Cyclonus (kingdom)

The Kingdom of Cyclonus encompasses all of the Isle of Cyclonus and the Strange Continent. It is ruled by a single monarch, the King of Cyclonus.



I. Early History (The Legend of Cyclonus)
Many, many years ago, the group of men and women left the foreworld, and sailed west for a hundred years. In time, they landed on the Isle of Cyclonus. Recognizing that thet had found a fertile land, the people established a small town, with dirt roads and houses with mud walls and thatch roofs. This small town would grow into the great city of Cyclonus.

The people named their settlement 'Cyclonus' after their leader, Rogen Cyclonus, whose idea it was to leave their previous home and start a new life. Rogen Cyclonus brought much prosperity to the town, and ruled for fifty years before dying at the age of 206. Rogen left behind three sons, Wilkrum Osphurus, Blythe Hasanus , and Sakran Saphirus. Sakran Saphirus, the youngest, was born with blue eyes, and entered the world on the same day his father left it. The townsmen took this a a sign that Sakran Saphirus was his father's true heir, and ignored the birthrights of Saphirus's two older brothers. Saphirus was honored by the townsmen's suggestion, but he denyed leadership so that his brothers might rightfully rule. Saphirus left the town and built himself a home deep in the woods to prevent the townsmen from returning and asking him to lead them.

The oldest, Wilkrum Osphurus, assumed governance of the town, but his rule did not last long. Two years passed and a famine struck the town, leaving many people to starve. The Isle of Cyclonus was eternally under a rainstorm, and the town became muddy, waterlogged,  and disease-ridden. Osphurus could not stand to watch his people suffer in such a way, so he killed himself one night by falling on his sword.

The next brother, Blythe Hasanus, took his older's brother's position with great eagerness, prompting the townsmen to think that Hasanus had killed Osphurus. Hasanus, already hated by the town, fell into more trouble when they blamed him for the recourrance of the plague. Many people left the town to begin their own settlements further north. After forty years of rule, and fifty years of stuggle, Hasanus died peacefully in his sleep.

For a while, the town remained without a governor, and the days were black. Saphirus was a man by then, and his location was unknown to the townsfolk. Messengers were sent all over the land to try to find Saphirus, but each had no luck, and returned to the town sickly and depressed.

Eventually Saphirus returned the the town on his own accord, but instead of people, he only found graves. Saphirus wished to go to his brother's house and pay his respects, but the house was gone, along with all the other buildings he knew. Nothing was as he has remembered it. Then, out of the woods, came a peasant woman carrying a sack of potatoes. The woman stopped by Saphirus and asked him what he was doing. Saphirus told her that he was mourning the death of his brothers and the rest of the town. The woman laughed and reavealed to him that the town had not died, but had moved out to the coast in order to find food. Saphirus, exhaulted, walked with the woman, whose name was Erla, all the way to the new settlement by the coast.

When the townsmen saw Saphirus, they rejoiced and held a great feast. Saphirus, who was still traumatized by what he saw at the old town, glady accepted the role of governor and ruled with a kind heart. In the years that followed, the town's crops grew taller and more fuitful than ever, the fishermens' baskets were filled with fish, and the town fourished again. The rains ended, and flowers began popping up all throughout the fields that surrounded the town. Saphirus married Erla and the two of them enjoyed the new life they started together.

II. The Kingdom on the Isle
After a hundred years, the town by the coast had grown into a small city, with other little towns sprouting off of it. The people finally proclaimed Sakran Saphirus, the blue-eyed man, the first King of Cyclonus, for only he had brought prosperity to their settlement.

Discovery of Quartz
Soon after the establishment of the King, the land grew rich with gold, silver, and bronze, as the mines out in the countryside became plentiful. Many citizens of the city decorated themselves in ornate jewelry made of precious metal and cloth spun with gold. Women and men alike wore sparkling crowns and circlets in their hair and fed their children from golden goblets. No distinctions could in fact be found between the dress of the rich and the poor, for gold and silver was at its cheapest price ever.

It was the in month of the Ive, the month of the new year, where a new substance was found within a mine beneath the City of Cyclonus. The substance was a large grey gemstone, thus called quartz. As prospectors surfaced more and more deposits of quartz crystal, a new precedent for wealth was established. Quartz became popular among the wealthier classes instantly, they adorned themselves with quartz rings, crowns, and necklaces. Even Sakran Saphirus, the king, had his golden crown embedded with quartz crystal. Gold and silver and bronze soon joined quartz as being only worn by the wealthy.

