Line of Ayreon-Kalirion

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The coat of arms of the House of Ayreon-Kalirion

The line of Ayreon-Kalirion is an imperial bloodline closely related to, but not a descendant of, the line of Kalir. Whereas the line of Kalir has Kaiser Los I as its progenitor, Ayreon-Kalirion has Los's sister Tuuler Kalir as its progenitress. The Line of Ayreon-Kalirion has quite recently, by means of a Charter that was issued by the Emir of Sathrati been organized into an Imperial House called the House of Ayreon-Kalirion.

Definition

The line of Ayreon-Kalirion is currently defined as including all the descendants of the union of Princess Isa of Brookshire, also known as Tuuler Kalir (1420-1512), and the Babkhan anthropologist Eskender Arsalani (1418-1499).

Elwynnese culture has throughout the ages consistently seen adoption as a ritual transforming the blood of the adopted children to that of their new parents. Tradition therefore places adopted children among the descendants of the Eskender-Kalir union. Some, mainly Cedrist, scholars are skeptical towards such a definition.

Following the ascension of Eskender's son Rashid to the imperial throne of Babkha, the line is an imperial dynastic house in Babkha. Descendants of Shah Rashid carry the title "Scion of the King of Kings" in recognition of it.

The House of Ayreon-Kalirion stems from the Line of Ayreon-Kalirion, although not all members of that Imperial House are part of the aforementined Imperial Bloodline. The aforesaid Imperial House is governed by its Charter and headed by the Emir of Sathrati.

Name and Etymology

"Ayreon" is the Praeta spelling of the Elw proper noun Aireoon, which in turn is derived from the adjective/genitive aireoon, meaning "of the lions" (from aire, plural of ire, "lion").

It was chosen as the regal name in Shireroth of the former Shah of Babkha, Rashid Arsalani (also known as Richard Lyon), as a translation of his Babkhan dynastic name, Arsalani. However, given the deity Ayreon in Cedrist mythology, the name was deemed acceptable in the then-traditional parts of the Imperial Court. Names were supposed to reflect Cedrist gods, despite the non-Cedrist belief of the majority of the Elwynnese nation.

It is unknown whether there is a connexion in etymology between the Elwynnese 'Ayreon' and the Cedrist god 'Ayreon' (god of music). Given though that lions are seen as musical creatures in Elw mythology, it is not unlikely.

Kalirion is derived from the Hyperborean name of Princess Isa of Brookshire, Tuuler Kalirion, and means "of Kalir", Kalir being an archaic Hyperborean dynasty. The etymology of Kalir is believed to be related to a Hyperborean word for the polar bear.

Origins

Due to the close relationship between the lines of Kalir and Ayreon-Kalirion, the history of the both of them are instrinsically linked.

Due to Hyperborea's remoteness and isolationism, many foreigners are surprised to learn that the island has a bloodline of its own - but not so its inhabitants, all of whom are supremely proud of the so-called "Hyperborean bloodline", the Line of Kalir.

Taksi Kamheinion, chief genealogist at Tala, has researched the origin of the Line of Kalir. He writes that the origins are thought to come from the marriage of Prince Paul of Brookshire to Lady Sora of Hyperborea. The following extract is from his work:

"The origins of the Line of Kalir date back over two thousand [ASC] years in the past, when Hyperborea was still an independent country. A series of disasters, including the eruption of Mount Yaanek, led to political and economic dependence on Benacia, while the unification efforts between Shireroth and Machiavellia led the Kaiser in Shirekeep to dream of a united Benacian empire that stretched from Gallica to Vanaheim. The Hyperboreans bowed to pressure from Shirekeep and entered into a weak political union with Shireroth. Further disasters, including the cataclysmic Mount Yaanek eruption of S'3234 [A.N. 1335], weakened the government still further, and adventurers and mercenaries from various lands began trying to "colonize" Hyperborea. The native government, worried that it would be unable to deal with these incursions, eventually petitioned the Kaiser for annexation, which was granted.

"The Shirerithian delegation to Thulel was led by Prince Paul Raynor (Prince here should not be interpreted as the son of a Kaiser, but rather as a title given to very high-ranking nobles with substantial Imperial blood; this Prince was Duke of Brookshire and also the head of the House of Raynor at the time; the Kaiser, Ari 0, was only distantly related). Raynor stayed in Hyperborea for eight months, negotiating with the Council, expelling foreign mercenaries, and setting up the apparatus of Shirerithian government. While there, against the wishes of his family he married a Hyperborean girl. The Book of the Dolphin King gives her name as Sora (Kadhamic Soran), but the Book of the Benacian Conquest gives it as Sairia (Kadhamic Sirin). To confuse matters further, Meigi Arision lists it as Aira (Kadhamic Yarin) and cites no source for the discrepancy. I will be primarily drawing from the BDK and using Sora.

"Although women were essentially equal to men during this period, and many women had high positions in politics and even in the military struggle against foreign mercenaries, Sora was not one of them. In fact, we have almost no record of any activities of Sora whatsoever. Arision said that she was so quiet that many people who knew her only distantly gained the impression that she was mute, although this was absolutely untrue. She was short and, by all accounts, neither unusually ugly nor unusually pretty. At the age of nineteen, when she met Prince Paul, she was a minor bureaucrat in the Elithian religious hierarchy in Kalen, but did not have any strong religious convictions. The few accounts of her that survive suggest she had few close friends and few interests. Our only clue to her character was a passage from the BtBC claiming that she kept a small picture of Kaya Kalirion near her bed. Arision claims, with characteristic flair, that she was distantly descended from Kaya; if she believed that, it may have greatly affected the future Line of Kalir; however, there is no proof of this.

