Boareon. (Patreon)

Boareon belongs to a tribe known as the Capallians. The Capallians are pastoralists hailing from the northern steppe lands in the eastern most part of the continent of Evroz. The Capallians are also known by another name, the Olfend lords. They owe this title to the fact that they were the first people in all Concavia to domesticate and ride the wild Olfends. Their mastery over the Olfends gave them a huge military advantage over their neighbours and led to them ruling over them as aristocratic conquerors, hence the suffix “lords”. Olfends are large herd animals that are quick of foot and have great humps on their backs for storing water in the dry northern plains. These Olfend lords warred against one another and as a result, developed advanced weapons of war such as the chariot. They live nomadically, following their herds of livestock from pastureland to pastureland. They live lightly on the landscape, carrying their tent towns with them everywhere they go, never angering the land spirits of the territories they transited. Long ago they discovered that there was another great plain like their home far the west. This western steppe was only was accessible through a slither of land known as the bridgelands or “Brycglond” as it is also called. In those ancient times the misty land of Brycglond was sparsely populated by a noble race of hunter gatherers. The Olfend lords bothered them not and sought only passage to the lands to the west of Brycglond which the foragers granted freely. When the Capallians arrived in the west they encountered the natives to that land, faerie folk they were, descendants of the Albs and thus by distant relation, the gods. The Olfend lords were not a peaceable people and sought to drive these faeries from their land by force of arms. With their advanced chariots, the Capallians thought that the faeries would fold under their might, but they were wrong. The Olfend lords lost ten scores of their best warriors in exchange for a single life of these fair folk, they fought like demons and bent the very land and elements around them to their will with magic. After many years of struggle, the Capallian chief resigned himself to the harsh reality that this struggle could not be won through fair contests of strength and so he strove through trickery and guile to kidnap away the fae king and force him to accept his terms of surrender. This he did, but because the fae folk had fought so valiantly and admirably, the terms of capitulation were to be deservedly dignified and respectful. The Capallian chief said that he would spare the life of the king if his people would withdraw from the open fields so that the Olfend lords might let their herds graze upon them, the faerie folk were to have the most beautiful wooded hilltops, lakes and valleys for their own where they could erect magical walls/veils about them to be hidden from sight but through which they could see others. The final term of the agreement was that the chief of the Capallians would take the beautiful princess of the faeries’ hand in marriage in hopes that his new queen may bore onto him children through whose veins will flow the noble blood of their valorous and proud foe. The fae king said that he would surrender and accept these terms only if he might insert a clause of his own. The clause stipulated that the Capallians must forevermore give offerings so that the faerie folk might share in the produce that the Capallians accrue from the land the faerie folk once held sovereign, that these offerings are to be given willingly and in reverent ritual as instructed by his daughter, the princess. The chief accepted and peace was struck. In these days of glory, the chief’s reign stretched all the way from the steppe of Evroz, over the northern Bridgelands, to the eastern fells of the western plains. His first son and heir was born to him by the fae princess and his name was Boareon The First, after the mythic hedge boars that carved the first rivers in that fabled land to the west. Boareon’s reign was long, just and stable, it was not until Boareon’s dotage that any enemy dared to try his might. There was in those ancient times the first migrations of the farmers from the south of Evroz into Brycglond. They had settled the south of Brycglond, taking it from the foraging folk, but they sought more fields to plow in the north. Boareon permitted this so long as the farmers payed taxes and this they did. After Boareon’s death the farmers became emboldened, they ceased to pay their taxes and erected hillforts in naturally occurring bite points across the land with which they turned the tables in their favour and extracted tolls from the pastoralists for passage. It wasn’t until Boareon The Great was born that the Capallians razed these hillforts to the ground, enslaved the farmers and pushed the remainder of them from the north. The farmers sought revenge and revenge they had. They sent their wisest sages learned in the arts of magic on a secret mission to the narrow passage connecting the western plains to the north of Brycglond. You see, the only way through the impassable mountain range separating Brycglond from the west steppe was a narrow valley and this valley was a hallowed burial ground of the faerie folk. They had made it home to the largest grouping of barrows for their noble dead, with the legendary fae king’s mighty mound situated at the mouth of the pass. The faeries used barrows to demarcate the borders of their territory, a custom the Capallians actually emulate in respect and admiration for their past foe. The wise sages of the farmers were sent there to desecrate the grave fields and to disturb the slumber of the dead so that they might haunt the pass forevermore. Their ploy was a success, the passage was blocked and the Capallians were cut off from their kin in the west and were forced to withdraw east of the Bridgelands. After many generations came the reign of Boareon The Conqueror, father to Boareon The Uniter. The Conquerer dedicated his life to exacting revenge on the enemies of his people. He retook all of the north of the Bridgelands in an unstoppable onslaught and even pushed down into the south for the first time. The only holdout left for the farmers was the impassible labyrinthine fens to the south east of Brycglond, home to the Weligyrwas tribe who know that land like no other. By the time of the story of Concavia, Boareon The Conquerer rules as an aged king, his son and prince, Boareon The Uniter seeks to prove himself to his father, he has made it his life’s goal to unite his kindred once again by opening the pass to the west. Luckily for him, a wondering wizard by the name of Arrowaun has stumbled into his life. Arrowaun seeks to establish peace between the Capallians and the Weligyrwas so that they might help him in his quest. After much debate, Arrowaun managed to get both parties to agree on a set of terms. The Capallians were to withdraw to the north of the Bridgelands and leave south Brycglond to the farmers. In return, Arrowaun will help Boareon open the passage to the west by quelling the restless spirits that block the pass, thus fulfilling Boareons destiny as the uniter, but his story does not end there, this is only the beginning of his legend…