about Northmen raiding his kingdom's northern peninsula. Charlemagne sent emissaries to Camelot, as Aremorica was supposed to have dual loyalty, and these negotiations failed. The wars of the Breton March began again. Rhodri was now sent to Saint Briog Castle as the new heir to Girart and his Warrior Chief. Then peace was achieved again. It was at the signing of this treaty that Uther first met his uncle the High King and Charlemagne, when the treaty was signed in Saint Briog Castle.
Young Uther was not thought about as a potential heir to the throne, as his uncle had three children, but then the King and Queen were killed by Northman raiders and the three children were captured.
Uther was 12 years old. He'd just been relocated to begin a new phase of his education, to live with another relative, King Pykierffer of the northern Pictish kingodm of Fidach. The Queen was Myrhkysa, the sister of Myrhwna, thus another daughter of Cian. Uther and Cian now were to live with them at Castle Ansfidal and Uther would be trained in the ways of the Warrior, horsemanship, tracking, and the art of war by Giwynne Kae, the younger son of the King, who was a dozen years older than Uther.
Brythia needed a High King and Pykierffer and Myrhkysa spoke for Uther's claim to a called council of the Kings. They were hesitant to chose Uther when direct heirs still lived, but then Viviane presented the Sword Excalibur to Uther in front of the council. They recognized him as the proper heir and appointed Viviane as Regent.
For the next few years, the High King and Cian lived with Giwynne and his family in Ansfidal while Viviane ruled in his name in Camelot. Uther continued his education under Cian and Giwynne. This ended on his 18th Birthday in 796 when he took the throne himself with Viviane, Giwynne, and Cian his main counselors.
Both Viviane as Regent and then Uther as the ruling High King concentrated on the problem of the Danes, now the common term for Northmen in Brythia, who now were raiding Efwrakon. (The Brythonic name becoming more common in usage than the Latin Eboaracum.) The Danes had created a settlement and named it Jorvik. More and more Danes raided there, as well as other Vikings in Ireland and the northern peninsula of Aremorica. Warfare was a constant problem. Uther himself would often lead in battle to pacify the settlements of the Danes, conquering them and achieving promises of fealty and peace. But then more raiding would continue. It was never clear if the Danes who'd promised fealty were doing the raiding or if more Danes were arriving from their homelands in the North. There Pryderi's oldest son, Liam, but who was known by the Danes as Leif Bloðorn, was living with his foster father, Eric Bloðorn (Blood-Eagle) and claiming to be the rightful High King or Emperor of Brythia. At Uther's majority, Leif was only 12 and the real power was clearly Eric. Lief and his younger brother and sister, had been told that it wasn't Eric who killed their parents, but Uther's people, doing it to steal the throne.
Uther married the princess Briggetta of Ansfidal Castle, the younger sister of Giwynne. She was two years younger than Uther and they had fallen in love while he lived with her family. They wed in 798 and had their first child of many in the year 800.
Uther Paladin and Briggetta of Ansfidal
Uther's entire reign was focused on fighting the Danes. He built a navy to counter their raids and made Ansfidal a fourth High Castle of the Royal Family, to give him a base in the north.
Under Uther the kingdoms of Brythia were united, except for the Dane settlements, in accepting his High Kingship. But there were small factions without power who always considered him a usurper as he wasn't a Pendragon but a Paladin. These tensions remained under the surface, but Eric and then Leif, when he reached his majority, continued to stoke them
At the age of 41 Uther suddenly died complaining of chest pains. It happened while once more he was engaged in battle with Jorvik and was with his Warriors on the field in their tent planning the next stage of the siege. His last words were, "My sword" as he reached towards Excalibur.
He was succeeded by Arthur, the rightful heir of the Brythonic Empire with Pendragon blood in his veins.
[14] The legend goes that when Uther’s reach and knocked Excalibur onto the floor, the blade dug into the ground and was unable to be lifted by even the strongest of men present, with the generals unsure of their next move, the Jorvik danish army, engaged causing mass panic. A figure riding a white horse aimed directly for the tent; dismounting with such speed, the Brythonic generals were in shock, when this man single handily pull the sword out and ordered them all to kneel and do began the reign of Arthur III.
But the story begins 19 years earlier in a long hall, in the settlement of Ribe; Arthur Harold Halfdan Leifson is born to 16 year old, Leif Pendragon and 20 year old, Ysra Ericdóttir, daughter of Eric Bloðorn, whom arranged the marriage following the raid in 790, Eric had his sights on his grandson being future Emperor and taught him the way of ruling and fighting.
