Post by frankthetriviaman on Jul 11, 2020 0:19:41 GMT -5
The monarchy of Ordos lasted for nearly 1000 years; founded by Eruditus, one of the most revered Ordosians in history, the Royal Family of Ordos distinguished themselves from other contemporaries in numerous ways.
1) Eruditus, the lost son
470 AD - 569 AD
Reign: 500 AD - 562 AD
The son of Ordosians who had left Ordos to explore the world beyond, as a young child he witnessed the fall of the Roman Empire as it fell to the barbarians. As the Roman Empire gave way to the dark ages, Eruditus began to reject the fundamentalism that began to form at the time. At 17 years old, he founded his group, the Magykkans, who were predominantly an intellectual people. As such they rejected the fundamentalist religious views of the time, preferring to ask questions about the world around them and investigate things based on the evidence, not on blind faith. This earned them the appeal of both mages and normal folks, resulting in a "melting pot" of diversity within the group. At the core of his beliefs, Eruditus believed in a “world without bias and prejudice,” and as such welcomed all within his following. Whether it was a difference in Races, classes, religions, even magic and non-magic folk- all were welcomed in his eyes. Cast out from most every other kingdom because of these views, they chartered many ships and decided to find a land where “all could thrive, learn, and grow”
This brought them to Ordos in approximately 493 AD. When he landed, he saw an Island that would be the perfect place for his ideals to take hold. Subsequently, he began reforming and improving the island, using the wisdom he had learned on the mainland. When it was learned that he was of Ordosian blood, the people rejoiced; he had fulfilled a long-held prophecy among the Ordosian people: A lost son of Ordos would return and bring the gift of light to a troubled land. "light" was inerpreted to mean "knowledge" and in honor of his reforms, the people of Ordos made him their king. To assure the holdouts of his legitimacy, the wife he married and made his queen, whom he had developed a relationship with while on the island during these years, was a Native Ordosian who had lived there the whole time, effectively eliminating any thoughts of imperialism among the few holdouts.
Eruditus detested the idea of Royalty being revered as God-like; to him the Royalty were people, just like the subjects. Eventually, he and his queen birthed 4 children between 504 and 510 AD: a son, a son, a daughter and a son in that order. Although his appointed advisors more or less forced him to embrace traditional succession rules of eldest sons then the daughters, since "Ordos is not ready to handle any other type of succession method", Eruditus added a number of loopholes to circumvent "forced succession" as he called it. His first rule: upon becoming of age, all children of the Royal Family were to take up common jobs, to "remind them that even though they are royalty, they are still also one of the people." As such, his eldest son pursued blacksmithing, his second son pursued "record keeping" (The Ordosian term for one whose job is to transcribe and preserve scrolls), the daughter pursued weaving, and the youngest son pursued wheelmaking. Once the youngest child turned 21 in 531 AD, Eruditus gathered his children, and asked them a simple question: if any of them still expressed a desire to rule. He explained that those who did not wish to rule, and wanted to stay in their professions would be allowed to do so and still retain their Royal titles, but they would be excused from succession, thus freeing them from the burden of one day ruling Ordos. Only his second son, Scholarus, still expressed desire to one day be king, a choice all his siblings agreed upon, feeling him the most worthy of succession. Eruditus calmly accepted this choice before his children, but when he returned to his chambers with his queen, he was reportedly "expressing both great excitement and relief at how his idea had worked out better than expected; by not spoiling the Princes and Princess, and having them pursue normal work he was able to accomplish his most important goal: preventing a power struggle and civil war among his children before it began.
In 562 AD, Eruditus, citing the loss of his hearing and how "his sight was going," stepped down from power, allowing Scholarus to become the second King of Ordos.
2) Scholarus, The King who loved the written word
504 AD - 585 AD
Reign: 562 AD - 585 AD
The second son of Eruditus, he grew to love the written word as a young man, and would spent many hours reading ancient texts, transcribed from places as far as Greece and Egypt. He recognized the significance of the Written Word, and was horrified when he learned the tale of the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, and the untold losses that resulted. He vowed to "preserve the knowledge of the world" and his reign was defined by the creation of the Ordosian Global Text Vault (Renamed Ordosian International Library in 1800) and generous patronizing of scholars whose job was to transcribe texts. Like his father before him, his three sons were told to pursue normal jobs, and once the youngest turned 21, he gave his children the same test in 553 AD (His children were born between 532 - 536 AD). The eldest son, Intlectus, was chosen as successor by default, as the middle son elected to remain a stonemason, and the youngest son "found his true calling" as a carpenter, once again avoiding a power struggle.
3) Intlectus, The Farmer King
532 AD - 615 AD
Reign: 585 AD - 615 AD
The eldest son of Scholarus, Intlectus had chosen to become a farmer because in his view, it would "allow him to better understand the island of Ordos itself" and indeed, when he took the throne he took a vested interest in the agriculture of Ordos. He established contact with merchants and others who would venture to Europe and Beyond to locate different food crops for "the purpose of diversifying the diet of the Ordosian, and looking for crops which can be more fruitful to sustain a growing population. Although by this point in history manure had been used for thousands of years by humans, it was under his reign that manure usage was "standardized, and methods determined which would be most beneficial to each individual crop." Of interesting note, Intlectus passed a law during his reign that "encouraged the local sale of food crops, and the sale of non-food crops to non-native merchants," believing that it was pointless to sell food crops that wouldn't survive the voyage to mainland Europe. Thus, during this time hemp and flax became the primary exports from Ordos. He also encouraged merchants to bring animals to Ordos, having heard tales of domesticated animals on the mainland. Prior to Intlectus, the primary meat on Ordos was deer. It was under Intlectus when the cow, horse, goat, pig and chicken came to Ordos. (Of interesting note, because Centaurs existed on Ordos prior to horses, for some Ordosians the first horses were quite a shock)
Intlectus had six children, born between 553 and 559 AD (He married younger than his father and grandfather). Normally, "The Succession Test" would have been held in 580 AD. However, Intlectus did not inherit the throne until 585, leading to the test being postponed until 586 AD. His children, in order, were daughter, daughter and son (twins, daughter first), son, then twin sons. The eldest daughter said she would only take the throne "if no other would take it" as she enjoyed her profession of poet and storyteller. Of the first set of twins, the daughter decided to stay a baker, and the son elected to remain a tanner. Of the twin sons, they had started a shoe-making business together and truly enjoyed their work, and thus also decided against inheritance. Only the second son, Georgius, decided that he wanted to inherit the throne. The matter was settled, until tragedy struck in November 614 AD; Georgius came down with "The Spewing" (NOTE: Modern English translation), a terrifying disease that seemed to only be on Ordos. No one knows what causes it, but it is characterized by "a continuous expulsion of mucous, blood and bile from the mouth, and blood and excrement from the bottom." Tragically, like everyone who comes down with it, Georgius died one week after contracting it. Intlectus was devastated by this loss, and in February 615, Intlectus himself "died of a broken heart" as his personal doctor noted. Then, as if things couldn't get any sadder for the Ordosians, six days after Intlectus, his queen also "died of a broken heart." The loss of the King, Queen and Crown Prince took a devastating toll on the Ordosians, and the island entered a mourning period of no less than 3 weeks. Of interesting note, during the period of November 614 - February 615, thick gray clouds covered Ordos, "a true reflection of the sad state of Ordosians in this time," one chronicler noted. March 615 though, the people of Ordos rejoiced as the new leader emerged: Sophia, the daughter who willingly stepped aside for her brother, stepped forward, assuring the Ordosians that they would endure and recover. Her ascendance to the throne was celebrated, because the day she became queen, "the clouds dispersed, revealing the sun for the first time since Georgius passed," and thus, it was considered metaphorically the beginning of the recovery of Ordos.
4) Sophia, the Poet Queen
553 AD - 640 AD
Reign: 615 AD - 625 AD
Sophia was also a generous patron of the written word, owing to her appreciation of it from her time as a poet. However, she had become disturbed by the fact that Ordosian Kings and Queens would often ascend to the throne past their prime, and thus, willingly elected to only serve as Queen for 10 years, in an effort to ensure her successor would not ascend to the throne in their 50s. As such, her first order of business as Queen was determining her successor. She only had two sons, born in 580 and 582 respectively, making the effort much easier fortunately. In the end, "the succession test" lasted less than five minutes, as the younger son made it clear that he was enjoying his career as a sailor, and loved the sea. Thus, the eldest son, Alfred, was deemed successor.
5) Alfred, the Blacksmith King
580 AD - 672 AD
Reign: 625 AD - 650 AD
Alfred was 45 years old when he succeeded his mother as King of Ordos. A Step in the right direction, but as Alfred put it, "Mother was right; the King and Queen should be in their prime to rule" when asked if Sophia was correct. One noted contribution of his reign was the patronizing of blacksmiths, to "design the perfect sword, spear-tip, arrow head and javelin" for the defense of Ordos from invaders. Although mages were common on Ordos, as the island was a major hub in the magic world, as was customary of Ordosian Royalty, they tried not to meddle in the affairs of the mages who came and went from the island. As such, they maintained their own non-magic army, and tried to only turn to the mages as a last resort. Alfred did not need to perform the Succession test; of his two sons and two daughters, only his second son lived to adulthood; his first son and second daughter were stillborn, and his first daughter was tragically killed in a horse riding accident when she was 4 years old. In response to her death, Alfred made it illegal for anyone under 10 years old to ride a horse
6) Intelius, the Chair-bound King
606 AD - 701 AD
Reign: 650 AD - 680 AD
One week after coronation, Intelius survived an assassination attempt; while he did not die, the would he received left him unable to use his legs, and thus was "forever bound to his throne" as chroniclers of the day would write. Intelius' primary contribution during his rule was the standardization of what would eventually become the Ordosian Census; although it had existed in a number of forms since the days of Eruditus, there were approximately 21 different documents currently in use; run by a variety of institutions, each was of varying size and covered only a portion of the population, and in some cases there was overlapping, with about 10% of the villages on Ordos not even counted in any document. Intelius combined the documents, streamlined and specified where necessary, and when the first official census was taken in 660, Intelius finally had the first accurate count of the human population of Ordos. While there were other species on the island with human intelligence, interaction was often limited to that of trade, with little beyond that. Intelius made the first major step towards interspecies cooperation, with the launch of the Elf and Dwarf censuses in 672. Established as an act of good will, with the goal of helping them keep track of population growth and decline for a variety of reasons, it wasn't anything remotely close to the Ordosian Multi-species charter, but it was one step in the right direction.
