MONARCHS OF SUTICA

LithiumSedai · February 2, 2022

MONARCHS OF SUTICA

A Comprehensive Study of the Sovereigns of the Sutican State throughout the Centuries

by

Sir Ulrich Lothar von Alstreim

Dedicated to Nikita

The brightest star shining in the Seven Skies

FOREWORD

The nation of Sutica long stood as the oldest continuously independent state among the Descendant realms. Her lengthy and storied history, her tales of trade, freedom and prosperity, of tragedy, deceit and betrayal, once persisted valiantly even as other kingdoms rose and fell. It is the sacred duty of every Waldenian to honor his ancestors and his lineage’s history; thus, my sacred duty became to conclude this chronicle, first of its kind, of the Sutican monarchy, among whose Kings and Queens were my own ancestors and relatives.

Throughout the centuries, many official Sutican historical records of the actions of Sutica’s monarchs were lost, primarily those describing the deeds of her earliest leaders. The remnants of the Sutican royal library, salvaged by the house of Alstreim, aided in reconstructing the remainder. Where the sources were lacking in verifiable facts, their claims were replaced by intelligent speculation, though nonetheless speculation; quite naturally, the subject was presented through an innately Canonist lens. My hope is that, with these facts in mind, this study shall remain an enjoyable and informative read even to a future generation, one perhaps differing in her morals from our own almost as much as the founders of Sutica diverged from their Canonist successors.

Concluded at Merryweather Castle on the ninth day of Horen’s Calling, 1858, by the hand of

MONARCHS OF THE FOUNDING AND THE GOLDEN AGE

Vailor, Axios, and Atlas

SILV’AR VANGUARD (1521 - 1523)

His Highness the Prince of Sutica

Remembered in Sutican historiography as the polity’s first Prince and founder, his position was in truth little more than a titular honor, tolerated as a courtesy by his sovereign lords in the Caliphate of Khalestine. The Caliphate regarded Sutica as a semi-autonomous territory of the realm, conceding to the internal election of its administration under a princely style for a modest establishment fee of ten thousand coins. Sutica’s humble beginnings as a merchant outpost in the desert wastes of southern Vailor, constructed to house the discontent patricians fleeing the fall of the Salvian Republic, were in equal part sponsored by a number of other notable Salvian refugees. The Prince, once a Consul of Salvus, thus relied heavily on their input, proven in part by the eventual accession of two other Salvian patricians as leaders of Sutica following his abdication.

Though it is said that, during his short rule, Prince Silv’ar laid the foundation for many notable Sutican institutions, such as the Sutican Guard and the Sutican Architecture Guild, his reign saw no other substantial achievements. Prince Silv’ar surrendered his position after only two years, selecting as his successor another Salvian magnate and his sole living relation at the time, David Enrique. He remained an active force in Sutican affairs, contributing to various administrative positions throughout the following decades.

DAVID ENRIQUE (1523 - 1531)

His Highness the Prince of Sutica

The well-known historical fact that David Enrique had assumed his position as Prince due to kinship with the former Prince, Silv’ar Vanguard, conflicts with the claims that he was born a pureblood human in the Kingdom of Aesterwald. Assumed, therefore, to have been of at least part-Elven lineage, Prince David had been one of the Salvian merchants responsible for the founding of Sutica. Little else is known of his life or any other previous achievements.

Following his assumption of the mantle of Prince, out of sloth and disinterest he allowed Sutica to fall into disrepair, shutting down all administrative activity within the trading hub. He maintained his title while the entirety of the Sutican population slowly abandoned the village, constructing a larger town elsewhere sponsored by the Prince-Emeritus’ Architecture Guild. The Prince was effectively deposed in 1531, his rulership rendered null through an election held by the reformed Sutican administration. His name then faded into obscurity.

LILYANA la TERRE AMANT CARRINGTON-FAROE (1531 - 1650)

Her Serene Highness the Trade Princess of Sutica, Crown Princess of the Federation, Sovereign Lady of Ceru and the Southsea

The name Lilyana has come to be synonymous with the long-prevailing image of Sutica as a theocratic monarchy, famous for its adherence to the precepts of the Aengul Tahariae and principles of free trade. The first truly sovereign ruler of Sutica and the first bearer of the title of Trade Princess, her unprecedented reign of over a century secured her legacy as one of the longest-reigning monarchs in history, making her worthy of association with Sutica’s true golden age despite some of her excesses, and the anticlimactic conclusion of her rule.

The final of the three original refugees and Salvian patricians to bear the Sutican crown, Lilyana assumed leadership in 1531 following the disastrous reign of Prince David. The riots preceding the popular election which granted her the crown drove away her first of many husbands, though this did not break her resolve. Princess Lilyana’s very first decrees concerned the revival and sponsorship of those trade guilds neglected under her predecessor’s rule, in which she proved more than successful: the continued patronage of the Architecture Guild ushered in a number of civic developments beneficial to the populace, earning her the loyalty of the Sutican people. With the revival of the trade guilds also came a steady flow of coin and taxes, and the Sutican treasury grew larger day by day.

Princess Lilyana carefully maneuvered the volatile political scene of Vailor, guiding Sutica through the many social and political upheavals that the Qalasheen nation, still her nominal overlords, suffered through the years. Khalestine became Vandoria and Vandoria became Vanderguan, and with each regime change the bonds of Sutica to her liege weakened. Amidst the Eighteen Years’ War, turning to the advancing Orenian forces and with the eventual consent of the liberator of Vandoria, Saint Nafis, Sutica declared its independence and soon migrated from the southern shores, claiming as its territory a set of uninhabited isles perfect for a new set of chartered trade routes. The Treaty of Sutica, signed with Oren on the 16th of the First Seed (Godfrey’s Triumph), 1543, thus became the basis for Sutican independence and the date of its signing remained a public holiday in Sutica until her dissolution.

Now finally free to commit to her own affairs, the Sutican state was bolstered by a set of reforms promulgated by the Princess. Contrary to the beliefs of many misguided critics of a succeeding age, Princess Lilyana was the first to establish the basis for a hereditary monarchy, though none of her children were known to have survived into adulthood. Princess Lilyana spearheaded many legal efforts, publishing the Sutican Codex from which the Supreme Writ of Sutican Governance eventually came to be. The Princess ardently promoted her own faith among the Sutican people, having accepted the tenets of Taharian worship, which had entrenched itself in the previous coastal town, as her own religion and a formal guide to Sutican morality.

Still, it was at this time that the perception of Sutica as a refuge for undesirables and deviants came to form as a common prejudice. Sutica’s status as a haven of free travel and trade, protected according to its founding treaty by the might of the Orenian navy as well as its own, ushered in a massive growth of its population through migration. The rigid Taharian tenets often clashed with the newcomers’ diverse set of religious and moral beliefs of various intensity, and the Clerical Order had little choice but to tolerate these excesses, knowing that their own flock would diminish should they stifle the growth of Sutica through zealotry.

The Princess herself fueled the accusations of Sutican immorality through her own actions, attaining a reputation of infamy for her many lovers, the most famous of which would serve as her royal consorts - primarily rich merchants, such as Mylas Carrington, and military commanders, such as Reign Revlis and Karyssmov Faroe, interested in leveraging their political influence across the realms in Princess Lilyana’s favor. Derisively dubbed “Lustful Lilyana” by her political opponents, a mocking poem by the same name describing her romantic escapades surviving the centuries, the arrangements certainly benefited the Princess nonetheless - on one occasion, Prince-Consort Mylas himself stopped an attempt on her life.

The Descendant migration to Axios saw Sutica seize the majority of the southern continent of Ceru, a territory that would forever remain associated with the Sutican state, appropriately reflected in its many titles. Princess Lilyana personally oversaw the construction of a number of magnificent bridges and aqueducts, spanning much of Ceru. Her direct involvement in the affairs of state obtained Sutica a set of prosperous vassal polities. Swift and shrewd action prevented Sutica from becoming entangled in the infamous Coalition War of Axios, a set of treaties concluded with the nations of southern Tahn preserving its independence and neutrality in the wake of the Orenian collapse. The chaotic period that followed the Siege of Johannesburg affected Sutica as well, however - the Federation, as Sutica came to be known, fended off a coordinated assault, known as the Arewen Crisis, on the capital by many bands of brigands who had taken refuge in the woods of Ceru, and an insurrection of Canonist mercenaries later dubbed the Sutican Bush War, foreshadowing the religious conflicts of late Arcas and Almaris.

Princess Lilyana proved herself as a capable tactician in the final years of Axios. The tenets of Tahariae demanded unrestrained opposition to all dark magic and sorcery; the Princess often commanded the Clerical order in their confrontations with the roving bands of necromancers and their skeletal regiments which plagued Axios and Ceru at the time. A dire plot orchestrated by a number of rejects of the Druidic Order to utilize an army of raised shamblers to wipe out all Descendant life upon Ceru was foiled by a campaign led by the Princess, known as the War for Ceru.

In the campaign’s grand finale, after being driven out of the capital by the undead hordes, the Sutican forces consisting of Clerics, citizen militias and human and Elven mercenaries, led by Princess Lilyana, her final husband Lord Protector Karyssmov Faroe, and field captains Rhillen Amethil and Jan von Alstreim mounted a daring counterattack. The undead armies were trapped inside the capital, besieged, and systematically destroyed district by district following a breach directed across the city’s bridges previously repaired by the militia under heavy arrow fire. Ceru thus remained the only continent of Axios not overrun by unnatural constructs, while Tahn and Asul suffered greatly in the Cataclysm of Axios. The Suticans migrated nonetheless, joining the Descendant fleet on the realm’s collective journey to Atlas.

It was there that the Princess gradually began losing support, however. The golden age of Sutica was brought to an end when Princess Lilyana, fearful of having to settle near the Orcish warbands, claimed a remote set of isles, called the Drake Isles, in the frigid south of Atlas. The lack of naval trade and the utter distance from the bustling crossroads of central Atlas destroyed any prospects of establishing a trade monopoly. Attempts to remedy the situation were deemed insincere by the Sutican council and the patrician class. By then the Princess had been in power for a century; many of the Elven founders and original citizens of the golden age had passed away or migrated, leaving behind an impatient generation of Elven descendants and young humans. Furthermore, the Princess and her husband lost the backing of their Clerical compatriots by entering into frequent theological arguments with the Order, unwilling to compromise on the matters of the Order’s future.

Having no surviving children of her own, Princess Lilyana abandoned her notions of a hereditary monarchy and her plans to abdicate to her own consort. A number of suitable successors were considered. A popular rumor at the time was that the Princess wished to be succeeded by a human Marnan nobleman, lending much credence to the eventual royal claim of Alstreim - then a house recognized in Sutica for its mercenary contributions in the War for Ceru - in the decades to come. Still, the Princess eventually named as her heir the son of her old friend Silv’ar, Alem’shun Vanguard. The announcement came mere days before the Clerical Order took the matter of settling their dispute for good into their own hands, escalating the feud with Princess Lilyana and Lord Protector Karyssmov publicly by seizing them in the Sutican square. The couple was admonished and disconnected from their Aengulic patron, rendering them unable to continue their service as Clerics. The Princess abdicated in rage following the altercation, her choice of heir preventing a bloody confrontation between the Sutican guard and the Order. Princess Lilyana’s reign thus ended in shame, though her reputation was restored and her achievements viewed in a true positive light many decades after her abdication.