"Sora is one of the major mysteries of the history of the Imperial Bloodlines. Not only is it unclear why Prince Paul should have fallen in love with someone so completely unremarkable, it is unclear how he would have met her in the first place. His diplomatic duties should have restricted him to Thulel, a good three inrhonal from Kalen; their social circles should not have intersected in any case. Nevertheless, the BDK not only gives an account of their relationship, but insists that it was Paul who tried to woo a reluctant Sora, rather than the other way around. Sora herself seemed someone offput by the Shirerithian prince, and letters by her father (almost the only source we have of her feelings, as she never kept a diary or wrote anything by herself) suggest that she simply wanted to be left alone (these letters have since been lost, but a short summary of their contents by Eithi Ainainion survives in the library in Tala). The Prince stayed at least two months longer than planned in Hyperborea, possibly in order to woo her. We have no record of how he did so, but annals of the Brookshirerithian court reveal that when he arrived home in S'3258, it was with Sora as his wife. Records suggest that other members of House Raynor, who expected a marriage of convenience to an important noble, were angered by the choice, but that the Prince eventually managed to calm them down).

"Sora (who apparently took, or was given, the Brookshirerithian name Sara) lived in Brookshire as Duchess for two years. During that time, she was as quiet and devoid of impact as during her time in Hyperborea. She scandalized the court by never appearing at state dinners, refused any servants except for two young children, and many confidantes of the Duke report never having seen her. The only reason she remains of interest to Brookshirithian historians at all is her disappearance in 3260. One day, the Duke woke up and the Duchess simply was not there. Court officials immediately suspected foul play, but no ransom notes or demands sprang up, the Duke had no real enemies, and the Duchess was so apolitical that no faction could conceivably benefit from her removal. Taisi Olurion, collaborating with Brookshirerithian historian (and Raynor descendant) Aeric Raynor at John Metzler III University produced an interesting article on theories surrounding the disappearance; see Raynor, A & Olurion, T: "Sara Raynor and the Mysterious Origin of the Kalir Bloodline". I myself have confirmed that the Brookshirerithian Ducal Court is the only place south of Hyperborea where a nipil-rosebush grows, and I have no better explanation for the fact than Olurion does.

"The Duke, though fanatically devoted to his wife during their marriage, seemed only mildly upset by her disappearance (Olurion analyzes and rejects the suggestion that this was because he was responsible for it: ibid, p. 29-31). He remarried within three months, to the daughter of the Baron of Lunaris - a textbook standard match for the nobility of the era. The new Duchess got the responsibility of raising Paul and Sora's son, Kian, who was four months old at the time of his mother's disappearance. She did so only partially and distantly, leaving most of his upbringing to various governesses hired for the task. We know from Brookshire court records that he was raised as a proper Brookshirithian heir in every way. Although his guardians made no secret of his part-Hyperborean ancestry, they did not make any attempt to instruct him in Hyperborean culture, and he, for his part, did not make any attempt to learn it.

"Which makes it all the more surprising that the next we hear of him, he had moved to Thulel and taken the Hyperborean name Kalir Sethan (Common: Kal'ri Sethanion). Although some historians (especially Arision) try to link his decision to a conflict with his father or stepmother over the succession, there is no historical evidence for this, and a few letters suggest he and the Duke of Brookshire remained on good terms until the latter's death.

"The name Kalir Sethan is another mystery. The name "Kalir", meaning "polar bear", was quite presumptious; polar bears were respected as, if not quite gods, at least superior spirits, and for that reason they were rarely cited in names. Further, we know from his own letters that Kian (who somehow attained a grasp of Kadhamic equalling scholars who had studied it since kindergarten) interpeted it with the grammatically correct by somewhat unusual meaning "noble mirror"; probably a reference to myth in which the Prince of Storms gives a magic mirror to the city of Kalen in exchange for the Kalenese maiden he seized as a wife. The relationship to his parents' family history is suggestive but ultimately incomprehensible.

"Contemporary accounts of Kalir focus on his intense energy. His wife's letters describe him as "sleeping at most three hours a night, even in Deep Winter, and unable to sit still for more than a few minutes." If the chronologies from the Amethyst Annals are to be believed, he wrote his three most famous books - Hyperborean Government Within the Shirerithian State, The Kadhamic Mandate and Out of Winter from the East within a single year. His work on governance, which breathed new life into the ancient Council system by reinterpreting the rules laid down by Kadham, gained him an invitation to the Council of Nine. He became Elder the following year, the fifth-youngest Elder ever. The Amethyst Annals give an exhaustive account of his thirty-three year tenure in that position, during which he fully synchronized the Shirerithian and Hyperborean governments and rebuilt the economy practically from scratch."

Genealogy

Tuuler Kalir (1420–1512), daughter of Prince Paul of Brookshire and his wife Sora of Hyperborea, was the sister of Kaiser Los I and married Babkhan anthropologist Eskender Arsalani (1418–1499), giving birth to the Euran branch of the line (also called Ayreon-Kalirion) (note, all dates are in the Elw calendar)

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