History of the Hordes of Icebrunt
On the grand isle Linomnount,
lived people varied and free.
They lived within their own clans
that each had territory.
This was the way for so long
over many centuries.
The clans endured fierce warfare
as well as prosperous peace.
It came to be that the clans
each sought total mastery
over the entire land,
each put forth a king or queen.
This was not the first war where
they vied for supremacy.
It had occurred many times
throughout their long history.
The final clan war began
on February fifteenth,
seventeen forty one, a
day crucial to this story.
Recent negotiations,
to amend territories’
borders, ended with knives and
wars declared furiously.
Each queen and king departed
returning to their countries.
They made plans for warfare and
sought to build up their armies.
Twilight Appledrake was the
ruler of Icebrunt, the Queen.
Beneath her served the barons,
that each governed a county.
Queen Appledrake called upon
fighters in each barony
to serve their country Icebrunt
and conquer their enemies.
The barons became warlords,
this title came from the queen.
Each warlord brought their horde to
form the Dark Winter Army.
Ten years of bloody warfare
dwindled to bleak memory.
No one could seize all the land,
though they still sought victory.
With opponents on all sides,
the war fell to anarchy.
None could bring an end through force.
They must have a peace treaty.
Continued war was futile
every country did agree.
Linomnount could not have one
solitary king or queen.
Each country’s ruler met at
the mountain’s hills to the east.
Through many days of talking
they formed a long lasting peace.
The Peace of Clans was signed there,
this treaty marked all country’s
final, decided borders
and laws on which they agreed.
The queen of Icebrunt led her
army to the war’s ending.
The warlords took their hordes home
to each of their own counties.
At home the warlords resumed
their normal peacetime duties.
But each kept their horde mustered,
veterans armed and ready.
Each country on Linomnount
rebuilt their broken cities,
towns, villages and farmlands
that would take years to complete.
But after not many months,
the Icebrunt barons espied
that Queen Appledrake was weak
she had no horde at her side.
She foolishly kept few guards
just enough to serve her keep.
Twilight assumed that the hordes
still served as the queen’s army.
But the hordes were loyal to
their baron and their county.
The barons each realized that
the queen could be slain quickly.
This treason each baron sought
alone, independently.
Without their ruling support,
the government lost its queen.
The Appledrake Usurpation
happened so very quickly.
The government just vanished
as civil war came to be.
In seventeen fifty two,
on only May the thirteenth.
Icebrunt’s peace was cruelly slain.
Never again to be seen.
Twilight Appledrake escaped
the war, no one feared the queen.
She had no horde or power,
nor even authority.
Icebrunt’s civil war was brief
no horde could seize the country.
Just like the Bloody Decade,
none could claim supremacy.
For years the warlords battled,
no solution could be seen.
Hordes from the Bloody Decade
dwindled with casualties.
The county borders vanished
no horde maintained their reach.
Aggression faded with time.
There would be a sort of peace.
The civil war was over.
No horde could be an army.
Each horde settled villages
or wandered the land freely.
Icebrunt had no government,
leaders, rulers or armies.
Each horde existed alone
in their own tiny cities.
Though the war had now ended,
and each horde could live in peace,
conflict was everlasting,
they raided for what they need.
Over time trade developed,
exports could be moved freely
between Icebrunt village hordes,
and also other countries.
The Peace of Clans held until
the end of the current Span.
But Icebrunt hordes kept raiding
only within their own Clan.
The hordes worked out unwritten
laws that govern their raiding.
These were common sense beliefs.
There was no formal treaty.
Kill only the combatants.
No other person be harmed.
Destroy no one’s property.
Building supplies are too scarce.
Steal only what your horde needs,
your victims must still survive.
If you take all of their things,
you can not raid them again.
These days in modern Icebrunt
each small village is a horde.
Nomad caravans are too.
They are fragments of what was.