Shadowmage: Book Nine Of The Spellmonger Series

by Terry Mancour

  The native Coastlords even had the temerity to build ships and contend against the Sea Lords in trade from their upriver havens, particularly the rich and prosperous Oxbow Viscounties. As they had been originally settled by the Sea Lords and then abandoned when they proved unfit for farming, this trade was particularly insulting to them.

  More, under the guidance of the magi certain monks and adventurers were exploring even deeper along the Upper Mandros in the Great Vale, traveling up the rivers after climbing the escarpment across the midst of Alshar responsible for the great falls. The land beyond the escarpment proved as abundant as the coastal plain, though in different manner. For beyond the falls and the fertile coastlands was a fertile country of rolling hills and green valleys, ideal for grain and fruit . . . and horses. The land was half again as large as the Coastlands of the Lower Mandros, and seemed ideally suited for grain crops in the magi’s estimation.

  The Great Vale had been known but ignored by the Sea Lords for over a century, for it was a land of meadows and plains, with the trees they coveted only abundant along the rivers or in forests along the ridges. The magi at Falas understood the secret bounty available to them, as the tribes up-country were few, and did no more than hunt and fish their lands. But they were not ready to undertake the development of Alshar’s interior, yet, so they made quiet preparation against that day instead.

  Over the next fifty years, as the height of the Late Magocracy approached, Coastlord and Sea Lord came to an uneasy alliance fueled by mutual greed. The Cormeeran harvests for several years were compromised by rebellion and war, as the Archmage consolidated his power, and demand for wine was strong in the Empire. The vintages of Bikavar found a profitable market in the ports of Merwyn, and the Coastlords had great store of wine put up. Between the industry of the Coastlords and the daring of the mariners amongst the Sea Lords, a great Wine Fleet was assembled. The Bay Tax was suspended for the season before the Wine Fleet took sail. When it returned from its journey the following year the ships were laden with silver and gold from the profits.

  Thus began a mutually-lucrative enterprise between the two cultures which enriched them both. While the Magelord was technically Consul over Alshar and Enultramar, he did little other than facilitate trade and settle disputes for years. By the time the Fifth Lord of the Fields and the ninth Lord of the Waves met at Falas for their regular council under the joint auspices of the Count of Falas (the Imperial Consul) and the Stormfather, neither side wished to disturb the fabulously prosperous relationship.

  Alas, all things must come to an end, and the golden age of Alshar and Enultramar was no exception. When the Archmage at last summoned support from all corners of the empire to drive back the Narasi barbarians north of Vore and protect the coasts from the pirates proliferating in the ruins of lost Perwyn, half of the Sea Lord fleet departed for the east, laden with Coastlord warriors and warmagi trained at the Tower of Sorcery, the home of the Alshari counsel.

  Tragically, much of the fifty-ship fleet Enultramar sent was lost in a storm off of Cormeer, and the remainder was defeated at sea by the resurgent Cormeeran corsairs who preyed on pirate and Magelord alike. Though nine ships eventually did make it to Merwyn’s ports, and the Coastlords of Alshar were present at the final battles of the Empire, few, if any, ever returned to their homeland. The Conquest of the Narasi barbarian king, Kamaklavan, swept them away, and a new chapter began in the history of Alshar.

  When King Kamaklavan stood in the ruins of the Archmage’s palace and determined the course of his nascent kingdom, he realized that his five sons were too belligerent to rule a united kingdom. He thought therefore to divide his legacy, giving each of them equal portion over his conquest. Yet not all fiefs were equal, nor all sons, and the eldest brothers, to whom he awarded rich Vore and fabulous Merwyn, were his favorites. To his second sons (of his second wife, Kamlan and Bemin) he awarded Remere and Castal, and to the beloved bastard and master horseman Terine he acknowledged his name and granted him distant Alshar, the furthest (but legendarily prosperous) territory within the Empire, as his fief.