Like his father, Intelius also did not perform the succession test, as he only had one son before his wife died of "The Spewing" in 667
7) Abrimis, the Pale King
632 AD - 717 AD
Reign: 680 AD - 700 AD
His reign was noted for its stability; other than funding the construction of some ports to improve the commerce of the island, there were no major developments during his two decade reign. He is more remembered for his very unusual appearance- white hair, very pale skin, and blue eyes. Based on descriptions, it appears that he had albinism. Abrimis had 3 daughters, born between 660 and 665; when the time came for the succession test, the middle daughter said she was happy with her current occupation of huntress, and the youngest daughter had married a fisherman and helped him with his work, also declined the throne. The eldest daughter, noted for her fascination with the sky, ended up succeeding the throne
8) Celestia, the Astronomer Queen
661 AD- 763 AD
Reign: 700 AD- 740 AD
Fascinated with the night sky, Celestia was familiar with the concept of using stars to navigate. Believing there to be value in having an accurate map of the stars, she funded a group whose job was, on a nightly basis, to document to the best of their abilities, the location of the stars on a nightly basis. When it became clear that location on the island correlated to slight variations in how the stars appeared, she increased the number of observation points from 8 to 50, with the resulting data noted for "despite the lack of telescopes during this time period, the astrolabe data recorded during this time is some of the most well documented of the era compared to other regions." Comparison of these star charts to hypothetical computer models in the 21st century showed "a rate of discrepancy of less than 2 percent."
Between 688 and 693, she birthed 5 children (twin sons in 688, twin daughters in 691, and another son in 693). When the succession test was held in 714, only 3 children participated; the eldest of the twin sons had died of The Spewing in 706, and the youngest son was sickly; often tired and rarely left Castle Ordos. He willingly forfeited any right to rule, deciding it was best for the Ordosians. Of the two daughters, the eldest elected not to rule, to continue working on her ongoing "explorations of the islands agriculture and animals" while the youngest had found her passion organizing one of the first guilds on the island; for seamstresses. Her work inspired the formation of subsequent guilds, from blacksmithing and carpentry, to hunting and tanning. The son subsequently was declared the heir.
9) Golfren, the Hunter King
688 AD- 780 AD
Reign: 740 AD- 750 AD
Like his great-great-great grandmother, Golfren elected to only serve 10 years on the throne due to age. As the population of Ordos was steadily increasing, he realized that as humans, they had a responsibility to control and limit how much they hunted and fished, to ensure a steady supply of food in the long term. As such, he implimented quotas that balanced the size of the animal populations versus the human population of Ordos. He also implimented a dedicated team of warriors and mages whose job was to track down and stop hunters who went beyond the quotas. This work led to a virtual non-existance of poaching on Ordos.
Golfren did not need to perform the succession test; he only had 2 children, and his son wished to explore the world beyond Ordos. Thus, his daughter became the crown princess. But Golfren's son would not be forgotten; his journeys from 761 AD - 769 AD would go on to become some of the most famous tales in Ordosian culture; What Marco Polo did for Europeans because of his journey to the East, Golfren's son would do for Ordosians and his journey to mainland Europe.
10) Scholaria, the Queen of Peace
718 AD - 805 AD
Reign: 750 AD - 780 AD
In 762, war very nearly broke out between the humans of Ordos and the Orcs of the Northern Tribes over a dispute in territory. The Orcs claimed that the humans were cultivating "Orc warrior training lands" for farming, while the humans said that the lands in question had been claimed by none. To settle the dispute, Scholaria hired land surveyors to properly map out the human and orc territories to ensure it was clear where the boundaries were. When the borders were clarified, it was discovered that the humans had indeed infringed on what was considered Orc territory, but only by about 1/3 of what the Orcs claimed it was. In exchange for a promise to avoid hunting human livestock in the future (as had happened on several occasions beforehand), the humans stopped farming the areas considered Orc lands. Subsequently, surveyors were sent to clarify the whole map of Ordos, and ensure that territories were respected. While she had initially planned to rule as long as she was able to, she was grief-stricken by the death of her father, and abdicated so her mourning would not get in the way of her ruling.
Scholaria had a son in 740, a daughter in 742, a son in 744 and a daughter in 746. Because her first daughter and second son had been stillborn, only two children would be in the succession test in 767. As it turned out though, her daughter had pursued the path of magic, and had become a proficient Ice mage. As such, she was honor-bound to not pursue ruling power of any kind. Thus, her son was made crown prince.
11) Tunris, the Coal King
740 AD - 835 AD
Reign: 780 AD - 810 AD
In 784 AD, a massive coal vein was discovered beneath the second largest mountain of Ordos. Assessment from Earth mages found that the coal in question was very high quality, and could perhaps bolster the economy of the island. Thus, Ordos obtained another steady stream of revenue for something that could be shipped off the island; while steam engines were centuries away, it made for a fine alternative to burning wood.
Tunris had three children, a son in 769, a daughter in 771 and a son in 773. When the succession test was held in 794, the eldest son elected to work in a position that helped keep the fishing industry thriving, and the daughter worked to keep the coal mines thriving. The Youngest son was thus set to inherit the throne.
12) Drewmin, the Friend to Mages
773 AD - 862 AD
Reign: 810 AD - 838 AD
The most notable event from the reign of Drewmin was the Great Fire of 827. He summoned the 8 magic factions (at the time, magic on Ordos was dominated by 8 factions; which were essentially guilds, one for each element) and begged them for their help in the crisis. All the factions except the dark mages proved useful in some manner during this time, and the seven factions in question were greatly rewarded for their role in saving Ordos. Drewmin sanctioned the dark magic faction, but elected not to over-punish them, reasoning it would cause more harm than good. What was beyond his power though, was that in the eyes of the Ordosians, Dark Magic now developed a reputation for being "useless outside of combat and destruction".
Drewmin's succession test for his children proved rather straightforward- His two eldest sons had become water mages and his eldest daughter had become a fire mage. As such, his youngest daughter, whose time was spent studying agriculture, was made the crown princess
13) Mabla, the Agrarian Queen
808 AD - 899 AD
REIGN: 838 AD - 850 AD
Her time spent studying agriculture ended up exposing her to much study of the nature of Ordos, and ended up on many occasions working with the elves, who tended to be closer to nature compared to the humans. During her experiments, she happened to discover a valuable piece of knowledge: the ability of clover to "revive and renew overused soil"
Thus, she introduced crop rotation to Ordos, by mandating that each field was to be rotated in a cycle of food crops for humans, grazing crops for animals, and clover to replenish the soil, then the cycle would repeat.
Her reign was unusually short compared to most predecessors, but it was not without reason- her passion truly was agriculture, and found the work of ruling Ordos unfulfilling. Thus, she broke tradition when, in 845 AD, she ignored the succession test in favor of simply naming her eldest son the crown prince. Because her three daughters had each become a seamstress, a lightning mage and a record keeper, while her youngest son had become a light mage, fortunately there was no objection to this rather haphazard declaration.
14) Rewin, the Noble Creator
833 AD - 914 AD
REIGN: 850 AD - 900 AD
Taking the throne at 17 years old, Rewin was the second youngest monarch in the history of the Ordosian Royal bloodline. In 860 Rewin decided that he would reward the families who had made great contributions to the island, by making them nobility. The noble families were as such:
(NOTE: Following the British "invasion" of Ordos, eventually the titles of nobility were renamed from their original Ordosian names to the names of Nobility ranks used by the British. As such, in recollections of past Ordosian Nobles they are often referred to by their British named rank to make it clearer where they stood in the scheme of things.)
Duke: Highest rank of Noble; given to families whose contributions enormously benefitted Ordos
Duke of Notris
Duke of Faldrick
Duke of Granow
Earl: Second highest rank of Noble; given to families with great contributions, but not as much as Dukes
Earl of Knarf
Earl of Zot
Earl of Seye
Earl of Gut (pronounced "Guute" like the Lute instrument)
Count: Third highest rank of noble; greatly contributed, but not as long as the families above
Count of Youtla
Count of Bredum
Count of Shelma
Baron: Fourth highest ranking nobility. Given to "new" contributors; i.e. the first of their family to make a great contribution to Ordos
Baron D'Levin
Baron Tozzien
Baron Metilca
Baron Tigsen
Rewin went on to have 10 children: One son each in 859, 861 and 862, twin daughters in 864, one daughter in 867, twin sons in 869, one daughter in 870 and one son in 871.
When the succession test was held in 892 only 7 were able to take the test- the third eldest son and the youngest daughter had tragically died of The Spewing by this time, and the younger of the twin sons was sickly, and withheld himself from being considered.
Of the others, the youngest son had become a respected Earth mage, and the elder twin son a light mage, disqualifying them from being considered. The second youngest daughter enjoyed her life as a poet, while of the twin daughters the eldest preferred to continue her research into dragons and the youngest had opted to remain a baker. This left the two eldest sons in competition for the throne. The second eldest- who had proved himself a warrior, proposed a duel with the elder brother to settle the score; using training swords they would fight until one could no longer stand. While the eldest son had some skill with a sword due to having received some training, it was, as a whole, almost certainly a wash for the second eldest son, since the eldest was only a record-keeper.
When the duel began, the second eldest delivered the first strike, and proceeded to have the upper hand. Rewin stopped the duel before either could get fully hurt though, and declared the eldest son his heir. The second son was shocked to learn that he had failed because he had forgotten a fundamental rule on Ordos- might does not make right, and strength was not everything. Enraged, the second eldest son vowed to take the throne by force when his time came
15) Girtan, the King who preserved Ordos
859 AD - 951 AD
Reign: 900 AD - 949 AD
Girtan was crowned King and barely had time to celebrate his ascension to power as the Ordosian Civil War began. From September 10, 900 AD to March 25 909 AD the island was shaken to its core as Girtan found himself in a power struggle against his younger brother, Huxlen. The battles of the war were mostly relatively small skirmishes, at a rate of about 2-3 a month. With one major battle happening about 1-2 times a year; though there were 4 in 907.
Both sides did everything they could to give their respective struggles an edge. Whether recruiting other species, capturing and using beast-intelligent monsters, recruiting from the local mage population, almost nothing was off the table. (It should be noted though, that perhaps as foresight to what was to come, a number of mages showed great hesitancy to use famine magic or mind control magic to further their cause)
The last direct confrontation between the two brothers and their armies was a battle so great, it engulfed as much as 70-90 percent of the island, and there was almost no part of the island that went unaffected; although the bulk of the fighting concentrated in the fields of Northern Ordos, no less than 200 skirmishes of varying size broke out across the island during this week
Girtan lost his two eldest sons during the week long fight, while Huxlen lost his 3 generals. Both sides only withdrew because with his generals Huxlen's army was in disarray, and Girtan suffered a crisis of conscience when he was told of the full impact his this war had.
During the withdrawal, Huxlen saw Girtan and mocked him, "the end is near, brother! Rest assured, when I take the throne, my first act will be to make you die of The Spewing!" he swore before riding away. When word of his declaration spread, it made him very unpopular; given how much an individual suffers as a result of The Spewing, no one dared utter such a vulgarity because as far as Ordosians were concerned; while it was inevitable that one would make an enemy or two in life, there were still lines one never crossed... wishing someone to die of The Spewing being one of them. About 1/3 of his surviving supporters ended up defecting as a result.