After a while, King Saphirus became disturbed by the dramatic change that took place in the standard of living of his subjects. Many nights Saphirus lay awake, pondering the gemstone and its effects on the city of his. He at last decided that each citizen should be awarded a quartz ring, as a gift to symbolize and commemorate their citizenship in Cyclonus.

Even though the quartz rings did not solve the class distinctions, it did make people peacefully respect their positions in society. As time went by, the firstborn descendants of the original Cyclonians received the quartz rings from their parents and so forth. They would share this tradition for years to come.

The Quartzhilde
For the new king, a stone keep was planned to be built on top of a ridge that jutted out of the coastal bluff [which was located on the south-eastern rim of the town]. As the cornerstone was being embedded into a the rock of the cliff, a freshwater spring burst forth and flooded the entire site, and water poured off the cliffside in an enormous waterfall. The building of the stone keep was suspended for a year or two until it was decided that the castle was meant to be build on top of the falls.

It took almost fifteen years before the first version of the caslte of Quartzhilde was completed. The main building was construced on thick, stubby cobblestone and plaster stilts which allowed it to remain above the rushing water below. A long, swaying suspenson bridge connected the castle to the gatehouse [which was located on the mainland], and also could be retracted in case of an attack. A glass dome, which would later be replaced with a solid crystal dome, was erected and placed atop the highest peak of the throne room, letting in much natural light.

The castle's final result looked much grander than the people of the city had anticipated. Sakran Saphirus, bring a generous and humble man, started the tradition of inviting the city folk inside the castle gates once every moon turn, so that they might also take pleasure in their creation. In the outer courtyard, shopkeepers set up booths, and people gathered to enjoy good times together. There would be music and dancing, tournaments, games, and plays performed by the finest mummers in the land. This ritual would be known as the Quartzhilde Fair, and takes place always under the light of the two full moons.

The Akauri Rise
King Saphirus and his wife Erla had four children together, all of which were blue-eyed girls. His eldest daugher's name was Akaua and she was planned to be the successor of the aging Saphirus. Akaua was different, for she was significantly more beautiful than her sisters, or any other maiden in the land, and had attracted the attention of many suitors in the city. She was also kind and generous, much like her father. Each day, King Saphirus admitted upwards of thirty young men into his hall, each requesting his daughters hand. On Fair days, Akaua would walk among the crowds, on heaps of flower petals and roses that were thrown down at her feet. Many of the Fair events even became tied to Akaua--men challenged each other to duels and axe-throwing competitions over the right to marry her.

One day after the Quartzhilde Fair, Akaua did not return home to the castle. King Saphirus sent out every man in the city to look for her, and claimed that whoever broght Akaua home to him would be awarded a great sum of money and  the privalege of her marriage. Almost every suitor, young and old, scoured the countryside and the city, looking desperately for the princess. No trace of Akaua could be found.

Exactly a year after Akaua's mysterious disappearance, a young fisherman by the name of Peto brought in the body of Akaua and placed it before the throne of Saphirus. Her body, he said, he had found washed up upon the rocky shore near his family's boathouse. Peto said that he would have assumed the body belonged to some other young woman, except for the bright blue eyes, signifying the blood of the King. Saphirus, true to his word, dismissed Peto with a large bag of silver tokens.

The King was overwhelmed with greif and lamented his daughter's death for many months. Black, the color fo death, became the color of the city. In time, King Saphirus called for a small army of warriors to protect his family and heirs. They would need to be able to guard his children and grandchildren from any harm, and watch over them at all times to ensure their protection.

The Quartzhilde Fair was turned into a large tournament, where men from all across the land would fight for the honor of serving in the King's army. Saphirus watched countless men fight with swords, bows, and spears, for exactly fifty days. From the scores of warriors, he chose exactly fifty of the bravest to serve in his personal army. The King betowed upon them, winged helms and declared this his Akauri, in memeory of his daughter. These knights would forever serve the Royal Family of Cyclonus and keep them from any harm. When one of the Akauri would die, new ones would be chosen from the populus by the current Akauri elders.

