A Short History of the Arran Queen

Amanderath Guimaraēs Eternal
By Fernão Keghart

The history of Arran is also the history of the Dragons of Ark'Tammor, for the two are as intrinsically linked as the moon and the tides. No accounting of one can be told without a full tale of the others, and you will forgive this humble scholar as I attempt to do both the justice they deserve. While Arran is known as one of the two great kingdoms of men, in truth it is, and has always been, the greatest kingdom of Dragons.

It's history began over two thousand years ago, with the great Blue Wyrm Arran Tempestbane wreaking a path of havoc and devastation around what at the time was called Terceira. Arran's own origins are a mystery, though it was suspected at the time that he came from far across the Hederath Sea. Indeed, most of the history of what occurred pre-arrival remains shrouded in mystery, as the Great Wyrm's First Proclamation upon overthrowing the existing kingdom and declaring his own Eternal Sovereignty was the destruction of all institutions of higher learning and repositories of history. As such, what few records of the kingdom and people of Terceira that remain come to us from those Lothari scholars who have shared their ancient texts.

This tome will not explore the establishment of the Arran Empire, nor dig into the Great Wyrm's Proclamations that became the foundations of our modern society. Other texts have covered in depth the establishment of the orders of Dragonborn, the lineages of the various Noble Houses, and the effects of Arran and his brood over the next two thousand years.

No, this work aims to focus specifically on the rise of Amanderath to her emanant domain as Eternal Sovereign. To understand that, one must first be familiar with the basics of the history concerning what would become known as Vassardaranth's Reckoning. In 1290 Common Era, the Eternal Sovereign of the Empire of Arran was a mighty Wyrm of Arran's brood known at the time as Eziel Gloryborn. Eziel had been young, as dragons count such things, merely 621 years old when he had assumed the throne. His Mother, Arran's own grand daughter, had been almost 900 when she had ascended. She had reigned for nearly 500 years before the endless slumber took her, claiming her place in the Temple Eternal. Despite this, he ruled well, as such things are counted. The various orders of the Dragonborn flourished under his guidance, and ended the campaign of expansion that his mother had begun ended with the conquest of what is now known as the Western Territories. However, 41 years into his Eternal Sovereignty, the Empire was besieged by Vassardanth the Red. Eziel gathered his knights and attempted to defend the Empire, but was simply no match for the much larger and older Red. In 1331, he fell at the Battle of Twin Skies, opening up the way for Vassardanth the Red to begin his own ''Eternal Sovereignty. ''

Thus, the period of history known as the Cataclysm began. Vassardanth sized power by brutally suppressing the three largest knightly orders, instilling his own Red Dragonborn into all positions of power within the Empire over the next 62 years. Thousands of Dragon Born were believed to have been slaughtered at that time, and though Vassardanth was far less fatal to the human population, he was no less cruel. Much of the Empire crumbled in just a few decades, with the entire Western Territory being lost to Malzekeen aggression.

The Empire was ready for revolution, and so it was with great surprise in 1393 that it witnessed the return of Eziel, then called Eziel Twiceborn. Eziel had not been slain in the Battle of Twin skies, and had used the intervening 62 years to recover from his wounds and build his support among the surviving orders of Azure Dragon Knights. In what would be called the Night of Remembrance, the Azure Order and the Knights of the Sapphire Rose threw themselves against Vassardanth as he returned home from a raid, weakening him sufficiently that Eziel was able to emerge victorious. Vassardanth slain, Eziel spent the next 20 years brutally suppressing the orders of Red Dragon Knights that the Great Wyrm left in his stead.

This was his folly.

In the year 1421, Amanderath the Silver came to the Empire of Arran. In truth, she had been there for at least a decade wearing various human and dragonborn forms. She'd learned from the lessons of Eziel and Vassardanth both, witnessing the power and desperation with which the surpressed orders fought. She made common cause with the Knights of the Eternal Flame and the Knights of the Crimson Chalice, as well as several of the lesser surviving orders of Red Knights. She had also made inroads with the Knights of the Roaring Sky, the second most powerful order of Azure Knights, convincing them to turn on their sire and patron. She even infiltrated her own order of Silver Knights into the Empire, shadowy sorcerers and mages who began implementing what she would later refer to as her Great Work.  Mysterious at the time, the Great Work proved to be a series of arcane runes set at key points around the capital. When she revealed herself in the main throne room to lay challenge to the Eternal Sovereignty, she drew upon the magic of the Great Work to cast Eziel down with but a single word.

Thus began the glorious reign of Amanderath Guimaraēs, Eternal Sovereign of the legacy of Arran. She had learned from the mistakes of those who came before her, and while her Silver Knights were afforded great honor and prestige, she ensured that this never came at the expense of the existing orders of Red and Azure knights. In truth, she bolstered them as much as she bolstered her own children, and even opened up the Empire for Dragonborn of other lineages to come and make it their home. All were recruited to participate in her new Great Work, though it is unclear if the name refers to each campaign Amanderath has engaged in during her reign, or if it was all one large project. Whatever the case, the secrets of that project remain a mystery even at the time of this writing, the Common Era 1702.