Carnbrathan Star System

Carnbrathan Star System

Major Holdings – General Information

History

Carnbrathan, the Star of the Gate

As set down by Witch Lord Bertwin Gisking Bearspear, for Beorn.

Carnbrathan lies at the edge of the Dungar Sector, a gate between worlds. The old Feyan Star-Gate Network ran through her skies, carrying voyagers to Isca beyond, and so Carnbrathan became a crossroads, a prize never left alone.

The first halls there were Galan halls. In the long ages after the Thirteen Fleets of Mann scattered, the peoples of the Twelfth, those we call the Galan, made their homes on Carnbrathan. Traces of their earliest settlements still sleep beneath the stone, older than any archive of the Feyan Star Dominion or Star Commonwealth.

Starmetal was found in the outlying systems. Not as rich nor as pure as Isca’s, yet enough to make kings greedy and miners dead. The Feyan Star Dominion came as it did to all the Drala Cluster, and Carnbrathan bent the knee. Yet under Feyan law, the Galan kept their ways as best they could, holding to their tongue, their customs, their pride.

When the Feyans withdrew their garrisons, Carnbrathan rose anew. The lords of House Eown Caerborn seized a crown there, raising a minor star-kingdom in the void left behind. They fought raids from their kin and the Glessum Furse who in time turned into the Dralan Furse, stubborn and unbroken. In time, they bound themselves to Isca, and together forged the Star Kingdom of Dungar, standing against the swelling might of Gewiss.

In 27,428 AA, the saga of Carnbrathan entered the songs of war. Freya the Wandering Wyvern, leaving her kin in Bearroc, sought glory in Dungar’s troubled border. That same year, King Caerau Cadoc Bogborn of Dungar, known as Caerau the Foe of Durot, gathered lords and Star-Bands to strike into Gewissan space, threatening Belgar itself.

Freya, with Gunnfrith the Warrior and other lords, rose to bar him in the name of King Gunnhild the Grey Wyvern of Gewiss. The fleets clashed at Camchroith, where the Feyan Starhold loomed over the Carnbrathan star system. The battle was ruinous, 3,069 Star-Bands of Dungar were destroyed, and Caerau was broken.

For her valor, Freya was granted holdings and titles on Gewiss’s border between Dungar and Durot. In time, she wed a son of Caerau himself, though his name escapes me, and from that union was born Augvald Umbra Wyvernborn, whose blood carried both Wyvern and Bog. Thus even in defeat, Dungar bound itself to Gewiss by marriage, as often happens when swords fail to keep kingdoms apart.

By 27,610 AA, Gewiss had turned victory into dominion. King Merrick the Lawgiver granted the Feyan Faith holdsteads upon Carnbrathan, seating a Pontiff of Carnbrathan. From that day the winged statues returned to Carnbrathan, standing sentinel, their temples rising beside Galan halls and temples which had fallen into ruin.

The Great Savage Crusade did not spare Carnbrathan. For a time, the system fell into Skane hands. Legends tell that the invaders brought their lovers and camp-followers into their strongholds, only to be betrayed. Knives turned in the dark, and the defenders of Carnbrathan struck when the reavers slept. The world was reclaimed, and the tale is told still in Carnbrathan’s mead-halls, though I cannot swear where truth ends and song begins.

In 30,156 AA, Carnbrathan’s banners advanced to one of the great reckonings of our age. King Uarraig Cadoc Bogborn of Kynancear, King xxxxx Eown Caerborn of Carnbrathan, King xxxxx Cadoc Boghowl of Mawgansan, and many lords brought 808 Star-Bands and thirteen Dungar Outcast Knights to the minor star system of Itcis. There they joined System-lord Viggo Medgar Dreadborn of Isca, System-lord Sigebehrt Undolfen Cliffborn of Nansarnek, Ermingard the Loyal, and 400 star-fleets more. Even so, they were outnumbered by King Ragnar the Raven Blade, with System-lord Alfhildr Asher Axewolf of Scir, King Alkmund Wahner Seaborn of Morigena, and a host of 1,800.

The Battle of Itcis was fought in that year. Against the greater force, the loyalist host, 1,221 fleets in all, shattered Ragnar’s might. Ragnar fell, and the system-lords of Carnbrathan and Mawgansan stood among the victors. Itcis was a graveyard of ships, but it was also a turning point in the Savage Crusade.

Yet Carnbrathan was not done with war. In 30,402 AA, the Skane came again. Denied at Isca, reaver fleets fell upon Carnbrathan and seized Camchroith. The banners of Dungar were called, Sector-lord Sigfast Ulric Geat Moonborn of Dungar, Edith the Raventail, Marshal Elwyn Geat Moondawn, Thane Dagnar One-Eye, Thane Morrighan Larnach Palfreyborn, and many more gathered the Sector Guard and their lords.

Over Carnbrathan the fleets met, and in the battle that followed, the reavers were broken. Their fleets fled the system, and Carnbrathan stood free again.

So you see, Beorn, Carnbrathan has ever been a threshold. First a gate of the Galan, then a fortress of the Feyans, then a crown for House Caerborn. Gewiss and Dungar both claimed her, Skane plundered her, and the Faith raised temples upon her.

She is not as rich as Isca in ore, yet her Starmetal has slain kings, her gate has drawn invaders, and her halls have stood against more banners than most realms could endure. When you next hear her name, remember: Carnbrathan is a place where roads cross and swords clash, and such worlds do not rest easily.