The Voyage of the Cybeleion: A Rawn Chronicles Interlude (The Rawn Chronicles Series)

by P D Ceanneir

  Güthrum also reformed the laws so that the whole of the Hinterland benefited from one set of rules. In the past, the Jötnor always listed their laws in the Jötnor Cannon, but Güthrum had these numerous volumes of confusing legislation burnt and re-wrote the law in a mighty tome called the Vorlkwern, or the Peoples Law. The Vorlkwern became popular for its simplicity and its fairness. The Vorlkwern also ran a Moral Code that the king wished the Hinterland nobility to conform with...

  … Honour, integrity, loyalty and a drive to restore the balance of order within the chaos of life…

  The Vorlkwern, pg 578, paragraph 2

  This was easier said than done in the years after Rothbörg and the Jarl and their Bondsmen lords still resisted the High-kings will. Therefore, Güthrum concentrated on training his own loyal Bondsmen. Each was an experienced soldier and diligently lived the Moral Code with discipline and fortitude. Technically, classed as Knights, although this title was not known in the Hinterland in those days, instead they were known as the Initiates, a name usually given to young warriors during combat training before military service.

  Later, they became known as the Marauder Doom.

  In those early days, the Marauder Doom sat on the outskirts of history, they were a vague and secretive sect, yet the stories of their brave deeds spread throughout the Hinterland and would continue to do so for many years to come.

  The Tale of Tristan and Ingbörg.

  Güthrum died at the respectable age of eight-eight having left a land united and prosperous. His eldest son, Artur Güthrumsson, succeeded him, but only for ten months. High-king Artur died in a skirmish against Jarl Kovis’s of Emir’s Mossmen. Kovis was a grandson of one of the Emir Jarls that died in Rothborg. He was able, through marriage, to claim the empty Jarldoms neighbouring his own lands after the battle and subsequently became one of the richest nobles in the Hinterland. Such was his strength and power that Artur pressed to have Kovis take Bondsmanship and royal fealty, which the Jarl refused. The skirmish on Emirs border sent shockwaves throughout the Hinterland when people heard about the High-king’s death, for Artur was regarded as being a strong willed, but fair minded man. However, no other noble dared stand against the strength of Kovis and so the dead king’s allies did not rush to his army’s aid.

  Bratha, the younger brother to Artur took the throne amidst some controversy. Years earlier Güthrum’s Vorlkwern had abolished the old law of Tanistry, this meant that the progenitor system currently in use would make Artur’s son, Harkon, the next king. However, Harkon, branded a fool and a drunk by most of his peers, lost support and his pious and peace-loving uncle, Bratha, gained the throne.

  Unfortunately for Bratha his rein lasted a month less than his elder brother’s following his assassination during the night. Conveniently, Harkon ascended to the Skull Throne within a week having found favour with the populace due to his oath to rescind certain tax duties if he became their liege. The new High-king then raised a huge army to his royal standard; the largest recorded in the Hinterland Sagas, and hurriedly crossed into Emir. Kovis could not react quickly enough to the threat and Harkon surrounded the Jarls castle.

  Kovis saw reason and offered to partake in peace talks with Harkon, expecting to lose land and possibility forced to offer fealty to the new king, but Harkon’s only concession was to take the Jarls’ youngest daughter’s hand in marriage.

  …a girl of only sixteen summers. She had locks of gold that framed an innocent face, a waif-like body that could arouse the most effeminate of men. Yet, her tongue spoke like a Mountain Vipers poison with an anger to match…

  The Hinterland Sagas

  Ingbörg of Emir vehemently refused to marry the High-king, claiming that Harkon was a “Dullard and a drunk!” but her father convinced her, happy in the knowledge that his land and riches remained in his keeping and his own family were now royalty through Ingbörg.

  It is written that their marriage was a tumultuous one. They argued constantly and Harkon drank more and more to drown out her constant screeching. Miraculously, they had a daughter, Princess Fonal, who looked much like her mother but with bright blue eyes that neither parent had. Harkon was convinced that the child was not his. The king later discovered that a Marauder Doom, assigned by Kovis to protect her daughter while she stayed in Tielbörg, had the same blue eyes. He went by the name of Jarl Tristan Vortensson, the son of Throm, the fifth sub-king of Emir.

