Atrebas Star System

Atrebas Star System

Major Holdings – General Information

History

The Chronicle of Atrebas
By Witch Lord Bertwin Gisking Bearspear

Atrebas has ever been a world of ashes and crowns, where kingdoms rise swiftly, only to be ground beneath the boots of greater powers. When the Galan of the Twelfth Fleet first drove their holds into its soil, they could not have foreseen the storms that would come. Nor did the Feyans, when their dominion spread across the Drucos Nebula, guess that this quiet star would one day become a hearth for both faith and rebellion.

In the year 27,113 AA, the Lightning King, Humfrey of Gaint, was granted Atrebas as part of his bargains with Guinevere the Supreme Lord. I have read the charters myself in the dust-chambers of Peven. They are written in such grand words that one would think Humfrey gained not a minor star but all of Drala itself. Yet Humfrey’s boast was brief, and scarcely a generation later, his gift was stripped away in fire.

For in 27,182 AA came Ella the Overlord, Stoneborn of Haesta. She advanced with banners dark and bright, and her fleets descended upon Cerota, the jewel-world of Atrebas. They say not a soul was left alive when her engines burned the last fortress there, though such tales are often sharpened by poets’ tongues. Still, I do not doubt the slaughter was great. I have stood upon Cerota’s ruins myself, and the stones yet whisper of fire. When Ella was crowned High King a year later, her overlordship was forged in that very blood.

But it was not Ella who would hold Atrebas. In the long years that followed, the beaten remnants of Clan Herceg Hound found refuge there. Houndsbane, Juthwara Umbra Ravenborn, had hounded them to the edge of ruin, and so they fled to Atrebas. In time, their warlord was crowned king in 27,200 AA, and so rose the Star Kingdom of Atrebas. Minor though it was, the crown of the Houndborn burned fiercely.

Their line endured centuries, though with the usual bloodletting of kingship. Some ruled as warriors, others as stewards of the Faith. By 27,532 AA, a great Feyan temple was raised within the system, and a generation later King Baldwin the Bold of Angul himself confirmed the charters of that holy house. The Houndborn styled themselves pious then, though I have seen their ledgers, gold weighed heavier in their scales than prayer.

When Uhtred the Great rose in 27,741 AA, Atrebas bent knee to him, as did Regnen. Some called that the end of its sovereignty. Others, more shrewdly, said that Atrebas had never been sovereign at all, merely a dog kept by larger lords.

The end came, as it so often does, at the hands of Gewiss. By 30,050 AA, Astrid the Wide Ruler and her daughter Hildred broke the Houndborn crown, and Atrebas fell. The Houndborn were not slain, no, they bent the knee, becoming banner-lords under Gewiss’ wide shadow.

Yet Atrebas did not fade into obscurity. In Osgar the Great’s time, the system was bound anew by Greatholds. Ghostburn on Godel, Magemaw on Gylde, and mighty Shadowfen upon Steyn in neighboring Haesta. These became the seats of Eadwynn Umbra Wyvernborn, the Wyvern Crown. A curious thing, Osgar himself denied her the tomb of her grandmother, Hildred, entombed far away on Belgar. Even High Kings are not above pettiness.

The Skane, of course, were never far. In 30,187 AA, they swept upon Atrebas, thinking it weak, but were driven back with slaughter. I recall that raid well, for one of their captured warships was brought to Regnen where I dwelt at the time. Its crew spat curses in their dying tongue, yet their eyes told only of fear. But not all raids were so easily repulsed. By 30,398 AA, Harwyn Forkbeard and his lords descended with flame, and four years later, Warlord Kunibert of Hofnarhofn ravished the system once more. Even now, folk of Atrebas curse his name in their oaths.

The worlds of Atrebas each bear their scars. Godel, one of the first havens of the Furse who fled the Wergh, still shelters its shadowed hold. Gylde, with its mint and hoard, was once a treasure-house, though I have seen its vaults echo hollow. And Suthringa, the Starhold raised upon the bones of an old Feyan station, yet stands by Osgar’s will and Lord Del Stonemane’s hand, a bastion against the Skane tide.

So it is with Atrebas, a star forever contested, forever burning, forever bleeding. Kingdoms rise there, but never for long. And yet the Houndborn endure, as stubborn as the beasts they claim as sigil. Perhaps that is Atrebas’ true lesson: not glory, not faith, not conquest, but endurance, no matter how many times the world is broken.