First Fawl Liberation War

EIII 4187 marked the birth of the Fawl boy Vedo Bran. He had white fur, pale skin and eyes as blue as turquoise. He grew up in slavery with the tattoo of a Burlimba vines in blue ink along his forearms marking him as a slave to Lord Gyin Donir. His mother was a beautiful fawl seamstress for the house of Lord Donir, and his father was a slave from another Burlimba plantation studded out to impregnate his mother. All Vedo ever knew of his father is the surname Bran. Lord Donir was a cruel man, when Vedo was the age of 8 Lord Donir caught Vedo’s mother stealing extra rations of food for young Vedo. Donir punished her by skinning her alive and using her skin as a banner on top of the large outpost tower that overlooked the fields. Vedo had to live for months watching his mother's skin slowly decompose under the Nor’hardt jungle sun. During the years following his mother's death Vedo sought refuge in the cabin of the eldest Fawl slave. This man went by the name Bur’nes Kliee or The First Harvest, he was said to of been enslaved for over 500 years, and gained his freedom in his youth but was recaptured and traded to multiple plantations throughout the centuries. His body is covered in scars that are barely visible under a body completely covered in slave owner tattoos along with previous ones being modified by the next owner. Due to his age he was long past the age of his horns growing back, Fawl typically have large horns if never cut at this age that can be pass a meter long each. However due to a life of malnutrition and age  Bur’nes’s horns were nothing more than stubs. He taught Vedo the lore of the Fawl, and how they once lived freely on the continent in large confederations of tribes. Vedo also received an education in basic Fawl magic and how to properly live his life in emulation of Forseena. Vedo matured into a young adult with the dreams of freeing his people. He grew into a giant of a Fawl standing just under 8 feet tall 640 lbs, he adopted the attitude that he would work harder and harder allowing his life circumstances to strengthen him.

In contrast EIII 4183 marked the birth of the Inferni Khatibi Dracanoz who would be the king of the aggressive Khati’hardt empire at the time, taking the throne in EIII 4201. Inferni gained notoriety in all of Loria by being gifted a juvenile Black Dragon named Raznak. Upon learning to ride this dragon he would later gain the surname Dracanoz. This dragon was a gift from an Elder Icos Magi named Helinor, who was one of the few to make it back from south of the known Icos world where strange creatures reside. In his twenties he brought back a Black Dragon Whelping and raised it ever since. He was nearing his deathbed and Inferni’s father Hadir Ignar Vic'Nesh Uriel Khatibi VIII was a brilliant and kind ruler, so he made regretful assumption that this dragon would aid his son in ruling in a similar fashion. Inferni however was not his father, a recognized bastard of a beautiful servant wrench with long raven hair and crystal blue eyes, he was given the Khatibi name due to Hadir’s real wife Algar being barren. For the first 12 years of Inferni’s life he believed Algar was his mother, however she’d physically abuse him and starve him out of jealousy. His father was too busy running the empire to notice which made Inferni build resentment for his father allowing this to happen. It wasn’t until he heard his “mother” complaining to a priest about how his biological mother has been living luxuriously in a villa to the north, he found out the truth. He grabbed a kitchen knife and slit Algar’s throat, Raznak always at his side devoured the priest, then the corpse of the women who tormented Inferni for over a decade. Inferni however was secretly in love with his cousin Mylir Firespitter on his adopted mother's side. Learning they weren't related by blood at the age of 18 after gaining the crown, he visited the Firesplitter plantation where he planned to wed and rule along Mylir’s side. However turned out he was 5 years alte, Mylir ran off and married an ex Fawl slave named Hyinx. Syril Firesplitter 24 years old was considered the more beautiful sister of the two, however a heart cold of ice and bloodthirsty. She wished to become Queen of the prosperous empire so seeing Inferni’s disappointment she pretended to visit her sister for the celebration of Yule. Syril ended up poisoning Hyinx, their newborn baby Hyjinx, and brutally murdered, and decapitated her sister Mylir. She trashed their sandstone manor, and disposed of both Hyinx’s and Hyjinx’s body. She staged it so that it appeared that Hyinx brutally murdered Mylir, whose father Myrin Firesplitter was Hyinx’s former slave master, and ran off with their child. This action seeded a deep hated for the Fawl in Inferni, who also convinced himself the Mylir never loved Hyinx but instead was kidnapped in this elaborate revenge scheme for decades of slavery. Seeing Syril’s beauty for the first time they spent most of their time together the 6 months after Mylir’s death comforting eachother. All this time Syril spoke of the evil within every Fawl and how they should be exterminated. Syril, in EIII 4203 she  became Syril Firespitter Khatibi and Queen of the Empire of Khati’hardt. During this time the kingdom was feeling the effects of the new Tyrant Inferni, with huge taxes and tariffs, strict curfews and other crazy laws, and all Khati’hardt’s cities were under martial law with all private guard forces being disbanded.