Arthur was a keen horse rider and swordsman, training daily with his grandfather, father and his grandfather’s trusted warriors.
As well as this Eric taught him of the “Pendragon Past” how Danes had visited the Brythonic Empire years before man was even on the island and how most Brythonic people descend from the northmen.
In 815, Arthur’s father died in a storm and the body washed up on the shoreline, with the bad waves causing a sword to slice his throat.
Eric believed that at the age of 18, Arthur was ready to travel with a large army to the settlement of Jorvik to see his birthright, the fleet that left was one of the largest array of boats any living man at the time had seen, with many joining when they heard Eric promise land in Brythonic once his grandson held the throne.
At the battle of Jorvik, Arthur was already wearing the crown of Emperor Pryderi II, which Eric had “secured” during the “rescue” mission at Kilmadock, all those years ago.
With superior number of warriors, Arthur and his Danish allies were able to “Liberate” the Empire and secure the throne for the rightful heir.
Uther’s widow, Princess Briggetta of Ansfidal Castle, was sent to a secure nunnery. While the older two sons of Uther and Briggetta, were sent in exile, the younger two were adobted by Arthur to be raised as his own and the daughters were married out to lower Viking lords who were loyal to Arthur and his cause.
Arthur built his new capital, a fortified city located by mthe River Witham on the Eastern coastline calling the settlement Arthurius (otl Boston)
Here Arthur arranged the trading empire that stretched from the fishing villages of Ireland, going all the way around the Baltic to ports of Novgorod Slavs, creating merchant jobs for his Danish population while the Brythonic population prospered from the new cheap goods coming into their empire and selling their items on.
The two people although divided by religion, Celtic Christianity and Odinson or Paganism, were able to tolerate one another under a just and noble Emperor, who allowed freedom of religion.
His death in 856, came following a long battle with an illness that caused him to lose weight and weakened him into a mere shadow of his youthfulness. This illness forced him to be seen less in public and allowed his son and heir, ________, to rule in presence only.
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What happened to Uther's children? To Briggetta? Her family? The priestess at Yns O Afon Alaw who must have been led by a descendant of Viviane and were invested in the House of Paladin? I take it the Danes were still fully Odinists?
I think it means, that we sometimes nudge the list of Monarchs in certain ways, and it doesn't always 'take'. I tried to do it with my first king thinking the list was turning into a bit of a wank, thinking a renewed Saxon threat, a young heir after a 70 year old king died would be logical and cool. I also had a latent desire to screw the Franks. The next person (I think it was you) didn't go with I set up and that's fine. But I put some thought into it.
Simularly, I was going through the TL when my turn came up. I was reading what was happening and only have some half formed ideas. I saw the person before me was starting to include Vikings. I also got a message from you saying you wanted me make my King have no children. That fed into my own ideas based that otl Alfred the Great and his young kids almost being captured by Vikings at Chippan would be an interesting departure, my own regrets about not living in a time when my secret childhood desire to be kidnapped by Indians could be fulfilled, and my fondness for Bernard Cornwall.
So I didn't kill off the kids, but I did remove them from contention, so allowing you to do your thing. If Jonathan had followed your lead, I would have probably have my Prydei's daughter and her husband slice off Ireland while a Henry the VI style king had a long but ineffective reign, allowing the break to become permanent and because Germanic Ireland and Celtic Britian would be a cool reversal.
But Jonathan went a third way, doing something different from what you or I had planned. That is his right and I will play off what he has done and look at what you have done and look to include it.
But this is a shared tl and we should all respect that. Several list of monarch TLs have died because multiple posters got into fights where the next monarch undid what the last person out of spite. That is something people should avoid. People should play nice. I say this as someone who has been guilty of this sin.
If it's turning into something you don't want, you wait until the next tl. Even if you start it, you don't 'own' the tl.
As for why your post; it was not ignored, had the me and I suspect others going 'what?' and seemed a bit hard to follow. It also perhaps came off as a little controlling (I'll let others weigh in on that if they want). So one natural response was to go 'let's go with the Norse line' (which like I said was not what I intended but which I will follow). It is perfectly understandable and what Jonathan chose to do.
My advice is to enjoy the TL (or not) but don't be too attached to 'your' outcome.
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My questions were real. We had a sudden change of the King and a statement that he was a good king and everyone loved him. I just wondered what happened to the folk who were invested in the previous King? Did they flee? Were they killed? Did they just go quiet and underground?
What happened to them? It's a real question and I was hoping he'd just add to it.