III. Quartz and Citrine
A new settlement from the north appears, the city of Ester.

The Great Fracture
Unbeknownst to the Cyclonians, a separate kingdom was rising in the north. Ester, this new city, was rather large when it came in first contact with Cyclonus. Scouts from Cyclonus reported that Ester had declared their own king and were unaware of Cyclonus' presence in the south. King Worth, the King of Cyclonus at the time, was extremely interested in Ester, because their mines were rich in gold. Immediately, Worth rode north to greet the envoys of Ester. The King of Ester welcomed Worth, noting the riches of the Kingdom of Cyclonus, and together the two kings worked out an alliance.

Over time, King Worth and his advisors began to covet the gold of the Esterian King, for they knew that a simple alliance would not grant them the resources that they tuly wanted. King Worth stationed part of his army in Ester, telling the Esterians that he was growing doubtful of the Esterian King's allegiance to him. The people of Ester believed Worth, and when the Esterian King grew angry and decided to break off the alliance, the people of Ester grew more and more hostile. Tensions remained high between Cyclonus and Ester for a many years until the golden city finally was absorbed into the Kingdom of Cyclonus.

Hints of a Southern World [the Shipbreaker's Legend]
One day, shortly after the union of Ester and Cyclonus, a trading galley set sail from one of the ports of Cyclonus. This ship housed twenty men, and one woman (who was the captain's wife). The galley set sail to the seas, meant to travel eastward, up the island coast to the city of Ester, but while a few leagues off coast, a heavy storm broke out. Rain hammered the deck, lightning flashed, and waves tossed the ship like a little toy boat. It was late at night when the terror subsided, and, by using the Stellar Identity (a sea-navigation chart), the captain concluded that they were much further west than Cyclonus.

In his journal, the captain recorded the events of the next several months. All of his crew reported seeing shadows of various large sea creatures underneath the water. One shadow, he wrote, was twice a long a his galley, and thrice as thick, with a long tail and enormous head, covered in frills. They even came across another ship, which they only saw from a distance-- but it was not Esterian, nor Cyclonian. Storms battered the deck of the ship every night, which made the crew weak, and washed essential food and supplies away.

It was later, when the men started dying. First, a young, feeble boy, who caught the Sea Dagon (an illness brought on by malnutrition, similar to scurvy), and became extremely sick each night. There were no healers on board, so the boy thew himself overboard to end his suffering. The Sea Dagon took three more of the crew. In a violent storm one night, the entire front of the deck was flooded, washing five men out to sea, who were never recovered. The captain even reported one man, who, after falling asleep in the crow's nest, had his eyes pecked out by seagulls and was lying dead there for over a week.

With a dwindling crew, the captain and his wife abandoned their ship and left aboard a makeshift lifeboat. As he was sailing away, he recalled hearing the shouts of his remaining crew: "Coward!". Adrift in the open ocean, the captain and his wife was without food, clean water, and hope. The only things they had left were the captain's journal, and a bottle of wine that he salvaged from this galley. On their dying stretch, the two shared the bottle of wine and prepared for the end. The captain ripped out a select few pages form is journal, and rolled the up, and put them in the cork-sealed bottle, which he tossed into the sea.

The bottle was found washed ashore Cape Wotharm nearly five-hundred years later.

IV. An Auran Encounter
As Cyclonus and Ester grew more and more powerful, they began to lead sailing expeditions south, hearing rumors of a magnificent land far greater than their own.

Sir Cerian Cornus, of Cyclonus was the first to set foot on the Strange Continent and return to tell of his travels. King Roedorf Wotharm, a wild and adventurous man, dispatched a Sir Cerian from the ports of Cyclonus, giving him a fleet of ships and a promise of gold if he found a land beyond the sea. When Cerian returned, King Roedorf Wotharm kept his promise and gave him an immense sum of money. Later the King named this new land Wotharm, after himself. On his deathbed, King Roedorf asked to be buried on the shores of Wotharm.

After this, numerous sailors left Cyclonus, hoping to find gold or wealth in the land of Wotharm. Families left by the thousands, and many never returned. Those who did return told stories of magnificent and terrifying creatures, some of which could devour a carriage whole or poke you full of holes. These rumors deterred many potential travelers.

