The Five Woes of Ynnraile IV: The Wrath of Rrakanychan

[Yvain Wintersong]

Now posted in the Ynnraile forum. I'll be moving the other threads here as soon as I figure out how since they deal with Barony-wide history.

Kaiser Raynor's forces spent the next several years engaged in Musica, to the neglect of the recently conquered Goldshirean areas. Te'Ele Mercaja, scion of the family, took the opportunity to escape the dungeons in which he was being held and flee to Avakair, where he won the allegiance of several coastal cities. Soon only Goldshire Hamlet and the lands immediately to its south remained in the Kaiser's control.

Realizing that both their lives were forfeit when the Brookshireans ceased being distracted, Te'Ele forged an uneasy alliance with Tristram and Ynnraile. The move came none too soon, as the long siege of Musica ended soon after, and the Brookshireans herded their weary armies north. Tristram and Te'Ele soon clashed over strategy - Mercaja wanted to engage Brookshire as soon as possible on the most favorable ground, while Tristram suggested surrendering the cities in favor of a hit-and-run style of guerilla warfare. In the end, it was Te'Ele who won out, and the allied forces fortified the north coast of the Quinewinn and waited for Brookshire to arrive.

General Fenrir did not disappoint them. His army reached the south coast and attempted a crossing. There was a fierce but localized battle which ended inconclusively as nightfall came and both sides prepared to end the struggle on the morrow.

That night, around three in the morning, both sides were suddenly shaken awake by a mighty roaring noise. The earth shook, and the usually placid waters of the Quinewinn began to boil. Those who ran outside witnessed a falling star, brighter than the sun, which streaked through the sky in crimson flame before striking the Earth in the far west. Where it hit, many hundreds of kilometers away, a great plume of lava erupted out of the ground until it seemed to touch the stars.

At first, both sides suggested the other of some strategem or superweapon, but it became clear that each was as confused as the other. The Brookshireans considered it an omen of disaster and retreated; the allies tentatively celebrated their victory while remaining ill at ease. Days later, the first whispered tales of the Demon began.

The Demon, they said, had fallen to Earth near Emsabh, and everything around the area where he had hit immediately caught fire and was consumed. The Demon himself took a human form, but was as tall as the tallest tower, with skin of fire and a great fiery sword. He lay unconscious where he had fallen for several weeks, until it seemed clear that he was dead.

Te'Ele sent a battalion of men to investigate. The Goldshireans, whose legends of ancient matters were better preserved, refused to a man to accompany them. Te'Ele returned to the allied base near Synthera, reporting that the stories were true and that a great fire demon lay dead beside Emsabh. Tristram grimaced, said "Nay, not dead," and retreated into the deep forests. Soon afterwards, he ordered the evacuation of Ynnraile.

Tristram was a poor excuse for a king, and many of the Goldshireans refused his order to leave the region. Others waited, hoping the future would clarify matters. But many left, heading north to the forests of Elwynn, or west to Avakair. Some tried to enter Brookshirean lands near Musica, and were ill-treated. Tristram sent a personal letter to the Kaiser urging him, for the sake of his honor, to let them in, and the Kaiser relented.

Seeing an easy chance to establish control over central Goldshire while its inhabitants panicked, the Kaiser sent a force from Shirekeep practically under the nose of the unconscious demon, into the hills of Goldshire.

On the first Ughsday of Hgraasreign, the demon awoke, looked around, saw the Brookshirean army, and casually crushed the lot of them beneath a fiery fist.

After that began the Bad Times. The demon destroyed most of the towns along the Elwynn, striking Brookshire and Goldshire alike. Thousands died. Thousands more went mad and began worshipping the demon as a god of death. Then the demon turned his path of destruction towards the greatest metropolis on the Benacian continent, Shirekeep.

Tristram saw the direction he was heading, and despite his distaste for the Kaiser, realized that Shireroth was now the greatest agglomeration of men on Benacia and that without it the prospects of humanity to stand up to this scourge were grim indeed. He rode with a few of his most trusted men to the ruins of Wintersong, and called on the old powers his grandmother Moraquine had found there.

There was a shift in the weather, and a great mass of blizzards converged into a wall. The wall stood directly between the demon and Shirekeep. Rrakanychan (for it was of course he) beat against it with all his might, but his hands of fire were stung by the cold of winter, and he jumped back in a bellow of pain.

Then he turned away from Shirekeep and into Goldshire. Tristram, who had originally planned to wait out the creature with his countrymen in Avakair or some other sufficiently distant city, realized he could not leave those families still in Ynnraile to their fate. He and his men rode out, and, though unable to confront the demon directly, contained and harassed his followers, until they were afraid to leave their master's side.

The hoped-for help finally arrived. The Kaiser and Te'Ele had agreed to briefly put aside their differences and launch a joint assault on the demon, one from the west and the other from the east. Tristram wrote a letter to Te'Ele, his one-time enemy and one-time ally, urging him to desist from such foolishness, but it was of no use. Te'Ele led the charge personally, and was murdered, along with the nephew of the Kaiser who led the Brookshire troops, in the massacre that followed.

Avakair's forces were totally destroyed, and the Kaiser's few remaining men retreated to a safe distance. They adopted the same tactic as Tristram - avoiding the demon while picking off his followers. At first, Brookshire and Tristram's Ynnraileans worked in a fragile concert - but when the Kaiser's men proved too eager to massacre villages where they suspected a demon-worshipper might be hiding, Tristram turned on them and began striking any Brookshire forces he found in Goldshire. During the era known as the Dance of the Three Armies, which lasted through the spring and summer of the year, the Shirerothians, the Ynnraileans, and the demon-worshippers all skirmished with one another, causing chaos and murder but never achieving any decisive victories. Rrakanychan himself, meanwhile, annhiliated the city of Donmachad, ancient capital of Goldendown, and began threatening both Avakair and the Elwys capital of Eliria.

[Yvain Wintersong]

Oh, and if anyone ever makes a movie about Shireroth (though I'll bet someone has before and it's in part of the Wiki I haven't found yet) I offer the name "The Wrath of Rrakanychan" as a title, gratis.

[Kaiser Mors V]

I continue to be pleased.. but did find a problem...

along with the nephew of the Kaiser who led the Brookshire troops

Raynor I's had no siblings that ever come up... Thus.. he could have no Nephews or Nieces... Raynor I did have 3 children.. which may be why you are confused.. change it to a friend of the Kaiser... or something... and it'll work both literally and as the canon I plan to induct it as...

[Yvain Wintersong]

Perhaps it was his nephew by marriage, his wife's nephew?

[Kaiser Mors V]

That'll work...

[Ari Rahikkala]

* reads it *

Tricksy... I like tricksy...