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The Taming of the Badlands

Western Zol was originally populated with the most diverse set of beings in The Awakening. The myriad of people and chaos made for a wild expanse with little to no governing forces. The region was dubbed The Badlands, and few civilized people ventured there.

Eventually some groups gained enough power to establish themselves as coherent powers. As more and more of these groups formed, The Badlands became a feudal battleground. Small cities rose and fell constantly, dotting the area with ruins. Some groups rose high enough to gain legitimacy. It was at this point it became politically advantageous for the Elves of Gethsemane to support certain parties. They lent aid to the kingdoms of Halflings and Gnomes who would go on to conquer and found Eucaren.

Eucaren was originally on track to be part of Gethsemane, but the Elves held back, as feared something that lied in The East Mounts. This development caused the rest of The Badlands to organize in response. The diverse kingdoms of Saen and Arcadia were founded soon after. These regions fought one another for quite some time. It was clear that Eucaren was much better off with the aid of Gethsemane. Saen had little in terms of resources due to their desert environment, so the made an alliance with Arcadia. This alliance gave the two regions enough capacity to take Eucaren from Gethsemane.

There was a long time of disagreement, but a halfling politician and scholar named Perrial Galanor spent much time writing and speaking to the populations of the three kingdoms. She unified them under their shared history of The Badlands, and sought for separation from the Dwarves and Elves of Gethsemane due to the their dangerous wars with Kapesh. The kingdom was named Laenwalde, the gnomish word for perseverance.

Perrial Galanor worked closely with the leaders of Eucaren, Saen and Arcadia. They were (respectively) Elrose Virrand a halfling woman, Tyran Urla a half elven man, and Fievar Cardanax a human man. These rulers wrote laws, trade agreements, and policies that would unify the three kingdoms.

Amongst this unification effort, an institution was formed in the city of Ryze. The University was made to be an organization that would explore, document, and teach The Wills of Zol. These efforts would help bind the people of The Badlands with knowledge and the tools of Magic. Their mission was directly in line with the efforts of Perrial Galanor, the groups worked together because of this.

While in the process of determining how the three would share rulership over Laenwalde, a very high ranking nobleman of human descent entered the political scene. His name was Resh Tatelak. He was a kind hearted and charismatic man who had served in the military during the unification efforts under his brother who was the leader of the Arcadian Military. His reputation, bloodline and disposition made him the ideal king.

The three leaders along with their advisors eventually decided on an agreement where Resh would be installed as king, and they would bend the knee only to him and remain as the installed rulers of their respective regions.

Laenwalde was founded in the year of 3201 and had three years of glory. The vast majority of its people respected the new rule and the cities profited greatly due to new trade routes and lowered military costs. Many loved King Tatelak and he was seen as the ideal all across Zol. His advisory council served loyally, now staffed with the best rulers of the regions and the most educated members of The University.

Sadly this did not last long. Elrose Virrand was killed by a jealous lover, Tyran Urla fell ill with a mysterious sickness that made him unable to conduct much of his work and reduced his lifespan, and The King himself was accidentally killed breaking up a fight between drunk city guards. This threw Laenwalde into confusion. The people of the three kingdoms quickly grew anxious and unrest was seen in all classes of people.

The region was stuck in a halfcocked state, and quickly shifted into chaos. King Resh Tatelak had no succession plan. The unity so many had worked for was on the verge of being lost for good, then Resh Tatelak’s brother, Radavar Tatelak, next in line to the throne and leader of the King’s army took the region by force despite his relatively legitimate claim.

Radavar was by no means a politician, but was an excellent military leader. Once the kingdoms had their chaos quelled, Radavar took the crown as king of Laenwalde. He implemented his own version of what was to be his brothers rule, but in a manner that some would argue benefitted him a little too well. He greatly dampened the influence of his brothers advisors and had many done away with. This made for the largest kingdom in all of Zol, under a rule of one specific man.

Radavar’s hostile takeover lasted for a few generations (103 years to be exact). His descendants were not nearly as gifted has him in military strategy. Civil war began and the Tatelak Bloodline lost the crown.

Many many generations of political and military infighting occurred in Laenwalde. The kingdom was barely held together at the seams. There were times where alliances of cities broke off, only to later return. The only reason it remained mostly unified to this day as Laenwalde was the same reason it was originally founded: the advisory councils.

There were 8 major changes that occurred in Laenwalde’s rule from 3201 to 3812:

Laenwalde’s courts and battlefields were an off-and-on, high-stakes game that came to an abrupt and grim end when The Castle of Bodies attacked Audran in the year 3812.

When the attack occurred, the Falava Bloodline was killed in its entirety. While gruesome, the attack pushed Laenwalde to unify against a greater threat. When the kingdom was left to recover from its wounds an The Golden Council was reformed and took the burden of rulership. This was only until a descendant of Resh Tatelak himself was discovered in the city of Woogis. His name was Byrell Tatelak. King Tatelak II was installed in the year 4259 and the floating bastion of Heliodor was constructed in the year of 4262.

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