  It was nearly a decade before the new Duke Terine led his sons and a portion of the great Narasi horde aboard a fleet to depart for his legacy. When he arrived in Enultramar with two dozen ships to claim his fief, the folk of Alshar were incredulous with the feat. They had not been defeated, and despite the fall of the Archmage they saw little reason to bow to a barbarian lord. Coastlord and Sealord alike viewed the Narasi as invaders, not conquerors.

  Yet the Narasi Duke would not be ignored. Landing at Argarus with his fleet he swiftly took control of the town and used it as a beachhead against his potential foes. For the Narasi had one great advantage over the native Alshari, their masterful use of cavalry. Though the Coastlords possessed horses, they did not use them with the same effect or in the same numbers, and the Narasi cavalry quickly swept over what resistance was raised.

  Though the first Duke of Alshar seized the Consulate at Falas, and forcibly married the daughter of the Lord of the Fields after his beloved wife died, the Narasi held little more than the County of Falas for a full generation while the Coastlords and Sea Lords continued their trade and largely ignored the new barbarians.

  Taking the title Count of Falas, in addition to Duke of Alshar, the ducal house was little more than a player amongst others in Alshar for three generations. Yet they made productive use of the time. Though some of the Narasi were granted the estates of rebellious Coastlords, and others married their conquered subjects, most of the Narasi were more eager to build their own lands than take those of others.

  When the former magelord suggested the wide, empty country north of Falas as being ideal for the horses so beloved by the Narasi to his son-in-law, the Duke approved its settlement in force. Most of the Narasi conquerors therefore established keeps and estates in the up-country Great Vale along the Upper Mandros, styling themselves Vale Lords as the Coastlords and the Sea Lords did.

  By the time the third Duke of Alshar, Obrus I, attempted to expand his power over his neighbors as was his right, the Coastlords rose in rebellion against him. Summoning his vassals from the north, the heavy cavalry of the Vale Lords decimated the infantry of the Coastlords in Rhemes and Bikavar, until the entire coast agreed to swear fealty to the Duke of Alshar, Lord of Field and Vale. Though the Sea Lords did not take part in the landsmen’s struggles, they realized the power of the Narasi and chose to volunteer their support in favor of conquest. Though this was an unexpected betrayal of the old Coastlord/Sealord alliance it proved as profitable for the Great Bay as it was detrimental to the Coast.

  As a result, the Narasi made a pact with the Sea Lords, in which they swore fealty in the Narasi style, and Duke Obrus in turn acknowledged the Master of Wave as the chief of his navy. By the time his son Kandrus was elevated to the throne he ruled over every inch of the vale of Alshar, from the Shoals to the Narrows in the rocky and impassable north.

  The Middle History of Alshar

  Once the first explorers came to the far end of the impassable Narrows, where the Mindens and the mountains of the Farisi Peninsula meet, they began searching for some means of going beyond the imposing cliffs. A pair of monks of Herus, Dansus and Ladras, eventually discovered a cavern in the upper slopes that opened on the ridge above. From that vantage point they saw out over the edge of the Dry Lands, into the edge of the Land of Scars, and into the distant, fertile plains of Gilmora, beyond. Though it took a month for them to find a place of descent, the two monks eventually took the first steps of Alshar’s expansion into the rest of the continent.

  When Duke Obrus first heard the news of the monks’ discovery, he immediately ordered the northern lords to lend assistance to the effort of creating a permanent pass through the Narrows.

  Though the Narasi were unskilled in stonework, he sent to them six monks of various construction orders to oversee the project. The effort took twenty years to complete, and the far-sighted monks did not merely carve a pass, they buil
t a castle out of the living rock to protect the passage they constructed. The great mountain keep was a wonder, protecting the southern realm from the north and defendable from the south. With its dedication, and the subsequent flood of younger sons and commoners searching for fresh opportunities, a string of small fortresses across the Dry Lands and the southern portion of the Land of Scars was quickly constructed and the settlement of the abundant and fertile Gilmoran plains, proper, began.

  Within two generations the new fiefs torn from the western Riverlands began to send magnificent loads of cotton back through the Narrows to the ports of the south. Within four generations, the Gilmoran cotton trade outpaced the wine trade in Enultramar.

