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History and Tales of the fief of Bar-Innis
The history of the Earldom of Bar-Innis in the Grand Duchy of Dunstrand is maintained by the ruling family in the capital of Mev.
Recent History
CY 8844 – Hedda, last of the Aelishan rulers, was forced to marry according to the Duke’s wishes. Sir Freyd (‘The Red’), was an adventurer from the north. Having fought for 20 years for the Duke against the Pine Tribes, Umbak, and lastly having defeated a plot by a darkling on the Duke’s own life, the Duke have the hand of one of his cousins in marriage.
CY 9130 – The Earl of Bar-Innis, Danver Aelishan, is healthy and the most ambitious lord in recent memory. They are a distant branch of the Duke of Dunstrand’s family, and are seeking to raise their standing through politics, war, trade, whatever means is possible. The current earl has a son and daughter, and a brother and sister himself. His sister is younger, and is said to be afflicted with a falling sickness that makes her marriage less likely every year. He also has an ‘adopted’ daughter – a woman his wife brought in to take care of their own daughter and has grown up with her, always watching over her. His son, ‘Drundal’, is a strong warrior who serves in the household of the Duke of Dunstrand. The earl’s brother is Rogon. Rogon left his home and made a name for himself in the south – starting as a pilgrimage to Beryl and lasting over 10 years. He and some of his friends returned home and settled. He has three sons, Danver [the second; named after his uncle] (the oldest), Sandovhal, and Hervogin (youngest).
Chronicle of Bar-Innis
Information Sources: Mundane Reference | Associated Phenomenology Only | Specific Lore
Pervasive Knowledge / Very Easy Difficulty
CY 7088 – Knights and settlers from southern Dunstrand and the Riverdans are encouraged to go into the ‘West March’. When war comes with Umbak, they side with the small folk of Loamwold and
are able to hold the Umbakians (though much of their land is burned). There is a small area in the south of the West March where the descendants of the ancient Lords of Bronze have managed to hang on to – near the border with Umbak.
CY 7195; The smaller Riverdan territory of Bar-Innis is enlarged into an fief under the title of ‘Earl’. The first Earl of Bar-Innis was Franz Deever – a hero of the West Marches ‘crusade’.
Its charge is to guard against the perils of the growing Dwindor Swamp and to serve as a satellite state with Loamwold and watch the frontiers of Umbak. Deever names it Bar-Innis – after the ancient Innis Chair and the first real Dunstrand ruler himself (and a chair-like outcrop where he made his heroic stand to take the West Marches). The territory he asked for was not in demand – butted up against the swamp and likely to always be in conflict with Umbak in some way. The first Earl of Bar-Innis was allowed to take settlers from among the Riverdans and county Faer – thus began a long cultural heritage and political affiliation between Bar-Innis and the Riverdans, and a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the normally insular halflings.
CY 7419 – The Deever line goes extinct from war and disease. The Family of Claytom is given the lands and title.
CY 7950 – The River Nanford starts to change course. The Mountains of Aragratep sink even further and The Scar Flow is created. The last of the wyld elves are known to leave what they still call the Vale of Dusntrand – they leave through Bar-Innis and go south, to the Pale Plains and their kinsmen.
CY 7986 – The mouth of the Nanford breaks. A great swath of land to the north is drained – but still mostly flood land and boggy.
CY 8291 – The territory of Richfield is carved out of the lands of Bar-Innis north of the river mouth, and drying plains. It is mostly settled by citizens once of Bar-Innis who keep their
lands, and some from West River Run, Tarmysia, and the Riverdans. In exchange, territory markers for Bar-Innis are moved west – to the new edge of the swamp which seems to be drying.
CY 8749 – Umbak attacks. Thinking the territory weak, having just lost a large base of population in a terrible disease, they ride straight up from the south. The residents are eventually driven back to the Lowlands, where the Umbakian cavalry is useless. It takes years, but the Umbakians are finally driven out – though the contest part of the area known as “The Saelish” even still today. The old Bronzemen families of The Saelish (near the border with Umbak) are written out of the histories and the Claytom family bloodline is wiped out in the peace that followed. The Clayton family was said to have been butchered fleeing a burning villa. The Umbakian prince of the time claimed they had given shelter to brigands which had killed Umbakians – hence the peace did not apply to them.
CY 8750 – The Earldom has been granted to the Aelishan family. The fiefdom was bleeding for years, constantly raided by Umbak and her neighbors, finally the Duke of Dunstrand appointed his wife’s Aelishan branch – which was rumored to be rife with witches and wyldling blood. Instead of perishing and ridding himself of a political dead weight, the Aelishan’s thrived and flourished. They made alliances with the Halflings, and ancient Bronzemen of The Saelish, even the mud-men who dwelled on the edges of the might Dwindor Swamp. They fought for hundreds of years against the nearby perils, tenaciously and without mercy in some cases. TO the east they allied by marriage ancient Riverdan families and took on many of their customs. There are many a red handed figure in their past, but now they govern with the respect of the populace, and brought back a strong presence of the Green Church to the area, replacing the light-bringers. The family was nearly wiped out by sickness and plague a dozen times, but always managed to barely survive. Like the Riverdans, they trace their bloodline matrilineally.