MONARCHS OF THE DECLINE AND THE REFORM ERA

Atlas and Arcas

ALEM’SHUN VANGUARD (1650 - 1672)

His Serene Highness the Trade Prince of Sutica, Crown Prince of the Federation, Sovereign Lord of the Drake Isles

Many in the Federation of Sutica carried high hopes for the reign of Prince Alem’shun. His assumption of the crown of his father, in the eyes of the citizenry, completed the circle and solidified the Elven house of Vanguard as the true rulers of Sutica, her very own royal family alike the ancient bloodlines of humanity. These hopes were quickly dashed once it became evident that the Prince had no interest in prolonging the line of Vanguard, and that his actions as Prince were driven primarily by need and a sense of responsibility towards maintaining the former domain of his father, rather than any true desire or skill to lead.

The Prince assumed the crown in the final months of 1650. Skillful with the pen and willing to personally conclude trade deals and treaties of non-aggression with the friendly realms of Atlas, Prince Alem’shun did little else. Though his active presence and his habit of meeting with the citizenry on his daily morning walk from the royal palace to the city square and back briefly invigorated the populace, the Prince had little drive to actually partake in any affairs of state save for attempting to maintain the facade of a powerful Sutica, still guided by the precepts of Silv’ar and Lilyana. Where the circumstances required initiative, he was reluctant to show any.

Throughout the first twenty years of his reign the city withered. One by one, the councilors abandoned their duties in the example of their Prince. The geographical position imparted unto Sutica by Princess Lilyana, combined with Prince Alem’shun’s indecisiveness, ended all major international trade to and from the Federation. Vassals and constituent provinces of the Federation refused to renew their oaths and opted instead to seek fiefs in the opportunistic realms of central Atlas, such as Renatus-Marna and Holm. As war raged across the mainland, waged for mastery over Mankind in repeated coalition wars and between the Orcs and Elves, Sutica pursued isolation in her neutrality, severing all diplomatic ties out of inactivity. This period came to be known as the Decline.

The one lasting legacy of Prince Alem’shun was his comprehensive reform of the Sutican Codex. It is unknown what spurred on his desire to actively partake in legal reform, but the Prince showed unusual and considerable skill in navigating the old and already burdensome legal system of Sutica. The Sutican Codex was split into the Supreme Writ of Governance, paving the way for constitutional forms of governance, and the Sutican Code of Law, outlining the Sutican criminal and civil code. The Supreme Writ, in one form or another, survived the reign of Prince Alem’shun by far.

Prince Alem’shun opted to willingly end his mostly uneventful and declining reign. He abdicated in 1672, selecting the commander of his guard, the sole councilor not to waver in her duties, Cyrene Riel, to serve as his successor. A popular quip at the time was that the Prince picked the first and only person he saw remaining in the city during his final morning walk. He was granted quarters in the royal palace and withdrew from the public eye.

CYRENE RIEL (1672 - 1692)

Her Serene Highness the Trade Princess of Sutica, Crown Princess of the Federation, Sovereign Lady of the Drake Isles

Elevated to the crown at Prince Alem’shun’s behest, Cyrene was eager to lead, proactive and authoritative: in short, everything the former Prince had not been. A Wood Elf from the Dominion of Malin, a veteran of both the Sutican guard and the Dominion’s many conflicts upon Axios and Atlas, from which she bore many visible scars, Princess Cyrene commanded considerable respect among the remaining Sutican citizenry at the time of her elevation. Swift and broad steps were taken by the fledgling Princess to restore the functionality of Sutica’s council and the former trade guilds, and were generally welcomed by the populace after twenty years of utter stagnation.

Princess Cyrene pursued a vision of a neutral Sutica, yet still active in worldly affairs. The ever-shifting course of the politics of Atlas, however, waited for no one; the long years of the Decline had left the nation unequipped to wrestle with the challenges of modern Atlas. Devoid of allies and trade partners, stranded in an increasingly hostile world which respected no claims of neutrality, and riddled with internal crime which flourished throughout the period of failing state institutions, Princess Cyrene was handed no easy task.

The first and foremost enemy of Sutica was the plague that became endemic in her territories, one completely rooted out only a century and a half later during the Canonist Reclamation - that of rogue magi. The historical Sutican openness to all sorts of migrant societies and guilds included a high degree of tolerance for magic guilds and various informal circles of magi, voidal or otherwise. Prior to the Decline, powerful Clerical presence and the diligence of the Sutican guard were enough to keep this magical sprawl under control, preventing any attempt by rogue elements to subvert the authority of the state or cause mass harm to the citizenry. With the collapse of most Sutican institutions during Prince Alem’shun’s reign, however, rogue magi were allowed free reign to run rampant, their cabals supplanting the more common crime syndicates of pickpockets, thieves and beggars.

Princess Cyrene’s government and its agents of law enforcement attempted to tackle this issue to no avail, often reduced to watching helplessly as numerous rogue magi circles such as the Thanians took their feuds to the city streets, often with great loss of innocent life. Oftentimes the only ones capable of breaking up these public fights were the Princess herself and her elite guard, at a great cost to her personal image and often risking her life and the lives of her bodyguards. The magi went as far as to seize a village not even a mile away from the capital’s gates, turning it into a seat of cultist rituals known as Blackwater. This chaotic period marked the rise of the Uialben family, a cabal of criminal magi who saw an opportunity to expand their influence to Sutica through both legal and illegal trades.

The second critical issue was the unwelcome attention of two hostile groups - the Orcish Clan of Raguk, and the infamous Reiver brigands. The Orcish nation of Krugmar had on occasions conducted raids upon Princess Lilyana’s Federation in Axios, but signed treaties of non-aggression with Prince Alem’shun; however, upon witnessing Sutica’s vulnerability during the Decline, Clan Raguk was empowered to harass and plunder the Sutican isles once more. The irony of Princess Lilyana’s decision to stifle Sutican trade, indirectly aiding the Decline, so she might settle outside of the reach of the Orcish deserts was not lost on Clan Raguk - a swath of unclaimed, fertile land a mere hours’ ride from the Sutican bridges was seized by the Clan and transformed into a forward camp for raids on Sutica. Princess Cyrene often headed the confrontations with Raguk slaver bands, for whom the tall Sutican walls were often just a temporary obstacle between them and their prey.

The Reivers took to imposing tolls upon the Sutican bridges whenever the Raguks were sated, on occasion even killing travelers and merchants headed to Sutica who dared attempt to challenge their roadblocks. Princess Cyrene and her council had more luck handling the Reiver threat, however, concluding a secret deal with their leadership to become a tributary and offer their brigands safe haven in the city in exchange for protection. The Reivers, though generally regarded as dishonorable, did uphold their end of the bargain, helping counter Raguk raids whenever they could and sparing known Sutican citizens and their wealth upon the roads.

At this point two fatal flaws of Princess Cyrene’s character were exposed. Her dealings with the Reivers, framed through the lens of worldly politics, revealed her inexperience in dealing with international diplomacy. The Reiver protection agreement, once made public, drew the ire of their sworn enemy, the resurgent Empire of Man, towards Sutica; the effectiveness of the Sutican diplomatic mission to the Empire was severely blunted by the loud opinions of many prominent Elven citizens of Sutica, who equated the Empire with the previous iterations of Oren, infamous for their widespread persecution of Elves. Furthermore, the presumed death of her second husband saw the Princess seek solace with a string of lovers, much like one of her predecessors. While Princess Lilyana, however, sought connections that favored the Sutican state, Princess Cyrene caused a number of domestic and diplomatic scandals by offering various concessions to her partners. On one such occasion, Sutica almost found itself a vassal once more thanks to a careless promise of joint rule offered to one of her consorts, a high-ranking military officer from the Dominion of Malin.

The internal political situation in Sutica slowly took a turn for the worse as well. By the midpoint of Princess Cyrene’s reign, the Clerical Order had greatly diminished in influence, though it still enjoyed the support of a few families of Sutican patricians. In contrast, a political faction arose which sought to discredit the Order by pinning the failures of Princess Lilyana’s and Prince Alem’shun’s reigns on their once vast influence. This faction, which soon came to employ much of the Sutican council and inevitably the Princess herself, believed that a concentrated effort to undo Sutica’s Clerical heritage was the only path to progress. The remnants of the Order, thus, aligned themselves with Princess Cyrene’s political opponents, gearing up for a confrontation.

One such opponent came to be Jan von Alstreim, one of the Sutican-aligned commanders in the Siege of Sutica-upon-Ceru. Though he had since attained greater fame as an Imperial Dragon Knight, Jan von Alstreim still maintained, in addition to his properties in the city, cordial ties with the Sutican state and Princess Cyrene, a friend and compatriot from the wars of Axios and early Atlas. At one point a critic of the Clerical Order, a shift in their dispositions occurred when the Princess inflicted an undocumented, real or perceived, slight upon the Imperial. He responded by gradually severing his ties with the Princess, declaring himself in opposition of the Sutican council.

The political crisis escalated when, in 1682, the Sutican council attempted to pawn off what they believed was Princess Lilyana’s royal crown, imbued with Clerical powers. Put up for auction at a starting bid of nearly twenty thousand coins, the display was meant to signify Sutica’s final rejection of its former Clerical values; its steep starting bid intent on discouraging any real buyers and thus presenting the relic as obsolete and unwanted, justifying its eventual ceremonial destruction. This plan was foiled when Jan von Alstreim simply bought the crown, paying for its asked value in coin - therefore revealing it to be Prince Alem’shun’s lost crown, a relic whose true value was in fact priceless to the state. The act shamed Princess Cyrene and her council greatly, and nonetheless earned him the support of the Clerical Order. Jan von Alstreim refused to return the crown to the council or sell it back to them at double the price, cultivating from that moment on the old rumor that he had been among the potential heirs to Sutica considered by Princess Lilyana. To this day, the so-called Opal Crown remains in Alstreim custody.

The situation continued to deteriorate throughout the next seven years. In response to what he perceived as continued insults from the Sutican council, Jan von Alstreim assembled the so-called Boomsteel Plot: a plan to storm the Sutican capital with a force of Imperial allies and Gladewynn mercenaries, aided by sympathetic citizens and members of the Clerical Order from within the walls, to arrest and depose Princess Cyrene and declare himself King of Sutica, fostering an alliance between the Order and his Canonist lieges in the Empire. For the purposes of the plot, the cultist village of Blackwater was purged from its dark mage inhabitants and turned into a forward post of the Empire.

On the 15th of Malin’s Welcome (Owyn’s Flame), 1689, the forces of Jan von Alstreim departed from Blackwater, breached the city gates unopposed and soon overwhelmed the meager garrison protecting Princess Cyrene and the council. Only one fatality was reported on the defenders’ side; the rest were subdued and disarmed. The Princess and the remainder of the captives were then transported to the Sutican throne room, tailed by a gathering of alarmed citizenry, and presented with an ultimatum, which Princess Cyrene is known to have bitterly rejected. What happened next is unclear, despite the many witnesses present. A version of the story peddled by the conspirators themselves claimed that the Princess was met with summary execution, and that she was then replaced by a necromantic construct or a decoy for the purpose of continued resistance. Others claim that the Princess was merely wounded by the mercenaries in retaliation and abandoned, seeing she could not be reasoned with. In any case, the historical fact is that the strike, successful as it may have been, coincided with the beginning of the Third Atlas Coalition War, a conflict that employed both Imperial and Gladewynn troops. The strike force, including Jan von Alstreim himself, abandoned Sutica to bolster the Imperial front, leaving only a token garrison behind in Blackwater.

The outbreak of the war proved to be the long-needed relief Sutica sought. While now the Empire of Man regarded Sutica with clear hostility, military operations in the north of Atlas prevented them from devoting much attention to Sutica. Angry and dejected, Princess Cyrene, or her double, nonetheless resisted the impulse to openly declare support for the anti-Imperial coalition, attempting to preserve Sutica’s nominal neutrality. Indeed, the war lifted much of the pressure levied upon Sutica by its other enemies - rogue magi, Reivers, and Raguk Orcs flocked to join the coalition’s ranks, many meeting their ends in the three years it took for the Empire to crush the coalition. The purge of the Orcs was so thorough that not a single Raguk returned to their raiding camp by Sutica.

