A Time of Exile - Katharine Kerr [194]
720-728. Second Eldidd War. Liddmaryc of the Hippogriff lays claim to Cenerrpaen, the odd triangle of coastal plain by the Girysbel. Eldidd wins and forces a humiliating treaty, one provision of which is the betrothal of Covramur of Deverry’s infant daughter to Liddmaryc’s grandson, Waryn. This marriage gives Eldidd a distant claim to the Deverry throne.
750. Covramur dies, ushering in the Time of Troubles, as his daughter’s husbands all lay claim to the throne. There are three claimants, one in Cerrmor, one in Cantrae, and one in Eldidd. While Cerrmor and Cantrae fight over the Holy City, Eldidd fights a war of attrition on the border.
773. Capture of Mael, Prince Aberwyn, produces a twenty-year truce between Cerrmor and Eldidd.
793. The province of Pyrdon rebels from Eldidd and declares itself a kingdom. The effect on the wars is a bloody stalemate that drags on for years of raiding, feints, but no decisive action.
828. Birth of the boy destined to be king of all Deverry, Maryn, son of King Casyl of Pyrdon.
843. Glyn II of Cerrmor dies without a son. Maryn evades those seeking to harm him by posing as a silver dagger and arrives safely in Cerrmor to claim the throne.
849. Maryn takes the Holy City. The Boars flee to Cantrae and attempt to establish a rival royal city there.
851. Maryn I, true king of all Deverry, is crowned in the Holy City.
852-855. The Final Eldidd War. When Eldidd refuses to make peace, Maryn conquers the kingdom and reduces it to the status of a province.
853. Casyl of Pyrdon abdicates in favor of Maryn; Pyrdon becomes part of the newly unified kingdom.
862. Maryn I dies of the aftereffects of many old wounds, leaving behind him peace and the dynasty of the Red Wyvern. The common people are convinced that the gods called him to the Otherlands so young in order to make a god out of him.
856-900. In general, a time of reconstruction. When Maryn gives the gwerbretrhyn of Cantrae to the Southern Rams, what’s left of the Boars as well as other disgruntled losers flee north to Cerrgonney and found a loose coalition of independent lordships, who then spend most of their time squabbling over who will be gwerbret. The kings ignore them, except for punishing the occasional raid down into Gwaentaer. Population generally begins to rebuild after the long bleeding of the wars.
918. Abortive rebellion in Eldidd. King Aeryc crushes it with the aid of the loyal Pertyc Maelwaedd, Lord Cannobaen, who is rewarded with the gwerbretrhyn of Aberwyn.
921. A flare-up of war with Cerrgonney when the newly determined gwerbrets attempt to impose their own taxes on the towns of the Camyn Yraen near their rhans. Aeryc crushes them within a few months.
936. All trade treaties with Bardek are reviewed and brought directly under the control of the king. Those between Bardek and Eldidd are made consonant with those in Deverry proper.
962-984. The Cerrgonney wars. In 962, King Maryn II, infuriated by the continuing efforts of the northern gwerbrets to control the iron trade to their own advantage, declares the rank of gwerbret abolished in Cerrgonney. His son, Casyl II, finally brings the matter to a successful conclusion. Thereafter, all Cerrgonney lords swear direct loyalty to the king.
1007. Gwardyn II, who has no sons, marries his daughter to his brother Savyl’s son, Lallyn, who becomes Lallyn I of the new dynasty of the Gold Wyvern. Although such a marriage is legal, the inbreeding takes its toll in succeeding generations.
1039. The founding of the province of Cwm Pecl. The Stallion clan is given the gwerbretrhyn.
1057. Lallyc II ascends the throne.
GLOSSARY
Aber (Deverrian) A river mouth, an estuary.
Alar (Elvish) A group of elves, who may or may not be blood kin, who choose to travel together for some indefinite period of time. Plural: alarli.
Alardan (Elv.) The meeting of several alarli, usually the occasion for a drunken party.
Archon (trans,