Legend of the Storm Hawks

The Da’Rhynn

The Da’Rhynn~

Peder Griffith

Jorendon

Bishop Peder Griffith rose from the altar in the cavernous sanctuary of the Grand Cathedral of Jorendon. He was a dust speck lost in the cathedral’s magnificence, and far too simple a man to raise his prayers amidst such grandeur.

Bells chimed, announcing the hour. Peder quickened his steps in an attempt to hide being late to the first meeting Blessed Fellowship since electing John Deighton as Beacon.

Peder had learned to avoid drawing attention. He donned conformity like a well-worn cloak. Underneath, he was still the son of a farmer, the youngest of a dozen children raised on a modest leasehold of apple orchards and vineyards in the Da’Rhynn countryside.

When he joined the clergy, he made his family proud. When he became Bishop of Da’Rhynn a decade later, they were as surprised as he was by his climb up the rungs. His humble birth and popularity with the people drew notice from Jorendon’s politically astute. The Church of Innis lauded Da’Rhynn as an example of the piety they sought to impose across the North and pointed to Bishop Peder Griffith as evidence a thoroughly converted Aurel was indeed possible.

Da’Rhynns knew compromise.

Their homeland, once protected by Clan Talfryn, was the southernmost and smallest province still considered Aurel by heritage. Centuries ago, when King Joris of Surdis banished his rebel brother from his realm, young Joren Falkender sailed his rebel army west and invaded the Isle of Rhynn. Talfryn suffered heavy losses in the early battles and was the first clan to kneel to Joren’s rule.

Peder thought it unjust their Aurel cousins in the North looked down on their conquered kin. They named his people the Da’Rhynn, the lesser Rhynn, and held them in even lower regard than the Gaurennes who fled to Bresca rather than fall to the Surdisi invaders. The Gaurennes ran, but at least they didn’t surrender.

The clans of the North stood firm and fought. After forty bitter years of war, they signed a treaty joining the kingdom of Innis and accepting the religion the invaders brought with them from Surdis. The Falkender dynasty ruled Innis for the next three hundred years. Throughout their reign, the provinces of Aleron, Camran, Connor, and Iverach quietly continued naming themselves and their lands Rhynn.

After the last Falkender king died, a scribe dusted off the old treaty and pointed out an overlooked detail. If the Falkender line ended, the throne passed to the Connors, the clan with the largest remaining army at the war’s end.

That long-forgotten clause proved inconvenient for the powerful Surdisi governing elite. It incited a Rhynn uprising and ten more b****y years of war. A second treaty set out the compromise that ended the rebellion and put the unlikely half-Surdisi, half-Rhynn, Walter Connor on the throne.

King Walter the First was the son of a Surdisi noblewoman estranged from her Connor husband. Their marriage was a failed political alliance struck before the uprising, and no fondness ever grew between them. Walter seldom saw his father. Raised by his mother in Jorendon, he showed little interest in his heritage and considered Rhynn culture a quaint anachronism.

King Walter the Second was his son, and Innis was forty-and-four years into Connor reign.

And no one noticed a difference.

Rhynns still paid higher taxes, rarely received political appointments, and were prohibited from holding the higher ranks in the Royal Army or Navy. Surdisi provinces held a disproportionate number of seats in the People’s House and special dispensation to levy lower tariffs in their ports.

Over time, Rhynns had adapted to the faith foisted upon them. On the surface, a service in the North conformed to Church of Innis liturgy. But the Aurel gods were a stubborn lot and refused to be forgotten. Jorendon’s bishops denounced the traditional festivals as pagan debauchery while Rhynn’s pastors looked the other way.

Meanwhile, Da’Rhynns assimilated. They adopted the Surdisi language and dress. They accepted the Beacon as God’s own voice. Despite conforming, Da’Rhynns still bore the disadvantage of being Aurel in the eyes of their Surdisi neighbors and the stain of being Surdisi in the eyes of their fellow Aurels.

The patience of the most accommodating people in Innis was wearing thin. Peder’s people were feeling the sting of Deighton’s crusade to erase the last remnants of Aurel heritage from the kingdom.

Da’Rhynn needed his protection.

Chapter 8