Princess Cyrene’s reign did not survive long enough for her to enjoy this relief. In 1692, the Princess abruptly resigned from her duties and abdicated. The prevailing belief is that the Sutican council, spent by their unsuccessful campaign against the Clerical Order, the Alstreim rebellion, and dealing with the fallout of the Princess’ scandals, forced this abdication in a quiet and bloodless coup confined to the Sutican palace. The theory that it was a simple matter of dismissing the body double from their service is still unproven. In any case, Cyrene Riel was soon exiled from her former domain, ending her twenty-year reign.

LILITH HELENSON-ANARION (1692 - 1727, first reign)

Her Serene Highness the Trade Princess of Sutica, Crown Princess of the Federation, Sovereign Lady of the Drake Isles and the Whispering Isles

The former Minister of Law, Lilith Anarion, succeeded Princess Cyrene under still unclarified circumstances. It was rumored that she led the palace coup against Cyrene, effectively forcing the Princess to consent to relinquishing the crown to her. Seeing as Princess Cyrene had no children, a reasonable assumption is that Lilith, her second-in-command, would have been named her successor regardless. It was obvious, however, that any love between them was lost: the new Princess soon barred Cyrene from returning to Sutica.

Princess Lilith dedicated the first few years of her first reign to securing Sutica’s safety in the aftermath of the Third Atlas Coalition War. With the Raguk raiding parties all but exterminated by the combined forces of Gladewynn and the Empire, and the Reivers dispersed in the same manner, Princess Lilith committed her efforts to salvaging Sutica’s diplomatic ties with the Empire and the Alstreim claimant. Concessions were made to Jan von Alstreim in exchange for his withdrawal and implicit recognition of Princess Lilith’s position. This did not prevent sporadic Imperial raids, however; it took almost ten years of low-level hostilities for Sutica and the Empire to agree on the terms of a lasting peace. The Imperial-Sutican Treaty of Peace was finally signed in 1702. In exchange for a lump sum of a hundred thousand minas and preferential port access, and a shipment of food directed towards Imperial provinces hit by the war and the Vaeyl blizzard, the Empire obliged itself to defend Sutica in the event of foreign aggression. The Imperial forces would lend their aid to the Sutican guard in a few altercations against several non-Raguk slaver bands.

Although the Princess had been, during her tenure as Minister of Law, one of the councilors attempting to curtail the Clerical Order and their history in Sutica, her experience with the Boomsteel Plot proved any continuation of the Order’s persecution untenable. Boasting a stubborn and confrontational personality, Princess Lilith nonetheless reneged on her anti-Clerical creed and cooperated with the remnants of the Order to restore the sullied reputation of Princess Lilyana. The largest remaining Clerical family, the house of Avern, was rehabilitated and their contributions to Sutica formally recognized, leading to a joint Avern-Sutica effort to restore Princess Lilyana’s grand library. On the part of Sutica, the effort was spearheaded by the commander of the guard and the royal consort, Utaria Helenson. The Princess saw no need to conceal her preference towards women, and thus soon made the nature of their relationship publicly known. Though a number of traditionalist groups across Atlas decried the Princess as an example of Sutican deviancy, the announcement did not significantly hinder Sutican diplomacy in any way. A public vow renewal of the royal pair was announced for 1706, and the proceedings eventually took place in Arcas without a single incident.

Princess Lilith and her consort personally delegated the Sutican migration to the continent of Arcas through the passes of Serrimor, along with the caravans of other Descendants; the Vaeyl blizzard had rendered the Sutican fleet effectively useless. The new city of Sutica was constructed upon a southern delta, raised in part through foreign donations. Among the benefactors were the house of Alstreim and a Dwarven clan, and peculiarly, the family of Uialben as well. The Princess thought them a force among the remaining rogue magi that could be harnessed to weaken the other circles and to work in favor of strengthening the state’s authority, and so a careful probe was directed towards the family, inviting them to place their legal businesses under Sutican patronage. This signaled the events to come, greatly increasing Uialben influence within Sutica.

Despite Princess Lilith’s best efforts to fulfill the promise of true Sutican neutrality and lasting peace for its inhabitants, however, the early years of Arcas proved to be just as turbulent for Sutica as for the other nations of the realm. Angered by the preferential treatment offered to the Uialben family, many rogue magi did not fall in line, opting to show their discontent by repeated, though unsuccessful, assassination attempts directed towards the Princess and her consort. In 1709, a scandal erupted when a report released by the Canonist Church named the former Lord Protector and royal consort, Karyssmov Faroe, as the leader of a dark mage cabal operating in numerous realms, including Sutica. The former Trade Princess Cyrene, or her body double, was rumored to be involved as well, implicated in a series of murders and disappearances throughout the Sutican capital. Despite a token effort of the Sutican guard to assist the Canonist Church in their investigation, no concrete proof was found; a fair few foreign political institutions nonetheless blamed Sutica as the origin of this cabal.

Sutican neutrality was put to the test when the defining monumental event of Arcas occurred in 1715: the Great War, also known as the War of Two Emperors, sundered the Empire of Man apart, pitting the rump state of Renatus and her allies against the majority of her former vassals, united in rebellion against the Imperial crown beneath the banner of Joseph the Pretender. Sutica, it was believed, remained without her protector. Despite a public declaration of neutrality, the Josephite rebels frequently took detours from the Renatian front to harass the “degenerate” Sutican citizenry, going as far as to attempt a false flag attack on Princess Lilith in 1717, dressed in makeshift Renatian uniforms.

The Imperium Renatum, however, acted swiftly to honor the old alliance when the men of the Sutican guard saw through the ruse, signaling for help. A detachment of the fearsome Imperial Dragon Knights, including the aged Jan von Alstreim himself, charged into the Sutican capital, cutting down the Josephite raiders. What followed next was a historic meeting between Princess Lilith and the Empress of Renatus, Adeline: the Princess agreed for Sutica to undertake an offensive action beyond its borders for the first time in history, declaring war on the Josephite “empire” of Oren-Marna over this severe breach of neutrality. Sutica began its involvement by delivering a shipment of weapons and supplies to the Dragon Knights. Much of these supplies were, curiously, provided by the Uialben family and its chief blacksmith, Mika Uialben.

Following the Siege of Helena, an expeditionary force of two hundred Sutican soldiers commanded by Amelia Avern and Albion of Sutica joined ranks with the Renatian Legion, participating in the Battles of the Silversea and Königswald. Both confrontations resulted in a resounding victory for the Imperium Renatum and the Sutican expeditionary force, which then returned to Sutica without a single casualty. That is not to say that the expeditionary force achieved this without seeing any combat: Captain Amelia Avern was praised by Renatian sources as having personally slain five Josephites at the Silversea. This curiosity was noted for a rather specific and peculiar reason: Captain Avern was meant to help direct the Sutican forces from the safety of the war camp, seeing as she was born a cripple without arms.

Though Sutica now numbered among the victors of the Great War thanks to Princess Lilith, it never came to reap the benefits. The succeeding Imperial regime, formed by a Josephite-aligned restoration government despite the movement’s failure in the war itself, promptly annulled all of its foreign treaties, including the Imperial alliance with Sutica and all war reparations owed to the Federation. The final years of Princess Lilith’s first reign were spent isolated from Sutica’s former ally. She worked with her council to update and amend the Supreme Writ of Governance and the Sutican code of law, adding to the Writ provisions for a Sutican chivalric order. These reforms effectively disbanded the Federation as well, officially renaming the polity to the Free State of Sutica.

In 1727, Princess Lilith announced her decision to step down. The nature of her relationship left her with no heirs; she shocked the Sutican public by naming Mika Uialben as her successor, leaving the nation to the mercy of his syndicate. This decision merely confirmed the previously obtained Uialben primacy over competing circles of magi, enshrining their influence within Sutica until their final exile in the Canonist Reclamation.

MONARCHS OF THE FIRST UIALBEN USURPATION

Arcas

MIKA GOLDHAND-UIALBEN (1727 - 1735, first reign)

His Serene Highness the Trade Prince of Sutica, Sovereign Lord of the Whispering Isles and New Ceru

Mika Uialben, a mage and blacksmith loyal both to the principles of his Elven family and the precepts of the Dwarven Clan of Goldhand, of which he became an honorary member thanks to his exceptional blacksmithing techniques, assumed the Sutican crown upon Princess Lilith’s abdication without much hesitation. His ascension to the throne was greeted with much enthusiasm both among his family’s allies and in the Grand Kingdom of Urguan, the home of his clan; the triumphant return of Urguan to the political scene of the world after decades of isolation, achieved through successful meddling in Imperial affairs after the ill-fated Three-Month War in 1725, neatly coincided with Prince Mika’s first reign.

The Dwarven realm also welcomed Prince Mika’s coronation through means other than mere verbal congratulations. With approval from the Grand King, the Prince now enjoyed limitless financial and military assistance from Clan Goldhand. He put this assistance to good use in his pursuit of several key goals of his rule, in return granting the Dwarven clergy permission to raise a lavish temple to their pantheon in Sutican territory in 1727. The two realms also concluded a set of treaties inconsequential to the average Sutican resident, yet granting many other concessions to Urguani citizens within Sutican territory. It seemed that Sutica was slowly headed towards the loss of its sovereignty.

Virtually all of the Prince’s edicts not solidifying his secondary loyalties to Urguan were instead concerned with strengthening the position of the Uialben syndicate within Sutica. The Sutican code of law was amended in 1730 to legalize and ease business practices previously illicitly utilized by the syndicate. Gambling and organized street fights under Uialben patronage soon became widespread in the capital, and the guards were instructed to accept bribes from Uialben associates and look the other way if they publicly dabbled in illegal magicks. Rogue magi who failed to pay homage to the Uialbens were not granted such leeway: the Prince empowered the guard to raid and break up these dissenting circles of magi, such as the Thanian remnants. The Uialben underground thus thrived at the expense of both the Sutican taxpayer and rival criminals, sometimes quite literally: Prince Mika authorized his Dwarven assistants to greatly expand the city’s system of sewers and catacombs, building an entire subterranean complex to facilitate the Uialben syndicate.

Prince Mika thought it fit to significantly expand the authority of his immediate family, in the image of traditional human royal families. His human apostate concubine was granted the title of Trade Queen-Consort, citing the Supreme Writ which included the provision for a potential human monarch of Sutica and his consort to style themselves Trade King and Queen. His own grandfather, Terr’hi “Mystery” Uialben, enjoyed the style of “Trade Father” and legal prerogatives rivaling the Prince himself. These Uialbens by name and blood abused their newfound influence to pursue policies often countering the formal Sutican agenda laid out and obeyed by Prince Mika and his government.

This arrangement, quite naturally, proved to be Prince Mika’s downfall. In 1735, Terr’hi Uialben seized control of the syndicate’s assets, immediately moving to challenge the Prince’s position in a daring coup. Prince Mika was swiftly detained by his own bodyguards, now on his grandfather’s payroll, before any attempt of sending a relief force from Urguan could be reasonably entertained. Terr’hi accused the Prince of putting his Urguani loyalties above the family’s needs, but offered to him a duel for the position of Trade Prince in place of forced deposition and exile. Prince Mika accepted and faced off against Terr’hi’s champion, his own aunt, Myssy Uialben; he promptly conceded the fight after a token hit or two and abdicated to his grandfather, despite threatening to deliver Sutica to Urguan as a vassal if he won. This concession allowed him to remain in Sutica, opting to begrudgingly acknowledge Terr’hi’s leadership in both state and family affairs.