  The Cotton Lords of Gilmora became an important military force when the fifth Duke of Alshar called his banners against the Storm King’s Uprising. Though the expedition from Gilmora was small, the fierce loyalty and magnificent finery of the Cotton Lords impressed the folk on both sides of the conflict. When they returned home, many brought brides, brothers-in-law, and interested adventurers who sought their fortunes. Almost all brought large coffles of slaves purchased from the Sea Lords, who had turned from piracy to slavery under the dukes.

  The duchy north of the Narrows was a far different culture than the stratified south. The Cotton Lords were extravagant and generous, absorbing the chivalric ideals popular amongst the Castali and Remeran Riverlords. Their vast estates employed hundreds of serfs and villeins to fuel the broad fields of cotton, corn, beans and oats they grew. Towns grew as the demand for smiths and artisans from the south brought new crafts to the comparatively primitive region. Eventually they grew into great cities, patronized by the large, expansive families of the Cotton Lords.

  The revenue brought into the duchy by the new trade was staggering. Gilmoran cotton was deemed superior by the great weavers’ guilds of Cormeer and Merwyn, and even low-quality cotton bearing the Gilmoran seal fetched a premium price. Every hundred bales that crossed the Narrows saw a bale go into the Duke’s treasury, and every hundred which departed the docks of Enultramar saw two. While this seemed a small tax to pay, the ducal household found itself with a fortune in cotton in quick order.

  While the fertile plains of Gilmora brought forth crop after crop of cotton, the younger sons and restless souls continuously explored the frontiers to the north. The explorers found a rough and wild country filled with forest after endless forest of deciduous wood. To the Narasi-descended Cotton Lords the land represented opportunities to hunt, hawk and fish. To a seafaring people like the Sea Lords, the first glimpse of the Alshari Wilderlands represented fleets of ships. When the first of the rich Alshari iron depostis were discovered in the midst of the country, the fleet-minded nobles of Alshar saw their future.

  The ducal household itself funded the expeditions into the Wilderlands to open an iron mine and begin logging. Expanding the Cotton Tax at the Narrows to two bales in a hundred to fund the effort, soon miners, smiths, mercenaries and adventurers poured into the deep interior.

  Unlike the relatively deserted Gilmoran plains, where only a few peaceful farmers and tribes of River Folk lived, the highlands of the Wilderlands, like the feared Land of Scars, was filled with wild tribes of Mountain Folk, Kasari, the clans of the Pearwoods, wild tribes and ferocious wild animals. The settlement was not nearly as peaceful as Gilmora’s, and the constant raids by the belligerent tribes bred a culture of powerful cavalrymen and rangers, harking back to their Narasi barbarian forebears, just to maintain the logging camps and mines.

  Led by the Gilmoran hero, Lord Tudry, these raids became collectively known as the Goblin Wars, due to the powerful presence of the Mountain Folk (casadalain) tribes in the region. Over the course of two decades the Wilderlords, as the culture came to call themselves, dominated the forests wherever their heavy cavalry went.

  As they drove the gurvani and other tribes into the foothills of the Mindens, the highly organized, highly-secretive Kasari became the greatest challenge to the Wilderlords. Though they tried repeatedly to overwhelm their mountain strongholds, the Kasari proved indomitable. Eventually they settled with the duke’s representatives by sending a small number of the giant trees the Master of Waves coveted. Nor were the Pearwood clans easily pacified. Though the Wilderlords repeatedly sent military expeditions and diplomatic overtures with expensive gifts, the clans continued to raid the nearby Wilderlord settlements.

  The tenth Duke of Alshar was particularly intrigued by the Wilderlands portion of his domain. When the Castali Riverlords began to test the new frontiers between the duchies, though the Cotton Lords of Gilmora were successful on the field against their Riverlord counterparts, it was the heavy cavalry of the Wilderlords that devastated the foe the most. Their broad oakwood and rawhide shields, thick iron lance tips and heavy hauberks of Alshari steel cut through the more lightly-armored Riverlords like wheat at the First Battle of Barrowbell.