But it was what happened next that was the most shocking. On March 22 909, two weeks after the battle ended, Huxlen had died... of The Spewing. 3 days after, his second in command surrendered and the remaining army stood down.
Reasoning that enough blood had been spilled and that it was more important to rebuild Ordos, Girtan elected to grant amnesty to most of those who sided with Huxlen. Only 73 individuals were executed for treason- they had committed acts so gruesome and heinous they could not be excused.
Girtan ended up not performing a succession test. Although he had seven children (son in 887, son in 888, daughter in 890, twin daughters in 892, son in 894 and son in 895), by the time his youngest child turned 21 in 916 only four of his children were still alive; the two eldest sons had died in the civil war, and his second youngest son had drowned in 913. Both of his twin daughters, a leader in the seamstress guild and a water mage respectively, expressed no interest, as did his only remaining son, who preferred his work as a blacksmith. Thus, the eldest daughter became the crown princess.
16) Helma, the queen who welcomed outsiders
890 AD - 970 AD
Reign: 949 AD - 955 AD
Helma realized that at 59 years old she was far from her prime, and decided to minimize the length of her reign. She had one daughter in 918 AD before her husband died; she elected not to remarry after that, thus she was the first monarch to spend her whole reign without a King/queen consort. Thus, the need for the succession test was moot. In 952 AD, a dozen ships landed on the island; they were viking longships. Although such Scandinavians had been encountered prior with trading, these vikings came requesting sanctuary; they were in search of a new home for reasons they did not disclose, but based on circumstantial evidence it appears that this group had been exiled for reasons unknown. Helma welcomed these outsiders; thus introducing Northern European bloodlines to Ordos.
In 954 AD, 8 ships of unknown design landed in Ordos, with contemporary accounts talking about how these people "were of noticeably darker complexion compared to other visitors of the past." Fortunately, communication with this new group was possible, thanks to a handful of mages among the group who could rely on Ordosian mages for translating purposes. (Mages had spells that could allow for instant translation in communication). Those on the boats asked for sanctuary; they were survivors of a kingdom in a faraway land that had been overthrown, and were seeking a new beginning. In these outsiders, Helma saw the plight of Eruditus and his followers, and welcomed them with open arms; based on archeological evidence, this kingdom appears to have been a forgotten North African Kingdom; this event introduced North African bloodlines to Ordos.
17) Sarah, the queen who would not die
918 AD - 1004 AD
Reign: 955 AD - 973 AD
She reigned during a peaceful, stable period. What makes her reign stand out is the number of assassination attempts she survived. Between 961 and 964 AD she ended up surviving 44 assassination attempts; 7 involved poison, 10 involved a crossbow, 14 involved a dagger, 4 involved a sword, and 9 involved a bow and arrow. In 965 AD the truth came out: she was being targeted by Huxlen as revenge for the outcome of the Ordosian Civil War. Sarah sentenced the conspirators to death, believing ending Huxlen's bloodline would ensure the safety of the Ordosian Royal Family in the future.
Between 946 AD and 951 AD Sarah birthed four children: Her Daughter in 946 was stillborn, her daughter in 948, her son in 949 and another daughter in 951. The succession test was never held; her youngest daughter fell in love with a blacksmith and elected to live her life with him, and her second daughter became a very respected ice mage. As such, her son became the crown prince in 972 AD. He didn't have much time to prepare though; as in 973 AD, Queen Sarah became crippled with an unknown disease and had to abdicate to take care of her health.
18) Harold, the Mad King
949 AD - 1010 AD
Reign: 973 AD - 998 AD
Taking the throne at 24 years old, Harold believed he was in for a long, prosperous reign. Unfortunately, this was not to be. In 992 AD, Harold became plagued with crippling back pains, and began taking medicinal ointment to treat it. Unfortunately, this medicine contained mercury, and by 997 AD it had become clear that he was not in the best mental shape, and would frequently have manic episodes. Believing it was for the best for Ordos, his advisors and queen forcefully abdicated him, and his eldest son ended up becoming King of Ordos; given the emergency situation, it was deemed to be the best course of action at the time. Fortunately, his other two sons did not oppose, preventing civil war from breaking out. One had become a farmer, and the other a fisherman
19) William, the king at 14
984 AD - 1070 AD
Reign: 998 AD - 1048 AD
At 14 years old, William was the youngest monarch to assume the power of the Ordosian Monarchy. However, deciding he was not emotionally ready for this position, he ceded power to his mother until his 20th birthday, at which point he began his rule as king properly. His reign was marked by a 50 year period of peace and prosperity, and upon abdication in 1048, he is reported to have said "I could rule until the day I die... but after 50 years as your king, it is time for me to pursue my other interests" and indeed, he spent his twilight years doing what he loved, reading.
William had 5 children between 1014 AD and 1020 AD. In 1014, his first daughter was stillborn. In 1016, he had twin sons. In 1020, he had twin daughters. Of his sons, the eldest became a sailor, and the youngest a woodworker. Of his daughters, his youngest died of The Spewing in 1037. The eldest daughter was thus named the crown princess.
20) Matilda, the White Queen
1020 AD - 1088 AD
Reign: 1048 AD - 1088 AD
Much like her ancestor Abrimis, Matilda was also Albino, but called "the White Queen" so that she would not simply be lumped with Abrimis; she was more than capable of standing on her own and her reign brought continued prosperity to Ordos. Towards the end of 1088 AD, she tragically died when a rare earthquake collapsed part of Castle Ordos and crushed her.
She went on to have 8 children: triplets of 2 sons and 1 daughter in 1049, twin sons in 1051, a daughter in 1053 and twin daughters in 1055.
The death of Queen Matilda was hard enough, but 1089 proved to be an even more tragic year, known to Ordosians as "The Year of 4 Monarchs"
21) Queen Agnes
1049 AD - 1089 AD
Reign: November 12, 1088 - March 20, 1089
The eldest daughter, she was elected to be queen when the children came together and elected that she was the one most qualified to rule, as the one with the best people skills.
Her life was cut short though, when she died during a banquet, where it was revealed that her drink had been poisoned. Though the culprits were caught, the loss of a new monarch so soon shocked the island, even the non-human species. The seven children came together again; Agnes' two children were far too young to rule, so the third eldest son was chosen to succeed Agnes, on account of having the best knowledge of the economics of Ordos.
22) King Robert
1051 AD - 1089 AD
Reign: March 24, 1089 - May 4, 1089
He was able to implement 2 important economic policies before tragedy struck again- King Robert died of The Spewing. To the horror of the Ordosians, the next day the third eldest daughter had also died of The Spewing. Once again, the five remaining children came together and decided that second eldest daughter would rule next because she was the most qualified of the surviving siblings. At the same meeting, the youngest son and youngest daughter forfeited any future right to rule the island; the grief of losing their mother and half their siblings was too much to bear
23) Queen Alice
1053 AD - 1089 AD
Reign: May 8, 1089 - July 27, 1089
Her reign preserved a steady rule, but then tragedy struck when Queen Alice was killed when, while out for a walk on the grounds of Castle Ordos, she stepped on some particularly soft ground and it gave way, causing her to fall 80 feet to her death. She had fallen into a sinkhole that had given way, and died when she landed on her head. Her body was recovered with the help of Earth Mages, who also filled the sinkhole to prevent this from happening again.
Now, only the eldest son and second eldest son were left for consideration. However, there was no argument, the second eldest son ceded his claim to his older brother, "I've come to realize there are things more important than power; I'm going to dedicate myself to my family; life is too short and precious to take for granted" and thus, the eldest son took the throne.
24) Walter, the King who brought Solace
1049 AD - 1131 AD
Reign: August 1, 1089 - 1125 AD
After the deaths of his mother and four of his siblings in less than a year, Walter united a grieving island and brought his people together in a time of great sorrow. The island eventually recovered, and in 1095 AD he was present to bear witness to one of the most important events in the history of Ordos... the birth of the Colormen.
He also bore witness to Matthew Eerdagovern's efforts to bring an official peace among the species of the island; and signed the Ordos Multi-Species charter on behalf of the humans.
Following his trials that held the Warriors of Terra responsible for their acts in the latest Colorfolk War of Defense, King Walter stepped down, citing declining sight and health. He had five children: a son in 1080, a son and daughter in 1082 and a daughter and son in 1084. The succession test was held on schedule in 1105, but in a first, all of the younger children simply ceded rule to the eldest son, citing the ongoing war with the Warriors of Odin as reasoning for "not wasting time on a distraction like this.
25) Blake, The friend to mages
1080 AD - 1172 AD
Reign: 1125 AD - 1164 AD
During his reign, Blake would bear witness to three major wars to affect his island: Baron Joseph D'Levin's two wars against the Colorfolk, and the War of the Dead. In the latter, Blake wound up witnessing the absolute horrors of necromancy first hand, and at the encouragement of the Colorfolk, banned the practice on Ordos; a "regretful oversight my ancestors forgot to take care of" he lamented.
Just before the end of his reign, it was he who stripped the D'Levin family of their nobility; by this time in his life he had grown fond of the mages, and was horrified with how corrupt this family had become.
Blake had four children: a stillborn son in 1109 AD, a daughter in 1111 AD, a son in 1113 AD and a daughter in 1115 AD. The Youngest daughter tragically died of The Spewing in 1132, and thus the succession test was held in 1134 AD. Although his son was a brilliant man, by the son's own admission, he was also quite frail and sickly- not the best choice to lead the nation. Thus, his daughter became crown princess.
26) Gertrude, the Queen who slept for 5 years
1111 AD - 1208 AD
Reign: 1164 AD - 1198 AD
Assuming power in her early 50s, Gertrude took the thrown at the beginning of a peaceful period in Ordonian History. A shocking development struck in 1172, when one afternoon, Gertrude collapsed and entered "a deep sleep." To this day, no one is entirely sure what befell this queen; but a combination of help from regular doctors and light mages kept her alive and, in 1177 she awoke again. When she stepped down at 87 years old, she lamented about being unable to break the constant cycle of Ordosian Monarchs not coming to power until just past their prime.
Gertrude had 3 stillborn children in 1140, 1142 and 1143 before finally having a son in 1145. Unable to deal with any further heartbreak, she elected to not have any further children, thus eliminating the succession test for the next generation.
27) David, the metal king
1145 AD - 1249 AD
Reign: 1198 AD - 1235 AD
A respected metallurgist, David worked with the Colorfolk on experiments concerning the "transformation and purification of ores into metal," believing that it was possible to obtain better quality iron, copper and other useful metals using assorted means. While by no means an industrial revolution, David's experiments would go on to lay groundwork for future metallurgists to work on in the search for high quality metals. After becoming king, as the Colorfolk fought off the hostile Orcs in the Orc War and the evil dark mages in the Age of Darkness, David became a figure the rest of the population could turn to for solace; the sworn protectors were fighting off the threats themselves, but it was David who kept his people calm and prevented chaos from erupting.