TERR’HI UIALBEN (1735 - 1739)

His Serene Highness the Trade Prince of Sutica, Sovereign Lord of the Whispering Isles

Terr’hi Uialben’s, or as he preferred to be styled, Trade Prince Mystery’s seizure of the crown from his grandson marked the high point of the so-called First Uialben Usurpation. While Prince Mika had obtained his position through legal and legitimate means, there is no denying that the nature of his rule set a precedent for criminal consolidations of power in Sutica in the future. Prince Mystery applied in his takeover the cutthroat principles of the Uialben syndicate without restraint, setting the scene for the events to come: every Uialben and Uialben-adjacent monarch of Sutica would, from now on, gain their crown through nepotism or unlawful seizures of power through coups, and most of them would violently lose it in a similar manner.

Prince Mystery had made a name for himself during the mid-years of Atlas, first attaining worldwide infamy for a series of brutal murders by his hand, committed in the capital of the Crown of Renatus-Marna, Senntisten. While the Renatian records mention in detail how this affair led to his public execution after the investigation efforts of Adelheid (the Elder) von Alstreim and her band of inquisitors had uncovered his guilt, it was evident that, clearly through the intercession of ungodly magicks, this did not end his criminal career. His name was since mentioned in a number of Sutican guard reports on various drug and murder-related Uialben crime sprees in the capital, noting at one point that an attempt had been made to curtail his criminal activities by binding him to an arcane inhibitor in the Sutican dungeons, intended to banish any villainous motivations from his mind. Clearly, this punishment had little effect in the long run, proving to have been merely a temporary setback. With the general amnesty offered to all Uialben prisoners and former convicts by Princess Lilith, Terr’hi Uialben returned to prominence within the Sutican criminal underworld.

One of the darkest eras of Sutica commenced under Prince Mystery’s rule. With zero regard given to the Supreme Writ or the Sutican code of law, the Prince completed the fusion of the state apparatus with the Uialben syndicate’s criminal structure and hierarchy. Enforcers of the syndicate, often family members or close associates, now occupied positions of merit in the state equal to their ranks in the Uialben organization. Sutica’s profits now primarily depended on the drug trade, made legal in Sutican territory by a ministerial decree of Prince Mystery’s government. A policy of cultural “Uialbenization” was pursued by the Prince’s puppet ministries, intent on curtailing the diverse cultures and religions of the Sutican people to replace them with adherence to a Uialben-sponsored, drug-addled lifestyle of deviancy.

Under the guise of maintaining the principles of Sutican neutrality, Prince Mystery and his Uialben government pursued an aggressive foreign policy against those realms with either a strong syndicate presence or those that fostered a staunch ideological opposition to his rule. A posturing stance was assumed towards the nations of Morsgrad and Haelun’or, both traditionally strictly opposed to the drug trade. Attempts were made in 1736 to replace the leaderships of Vira’ker and Llyria, minor Elven states in the south of Arcas, with members of the Uialben syndicate. Widespread corruption and incompetence of the formal structures of Sutica’s ministries under Uialben control made these attempts largely untenable.

It is generally understood that Prince Mystery’s rule ended the same way it began. Sensing temporary weakness in the highest echelons of Uialben Sutica in the late months of 1739, his own daughter and former champion for the throne, Myssy Uialben, compelled the minister-enforcers to support her own bid for the Sutican crown. Prince Mystery agreed to a compromise in order to avoid an all-out power struggle, conceding to his abdication to Myssy in exchange for maintaining an advisory position in the family business. This agreement was presented to the Sutican public as a routine succession.

MYSSY UIALBEN (1739 - 1748)

Her Serene Highness the Trade Princess of Sutica, Sovereign Lady of the Whispering Isles

Myssy Uialben, dubbed the “Savior of Sutica” at first by her Uialben underlings, claimed leadership of Sutica and the Uialben syndicate at what turned out to be a challenging, hard time for both. Considered to be a ruthless, uncompromising administrator, and by some equally as unreasonable as her relatives, Princess Myssy showed unusual clarity in her decisions to help bring back Sutica from the brink of Uialben-induced collapse.

Immediately after Princess Myssy’s assumption of the crown, an attempt was made by the former Prince, Mika Uialben, to regain the crown lost to her interference as Terr’hi’s champion. Instead of attempting to sway Uialbenite enforcers to his cause, Mika pulled his connections to secure himself a loyal force of Goldhand Dwarves. Mika and fifteen of his soldiers surrounded the Princess in the Sutican tavern on the 12th of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1739. Masterful command of her emotions and her restraint prevented the Princess from losing her head; she managed to compel Mika to negotiate without the presence of his Dwarven allies. He posed an ultimatum to her in private, which the Princess countered with an ultimatum of her own: she bluffed, insisting that she had been caught so easily as part of her plan to spur Mika to action, her own soldiers prepared to ransack his domain and capture him on his way out of the city should any harm come to her. Mika conceded to her terms, relinquishing his claim to the throne and withdrawing his Goldhands. Princess Myssy never forgave him for this attempt.

A few months following Princess Myssy’s coronation and attempted dethronement, Arcas erupted into a conflict which would soon be known as the Rubern War. In 1740, following a clash of Imperial and Morsgrad-aligned troops at Rubern, a state of war came into existence between the Imperial domains and the Morsgrad-dominated Alliance of Independent States. Both sides were equally willing to make use of Sutica, a warm sea port, as a pawn in their political chess game. Princess Myssy therefore carefully exercised her powers in the Uialben syndicate, mindful of the earlier attempt on her life, to lessen the impact of their criminal activities on the nation’s affairs, fearful that any excuse could serve as a pretext for invasion.

Throughout the first phase of the Rubern War, Princess Myssy led a cautious foreign policy while working to return the Sutican ministries to a semblance of normalcy. Sutican troops were often committed to actions against the rampant voidal tear threat plaguing early Arcas, but no more than that. Though the policy of cultural “Uialbenization” resumed, the Princess personally weakened its efforts in a bid to regain the loyalty of the common folk. While gambling and street fights retained their popularity in the capital city, Princess Myssy greatly restricted the drug trade. This action lost her the loyalties of a number of Uialben enforcers, but through calculated actions of her die-hard supporters in the syndicate and the Sutican armed forces, their influence was curtailed. This weakened the syndicate’s position as a whole, however.

A major turning point of Princess Myssy’s reign was the bicentennial celebration of Sutica’s independence in 1743. A historical piece published by Sutica’s librarian and the former royal consort, Utaria Helenson, ignited patriotic fervor in the Sutican populace. Letters in support, sent by those lines fondly mentioned in the missive, such as the house of Alstreim, flooded the Sutican library and prompted mass festivities; at the same time, representatives of the Uialben syndicate such as Prince-Emeritus Mystery reacted disfavorably, insistent that the missive downplayed their supposedly generous contributions to the state. In their eyes, the Princess implicitly took a side against the family by allowing the celebrations to continue. To protect herself from the possible outrage of any disgruntled associates, Princess Myssy put the surviving Thanian magi to service as her personal guard.

The final years of Princess Myssy’s rule saw the Sutican royal institutions strengthened somewhat, and the influence of the Uialben syndicate faded almost entirely as a result. Those in the family who chose not to leave their life of crime behind rallied behind Mika Uialben, or broke off from the syndicate as rogue magi. The remainder, in a fated reverse of Prince Mystery’s policy, integrated peacefully within the Sutican institutions. In 1748, Princess-Emerita Lilith triumphantly entered Sutica with her entourage to the cheering of the crowds after many years of absence. A meeting with Princess Myssy and Princes-Emeriti Terr’hi and Mika produced an agreement that ended the First Uialben Usurpation, restoring Lilith to the throne of Sutica. It is believed that Princess Myssy consented to her own abdication to avoid civil war, the course of which would have almost certainly assured foreign intervention.

LILITH HELENSON-ANARION (1748 - 1762, second reign)

Her Serene Highness the Trade Princess of Sutica, Sovereign Lady of the Whispering Isles

Lilith Anarion’s glorious return to the throne of Sutica marked the first time in Sutican history that one of her monarchs had obtained a second term after their initial surrender of power. Princess Lilith was welcomed by a nation exhausted by two decades of Uialben criminal rule, their numerous attempts to subjugate the Sutican spirit remaining a lasting stain on the nation’s history. Princess Lilith and her restored consort, Utaria, immediately began work on restoring the primacy of the Supreme Writ, so often ignored in years past. Princess Lilith vowed to rule justly and always in accord with the Supreme Writ’s precepts.

The first challenge to Princess Lilith’s authority came from abroad. The Orcish and Dark Elven nations of Krugmar and Renelia-Gladewynn, allies bound by the shared practice of Shamanism, and both members of the Alliance of Independent States, sought to take advantage of the post-Uialben power vacuum in Sutica. Renelia-Gladewynn, supposedly provoked by Sutica refusing to recognize their independence, led the efforts to present Sutica with an ultimatum in early 1753, declaring hostilities before any response could even be feasibly delivered with the intent of strong-arming Sutica into hasty acceptance.

The ultimatum concerned the extradition of Prince-Emeritus Terr’hi and another Uialbenite official, Xavis Ashwood, for the supposed practice of dark magic in Renelia, and demanded that the Renelian state be granted jurisdiction over Sutican territory in regards to Renelian criminals. Princess Lilith conceded to the former demand, but the two were later reported to have survived their arrest and trial; in any case, Renelia and Krugmar were prevented from intensifying their pressure on Sutica by a string of sudden Orenian counter offensives on the Rubern front. This attempt had attracted Orenian attention as well: the Duke of Helena informally offered the Sutican government a garrison of Orenian cuirassiers as a deterrent. This suggestion concerned the Princess greatly, foreshadowing certain Orenian intentions made public two decades after.

Another obstacle to completely restoring the rule of law in Sutica came from within. The collapse of the combined Uialben syndicate led to the resurgence of many circles of rogue magi previously subdued by their efforts. Princess Lilith attempted carefully to balance her approach between these cabals and the surviving Uialbens rallied behind Prince-Emeritus Mika. Both Mika and one of the rogue magi leaders, Blair Fester, were compelled to direct their efforts to serve under the restored Sutican ministries, led by adept career administrators such as Jon Snowell and James Nevermore, and Admiral Honour Rackham.

Throughout her second reign, Princess Lilith made ample efforts to once more attain the good graces of a familiar house, hoping to obtain an informal alliance. The successor of Jan von Alstreim, Corwin, was invited to resettle the family business in Sutica in the wake of the house’s exile from Oren following the Josephite resurgence. Much like with the Uialben syndicate twenty years prior, the Sutican state offered preferential treatment to the legal trading subsidiary of Alstreim, Alstreim Ventures & Steel, in exchange for considerable donations in both weaponry and coin. This venture, celebrating its centennial in Sutica, stayed in the legal domain, of course, but the family attained an advisory voice upon the Sutican council thanks to its successes.

The defining event of Princess Lilith’s second reign was the Arcas-wide campaign of Athera, an effort that briefly put even the raging Rubern War on hold. The nations of Arcas, including Sutica, pledged their navies to an expedition to the lost continent of Athera, once home to the Descendant realms, where it was prophesied that locating an ancient draconic entity would reveal the details of an upcoming cataclysm looming over Arcas. For Sutica, this meant an effort to restore the legacy of the Salvian Republic in Athera, the predecessor of the Sutican state.

The Sutican expedition, commanded by Admiral Rackham, set sail for Athera on the 12th of the Grand Harvest (Tobias’ Bounty), 1756. After a three months’ journey, the fleet made landfall upon the shores near the former capital of Salvus in Athera. The reclaimed ruins were fortified and settled by a small group of willing, diverse colonists, and Princess Lilith triumphantly declared the formation of the Sutican dependency of New Sutica (later established as the Crown of Atheran Salvus), with its capital at Vanguard’s Rest (later renamed to Fausten). Among the Sutican adventurers who braved the trip to Athera was Corwin von Alstreim, who reportedly became the first Waldenian to set foot inside the old Kingdom of Aesterwald in over two hundred years.

