Nectorist 7424 Share Posted September 30, 2023 THE WINTER CROWS: Volume IV; Petyr II - The Ill Written by Demetrius Barrow Petyr II - The Ill "When my students were quizzed on their kings, it was he who eluded their memory most persistently” - A schoolteacher in New Reza on Petyr II It must be said that the tale of Petyr II is more aptly described as the story of the rise of House Ruthern and the fall of House Kovachev. A boy confined to the Mardonic palace, the brief king played no part in the great events of the year 1611, nor could he have. Still, while the king himself may not have been an important figure in his own right, his importance lay in what he represented. To Franz Kovachev, Archduke of Akovia, he was the one threat to the solidification of House Kovahchev’s rule of the north. There had been a time once, generations ago, when it was Jan Kovachev, Duke of Carnatia, who led the men of the north under his banner. A hero of several wars and a revered leader of the Raevir and Haeseni, their line’s progenitor had occupied a greater space than Petyr Barbanov, but he died too soon and without a sufficient heir to take it. Instead, it was Petyr Barbanov and his line, not the Kovachevs, who became the Kings of Haense under John III and were given the entirety of the north to rule. Now, having proven their loyal service first to King Tobias of Courland, then to his son, King Joseph, Franz Kovachev and his family hoped that they would be the next to be given the crown of Hanseti-Ruska. Only Petyr II stood in their way. To Vladrick var Ruthern, regent and cousin of the Count of Metterden, the young Joren var Ruthern, so long as the line of Barbanov lived, there would be hope. His cousin Viktor’s betrayal of King Marus during the Great Northern War had been an unforgivable sin that stained the honor of the proud family, not least because the King of Haense was wed to one of their own. In the autumn of 1607, Count Viktor had gone out elk hunting in the Greyspine Mountains with Vladrick and the captain of the Ruthern household guard, a man named Harren. Vladrick and Harren returned home four days later, claiming that during their hunt Count Viktor had slipped and fallen to his death off of a particularly steep cliff. His body was never found, and Vladrick was made castellan of Metterden and regent for the late count’s son. Petyr II, all the way in Mardon, knew little of what was happening back in Haense at this time. The letters to him were infrequent, but it was not as if he cared much. Born on the 3rd of Harren’s Folly, 1596, to King Marus of Haense and Queen Adelaide vas Ruthern, Petyr Mark emerged into a world that had been shaped by the Coalition War. Heir to a young king ruling over an independent Haense, Prince Petyr hardly had any recollection of his time in St. Karlsburg by the time of his death. The records seem to know a little more now than he did then. As a boy, Prince Petyr inclined more towards his father’s quieter, milder demeanor than that of his grandfather. He preferred to play dolls or household with some of the serving girls, or watch the chefs and bakers in the kitchens and enjoy the sweets they gave him (though he was no glutton). This behavior seems to be the natural product of his sickly condition. Some accounts say that he was bedridden three months every year, more reasonable estimates give two, and the highest claim up to six. He simply lacked much of the strength and will needed to play outside, pretending to be a knight or a lion tamer or an adventurer. Throughout his life, Prince Petyr gravitated towards the softer expressions. The Great Northern War changed Petyr’s life for the worse. While he had been a content, if overshadowed, figure at the court of Ottosgrad, his family’s exile to Mardon made him a curiosity to the courtiers there. The sons and daughters of the Mardonic nobility mostly kept to themselves, but when they did speak to him all they asked about was the home he had lost, how his father had lost it, and what they were going to do now, all questions that the young prince could not answer. It distressed him so greatly that, according to Sir Nicholas Mullen, a knight in the personal guard of House Barbanov, he refused to speak to any others his age for at least a year. This period of shyness subsided by 1605, and for most of his life he remained a quiet, obscure, but present figure in Auguston, dwarfed in all capacities by his father and his brother, Stefan, who was tall, athletic, and charismatic- everything Petyr was not. That said, the young prince was well-regarded and possessed, if not great intelligence, a respectable grasp on most subjects. He was also a fine dancer and often taught his peers how to conduct themselves during balls and festivals, which