Overly stressed from the betrayal of the Cult of Janus, David stepped down in 1235; despite having 3 sons and 2 daughters, David simply settled on giving the crown to his eldest child; a decision that was deemed controversial at the time. However, given that the last succession test, the test of 1134, was held before he was even born, and the fact that David was an only child thus not given the test himself, it is likely that the importance of the test simply never stuck out to him. (side note: Children order was son in 1173, son in 1174, daughter and daughter in 11176 and son in 1179).
28) Edward, the castle-bound king
1173 AD - 1249 AD
Reign: 1235 AD - 1249 AD
Not taking the throne until 62 years old, Edward did not plan on ruling long, for the sake of his successor. The 14 years of his reign were during the Age of Invasions to Ordos, thus Edward never left Castle Ordos during this time, citing both age and danger... though his diaries suggest he was mainly very afraid of becoming a target of the invaders.
Edward only had a pair of twins, a son and daughter born in 1205 AD. His daughter had studied to become and indeed, was now famous as one of the greatest light mages on Ordos, precluding her from the throne. Thus, when the test was given in 1226 (Despite Edward not being king yet), the son became crown prince.
Tragedy struck in 1249; Edward was talking with his father, the former King of Ordos. On his bed, David warned his son of visions he was having, of how Ordos was about to enter "a very, very dark period; I can only hope our sworn protectors will live up to their name; for I do not wish to see what is about to happen)
The next day, former King David passed at age 104, one of the longest lived Ordosian monarchs. Edward took the death very hard, and 3 days later he "died of heartbreak" himself- the next king ended up taking charge at what would possibly be one of the darkest chapters in Ordosian history.
29) Edmond, The iron-willed king
1205 AD - 1279 AD
Reign: 1249 AD - 1279 AD
He became king just before the start of what would become known as The Apocalypse War on Ordos. But during this war, and all the wars that would be fought under his rule, Edmond stood firm, and his style of leadership inspired those of Ordos to stand with the Colorfolk, and everyone did what they could to keep the island from falling to the evil invaders. He was an inspiration to his people... but his also made the most controversial decision of all Ordosian monarchs. During the height of the Apocalypse War, Edmond abolished the succession test in favor of "traditional" kind of succession, citing the ongoing fighting as reason. Concluding he needed to direct his attention towards the defense and rebuilding of his island, he reasoned that it was a necessary sacrifice. Though his children were upset by this, they could not deny that Ordos was in a time of crisis and they needed to play their parts too.
Edward was ultimately killed by Order of Neptune, for standing defiantly before them and demanding they leave his island. He had three children: a daughter in 1233, a son in 1235 and a daughter in 1237. The eldest daughter died of the spewing in 1255 AD, and the youngest daughter distinguished herself as a powerful Earth Mage; the son, a record keeper, ended up becoming crown prince in 1256.
30) Charles, King who would not be controlled
1235 AD - 1320 AD
Reign: 1279 AD - 1308 AD
He famously resisted being mind controlled by the Heralds of the Eternal night; a faction of Dark mages who sought to conquer Ordos. The glevdrium ring gifted to him by The Colorfolk saved him from being mind controlled.
During his reign, he found himself faced with a challenger to the throne: Baradurus, a great-great-grandson of Queen Gertrude's brother, who claimed that the throne was rightfully his, as Gertrude's brother was the rightful king of Ordos in his day, this by extension, made Charles' rule illegitimate. Charles stood firm and assured the validity of his rule, and assisted the Colorfolk with defeating Baraduras... the first time. (SIDE NOTE: Baraduras was born in 1261, his father in 1229, his grandfather in 1189, his great-grandfather in 1150, his great-great-grandfather in 1113)
Charles had a twin son and daughter in 1266 AD and twin sons in 1269 AD. With the abolition of the succession test, his eldest son became the crown prince.
31) Bernard, the Submitted King
1266 AD - 1360 AD
Reign: 1308 AD - 1352 AD
During his reign, the more powerful English increased their presence on Ordos, to the objections of King Bernard. But he was unable to compete with the English, and submitted to their presence to avoid losing the crown.
He also ruled during the Black Death, and worked with the Colorfolk to keep the plague from claiming his island's population. He would bare witness to many important events in Ordosian history, including the end of the Age of Invasions.
Bernard only had a daughter in 1295 and a son in 1299. The son forfeited what would've been guaranteed succession when he decided to leave for mainland Europe. Thus, the daughter became the crown princesss
32) Anne, the rebuilder
1295 AD- 1370 AD
Reign: 1352 AD - 1362 AD
Much like her ancestor Sophia, Anne limited her reign to 10 years, deciding that the next monarch of Ordos should not be past their prime. Her reign was defined by the welcoming of outside mages fleeing persecution throughout the known world, and the rebuilding of Ordos after decades of struggles and war.
Anne only had one son, in 1320 AD, before her husband died of the Spewing. She never remarried and was one of the few monarchs to not have a spouse during her reign.
33) Samson, the lecture king
1320 AD - 1376 AD
Reign: 1362 AD - 1376 AD
Samson found great delight in teaching others, and would often invite his subjects to Castle Ordos to hear him speak on a variety of topics. In a time of peace, it was considered a most welcome distraction from the memories of constant war that loomed in Ordosian minds.
Samson found love quite early in life and ended up marrying quite young compared to his ancestors. He and his bride were wed in 1341, and ended up having a son in 1342, a son in 1343, a twin son and daughter in 1344, a daughter in 1345, a son in 1346, a son in 1347, twin daughters in 1348 and a daughter in 1349. Samson lived an unusually short 56 years for an Ordosian royal... his life had been tragically cut short by The Spewing.
While tradition dictated that the eldest son normally got the throne, a crisis of succession emerged: arguing that his eldest brother was a sickly, bedridden invalid this disqualified him from the throne, and as such the second oldest brother declared that he was, therefore, the rightful King of Ordos. The eldest brother, while physically weak, was arguably the most mentally capable of the job though, so the third eldest brother insisted that the eldest be given the throne; after all, his time was limited and there was no question that, since the eldest son had no children of his own, the second eldest son would get the throne in no less than five years. But the second eldest did not want to wait, and demanded the throne. The fourth and fifth eldest sons each desired the throne for their own selfish gain; realizing that the second and third eldest each had families now, this effectively meant that both of them would never become King of Ordos. Thus, a four way civil war embroiled the island, with each brother raising an army to fight one another (The third eldest fighting on the eldest’s behalf; and then, after the eldest’s death in 1382, himself). After the third eldest won the civil war in 1400, he found his brothers guilty of treason, and, despite Colorfolk insistence on some level of mercy, the King of Ordos ultimately decided that he had to do what was best for the island; he had his second eldest brother, and the now adult sons of his second eldest brother executed, and his younger brothers and their families were exiled from Ordos, stripped of any right they had to the throne
Because of this Civil War, no monarch ruled the island between 1376 and 1400; the third eldest son had evacuated his sisters and their families off Ordos for their safety for the duration of the civil war.
34) Martin, the Unifier king
1344 AD- 1440 AD
Reign: 1400 AD - 1414 AD
Martin spent his reign rebuilding and healing a shattered island in the wake of the island's second Civil War. In 1411, it was he would exile the KNUCKLEHEADS from Ordos for the crime of killing two Colormen.
In an unfortunate irony, age got the better of him, and he lamented that he "ended up fighting for the throne longer than he was actually on it." He had stepped down right at the onset of the War of Betrayal, reasoning that at 70 years old, he was in no shape to lead the island through yet another war after working so hard to rebuild the island. He spent much of the War of Betrayal appealing to the hostile factions to stop fighting, but to no avail. On his deathbed, he reportedly died "heartbroken that in his lifetime, he witnessed more war than peace, and he spent 14 years rebuilding after 24 years of fighting, only to have another 21 years of fighting undo everything he worked so hard to achieve"
Martin had 3 children; a son in 1372, a daughter in 1374 and a daughter in 1376. His eldest daughter became a successful writer and his youngest daughter became prominent in the guilds, thus his son was made the crown prince.
35) John, the King of Perseverance
1372 AD - 1465 AD
Reign: 1414 AD - 1450 AD
Taking the throne right as the War of Betrayal began, his established himself as a leader who could remain calm under fire, and even in the darkest days of the war he never lost faith in those fighting to protect Ordos. After 1435, he worked to rebuild Ordos once again, and stepped down due to ailing health.
He had a daughter in 1404, a daughter in 1406, a son in 1407 and a stillborn son in 1409. After the death of his eldest daughter of the spewing in 1421, the second eldest daughter was made crown princess.
36) Katherine, the diplomat queen
1404 AD - 1470 AD
Reign: 1450 AD - 1470 AD
Unlike many of her predecessors, she spent much time abroad, performing diplomatic duties with the hope of ensuring that Ordos would never again have to deal with crippling invasions. In an eight year period, she was able to have no less than 12 treaties signed, effectively ending further invasions by the "normal" countries. Her life was cut short by smallpox though, and her eldest child ended up assuming power upon her death.
37) Geoffrey, the peacekeeper king
1432 AD - 1500 AD
Reign: 1470 AD - 1500 AD
Ruling over Ordos during the Rubrum-Album War, he was unable to truly intervene until the war's later years, and ultimately he was the one who would exile the factions in 1485. The next 15 years of his reign he started many projects to build up Ordos so that it could do more than just recover from its centuries of constant war. Much like his mother, his life was also tragically cut short; this time by an assassin's blade during a tour of one of Ordos' ports.
Geoffrey had a daughter in 1463 and a son in 1465 before his wife died of The Spewing. His daughter was crowned queen upon his death.
38) Judith, the last queen
1463 AD - 1513 AD
Reign: 1500 AD -1513 AD
The last queen by birthright on Ordos, she would witness the opening years of the Demon War, one of the most horrifying events in Ordosian history. In 1513, the Demons attacked Castle Ordos, successfully killing the queen in a shocking blow to the island. Having never married or had children, her younger brother was crowned king.