The expedition was concluded by 1758. The Sutican navy soon returned to Arcas in good order, though one ship was lost off the coast of Athera. It was then that Princess Lilith foresaw a definite conclusion to her rule of Sutica. The Princess, wishing to put an end to the constant erosion of state authority through frequent coups, envisioned transforming the monarchy to an entirely constitutional state, keeping the Trade Monarch as a constitutional safeguard without much executive power.

On the 13th of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1759, the Princess amended the Supreme Writ of Governance to facilitate the transfer of all executive authority to the newly formed Sutican Triumvirate, consisting of Jon Snowell, Blair Fester, and Corwin von Alstreim. The Triumvirate promised to exercise their newfound powers in accordance with the Supreme Writ, and to aid in the pursuit of justice and prosperity. The Princess had intended for Jon Snowell to step down from the Triumvirate and succeed her as Prince after a transition period of eight years; however, her hopes and plans were dashed in 1762 when Blair Fester convinced Jon to attempt to extort an early abdication from the Princess. The two Triumviri cited an obscure passage in the Writ that justified this action, claiming that Princess Lilith had overstepped her boundaries as a constitutional safeguard in a minor legal ruling. The constitutional crisis was resolved through the joint intervention of the third Triumvir, Corwin von Alstreim and Mika Uialben’s troops, who had returned to prominence in Sutica as a commander of the Free State’s Cerulean Watch. The Princess abdicated on her own terms soon after, unexpectedly altering her choice of successor to Corwin von Alstreim. The old royal ambitions of Alstreim were thus fulfilled through a show of loyalty.

THE CANONIST KING

Arcas

CORWIN von ALSTREIM (1762 - 1783)

His Royal Majesty the King of Sutica and King in Atheran Salvus, Triumvir of the State, Sovereign Lord of the Whispering Isles

No monarch of Sutica had left a more significant and lasting mark on her modern history than Corwin von Alstreim, her first Canonist, human King after centuries of non-human, Taharian and pagan rule; and until the Canonist Reclamation and throughout, he stood as the most shining exemplar of a powerful, progressive Sutican future stolen by Uialbenite reactionaries. Born in the hereditary lands of Alstreim in the Empire of Man in Atlas, widely respected outside of Oren as an anointed Imperial Dragon Knight and an elder veteran of the Great War and the Rubern War, Corwin vowed to transform Sutica into a lawful, prosperous seafaring nation, the undisputed overlord of the southern seas and shores.

Corwin declared himself King on the 23rd of Sun’s Smile, 1762, making use of the Supreme Writ’s provisions for the elevation of the Sutican principality to a kingdom should a human monarch assume the crown, previously abused during Prince Mika’s rule to grant his concubine the style of Queen-Consort. The declaration was read aloud in the Sutican capital before the cheering crowds of Suticans and delivered to the Canonist Church, to which King Corwin adhered as a human of Imperial lineage. Pontiff James II, who had already met with King Corwin in his previous exclusive capacity as a Triumvir in 1760, conveyed his support to Sutica’s first Canonist monarch, who promised to fund the construction of a Sutican abbey. On the account of this support, which provided a significant boost to Sutica’s initial diplomatic standing, the other two members of the Triumvirate agreed to also pledge their support to King Corwin’s rule. Jon Snowell, notably, remained loyal throughout the entirety of King Corwin’s reign despite the fact that the throne had previously been promised to him.

The elevation of a sitting Triumvir to the throne posed a peculiar precedent: King Corwin served both as a constitutional safeguard and in executive capacity. His prerogative was exclusively used for the betterment of Sutica, however, allowing the Triumvirate to commit to efficient reforms with the express consent of the King. Firstly, King Corwin put his military expertise to use to, along with the efforts of Mika Uialben, bolster the ranks of the Cerulean Watch through recruitment. In just three years, membership in the Watch increased threefold. This proved to be of crucial importance in the years to come. In 1765, sore from their defeat in the Rubern offensives and looking for easy prey, the warbands of Krugmar and certain Orc-adjacent bands of brigands gave the reformed Cerulean Watch its baptism by fire. The outcome of their array of slaver raids, however, was a resounding defeat. King Corwin himself commanded the successful defense of Sutica, ordering the captured brigands hanged as a deterrent. No further attacks on Sutica came from Krugmar, despite a few subsequent attempts at posturing.

The King and his Triumvirate, working in tandem with the council of ministers, pressed on with their agenda of reforms. The Sutican civil service was aptly modernized, the Sutican library was renovated, the navy bolstered by new warships, and the capital’s taxation system was revised. This allowed the Sutican government to undertake a series of public works, renovating the bridge leading up to the city gates and the main square itself, constructing a new public clinic, a town hall, and the famous Sutican landmark, Merryweather Clock Tower, based on the blueprints of the old clock tower of Sutica-upon-Ceru. On the 6th of Sun’s Smile, 1765, a decree of King Corwin restored all the privileges of Sutican knighthood previously mandated by Princess Lilith’s writs. These efforts were followed by a Sutican cultural revival, leading to an improvement in Sutican public morality and education. The King also maintained ties with the Atheran colonists, reorganizing their territories into the Crown of Atheran Salvus.

During King Corwin’s reign, the question of Sutica’s rogue magi was almost resolved. Responsible for the majority of the remaining arcane criminals in Sutica, the Thanian syndicate, out of natural opposition to a human Canonist monarch, turned a blind eye to a small number of public assaults committed by their members in 1766; soon afterwards, however, through the mediation of a respected professor of the arcane arts, Sarrion, the Thanians resolved to end their ways of violence and join the new state-sponsored Sutican Mages’ Guild. The most dangerous mage unaccounted for in Sutica now remained the second Triumvir, Blair Fester.

One of the Uialben-adjacent rogue magi invited to the Sutican government through one of the amnesties of Princess Lilith, Blair Fester was dangerously ambitious and evidently dissatisfied with sharing even the highest executive authority in Sutica. Though a begrudging participant in the Triumvirate’s constructive affairs, ever since the failure of her ploy to rule through Jon Snowell as a proxy Blair secretly sought to replace King Corwin’s governance with a mage-led dictatorship of her own. By 1767 she began undermining the Sutican council again, and she might have eventually been successful in her attempt to quietly sow dissent had King Corwin and his assistants not uncovered her plot.

The Sutican Mages’ Guild informed the King that Blair Fester had secretly consorted with a malevolent being known as a voidal horror, offering to open a voidal tear in the very heart of Sutica in exchange for powerful, mind-altering sorcerous powers. King Corwin reacted swiftly, convening the Sutican council and ordering the Cerulean Watch to arrest and secure Blair. On the 10th of the Amber Cold (Harren’s Folly), 1770, Blair Fester faced a trial before the Sutican council. The overwhelming evidence provided by the Mages’ Guild resulted in her being stripped of her rank and position of Triumvir and becoming liable for the death penalty, following the expiry of her legal immunity as a Triumvir. The council’s verdict was unanimous. Blair was placed under Watch custody to await further proceedings.

It seemed that the domestic front was stabilized. Unfortunately, the time seemed ripe for King Corwin’s enemies abroad to make their move as well. The Holy Orenian Empire, previously reformed as a Josephite, anti-Horen establishment, and emboldened by the victorious conclusion of the twenty-year-long Rubern War, now regarded Sutica as a potential venue for expansion. Seeking both to punish Sutica for her participation in the Great War in opposition to the Josephites, and to obtain a warm waters port in the south of Arcas to serve the expansionist, colonial Orenian cause, Oren tailored its foreign policy for the subjugation of the Free State. The Orenian Emperor, Peter III, held a deep-seated grudge for King Corwin, an outspoken enemy of the Josephite cause and a witness to the Emperor’s personal humiliation in the opening skirmish of the Rubern War.

It was rumored that the Emperor had personally posed an ultimatum to Pontiff James II, threatening an Orenian schism should the Canonist Church formally crown King Corwin, invite him to Church proceedings in the Orenian capital of Helena again, or finish the construction of the Sutican abbey. For this reason, King Corwin never chose a regnal name or bore the Opal Crown secured by his ancestors a century prior; it is said that he preferred wearing the Waldenic torse, a symbol of heroism and knighthood among the Waldenian peoples, upon his brow instead of a crown, signifying his reputation as a warrior.

In 1772, provoked by unfounded rumors spread by the Imperial secret service that King Corwin himself had slain the former Princess of Alstion, Henrietta Karenina, during the Rubern War in 1758, Peter Amadeus de Sarkozy, her sixteen-year-old son and a member of the Orenian peerage, arrived in Sutica to an arranged audience with the King with the intent of assassinating him. Though it was incredibly unlikely that precisely King Corwin, out of the thousands of Allied knights, had murdered his valued family friend because of her in-laws’ allegiances, the young Sarkozic persisted, ultimately challenging the King to a duel to the death once his intentions were revealed. This proved to be fatal for the Orenian lord: King Corwin, a skilled career soldier and knight, disarmed the youth after a brief clash of swords and killed him in self-defense when he attempted to strike with a hidden blade amidst a plea of mercy, most Sutican sources claim. The King was dealt a non-lethal wound in that exchange, which nonetheless left him with a hideous scar across his visage.

Oren acted without delay, anticipating a result that could be put to use either way. A detachment of Imperial cuirassiers rode into Sutica that same evening and, according to some witnesses, pressured the Cerulean Watch into releasing Blair Fester, the only person they would agree to negotiate with instead of outright commencing hostilities. The Orenians treated her as if she were still legally a Triumvir, and she agreed to appear before the Sutican council and urge them to arrest King Corwin so that he may be delivered to face execution in Oren. The Sutican council acted illogically and against their better judgment when they heeded the words of a dangerous criminal they had voted to eventually condemn to death not even two years earlier; cowardly and fearful of Orenian invasion, the council issued a note of protest to the King and asked him to appear before their assembly. King Corwin obliged, entering the meeting wearing his Dragon Knight plate, tailed by Mika Uialben and the loyalists of the Cerulean Watch, and Waldenian auxiliaries from the Principality of Vanmark, the successor state of the formerly Dark Elven country of Vira’ker. Blair Fester fled at this display of resolve, and the council regained their senses, swearing fealty to the King once more and pledging to support him.

On the 12th of the First Seed (Godfrey’s Triumph), 1772, Emperor Peter III issued an ultimatum to the Sutican nation. Citing falsities spewed by the fleeing Fester witch, now a claimant to the Sutican crown covertly backed by Oren, the Emperor claimed that King Corwin had murdered his entire council in addition to Princess Henrietta and Lord Peter Amadeus, and demanded that the Sutican people dethrone and deliver their King to Oren or face war. At the same time, envoys of the Imperial government sought a meeting with King Corwin and the evidently still living members of the Sutican council. They were offered a sum of a hundred thousand coins to swear fealty to Oren, thus preventing the impending Orenian invasion. The offer, notably, made no promises of immunity for King Corwin. Concerned and finally convinced that the Empire’s ambitions to seize Sutica did extend beyond the wish to remove King Corwin, the council vowed to reject this offer and promptly approved the beginning of war preparations.

While the Imperial forces amassed in war camps at the Orenian frontier, King Corwin and Mika Uialben worked tirelessly to raise Sutica’s combat readiness. The total combined force of the Cerulean Watch was increased to five thousand men-at-arms. Envoys were secretly sent to nations previously slighted by Oren in the Rubern War and afterwards, including Urguan, Norland and Vanmark. A defensive contract was secured with the Hangmen of Hangman’s Keep, the largest mercenary company of Arcas. Old Renatian loyalists, hardened veterans of the Great War much like King Corwin, flocked to his banner in droves. The Empire was taken entirely by surprise when the Emperor finally declared war on Sutica on the 4th of the Grand Harvest (Tobias’ Bounty), 1775, and found himself swiftly matched by declarations of war on Oren by the newly-formed Begrudged Alliance, the defensive pact consisting of Sutica, Urguan, Norland, Vanmark, the Hangmen, and Risky Ralph’s Renatian loyalists.