A City of Green and Gold
One ship in particular returned to Cyclonus with great wealth and an assortment of exotic goods. The captain and his crew quickly became the celebrities of the port, with hundreds of people coming to buy their mercantile or hear their stories of a strange city far away. Word eventually reached the King, whose name was Umbar, and he called the captain to court to hear of his news.

King Umbar listened to the ship captain, and was not entirely convinced of his tales. Because of this, the common people called him 'King Umbar the Skeptical'. King Umbar was eventually convinced by the City Circle and a nice warm cherry pie, and sent ships along the east coast of Wotharm to investigate. Like many others, these ships never returned.

The son and heir of King Umbar, King Iribar Ifflandia, had been interested in Wotharm his entire life. He grew up hearing the tales of the merchants at court and his father's failed expedition, and developed an intense passion for adventure. On the day after his coronation, King Iribar Ifflandia set sail for Wotharm, on the same route that the missing sailors his father had sent had taken.

After three-and-a-half months at sea, the King saw the green lights of Aura glow in the distance. There, he met with the three mages, the leaders, for a short while, and then left for Cyclonus. The reasons why the King stayed for such a brief period of time is unknown, but most speculate that Iribar was freightened of the mages' power.

The years passed and King Iribar outlawed any travels to Aura. Many people left anyway, though they would not dare reuturn to Cyclonus.

The Massacre of the Mages
The Massacre of the Mages was an event that occurred in the city of Aura. The King of Cyclonus, whose name is unknown, ordered for all of the mages to be killed and their books and scrolls burned. This event created resentment between he Auran and Cyclonian people that would remain for centuries.

The three mage-leaders of Aura were permitted to remain in power, only if they would cease their magical practices. They would continue to rule, as a pair of three, until their death, where they would be succeeded by their heir.

The Auran Alliance with Cyclonus
Eventually, in a better time with a better King, Cyclonus issued a formal apology to Aura for the Massacre, and the three Governors (called mages once), accepted. They formed an alliance, which served as a trading agreement between the two nations.

V. Age of the Wyrms
After the discovery of the Strange Continent, Cyclonians became interested in the magnificent creatures that lived there, hunting them for sport and glory.

[more to be added]

Uthar and the Burning of Cyclonus.
In one of the most significant events in Cyclonian history, one day, a fully grown wyrm was set loose of the great city. The warm was enormous and had glittering silver scales covering most of its body. It laid waste to most of the city, burning libraries, shanties, and estates alike. Over two thirds of the population of Cyclones was killed that day, and many were injured or received permanent burn wounds. The only place that remained untouched was the castle itself, which became a refuge for the surviving citizens.

The wyrm was given the name Uthar, named after a commoner's husband, whom she called a 'enormous brute'. The name stuck, and it was forever called by this name.

Meanwhile, during Uthar's terror, a common man named Ermmon heroically called upon the wyrm, and killed it by driving his spear through both of its eyes, and then sending it into the depths of the ocean. He would be forever known as Ermmon the Brave, and was offered a large estate and a position in the City Circle. Commoners of Cyclonus greatly admired Ermmon, and he became a household icon. Over the next two hundred years, Cyclonus was rebuilt, larger and stronger than before.

As the city burned, the King of Cyclonus, named King Hurieans III, locked himself away in the dungeons of the castle. He was driven mad by the sounds of the people's screams and crammed himself into the corner of a jail cell where the brick had left a small crack. Several days later, a few of the Akauri found him in the cell, dead, stuck in-between the wall. Future generations of Cyclonians called him, 'Hurieans that Fearful', and was contrasted with the bravery of Ermmon.

After years of investigation, it was concluded that the Wyrm had been brought over to the Isle of Cyclonus as an egg [from the Strange Continent] and was raised in the hills located north of the city. When searching the abandoned home and cave, no human culprit was found. The wyrm's attack on Cyclonus was concluded to be an act of terrorism, with an unknown suspect.

Symbol
The symbol for the Kingdom of Cyclonus is an hourglass with a circle around the center. The symbol is engraved on the King's crown and the winged helms of the Akauri. It can be found many other places around the city, such as in a pattern on bridge that leads to the docks.



Government
main page: government

the Kingdom of Cyclonus is ruled primarily by the King. However, there are lower officials who govern certain parts of the kingdom, such as barons, or governors.



People
main page: people

There are many different races of people living in the Kingdom of Cyclonus.