39) Tobias, The Melancolic King
1465 AD - 1528 AD
Reign: 1513 AD - 1528 AD
Having lost both his sister Judith, and his wife in the Demon's attack on Castle Ordos, his leadership in the early years of his reign proved less than effective. After the end of the Demon War, he never left Castle Ordos and frequently let advisors handle the affairs of the island. He rarely interacted with anyone beyond select advisors, the Colorfolk leadership and his son, the only family he had left. A few weeks after turning 63, he suffered a stroke and died soon after, leaving his son as the new king
40) Stephen, the last King
1500 AD - 1540 AD
Reign: 1528 AD - 1540 AD
His reign largely defined by stability, under his rule Ordos was finally on track to have a bright future. But on September 14, 1540 tragedy struck when King Stephen died of the Spewing. Having not married or had children, there was no heir apparent. Many people, descended from various siblings of the monarch's throughout Ordos' history, began emerging, claiming to be the next ruler. Dozens of claimants tore the island apart in a 40 year period known as The Ordosian Anarchy; thus ending the Dynasty started by Eruditis over a millennium ago
1) Eruditus, the lost son
470 AD - 569 AD
Reign: 500 AD - 562 AD
The son of Ordosians who had left Ordos to explore the world beyond, as a young child he witnessed the fall of the Roman Empire as it fell to the barbarians. As the Roman Empire gave way to the dark ages, Eruditus began to reject the fundamentalism that began to form at the time. At 17 years old, he founded his group, the Magykkans, who were predominantly an intellectual people. As such they rejected the fundamentalist religious views of the time, preferring to ask questions about the world around them and investigate things based on the evidence, not on blind faith. This earned them the appeal of both mages and normal folks, resulting in a "melting pot" of diversity within the group. At the core of his beliefs, Eruditus believed in a “world without bias and prejudice,” and as such welcomed all within his following. Whether it was a difference in Races, classes, religions, even magic and non-magic folk- all were welcomed in his eyes. Cast out from most every other kingdom because of these views, they chartered many ships and decided to find a land where “all could thrive, learn, and grow”
This brought them to Ordos in approximately 493 AD. When he landed, he saw an Island that would be the perfect place for his ideals to take hold. Subsequently, he began reforming and improving the island, using the wisdom he had learned on the mainland. When it was learned that he was of Ordosian blood, the people rejoiced; he had fulfilled a long-held prophecy among the Ordosian people: A lost son of Ordos would return and bring the gift of light to a troubled land. "light" was inerpreted to mean "knowledge" and in honor of his reforms, the people of Ordos made him their king. To assure the holdouts of his legitimacy, the wife he married and made his queen, whom he had developed a relationship with while on the island during these years, was a Native Ordosian who had lived there the whole time, effectively eliminating any thoughts of imperialism among the few holdouts.
Eruditus detested the idea of Royalty being revered as God-like; to him the Royalty were people, just like the subjects. Eventually, he and his queen birthed 4 children between 504 and 510 AD: a son, a son, a daughter and a son in that order. Although his appointed advisors more or less forced him to embrace traditional succession rules of eldest sons then the daughters, since "Ordos is not ready to handle any other type of succession method", Eruditus added a number of loopholes to circumvent "forced succession" as he called it. His first rule: upon becoming of age, all children of the Royal Family were to take up common jobs, to "remind them that even though they are royalty, they are still also one of the people." As such, his eldest son pursued blacksmithing, his second son pursued "record keeping" (The Ordosian term for one whose job is to transcribe and preserve scrolls), the daughter pursued weaving, and the youngest son pursued wheelmaking. Once the youngest child turned 21 in 531 AD, Eruditus gathered his children, and asked them a simple question: if any of them still expressed a desire to rule. He explained that those who did not wish to rule, and wanted to stay in their professions would be allowed to do so and still retain their Royal titles, but they would be excused from succession, thus freeing them from the burden of one day ruling Ordos. Only his second son, Scholarus, still expressed desire to one day be king, a choice all his siblings agreed upon, feeling him the most worthy of succession. Eruditus calmly accepted this choice before his children, but when he returned to his chambers with his queen, he was reportedly "expressing both great excitement and relief at how his idea had worked out better than expected; by not spoiling the Princes and Princess, and having them pursue normal work he was able to accomplish his most important goal: preventing a power struggle and civil war among his children before it began.
In 562 AD, Eruditus, citing the loss of his hearing and how "his sight was going," stepped down from power, allowing Scholarus to become the second King of Ordos.
2) Scholarus, The King who loved the written word
504 AD - 585 AD
Reign: 562 AD - 585 AD
The second son of Eruditus, he grew to love the written word as a young man, and would spent many hours reading ancient texts, transcribed from places as far as Greece and Egypt. He recognized the significance of the Written Word, and was horrified when he learned the tale of the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, and the untold losses that resulted. He vowed to "preserve the knowledge of the world" and his reign was defined by the creation of the Ordosian Global Text Vault (Renamed Ordosian International Library in 1800) and generous patronizing of scholars whose job was to transcribe texts. Like his father before him, his three sons were told to pursue normal jobs, and once the youngest turned 21, he gave his children the same test in 553 AD (His children were born between 532 - 536 AD). The eldest son, Intlectus, was chosen as successor by default, as the middle son elected to remain a stonemason, and the youngest son "found his true calling" as a carpenter, once again avoiding a power struggle.
3) Intlectus, The Farmer King
532 AD - 615 AD
Reign: 585 AD - 615 AD
The eldest son of Scholarus, Intlectus had chosen to become a farmer because in his view, it would "allow him to better understand the island of Ordos itself" and indeed, when he took the throne he took a vested interest in the agriculture of Ordos. He established contact with merchants and others who would venture to Europe and Beyond to locate different food crops for "the purpose of diversifying the diet of the Ordosian, and looking for crops which can be more fruitful to sustain a growing population. Although by this point in history manure had been used for thousands of years by humans, it was under his reign that manure usage was "standardized, and methods determined which would be most beneficial to each individual crop." Of interesting note, Intlectus passed a law during his reign that "encouraged the local sale of food crops, and the sale of non-food crops to non-native merchants," believing that it was pointless to sell food crops that wouldn't survive the voyage to mainland Europe. Thus, during this time hemp and flax became the primary exports from Ordos. He also encouraged merchants to bring animals to Ordos, having heard tales of domesticated animals on the mainland. Prior to Intlectus, the primary meat on Ordos was deer. It was under Intlectus when the cow, horse, goat, pig and chicken came to Ordos. (Of interesting note, because Centaurs existed on Ordos prior to horses, for some Ordosians the first horses were quite a shock)
Intlectus had six children, born between 553 and 559 AD (He married younger than his father and grandfather). Normally, "The Succession Test" would have been held in 580 AD. However, Intlectus did not inherit the throne until 585, leading to the test being postponed until 586 AD. His children, in order, were daughter, daughter and son (twins, daughter first), son, then twin sons. The eldest daughter said she would only take the throne "if no other would take it" as she enjoyed her profession of poet and storyteller. Of the first set of twins, the daughter decided to stay a baker, and the son elected to remain a tanner. Of the twin sons, they had started a shoe-making business together and truly enjoyed their work, and thus also decided against inheritance. Only the second son, Georgius, decided that he wanted to inherit the throne. The matter was settled, until tragedy struck in November 614 AD; Georgius came down with "The Spewing" (NOTE: Modern English translation), a terrifying disease that seemed to only be on Ordos. No one knows what causes it, but it is characterized by "a continuous expulsion of mucous, blood and bile from the mouth, and blood and excrement from the bottom." Tragically, like everyone who comes down with it, Georgius died one week after contracting it. Intlectus was devastated by this loss, and in February 615, Intlectus himself "died of a broken heart" as his personal doctor noted. Then, as if things couldn't get any sadder for the Ordosians, six days after Intlectus, his queen also "died of a broken heart." The loss of the King, Queen and Crown Prince took a devastating toll on the Ordosians, and the island entered a mourning period of no less than 3 weeks. Of interesting note, during the period of November 614 - February 615, thick gray clouds covered Ordos, "a true reflection of the sad state of Ordosians in this time," one chronicler noted. March 615 though, the people of Ordos rejoiced as the new leader emerged: Sophia, the daughter who willingly stepped aside for her brother, stepped forward, assuring the Ordosians that they would endure and recover. Her ascendance to the throne was celebrated, because the day she became queen, "the clouds dispersed, revealing the sun for the first time since Georgius passed," and thus, it was considered metaphorically the beginning of the recovery of Ordos.
4) Sophia, the Poet Queen
553 AD - 640 AD
Reign: 615 AD - 625 AD
Sophia was also a generous patron of the written word, owing to her appreciation of it from her time as a poet. However, she had become disturbed by the fact that Ordosian Kings and Queens would often ascend to the throne past their prime, and thus, willingly elected to only serve as Queen for 10 years, in an effort to ensure her successor would not ascend to the throne in their 50s. As such, her first order of business as Queen was determining her successor. She only had two sons, born in 580 and 582 respectively, making the effort much easier fortunately. In the end, "the succession test" lasted less than five minutes, as the younger son made it clear that he was enjoying his career as a sailor, and loved the sea. Thus, the eldest son, Alfred, was deemed successor.
5) Alfred, the Blacksmith King
580 AD - 672 AD
Reign: 625 AD - 650 AD
Alfred was 45 years old when he succeeded his mother as King of Ordos. A Step in the right direction, but as Alfred put it, "Mother was right; the King and Queen should be in their prime to rule" when asked if Sophia was correct. One noted contribution of his reign was the patronizing of blacksmiths, to "design the perfect sword, spear-tip, arrow head and javelin" for the defense of Ordos from invaders. Although mages were common on Ordos, as the island was a major hub in the magic world, as was customary of Ordosian Royalty, they tried not to meddle in the affairs of the mages who came and went from the island. As such, they maintained their own non-magic army, and tried to only turn to the mages as a last resort. Alfred did not need to perform the Succession test; of his two sons and two daughters, only his second son lived to adulthood; his first son and second daughter were stillborn, and his first daughter was tragically killed in a horse riding accident when she was 4 years old. In response to her death, Alfred made it illegal for anyone under 10 years old to ride a horse
6) Intelius, the Chair-bound King
606 AD - 701 AD
Reign: 650 AD - 680 AD
One week after coronation, Intelius survived an assassination attempt; while he did not die, the would he received left him unable to use his legs, and thus was "forever bound to his throne" as chroniclers of the day would write. Intelius' primary contribution during his rule was the standardization of what would eventually become the Ordosian Census; although it had existed in a number of forms since the days of Eruditus, there were approximately 21 different documents currently in use; run by a variety of institutions, each was of varying size and covered only a portion of the population, and in some cases there was overlapping, with about 10% of the villages on Ordos not even counted in any document. Intelius combined the documents, streamlined and specified where necessary, and when the first official census was taken in 660, Intelius finally had the first accurate count of the human population of Ordos. While there were other species on the island with human intelligence, interaction was often limited to that of trade, with little beyond that. Intelius made the first major step towards interspecies cooperation, with the launch of the Elf and Dwarf censuses in 672. Established as an act of good will, with the goal of helping them keep track of population growth and decline for a variety of reasons, it wasn't anything remotely close to the Ordosian Multi-species charter, but it was one step in the right direction.