  Just as noteworthy, though less celebrated, were the three companies of Wilderlands yeoman armed with their powerful bows. A laminate of yew and hickory, these longbows, designed to slay wolves, bears, goblins and lions at a distance and tipped with well-forged iron points, shredded the Castali infantry in droves. Though they were not awarded lands or titles the way the Wilderlords were, the strength of the archery of the Wilderlands folk was instrumental to keeping the Castali at bay.

  Unfortunately, the very success of the conquest of the Wilderlands lead to the greatest loss of the great Duchy. The duchy’s increase of the Cotton Tax at both the Narrows and at port in order to fund the construction of the new summer palace at a small river valley in the south of the Wilderlands. It was the extravagance the dukes showed on their new palace at Vorone that irritated the Cotton lords as much as the increase in the tax. They felt that the capital should be in their cosmopolitan midst, not among the near-savage folk of the Wilderlands.

  At the same time, the dukes of Castal were luring their lucrative cotton trade from the expensive transport through the Narrows toward the eastern-flowing rivers beyond Barrowbell. When the Alshari dukes raised the tax on cotton yet again, and the viscounts of Enultramar conspired to raise the cost of transport, a number of Cotton Lords secretly began to send a portion of their crop east, not south.

  The dukes could not help but notice the quiet rebellion, and sent agents to enforce their rule. Yet that merely provoked anti-Alshari sentiment among the Gilmoran lords. Though the counts appointed by the duke were loyal, many of the wealthy baronies of Gilmora were plotting to change their allegiance to the duke of Castal, who promised far more lenient terms. Castali agents also infiltrated the society of Gilmora, spreading dissention and whispers of rebellion in every inn and tavern, castle and estate they came to. Between Gilmoran dissent and Castali encouragement, it was only a matter of time before it came to war.

  The first Revolt of the Barons began when an unpopular loyalist was appointed one of the four Gilmoran counts. He and his party were soon seized and put to death in a clear act of rebellion. Raising the standard of the cotton boll, the Gilmoran rebellion lasted two years. Only when the duke called the banners of the Wilderlords to pacify them, and hung the leaders, was the rebellion crushed.

  Though the duke lessened the cotton tax after the rebellion, he increased his enforcement efforts. The damage to relations between the duchy and many of the old Gilmoran houses was already rent, however, and ever did the murmurs of rebellion flare when loyalists were not about.

  The second rebellion, Sir Lomarand’s Rebellion, stemmed from a fight between a local lord and the ducal inspectors. Once blood was spilt, the fire of rebellion flared quickly, and soon half of Gilmora was in arms against the loyalists.

  Castal waited propitiously to intervene. When the easternmost baron declared his fealty to Castal, and not Alshar, Castal was quick to enforce the claim. After almost a year of sputtering, eventually the rebellion turned into the three-year long Second Alshari-Castali War. Though the duke called the banners of the Wilderlords to assis
t, the harsh winter north of Vorone that year delayed their deployment. The rebels seized on this delay and continued the war nearly two years after Castal agreed to stop sending men over the frontier to aid them.

  Having lost a barony, and nearly a third of his duchy, the Duke of Alshar met with the Duke of Castal for talks. The cotton tax was again reduced at both Narrows and port . . . but no sooner was the agreement concluded, the Duke of Alshar declared a ducal monopoly on wine and cotton sold from Alshar. There would be one fixed price for both, the duke decreed, stabilizing -- and limiting -- the profits available to the Cotton Lords’ estates. Though angered, after the brutal hanging of rebels and traitors after the previous war the Cotton Lords were subdued in their reaction.

  Though Castal did not continue to provide material aid, the far-sighted dukes planned ahead for their next opportunity. The great works at Darkfaller were begun the same year the First Peace of Barrowbell was concluded.

  Darkfaller was the greatest fortress ever attempted by the Narasi, who rarely built on the same magnitude of works as the Magocracy. But in Darkfaller the Narasi genius for fortification finally came to the fore. When it was complete, a great ring of five keeps, encircled by a massive, two-tiered wall behind a massive moat overlooked the Gilmoran from southern Castal.