  Harkon was reluctant to stand against the Marauder Doom for they tended to band together even if their duty was to protect his royal personage, or even Throm, whom he regarded as an ally. Unfortunately for him his own Marauders fell from his favour after his accusation of adultery.

  One night, drinking with his Bondsmen, Ingbörg verbally humiliated him in front of his loyal followers. In a rage, he used a skinning knife to cut out her tongue and ordered his thirteen Bondsmen to rape the queen, which they did in turn.

  This was such an affront to Tristan and his fellow Marauder Dooms that from that night onwards the sect swore never again to protect the line of Güthrum.

  Revenge on the Bondsmen was swift.

  Each lord was abducted under the noses of their own soldiers and then horribly tortured and mutilated before being skinned alive. The Marauder Doom took their bodies direct to Tielbörg and presented the copses before the king. This happened every month for thirteen months. There was nowhere for the Bondsmen to hide, they would always be found by the Marauder Doom, no matter how far they fled from the Hinterland. King Harkor issued warrants for the heads of the Marauders, but no one took him up on the offer no matter how high the price of the reward rose. He issued orders for his private army to protect him, but on the day that the next mutilated body arrived, his soldiers were absent. Therefore, isolated, with no help from outside, the king became a recluse and wallowed in despair and self-pity.

  Ironically, it was not a Marauder Doom that took the life of Harkor Güthrumsson, but his wife, Ingbörg. She poisoned him with a tincture of potent Witchelm to paralyse him before using a club to break his arms and legs. Then she feminised him with the same skinning knife, blunt now, that he had used to take her tongue. He died from blood loss before the sun rose. As tradition dictated the late king’s skull was added to the Skull Throne. To this day, it is the only skull of a king that sits in the seat area of the throne rather than the high back. The cranium is now well polished from the backsides of successive kings.

  Ingbörg, Tristan and their daughter Fonal disappeared from history. It is believed that they left the Hinterland to live the rest of their lives on one of the many islands that are scattered along the coastlands.

  …no warrior, no matter how famous, becomes a Marauder Doom until he feels the tap of a blade upon his left shoulder…

  The Hinterland Sagas

  This whole incident secured and enhanced the already growing legend of the Marauder Doom. Without royal patronage, the secretive sect roamed free around the Hinterland as swords-for-hire. They gathered a fortune in monies, a percentage of which held by the faceless accountants that controlled the equally secretive “Bank of Doom”.

  Now that the succession was in doubt due to the Marauder Doom’s vow never to aid the line of Güthrum, a council of elder politicians was set up to continue the running of state. Kovis of Emir headed the council, by a unanimous vote. Known as the Argentium, the council oversaw all government authority. Kovis was an old man at fifty when he took the reins of power and he ruled the Hinterland as Patrician for a further fifty-two years.

  With the male line of Güthrum dead, only his three daughters held any form of royal titles. Therefore, the three royal houses of Murdoch, Jathaul, and Henkal grew out of their marriages and they still exist to this day. All three still represent strong senior Jarldoms in the Hinterland and have constantly been at odds with one another even to the point of conflict. Only the strong hand of the Argentium keeps them in check. All three of the houses argued their right to the Skull Throne, although by decree, only the Ho
use of Murdoch holds any clear right, but due to the Marauder Doom “Curse”, none dared take their place as High-king or disband the strong hand of the Argentium after the death of Kovis. Each of the high Jarls of the royal houses believed that their fortunes tied up in the Bank of Doom would disappear if any should dare to wear the crown.

  In the end, a boy with extraordinary gifts decided the succession.

  Grendal the Wayfarer

  “Here we see his shoulders broad

  that carried the world from the Dark Gods reach.

  Here we see his stride so quick

  that his enemies fear to look behind.