brought him some small reputation to the court. As Prince Petyr lived in comfort in Mardon, dancing half of his days away and spending the other half trying to ensure that his increasingly-drunken father did not make an embarrassment, new developments were growing back in Haense. Although the Great Northern War had resulted in Tobias Staunton’s control of Haense, cemented by his appointment of Franz Kovachev as governor, this did not mean that the brief war had ended all resistance to Courlanidc hegemony. Prince Otto, the younger brother of King Marus, had served as a cavalry lieutenant in the Battle of Elba and the Battle of Curon, giving him some experience in combat and mobile tactics. The proud prince was incensed at the Peace of St. Karlsburg and those who had signed it, as the following quote, supposedly said by him as he received news of the treaty, proves. "It cannot be that twenty thousand Haeseni should have died in vain. We do not pardon, we demand - vengeance!” He was the only member of the royal family to not follow his older brother into exile in Mardon, even as his wife and young son, who both shall be introduced in his chronicle, joined the royal family. The youthful prince had a taste for combat and a minor following of fifteen men from his cavalry unit. Together, they formed the first guerilla resistance group in Haense, and they spent years attacking Kovachev detachments, raiding caravans from Courland, and recruiting other dissident Haeseni from the towns and villages of the realm. By 1609, this force had grown to three hundred men and women. Try as he might to stamp out this resistance, the Archduke of Akovia could never decisively defeat Prince Otto’s band, even if he triumphed in most minor engagements. Prince Otto and his roving army were not the only ones mounting a resistance. South of the ruins of St. Karlsburg was the Rothswood, a great, dark forest that was hardly settled and used primarily as hunting grounds, best to be avoided otherwise if at all possible. Those who did live there were short, poor, backwards people who survived mostly on hunting and logging. The principal clans styled themselves as lords, but they held no titles and were hardly more than extensive family networks. They swore to Canonism, but also spoke of ‘old gods’ that lingered in the trees, rocks, and springs of the quiet, still forest. Twelve families, principal among them the Tosalis, the Blackwoods, the Dunes, and the Grimrichs, held some authority and lived in mean, cramped manors that were in constant disrepair due to a lack of funds. Some small hamlets sprung up around these manors, creating local centers of power that were mostly overlooked by the authority of the Barbanov Crown. The people of the Rothswood had mostly been loyal to House Barbanov, providing soldiers for war and wood for construction, and were generally left to their ways in return. Archduke Franz and his councilors wished to tax them and bring revenues to Turov that could fund their fight against Prince Otto’s insurgency, so collectors and soldiers were sent to bring order and enforce tax policy. The people of the Rothswood resisted, but as more soldiers were sent in they were forced to scrape through their roughskin sacks to find the coin they needed. All grumbled at this new wave of enforced order from the Kovachevs, whose soldiers and officials treated them as savages, and so they turned to the more powerful clans for guidance. The twelve clans met in secret in the Tosali manor of Mortesviel in the village of Dunarsund, the largest in the Rothswood at thirteen households. Under the leadership of Brynden Tosali, talks of an uprising began in earnest. The final, and most important, of the coming rebels were House Ruthern. With the traitorous Count Viktor killed in 1607, and the quietly pro-Barbanov leadership of Vladrick var Ruthern and Captain Harren now in control of Metterden, a staging ground for a potential revolution was now present. House Ruthern was one of the few vassals to have remained in Haense after the Great Northern War, and while their power did not equal that of the Kovachevs, they were the clear seconds. Most importantly, the Rutherns were an ambitious family, yet they did not allow it to overcome their loyalty. While Franz Kovachev and his supporters had stained themselves with the dishonor of supplanting the Barbanovs in order to return their house to its primacy in the north, Vladrick var Ruthern had no designs to rule Haense. He wanted House Barbanov to retake the throne and for the loyal Rutherns to be the new bedrock of their support. By 1608, he began establishing connections with Prince Otto and the Haeseni exiles in Mardon, although his desire to lead a future rebellion was only implied