Lore

This page holds the starting Lore for Darkovia: its rich history leading up to the current ruler. Information on the geography and current workings of Darkovia can be found on the Darkovia page.

the Solarian Inquisition and Tarquin's description will be on different pages.

Information on the town Tarquin is based in can be found at the page, Sărata.

Darkovia’s Colonisation
In Urvania’s youth, its only inhabitants were elves in its Southernmost parts. Thousands of years ago, Romunin conquerors of houses Dasarad and Muşat, which had several connections by marriage, set sail from the mainland to the continent they called Urvania to form a new kingdom there. They encountered the elves and, fearing them, waged war for the land. They were unable to take the upper hand and so retreated to the Northern part of the continent, Darkovia. An uneasy peace followed, with death to any who crossed the border, but the elves were content with the Romuns to have the Northern country, which was too mountainous for their tastes. House Musat had three branches at that time: House Bogdan, (the oldest, their symbol was the crown and chain); House Sasuleşti (the “Sacred kings”. Their symbol was the crowned unicorn) and House Rareşti (their symbol being the lion). House Dasarad had two: Houses Bălauruleşti (the “King Dragons”. They have close ties with the Rareşti, and their dragon symbol has a lion’s mane) and Benaleşti (the “Handsome house”. Their symbol was the eagle and sword). Some members of House Sasuleşti were interested in the elves and their beauty. They eventually managed to deepen the peace between the elves and humans on Urvania, and years later, even sent several nobles of their house to learn magic from the elves. Members of House Sasuleşti became known as the Sorcerers because of this. The rest of the Muşatin, Houses Bogdan and Rareşti, embraced the use of magic, but the Dasarad wanted nothing to do with it and shunned the Musatin, forming their own country, West Darkovia, separate from Darkovia. Alexandru Sasul (of house Sasuleşti) became king of Darkovia, while Vladislav Benal (of House Benaleşti) ruled in West Darkovia.

The Creation of the Immortals
Alexandru added a wand to his banner (Making it a crowned unicorn and wand) to show his status as the “Sorcerer King”. He was obsessed with the eternal youth of the elves and sought it for himself, consulting with his family on magic they had learned and researching other magic, and finally evocation, demon summoning. He and his court managed to summon a powerful demon that they commanded to teach them the secret of eternal life. The demon taught them a thirteen step ritual for eternal life in exchange for their souls. After some deliberation most of the Sasuleşti and Rareşti agreed to perform the ritual, and became immortal. The Bogdans were horrified and began a civil war with the immortals, using their purer elven magic. Alexandru and his demon summoners had the upper hand, though, and the second battle became a rout. During their retreat, Ştefan, eldest brother of the Bogdan house wrote that, “The sorcerers fought with an unnatural stance… reminiscent of the elves but with more speed. Most horrifying was that whenever one of them downed one of us, it seemed their pale faces lit with unholy joy at the sight of the blood. I myself saw Alexandru himself, who had once been a friend to me, upon killing my brother, grin like the face of death. Then he bent his head, and licked the blood from the death wound.”

Ştefan and the remnants of his house and men sought refuge in West Darkovia, but King Vladislav ordered that any Bogdans found in his lands be put to death. Instead, Ştefan retreated South to the elves and beseeched them to help fight the immortals. The elves had them camp outside their forests and provided rations while they considered it. Alexandru and most of the immortals realised they thirsted for blood during the battle. The king considered it a fair price for eternal youth, but some lamented their “curse”. A few killed themselves, the others were put to death by the king.

The Turning of the Dasarads
The king quickly mounted an attack on the surviving members of the Bogdan house, but was pushed back by the elves, who then agreed to protect and house the Bogdans on their land. Alexandru did not attack again during that century, instead he took over the former Bogdan lands and set to work turning House Dasarad to his cause. King Vladislav had heard of the Bogdan’s banishment and been keeping out of Darkovian affairs to avoid the attention of Alexandru, wanting even less a part of magic. When Vladislav received a message from Alexandru requesting the two houses strengthen their bond with marriage again, he saw no choice but to accept to avoid precipitating a war with the immortals. Alexandru invited the king and his court to Darkovia to present the wives he intended to give to Vladislav. Vladislav politely declined to come in person, fearing some assassination attempt, and instead sent three of his family: Vladimir Balaurul and two others. During their visit, Alexandru explained that he was willing to marry off both of his daughters, as long as Vladislav, whose wife had recently died, married the eldest. The king also told them about the benefits of his immortality, watching them closely. Seeing the greed in Vladimir’s eyes, he took the noble, who was Vladislav’s cousin, aside and made him a deal he couldn’t refuse. He sent the three back with the missive that he would have his eldest daughter marry the king and his younger marry Vladimir. Though suspicious, Vladislav accepted and Maria Sasul became his wife, Maria Benal. Elizabeta, the second daughter, became Vladimir’s wife.

