Durot Star Sector

Durot Star Sector

Major Star Systems

History

Of Durot, the Last Kingdom

From the records and reflections of Witch Lord Bertwin Gisking Bearspear, set down in the days of King Oswald the Ill-Advised.

The Durot Star Sector, once a mere whisper among the stars, came to cradle the heart of a kingdom that would not die.

In the age of ruin, when the Glessum Star Cluster fell to the devouring madness of the Wergh, there came a woman, a minor noble by blood, a conqueror by fate, Aethelflaed Umbra Wyvernborn, who became known to history as Aethelflaed the Conqueror. Her line traced back to the old and forgotten Star Kingdom of Gewiss, whose ashes now lie scattered among the cursed Glessum Ruins. But it was not memory that she carried with her, it was flame.

With her children and a fleet of 262 to 390 Star-Fleets, a staggering 2,358 to 3,510 warships, she crossed Morimarusa nebula into the Suth star cluster, where she witnessed firsthand the shattered remnants of civilizations long since destroyed, worlds still haunted, it is whispered, by the Wergh’s foul echo. Few dwell there now, save ghosts and scavengers, even twenty thousand years before the fall of Glessum, twenty-three thousand years now.

She pressed on.

Arriving in Drala, Aethelflaed struck with fury and purpose, breaking the power of several prominent Feyan-Galan lords and kings. Her victories were swift, her banner unmistakable. She was crowned King, for she would be sovereign in name and deed. In time, she seized the Belgar Star System, which would rise as the crown-jewel and capital of her nascent realm, the reforged Star Kingdom of Gewiss.

Yet greatness is seldom uninterrupted.

The kingdom’s power rose and fell like the beat of a forge-hammer. Though Gewiss would become one of the great Dralan Kingdoms, it was often eclipsed by the likes of Angul and Umber, both older and richer. Still, there were times when the Kings of Gewiss bore the mantle of High King of Drala, holding the allegiance of stars from Kynancear in the Dungar Star Sector, to the rebellious Gaint Star System itself.

It was the conquest of Gaint that marked Gewiss’s peak prior to the Great Savage Crusade. There, the Star Kingdoms of the Gaint star sector were broken, its heirs granted rule of the sector to serve as Under-Kings, a title of lesser rule, yet great ambition that allowed them to build renown and power before becoming Kings of Gewiss. Gewiss claimed the trade routes of the Suth star cluster and flirted with dominion over all Drala. But it was a fragile power. The Feyan-Galan of Dungar were banner-lords in name only, and Gaint rose in rebellion again and again, ever hungry for the crowns they had lost.

Still, no star shone brighter in the gathering dark than Gewiss.

When the Great Savage Crusade swept through Drala, felling kingdom after kingdom beneath the blades of Rothgar the Fearless’s Children, Gewiss too fell, but only briefly. The kingdom endured a single year of Skane occupation before rising again from blood and ruin under Osgar the Great.

Where others broke, Gewiss bent and bled, but never shattered.

Osgar, through strength and shrewdness, reconquered the scattered realms of Drala, and under his grandson, Osmund the Glorious, the Star Commonwealth of Drala was born. So it was that House Umbra Wyvernborn became the High Kings, not just of a kingdom, but of a civilization.

Hence, Gewiss is remembered by many names. The Old Kingdom, for it carried the memory of the Glessum, the Last Kingdom, for it endured when all others fell, and the True Kingdom, for it laid the stones upon which the Star Commonwealth now stands.

Through King’s Way, the Feyan Star-Gate Network, Gewiss connects swiftly to Dungar, and Gaint star sectors, while Belgar anchors the Combrogi Way, ensuring trade and travel flows ceaselessly to the Combrogi star cluster. Its borders brush against the Suth Star Cluster, the fabled Dralan Trade Route, where fortunes are made and broken with equal speed.

Yet now, in the reign of King Oswald the Ill-Advised, the court lies not in Belgar but on distant Lohna, in the richer Catuvella Star Sector. Some say it is a sign of wisdom, others, of betrayal. But in Durot, the pride of old Gewiss endures. They speak still of Aethelflaed the Conqueror, of Osgar the Great, of Wulfrun the Elder, Osmund the Glorious, and a dozen other renown kings and of blood shed not for conquest, but for survival.

They remember that when all others fell, Gewiss remained, and through guerilla fire and bitter war, forced a peace that turned swords into scepters. They became not just a star nation, but the Star Commonwealth, and in doing so, crowned themselves the true rulers of Drala.

Some now say Gewiss dreams again, not merely of Drala, but of the entire Drucos Nebula.

And I, old as I am, have learned not to dismiss the dreams of Gewiss.

Basic Information