ost of the great heroes of song and story are knights and noblemen.
Peasants and aristocrats tell the same tales (though perhaps with different
emphasis)—tales of chivalry, heroic virtue, and (usually) tragic
death. Commoners, if remembered at all, tend to have much more ambiguous
reputations!
Aethelbert the Strong, Sir
A knight of ancient days, one of the heroes of chivalry. When
Arawn the Deathless
conquered Camberland, King Heruthor
was killed and his son Cerdic wounded. Sir
Aethelbert protected Cerdic and the latter's infant son Caradoc, rallied knights
to his standard, and made a valiant and hopeless charge into the thick of the
enemy host so that the King would escape.
Caradoc, whose life was saved by the famous Sir Aethelbert the Strong, was sent
away as an infant by his father Cerdic to be hidden among the common folk; King
Cerdic could therefore continue to lead the battle against the invading
Pyrrhenians while ensuring the survival of the line of
Melenor. When Caradoc
died, there was division and strife among the foes of
Arawn, with many claiming
to be the rightful leaders in the cause. Caradoc, in the meantime, rose to fame
on the strength of his deeds alone. He was shown to be the rightful King by a
miracle: when he approached the throne-in-exile, the very stones beneath his feet
cried out his name. He united the quarreling dukes and held off the Pyrrhenian
armies for many years, until at last he was betrayed by his trusted counselor
Vortigan. King Caradoc lies sleeping in a mountain fastness guarded by ravens,
waiting until Camberland will need him again.
A wandering knight-errant from the time of the
Great Sundering,
he gathered about
him a body of mighty fighters. They traveled far and wide, doing good deeds and
supporting the true king. When he was killed, his companions carried on, and
founded an order of knighthood—that of the
Anvil—that endures to this day.
Megan was the wife of Duke Gwilliam of
Corham at the time of the
Dukes' Wars.
When he was captured, she donned armor and defended the Duchy at the head of her
troops, fighting on the walls during a siege of Shelbury. She was finally
captured, but refused to promise to behave in captivity; the Duke of Aberwys had
her cast into a dungeon, where she survived for three years before being freed by
her husband.
Knight of Camberland from the time of the
Great Sundering, when the kingdom
shattered into many pieces. When the western lands of Camberland rebelled against
the true king, Sir Sagramant took a vow never to sleep under a roof until the
rebellion was crushed. He and his twelve brave companions hid in the woods and
rode out against the rebel barons, holding out for twenty years. He was captured
at last, and hanged like a commoner; but the commoners themselves had grown to
love him, and they rose in revolt and restored the rightful authority to its
place. The ruins of several of his strongholds are scattered about.
Caradoc, King
Galahalt the Hammer, Prince
Megan of Shelbury, Duchess
Morhalt the Great, King
Greatest king of the Reconquest, when Camberland was reclaimed from the
Pyrrhenian occupiers. Morhalt, by marrying Aud of Northmark, brought all the
knights of Avalon firmly under the Cambrian crown; he also purged the church of
heretics and drove the
Dwarfs from the gold-mines of the Kirkstane Mountains. It
was he in person who led the fighting that reclaimed Melenor's Keep, and he as
well who commanded the siege that finally took the city of Pyrrhenium itself.
Sagramant, Sir
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