House Trewas

(For a map of the lands, countries, and cultures referenced here, refer to the Map of the Lands of Greyglade and Trewas.)

The Kingdom of Trewas is a noble house centered in Castle Mylis, which is surrounded by the sprawling capital city of the realm, to the north of the Straight of Mylis, from which the city and castle get their name. The Kingdom of Trewas has always prided itself in its iron-fisted rule and military might, and has a long military history. As well as the southern campaign that conquered Greyglade, Trewas also has incorporated the territories of Aksylis, Plellehara, Djisi, Alends, and Lekidia into their lands.

The gentles of Trewas,
King Hyris and his three sons (by his wife, Lady Aeliko of Lekidia, who died in childbirth)
-Draviz, the crown prince, a boy of 23 years; a rash, hot tempered youth eager to claim the throne upon his father’s death
-Jivis, their daughter, died of a wasting sickness in her youth
-Thaegon and Thigar, twin boys, aged 14; as the eldest of the two by several minutes, Thaegon is second in line to the throne

Ser Kalan of Trewas, the Quartermaster, King Hyris’s nephew, of an age with Draviz, and his sister, Lady Kalas, a slow-minded girl of 17 years,

and their court and advisors,

Ser Jixzu of Djisi, Ser Lallyn of Aksylis, Ser Tyll of Plellehara, Ser Paln of Alends, Ser Hakaia of Lekidia, and Ser Eelan of Greyglade, guardsmen, each an ambassador to Trewas from their respective territories, as is custom
Phaalan the Widower, Captain of the Guard
Duiy of D’liw, the healer, and his wife Halla of D’liw, and their daughter
-Allys, a maid of 14
Giln, the blacksmith, and Mala, his brother, also a blacksmith
Pyn, the Master of coin

and the minor houses under their rule, being either conquered or swearing fealty to the King of Trewas voluntarily,

Lekidia, a somewhat large country covering the frozen northwestern forest of the north continent. Lekidia was begun as a constitutional monarchy, but eventually backslid into just flat monarchy until a king several centuries ago began styling himself “Emperor” and the title stuck. Soon, Lekidia had settled down to official tyranny with almost every vestige of democracy gone. That all ended, however, when Trewas enacted a northern campaign almost two hundred years ago and captured Lekidia with the help of spies from the neighboring northern country, Alends, who infiltrated the. Before the feudal system of the Knight was introduced upon Trewas’s occupation, Lekidia had a system of samurai-like warriors known as Owaino, and strong echoes of the ideals of these warriors; codes of bushido and ideals of personal honor and disgrace still remain strongly in place.

Alends, a country that is home to a hardy people who live in the catacombs threading through the mountainous region to the east of the mountain range that separates the northern continent. Both Alends and Lekidia likely would have been left alone from the Trewan conquests because of the harsh northern winter in the mountains, but Alends has long been a close trading partner and willing vassal of Trewas, and thus the Alendite spies showed Trewas safe passages through the mountains and assisted with intelligence, and the Empire of Lekidia fell quite easily. Due to a loose sense of government and morals, as well, Alends is a place you go if you want not to be found. It is a relatively rough and rowdy place made up mostly of people who aren’t wanted (or are wanted, as the case may be) in Trewas or elsewhere, or those who came here trying to escape something. Even in the small capital city of D’Liw by the mountains, the government consists only of a small council of elders and takes a decidedly hands-off approach to what goes on in their lands.

Plellehara, the forest country just to the northeast of Trewas. A thousand years ago, Plellehara was a thriving culture of scholars living quietly in the deep forest, and was a haven for the art and culture of the world, including the Rophin Library, which contained books thousands of years old. But everything changed when Trewas launched a campaign to conquer Plellehara. At first, the Trewan military marched straight in, hoping to merely overrun the quiet scholars, but were rebuffed by the impromptu military force the Plelleharans had put together. Thus it took months of bloody fighting, inch by inch, for Trewas to finally reach the interior of the country, where they killed every non-combatant citizen they could find, looted, burned, raped, and pillaged in a horrible massacre that devastated the entire area. Plellehara today, therefore, is little more than a vast area thinly populated only by the occasional nomadic shepherd.

Aksylis, a large island to the east of Trewas which is, for some reason, covered in a dark, treacherous bog crisscrossed with shallow rivers. It is peopled by a loose confederation of tribes of jungle natives, a strange people whose chief instruments of war were wood and obsidian club-swords, and whose culture was steeped in human sacrifice and other strange, aboriginal rituals. Being conquered by Trewas did away with most of the more savage of their conventions, but surprising amounts of their culture remains intact. In war, the emphasis is on taking prisoners instead of killing in order to show one’s skill, and thus they are fiercely loyal fighters, and are aggressively competitive by nature.

Djisi, a small ice-covered island off the northeast coast of the north continent. The residents of Djisi tend to keep to themselves, though they do have large longships, built with wood from the dark forest that covers the top half of their island. It was the last of the conquered territories of Trewas, because of its forbidding ice floes and fierce warriors. Inexplicably, the people of Djisi have dark skin, echoes of some all but forgotten heritage. Ancient Djisian legends speak of a great voyage from across the sea from the south and east, but how much truth is in this myth, it’s impossible to determine.