  Here we see his swords so sharp

  that slays the host with trivial ease

  Here we see the dead so vast.

  Each warrior welcomes him to the Halls, at last”.

  The Ode of Grendal Wayfarer

  601 YOA saw the arrival of Grendal of Nothgorge. There are various tales about his birth and discovery as a child. All of them steeped in myth and legend. One tale tells of him being the only survivor, at the age of three, from a storm-wrecked ship. Another speaks of him being left naked on the doorstep of the Monastery of Vershbern, high up on the Röjhiem Heights, where the cold air could freeze a man’s blood within seconds. Another story has him living his early years with a family of large Mountain Bears, while another says he was forged in the God Thorsol’s Hearth and beaten into shape by Rivven’s Warhammer.

  Whether any of the tales were true or not, one item always exists in the stories.

  The Mara.

  A Marauder Doom is identified by the symbol of crossed Mara swords; a weapon with a long curved blade in a circle of flame. Usually this is found carved into a flat disc made of bleached whalebone. Most Marauder Doom wear it as a pendant, but certain members use it as a cap at the end of their plaids, much like Rawn nobles do with gold or silver hair caps.

  When the young Grendal was discovered, he had long blonde hair neatly plaited and tied back into one long ponytail capped with the whalebone Mara at the end. However, his Mara differed from others in the fact that above the symbol of the crossed swords was an Ogham Script depicting the letter “F”.

  The “F” represented Fonal, the daughter of Jarl Tristan and Ingbörg. Even to this day, it is rare for a member of the Marauder Doom to be descended from two such famous characters in their history, yet Grendal was clearly from their bloodline. Many believed the Gods sent him as their messenger.

  Even before his tenth year he proved to be skilled with a sword. His skill did not go unnoticed by the Marauder Doom. At the tender age of twelve, “he felt the tap on his left shoulder” as it were. The Marauders took him to Isle of Finnalfjord, the seat of the Marauder on a long island in a huge sea lake. He spent eight years there learning to become one of the most formidable warriors of his age.

  In the year 616 YOA, the Ventoli, a relatively new kingdom to the south-west of the Hinterland, invaded the Ward of Kvern taking several towns along the coast and laying siege to the Jötnor Monastery at Fardhiem. Grendal and one hundred of the Marauder Doom went to the aid of the Jötnor, but two thousand Ventoli soldiers blocked the route to the Fardhiem Pass.

  The battle that followed was not a pleasant one for the Ventoli to write in their history books. All two thousand of their soldiers died at the hands of Marauder Doom. Only Grendal survived the battle. The remaining Ventoli retreated to their fastness of mountains and moors, never to raid the Hinterland again, especially since Grendal told their general that he and his men were just the vanguard to a larger host of Hinterland Warriors, an obvious lie, but one that worked nonetheless.

  The people of the Hinterland made Grendal into a living legend. Due to his popularity and his royal parentage, the Argentium crowned him High-king at the age of twenty-three, much to the disapproval of the three royal houses.

  Grendal obviously did not figure being king as part of his ambition, but it was a means to an end. He was a man of action, not politics and so he left the Argentium in control while he took a large host of fellow-minded soldiers on many adventures around the world.

  First, he built the Castle-mount of Sjardhiem, his northerly royal seat inside the cold heights of the Plysarus Mountains. He used Sjardhiem as a base to mount many expeditions into the frozen lands to the north of the Hinterland. Later in life, he took to the sea, circumnavigating the planet on a ten-year mission to open up trade links. His reign was the longest in Hinterland history and spanned seven decades. He only spent seven of those years at home, which is why he received the nickname of Grendal the Wayfarer.

  In 695 YOA High-king Grendal the First of the Hinterland died. He was ninety-five. Ironically, he was returning from a seaborne mission from Sonora when the chill he had felt in his chest finally got the better of his heart.

