History of House of Ellerovyn

By Harri Mäki

Split in Alfheim

In AC 700 old king Celedryl had died in Alfheim. There were two prominent contenders for the throne: Doriath and Charan, both former advisors of king Celedryl and both from the Erewan clan. Their own clan was evenly divided between their supporters, but among other clans Doriath was looked more favourably because of his more neutral attitude to the different clans. So the result was a defeat for Charan.

At first it seemed that he would accept the decision. However, he bore a grudge not against Doriath but against the other clans who had refused to support him. His pride couldn't stand to stay in Alfheim as a "might-have-been-a-king", so he started searching for a place to migrate. At last he thought about the Highlands behind the Broken Lands. There were already a few elves, although not like the elves of Alfheim, but elves anyhow and they might have needed help fighting against humans in the area. Charan informed his closest friends and relatives about his decision to go there. He was greatly surprised when they all said that they would come with him. At the end nearly all of his Erewan supporters left with him.

It took nearly ten years for them all to get there with all the planning and fighting on the way. They left Alfheim at the fall of AC 700 and then they stayed over 2 years in the area of Corunglain before they made their first attempt in summer 703. They get through only at their third attempt in summer 709 and arrived to forests of the Belcadiz elves in the winter of AC 709-710.

First Years In The Highlands

Those ten years changed Charan somewhat. He looked older than his 168 years would assume, he was more matured, determined and he was more modest, although his pride wouldn't have allowed him to recall the trip during the harsh years in Darokin.

Charan contacted immediately Don Manuel de Belcadiz, leader of the local elves and acknowledged his authority, asking permission to settle amongst his elves. The alliance between two elven clans was seal in AC 712, when Don Manuel's eldest son Don Fernando married Charan's younger sister Charlana. Two young elves had fell in love immediately after their first meeting two years earlier, but it had taken some time to convince the leaders of the desirability of this marriage. Charan had immediately liked don Fernando and his father, but there were other elves at both sides who needed persuasion. Don Fernando's younger brother, don Alfonso, was one of those they couldn't persuade to accept the marriage. Also for some reasons, both Charan and don Alfonso immediately disliked each other.

In the same year, Don Manuel and Charan decided that the area was too crowded for both elven groups. Don Manuel proposed that the Erewan elves moved to the woods between Vesubia and Red River were there were living only a few Flaemish woodcutters. Unfortunately Don Manuel didn't even think about asking the Flaems what their opinion was. Immediately after the Erewan elves had moved there, the Flaemish lords declared that the truce was broken and began raiding again. Brunt of the raids were targeted towards the Belcadiz elves and in AC 717 Don Manuel fell defending newly established city of New Alvar. Skirmishing between the elves and the Flaemish continued for thirteen years. The Erewan clan also got their part of raids, but while the Belcadiz elves retaliated, the Erewans usually only harassed the Flaems when they were returning and didn’t follow them into their areas.

The coming of the settlers from the Alasiayan land in AC 730 was a lucky strike for the elves. Charan immediately realised their value and supported Don Fernando against the other elven leaders when he promised the settlers a safe route through the elven lands in exchange for their military support. All skirmishes with the Flaems ended. During the next 56 years peace reigned in the Erewan lands. There were some humanoid raids from Broken Lands, but nothing serious.

Like Don Fernando, Charan too refused to take any part in wars amongst humans. During those years the tower of Ellerovyn was built (around AC 754) and the town of Erendyl followed in AC 766. Also, in AC 756 Charan at last announced his marriage to his distant cousin, Meralia. They had been dating already over one hundred years and some elder relatives had already begun to worry if they would ever marry.

War Years

When Joachim von Drachenfels approached personally Don Fernando de Belcadiz in 786, Don Fernando immediately called also Charan Erewan and other leaders of the Erewan elves to the negotiations. Charan realised soon that Don Fernando had to join Joachim and his allies because of the pressure from Don Alfonso and the younger generation. Charan had no desire for war nor for meddling with human affairs, but in the end he also decided that his elves would join the fight. He took this decision solely based on elven solidarity and out of friendship for the old Don Fernando.

Charan decided to personally lead his troops. During the fighting in the next two years, Charan and Don Alfonso de Belcadiz lead the elven troops in the field. Whereas Belcadizian elves fought in close melee with human troops, Erewan elves were used as longbowmen and in surprise attacks behind the enemy lines. During these years Charan and Don Alfonso developed a reluctant respect for each others abilities as warleaders: Don Alfonso was a great charismatic leader, who was always with his troops in the forefront, whereas Charan was more a planner and a strategist.