Like his father, Intelius also did not perform the succession test, as he only had one son before his wife died of "The Spewing" in 667
7) Abrimis, the Pale King
632 AD - 717 AD
Reign: 680 AD - 700 AD
His reign was noted for its stability; other than funding the construction of some ports to improve the commerce of the island, there were no major developments during his two decade reign. He is more remembered for his very unusual appearance- white hair, very pale skin, and blue eyes. Based on descriptions, it appears that he had albinism. Abrimis had 3 daughters, born between 660 and 665; when the time came for the succession test, the middle daughter said she was happy with her current occupation of huntress, and the youngest daughter had married a fisherman and helped him with his work, also declined the throne. The eldest daughter, noted for her fascination with the sky, ended up succeeding the throne
8) Celestia, the Astronomer Queen
661 AD- 763 AD
Reign: 700 AD- 740 AD
Fascinated with the night sky, Celestia was familiar with the concept of using stars to navigate. Believing there to be value in having an accurate map of the stars, she funded a group whose job was, on a nightly basis, to document to the best of their abilities, the location of the stars on a nightly basis. When it became clear that location on the island correlated to slight variations in how the stars appeared, she increased the number of observation points from 8 to 50, with the resulting data noted for "despite the lack of telescopes during this time period, the astrolabe data recorded during this time is some of the most well documented of the era compared to other regions." Comparison of these star charts to hypothetical computer models in the 21st century showed "a rate of discrepancy of less than 2 percent."
Between 688 and 693, she birthed 5 children (twin sons in 688, twin daughters in 691, and another son in 693). When the succession test was held in 714, only 3 children participated; the eldest of the twin sons had died of The Spewing in 706, and the youngest son was sickly; often tired and rarely left Castle Ordos. He willingly forfeited any right to rule, deciding it was best for the Ordosians. Of the two daughters, the eldest elected not to rule, to continue working on her ongoing "explorations of the islands agriculture and animals" while the youngest had found her passion organizing one of the first guilds on the island; for seamstresses. Her work inspired the formation of subsequent guilds, from blacksmithing and carpentry, to hunting and tanning. The son subsequently was declared the heir.
9) Golfren, the Hunter King
688 AD- 780 AD
Reign: 740 AD- 750 AD
Like his great-great-great grandmother, Golfren elected to only serve 10 years on the throne due to age. As the population of Ordos was steadily increasing, he realized that as humans, they had a responsibility to control and limit how much they hunted and fished, to ensure a steady supply of food in the long term. As such, he implimented quotas that balanced the size of the animal populations versus the human population of Ordos. He also implimented a dedicated team of warriors and mages whose job was to track down and stop hunters who went beyond the quotas. This work led to a virtual non-existance of poaching on Ordos.
Golfren did not need to perform the succession test; he only had 2 children, and his son wished to explore the world beyond Ordos. Thus, his daughter became the crown princess. But Golfren's son would not be forgotten; his journeys from 761 AD - 769 AD would go on to become some of the most famous tales in Ordosian culture; What Marco Polo did for Europeans because of his journey to the East, Golfren's son would do for Ordosians and his journey to mainland Europe.
10) Scholaria, the Queen of Peace
718 AD - 805 AD
Reign: 750 AD - 780 AD
In 762, war very nearly broke out between the humans of Ordos and the Orcs of the Northern Tribes over a dispute in territory. The Orcs claimed that the humans were cultivating "Orc warrior training lands" for farming, while the humans said that the lands in question had been claimed by none. To settle the dispute, Scholaria hired land surveyors to properly map out the human and orc territories to ensure it was clear where the boundaries were. When the borders were clarified, it was discovered that the humans had indeed infringed on what was considered Orc territory, but only by about 1/3 of what the Orcs claimed it was. In exchange for a promise to avoid hunting human livestock in the future (as had happened on several occasions beforehand), the humans stopped farming the areas considered Orc lands. Subsequently, surveyors were sent to clarify the whole map of Ordos, and ensure that territories were respected. While she had initially planned to rule as long as she was able to, she was grief-stricken by the death of her father, and abdicated so her mourning would not get in the way of her ruling.
Scholaria had a son in 740, a daughter in 742, a son in 744 and a daughter in 746. Because her first daughter and second son had been stillborn, only two children would be in the succession test in 767. As it turned out though, her daughter had pursued the path of magic, and had become a proficient Ice mage. As such, she was honor-bound to not pursue ruling power of any kind. Thus, her son was made crown prince.
11) Tunris, the Coal King
740 AD - 835 AD
Reign: 780 AD - 810 AD
In 784 AD, a massive coal vein was discovered beneath the second largest mountain of Ordos. Assessment from Earth mages found that the coal in question was very high quality, and could perhaps bolster the economy of the island. Thus, Ordos obtained another steady stream of revenue for something that could be shipped off the island; while steam engines were centuries away, it made for a fine alternative to burning wood.
Tunris had three children, a son in 769, a daughter in 771 and a son in 773. When the succession test was held in 794, the eldest son elected to work in a position that helped keep the fishing industry thriving, and the daughter worked to keep the coal mines thriving. The Youngest son was thus set to inherit the throne.
12) Drewmin, the Friend to Mages
773 AD - 862 AD
Reign: 810 AD - 838 AD
The most notable event from the reign of Drewmin was the Great Fire of 827. He summoned the 8 magic factions (at the time, magic on Ordos was dominated by 8 factions; which were essentially guilds, one for each element) and begged them for their help in the crisis. All the factions except the dark mages proved useful in some manner during this time, and the seven factions in question were greatly rewarded for their role in saving Ordos. Drewmin sanctioned the dark magic faction, but elected not to over-punish them, reasoning it would cause more harm than good. What was beyond his power though, was that in the eyes of the Ordosians, Dark Magic now developed a reputation for being "useless outside of combat and destruction".
Drewmin's succession test for his children proved rather straightforward- His two eldest sons had become water mages and his eldest daughter had become a fire mage. As such, his youngest daughter, whose time was spent studying agriculture, was made the crown princess
13) Mabla, the Agrarian Queen
808 AD - 899 AD
REIGN: 838 AD - 850 AD
Her time spent studying agriculture ended up exposing her to much study of the nature of Ordos, and ended up on many occasions working with the elves, who tended to be closer to nature compared to the humans. During her experiments, she happened to discover a valuable piece of knowledge: the ability of clover to "revive and renew overused soil"
Thus, she introduced crop rotation to Ordos, by mandating that each field was to be rotated in a cycle of food crops for humans, grazing crops for animals, and clover to replenish the soil, then the cycle would repeat.
Her reign was unusually short compared to most predecessors, but it was not without reason- her passion truly was agriculture, and found the work of ruling Ordos unfulfilling. Thus, she broke tradition when, in 845 AD, she ignored the succession test in favor of simply naming her eldest son the crown prince. Because her three daughters had each become a seamstress, a lightning mage and a record keeper, while her youngest son had become a light mage, fortunately there was no objection to this rather haphazard declaration.
14) Rewin, the Noble Creator
833 AD - 914 AD
REIGN: 850 AD - 900 AD
Taking the throne at 17 years old, Rewin was the second youngest monarch in the history of the Ordosian Royal bloodline. In 860 Rewin decided that he would reward the families who had made great contributions to the island, by making them nobility. The noble families were as such:
(NOTE: Following the British "invasion" of Ordos, eventually the titles of nobility were renamed from their original Ordosian names to the names of Nobility ranks used by the British. As such, in recollections of past Ordosian Nobles they are often referred to by their British named rank to make it clearer where they stood in the scheme of things.)
Duke: Highest rank of Noble; given to families whose contributions enormously benefitted Ordos
Duke of Notris
Duke of Faldrick
Duke of Granow
Earl: Second highest rank of Noble; given to families with great contributions, but not as much as Dukes
Earl of Knarf
Earl of Zot
Earl of Seye
Earl of Gut (pronounced "Guute" like the Lute instrument)
Count: Third highest rank of noble; greatly contributed, but not as long as the families above
Count of Youtla
Count of Bredum
Count of Shelma
Baron: Fourth highest ranking nobility. Given to "new" contributors; i.e. the first of their family to make a great contribution to Ordos
Baron D'Levin
Baron Tozzien
Baron Metilca
Baron Tigsen
Rewin went on to have 10 children: One son each in 859, 861 and 862, twin daughters in 864, one daughter in 867, twin sons in 869, one daughter in 870 and one son in 871.
When the succession test was held in 892 only 7 were able to take the test- the third eldest son and the youngest daughter had tragically died of The Spewing by this time, and the younger of the twin sons was sickly, and withheld himself from being considered.
Of the others, the youngest son had become a respected Earth mage, and the elder twin son a light mage, disqualifying them from being considered. The second youngest daughter enjoyed her life as a poet, while of the twin daughters the eldest preferred to continue her research into dragons and the youngest had opted to remain a baker. This left the two eldest sons in competition for the throne. The second eldest- who had proved himself a warrior, proposed a duel with the elder brother to settle the score; using training swords they would fight until one could no longer stand. While the eldest son had some skill with a sword due to having received some training, it was, as a whole, almost certainly a wash for the second eldest son, since the eldest was only a record-keeper.
When the duel began, the second eldest delivered the first strike, and proceeded to have the upper hand. Rewin stopped the duel before either could get fully hurt though, and declared the eldest son his heir. The second son was shocked to learn that he had failed because he had forgotten a fundamental rule on Ordos- might does not make right, and strength was not everything. Enraged, the second eldest son vowed to take the throne by force when his time came
15) Girtan, the King who preserved Ordos
859 AD - 951 AD
Reign: 900 AD - 949 AD
Girtan was crowned King and barely had time to celebrate his ascension to power as the Ordosian Civil War began. From September 10, 900 AD to March 25 909 AD the island was shaken to its core as Girtan found himself in a power struggle against his younger brother, Huxlen. The battles of the war were mostly relatively small skirmishes, at a rate of about 2-3 a month. With one major battle happening about 1-2 times a year; though there were 4 in 907.
Both sides did everything they could to give their respective struggles an edge. Whether recruiting other species, capturing and using beast-intelligent monsters, recruiting from the local mage population, almost nothing was off the table. (It should be noted though, that perhaps as foresight to what was to come, a number of mages showed great hesitancy to use famine magic or mind control magic to further their cause)
The last direct confrontation between the two brothers and their armies was a battle so great, it engulfed as much as 70-90 percent of the island, and there was almost no part of the island that went unaffected; although the bulk of the fighting concentrated in the fields of Northern Ordos, no less than 200 skirmishes of varying size broke out across the island during this week
Girtan lost his two eldest sons during the week long fight, while Huxlen lost his 3 generals. Both sides only withdrew because with his generals Huxlen's army was in disarray, and Girtan suffered a crisis of conscience when he was told of the full impact his this war had.
During the withdrawal, Huxlen saw Girtan and mocked him, "the end is near, brother! Rest assured, when I take the throne, my first act will be to make you die of The Spewing!" he swore before riding away. When word of his declaration spread, it made him very unpopular; given how much an individual suffers as a result of The Spewing, no one dared utter such a vulgarity because as far as Ordosians were concerned; while it was inevitable that one would make an enemy or two in life, there were still lines one never crossed... wishing someone to die of The Spewing being one of them. About 1/3 of his surviving supporters ended up defecting as a result.
But it was what happened next that was the most shocking. On March 22 909, two weeks after the battle ended, Huxlen had died... of The Spewing. 3 days after, his second in command surrendered and the remaining army stood down.
