History
None know what came before the skies, the stones, the seas, and the sun; save the stars, but in the most ancient of remembered times great tribes of men and women populated the wild lands of Britannia. These people, our distant ancestors, struggled with the goblins, and the orcs, and the other fell creatures for the best of the places. Our forebears triumphed, and their foes were driven into the mountains, the caverns, and the other dark places. Long aeons passed as the tribes cleared the lands, built their berms, and learned greater lore and craft. Their chieftains exercised their might against each other and some become lords; their wisefolk taught each other how to speak with the winds, the stones, and the honoured dead. The lords and the wise sometimes joined their powers and sometimes they fought, but new places and a new, and greater, people grew from the fruits of their deeds. With their art and strength these people made a land out of whole cloth with a common tongue and so the seeds of our Britannia were sown.
Many years marched by, as one lord and then another, then a priest of the old powers, then a chanter of mageries, came to the fore. None of these could draw the strings of our people together and so their craft and their will went for naught until the coming of the one named Mondain. Mondain is the first name in the tale of our people, and rightly, for his art was great and his power most mighty. Rising in the isles of east, Mondain turned his will against his fellow lorists and while one in ten could raise their eyes to him once, and one in a hundred twice, none could a third time. So Mondain, with the brightest art-jewels of our predecessors in his hands gave commands to the skies, the stones, the seas, and the sun and with his great force he wrought what none else had – one kingdom in Britannia. Mondain’s reign was not to be though, and so we hear the second name of our history, Minax.
Minax was the student of fearsome Mondain, his wife, his daughter, and his apprentice all at once say some, but we know her best as his rival. Minax, it is said, came to loathe the dream of Mondain - one king, one kingdom; now and forever – and so she, with her own great store of skill and cunning, whispered her words to the skies, the stones, the seas, and the sun and turned them against Mondain at his moment of greatest need. One such as great Mondain was not so swiftly undone, and with his wrath like a great fire in him he sought to exile his betraying lover from existence itself. The two warred, and the signs of their warring made the people tremble – all but one.
The one, whose name would be the third if was his will, was said to have been the one who had counselled Minax to weave her deceits over her teacher, it was he who did not quail as they fought, and it was he who with art-steel of his own making ended those great names and made our history what it is today. He, who took up Mondain’s terrible crown of power and then broke it upon the edge of his sword, he who chose a crown of mortal bronze instead, he who was our first – and our last – King.
from ‘The Birth of Our History’ by Shalineth the Lorist
The history of Britannia is largely defined by the coronation of the King. The figure of the King is semi-mythical and much of the truth of his origins is obscured, partly by the passage of time and partly by the King’s own deliberate actions. Reacting against the threat of unending magical tyranny the hero who become the King was committed to preventing the perpetuation of his own form of tyranny and, as such, made no provision to maintain a dynasty and asked that his name and his image not be used or remembered by anyone instead asking them to value the principles of his rule and not the ruler instead. Out of profound respect for the King, no Britannian uses his name, and few but the most diligent of scholars are even able to recall it – should they ever be inclined to do so. Instead of statues or plaques, the King’s Reign is remembered in the common cultural context he established, the Great Societies he patronised, and the philosophical system of right action he both endorsed and lived by. In the almost four centuries since the King’s death the Great Societies have undergone some changes, but have continued to provide a stabilising influence on Britannian society. Despite the long years, and some not insignificant changes, Britannia has yet to experience any major wars, famines, or natural disasters since the death of King.