After the Battle of Braastar and the death of Joachim von Drachenfels, Charan stayed in Braastar and took part in the negotiations with Don Fernando. Charan was not very sorry about the death of Joachim: during the last two years he had seen through him and he hadn't liked what he saw. Charan became very worried when during the negotiations Don Fernando expressed the feeling that the elves should have joined with the humans in one state. Charan understood Don Fernando’s reasoning, but he didn’t like the idea. He also realised that if Belcadiz elves joined the humans, Erewans couldn´t stay out. So in the end he had to agree with Don Fernando, and the settlers’ leaders were positively surprised when two elven leaders announced their willingness to join the Republic of the Highlands. When the Republic was finally formed, Charan took the other elven seat in the new Council of the State.

After Halzunthram's coup, Charan was imprisoned with Don Fernando and three Flaemish council members. Charan was furious of this and blamed partly Don Fernando of the event. This would have never happened if they had stayed out of the affairs of the humans. This was the first major friction between Charan and Don Fernando. After Don Alfonso rescued them, Charan's attitude softened a bit towards Don Fernando, but anyhow he decided that he didn't want to have anymore dealings with humans.

During the Forty Years War, since the rebel leaders knew the attitude of Charan, they tried to persuade only the Belcadiz elves to join them. During these years, Charan mostly concentrated on building defences against possible attack. Also, in AC 793 his son Celedrin was born. Charan still refused to join the fighting also when Don Fernando joined the rebels in AC 806 because of the dwarven troops fighting at Halzunthram's side. Only after Don Fernando's personal appeal to him in Charan joined the war. He still kept his troops out of the major battles and concentrated only to defend the Erewan areas. Charan's attitude changed only in AC 819, after he met for the first time the leader of the humans, Lord Alexander Glantri. Like Don Fernando, Charan immediately saw that there was a human he could trust, who had a right kind of ambitions and visions about the future.

After The War

When the negotiations begun after the Forty Years War, it was Charan who told Don Fernando that he would join the state and this time it was Don Fernando who wanted to stay out of the human affairs. When the offer was made to the elves for one place in the new Council, Charan told directly Don Fernando that he would have gladly seen him on that seat. Don Fernando was finally persuaded to join the council and was then chosen as Chamberlain of the Land. Charan on his part was happy with the place he got in the House of the Lords as the first Marquis of Ellerovyn.

The next years were quiet for Charan and his elves. He was of course shocked when he heard about the death of Lord Alexander Glantri in AC 835. Charan withdrew from the House for 23 years because of that. He came back only after the Light of Rad took place in AC 858. Unlike Don Fernando, Charan was not happy with this decision, because he had great doubts about a state ruled by human magic-users. He saw them as a chaotic bunch of individuals who would probably quarrel with each other about every possible issue. He thought that now he had again to take up his seat in the House of Lords so that there would have been at least one voice to make order out of chaos. He didn't also exactly like the decision to include most of the Erewan areas in the new Principality of Belcadiz. He was afraid that in the long run there would be difficulties between two elven groups.

Everything seemed to run fine for the Erewans after the Light of Rad, but then came the dark clouds. Charan had been happy for his sister and Don Fernando when they had their child at last in AC 858. Dona Charlana immediately told his brother about problems with Don Carlo when they began to show up. And after Don Fernando announced that his son, Don Carlo, had died and Dona Charlana told Charan his suspicions about the death, Charan directly demanded Don Fernando to explain what had happened. This accident literally caused the split between Charan and Don Fernando: the Belcadiz leader refused to speak about the matter and the two elven leaders never spoke to each other after this. And when Dona Charlana died in orc ambush in 869 all was lost.

First Charan could only protest in the House of Lords about the treatment of his elves at the hands of Don Alfonso in elven Principality. Only after the enfeoffment of Nouvelle Averoigne and Klantyre in AC 875 Charan realised what he had to do. He began to lobby for another elven Principality for the Erewan elves.

The Principality of Erewan

The reason behind the creation of the Principality of Erewan was not so much Charan’s work for it but the results of the investigations against the alleged misconducts of the ruling Belcadiz elves against the Erewans. Chancellor Friedrich von Drachenfels was appalled at the results. His support for the divison was the decisive factor, even though Don Fernando fought until the end against this decision. So in the summer of AC 884 Charan Erewan found himself after 96 years a member of the ruling council.

