Glamering
In many ways, the Six Kingdoms are to individual warriors what the Siege Lands are to armies: a
proving ground. Each share martial excellence and a certain code of behavior, but there are important
differences between them. Though the rulers (not all are kings) are veteran warriors of skill and
undeniable valor, the true post of honor for all below royal status is the position of one of the Six
Champions of Glamering. The kings are ineligible for the honor once they ascend to their throne, often
after having vacated the position of champion held for many years. The post of High Champion is held
by Valant himself. There is no High King.
In addition to the many qualifying tourneys held during each season, the Six Kingdoms each hold
a Grand Tourney in High Summer to determine the champions for the year. The winner gains the honor
of battling the current champion in the finale of each tourney. Once healed, the champions then gather
at the confluence of the Melawn and Vaana Rivers where they merge amidst the mountains and the
game rich forests to form the Silver Lake before diverging again and running in their separate paths into
the Glittering Sea.
It is said that the area surrounding the Silver Lake is the most beautiful in the Kingdoms, and
they are the ancestral lands of Sir Alisander Valant himself. There are no cities here, but there are keeps
and towers and several castles perched upon the peaks, or nestled in the lovely valleys and forests.
These places are held by the loyal retainers of the Valant family, brave knights in the own right, and
some of the most celebrated in the realm. However, like their lord, they are not often at home, traveling
the world as do all the Questing Knights, the order dedicated to valiant deeds, great challenges to their
fortitude, code, and sword arms, and to the idea of the noble adventure.
Valant himself is said to travel the world clothed as a simple knight errant, ever searching for
ways to test his strength of arms, (others say he goes into the borderlands of the Ravening Hills, the
Rotted Lands, and other such places to face the worst he can find and slay it). However, he always
returns in time for the High Summer Tourney of the Grand Champion he hosts in his lands. It is a two
week affair with many feasts, jousts, grand melees, singing competitions, and a host of other games and
contests. His lands provide for all, whether noble lord, or peasant retainer, and it is certainly the high
point of the year for all who can attend, and its tales circulate for at least a year, and sometimes much
longer.
The Tourney of the Grand Champion is the finale of the festivities, with lots drawn by each of
the six champions of the kingdoms. They are then paired off, the three winners advancing. One of three
is chosen by Lady Evangeline, the current lady of Valant’s seat, the Castle of the Falcon, so named for
the ancient symbol of the Valant line, a speeding black falcon on a blue background. The other two fight
each other, but the one chosen by her ladyship has the honor of fighting Valant’s Master-at-Arms, Sir
Marbry Hew.
After the third round is complete, the winner is feted and celebrated for a day until he faces
Valant himself, considered the greatest honor a man from Glamering can hope to achieve in his lifetime.
Many an old knight is comforted in his retirement by the memories of crossing swords with Sir
Alisander, some even convincing themselves that had their thrust been just a bit quicker they would
have had him. “That sword scratched the shield of Valant, boy,” cannot be said by many, but for those
families it is an heirloom without price. Each young squire dreams of such a feat, or even to have
scratched the very armor of Valant, laurels won by only the greatest knights ever to have lived. They also
dare to dream of surpassing all, and of actually defeating Sir Alisander and assume his position.
Structure of the Six Kingdoms
Each of the Six Kingdoms has its own ways and traditions left from the days when they served as
the Watch Kingdoms of the East, but all honor the martial prowess and the nobility of spirit Sir Alisander
epitomizes, though they interpret the last in varying ways. The rule of each is determined by the feudal
lords of their lands or the militant orders, or a combination of both. The Six Kingdoms are:
Eldinor: King Rykus, the Thirty-Seventh of His Line
Eldinor is the oldest of the Six Kingdoms, and the first to be designated as a Watch Kingdom long ago. Its
history is dark and rarely pleasant, tied as it is to the Rotted Lands, with whom it has often been at war
over the many centuries. There now lies a bleak borderland between Greevis’s realm and the kingdom,
but the grim Lords of the Watch (known as the Lantern Keepers), the feudal liegemen of Rykus, are ever
vigilant. As ever, they are too few and the dangers too many for them to keep all wickedness at bay.
There is also an outpost of the Order of the Ebon Cross, famed hunters of the restless dead and other
horrors, headquartered in a lonely tower upon a crag along the border. The Eldinorians are a dour, grim
people as hard as the stone lands in which they live.
Tarum: King Joran III, lord of the Saltkeep, whose family motto is “We will hold.”
Tarum is a land composed of the curving peninsula and numerous island settlements that compose the
westernmost boundaries of Glamering. Best known for its famed Griffon riders, it is men are also the
most skilled in sea-borne combat in the kingdoms, practice they often get from the wild tribes of raiders
that haunt the long coasts from the Twilight Trees south.
Ussel: Regent Viscount Skirril Thorn, the Starsigil, scion of the keep and library of ancient lore known as
the Grange. The Thorns have held the throne in regency since the disappearance of the last heir to the
throne nine-hundred years past, in the hope that royal blood will one day reclaim its rightful place.
The smallest of the kingdoms, and he one least scarred directly by war, it is a heavily forested land with
many rivers and lakes. Largely idyllic, its knights have nonetheless gone forth for generations in search
of trouble, and have never failed to succeed in their quests. It is said by some that the greatest lore
masters in Glamering come from Ussel, though Loegria would dispute that claim. It is here that the lands
of the Falcon, Sir Alisander Valant lie.
Vindaire: King Eosin the XVI, Lord of the Palace of Stars
Vindaire what most people imagine when they think of Glamering. It is a land of feudal lords with vast
estates tended by peasant farmers, innumerable knights seeking glory and the favor of lovely ladies,
troubadors, inns, bandit-haunted forests and idyllic glades. It also had the largest standing army and
mines of gold, silver, and precious gemstones to make most lands flush with envy. It is here that some of
the most beautiful architecture in the world is to be found, most designed as monuments to the
sacrifices of great men from Vindaires storied history, for in spite of its courtly appearance, the Beautiful
Kingdom is also a land of stout fighting men with a lineage of valor to match any rival. It is the largest
kingdom, touching all the other five, and its land tends to resemble those the closer to the borders
between kingdoms one gets. It has a particularly strong presence along the southern borders of the
Ravening Hills, and it is there that its young knight are often first bloodied, many staying to fight for
years against the endless supply of enemies. Some do not return.
Gilphin: Bardolph, the Brown Bishop
It is here, along the broad promontory of land stretching from the convergence of Vindaire and Loegria
into the Eternal Sea, and reaching for the otherworldly Ghostlands, that the folk of Gilphin live. They are
an aloof an odd lot by the standards of the Six Kingdoms, and though they too have their heavy cavalry
and clanking foot knights, they also have large numbers of foresters that prowl the dense conifer woods
and high hills of their lands, lands notoriously populated by fell creatures. The Brown Bishop, a humble if
bold and powerful monster hunter in his own right, is a ruler with a practical approach, eschewing the
courtly graces of lands such as Vindaire. Gilphin has the feel of a wilderness outpost rather than
anything else, and the creatures and hauntings, both blamed on the continent to the north, keep the
warriors of all kinds very active.
Loegria (sp)
Ed will edit.