The Kingless Crown

Introduction: The Kingdom There exists a kingdom set upon an isle, surrounded by a sea that no one has ever traveled beyond. The Kingdom of the White Sea it is called, or simply the kingdom, for they have no other name for it. The kingdom consists of Five Reaches: Northerlands, Southerlands, Easterlands, Westerlands, and Hinterlands, with an honorary, if one can call it that, Reach referred to as the Wastelands, for reasons that will become quite clear. The kingdom is nearly two thousand miles long, half as wide at its widest point, and far less so at its narrowest, an inlet dividing north from south called the Wulf’s Neck. Travel within the kingdom happens along the Compass Roads, and to some extent, by sea, though this is not the type of sea where travel happens easily, or safely. Following the death of his father, King Eoghan of the Rhiagains has recently taken his place as the wearer of the crown, though he was not the intended, and many suspect his involvement in the death of its rightful bearer, his twin brother, Darrick. The Lords and Ladies of main Four Reaches (the Fifth, the Hinterlands, living by laws that predate all other current inhabitants) have long enjoyed varying degrees of amity with the Rhiagain crown, but Eoghan and his father, Khain, have pushed the kingdom to a point never seen before in all its history. Two decades earlier, King Khain designed a ceremony upon the back of deception. When the Lords and Ladies of the Four Reaches arrived to what they believed was a celebration of the birth of his heir, they were instead commanded to give over their children, sons and daughters, and a series of marriages proceeded without hesitation. These marriages united families that were sometimes at war—families that had previously only wed within their own Reach. Khain claimed this clannishness was the cause of their enmity, though it wouldn’t become clear what his true motivation was for the Epoch of the Accordant until he was dead, and his second son ascended. The parents and grandparents of the brides and grooms would not live to learn this for themselves, for within two years of the Epoch, all were dead of mysterious illnesses. One by one they fell, and with each death, the enmity between the Rhiagains and the Reaches flourished to levels never seen before in the history of Rhiagain reign. The fervent denials issued from the crown of their involvement only gave the new ladies and lords of the Reaches confirmation of the truth they already held in their hearts. We enter this story only a fortnight away from the culmination of Khain’s ultimate vision: The Right of Choosing, wherein the young, but cruel, King Eoghan will exercise his right to take the eldest daughter from four of the unions born at the Epoch of the Accordant, and where the Lords and Ladies of these great houses are expected to comply without recourse. But the Rhiagains were not always the kings of this kingdom, and there are many who still pass down tales of a time before them… a time where the Reaches ruled unto themselves, and where tyrants had no place. And somewhere in Duncarrow, the seat of the Rhiagains, there are those who know the true fate of Darrick Rhiagain. As the Derehams, Blackwoods, Warwicks, and Quinlandens prepare their daughters—some willing, some not—to be queens, not all is well. Not all is well at all.