The realm of Albionoria was a realm full of colorful, interesting people and cultures, of natural wonders and incredible landscapes. It was unlike the continents to the south and west of it, incredibly diverse and successful in every corner. But like any realm full of different people, there was conflict. Sometimes it was small, minor conflict, easily solved with a little temperance and mediation.
And sometimes, well... sometimes it was war.
The story begins thirteen years ago, in a time when there was tension but no conflict; a time when the Kingdom of Wolfmere was merely the Northern Kingdom, a country full of feral, "uncivilized" folk who just wanted to be allowed to thrive as the other kingdoms had. The people of Wolfmere were notoriously strong and hardy, able to recover from illness and injury at record time, and so accustomed to hardship that they seemed near inhuman in stamina. The strength and hardiness of the Northern Folk was legendary -- the southern kingdoms called them wolfmen or the wolves of the North. There was respect there, and perhaps a little fear, but mostly a calm acceptance. Wolfmere didn't seem particularly hostile, so there was no great threat.
Except to Kyrness. That is, the Kingdom of Kyrness, a large, militant nation situated to the southeast. What Kyrness lacked in other areas, it made up for in might; its military was unmatched, its citizens mighty. To these warriors, the strength of the Northerners was a challenge, a threat to their security. To the King of Kyrness, a man who was more than a little drunk on his own might and power, any challenge was unacceptable and had to be wiped out -- but he had no justification to send his armies against Wolfmere, and besides that, several other kingdoms lay between Kyrness and Wolfmere, kingdoms who would not accept sudden warfare.
So the King, with assistance from his counsel, developed a plan. He offered a hand of friendship to Wolfmere, inviting their royal family to his palace; he would show them his world, and begin talks of comradeship and trade. The King of Wolfmere, seeing an opportunity to better the lives of his people, gladly accepted. His wife, the queen, was too far along in her pregnancy to travel, so he left her to take care of the kingdom in his place, instead bringing his four sons and single daughter along with him. Wolfmere's king wanted his children to learn and see the world, see what they could turn Wolfmere into with work.
It was, unfortunately, all a trap. Having arrived at Kyrness's castle, the Wolfmere nobility was shown into a parlor.. and then laid upon by dozens of royal guards. For all the Northern King's strength, the numbers were against him, and he soon fell. Battered and bloody, forced to the floor by swords, the fallen king glared up at the king of Kyrness, who stood over him with a sword in hand. "Beasts wearing the skin of men do not belong in Albionoria; I am doing the realm a favor." And there, in the halls of his own castle, he beheaded the king of Wolfmere, in clear view of his horrified children. The children, huddled in a corner, had been beaten into submission as well, and the king rounded on them with a sword as well -- but felt a small bit of mercy for them. They were only children, and there was even a little girl among them. He sheathed his sword and snarled at his guards to find a carriage to bring the hellions back to their own lands.
"I will give you a boon, younglings," Kyrness's king said easily, and lifted their father's severed head by his hair, "take this back to your kingdom, the only piece of the traitor king that remains."
"Traitor?!" One of the elder children managed, choking back grief, "you are the traitor!"
The king of Kyrness laughed, a cruel sound, "I wonder who the realm will believe, a bunch of wolf cubs, or a king?" And as the Wolfmere princes and princess traveled back home in a carriage, they caught wind of the rumors that followed them. The Wolfmere king had openly attacked the king of Kyrness, intent on murder. Wolfmere meant to start a war. The king of Kyrness was being merciful, even kind, returning the children rather than executing them with their father -- and because no one would believe a savage from the North, soon enough the rumors became the "truth", and Wolfmere became not just the Northern Kingdom, but the Accursed Kingdom, the hateful kingdom that spawned a traitor. The other kingdoms of the realm were quick to believe Kyrness, and soon the entirety of Albionoria was against the North.
