5001-HârnWorld/3rd Edition/53

The Rape of Thay
The bloody Jarin Rebellion ended in 703 and had served to bring the squabbling Ivinian clans closer together as they fought a common enemy. Alegar hoped to preserve this temporary unity by means of a bold new adventure, a major raid down the east coast to capture the Melderyni city of Thay. The Ivinians needed little encouragement to sample the wealth of Thay and Alegar’s plan was quickly adopted. The island of Keron was occupied and settled by the Orbaalese as a base in 704. The next year, a fleet of some 40 ships descended on the unsuspecting Thayans. The Ivinians landed and invested the walled town but could not breach its defenses. For three days, the northerners rampaged, venting their frustration on the manors and villages nearby. Finally, the Orbaalese retired, carrying off many women and much booty, pledging to return.

The Cape Renda Disaster
In the late summer of 707, a second assault fleet of about 100 dragonships and warboats from Orbaal and several other Ivinian kingdoms descended on the city of Thay. There is no doubt that the lightly defended city would have succumbed to an invasion fleet of this size. The 5,000 warriors aboard exceeded the entire population of Thay. But while rounding Cape Renda, 15 leagues northeast of the city, a freak storm arose and sank many vessels, cast others onto the Renda Rocks, and scattered the remainder. The surviving ships retired to Keron to regroup, only to find that their island base had also been destroyed. This was more than the “masters of wind and wave” could stand. They limped home. The island of Hârn was subjected to several such storms that year, causing extensive flooding, but many Thayans believe the Cape Renda disaster was an arcane intervention by Melderyn.

The West
Two kingdoms and a republic maintain an uneasy peace in western Hârn. Over the past 50 years, they have fought several wars and there is no reason to suppose that relations will improve.

In the 23 years since Ezar’s War, the border between Kanday and Rethem has been the scene of continual skirmishing between the Order of the Checkered Shield and the Order of the Copper Hook, the latter of whom have yet to acknowledge the Peace of Selvos. The wounds of the war have yet to heal. Rethem’s king, Chafin III, is vigorously trying to unite his chronically rebellious kingdom. If he lives long enough, it is likely that he will again attack hated Kanday.

Neither kingdom has reason to trust the Thardic Republic, with its radically alien political structure and its avaricious, expedient-following senators. The republic’s worst enemies dwell within its own borders, where the great families vie constantly for status and wealth and factions form and reform daily. The republic’s decadence and internal disunity alone will likely eliminate it as a threat to its neighbors until some strong general can climb to the throne over a heap of bodies. Peran is a harsh wilderness, a land of wild tribes who have not forgotten that their fathers once conquered large tracts of the rich, soft south.

Andasin IV, King of Kanday

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