and never outright stated. Captain Harren of Metterden, c. 1632. Although he had come from humble origins as an executioner’s son, Harren of Metterden found success in the Ruthern guard before he became captain in 1598. A veteran of the Coalition War, Brawm Rebellion, and Great Northern War, he was one of the few men in Haense with command experience by the time of the Greyspine Rebellion Prince Petyr, back in Auguston, was only vaguely aware of the Great Northern Conspiracy from the Mardonic capital. In the words of Ludvik of Vasiland, a clerk in service of House Vanir who had followed them into exile in Mardon, “King Marus, in his sorry state, was thought to be effectively dead where he sat. It was not expected that he would live much longer, nor be fit to rule in any capacity if he did.” Other options would have to be sought after for a future king. Thankfully, himself being a member of the conspiracy, Ludvik of Vasiland gives us insight into the candidates that were discussed as possible figures to be put on the throne of a revived Hanseti-Ruska around 1610. "...The first was the natural heir himself, Prince Petyr. He was by no means disagreeable, but Lord Owyn [Amador, Baron of Mondstadt] thought him too weak-willed to be the face of a rebellion and rule the realm that would be built in its aftermath. These concerns were shared with many, but most came to agree that a regency council would suffice, as he was almost of age. I privately hoped that manhood would turn him into a figure more akin to his grandfather, or even his father, but having known the prince since his earliest days, thought such a transformation would come only from God…” "...The second was the younger brother, Prince Stefan, who despite his age had shown the vigor and spiritedness that his older brother lacked. It was thought by almost all that he would make for a greater king, perhaps since his great-grandfather. Nearly all in contact with us were in agreement, but just before we were to finalize raising the second son to the throne, Lord Otto [Baruch, Count of Ayr], made his protest. By ignoring the elder son, no matter the purpose, we would be setting a poor precedent in the future. King Marus had officially signed away his rights, allowing himself to be bypassed, but Prince Petyr had done no such thing. To crown the younger brother over the elder would be a violation of rights, and this argument persuaded the lords into looking elsewhere...” "...The third was Lord Sergei [Kovachev, Duke of Carnatia]. Although he was not of House Barbanov, he possessed some blood of the line through his father, and he was married to Princess Katherine, herself Marus’s sister. House Kovachev had ruled the north once before, some argued, so why could it not do so again? While this idea gained some favor in the circles of the lords, it too was ultimately rejected. Although it was not his line, Lord Sergei’s kin had betrayed King Marus and made themselves rulers of the north. To replace one Kovachev for another would not sit well in the eyes of many, said the regent of Metterden…” "...Prince Otto and Josef Bihar were also considered, but the former refused, while the latter had a poor reputation. Thus, it was decided that at the conclusion of the rebellion a National Duma would be convened to decide the matter.” With King Marus’s death on the 15th of Sun’s Smile, 1611, Prince Petyr was the natural inheritor of the Haeseni Crown, even if the Courlandic claim on it could be enforced with arms. Although King Peter of Mardon saw King Tobias’s death in 1608 as a perfect opportunity to undermine the authority of the Courlandic government, he refused King Petyr II’s request for a coronation in Auguston. Although King Joseph of Courland was a boy, and the regency council in Aleksandria at constant odds with each other, he felt that the time was not yet right to provoke the wrath of the hegemon. Disheartened at this denial, King Petyr was only resolved to retake his realm by force. By this point, it seems accurate that he was made aware of a conspiracy, if not the exact details of what his uncle, the regent of Metterden, and the exiled lords in Mardon were planning. Believing that the king may accidentally divulge the plot to others by accident, information was kept from him under order from Metterden, which by now had begun to take a far more overt role and had committed themselves to Barbanov restoration. No fool, King Petyr knew that he was being treated as a child, but with no allies in the court of Auguston or back in Haense, he was forced to sit and stew. He no longer attended the balls and parties of the King of Mardon for long, only making a brief appearance at the beginning for the sake of showing courtesy to his host. He also spent