The Kings and Queens of Hogstone

The Kings and Queens of Hogstone is a book written by Ranulph the Old, of Hogstone, and was finished in 400SD. The first volume of the text is supplied in its entirety below.

Timeline
0 - Erryk I ‘the Great’

55 - Andrei I

75 - Kyra I

88 - Martyn I

115 - Erryk II (The Huntsman King)

134 - Erryk III (The Foolish)

136 - Myranda I (The 50 year Queen)

186 - Andrei II

190 - Lymora I

202 - Martyn II

238 - Myranda II

256 - Stephyn I

279 - Franklyn I

279 - Myranda III (The Warrior Queen)

299 - Andrei III

327 - Myranda IV

359 - Erryk IV

383 - Erryk V

Introduction
To mark this momentous landmark of history  it is my intention in these pages to chronicle as concisely as any one man can, the first 400 years of the Steiner dynasty. Of the lasting peace and prosperity that the dynasty and the Guardians of Hogstone have brought to the Thousand Islands, and of the difficulties that they faced. To compile this volume I have brought together the diaries and chronicles of previous stewards, including that of my own former master Gordyn Greybeard. While some accounts have been rich in detail, other times have been almost impossible to pin down. In these periods I have attempted to use my knowledge of the dynasty and the surrounding histories, and come to my own conclusions about what happened.

One thing we do know for sure is that the Thousand Islands have never been in a more unified and peaceful state than they are today, and as I sit marking the beginning of the fifth century of their rule, I feel a pride in following the traditions and the stewards that have come before me.

0 - Erryk I ‘the Great’
While we do not know for certain the origins of our great founder, we know that Erryk the Great came from a continent overseas at a time when very little written history persists. We can take this to mean that many lands were at the time unsettled, and those that were did not have the capacity for the written word.

Why did Erryk choose Hogstone to make his home and capital? Historians have speculated that it stems from the large iron mines that to this day feed the smiths with a limitless supply of raw materials with which to forge weapons and armor. That he chose to build Hogstone Keep on top of the largest deposits only strengthen this theory. But iron was not the only reason. The forests of pine trees and the river that runs through it gave the settlers the materials to build their homes, and the fresh water to fish and drink from.

The exact number of settlers the King brought with him across the seas has been lost to time, but from the speed at which a settlement sprung up, we can estimate that it was between 20 to 30 working adults.

The first account of which we can put our faith is that of the first steward of Hogstone, Aebel, who in the fifth year of the King’s reign wrote of the proposed construction of a stone keep to replace the structure of wood and clay that had served as the King’s residence for the first years. It is in this same document, that survives to this day in the Hall of Beasts, that we hear the first mention of the Sekken Steiner. Although it is not confirmed in the texts, Aebel implies that the statues did not originate on the Thousand Islands. It is said that the Statues had the power to grant extraordinary abilities to whoever controlled them, and that they would reside in the new Keep forevermore once construction had been completed. We of course now all know the abilities that the Sekken Steiner grant to those who have attuned to them, and that this is a right given only to the six Guardians of Hogstone. But in Erryk’s fifth year, that order had not been created, and the power of each of the statues lived within Erryk himself.

Aebel writes that Erryk used his extraordinary power to aid the construction of what would become known as Hogstone Keep, helping in every aspect, from pulling stone from the quarries, to manufacturing tools, to laying the very stones. Slowly the Keep rose, and as the houses around it grew in number, Erryk’s dream of a prosperous settlement came ever closer.

Construction was finally completed in the summer of 12SD, seven years after the first stone was laid. The occasion was marked by the largest ceremony the island had ever seen, culminating in King Erryk placing the Sekken Steiner onto six stone columns in the Chamber of the Sekken Steiner, below the throne room.

The journals of Aebel come to an abrupt end not long after the completion of the Keep, we can assume that the steward died at this time, and it is not until almost 18 years later that the story is picked up by a later steward, going by Paelys, who writes that in the 30th year of Erryk’s reign, his Queen, Saella gave birth to their first and only child, Andrei, who would become King Andrei I.

Buoyed by the birth of his son and the rapid prosperity of Hogstone, King Erryk began to make plans for a second city to grant living space for his burgeoning population. An island directly south of Hogstone seemed the perfect spot, and over the next decade, members of Hogstone’s families sought out life on the new Sailors’ Wyk, named for the seafaring pioneers who first left Hogstone, and for the future trading opportunities it presented. Sailor’s Wyk grew even faster than Hogstone had, largely due to the abundance of manpower and material that Hogstone merchants could supply to the new town.

