A History of War: The Greenweald Baronies & The Kingdom of Bordevar
In a world ruled by war and greed, it is little surprise that the Greenweald Baronies and the Kingdom of Bordevar eventually crossed blades. The vastness of their conflict has long been lost to dead memories and burned archives, yet the scars remain—etched in stone, in land, and in those who still remember. What follows is a broad recollection of that war, a history that every Greenwealder and Bordevarian would do well to know.
The King and His Ire (45AE - 100AE)
The first meeting between King Artourious Bordevar and the Baronies has been lost to time, though it likely began with the Barony of Vassertal sometime between 45AE and 60AE. Following the defeat of the Endemani Harvest Kings in the Archibald Valley, there was little reason to believe that Bordevar’s conquering army would halt its march northward. But the records of that time have vanished, leaving only speculation and shadow.
The Legend of War (100AE - 150AE)
A hundred years ago, the Kingdom of Bordevar was the greatest threat to the Baronies—at least to Resinderholz and Vassertal. This was the age of ambition, when Bordevar’s dukes and nobles sought to expand their holdings through force, raising private armies to claim new land. These were years of brutal sieges and relentless assaults: Brumhaven and Hasselbach in Vassertal, Eisen in Resinderholz, Carningsfield in Weiland, and Draemoor in royal Bordevar all bore deep wounds from the struggle.
But the Baronies did not crumble. Vassertal and Resinderholz held firm, and in time, they carried the fight southward. Baron Schempfer of Resinderholz led daring campaigns deep into Bordevarian lands, seizing Lake Ladure and Carningsfield—if only briefly. Brumhaven itself fell to the cunning of Duchess Catarina Arbington, a self-styled warlord who ruled it as the capital of her short-lived ‘Duchy of Kingswood’ for three tumultuous years.
The Time of Adventure (150AE - 200AE)
For reasons unknown, large-scale war between Bordevar and the Baronies faded between 150AE and 160AE, coinciding with the Shaman’s War and the arrival of the Zekartaal. The borders of both realms solidified, though Lake Ladure remained a bitter point of contention. But this was not a time of peace—merely a shift in the nature of conflict.
Gone were the great armies of the war years, replaced instead by smaller, deadlier forces. Bordevarian knights and rangers pushed north in search of wealth, justice, and glory. Knight-aspirants sought their valor in slaying Greenweald beasts or besting the so-called ‘false knights of the woods.’ Rangers saw the Weald as an enemy yet to awaken, striking in secret to wound it before it could rise.
The Wealders returned this aggression in kind. The forest has always demanded blood, bone, and pain to seal its covenants, and it is far easier to take such offerings from outsiders. Wealdsages, whether noble or corrupt, haunted the farmsteads of Weiland and Bloodmarsh, calling forth twisted creatures from the trees. Huntsmarshalls and spies waged shadow wars in the alleys of Carningsfield, Brumhaven, Eisen, and Wolstad, where murder and sabotage walked hand in hand. Many perished.
Greed and Plague (200AE - 217AE)
The most recent years have seen the fires of war dull, though not from mercy. Both Bordevar and the Weald have been broken by their own struggles, too wounded to waste strength on their old rivalries. Standing side by side at the edge of ruin, neither could look the other in the eye.
Forays into enemy territory became rare, left to desperate souls and opportunists. Refugees and wandering mercenaries fled into southern Vassertal seeking shelter, only to be met with drawn bows and cold steel. Houndspriests and wandering Doktors ventured south in search of weapons against sickness and starvation, finding only enemies waiting in the dark.
In 214AE, the Blasserstreit plague reached Bordevar for the first time. By 216AE, it had ravaged Draemoor, striking just as the kingdom suffered its great defeat at Tristan’s Field. The forests to the north became places of silent death, a border guarded by rangers who loosed arrows without hesitation. Quarantine did not ask for permission.
By the founding of The Concord, the only contact between the Last Barony and the Kingless Kingdom came in the form of spies probing for weakness and the occasional trade over Lake Ladure. Blades hovered at each other’s throats, even as both nations bled from unseen wounds. Too blinded by history and hate, neither could see the open hands reaching through the dark.