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Early History

The Nyrdi and Aerdi

Though modern Nyrond has existed for fewer than 300 years, the cultural roots of the nation span nearly a millennia. The lands east of the Nyr were held by civilized Flan and Ur-Flan alike, until the arrival of the Oeridian's. The Oeridians settling the area were known generally as the Nyrdi, and they had many small kingdoms warring with each other and rarely being unified, until the threat of the Aerdi Oeridian invasion. Of these kings, the strongest was Nehron, who managed to bring together the other Nyrdi Kings Bastrayne, Braeton, Huldane, Korenn and Orberend. Unfortunately, their unification was too late, and they were conquered at the Battle of a Fortnight's Length in -109 CY. Thereafter the combined Nyrdi and Aerdy kingdoms would be known as the "Great Kingdom".

The Nyrdi strategic importance to the Great Kingdom did little to encourage just treatment at the hands of the Aerdi. The conquering Aerdi kings divided the Nyrdi lands, subjugating and assimilated the different Nyrdi houses into their own houses Rax and Cranden. Half of the Nyrdi lands were given to the Crandens, later to become Almor, and the larger half of the Nyrdi lands were given to the Aerdi House of Rax, later to become known simply as Nyrond.

Though not as vile or ruthless as some of their counterparts to the east, the Rax nobles exhibited insufferable arrogance. When eventually that house gained the Malachite Throne in Rauxes, Nyrond became ever more important to the affairs of the overking.

Increased attention meant higher taxes and greater headaches for the local landholders. When Ferrond rebelled in 254, the Overking needed soldiers to fuel violent skirmishes on the borderlands north of the Nyr Dyv. He drew from the armies of Nyrond with little concern for the ultimate futility of their charge. Thousands of Nyrond's men and women fell in those conflicts. Perhaps due to incompetence from Rauxes, or perhaps because Nyrond offered a convenient scapegoat onto which the overkings could heap their frustrations regarding the loss of Furyondy, life in Nyrond was far from ideal.

... Nyrond claims independence

For a full century, the nobles of Nyrond's junior branch looked upon the affairs of their Rax cousins with open contempt. Finally, in 356 CY, bickering between the Aerdi and Nyrdi nobles exploded into violent political conflict; the local lords declared Nyrond free of the Overking's rule and named one of their own number, the wily Medven I, King of Nyrond. Every Nyrond lord sponsored troops to an enormous gathering on the nation's eastern border. All watched the Flinty Hills and Harp River, expecting the banners of the Overking behind every hillock.

History does not speculate on whether the Suel barbarians who then surged south through the Bone March and into North Province did so at the behest of Nyrond silver or by their own estimation of Aerdy's critical situation. Regardless, they presented the sitting overking with a difficult option: crush the rebellion in Nyrond or lose the whole of North Province.

... the Grand Empire of Nyrond

Aerdy's failure to significantly oppose Nyrond's independence left the fledgling nation with a huge army and great ambition. Within three years, the famed Nyrond cavalry had marched into and annexed the newly-formed Theocracy of the Pale, burning Wintershiven to the ground. A later foray into the County of Urnst met with equal (if less violent) success, and further expansion met resistance only at the Nesser River, where galleys flying the flag of the Duke of Urnst halted Nyrond's progress.

The new "Grand Empire of Nyrond" watched, bemusedly, at first, as Aerdy's House of Rax degenerated. The failure to crush separatist movements in Ferrond and Nyrond had castrated the Rax overkings, who now seemed to exist only to appease the increasingly independent palatine states of Medegia, North Province, Bone March, and Ahlissa. The Turmoil Between Crowns, initiated in 437 with the assassination of Overking Nalif, however, changed bemusement to horror. Within nine years, the Malachite Throne had fallen to the debased House of Naelax. With chaos and madness ruling from Rauxes, the king of Nyrond, Dunstan I, knew that no enemy of Aerdy would ever be safe again. Nyrond, he noted, needed allies, and it needed them quickly.