long hours walking the ramparts of the palace, away from others. The one person he could confide in was Lukas Vanir, his father’s Lord Palatine. A member of the plot himself, though not necessarily the driving force, the old statesman did his best to try and assure the king that any conspiracy was likely in its infancy, and the lack of detailed information was the result of a lack of formalized plans rather than a concerted effort to restrict access to them. The boy-king seemed to believe this, and he inquired less and returned to courtly life. However, Lukas Vanir, perhaps in the king’s interest, had lied quite immensely. House Ruthern had begun to openly question House Kovachev’s rule of the north. The Archduke of Akovia had resorted to increasingly-brutal tactics to try and counter Prince Otto’s insurgency, most infamously torturing suspected traitors for information and burning villages suspected of harboring fugitives. More often than not, the executed were mere citizens unaware of Prince Otto’s band, and the villages had not housed any army. This only drove more supporters to the rebel prince, which gave Vladrick var Ruthern grounds to accuse Archduke Franz of cruelty and mishandling the insurgency. During the month of Harren’s Folly, the regent made his move. The County of Istria, held by Conrad Roswell, one of the Courlandic noblemen settled in Haense after the Great Northern War, had been subject to several attacks by Prince Otto and had proven unable to defend itself. On the 16th of Harren’s Folly, the Archduke of Akovia had driven off a Barbanov raiding party outside of the town of New Pasnia, the seat of the Count of Istria. He then gave chase to the raiders, hoping to pursue them into finding Prince Otto, over the course of a day. Taking advantage of this, Captain Harren of Metterden led a small force to occupy New Pasnia on the 19th of Harren’s Folly. Although this was officially to protect it from any further raids, Count Conrad protested and in an ensuing fight was killed, thus ending the line of House Roswell. Captain Harren claimed that the Count of Istria had died by accident, and after making many sincere apologies proceeded to occupy the rest of the region and effectively bring it into the fold of House Ruthern. Franz Kovachev knew that the Rutherns intended to replace him- their occupation of Istria was the first test against his authority, quite obviously- but he believed it was so that they could be governors of the north. Where he ought to have seen the beginning of the support for a Barbanov restoration, he only saw naked opportunism, and thus did not believe he needed to risk civil war by using military force. He wrote to the Courlandic regency council and requested that they deal with the insubordination from Metterden, which would allow him to cement his hold on Haense and end all rebellion against Courland’s rule. King Joseph and his council agreed, and soon Count Joren of Metterden and Vladrick var Ruthern were requested to come to Aleksandria to answer for their conduct. It is not known whether Count Joren and his regent knew they were walking into a trap, or if they seriously believed that they could convince Courland to remove Franz Kovachev from his post, but their willingness to venture to Aleksandria with only a small retinue suggests the latter. On the 4th of Sigismund’s End, 1611, they arrived in the capital to seek an audience with King Joseph. There are two different accounts of what happened next. The first, written ten years after the event by Santegian chroniclers, says that Count Joren and his retinue were arrested immediately upon entering the city, as they were met by King Joseph himself and the city guard. Resistance was futile, so none was made, and the Rutherns were dragged into the square of Aleksandria. It was there that Count Joren, only eleven years old, was beaten before cheering mobs. He was then beheaded in the square and his body kept in a raised cage so that any possible rebels would know the consequence of disobedience. Vladrick var Ruthern and the rest of the Metterden guard were allowed to return to Haense with this warning. The second, recounted by King Tobias II of Courland in 1667 to a Haeseni envoy in his court, gives a different series of events. According to Tobias II, the Rutherns were given an audience with the regency council, though King Joseph was not present. During this meeting, the regency council requested that Count Joren return Istria to Archduke Franz and give recompense for the death of Conrad Roswell. Vladrick var Ruthern used his authority as his cousin’s regent to refuse, and instead demanded that Archduke Franz be removed as governor and have Count Joren be named in his place. With both sides refusing to