Military operations commenced on the 23rd of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1775. Sutican prestige increased greatly by the Cerulean Watch actively participating in combat against Oren; though they were not as numerous or experienced as the field armies of Urguan and the Hangmen, King Corwin’s presence at the front lines significantly boosted the morale of Sutican forces. An attempt by Orenian assassins to murder the King at the Sutican clock tower was thwarted by the Hangmen in 1776. Merryweather Clock Tower soon became the symbol of Sutican patriotism. The war stretched Orenian capacities to their limits, and harmed the Emperor’s relations with his foremost vassal, the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska, and the Canonist Church. Prior to the ultimately unsuccessful Orenian offensive in the Whispering Woods, King Corwin personally exchanged correspondence with Emperor Peter III, calling him illegitimate and a coward and promising to personally vanquish him in single combat should the war continue.

The defeat of the Orenian offensive, on the 8th of the Grand Harvest (Tobias’ Bounty), 1778, however coincided with the cataclysm prophesied by the Atheran dragon thirty years prior: meteors rained from the sky in the southern deserts of Korvassa, heralding a Daemonic invasion from an otherworldly realm. The Daemonic legions, the so-called Inferi, laid siege to the Korvassan domains with the intent of swarming the Arcasian mainland. The Canonist Church declared a crusade, threatening to excommunicate Emperor Peter III should he not sue for peace and commit to fighting the Inferi incursion together with the Begrudged Alliance. The Imperial government duly obliged, withdrawing their forces and offering King Corwin an apology and a concession of defeat, along with minor terms of compensation to the Begrudged Alliance. The King accepted, signing the Peace of Merryweather on the 4th of Snow’s Maiden (Horen’s Calling), 1780.

Under any other circumstances and, perhaps, in a different country, these successes would have ensured King Corwin a lengthy and secure reign. But in a nation so deeply divided by the Uialbenite scourge, her moral fiber degraded for decades prior to the King’s rule and despite his best efforts to restore it, personal gain still trumped the need for the state’s wellbeing. Amidst the planning for another impending exodus, in the event that the Inferi threat could not be contained to Korvassa, a minor conflict between the King and the Sutican council was escalated by those malcontents who saw in the King’s triumph a threat of everlasting Canonist, moral rule in Sutica, and to their own affairs. The pretext for revolt was the King’s intention to appoint his grandnephew, the newborn Prince of Merryweather, Ottomar von Alstreim, as his heir; those who saw no reason to dissent when the Uialben syndicate installed one Uialben monarch after another were, this time around, concerned by the possible creation of a “foreign”, hereditary Alstreim dynasty. The dissenters insisted that the King had also engaged in an overreach of authority when he sought to dismantle the already-defunct Triumvirate, even with the council’s consent - Blair Fester had already been removed for her treason, and Jon Snowell had departed on a pilgrimage in 1779.

On the 12th of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1783, the Duchess of Marivesse, a Sutican vassal, secretly a Canonist apostate and one of the primary malcontents, convinced Mika Uialben and his remaining supporters that a Canonist purge of Sutica was imminent. Together with a number of Sutican councilors, they resolved to kill King Corwin during an evening session of the council. King Corwin survived the declaration of coup through sheer imposing will, daring the conspirators to shoot him: none were capable of firing a crossbow bolt to the King’s face. He signed the instrument of abdication presented by the Uialbenites declaring Mika regent and stormed out unimpeded, losing all desire to fight to maintain his treacherous realm. Sutica, at the verge of greatness, was once more thrown into the Uialben dark age.

MONARCHS OF THE SECOND UIALBEN USURPATION

Arcas and Almaris

MIKA GOLDHAND-UIALBEN (1783 - 1819, second reign)

“His Serene Highness the Trade Prince of Sutica, Sovereign Lord of New Ceru”

The treacherous dethroning of King Corwin left Mika Uialben with the opportunity to lay claim to the Sutican throne once more. Forgoing his promise to Princess Myssy to never restore himself to the Sutican monarchy, Mika quickly abandoned all pretense of calling himself Sutica’s regent and styled himself “Twice-Trade Prince”. The fact that he was approached by Urguan with an offer of immediate vassalage not even a full Saint’s Day after the coup spoke volumes about the integrity of his rule. To this day, it remains unknown how the remnants of the Sutican council were able to put up resistance to this proposal, preserving Sutica’s independence by a single, thin thread. In any case, it is reasonable to assume that the absence of immediate military intervention pertaining to the rejection of Urguan’s proposal stemmed from the intensifying Inferi War. The Triumvirate was never restored despite the conspirators’ insistence that its dismantlement by King Corwin had been an act of treason against the state; clearly, no such qualms were had with Prince Mika’s consolidation of royal authority. The Duchess of Marivesse was rewarded well for her treachery: her co-conspirators of the Sutican council soon dissolved her titles and forced her into exile.

The return of Uialbenite rule unraveled decades of progress in Sutica, including many of Princess Lilith’s reforms, within a single year. The coup severed all of Sutica’s formal diplomatic ties, except with Urguan - though these were notably strained by Sutica’s refusal to swear fealty to the Dwarven grand kingdom. While most of the Sutican institutions nominally survived the change of government and continued on with their assigned duties, a sense of foreboding chaos and anarchy gripped the nation. Uialbenites, militant pagans and human apostates, seeking to ensure an unopposed restoration of Prince Mystery’s era of libertine excesses and drug abuse, took to harassing and assaulting the remaining Canonists in the streets, for the crime of “supporting Corwin’s Canonist tyranny”. Prince Mika and his guards were unwilling or unable to prevent these attacks. In 1790, the misfortune rightful heir to the Sutican throne, the seven-year-old Ottomar of Merryweather, was brutally murdered by a raging mob of heathens when he attempted to land at Sutica with his colonial Salvian retinue, his act of martyrdom securing him a Canonist declaration of Sainthood. The Crown of Atheran Salvus had previously refused to renew oaths of fealty to the new administration, becoming a refuge for many human and Elven Canonists of Sutica.

This event remained the sole notable occurrence of Prince Mika’s almost thirteen-year-long rule in Arcas, during which no government decrees were issued at all. Sutica’s contribution to the Inferi War was minimal: the war eventually concluded with a costly Descendant military victory and the complete sundering of Arcas, necessitating another mass migration. While most other kingdoms had been able to plot their course to Almaris and the construction of their new capitals in advance, the removal of King Corwin and Prince Ottomar’s murder robbed Sutica of the Alstreim governance’s contingency plans. Prince Mika thus oversaw a hasty architectural effort to plot and raise a makeshift capital, and a half-hearted, short-lasting restoration of the Sutican navy. What little of the navy’s capacity survived the defection of most Canonist sailors to Fausten and the migration to Almaris was soon scuttled: the new capital upon Almaris lacked a proper deep water port.

Still, the Sutican settlement of the southern reaches of Almaris proved to be somewhat successful upon arrival, staving off stagnation for a few years. The new capital’s location seemed defensible from foreign enemies, and the early desert outposts were positioned well enough to facilitate the early trade routes of Almaris. Their proximity to the Kharasi Oasis, a suitable resting point for southern caravans, ensured a steady influx of migrants and settlers to Sutica seeking to make use of Prince Mika’s liberal policies of land acquisition. Ironically, most of these settlers were Canonists. The men of Canonist Hyspia, Eastcliffe and Trabzon at first found an agreeable overlord in Prince Mika, whose seemingly lax policies and affinity towards trade appealed to them, but as time went on, active Uialbenite aversion to Canonism exposed a deep divide between them.

The Prince, fearful of the Canonist Church seeking to expand her influence to Sutica, tried to prevent the creation of a Hyspian diocese in 1800; likewise, in 1807, after a brief altercation with the lords of Eastcliffe, the Sutican council revoked their titles on the basis that “Sutica entertained no human claims to nobility” and granted them to a Dark Elf. The vassals’ discontent thus grew steadily, especially as they were educated on the reign of King Corwin and the martyrdom of Saint Ottomar thanks to the Hyspian college of priests. Continued persecution of Canonists only led to the entrenchment of the idea that Sutica was unjustly usurped from her true, Canonist rulers.

After this brief spark of life, Sutica continued to stagnate throughout the opening of the nineteenth century. While the peoples of Hyspia and Trabzon, and the human denizens of Dark Elven-usurped Eastcliffe lived plentiful, if discontent lives in their proximity to the Oasis and away from the seat of Uialbenite power, many denizens of the makeshift capital, outside of the circle of the princely palace, lived in abject poverty once the income from the early trades of Almaris dried up. Crime reigned in the city, and the Mages’ Guild established during the previous administration fell into disrepair and ushered in another generation of rogue magi. The Sutican council, responsible for the capital’s day-to-day governance, ignored these duties in favor of palace intrigues. The Vortician custom of forging brief political alliances between councilors through romantic advances, regardless of marital status or gender, became commonplace.

Prince Mika made attempts to remedy the abysmal state of the crownlands through a top-down welfare scheme and through the undertaking of several public works projects in early 1809, such as the opening of a new state-owned coal mine, but this did little in the long run. In 1811, even his Elven subjects clamored for change: the governess of the Sutican isle of Saris, dependent on the crownlands, wrote an open letter of denouncement to Prince Mika, citing his failures and comparing them to the previous successes of King Corwin’s government. Though she was eventually placated by an empty decree of reform which even promised the Triumvirate’s reestablishment, the damage was already done.

Following almost eight more years of silently-brewing discontent both among the vassals and in the capital city, and within the Sutican palace clique, Prince Mika’s Uialbenites turned on him in well-familiar fashion. The lunacy of the Sutican council sank to new lows: a complete stranger of entirely unknown origins, an Elven mage without even so much of a last name, calling herself Gwynevere, strode into Sutica in the final days of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1818, empowered by the council to challenge Prince Mika to a duel for the Sutican crown. In an ironic retelling of Terr’hi Uialben’s seizure of power, the Prince was swiftly subdued by the Cerulean Watch at the council’s behest and forced to oblige. Whether any blows were actually exchanged is unknown; for all intents and purposes, the Sutican council considered Mika Uialben a former monarch already. His participation in the coup d’etat against King Corwin was thus repaid in kind by his own friends and former co-conspirators.

GWYNEVERE (1819 - 1821)

“Her Serene Highness the Trade Princess of Sutica, Sovereign Lady of New Ceru”

Gwynevere was proclaimed Trade Princess and crowned by the Sutican council on the 1st of Snow’s Maiden (Horen’s Calling), 1819. The new Princess’ first decree concerned Mika Uialben’s fate: he was allowed to remain in Sutica and keep an advisory role within her new palace. He acquiesced to this agreement, to the delight of his loyalists and much to the dismay of his newfound enemies. Clearly, the twice-Prince-Emeritus thought the first setback of Princess Gwynevere would see his inevitable return to the forefront of Sutican politics. Seeing how the squabbles of the Sutican council led a complete stranger to assume the highest position of honor in the state, Mika Uialben’s theory certainly had merit.

Virtually no sources exist on any detail of Princess Gwynevere’s life before her incredulous assumption of the Sutican crown. The Sutican council’s decision to crown her baffles historians to this day: those who thought that her aura of arcane mystique enshrouded her intelligence and supposed administrative prowess were soon proven terribly wrong. The Princess had accepted the crown, but it soon became clear that she had no interest in actually ruling beyond calling herself the rightful Sutican monarch. She confined herself to increasingly small circles, the capital’s main square at first and then the princely palace, refusing to tour the Sutican lands and going for days on end without being attended to by a single person other than the servants tending to her food and drinks.

