Makkan Graybeard


Baruk-Azhik » Makkan Graybeard
 
This article is an Observation
The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official Birthright history or occurences which are accurate. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and applied for roleplaying, fictional, speculative, or opinions from a limited playerbase only.
 
This is written by an inhabitant of Baruk-Azhik.
In the days before the Anuireans came to Khinasi, when the land beyond Baruk-Azhik was still ruled by Basarji traders, an order of knights defended the city-states. This was the Order of the Sun, also known as Avani's Order, or the Knights of the Eternal Sun, a brotherhood of Paladins, chosen from among the ranks of the soldiers of Avani, goddess of the sun. The knights stood for justice, stability, and reason. The order defended the Khinasi against the Anuireans during the Anuirean expansion, over 700 years ago. Founded initially after Deismaar to combat the awnsheghlien, the Order of the Sun achieved military, political, and spiritual might in the Western Khinasi lands of Binsada and Dhafrane, as the Chimaeron was known before the coming of the Chimera.
The Khinasi pushed into Baruk-Azhik intent on subjugating us, and we turned to our long-time friends on the Anuirean throne, the Roele dynasty, for assistance in 1277. The new emperor, Alandalae, nobly took up our cause. The coming of the Anuireans was the direct cause of the fall of the Order of the Sun. With our assistance, the armies of Anuire crossed the Iron Peaks and pushed into Dhafrane. A citadel known as the Spires of the Sun was the order's greatest stronghold. It was located in the city of Dhafrane, which was leveled by the Anuireans and refounded as Barniere. They had outposts all throughout the Iron Peaks, along the Tarvan Hills, near the Rain Serpent Mountains, and along the Kratal River facing Coeranys.
The adventurer-knights of the Order could not withstand the organized forces of the Anuireans. Pressed by the Anuireans in the west and the awnsheghlien in the east, the order collapsed. While this occurred, the renown Khinasi general, El-Arrasi organized the Basarji Federation to meet the Anuireans. Most of Alandalae's army was heavy cavalry poorly suited to fighting in the southern Iron Peaks, so he tried to fight the Khinasi in the Khurinbyrn Valley and east into the Rohrmarch, then subject to the Khinasi. In the southern territories of the Rohrmarch, where Khinasi colonization took place, the Basarji Federation and the last companies of the Order of the Sun met Alandalae and his Anurians at the Battle of Asarwe in 1299. Many dwarves fought alongside the humans in special companies. One such warrior was the Overthane's ancestor, Makkan Rockhammer. During the battle, the Knights of the Sun launched a suicidal charge to kill the Emperor. While they succeeded in killing Alandalae, they were themselves destroyed by Alandalae's honor guard and the dwarven company to his right, including Makkan. It was then that Makkan earned his birthright by killing one of the noble captains of the Order. Upon assuming his blood power, Makkan Rockhammer's beard turned stone gray, and he was forever known as "graybeard", as you are today. The Order of the Sun was destroyed and was never reestablished. Now all that remains of the Order are its ruins.
1277 GR (Gideon Rinsparr) Emperor Alandalae takes the Iron Throne and opens a campaign against the Basarji

1279 GR El-Arrasi organizes Basarji Federation

1299 GR Alandalae killed in Basarji campaign at the battle of Asarwe, Caercuillen becomes emperor and ally of el-Arrasi

1311 GR Death of el-Arrasi

1327 GR Eldracht Hoffstugart of Mafden leads rebellion against Anuire

1328 GR Makkan "Greybeard" ambushed and killed on a diplomatic mission.

The story of Makkan remains tied to the imperial house of Roele. After the Battle of Asarwe, Caercuillen became emperor and made peace and concluded an alliance with el-Arrasi. But this was the high watermark to the Empire. In 1327, Eldracht Hoffstugart of Mafden started the rebellion against Anuire. The Emperor, aware of the noble reputation of Makkan, who was as endowed with charm and grace as he was with strength and courage, asked Makkan to undertake a diplomatic mission to Brechtur. He was asked to call upon the dwarves of Massenmarch to suppress the rebellion, to journey to Brechlen to ask the Herzog of Muden to arrest Hoffstugart and the ringleaders of the resistance. Such a mission, if successful, could have ended the rebellion and stemmed the decline of the Empire. The Brechts knew it and they laid an ambush for Makkan as he crossed the Thurin River between Kiergard and Massenmarch in the Thuringode Forest. We do not know exactly what transpired, but it is known Makkan and his diplomatic party was killed by the rebels. His birthright descended to his son, Golan Graybeard, whose sterling character, heroic reputation, and marriage to Grabbo Rockhammer, his cousin, secured his acquisition of the Thaneship of Rivenrock, which has been in the hands of Rockhammer for centuries.
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