They found their new wives to be extraordinarily beautiful, with pale porcelain skin and raven dark hair that often seemed to move in an unfelt breeze. Their gaze was crimson, and seemed to hold any that looked at them, as if hypnotised. They were cold, and had no heartbeat. The king found that he could never contradict his wife. If she fluttered her eyelashes and asked for something, he would do all in his power to bring her what she desired, but feeling almost as if he were controlled. When she looked away, he could appreciate that her movements were all too liquid and catlike to be human, that she shone with a glow that was unholy. But when caught in her gaze, he could only see it as beauty. He began to spend as much time away from her as possible, making excuses.

Meanwhile, Vladimir was just as entranced by his own bride’s beauty, but he wanted the power for himself. Unbeknownst to the king, Vladimir, Maria and Elizabeta made plans for Vladislav’s downfall, and, not a month from the weddings, the king was dead and the next in line framed for the murder. This meant Vladimir became King Vladimir I of house Bălauruleşti, with his immortal wife at his side, and Maria acting the widow. His first act as king was to merge West Darkovia with Darkovia and acknowledge Alexandru as true king. He gave up the crown and instead became the duke of West Darkovia. In return, his wife gave him the secret of immortality and he too became one of them. He was known as the Bloody Duke, or the Traitor King for this act, and for his slaughter of lords and subjects who disagreed with his move. After this had been done, House Benaleşti was no more, and the dragons ruled in the West side of the country.

The Fall of The Sorcerer King
By this time, the Bogdans had recovered their strength and mounted an attack on Darkovia. Alexandru came in person to the battle, and easily turned the attack to a rout. He found an elven ambush on the way back to his castle, however, and the king of the immortals was taken prisoner. Stephan met him and slew Alexandru, the Sorcerer King, burning the body and scattering the ashes into the ocean on the advice of the elves. Once the news reached Darkovia, Alexandru’s wife announced that she was pregnant, and that if the child was male, he should be the next in line. This forestalled a battle over the throne from the other nobles, as there was no clear succession. Instead, Alexandru’s wife Margareta became the Queen Regent, until the sex of her child was confirmed. She advised caution in engaging the Bogdans, and readied her armies for another attack. So began a series of skirmishes with little change on either side, culminating in a peace treaty after the death of Stephan(by disease).

Barely a week after the agreement, Margareta gave birth. The child was male, but stillborn. She went into a second mourning and stepped down from the throne. From this point began a period of great unrest lasting almost three hundred years. The nobles fought among themselves for the throne, causing two civil wars for the monarchy and several assassination attempts. House Dasarad and Musat split once again and reformed. Vladimir became king once again, to be replaced by Dan I, then Vladimir II. House Musat took over again, and Alexandru II took the throne. Then Marie I, to much outrage. Dan II of the Bălauruleşti quickly followed. There was a mass rebellion of the mortal peasantry against the bloodsucking nobles, which was quickly quelled, but then replaced with a shortage of blood. Marie I advocated restraint on the part of the nobles during her short reign, and Dan II put the laws into place. The peace treaty with the Bogdans was broken and rewritten several times.

It was also discovered during this time that every child born to the immortals was stillborn. The demon who had granted the secret of immortality was consulted. The nobles were told that it was part of the price they had to pay for eternal life, but the demon revealed how they could make more of themselves: by biting humans and then letting them drink of their immortal blood. After this, the name of the demon and how he should be summoned was struck from history, though there are some who still remember it.

The Second Generation
Those who were bitten in such a way behaved differently than the original immortals. They still moved with unnatural grace and required blood to remain healthy, but these new immortals were burned by sunlight. They abhorred the scent of garlic and other “holy” herbs, and could not cross running water. It was also found that the immortals created this way were weaker than their sires. The strongest were bitten by the original nobles, and next those bitten by those, and so on, regardless of age as an immortal. And so, alongside the blood of family and normal rights of succession; “generation” of immortal also conferred nobility, with generation I counted as the original immortals created via ritual, and the first bitten being the second generation. Within the next five hundred years, refugees and criminals from Phallia bolstered the Darkovian peasant population, and, while initially distrusted, their culture became tolerated. The peasantry was split between the Romuns and the exotic, “promiscuous” Phallians. Eventually the Phallian way was encouraged, as the refugees were several times more tolerant of their undead rulers than the Romuns. Nevertheless, even today, peasants descended from Romuns are seen as closer to the bloodline of the old houses and are more likely to be turned, if not bitten for nourishment. Solarians from the mainland likewise joined the Bogdans, dubbing Urvania “Lysea”. The Bogdans exhorted the priests to bring more reinforcements to fight the immortals, though they were in a period of peace at that time. It was also around this time that the Bogdans began calling the immortals “upír”, from a verb meaning “to thrust or bite” and thus translating as, “those who bite”. This word became “vampir” in the Solarian speech and was eventually bastardised to “wampir”, “vampyre” or “vampire” due to transcribing errors. Today's vampires hate the term and refer to each other still as “immortals”, while their populace calls them “Nobles”.