Reasoning that enough blood had been spilled and that it was more important to rebuild Ordos, Girtan elected to grant amnesty to most of those who sided with Huxlen. Only 73 individuals were executed for treason- they had committed acts so gruesome and heinous they could not be excused.
Girtan ended up not performing a succession test. Although he had seven children (son in 887, son in 888, daughter in 890, twin daughters in 892, son in 894 and son in 895), by the time his youngest child turned 21 in 916 only four of his children were still alive; the two eldest sons had died in the civil war, and his second youngest son had drowned in 913. Both of his twin daughters, a leader in the seamstress guild and a water mage respectively, expressed no interest, as did his only remaining son, who preferred his work as a blacksmith. Thus, the eldest daughter became the crown princess.
16) Helma, the queen who welcomed outsiders
890 AD - 970 AD
Reign: 949 AD - 955 AD
Helma realized that at 59 years old she was far from her prime, and decided to minimize the length of her reign. She had one daughter in 918 AD before her husband died; she elected not to remarry after that, thus she was the first monarch to spend her whole reign without a King/queen consort. Thus, the need for the succession test was moot. In 952 AD, a dozen ships landed on the island; they were viking longships. Although such Scandinavians had been encountered prior with trading, these vikings came requesting sanctuary; they were in search of a new home for reasons they did not disclose, but based on circumstantial evidence it appears that this group had been exiled for reasons unknown. Helma welcomed these outsiders; thus introducing Northern European bloodlines to Ordos.
In 954 AD, 8 ships of unknown design landed in Ordos, with contemporary accounts talking about how these people "were of noticeably darker complexion compared to other visitors of the past." Fortunately, communication with this new group was possible, thanks to a handful of mages among the group who could rely on Ordosian mages for translating purposes. (Mages had spells that could allow for instant translation in communication). Those on the boats asked for sanctuary; they were survivors of a kingdom in a faraway land that had been overthrown, and were seeking a new beginning. In these outsiders, Helma saw the plight of Eruditus and his followers, and welcomed them with open arms; based on archeological evidence, this kingdom appears to have been a forgotten North African Kingdom; this event introduced North African bloodlines to Ordos.
17) Sarah, the queen who would not die
918 AD - 1004 AD
Reign: 955 AD - 973 AD
She reigned during a peaceful, stable period. What makes her reign stand out is the number of assassination attempts she survived. Between 961 and 964 AD she ended up surviving 44 assassination attempts; 7 involved poison, 10 involved a crossbow, 14 involved a dagger, 4 involved a sword, and 9 involved a bow and arrow. In 965 AD the truth came out: she was being targeted by Huxlen as revenge for the outcome of the Ordosian Civil War. Sarah sentenced the conspirators to death, believing ending Huxlen's bloodline would ensure the safety of the Ordosian Royal Family in the future.
Between 946 AD and 951 AD Sarah birthed four children: Her Daughter in 946 was stillborn, her daughter in 948, her son in 949 and another daughter in 951. The succession test was never held; her youngest daughter fell in love with a blacksmith and elected to live her life with him, and her second daughter became a very respected ice mage. As such, her son became the crown prince in 972 AD. He didn't have much time to prepare though; as in 973 AD, Queen Sarah became crippled with an unknown disease and had to abdicate to take care of her health.
18) Harold, the Mad King
949 AD - 1010 AD
Reign: 973 AD - 998 AD
Taking the throne at 24 years old, Harold believed he was in for a long, prosperous reign. Unfortunately, this was not to be. In 992 AD, Harold became plagued with crippling back pains, and began taking medicinal ointment to treat it. Unfortunately, this medicine contained mercury, and by 997 AD it had become clear that he was not in the best mental shape, and would frequently have manic episodes. Believing it was for the best for Ordos, his advisors and queen forcefully abdicated him, and his eldest son ended up becoming King of Ordos; given the emergency situation, it was deemed to be the best course of action at the time. Fortunately, his other two sons did not oppose, preventing civil war from breaking out. One had become a farmer, and the other a fisherman
19) William, the king at 14
984 AD - 1070 AD
Reign: 998 AD - 1048 AD
At 14 years old, William was the youngest monarch to assume the power of the Ordosian Monarchy. However, deciding he was not emotionally ready for this position, he ceded power to his mother until his 20th birthday, at which point he began his rule as king properly. His reign was marked by a 50 year period of peace and prosperity, and upon abdication in 1048, he is reported to have said "I could rule until the day I die... but after 50 years as your king, it is time for me to pursue my other interests" and indeed, he spent his twilight years doing what he loved, reading.
William had 5 children between 1014 AD and 1020 AD. In 1014, his first daughter was stillborn. In 1016, he had twin sons. In 1020, he had twin daughters. Of his sons, the eldest became a sailor, and the youngest a woodworker. Of his daughters, his youngest died of The Spewing in 1037. The eldest daughter was thus named the crown princess.
20) Matilda, the White Queen
1020 AD - 1088 AD
Reign: 1048 AD - 1088 AD
Much like her ancestor Abrimis, Matilda was also Albino, but called "the White Queen" so that she would not simply be lumped with Abrimis; she was more than capable of standing on her own and her reign brought continued prosperity to Ordos. Towards the end of 1088 AD, she tragically died when a rare earthquake collapsed part of Castle Ordos and crushed her.
She went on to have 8 children: triplets of 2 sons and 1 daughter in 1049, twin sons in 1051, a daughter in 1053 and twin daughters in 1055.
The death of Queen Matilda was hard enough, but 1089 proved to be an even more tragic year, known to Ordosians as "The Year of 4 Monarchs"
21) Queen Agnes
1049 AD - 1089 AD
Reign: November 12, 1088 - March 20, 1089
The eldest daughter, she was elected to be queen when the children came together and elected that she was the one most qualified to rule, as the one with the best people skills.
Her life was cut short though, when she died during a banquet, where it was revealed that her drink had been poisoned. Though the culprits were caught, the loss of a new monarch so soon shocked the island, even the non-human species. The seven children came together again; Agnes' two children were far too young to rule, so the third eldest son was chosen to succeed Agnes, on account of having the best knowledge of the economics of Ordos.
22) King Robert
1051 AD - 1089 AD
Reign: March 24, 1089 - May 4, 1089
He was able to implement 2 important economic policies before tragedy struck again- King Robert died of The Spewing. To the horror of the Ordosians, the next day the third eldest daughter had also died of The Spewing. Once again, the five remaining children came together and decided that second eldest daughter would rule next because she was the most qualified of the surviving siblings. At the same meeting, the youngest son and youngest daughter forfeited any future right to rule the island; the grief of losing their mother and half their siblings was too much to bear
23) Queen Alice
1053 AD - 1089 AD
Reign: May 8, 1089 - July 27, 1089
Her reign preserved a steady rule, but then tragedy struck when Queen Alice was killed when, while out for a walk on the grounds of Castle Ordos, she stepped on some particularly soft ground and it gave way, causing her to fall 80 feet to her death. She had fallen into a sinkhole that had given way, and died when she landed on her head. Her body was recovered with the help of Earth Mages, who also filled the sinkhole to prevent this from happening again.
Now, only the eldest son and second eldest son were left for consideration. However, there was no argument, the second eldest son ceded his claim to his older brother, "I've come to realize there are things more important than power; I'm going to dedicate myself to my family; life is too short and precious to take for granted" and thus, the eldest son took the throne.
24) Walter, the King who brought Solace
1049 AD - 1131 AD
Reign: August 1, 1089 - 1125 AD
After the deaths of his mother and four of his siblings in less than a year, Walter united a grieving island and brought his people together in a time of great sorrow. The island eventually recovered, and in 1095 AD he was present to bear witness to one of the most important events in the history of Ordos... the birth of the Colormen.
He also bore witness to Matthew Eerdagovern's efforts to bring an official peace among the species of the island; and signed the Ordos Multi-Species charter on behalf of the humans.
Following his trials that held the Warriors of Terra responsible for their acts in the latest Colorfolk War of Defense, King Walter stepped down, citing declining sight and health. He had five children: a son in 1080, a son and daughter in 1082 and a daughter and son in 1084. The succession test was held on schedule in 1105, but in a first, all of the younger children simply ceded rule to the eldest son, citing the ongoing war with the Warriors of Odin as reasoning for "not wasting time on a distraction like this.
25) Blake, The friend to mages
1080 AD - 1172 AD
Reign: 1125 AD - 1164 AD
During his reign, Blake would bear witness to three major wars to affect his island: Baron Joseph D'Levin's two wars against the Colorfolk, and the War of the Dead. In the latter, Blake wound up witnessing the absolute horrors of necromancy first hand, and at the encouragement of the Colorfolk, banned the practice on Ordos; a "regretful oversight my ancestors forgot to take care of" he lamented.
Just before the end of his reign, it was he who stripped the D'Levin family of their nobility; by this time in his life he had grown fond of the mages, and was horrified with how corrupt this family had become.
Blake had four children: a stillborn son in 1109 AD, a daughter in 1111 AD, a son in 1113 AD and a daughter in 1115 AD. The Youngest daughter tragically died of The Spewing in 1132, and thus the succession test was held in 1134 AD. Although his son was a brilliant man, by the son's own admission, he was also quite frail and sickly- not the best choice to lead the nation. Thus, his daughter became crown princess.
26) Gertrude, the Queen who slept for 5 years
1111 AD - 1208 AD
Reign: 1164 AD - 1198 AD
Assuming power in her early 50s, Gertrude took the thrown at the beginning of a peaceful period in Ordonian History. A shocking development struck in 1172, when one afternoon, Gertrude collapsed and entered "a deep sleep." To this day, no one is entirely sure what befell this queen; but a combination of help from regular doctors and light mages kept her alive and, in 1177 she awoke again. When she stepped down at 87 years old, she lamented about being unable to break the constant cycle of Ordosian Monarchs not coming to power until just past their prime.
Gertrude had 3 stillborn children in 1140, 1142 and 1143 before finally having a son in 1145. Unable to deal with any further heartbreak, she elected to not have any further children, thus eliminating the succession test for the next generation.
27) David, the metal king
1145 AD - 1249 AD
Reign: 1198 AD - 1235 AD
A respected metallurgist, David worked with the Colorfolk on experiments concerning the "transformation and purification of ores into metal," believing that it was possible to obtain better quality iron, copper and other useful metals using assorted means. While by no means an industrial revolution, David's experiments would go on to lay groundwork for future metallurgists to work on in the search for high quality metals. After becoming king, as the Colorfolk fought off the hostile Orcs in the Orc War and the evil dark mages in the Age of Darkness, David became a figure the rest of the population could turn to for solace; the sworn protectors were fighting off the threats themselves, but it was David who kept his people calm and prevented chaos from erupting.
