Deora Star System

Deora Star System

Major Holdings – General Information

History

The Deora Star System

As Set Down by Witch Lord Bertwin Gisking Bearspear, Keeper of the Old Memory

Deora was first claimed by the Galans of the 12th Fleet of Mann, who saw in its soil a wealth of ore and in its skies a safe harbor for ships traversing the Drucos Nebula. The Feyans, ever eager for resources to fuel their star dominion, soon turned it into a place of industry. They raised the Tempestatum Starhold, a bastion of stone and steel, to guard the expanding mines and the wealth that poured from them. The Starhold still stands, though the banners that fly from its walls have changed more times than I can count.

It was on Deora’s world that Frithewald Umbra Stormpyke was born in the year 27,741 AA, the son of King Athelhild the Exiled King of Umber and Egfrid Umbra Stormfury. Even as a child, those who knew him claimed he carried the fire of a king in his eyes. After more than forty years in exile, he returned to reclaim the crown of the Star Kingdom of Umber, rising against King Cuthred Umbra Stormgrim, Cuthred the Avenger. His bid ended in blood at the Battle of Gegn, where Cuthred’s fleets broke his strength. Frithewald fell in that battle, and his remains were borne back to Deora, where they were entombed with honor. The Feyans named him a Hero of the Dominion, and pilgrims came to see his resting place.

I have stood in that tomb myself, and I can tell you, the air there carries a weight, as if the walls remember the roar of the battle that claimed him.

Deora’s soil has taken more than one great dead. During the long wars of the Great Savage Crusade, the Skane warlords, Rowana the Half-Raven, Ragnar the Raven Blade, and Oughtred the Old among them, swept through Drala like a storm. After the Battle of Bearroc in 30,141 AA, the body of System-lord Sewine Stathol Knollborn was carried in secret to Deora by loyal retainers and hidden from the eyes of the invaders. For a time, Deora became a keeper of the fallen, a place where those who could not rest in their own halls were given refuge in death.

That refuge could not last. In 30,218 AA, Bjorn the Lord of Angul judged the relics and remains of Frithewald unsafe so near the Skane frontiers. I recall his words, that sacred memory is worth nothing if it can be plundered. He had the hero’s bones removed to Scirop in the Kerweg Star System, joining other relics gathered for safekeeping.

Even so, Deora would not be left untouched by war. In 30,235 AA, Bjorn led a counterstroke against the Skane of the Skanelaw, retaking Deora in a fierce campaign. I remember the songs sung after that battle, heavy with pride, and the bitter taste they carried when, only three years later in 30,238 AA, the Skanes returned and wrenched Deora from Dralan hands once more.

Such is the way of the border systems, they change masters like the tide changes shorelines. Yet Deora endures. Its ore still feeds the forges of whoever holds it, and the steel of Tempestatum Starhold still stands strong above Deora. United under the Star Commonwealth of Drala. I have lived long enough to know that the banners will change again, for no stronghold in Drala remains in one hand forever.