Paelys writes that in 36SD, a ship came into Hogstone of a like that no man had seen. A wizard who went by the name of Allypo Al Mezzel, with hair to his waist and skin as dark as teak, led a delegation from a group of islands to the far south, with a hold filled with spices and metals that were at that time completely unknown to the people of Hogstone. The delegation was welcomed onto the island and the merchants of Hogstone clamored over the exotic new materials. Paelys noted that Allypo, as a powerful user of magic, took a keen interest in the effects of the Sekken Steiner on King Erryk, and when the rest of the delegation returned home with a hold now filled with iron weapons, Allypo decided to stay on Hogstone, becoming the first Court Wizard of Hogstone.

In 44SD work began on the first major expansion to Hogstone Castle, when the Mage’s Tower began to rise. Allypo Al Mezzel had become a favourite of the King, with the two sharing a thirst for knowledge and an interest in the higher mysteries of magic. However only a month after the completion of the tower, in the autumn of 46SD, Allypo attempted to steal the Sekken Steiner. Paelys writes that Al Mezzel snuck into the chamber in the dead of night, but no sooner had he picked up the Star Statue, King Erryk stood blocking his exit, holding his greatsword ‘Hope’. According to the stewards report, Al Mezzel and the ageing King fought through the night, and in the morning, when the King still fought fresh, the mage could fight no more, surrendering. The wizard was hanged the next day from the top of the recently completed Mage’s Tower. Erryk vowed that the tower would remain empty until a mage of unquestionable loyalty and value could take up the position. He was not to know at this time how long the tower would remain vacant.

In the summer of 46SD, a festival to mark the 16th birthday of Prince Andrei brought joy to the people of Hogstone, all except the King, who had become increasingly disappointed with Andrei’s entitled and arrogant demeanor. Where Erryk had remained a man of the people throughout his life, Andrei saw himself as a Prince among men. He was vain and lacked ambition, spending his days hunting game with his favourites in The Pines.

The King, now over 70 years old and too frail to leave Hogstone Keep, wanted to mark the 50th year of his reign with the settling of a third great city. An unpopulated, unnamed island to the south of Sailor’s Wyk seemed the most suitable. A group of Hogstone’s finest warriors set sail in the spring of that year. The stories they brought back to Hogstone a few months later shocked the island to its core. The warriors spoke of monsters inhabiting the island, huge lizard-beasts of all shapes and sizes that attacked them. The men of Hogstone bravely defeated the beasts, returning from the island with trophies of teeth, claws and even full heads. The island was dubbed Errykburgh, and within the year the first bands of settlers left Hogstone and Sailors Wyk to begin a new life on the island. The first town, known as Oldstein, sprung up over the coming years, becoming almost as valuable a trading post as Sailor’s Wyk to the north of it.

Fearing that he was coming to the end of his life, and reluctant to put complete trust in his disappointing son Andrei, King Erryk made plans for his succession in 55SD by gathering the finest warriors on Hogstone, those who won renown at the newly named Errykburgh. An order was created where each member would be granted the powers of one of the Sekken Steiner. They were to be known as the Guardians of Hogstone. Tasked with protecting the future King and his Kingdom. In a solemn ceremony, the Guardians stood overnight vigil in the Chamber of the Sekken Steiner. As one by one the powers faded from the old king, he grew weaker. The King, who had founded a city, then a Kingdom and finally a dynasty, died 3 days later. 

55 - Andrei I
Prince Andrei became King Andrei the First just 2 days after the death of his father. The steward Paelys writes that ‘Men and women from all three of the islands came forth to pay their respects to the fallen King, but Prince Andrei believed they were there for him and him alone.’ The new King was bitter and resentful at his father’s decision to split the power of the Sekken Steiner amongst the new Guardians of Hogstone, believing that the power was his birthright. Just a few weeks into his reign he confronted Alyn Beastbane, a hero of Errykburgh, demanding that the Guardians relinquish their powers back to him. Alyn told the King in no uncertain terms that the powers that had been granted to the Guardians were not for discussion.

Andrei realised that power in Hogstone was already dangerously close to switching to the Guardians rather than the King, so he sent the six warriors, alongside 50 additional men, to an island just to the south of Errykburgh. The King assumed that if he could take an island as his father had done, and name it after himself, he would earn the respect of the people. The Guardians left in the spring of 56SD and returned again victorious in the autumn, again bringing trophies of the huge lizard-beasts that had inhabited the island.

