The Champions of the Free
The champions of the free though they do not all
call themselves that are a rather recent phenomena. The Guardian saw no
need for such an individual for long ages of the world relying on its
priesthood to spread its faith and further its aims.
This all changed when a group of adventures
opened the long sealed prison of the Overlord
in Pel Brolenon and the nascent refugee kingdom of Pel Brolenon went for one
where the guardians following was strong amongst those who had fled the then
still on going Brandobian civil war and come to reject absolute authority and
its ability to lead autocrats into such actions as lead to the repression of
the demihumans of Brandobia and the subsequent civil war., to one where the
faith of the free was anathema to the state and the followers hunted people.
This did not happen quite over night but it did very quickly and the resistance
to the Overlord’s coup was limited in its effectiveness and very fragmented.
Such resistance that lasted beyond the first few weeks coalesced around a
former Brandobian knight of one of the orders of Knights the Founders creation,
who had become disillusioned by the war of brother against brother and had
abandoned the fight when his own order turned against him as his grandfather
was a half elf and in the xenophobia of the height of the war he was labeled as
tainted and considered a potential traitor. He lost his faith and fled the
madness over the mountains to Pel Brolenon
The Champion who
had returned to his family occupation of farming at the time of the Overlords
coup felt obliged to take up arms again leading his friends and neighbours in
the fight. Quickly reduced to little more than bandits they held on and in due
course joined up with a small band lead by a priest of the free who aided the
knight and who in due course oversaw his conversion to the faith of the free.
Shortly there after when the guardian was looking for a figurehead it chose
him.
He maintained
the insurrection for nearly ten years there after and whilst it was not
successful it remained a considerable nuisance to the theocracy, but in the end
it was betrayed and the first champion died conducting on last solo charge into
the overlords forces hopping to buy time for the non combatants in his
following to make it over the high passes into Kalamar.
The Guardian
considered the idea a success and chose a second champion a mine slave in the
infamous silver mines of Pel Brolenon which are responsible for financing its
fleet and for bankrolling the Overlords plots through out Telene. The revolt
she lead denied the theocracy the revenue form them for nearly a year, but such
a threat drew the full force of the theocracy against it and the rebel where
drawn into open battle and slaughtered to the last one. The Theocrat had the
heads of the slain rebels magically preserved and they are still to be seen
along the roads to the principle silver mines. The next champion was a
Kalamarian ranger who led raids against the slave pens and helped the escaped
slaves escape to the relative safety of Kalamar to the east. Again this proved
nothing more than an irritant as the ranger was never able to free enough
slaves to make a difference and in the end his luck ran out. The guardian
however thought the practice worth continuing and the next champion a
Kalamarian noble lady took the rather moribund at the time brotherhood of the broken
chain and reinvigorated it she was the first champion to die in her bed not at
the hands of her enemies who she evaded and lead round in circles with consummate
ease.
The next another
Ranger this time from Mendarn tried to raid into Pol Brolenon form the west
over the difficult high mountain passes but died when it became apparent that
the Pel Brolenonese now knew every single pass in and out of Pel Brolenon no
matter how difficult to cross and had taken steps to make sure that all where
watched toughly so no escaped slaves could leak out that way. The next was a reformed Pirate who released
several ship loads of slaves on their way across the straights of Svimohzia in
both directions but he came to his end ironically when he was landing slaves he
had rescued on the coast off Kalamar and the Kalamarian navy took him for a
slaver, raiding the coast of southern Kalamar.
At some point
around three or perhaps four champions ago the Guardian moved its choice of
champion form the central south in and around Kalamar and its subject kingdoms
or southern Brandobia to the north east
Both Violet and
her two immediate predecessors are from this area where the fringes of the
Kalamarian Empire and now its successor states, the young kingdoms rub up
against the cities of the Reanaara bay and the free fhokki clans along the
Mountains of the east.
The first was a
part Fhokki ranger who first moved to protect the scattered mountain
communities from raiding bandits and slavers and then to recover his people
from captivity and take them west to form a kingdom of the free in the wilds
north of Cosdol where under the influence of the elves slavery was considerably
less prominent. He was the one who first discovered the Hidden Dell and the
High pass over the Laggosa Mountains. The kingdom flourished for a time but was
finally over run by a strange human tribe known as the Aessi and its chief
defender the champion slain. The region of the kingdom is now over run by
hostile humanoids as well as being party still held by the Aessi
The Champion
immediately previous to Violet was a wizard from this area though he travelled
far in the pursuit of first his art and latter the cause of the Guardian ending
up settling in the Hidden Dell, the Holdfast was in the first place his
stronghold where he also founded a community for high value and very well known
escaped slaves. He espoused both the
political cause of emancipation particularly in Kalamar where chattel slavery
had been widespread since its expansion and where its economy and agriculture
rested on large slave estates owned by absentee noble landlords. Under the
current this practice was on the rise at the expense of free farmers and the
more traditional serf farmers who whilst not free had some rights in law.
He also espoused
the breaking of the slave market at first using his families considerable
wealth and latter once he had developed the spell false gold coin which he
would use to buy up salves at every opportunity and take them beyond the rule
of the oppressor as he would have put it and allow them to make a life for
themselves. In the end the agents of the Coin lord enraged at this practice
hunted him down, whilst the agents of the overlord sat back and watched.
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