5001-HârnWorld/3rd Edition/48

Aglir of Telen was the League’s last autarch. The growing regal overtones of the office had made many senators uneasy. Some began to privately advocate the merging of the two republics to counterbalance any imperial pretensions held by an autarch. Aglir antagonized this anti-imperial faction when he chose his own son, Taresir, to be deputy commander of the Autarch’s Guard in 670 and when he involved the League in the Salt Wars with Kaldor without senate approval.

Aglir’s easy victory against Kaldor at the Battle of the Chelna Gap in 672 silenced the few brave souls who had been critical, but when the Guard was routed at the Battle of Ramala Gap in 673 and an embarrassing peace with Kaldor signed, his enemies in the League moved swiftly. Rumors to the effect that Aglir’s ambitions included kingship sprang up with alarming rapidity. To avert some of the blame for the military defeat, Aglir had 43 officers arrested, tried, and executed for treason in 674. His son Taresir, the man most responsible, was not one of them.

Aglir now faced army unrest and events came swiftly to a climax. Anti-imperialist riots spread throughout Coranan. Aglir declared martial law and prepared to arrest certain senators in both cities. Before this could be done, four of his personal guards stabbed him to death. The next morning, the senates of both republics passed identical decrees to abolish the office of autarch and establish a committee to explore the creation of a joint state. Within three months, the Thardic Republic was in being, its seat of government in Coranan.

RETHEM IN CHAOS
The proudly independent Kuboran tribes of Peran were united only by the charisma of Arlun the Barbarian. When he died in 656, they renounced their loyalty to his son, Obras. Thus the entire region of Peran was lost to the Kingdom of Rethem and the new king was too occupied with numerous revolts in the south to attempt to regain the northern marches. Much harried, Obras was slain while putting down yet another rebellion at Tormau in 672, leaving to his son a kingdom in chaos.

Nemiran sought to reunify the kingdom. Taking Kanday as a model, he parceled out his domain to trusted retainers and gave up trying to rule the whole himself. The impressive citadel at Golotha was renovated and became the king’s principal seat in 678. Nemiran soon came under the influence of the resurgent Church of Agrik and proved the tenet that none are so zealous as the recent convert. He founded the orders of Demon Pameshlu the Insatiable and the Octagonal Pit and financed the construction of a new temple to Agrik in Golotha. In 681, the last year of his reign, Nemiran granted Menekai

to the Order of the Red Shadows of Herpa, and Menekod, Hyen, Dunir, and Selvos to the Order of the Copper Hook.

King Nemiran was assassinated on the steps of his palace in Golotha on midsummer’s day, 681. It is likely that the blows were struck at the order of Puril, the ambitious commander of the king’s bodyguard. On Nemiran’s sudden demise, Puril sent troops into the streets to maintain order and proclaimed himself regent until a proper successor could be found. Several candidates for the throne came forward; all died mysteriously before they could take the throne. After six months, Puril “reluctantly” took the crown himself.

Ezar’s War
In 682, the Order of the Copper Hook suddenly attacked the Kingdom of Kanday without provocation. Advancing northeast from their castle at Menekod, the knights of the order laid siege to Imiden but were forced to quit the field when the Order of the Checkered Shield sent a relief force. The Grandmaster of the Copper Hook, Ezar Zhirdoka, appealed to Puril for aid and thus began what came to be known as Ezar’s War.

The armies of Rethem and Kanday engaged repeatedly, but without much effect, all along their border for the next six years while Puril hatched a scheme to win the war by less direct means. In 688, an army led by Puril embarked by sea from Golotha and landed near Sarkum.

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