The new King quickly realised that the trophies returning back from what he had dubbed Andreiburgh, and those from Errykburgh that now sat in the Great Hall of Hogstone Keep, could become an incredible display of his power, something to show the people that although he did not personally have the power of the Sekken Steiner, he could command armies that could defeat great beasts. He gathered the master stonemason of Hogstone and Sailor’s Wyk, and went about the construction of a great museum to display these trophies. ‘The Hall of Beasts’ took over a decade to construct, surpassing Hogstone Keep in its awe-inspiring grandeur. When the first displays were moved into the hall, citizens from across the three islands flocked to see the wonders of the defeated beasts.

During the early construction of the Hall, Andrei married the young daughter of one of the stonemasons, and within the year the new Queen Lyra was pregnant. A daughter, who the King and Queen named Kyra, was born in the spring of 57SD. Another daughter, Pylonia, followed a year later, and a third, who they named Veelia in the winter of 59SD.

With his vanity projects complete, and heirs to the dynasty secured, the King slipped back to his idle and gluttonous ways, spending his days hunting and his nights drinking. Oblivious to the tragedy that was about to befall Hogstone.

In 68SD a plague came to the island. Paelys wrote that ‘a fever was followed by large boils that covered the entire body’ and that ‘those afflicted are dying within 2 days of first showing symptoms’. The Princesses Pylonia and Veelia both succumbed to the disease, followed a few weeks later by their mother, the Queen Lyra. The absence of any written reports after this suggest that Paelys himself also died in that terrible year. In fact no further records were kept until the early years of the reign of King Andrei’s only remaining daughter, Kyra.

75 - Kyra I
Although we know little of the early years of Kyra I’s reign, we can assume it will have been a desperately difficult time for the young Queen. Coming to the throne at 18 having recently lost both of her parents and her two younger sisters. The first account we have of the Queen is not until 77SD, where a new steward, Amelee, writes that Kyra was a woman of immense strength, hard and intense in her demeanor and exceptionally proud. Amelee writes of two members of the Guardians of Hogstone who vied for the hand of the young Queen, the wily Wuthred, recipient of the Scholar Statue and Macen the Bull, Hogstone’s fiercest warrior and recipient of the Stalwart Statue.

In the year 80SD, Macen took a hundred of Hogstone’s warriors to an island south of Errykburgh and east of Andreiburgh. The vicious lizard-beasts that roamed those islands before the Guardians had tamed them were present on this new land too. Macen and his men bravely fought the beasts, with Macen hoping to bring the head of the largest to his Queen to win favour. However during the voyage home Macen was murdered in his sleep by his fellow Guardian Wuthred, who took credit for the taming of what he dubbed Kyratown, and asked for the Queen’s hand in marriage. Queen Kyra was overjoyed with the legacy of a new island, and the two were married the following year. The details of his betrayal were not known until many years later, when Wuthred confessed on his deathbed.

A son was born a year later, who they named Martyn. At first the union between Queen Kyra and Wuthred was a happy one, but in the years that followed, Wuthred became more and more involved in the day to day affairs of Hogstone, joining the Queen while she held court. He started to be resented by the other members of the Guardians of Hogstone, not including its newest member, Dalwyn, who although appointed by Kyra, was really the pick of Wuthred.

The islands grew in peace and prosperity over the next few years, with Hogstone, Sailor’s Wyk, Errykburgh, Andreiburgh and Kyratown becoming more distinct in their culture and purpose while keeping a shared economy and law. A second small town sprang up on Kyratown, which the islanders called Portshome. This was to be Kyratown’s centre for overseas trade, and it’s merchants were well placed to sail west to the dwarven islands, setting up a trading post on Loch Uaine in 85SD.

In the summer of 87SD, Queen Kyra fell ill, complaining of stomach pains and sickness. Although she continued to hold court, the sickness lingered throughout the summer and by October of that year she took to her bed. Although the steward Amelee had no suspicion at the time of her writing, we know from the later confessions of Wuthred that he had been slowly poisoning the good Queen for over a year. It is hard to believe now that this was not suspected at the time, but such was Wuthred’s cunning, aided by the intelligence granted him by the Scholar Statue, that he remained undetected for so long. A month of mourning was observed, with the new King, Martyn I, a boy of only 7, taking the crown in the January of 88SD. It was decided that until Martyn came of age, the day to day ruling of the Kingdoms would come under the watchful eye of Wuthred.