For twelve long years, Wolfmere was spurned and scorned, its people chased out of the other kingdoms and treated as less than human no matter where they went. And then, tired of the hate, tired of the seething injustice, Wolfmere decided to do exactly what Kyrness had implied they planned to do.
Lead by the eldest son of the late king, now a king himself, Wolfmere started an all-out war.
And just as Kyrness had feared, there wasn't a force in Albionoria that had the strength to stop them. The Kingdom of Glassmallow, the only nation to share a border with Wolfmere, had no military to speak of and had no desire to risk their citizens lives for a conflict they knew they could not win; they surrendered without a fight, allowing Wolfmere's armies passage through their lands unbarred. The Kingdom of Esterwyn, deeply religious and incredibly peaceful, refused to fight, and surrendered shortly thereafter as well. Wolfmere's armies rode on. The Kingdom of Stonewynne, known for their innovations and resources, would've potentially been able to stop Wolfmere... if they hadn't been the frontlines. But they were, and they fell after just a few weeks of fighting. Claiming Stonewynne and all its resources for Wolfmere, the vengeful march continued. The peninsula and archipelago of islands that made up the Kingdom of Corarce was the first kingdom that posed any true threat to Wolfmere; the North was mountainous, giving the soldiers of Wolfmere little practice with naval warfare.
The raw, animalistic might of Wolfmere persevered.
Four out of five kingdoms had fallen, now claimed and occupied by Wolfmere. It had only been a few months; the Northerners were seemingly possessed by beasts, or perhaps devils. Their strength was unreal, no average man a match for them. And all their might, and all their fury finally rounded on the truest source of their rage, the target of their vengeance -- the Kingdom of Kyrness was the only kingdom left standing. The war dragged on for months, the massive, skilled military of Kyrness seemingly holding their own against Wolfmere... and then the princes and princess of Wolfmere spearheaded an assault on the castle of Kyrness.
The next morning, the head of the king of Kyrness was found mounted on a spike above the gates.
Kyrness too had fallen, and in a single year, Wolfmere had claimed the entirety of the realm of Albionoria for its own. Soonafter, the announcements and proclamations began to spread. Wolfmere claims all of Albionoria for its own, the announcements said, and this realm shall henceforth be known as the Wolfmere Empire. The imperial decrees, passed on by the Wolfmere nobles, sons and daughter of the wronged king, declared that Glassmallow and Esterwyn, for their cooperation, would be allowed to continue as they had, with an oath of protection from Wolfmere. Stonewynne and Corarce's militaries would stripped and de-armed, and they would pay regular reparations of supplies and wealth to Wolfmere. As for Kyrness's fate... well, it was the worst of all.
'The Kingdom of Kyrness, from this day forth, no longer exists.'
Wolfmere was, for all intents and purposes, removing Kyrness from the map, literally absorbing it as a separate region of Wolfmere. The King and Queen had been ruthlessly executed, and Kyrness's only prince and eldest princess were now hostages, prisoners of war. And just when the other four kingdoms, shocked and rattled by Kyrness's fate, thought they were out of harms way, one more proclamation was made. The royal family of Wolfmere is henceforth appointed, a single noble to each province, as governors and rulers of each conquered land. The outcry was prominent -- what did these Northerners know about ruling their kingdoms? What happened to the promises that the lives of the average citizen would continue as is? The answer came in the second part of the proclamation.
'As a final payment for your injustices and crimes, Wolfmere demands one more payment of Glassmallow, Esterwyn, Stonewynne, and Corarce. These lands, now provinces of Wolfmere, will send their eldest princesses to what was once Kyrness, now Southern Wolfmere, to be wed to the royal family of Wolfmere.'
This was how Wolfmere intended to rule their newly conquered lands; by subjugating and absorbing the standing royal families. And it was Wolfmere's final, crippling blow to the pride of lands they had conquered as well: taking the jewels of each kingdom, their beloved princesses -- as brides claimed as spoils of war.