... the Iron League

Though he could not pledge public support due to the threat of retaliatory strikes from Ivid I's Northern Army, amassed near Innspa, Dunstan I attended the conference in Chathold that resulted in the formation of the Iron League. There, he privately assured the new partners that any enemy of the League was also an enemy of Nyrond. Dunstan made good on that pledge, sending weapons and warships (though no troops) to aid besieged Irongate at the Battle of a Thousand Banners, the following year.

By 450 CY, Aerdy had survived two distinct civil wars. Ivid and his court had defeated their enemies in the aristocracy, and had entrenched themselves in the empire's political machine. With a stabilized foe, Dunstan realized in his old age that he still needed willing allies, should Aerdy take the offensive. In Harvester, he called the Great Council of Rel Mord. Delegates from every Nyrond principality and subject state attended, as did representatives from Almor, the Iron League, the Duchy of Urnst, and even the Free City of Greyhawk. After a month and a half of negotiation, Dunstan the Crafty withdrew Nyrond's troops from the Pale and the County of Urnst, and re-aligned the internal borders of his subject lands. Furthermore, he publicly threw his considerable support behind the Iron League, and rebuked the Great Kingdom of Aerdy as a "corpulent re-animated corpse, spreading contagion and sorrow to all that it touches."

Thereafter, Nyrond entered a period of supremacy. Castle-building programs dotted the central plains with fortifications, cities expanded, and commerce boomed. The nation gained a reputation for powerful mages and skillful artisans. As evil grew in the east, Nyrond became more and more a reflection of the good folk of the eastern Flanaess.

... the Golden League

Few years went by in which the navies of Nyrond and the Great Kingdom did not clash in Relmor Bay. However, in 579 CY, reacting to increased militarism on behalf of Ivid and, particularly, Herzog Chelor of South Province, Nyrond, Almor, and the Iron League banded together to form "The Golden League," a military union that presented a declaration of war against the Great Kingdom in late Needfest. Not to be outdone, Aerdy followed up with its own decree, stating that Rel Mord would fall within the year, and that the treacherous King Archbold III would be made to pay for the sins of his rebellious ancestors. For all the bravado, little more than two years of half-hearted skirmishes came of the affair. Both nations were spent financially and emotionally.

... the Greyhawk Wars

By 583, however, war would return to haunt Nyrond. Confident that a personal victory over untrained barbarians would do much to bolster his flagging popularity in Nyrond's northern regions, Archbold led a huge army through the Nutherwood, hoping to strike a telling blow against the 'Fists inhabiting Tenh. Fighting lasted for an entire day. The barbarians fell back to more heavily fortified lands, but the cost to Nyrond was great. More than 3,000 soldiers fell before nightfall, and Archbold himself suffered grievous wounds, not least of which to his pride. Although he had gambled Nyrond's armies against the hordes of Sevvord Redbeard and won, it did not seem like a victory.

Months later, as Ivid's Northern Army converged on Innspa and Almor seemed certain to fall before the might of the Glorioles regiments, Archbold called upon his lords to provide him with an army never before seen in Nyrond's long history. Crops would wither in the fields, bandits would be free to prey upon the roadways; to Archbold, the very survival of Nyrond was at stake. As 583 came to a close, the king met with representatives of Almor, Onnwal, Idee, Sunndi, the Theocracy of the Pale, the County of Urnst, and Irongate in Oldred. There, all but the Pale signed the Eastern Pact of Alliance, a treaty meant to ensure the containment of Ivid's armies.

The Scarlet Brotherhood saw to the virtual destruction of Idee and Onnwal. Irongate and Sunndi, geographically isolated and deeply enmeshed in their own struggles with the Scarlet Sign, were impotent to back up their promises of aid. Commandant Osson of Almor lead a bold strike deep into the Great Kingdom. The Great Kingdom's armies retaliated, and Almor burned like dry wood following the Commandant's eventual defeat at the end of 584CY. After marching through Almor the Great Kingdom's armies turned towards Nyrond, lead by the animus Duke Szeffrin. Nyrond could count only on aid from the Urnst States to protect it against Ivid's mad bid for revenge.