Princess Gwynevere’s administrative decisions were puzzling and nonsensical: she abolished vassal taxes for no reason other than her complaint that they took too much effort to collect. Paid maintenance of the capital soon followed, and Prince-Emeritus Mika was all too happy to oblige in her dismantlement of Sutica’s institutions. All of this was done through verbal orders: the Princess issued no formal writs. The Princess’ neglect, aided by Mika’s sabotage, practically destroyed the command chain of the Cerulean Watch. This invited a number of bandit raids and rogue magi assaults on the Sutican citizenry, which the Watch ended up being unable to suppress: it is said that the Princess, during one such misfortune occasion, withdrew with her personal guard to a fortified tower beside the main square and complained about the screams of her subjects being indiscriminately slaughtered, saying that the shrieks ruined her concentration.

What followed soon after was an easily foreseen catastrophe. Personally insulted by an attempt of Elvenesse, the Wood Elven nation of Almaris, to seize one of their criminals within the confines of the Sutican capital, Princess Gwynevere instructed her government to issue an ultimatum to Elvenesse for this “breach of neutrality”. On the 20th of Sun’s Smile, 1819, Sutica demanded of Elvenesse a formal apology followed by hefty financial compensation for this perceived slight; naturally, these demands were refused, at which point Sutica foolishly commenced hostilities against Elvenesse, albeit without a formal declaration of war. Despite demanding of her subjects that this affront to her honor be settled in battle, Princess Gwynevere withdrew to her palace and refused to further coordinate the war effort. The High Elven nation of Haelun’or entered the conflict on Elvenesse’s side, adding on to the woes of the underfunded, undermanned and under-equipped Cerulean Watch. Throughout 1820 the Sutican forces suffered a string of demoralizing defeats, though none resulted in significant casualties; as their morale suffered in fighting a pointless war, most Watchmen either fled or surrendered upon encountering the Elven armies.

At this point, the Canonist Reclamation, unwilling to tolerate this mindless erosion of Sutica’s dignity any further, stepped out of the shadows and unfurled its banners openly. Following the declaration of the Merryweather Inheritance by the now elderly King Corwin and his Alstreims, penned on the 9th of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1820, stating that his removal from power by the Uialbenites had been illegal and that his claim was transferred to his grand-niece and Saint Ottomar’s sister, Lina Johanna von Alstreim, the Canonist vassals of Sutica and the reclaimed Duchy of Eastcliffe under Regent Roland de Roubres, soon followed by the majority of her Elven dependencies and the overseas Crown of Atheran Salvus, proclaimed their support for the Alstreim restoration in early 1821. Acting on the worrying news that Princess Gwynevere was planning to flee the capital with the entire Sutican treasury and open the gates to Orcish slavers before the Elvenessi arrived, armies of the Canonist Reclamation, tailed by the Royal Salvian fleet, marched on the city itself, unopposed by the Cerulean Watch and the Elven invaders, and set up a blockade.

On the 10th of the Amber Cold (Harren’s Folly), 1821, Lina Johanna and her husband, Georg Conrad Barclay, breached the capital’s gates with their armies and entered the Sutican palace. Princess Gwynevere narrowly fled the Alstreim-Barclay forces, hiding elsewhere in the city with her remaining councilors. In the Sutican throne room and before the cheering crowds of Sutican Canonists and battered former Watchmen, Patriarch Yaromir - the future Pontiff Everard VI - crowned Lina and Georg as co-monarchs of Sutica, Johanna I and Georg I. This marked the de facto conclusion of Princess Gwynevere’s rule, ending the Second Uialben Usurpation. Gwynevere put up a token resistance for a few more months, showing more initiative in her futile attempt to regain the throne than she had ever shown ruling Sutica; after witnessing the overwhelming domestic and foreign support Queen Johanna and King Georg enjoyed, Gwynevere eventually conceded to their rule and departed Sutica, never to be seen again. For the time being, Mika Uialben had no choice but accept this turn of events.

MONARCHS OF THE CANONIST RECLAMATION

Almaris

GEORG CONRAD BARCLAY (1821 - 1832)

His Royal Majesty the King of Sutica and King in Atheran Salvus, Sovereign Lord of New Ceru

Georg Barclay ascended to the throne of Sutica alongside his spouse, Lina von Alstreim, at the height of the Canonist Reclamation in late 1821, removing the former Princess, Gwynevere, through the righteousness of his cause and the strength of his armies. In his eyes, she was illegitimate and responsible for nearly ushering in Sutica’s downfall and complete destruction, initiated by the disastrous policies of the Second Uialben Usurpation. King Georg was crowned as a ruler, not a mere consort, sharing the duties of the Sutican monarchy with his Queen, who assumed the name Johanna. Their marriage had been the result of a plan proposed by him to the deposed King Corwin, uniting the lines of Barclay and Alstreim into a dynastic union aimed at the restoration of Canonist rule in Sutica. It is safe to say that the vast merchant influence of the Barclays, resulting in the Reclamation being well-supplied with coin, weaponry and soldiers, solidified the success of this glorious endeavor.

King Georg was a young, dignified Reinmaren gentleman, raised by the ideals of the frigid, but honorable Haeseni north which he sought to apply at all times in his decisions as a monarch. Barely twenty years old at the time of his ascension to the throne, his physique ill-suited for the southern heat of Sutica, the King nonetheless made an effort to be active in his rule alongside Queen Johanna and become acquainted with the plights of his new subjects. Nearly forty years of misrule have left Sutica in a sorry, battered state; still, the restored Canonist government was firstly pressed to commit to foreign affairs.

King Georg and Queen Johanna first concluded the war against Elvenesse and Haelun’or. Both of these nations, previously content to sit and watch the Reclamation complete their assault upon Gwynevere’s Sutica, saw no need in furthering their war with a restored Canonist administration. A peace treaty, amounting to a white peace and a declaration of post-war friendship, was formally concluded by 1823 and welcomed by the war-weary citizenry of both factions. The new government soon signed treaties of cooperation with its Canonist partners who had supported the Reclamation, such as Oren and Haense, and treaties of friendship with polities such as Yong Ping. The Orenian Emperor, John VIII, despite having fought against Sutica in the Merryweather War as a young soldier, was delighted to welcome her back to the Canonist world.

On the home front, King Georg then attempted to restore the rule of law to Sutica. His disparate vassals, led by the Canonist dukes, arrived in the capital to discuss the foundations of a new legal system. The Sutican Constitution soon formally replaced the Supreme Writ, made obsolete by the abuses of the Uialbenites, in early 1823. The state was also renamed to the Commonwealth of Sutica, and her vassals admitted to the new Sutican Assembly. The now-defunct Cerulean Watch was replaced by a system of vassal levies and regiments commanded by a central force called the Banardian Brigade, the name deriving from a band of Aeldinic mercenaries in service of the Reclamation. This force was augmented by the Royal Salvian Regiment, a banner of knights dispatched from Atheran Salvus, along with the territory’s deputy governor, Sir Daris Verethi, to aid King Georg and Queen Johanna in maintaining order.

All these efforts resulted in the reestablishment of a somewhat functional, dedicated government. Still, a mass exodus of Uialbenites and their rogue magi allies from the capital soon followed. Fearful that the restored Canonist governance would enact further retaliation upon them for their decades-long persecution of Canonists, many fled to the merchant town of Vortice or the Dwarven reaches of Urguan, convincing many regular Elven citizens to follow, and others dispersed and hid in the Sutican hills, hoping to eventually regain strength, revolt and overthrow the Alstreim monarchy once more. The racial composition of the crownlands gradually shifted entirely in favor of Canonist humans, at the cost of heavy depopulation.

The nascent government of King Georg and Queen Johanna was frequently advised by the King-Emeritus, the elderly Corwin von Alstreim. His presence in Sutica, victorious after forty long years of exile, contributed greatly to the Canonist legend and identity of Sutica. When the King-Emeritus ultimately passed away, on the 18th of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1827, the royal pair declared a nationwide period of mourning. As fate would have it, the misfortune King Georg would, unfortunately, soon follow him to the Seven Skies. From 1828, the young King suffered bouts of terrible sickness, believed by most to have been intensified by the harsh climate of Sutica’s southern expanses. Exhibiting symptoms much worse than that of the infamous Elven disease of the south, the Sutican brain rot, unable to be remedied by even the greatest Sutican and Haeseni physicians, the King passed away on the 2nd of Malin’s Welcome (Owyn’s Flame), 1832. King Georg thus became the first Sutican monarch to end his tenure in this way, defeated not by a coup d’etat nor his premature abdication, but his own mortality.

LINA JOHANNA von ALSTREIM (1821 - 1835)

Her Royal Majesty the Queen of Sutica and Queen in Atheran Salvus, Princess of Merryweather, Sovereign Lady of New Ceru

The Alstreim queen, Lina Johanna, fulfilled the legacy of her forefather, King Corwin, upon the victorious conclusion of the Canonist Reclamation in 1821. She took the regnal name Johanna, and vowed to never allow Sutica to fall into pagan and non-human hands again, for the sake of her martyred brother, Saint Ottomar. Born in the Salvian capital of Fausten, where the Canonist colonists considered her family rightful royalty, though still adhered to the Salvian governor as their foremost authority, very few privileges were levied upon the girl save for an extensive education in Sutican history. At the behest of her great-uncle, King Corwin, Johanna had arrived in Almaris in early 1819, acquiescing to her betrothal and eventual marriage to Georg Barclay, and her role in the Reclamation.

From 1821 to the death of her husband, Queen Johanna directed her primary efforts towards establishing ties between the dynastic union of Alstreim-Barclay and both the Sutican Canonist nobility and the magnates of Oren and Haense. To this purpose, the Queen attended fashionable dinners and events in the human capitals of Providence and Karosgrad, signaling to her Orenian and Haeseni counterparts that Sutica deserved her place among the civilized, Canonist nations of the realm. The Queen reciprocated the attention given, in turn organizing a lavish ball in the Sutican palace and many other events within the city of Sutica. These efforts were somewhat tempered by the abysmal state of the Sutican capital, to which end the Queen had commissioned a team of architects to relocate the city. This endeavor was never fully completed, though some of the blueprints were later put to use by the Queen’s successors: the old capital was systematically dismantled and replaced with the Savoyard burgh of San Luciano.

The Queen’s foremost ally within Sutica was at first the County of Sarissa, successor of the Uialbenite governorate of Saris. The County boasted a primarily human and nominally Canonist population, though with a considerable minority of Dwarves, Orcs, and Elves. Queen Johanna treated kindly with the County’s proprietors, Count William Buckfort and Lady Eliza Raven. In turn, Sarissans filled the ranks of the Banardian Brigade, and aided with the organization of several events of note and new institutions, such as the Sutican Academics’ Guild. This relationship of preferential treatment ended, however, when the Count became a critic of the Queen’s policies immediately following King Georg’s passing. The Sarissan leadership considered that the Queen hadn’t done enough to remedy the lingering effects of Uialben rule, still manifesting in decay and poverty even after King Georg’s governmental reorganization; Queen Johanna, in turn, posed that this inefficiency resulted from a lack of genuine interest on the Sarissans’ side, who ended up occupying many administrative positions in Sutica but kept deflecting the blame for their inefficiency to the Queen. In 1832, mere weeks following King Georg’s death, Queen Johanna revoked the County’s charter, and the Sarissans abandoned their lands to settle on the main continent, declaring an independent, apostate Duchy of Rozania.