The rise of Vladimir the Tyrant
With the holy weapons of the Solarian inquisitors and the ambush skill of the elves on his side, the then leader of the Bogdans, Ştefan IV, mounted an all out attack on Darkovia, meaning to wipe out the immortals once and for all. He almost succeeded, driving the upír back until Darkovia was the smallest it had ever been. The immortals needed more troops to win, but had none available. Then Sasuleşti sorcerers, who had ceased their arts and faded from memory, came forward with solutions. In these hard times of war, they revisited their black magic, calling forth demons to aid in battle. They also stumbled upon necromancy, and learnt ghoulcalling to have the fallen rise again to fight. Lastly, alchemists, human mage-scientists seeking eternal life through the “Azoth”, or Philosopher’s Stone, used rejected chemical formulas to create the first werewolves. The flood of undead and ferocity of the werewolves prevented the paladins from encroaching any further into Darkovia, but did not turn the tide. What truly saved Darkovia was the military genius of Vladimir Bălaurul, soon to be Vladimir III. An immortal general in Dan’s army, he saw the best ways to use the new troops. He ordered werewolves to be released from ambush as distractions while the main threat came from behind. He had undead rise in the battle under the paladin’s very feet, ordered immortal assassins to kill key figures, and waded into battle himself to slay many a foe, a practice that had all but died out. He used fear to unnerve the enemy and was known for impaling captured prisoners where the Bogdan’s armies could see them. Once, he was separated from his armies at an abandoned fort, and bluffed successfully to three hundred Solarians that he was not alone (by sitting outside the fort unconcernedly playing a lute), causing them to leave him be.

Due to his prowess on the battlefield, Ştefan was pushed back and the immortals regained their former land. The casualties on the other side were such that the elves retracted their pledge to help the Bogdans in war and refused to mount another attack on Darkovia. Vladimir became king, called Elfslayer, The Dragon (for his coat of arms, which was a simple silver dragon on black) and The Impaler. Over the next few decades, he cemented his hold on Darkovia and mounted several attacks on the Solarian Inquisition. When the Bogdans requested another peace treaty, he killed the messengers and sent them back as zombies carrying their own heads.

Though his skill in battle was undeniable, he was less adept at peacetime affairs. When it became clear that the losses from attacking the Inquisition were unsustainable, and after losing over two thousand undead troops, the first stalemate came to be. Vladimir left ruling the kingdom mainly to his daughter, Seraphina, who had also been a key fighter in the war. Throughout his thousand year rule, the king became bored, as did the other immortals. It was during this time of military stagnation that the vampires relaxed a little, and began focusing on entertainment and leisure rather than petty feuds and war. But while he enjoyed himself, Vladimir's peasantry suffered. He became a tyrant, and enjoyed torturing his own people as much as the enemy, seeing them as toys, lesser than his immortal court. He beat his daughter when she advised against this and fed to excess. On the brink of a peasant rebellion, Seraphina led her own coup and became Queen Seraphina Bălaurul I, before personally executing her father.

The rule of Queen Seraphina, the Rose
Seraphina created the Bloodbound to protect her from her own kind and successfully quelled the protests against a female monarch. She united the nation behind her with new laws concerning humans and feeding, which were rigorously enforced, and wrote up the treaty with the sentient werewolves which were wild in the North. She also had more, feral werewolves created and let loose in the Southernmost forests as the first line of defence against the paladins. When the Inquisition learned of the new ruler, they attempted another attack on Darkovia, but Seraphina was just as adept on the field as her father, and easily drove them back. She even attempted to broker a new peace treaty with the Solarians (who, by this time, had forgotten their Bogdan roots and all converted), but the paladins refused, and called for more reinforcements to avoid being crushed by her armies. Currently, Seraphina's years as queen number four hundred and twenty-six. Though some of the immortals still yearn for the days of Vladimir’s tyranny, many enjoy the relative peace and opulence of her reign. Despite her doubters, the queen looks set to have a rule at least the length of her father’s.

Seraphina's shield and the country's banner is Sable, a maned Dragon rampant regardant sanguine armed and langued or sinister of a Rose argent (a blood red maned dragon rearing with gold claws and tongue, to the left of a silver rose, on a black background). After her ascension to the throne, she had the rose added to her father's banner to represent a new era of Darkovian rule. She kept the dragon, the symbol of House Bălauruleşti, but coloured the dragon sanguine, blood red. This colour, as opposed to gules, the usual heraldic red, is rarely used as it is said to symbolise some stain on the honour of the bearer. Seraphina stated in her coronation speech what she meant by the changes: her father's rule was a stain on the country, but she also possesses the ruthlessness and ferocity of the dragon, as well as cunning like the hidden thorns of the rose.