Nyrond lost nearly 70,000 soldiers in the Greyhawk Wars. Though her armies held off the Great Kingdom's siege, they did so at terrible cost. Archbold had expended the nation's entire treasury, and had depleted much of his family's wealth. Hideously in debt to the Urnst States, the king faced a future of ruined fields and horrible food shortages. Nearly half of his holdings were in tax rebellions. Many of the nation's best mages, craftsmen, and nobles fled Nyrond for easier lives to the west. Whether Nyrond would fall was never an issue. The question was simply that of timing.

... Regicide

Remarkably, the issue of Nyrond's collapse would be decided by Archbold's own son, the young Prince Sewarndt. In the fall of 585 CY, King Archbold appeared to suffer a stroke. Clerics from around the land convened in Rel Mord, finally determining that he had been poisoned. Within hours of the discovery, Prince Sewarndt and a group of military officers attempted to seize the throne. Only the intervention of the capital's entire Heironean clergy saved the crown and the king. By the time Archbold's older son, Crown Prince Lynwerd, could lead an army to his father's side, Sewarndt and a handful of his cohorts had vanished into the Nyrond countryside.

Sewarndt's treachery shattered whatever resolve Archbold had managed to cling to during the difficult war years. A wholly broken man, he abdicated in favor of Crown Prince Lynwerd in Fireseek, 586 CY.

... King Lynwerd

In his first year on the throne, Lynwerd seized the northern half of Almor, re-aligned the command structure of his armies, and reduced taxes to prewar levels. While the latter did much to boost the morale of his lords, it had done nothing to pull Nyrond from the bitter clutches of poverty.

Since the wars end, King Lynwerd has spent a great deal of time and effort into rebuilding the kingdom. He has reorganized the political and royal hierarchy of the kingdom. He has also taken steps to replace less effect nobles with people who can do the job. Another step taken to rebuild Nyrond was to empower the clergy of Zilchus to rebuild trade in the Kingdom. Finally, road building and other infrastructure improvements have received top priority in these post wars years.

One of the most important changes in the nobility of Nyrond occurred at Woodwych. The former Baron of Woodwych had over harvested the Celadon forest. This did not sit well with the Elves and Rangers that call the forest home. The problem had almost broken out in all out war but the King installed a new Baroness, Verin Talnith a powerful southern noble. She immediately ordered a handful of lesser nobles exiled and sacked most of the former Baronial Guard, a body that had become unacceptably corrupt.

The old Prelacy of Almor, which was overrun by the Overking's army and then freed by Nyrond, was broken up and the western half became a protectorate of Nyrond. Since most of the population of Almor fled, was enslaved or killed the King has undertaken efforts to repopulate the once productive lands in hopes of stimulating the Nyrond economy.

A terrible tragedy struck Lynwerd and his kingdom in 589 CY. A long-planned marriage between King Lynwerd and Lady Xenia Sallavarian, a distant cousin of both the Circle of Eight member Jallarzi and Duke Karll of Urnst, was scheduled to take place during Richfest of that year. In Wealsun, Lady Xenia was touring Rel Mord on foot when she collapsed of heatstroke. She has not been seen since, and many suspect the worst, detecting a new hardness in their king.

In 590 CY, with starvation commonplace and sedition the language of the people, Lynwerd initiated a number of radical policy shifts designed to improve the well-being of the country. He first trimmed the size of his court, releasing from service some 397 "functionaries," three standing chamber orchestras, a 30-boy choir, several dozen clerics, eighteen archivists, and a well-known and extremely popular talking bird from the Amedio Jungle. A general restructuring of Nyrond's internal political boundaries followed, and it seems as though the Reformer King has only just begun to heal his wounded nation.

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