compromise, the regency council eventually called for the arrest of the Ruthern party. They resisted, and in the resulting scuffle Count Joren was accidentally shot by a crossbowman from the city walls. The rest of the Ruthern party was killed or captured, but Vladrick was able to escape and flee back to Metterden. The truth of the encounter does little to change the fact that Count Joren’s death was the final straw for House Ruthern. Although his brother Uhtred officially succeeded him, Vladrick was effectively the Count of Metterden in all but name. He opened talks with a number of mercenary bands, namely the Dunamis Company and the Knights of the Black Sepulchre, both well-regarded, and he began to recruit men and women within Metterden to join the Ruthern levy. While it seemed that he would go into open revolt at any moment, a fact that the Archduke of Akovia was well-aware of, for he hired dwarven mercenaries and began to raise more of his own forces, he did not make his move. Even at full strength, House Ruthern could only raise some two thousand soldiers and Prince Otto had perhaps seven hundred more. It would not be nearly enough to defeat Franz Kovachev- allies needed to be found elsewhere. If there was one thing that King Petyr II did of note, it was in this moment. On the 19th of Sigismund’s End, 1611, word came to Mardon of the death of Count Joren. Believing, as did most others, that rebellion was imminent, King Petyr prepared to make his return to the realm and reclaim the throne of Hanseti-Ruska. Knowing that an isolated rebellion in Haense could easily be crushed by Courland, the king believed that his only chance of victory lay in a general rebellion. He remained in Auguston to try and persuade King Peter into taking up arms against King Joseph, and he sent Lukas Vanir to Lothairingia to try and convince King Hughes d’Amaury of the same. The spark that lit the Greyspine Rebellion did not come from Vladrick var Ruthern in Metterden, nor Prince Otto in the Haeseni countryside. It did not come from a Mardon-backed invasion led by the Haense exiles. It did not come from a general uprising across the Kingdom of Courland. The start of the Greyspine Rebellion came from the one place that all of the conspirators, kings, and rebels had forgotten: the Rothswood. Ignorant to much of what was happening outside of their own lands, and much less Haense, the clans of the Rothswood still chafed under the weight of Akovia’s oppressive taxation. These poor woodsmen were seeing their few coins sent to Turov, and even paying their taxes as required did not result in the despised Kovachev soldiers being recalled. Tired of the brunt of tyranny, Brynden Tosali, the most prominent of the Rothswood leaders, called all of the other clans to his keep of Mortesviel in the village of Dunarsund to discuss what was to be done. Men, women, and children flocked to Dunarsund in the hundreds, far beyond the capacity of the meager village, alerting local officials. When Franz Kovachev received word of this gathering, he mistakenly believed it to be the assembling of an army. Wishing to stomp out what was assuredly a rebel army, he raised an army of three thousand and rode from Turov to deal with the threat. He also demanded another one thousand from House Ruthern to assist him, as he wished to force his enemies to fight one another in the hopes of inspiring hatred among potential allied revolutionaries. Vladrick var Ruthern obliged, seeing opportunity in this folly of a decision, and sent Captain Harren along with the requested amount of soldiers. Franz Kovachev, Archduke of Akovia, c. 1609. A distant cousin of the Dukes of Carnatia, Franz Kovachev possessed the most significant combat experience in Haense by the time of the Greyspine Rebellion. He had fought in every conflict since the War of Orcish Submission, but his reputation as a general was heightened during the Brawm Rebellion On the morning of the 26th of Horen’s Calling, 1611, the combined Kovachev-Ruthern army of four thousand arrived at Dunarsund. The people of the Rothswood had been alerted of their advance hours before by scouts posted throughout the woods, so the elderly, infirm, and children had long been evacuated. Those of fighting age, around five hundred, stayed in the decrepit keep of Mortesviel, filling it far past capacity, where they boarded it up, erected makeshift defenses, and prepared for a siege. The Archduke of Akovia, confident that the poor manor could be assaulted with ease, arrayed his army in columns before it, with his loyal soldiers in the front ranks and the mistrusted Rutherns in the back. He then sent forth Sir Louis de Felsen, a knight sent from Courland to aid him in governing the north, to demand the surrender of the people