Overly stressed from the betrayal of the Cult of Janus, David stepped down in 1235; despite having 3 sons and 2 daughters, David simply settled on giving the crown to his eldest child; a decision that was deemed controversial at the time. However, given that the last succession test, the test of 1134, was held before he was even born, and the fact that David was an only child thus not given the test himself, it is likely that the importance of the test simply never stuck out to him. (side note: Children order was son in 1173, son in 1174, daughter and daughter in 11176 and son in 1179).
28) Edward, the castle-bound king
1173 AD - 1249 AD
Reign: 1235 AD - 1249 AD
Not taking the throne until 62 years old, Edward did not plan on ruling long, for the sake of his successor. The 14 years of his reign were during the Age of Invasions to Ordos, thus Edward never left Castle Ordos during this time, citing both age and danger... though his diaries suggest he was mainly very afraid of becoming a target of the invaders.
Edward only had a pair of twins, a son and daughter born in 1205 AD. His daughter had studied to become and indeed, was now famous as one of the greatest light mages on Ordos, precluding her from the throne. Thus, when the test was given in 1226 (Despite Edward not being king yet), the son became crown prince.
Tragedy struck in 1249; Edward was talking with his father, the former King of Ordos. On his bed, David warned his son of visions he was having, of how Ordos was about to enter "a very, very dark period; I can only hope our sworn protectors will live up to their name; for I do not wish to see what is about to happen)
The next day, former King David passed at age 104, one of the longest lived Ordosian monarchs. Edward took the death very hard, and 3 days later he "died of heartbreak" himself- the next king ended up taking charge at what would possibly be one of the darkest chapters in Ordosian history.
29) Edmond, The iron-willed king
1205 AD - 1279 AD
Reign: 1249 AD - 1279 AD
He became king just before the start of what would become known as The Apocalypse War on Ordos. But during this war, and all the wars that would be fought under his rule, Edmond stood firm, and his style of leadership inspired those of Ordos to stand with the Colorfolk, and everyone did what they could to keep the island from falling to the evil invaders. He was an inspiration to his people... but his also made the most controversial decision of all Ordosian monarchs. During the height of the Apocalypse War, Edmond abolished the succession test in favor of "traditional" kind of succession, citing the ongoing fighting as reason. Concluding he needed to direct his attention towards the defense and rebuilding of his island, he reasoned that it was a necessary sacrifice. Though his children were upset by this, they could not deny that Ordos was in a time of crisis and they needed to play their parts too.
Edward was ultimately killed by Order of Neptune, for standing defiantly before them and demanding they leave his island. He had three children: a daughter in 1233, a son in 1235 and a daughter in 1237. The eldest daughter died of the spewing in 1255 AD, and the youngest daughter distinguished herself as a powerful Earth Mage; the son, a record keeper, ended up becoming crown prince in 1256.
30) Charles, King who would not be controlled
1235 AD - 1320 AD
Reign: 1279 AD - 1308 AD
He famously resisted being mind controlled by the Heralds of the Eternal night; a faction of Dark mages who sought to conquer Ordos. The glevdrium ring gifted to him by The Colorfolk saved him from being mind controlled.
During his reign, he found himself faced with a challenger to the throne: Baradurus, a great-great-grandson of Queen Gertrude's brother, who claimed that the throne was rightfully his, as Gertrude's brother was the rightful king of Ordos in his day, this by extension, made Charles' rule illegitimate. Charles stood firm and assured the validity of his rule, and assisted the Colorfolk with defeating Baraduras... the first time. (SIDE NOTE: Baraduras was born in 1261, his father in 1229, his grandfather in 1189, his great-grandfather in 1150, his great-great-grandfather in 1113)
Charles had a twin son and daughter in 1266 AD and twin sons in 1269 AD. With the abolition of the succession test, his eldest son became the crown prince.
31) Bernard, the Submitted King
1266 AD - 1360 AD
Reign: 1308 AD - 1352 AD
During his reign, the more powerful English increased their presence on Ordos, to the objections of King Bernard. But he was unable to compete with the English, and submitted to their presence to avoid losing the crown.
He also ruled during the Black Death, and worked with the Colorfolk to keep the plague from claiming his island's population. He would bare witness to many important events in Ordosian history, including the end of the Age of Invasions.
Bernard only had a daughter in 1295 and a son in 1299. The son forfeited what would've been guaranteed succession when he decided to leave for mainland Europe. Thus, the daughter became the crown princesss
32) Anne, the rebuilder
1295 AD- 1370 AD
Reign: 1352 AD - 1362 AD
Much like her ancestor Sophia, Anne limited her reign to 10 years, deciding that the next monarch of Ordos should not be past their prime. Her reign was defined by the welcoming of outside mages fleeing persecution throughout the known world, and the rebuilding of Ordos after decades of struggles and war.
Anne only had one son, in 1320 AD, before her husband died of the Spewing. She never remarried and was one of the few monarchs to not have a spouse during her reign.
33) Samson, the lecture king
1320 AD - 1376 AD
Reign: 1362 AD - 1376 AD
Samson found great delight in teaching others, and would often invite his subjects to Castle Ordos to hear him speak on a variety of topics. In a time of peace, it was considered a most welcome distraction from the memories of constant war that loomed in Ordosian minds.
Samson found love quite early in life and ended up marrying quite young compared to his ancestors. He and his bride were wed in 1341, and ended up having a son in 1342, a son in 1343, a twin son and daughter in 1344, a daughter in 1345, a son in 1346, a son in 1347, twin daughters in 1348 and a daughter in 1349. Samson lived an unusually short 56 years for an Ordosian royal... his life had been tragically cut short by The Spewing.
While tradition dictated that the eldest son normally got the throne, a crisis of succession emerged: arguing that his eldest brother was a sickly, bedridden invalid this disqualified him from the throne, and as such the second oldest brother declared that he was, therefore, the rightful King of Ordos. The eldest brother, while physically weak, was arguably the most mentally capable of the job though, so the third eldest brother insisted that the eldest be given the throne; after all, his time was limited and there was no question that, since the eldest son had no children of his own, the second eldest son would get the throne in no less than five years. But the second eldest did not want to wait, and demanded the throne. The fourth and fifth eldest sons each desired the throne for their own selfish gain; realizing that the second and third eldest each had families now, this effectively meant that both of them would never become King of Ordos. Thus, a four way civil war embroiled the island, with each brother raising an army to fight one another (The third eldest fighting on the eldest’s behalf; and then, after the eldest’s death in 1382, himself). After the third eldest won the civil war in 1400, he found his brothers guilty of treason, and, despite Colorfolk insistence on some level of mercy, the King of Ordos ultimately decided that he had to do what was best for the island; he had his second eldest brother, and the now adult sons of his second eldest brother executed, and his younger brothers and their families were exiled from Ordos, stripped of any right they had to the throne
Because of this Civil War, no monarch ruled the island between 1376 and 1400; the third eldest son had evacuated his sisters and their families off Ordos for their safety for the duration of the civil war.
34) Martin, the Unifier king
1344 AD- 1440 AD
Reign: 1400 AD - 1414 AD
Martin spent his reign rebuilding and healing a shattered island in the wake of the island's second Civil War. In 1411, it was he would exile the KNUCKLEHEADS from Ordos for the crime of killing two Colormen.
In an unfortunate irony, age got the better of him, and he lamented that he "ended up fighting for the throne longer than he was actually on it." He had stepped down right at the onset of the War of Betrayal, reasoning that at 70 years old, he was in no shape to lead the island through yet another war after working so hard to rebuild the island. He spent much of the War of Betrayal appealing to the hostile factions to stop fighting, but to no avail. On his deathbed, he reportedly died "heartbroken that in his lifetime, he witnessed more war than peace, and he spent 14 years rebuilding after 24 years of fighting, only to have another 21 years of fighting undo everything he worked so hard to achieve"
Martin had 3 children; a son in 1372, a daughter in 1374 and a daughter in 1376. His eldest daughter became a successful writer and his youngest daughter became prominent in the guilds, thus his son was made the crown prince.
35) John, the King of Perseverance
1372 AD - 1465 AD
Reign: 1414 AD - 1450 AD
Taking the throne right as the War of Betrayal began, his established himself as a leader who could remain calm under fire, and even in the darkest days of the war he never lost faith in those fighting to protect Ordos. After 1435, he worked to rebuild Ordos once again, and stepped down due to ailing health.
He had a daughter in 1404, a daughter in 1406, a son in 1407 and a stillborn son in 1409. After the death of his eldest daughter of the spewing in 1421, the second eldest daughter was made crown princess.
36) Katherine, the diplomat queen
1404 AD - 1470 AD
Reign: 1450 AD - 1470 AD
Unlike many of her predecessors, she spent much time abroad, performing diplomatic duties with the hope of ensuring that Ordos would never again have to deal with crippling invasions. In an eight year period, she was able to have no less than 12 treaties signed, effectively ending further invasions by the "normal" countries. Her life was cut short by smallpox though, and her eldest child ended up assuming power upon her death.
37) Geoffrey, the peacekeeper king
1432 AD - 1500 AD
Reign: 1470 AD - 1500 AD
Ruling over Ordos during the Rubrum-Album War, he was unable to truly intervene until the war's later years, and ultimately he was the one who would exile the factions in 1485. The next 15 years of his reign he started many projects to build up Ordos so that it could do more than just recover from its centuries of constant war. Much like his mother, his life was also tragically cut short; this time by an assassin's blade during a tour of one of Ordos' ports.
Geoffrey had a daughter in 1463 and a son in 1465 before his wife died of The Spewing. His daughter was crowned queen upon his death.
38) Judith, the last queen
1463 AD - 1513 AD
Reign: 1500 AD -1513 AD
The last queen by birthright on Ordos, she would witness the opening years of the Demon War, one of the most horrifying events in Ordosian history. In 1513, the Demons attacked Castle Ordos, successfully killing the queen in a shocking blow to the island. Having never married or had children, her younger brother was crowned king.
39) Tobias, The Melancolic King
1465 AD - 1528 AD
Reign: 1513 AD - 1528 AD
Having lost both his sister Judith, and his wife in the Demon's attack on Castle Ordos, his leadership in the early years of his reign proved less than effective. After the end of the Demon War, he never left Castle Ordos and frequently let advisors handle the affairs of the island. He rarely interacted with anyone beyond select advisors, the Colorfolk leadership and his son, the only family he had left. A few weeks after turning 63, he suffered a stroke and died soon after, leaving his son as the new king
40) Stephen, the last King
1500 AD - 1540 AD
Reign: 1528 AD - 1540 AD
His reign largely defined by stability, under his rule Ordos was finally on track to have a bright future. But on September 14, 1540 tragedy struck when King Stephen died of the Spewing. Having not married or had children, there was no heir apparent. Many people, descended from various siblings of the monarch's throughout Ordos' history, began emerging, claiming to be the next ruler. Dozens of claimants tore the island apart in a 40 year period known as The Ordosian Anarchy; thus ending the Dynasty started by Eruditis over a millennium ago