Hywych Star System

Hywych Star System

Major Holdings – General Information

History

Ah, Hywych… a name that tastes of old iron and river silt, carrying with it the scent of burned halls and incense from a dozen temples. I have walked its orbital rings when they were still green with Galan gardens, and I have seen its pontiffs crowned under the shadow of war-banners. Few star systems in the Drucos Nebula have been so often conquered, and fewer still have kept such a proud, bitter heart.

The first settlers were Galan folk of the 12th Fleet of Mann, hardy and full of purpose, who took root there in the young days of our expansion into the Nebula. But their tenure was not long or at least well recorded. In 25,366 AA, the Feyan Star Dominion spread its cloak across Hywych, and the system bent the knee to foreign law.

Centuries later, the tide shifted. In 27,342 AA, Freya the Wergh-Slayer came with steel in her hands and fire in her eyes, sweeping Hywych into her conquests. Out of those ashes rose the Star Kingdom of Hywych, founded in 27,354 AA by King King Hrothric Jordayne Smokeborn, Hrothric the Sword-Ruler, a ruler whose line would shape the system’s fate for thousands of years. Under Hrothric’s early heirs, Hywych grew to be a great power in the Dodunn Star Sector, rival to all but one other in the region, and a thorn in the side of neighbors who underestimated its will.

But strength draws blades. In 27,456 AA, the Star Kingdom of Hywych met King Cwenhild the Warlord of the Old Ways of Angul in battle. At Weorgoran, Cwenhild’s fleets shattered the Smokeborn host. The king bent the knee, not as an equal but as an Under-King, paying homage and tribute, and from then on Hywych was bound to Angul’s fate.

The centuries that followed were a dance of faith and politics. The Smokeborn under-kings granted holdsteads to the Feyan Faith in vast numbers, founding temples on worlds and asteroids alike, Smocberga, Haum, Pell, Faegwaella, and beyond. Pontiffs rose in power, weaving Hywych’s name deep into the religious map of the Drala Star Cluster. Yet this patronage often came with Angul’s shadow looming large, kings of Angul giving and taking at their whim, reminding Hywych who held the greater crown.

When Uhtred the Great came to the throne of Angul, Hywych marched with him in his wars, against Gewiss, against Teyrnllwg and Honthy, against the Feyan-Galan in its own star system at Faegwaella. The Smokeborn were trusted enough to hold the title Lord Warden of the Gewiss Star March, guardians of a border that saw more than its share of blood. But trust in Angul’s court was never a safe thing, fortunes rose and fell with each change of crown.

By 30,081 AA, Hywych’s temples themselves came under the hammer, when Cynhild the Wolf of Angul stripped lands from the Faith on Smocberga, only to sell them back for a ransom of gold, jewels, and fine borca that would make even a Skane warlord grin. And when the Great Savage Crusade reached into the heart of Angul’s realms, Hywych did not escape. In 30,093 AA, Gewiss banners flew over its worlds, and by 30,148 AA the great houses of Tribe Jordayne fled their ancestral halls, scattering into exile in the Setan Star Sector.

What came after was quieter, but never truly peace. Lords of Angul and the Vellaun Star Sector claimed the system, granting holdsteads as rewards to their allies, until Hywych’s once-proud crown was nothing more than a ornament passed from one Angul hand to another. Yet I suspect, no, I know, the Smokeborn name is not gone from Hywych’s heart. There are still those who whisper their oaths in shadowed halls, waiting for a day when their banners might fly free again.