of the Rothswood. It was here that Brynden Tosali gave his great speech that turned the tide of history against the Kingdom of Courland and began the end of their hegemony over the world. It was recorded in full by his son, Andren Tosali, one of the only men in all of the Rothswood who knew how to read and write. "Men of Haense, hear me now: do you not feel shame? I lost three sons at Elba, an uncle at Curon, and a brother at Vasiland, yet I have not cowered and shamed myself at the feet of these usurpers as the rest of you have! I have not fled east to Mardon neither, for this land is my home and I shall only part from it in death. The Dunes saw their daughters stolen by the bandits that came to plague our realm after King Marus left. The Grimrichs weep for their boy Othor, killed by a man wearing that accursed red griffin for fishing in the wrong stream. The Blackwoods have had their stables burned by soldiers in an act of senseless, meaningless cruelty, and when they asked for just repayment from Lord Kovachev, the traitor who dug a knife into our backs so he could kiss the feet of the Conqueror, he laughed at them. I say no more! If it means my death to stand against this tyrannical rule, then so be it. We of the Rothswood, looked down upon by all, remain the last men and women of Haense. We are Barbanov men through and through, and our fealty to them will never be broken. You will run over each and every one of our bodies- our men, our women, our children, our old, and our young, before a single one of us kneels to another. If any true son or daughter of the north has even the slimmest ray of hope in their dreams, or a thin shred of love for the Barbanovs that have treated them fairer than any other, then rise with me and throw off the pretenders so we may be free again!” This speech was met with mocks and jeers from the Kovachevs, who began to prepare their weapons for an immediate assault on the manor. The disheartened men and women of the Rothswoods, believing that they were the only ones who kept the candle lit for House Barbanov, prepared to die resisting the force of a north united against them. As the Archduke of Akovia gave orders to commence the assault, it seemed that he would soon end any hope of a unified resistance to his rule. What he and his men did not see was that Brynden Tosali’s words had stirred something in the Ruthern ranks behind them. It is not known whether Captain Harren and his contingent had planned on betraying the Kovachevs from the beginning, simply took advantage of the opportunity they had been given, or had serious reservations about making battle the far larger Kovachev force until the Tosalis speech and the resistance of the Rothswood clans shamed them into action. What is known is that the cry for them to rise up against the usurpers of the Barbanovs marked their turn into open rebellion. As Archduke Franz and his soldiers marched forward to storm Mortesviel, they heard shouting and the clash of steel from their rear. Captain Harren had given the order, and the Ruthern spearmen had begun to pummel into the Kovachev line. The First Battle of the Rothswood lasted under an hour. Stunned at the betrayal from the Rutherns, even if they ought to have expected it, the first lines of the Kovachevs broke and fled. By the time Archduke Franz had managed to turn his ranks around to meet Captain Harren’s smaller force, Brynden Tosali and the Rothswood clans had sortied from the manor and attacked his army from the other side. Caught between the two, more fled. By mid day, the archduke knew that victory was out of reach, as half of his original army had fled, so he gave the signal to retreat and retired in good order to Turov. The battle had not been particularly bloody, with perhaps one hundred total having fallen, but it marked the start of the Greyspine Rebellion and was a sound victory for the rebels. Word of this victory spread through Axios as fast as news of the destruction of Johannesburg had sixteen years earlier. A new war was to be fought, and it seemed the side that opposed Courland had now gotten the upper hand. The Dumanis Company and the Knights of the Black Sepulchre signed contracts with House Ruthern in the days after the battle. A new alliance between House Ruthern, Prince Otto, and the clans of the Rothswood was formed, and it was called the Greyspine Coalition. The regency council in Courland was just as shocked to hear of their loyal governor’s defeat. They began to raise an expeditionary force to send to Haense to assist Archduke Franz, but they informed the governor of the north that it would be some time before it could be assembled and sent. He was told that, as he still possessed numerical superiority, his orders were to go on the