At first the Council was somewhat unsure what kind of a charge they should give to Charan. But then Bruce McGregor pointed that there was Fort Ylourgne, which was the only major fort in Glantri that was not in direct control of the Council. They should take its control from Etienne d'Ambreville and made Charan as Viceroy of Ylourgne. Most of the Princes agreed: this way they could give a snap to the arrogant Etienne. Etienne of course was not happy with this, but Friedrich von Drachenfels reasoned personally with him and managed to calm him down. Charan was not happy at all with this too, because Ylourgne was so far away and he would have rather stayed without any charge.

Council meetings were not so difficult to Charan as he had imagined beforehand. Don Fernando was mostly away tending his duties as the Chamberlain of the Land and they actually met only five times during the following 12 years. These were busy years for Charan. He had to divide his time between Council meetings, Fort Ylourgne and creating some kind of infrastructure for his Principality.

New Charges

Year 896 meant promotion also to Charan Erewan. That year was busy for the Council. First died the Supreme Judge Toktai Virayana I and then Castle d'Ambreville disappeared along with all the d'Ambrevilles. Race for the two highest positions was on. Charan watched the humans amazed, he was again disgusted at their power-hungriness. The choice of a new Grandmaster was easy, because everyone acknowledged that Don Fernando de Belcadiz was the most suitable for that charge. But then nearly everyone else wanted to be new Supreme Judge; only Charan and Morphail Gorevitch-Woszlany refused to compete. After much behind-the-scenes discussions, the current Treasurer Kenneth McGregor was chosen. Charan's election as new Chamberlain of the Land after Don Fernando was nearly unanimous. Obviously, Don Fernando was against this, to Charan's great dismay.

Charan was satisfied with his new charge. He hadn't been content with his viceroyship, he didn't like stone castles or any castle for that matter. Now he could do something more suitable for him. When he got engrossed in his duties, he was positively surprised when realised just how good Don Fernando had been in that job. His respect for his brother-in-law was somewhat restored.

Soon after becoming Chamberlain, in AC 902 to be exact, Charan found the Radiance. He began to study this strange phenomena and became absorbed with it. He soon found the dangers of these studies, when in very short time his feet got a withering disease and he lost his ability to walk normally. He continued to tend his duties as Chamberlain but from now on he always moved on horseback if outside or with levitate spells if inside.

He continued to be Chamberlain until the crisis with Grandmaster Johann von Drachenfels in 957. When it was decided that the Council should remove Johann from the charge, Charan immediately announced his candidacy. Charan had long realised that if he wanted to continue his studies with the Radiance, he had to get rid of Chamberlainship and now he realised that as a Grandmaster he would have all the utilities of the School at his disposal. Charan was chosen because there was no better alternative.

As a Grandmaster Charan mostly concentrated on studying the Radiance. He left administrative and teaching duties mostly to his aidées. Students only saw him at the beginning and the end of the terms. During the years other personnel of the School saw his health gradually weakening, as his strange disease slowly spread. At last in 973 Charan delved too deep and he was turned a zombie-like creature by the Radiance. Before he could flee from the School the other mages, who didn't recognize him anymore, managed to destroy the unknown undead. At the age of 431 Charan Erewan disappeared like his predecessor Johann von Drachenfels.

Celedrin Erewan

Celedrin was 180-years old when he followed his father as Prince of Erewan. He had seen his father's strange disease spreading and had been afraid that it would kill him, but this sudden disappearance was totally unexpected. Celedrin wasn't totally unexperienced in governing, although he hadn't shown any interest to it. Still he had some natural charisma and was very likable. Some of the "older" princes liked his boyish manners.

Celedrin was chosen as Viceroy of Ylourgne. He was at first delighted because he liked to do something new. He was however very soon bored with the fort and spent more time in Broken Lands fighting the humanoids there. The five years Celedrin was Viceroy of Ylourgne run fast enough and in AC 978 he was chosen as the new Chamberlain after Georg von Drachenfels.

Celedrin found this charge more suitable to him because of the variance of the duties. Still he could enjoy the charge only for 5 years. In 983 Celedrin was killed by humanoid raiders at the early age of 190 years.

Carlotina Erewan

Celedrin's successor was his 172-years old wife Carlotina. Their two children were still too young to become Prince. Carlotina was chosen to continue his husband’s duties as Chamberlain and she is still around petitioning the Princes to defend the woods of Glantri and the borders from the humanoid raiders.

Summary

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