  Chroniclers state that his funeral procession stretched the length and breadth of the Hinterland before he was finally buried under his own coliseum in the tomb city of Norcronombörg, which sits on the other side of Tielbörg’s rivers. His skull, however, was placed on the Skull Throne and, no matter how high the seat back rises with each dead monarch’s skull, Grendal’s always has the highest position. His heart was taken from the torso and mummified before the Marauder Doom took it on pilgrimage to Sjardhiem where it is said to be “Sealed in glass and stone”.

  After Grendal’s death, the Argentium chose his successor from one of the royal houses. This was one of the only changes to the Vorlkwern that Grendal implemented. He had no wife, but sired numerous bastards, most of which had married into the royal families. He gave complete power to the Argentium.

  Therefore, the Hinterland had many successive kings that, by law, must step down from the Skull Throne after a maximum of thirty years and each king answered to the Argentium Council.

  The Taking of Sjardhiem.

  In 2937 YOA, the fledgling empire of the Imperial Realm invaded Plysarus. These Xirmalian legions came from the distant continent of Fyrandia.

  Previously, Fyrandia was the home of Dwarves and Elves, but these races left the continent due to a great war against their goddess-queen, the Morgana. Little was known on the fate of the elves in those days, but the dwarves came to the Hinterland in 2321 YOA and lived quite happily amongst the Hinterlanders who they saw as like-minded in their social life and customs.

  For the most part, the dwarven tribes lived close to the slopes of the Plysarus Mountains and they were the first to raise a warning to the Argentium about the invading Xirmalians. The High-king, Harold the Sixth, raised a huge host and marched north to oust the invaders. The Imperial Realm had taken Sjardhiem, the Northern seat of the late great king Grendal the Wayfarer, which had been lost and forgotten for years.

  The huge fortress proved difficult to siege. The Hinterlanders lost many solders to the cold weather and in 2946 YOA King Harold admitted defeat before finally marched his depleted and wearied army home. The Imperial Realm left a single legion, the 9th Legion of the Mountain Lion, to hold Sjardhiem for twenty years before mysteriously disappearing after a terrible winter storm nearly covered the fortress.

  Years passed and few ventured into the mountain interior, yet dark tales came down from the mountains about an evil presence at Sjardhiem. Some say the Xirmal Legion is still there marching through the passes, all skin and bone and mindless. Others speak of a terrible curse that befalls anyone entering the resting place of King Grendal’s heart.

  Others talk of a marker stone that sits in Grendal’s Great Hall, a gift from “The People of the Desert”. Some refer to the unknown language clearly etched into the stones surface that points the way to Isle of the Dead.

  And some say the dead are watching.

  Opeac the Historian

  3053 YOA

  Hjornfelt, the Hinterland

  On the 16th day of Augraniar 3037 YOA

  1

  HJorndfelt is a large fishing town inside the eastern shore of Hjornd Fjord. It was once a small village, but much like most small tow
nships in the Hinterlands past, it grew to a fair size due to its proximity to the fishing lanes and trade routes through the highlands. The town stretched along the shore with towering mountains at its back and the only easily accessible pass through them was to the north of the town.

  The harbour strung out along the mile wide mouth of the fjord with many deep-sea fishing sloops and longboats tied together in a neat row along the lengthy wooden pier. Several three-mast barques also shared the harbour, traders from other areas of the world. Only one ship stood out from the others due to its enormous size and its uniquely streamlined, teardrop shape. The vertical wall of the ship’s hull was a ruddy red hue that glinted in the autumnal sunshine. Bright white dapples of the waters reflection whispered along its surface from the lapping waves.

  The ship was the, now famous, Rawn Sky Ship the Cybeleion, the quest ship that carried its crew on the search for the Great Orrinn of legend. Word had spread faster than the ship could travel, it seemed, as the crowds gathered to watch it bob on the outgoing tide. No doubt, word of the huge ships arrival at Hjornfelt would continue throughout the Hinterland and beyond and possibly have many stories of its adventures attributed to it; some true, some not.

  The crew, however, knew the truth of their journeys, the danger they faced and the many days of travel and inaction. Today they did not care for past events, because they were all on shore leave and getting very drunk inside the many bars and taverns that stretched along the shore road.