offensive and box the rebellion in at Metterden. By the time the Courlandic army arrived, they would be able to assist him in the siege. Archduke Franz was humiliated at his defeat and pledged revenge against the Rutherns for their betrayal. Luckily for him it was not crushing, so he still had the opportunity to regain his lost honor and reestablish control over the north. He promised to eradicate the line from existence and have the heads of all of the family put on spikes above Turov. He called for all of the vassals of the north to raise their levies and join him. As most were Courlandic lords who had been settled there, they agreed and joined the archduke in reinforcing the army of Akovia. Lukas Vanir was in the court of King Hughes of Lothairingia at this time in his mission to recruit the proud monarch into a pan-Axios rebellion against King Joseph’s rule. The haughty king flatly refused these overtures, but the old Vanir was insistent and spoke at length about it in the court of Metz. Word of the First Battle of the Rothswood reached the Lothairingian court two days before a letter from the King of Courland addressing this new rebellion. The King of Lothairingia was ordered to assemble an army to assist the Archduke of Akovia in defeating the Greyspine Coalition, as he would be able to assist the Kovachevs sooner. King Hughes agreed and imprisoned Lukas Vanir as a display of loyalty, then called for one thousand knights and squires of Lotharingia to assemble in Metz so they could march to aid House Kovachev. In Mardon, King Petyr was jubilant as he heard the news of this great victory. Knowing that the time to make his triumphant return was now, he requested a coach be prepared to take him and some of the exiled Haesnei lords to Metterden on the 2nd of Owyn’s Flame. However, the day before they were scheduled to depart, a violent fever incapacitated the king. The next day, sores and rashes appeared over his body and he had a terrible cough. A day later, he slipped into death’s brink and was entirely unresponsive. The King of Mardon sent his best doctors to try and alleviate the King of Haense’s symptoms, but despite their best efforts they did not subside. Sickly and frail all his life, the measles that had come so suddenly to the boy ravaged him within days, and he never awoke from the coma it inflicted upon him. King Petyr II died in the evening of the 7th of Owyn’s Flame, 1611. He was fifteen years old and had ruled Hanseti-Ruska just shy of four months, although he had not set foot in the north for the entirety of it. There would be no triumphant return for King Petyr, no great war to see his throne taken from the Courlandic usurpers. That work would have to be done by the living. King Petyr was buried the next day, the 8th, in Auguston, to a crowd of just a few hundred, by far the smallest of all Barbanov burials. The service was short, with some prayers and words given, but the eulogy by Duke Sergei of Carnatia was concluded with some touching words. "He, like all of us, wished to return home. To see the land that he loved. To avenge his father’s loss and the betrayal he suffered. It is the duty of us now to ensure that all those who have dreamed for our kingdom’s return, yet not lived to see it, will not have died with dreams made in vain. Let King Petyr be the last man of the north to be buried in a southern grave.” The hope of the exiles in Mardon rested on the rebels in Haense, scattered and diverse as they were. Franz Kovachev had assembled the full strength of Akovia, and a thousand knights and squires from Lotharingia, with King Hughes at the forefront, were riding to assist him. Vladrick var Ruthern and Prince Otto met in Metterden on the 10th of Owyn’s Flame and joined their armies into one, which was put under the command of Captain Harren. The clans of the Rothswood assembled their own warbands to support the rebellion. The rest of the world watched the events in the north with held breath, anxious to see what would come of this, for if the Gresypine Rebellion failed, then Courland’s strength would be assured for a generation. The final battle between House Ruthern and House Kovachev would not just decide the fate of Haense- it would decide the course of history itself. Dravi, Petyr II ‘the Ill’ 3rd of Harren’s Folly, 1596-7th of Owyn’s Flame, 1611 (r. 15th of Sun’s Smile, 1611-7th of Owyn’s Flame, 1611) O Ágioi Kristoff, Jude kai Pius. Dóste mas gnósi ópos sas ékane o Theós. Poté min afísoume na doúme to skotádi, allá as doúme móno to fos tis sofías kai tis alítheias. O Theós na se evlogeí. The reign of Stefan I shall be covered in the next volume of The Winter Crows. 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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