I actually added to your idea that Pryderi's kids were raised as Danes. I added the idea that Eric told them that Uther's people killed their parents. I had Jorvick established and the Danes be a thorn that Uther couldn't fix. I had a continuing but underground presence of those who didn't accept the Paladin line to replace the Pendragon one, even though they were basically Danes now.
So I'm perfectly willing to build on things others do. I'm not objecting to Jonathon's additions, I'm just asking for more information. But I guess the next poster can give us more information.
I'm not sure what you were saying was controlling. My update that I coordinated with you before the fact or my questions recently?
A commentary on how to "play" on this thread (since this basically a gigantic collaborative game)
I'll admit that it is sometimes frustrating when things on the line don't go the way you want (or when it goes ways you think don't make sense, which I have learned are very different things). I personally prefer to go with "well, this isn't my desired outcome, but let's do something interesting at least", and if I wished something would go differently, I just think "well, this is a cooperative TL, so its not like I can't just make a TL using the parts I like as a basis and write it the way I wanted it to be when I have time".
Part of the fun is also when the line goes in ways we didn't expect
I'll admit that it is sometimes frustrating when things on the line don't go the way you want (or when it goes ways you think don't make sense, which I have learned are very different things). I personally prefer to go with "well, this isn't my desired outcome, but let's do something interesting at least", and if I wished something would go differently, I just think "well, this is a cooperative TL, so its not like I can't just make a TL using the parts I like as a basis and write it the way I wanted it to be when I have time".
Part of the fun is also when the line goes in ways we didn't expect
I think it was a mix of Jonathan leaving it to the next poster to decide (although by Uther's age when he dies I think most of his children could still be young enough that maybe Arthur will just have them be his hostages/possible in-laws, in special since it would explain how he managed to take over the empire in the span of a year) and the fact that, withouth wanting to sound harsh, your post on Uther was such a wall of text with a multitude of unique (but also cool) names that it was really hard to get how much support Uther had, since (at least from my point of view) it was so much happening on screen it was hard to understand what was happening, even though it clearly showed dedication
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That's disappointing for me as I worked really hard on that and was real proud of my writing. Oh well.
I'll have to be more careful in the future, I guess.
(This is a sincere statement, no snark intended.
)As the next one, I'll sleep on it. I' honestly don't know. My daughter and I are watching the Chief-Texans game.
I'll do it, sleep and a ten year old wil delay it til morning.
I being careful not to say your controlling, because the internet is place of misunderstanding. But I agree with Peppe in--
Was very hard to interpret and, along with the contact genuinely made me wonder. So I pointed it out. I feared this might turn into a feud, so I said something. (Seriously, no snark intended either).
I don't like feuds, so it won't turn into one from me. I have to take the critique that it was hard to understand what I wrote event though to me it was quite clear. Of course it was clear to me, I wrote it!
What was hard to interpret about the actual text (apart from contacting you)?
Was it the names? I tried to take existing names from the Arthurian or Roland stories and give them a Brythonic twist. But maybe that was too obscure?
Was it that it had two Uthers? One Uther Vye and the other his nephew?
Or was it that I started Uther Paladin's story with a deep background?
I think the take away from this for me is not to write before the fact of it being my turn?
What was hard to interpret about the actual text (apart from contacting you)?
Was it the names? I tried to take existing names from the Arthurian or Roland stories and give them a Brythonic twist. But maybe that was too obscure?
Was it that it had two Uthers? One Uther Vye and the other his nephew?
Or was it that I started Uther Paladin's story with a deep background?
I think the take away from this for me is not to write before the fact of it being my turn?
I don't like feuds, so it won't turn into one from me. I have to take the critique that it was hard to understand what I wrote event though to me it was quite clear. Of course it was clear to me, I wrote it!
As someone who writes clear, always perfectly understandable text I'm right there with you. The rest needs to wait😜.
For me it was a little long and just too many names. After a while I just wasn't able to track it.
What I could track, I enjoyed though.
Hey guys. I posted this at 11:30 pm and then went to sleep.
@Asharella I apologise for missing some of your information out, as you have stated there was a lot including a tree and pictures. I also had already formed another idea of the next king in the form of Pryderi’s youngest brother being a vengeful guy against the Danes and Francia.
If I can add the details for the question raised before @Kerney takes their turn? I’ll do so.
@Asharella I apologise for missing some of your information out, as you have stated there was a lot including a tree and pictures. I also had already formed another idea of the next king in the form of Pryderi’s youngest brother being a vengeful guy against the Danes and Francia.
If I can add the details for the question raised before @Kerney takes their turn? I’ll do so.
is it my turn rn? I've lost track, and if it is, I haven't even started writing yet😳