The dynastic union had produced two heirs: Corwin Alexander and Catherine Johanna, offering much hope that a hereditary Sutican succession was finally within reach. The Queen’s living siblings, the author and their sister, Charlotte-Adelinde, maintained their dynastic claims as well, for the purpose of securing Sutica’s future. Queen Johanna, guided by pragmatism, ended the period of mourning for her late husband and entered a second marriage, this time marrying the former Arch-Chancellor of Oren, Franz Nikolai de Sarkozy. The ancient Corwinite feud between Alstreim and Sarkozic was thus sidelined, and this marriage produced both stronger political ties with Oren and another son, Adolf Gloriana.

At this point, hoping that the King’s death had destabilized the nation, and considering Queen Johanna a weak-willed and pacifistic woman, the Uialbenite cells hiding in the Sutican hills put into motion their plan to rid the Commonwealth of her Canonist monarch and replace her rule with another degenerate, pagan, and lawless iteration of Sutica. On the 9th of the First Seed (Godfrey's Triumph), 1834, Keorn the Fat, the Lord of Keornhall and a Uialbenite plant, and Filippos Komnenos, the apostate heir to the Canonist Barony of Trabzon, supported by the bandit gang of Rustlers and Mika Uialben’s Silver Lubba Company, issued a proclamation of rebellion. The rebels swore to dethrone Queen Johanna, install a Uialben claimant on the throne, and slaughter or convert the entire Sutican Canonist population. The Barony of the Rhein, where infighting soon erupted between loyal Canonists and Uialbenite apostates, also attempted to formally declare support for the rebellious Southern Alliance.

Much to the Uialbenites’ chagrin, the Queen responded harshly and resolutely. Firstly, her Canonist vassals immediately raised their levies and issued a firm declaration of support. Queen Johanna’s counter-declaration, vowing to crush the rebellion by the grace of God, made rounds in the Canonist kingdoms of the north, all of which swiftly signed treaties of assistance with the Queen and dispatched their troops to assist her. The Haeseni expeditionary force, bolstered by Imperial, Sedanian, and Vasiyevan soldiers, and Holy Knights of the Supreme Order of Exalted Owyn, soon arrived in the southern reaches and joined forces with the Banardian Brigade and the Sutican Canonists. The Queen herself and her son donned armor and fought alongside their men. The loyalist garrison at the Rhein was relieved and the Barony of Trabzon was swiftly seized by the Canonist league, and these territories were organized into the Alstreim Administration of Trabant and the Rhine. Keornhall thus remained the sole rebel holdout.

On the 12th of the Grand Harvest (Tobias’ Bounty), 1834, the Southern Alliance attempted to force a pitched battle with the Banardian Brigade garrison entrenched at the Rhein and reinforced by roughly three thousand Haeseni soldiers. Led by the young Crown Prince, Corwin Alexander, the Banardians sallied out with the support of their Haeseni allies, utterly smashing the Uialbenite army in only twenty minutes of combat. It was reported that Saint Ottomar himself had interceded in the combat, helping the Haeseni knights seize and execute one of the rebel commanders, Corbin Wick. No quarter was given to the fleeing rebels; the only reported survivor was Mika Uialben. The Canonist league soon marched on Keornhall itself. The rebel fort and the town itself were razed and reestablished by the author as the Landgraviate of Alstreim. In 1835, the remaining rebels either dispersed or surrendered to Queen Johanna. No rogue magi remained alive in Sutica. The Sutican Uprising was over.

The Queen lived long enough to see the last of the rebels dispersed, but no more. After a brief fever, considered to have manifested as the result of lingering complications from her final childbirth by some, and by others of a festering, improperly remedied wound from the rebellion, Queen Johanna passed away on the 14th of the Amber Cold (Harren’s Folly), 1835. In her last will and testament she named her Duke of Corazon, the Savoyard Olivier Renault, Regent and Lord Protector of Sutica. Uncertainty gripped the nation.

CORWIN ALEXANDER BARCLAY (1835)

His Royal Majesty the King of Sutica and King in Atheran Salvus, Prince of Merryweather, Sovereign Lord of New Ceru

King Corwin II, Queen Johanna’s firstborn son, assumed the Sutican throne under a regency and in the wake of the victorious, yet immensely destabilizing struggle against the Uialbenites. Only eleven years old at the time, though of a sharp mind and already a veteran of the Uprising, the King soon understood that, amidst the disastrous project to relocate the capital, the city of San Luciano had assumed primacy in the realm underneath his own regent, and that any continuity of the Sutican government now depended on Olivier Renault.

The final King of Sutica’s rule lasted for roughly two months. His regent made the decision to dissolve the Commonwealth in his stead during a grand meeting at San Luciano, and the King and his vassals acquiesced to this decision. Olivier Renault, now the Prince of the reformed Principality of Savoy, allowed the families of the dynastic union to maintain their lands and titles. The now former King was allowed to remain the Prince of Sutica; his sister was granted the County of Sarissa, and the lineage of Alstreim received the titular Principality of Merryweather. The southern line of Barclay, cousins of King Georg, received lands which soon became the County of Freimark.

The independence of Sutica thus ended with Corwin II. Still, the young King fulfilled the promise his parents had made to keep the South out of non-Canonist hands. With the end of his reign, the name of Sutica passed into history as a Waldenian legacy of Canonism, built upon the successes of Sutica’s Salvian founders.

mika1278 · February 2, 2022

55 minutes ago, LithiumSedai said:

Immediately after Princess Myssy’s assumption of the crown, an attempt was made by the former Prince, Mika Uialben, to regain the crown lost to her interference as Terr’hi’s champion. Instead of attempting to sway Uialbenite enforcers to his cause, Mika pulled his connections to secure himself a loyal force of Goldhand Dwarves. Mika and fifteen of his soldiers surrounded the Princess in the Sutican tavern on the 12th of the Deep Cold (Sigismund’s End), 1739. Masterful command of her emotions and her restraint prevented the Princess from losing her head; she managed to compel Mika to negotiate without the presence of his Dwarven allies. He posed an ultimatum to her in private, which the Princess countered with an ultimatum of her own: she bluffed, insisting that she had been caught so easily as part of her plan to spur Mika to action, her own soldiers prepared to ransack his domain and capture him on his way out of the city should any harm come to her. Mika conceded to her terms, relinquishing his claim to the throne and withdrawing his Goldhands. Princess Myssy never forgave him for this attempt.

Mika Uialben himself perked up a brow at reading this part of the document "The dwarves had rallied to fight while I had rallied to take up diplomacy for my return to the state on the council. I chose to opt for a personal meeting as I had known those dwarves would end everyone in the city with ease. I was indeed a bit aggressive in my terms, but we both concluded I needed more time to develop myself so I could focus on my trade and personal growth so I left till I found it was time once more under Lily. Never had I stated to relinquish my claim."

1 hour ago, LithiumSedai said:

Princess Gwynevere’s administrative decisions were puzzling and nonsensical: she abolished vassal taxes for no reason other than her complaint that they took too much effort to collect. Paid maintenance of the capital soon followed, and Prince-Emeritus Mika was all too happy to oblige in her dismantlement of Sutica’s institutions. All of this was done through verbal orders: the Princess issued no formal writs. The Princess’ neglect, aided by Mika’s sabotage, practically destroyed the command chain of the Cerulean Watch.

Mika Uialben pointed out here once more "I was prepared to stand by her side, only to be met with her simply not being around at all to fulfill her obligations. After my rule I was burnt out and only after my complete removal I had my revelations on how I could have governed better in hindsight, but truly that is sadly enough not the reality. This Gwynevere lass stagnated us so much that I simply could not even help or get people within the city at all before I got to hear she tried selling Sutica to a group of orcs, but you can't put someone to justice that simply disappears. Never in my life have I see a ruler so incompetent that I wonder why they wanted to replace me in the first place. in my last weeks of rule I worked up countless different projects, only to be rejected by Gwynevere without looking at it, including the rebuilding of the entire Sutican region which was almost done with the planning phase. While I have my differences with who is supposed to rule those lands, I am glad that wench is gone and I can live my days as mercenary once more."

1 hour ago, LithiumSedai said:

Much to the Uialbenites’ chagrin, the Queen responded harshly and resolutely. Firstly, her Canonist vassals immediately raised their levies and issued a firm declaration of support.

Mika Uialben further commented "There was nobody within the city, there was nobody fighting us. I was hired to do a job and that job I did. The nation had stagnated simply enough. To take down the southern alliance which you claim were just some minor threat you needed the power of two kingdoms and an empire to secure yourself. Sarissa didn't lift a hand towards us. Rhein joined us. Trabzon joined us and the other vassals didn't interfere at all. I fought my battles, survived them, took on what I could, but when leadership decides to call it, then I am no longer hired to fight. Only to return once more to aid in Sutica's defense against the Rustlers who assaulted the county of Sarissa while not a single levy from Sutica was sent."

Mika then finally concluded "Though I like having a document for this, it brings me peace. Though it hurts to see Sutica being used as an unlanded title only to be flaunted around as a showpiece. The majority of remnants of Sutica are with me, we are now a people rather than a place, wandering the realm to explore and take on mercenary contracts under The Silver Lubba Band before returning to our homes and barracks at the keep. If you need a quick hire for soldiers, you know where to find me."

WonkManBad · February 3, 2022

The history and actions previously here have been lost to time; unless another recorded their story.

Skyrunner · February 3, 2022

An old librarian and an old minister of law sat at their home far from everything reminiscing about old times, while a blue and gold set of armour rusted outside.

Viltaren · February 3, 2022

22 minutes ago, Skyrunner said:

An old librarian and an old minister of law sat at their home far from everything reminiscing about old times, while a blue and gold set of armour rusted outside.

It had been quite a blessedly long time since the old Minister turned her sights to the goings on of the descendants. She was happy her old friend had sent a copy her way. Happy to be thought of. She was even pleased that the representation of her was not only fair, but spoke to the truth she had always known. Leaders do the best with what they have, and never anything more. She should send that man a letter, thank him for writing this, for caring about the nation she had devoted her life to once. But first, dinner needed making. She hoped the librarian liked the new recipe she had come up with.

"Ah only to have done it over. To have supported my child Mika. To have made Alstreim my royal family. Ah to have done it all over again. Oh well." she hummed to herself, setting to chopping the carrots from their garden.

Timer · February 3, 2022

Cesar II sits in his armchair, remembering Prince Georg fondly, remarking "If only I could turn back time" the middle aged Hyspian grumbled, knowing that one cannot get a time machine.

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MONARCHS OF SUTICA

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LithiumSedai 4837

FOREWORD

CONTENTS

MONARCHS OF THE FOUNDING AND THE GOLDEN AGE

SILV’AR VANGUARD (1521 - 1523)

DAVID ENRIQUE (1523 - 1531)

LILYANA la TERRE AMANT CARRINGTON-FAROE (1531 - 1650)

MONARCHS OF THE DECLINE AND THE REFORM ERA

ALEM’SHUN VANGUARD (1650 - 1672)

CYRENE RIEL (1672 - 1692)

LILITH HELENSON-ANARION (1692 - 1727, first reign)

MONARCHS OF THE FIRST UIALBEN USURPATION

MIKA GOLDHAND-UIALBEN (1727 - 1735, first reign)

TERR’HI UIALBEN (1735 - 1739)

MYSSY UIALBEN (1739 - 1748)

LILITH HELENSON-ANARION (1748 - 1762, second reign)

THE CANONIST KING

CORWIN von ALSTREIM (1762 - 1783)

MONARCHS OF THE SECOND UIALBEN USURPATION

MIKA GOLDHAND-UIALBEN (1783 - 1819, second reign)

GWYNEVERE (1819 - 1821)

MONARCHS OF THE CANONIST RECLAMATION

GEORG CONRAD BARCLAY (1821 - 1832)

LINA JOHANNA von ALSTREIM (1821 - 1835)

CORWIN ALEXANDER BARCLAY (1835)

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