The nation of Bordril was on edge as their southern borders were being occupied by a large Khati’hardt army who kept pushing more and more north. Bordril was not stupid, they did not want to invoke the wrath of a now mature Raznak so they constantly surrendered more and more land not willing to initiate combat. Bordril was populated with many free Fawl, 60% of which were native part of various war eccentric Fawl tribes which is unusual for the Fawl, and 40% of which were Khati Hardt Falls that gained their freedom and pilgrimed to Bordril. This caused the racist sultan/emperor of Khati’hardt to create a lot of fear in the heart of these Fawls which also lead to Bordril trying to avoid any battles. Luckily for the time and being Inferni would be preoccupied with his new wife, and seeking revenge for his lost love.

The year was EIII 4204 and a 17 year old Vedo Bran learned that Sultan Inferni and his Black Dragon just immolated over 30,000 women and children, in the middle of the capital city Kalimdar. There were old Fawl ruins on the delta since Kalimdar was constructed, however in EIII 2353 the ruins were reconstructed with old and new brick, and ever since it was the district in which free Fawl or lucky house slaves were allowed to live within Kalimdar. The district was a precious gem in millinium of slavery and genocide for the Fawl people and was closest thing to their own community in Khati’hardt they could hope to have. It was even ran by its own council of 3, each was a Fawl who studied in one of the three main Fawl Gods, the highest position was the Chancellor of Forseena, then the two others were the Ambassador of Vix, and General of Gor. Kaowl for obvious reasons was not recognized. After Mylir Firespitter’s death, Sultan Dracanoz ( in which Inferni now titled himself) spent the next couple years along side Syril assassinating any kind of Free Fawl who holds any political or military standing in the city of Kalimdar. This included the assasination of the Fawl Council Of 3, they also purged their capital city of any Fawl supporters or Spice Barons (the noble class) that sympathized with anti slavery propoganda. When there was no one left standing in their way, Sultan Dracanoz mounted a Moonsteel plated Raznak and flew towards the Fawl District. Raznak was a powerful black dragon able to spit a continuous spray of erosive tar like Acid that was also flammable, as well as dark blue flames. Raznak’s breath corroded the stone of the structures while his flame burned so hot it all but melted the bricks, women and children could be heard screaming on the other side of Kalimdar as they clutched to each other being burnt either chemically or thermally alive. The death toll is said to be 30,000+ Fawl of all ages, however historians of the time would put the numbers well over 200,000 due to escaped fawls living in the ruins not documented by any census. This was the catalyst that had Vedo one evening break into Lord Donir’s house he grabbed a ornate fire poker with the handle of a Jungle Cat with saphire eyes. He plunged the poker through Donir’s sleeping eyes and twisted scrambling his brains. He kept the poker but burnt down the 10,000 sqft manor. The fire woke up the encampments of slaves, the younger Fawls male and female took initiative and started brutally murdering the distracted plantation guards. By the time the dawn broke, 1 Khati’hardt Noble, and 100 of his personal guard lay lifeless on the soil. Vedo Bran took his role as leader of these rebel Fawl, he allowed those who want to forge their own path to do so. Vedo ultimately marched Northwest towards Bordril with 200 young Fawl eager for revenge, he made Bvylir Maliyan his second in command, she was a formidable fighter single handedly killing 21 of the guards the night before, she was a beautiful Fawl women with an athletic tones female build and beautiful ebony antlers. Bur’nes was appointed the groups spiritual leader as well as advisor. Several hundred non-fighting, fawl children, and elderly also accompanied Vedo. They reached the eastern banks of the large lake Kura Niya in 3 months, which was normally already Bordril lands, however Khati’hardt has already pushed them all the way to past their northern borders where the Bordril army started retreating west still trying not to engage. However what Vedo did not expect was 12,000 Fawls that also escaped and destroyed their masters plantations, ready to greet him at the lake. History lost many of the facts but for the following month the Fawl Force did not move because Vedo had to deal with 30 other rebellion leaders. Ultimately some had to die and some hard decisions were made but including himself, Bvylir and Bur’nes a war council of 9 was formed.

During this waste of time, Sultan Dracanoz received the news that his Lords plantations beyond the Kadee mountains were all overrun by their slaves. This rebellion started leaking down the Burlim Kvos river with more and more Fawl flocking north. The Sultan sent 4,000 Khati’hardt men and 1000 Thur’ati mercenaries north to stomp out this rebellion before it becomes a civil war. This force was called the Palm Of Light with black dragons on gold banners. Dracanoz at this time didn’t want to march the actual military to meet the slaves because he did not wish to validate their cause, or recognize them as a real threat. The Palm Of Light marched north from Kalimdar all the way to Bell Pass, they killed every Fawl above the age of 10 that got in their way, the ones spared were sent to Kalimdar to become slaves trapped in the former Fawl District. Syril used this to reinforce her claims that the Fawl are evil to her husband, this lead to Sultan Dracanoz to not only want to stomp out the rebellion but commit to a full extermination of the Fawl Race. Once past the Bell Pass the Palm Of Light started being sabotaged at night, from poisoned water supplies all the way to supply tents being burnt down. Vedo got word that the Palm Of Light was headed to meet them at the lake coming from the south. Vedo made the decision to march towards them to the abandoned southern Bordril town of Kyrinanru. Vedo fortunately got there first and fortified their position on the large hill town with stone walls with jungle on all sides. The 5000 Palm Of Light soldiers formed ranks in front of the southern gates of Kyrinanru, expecting to have a siege against these rebels, however the leader of the Palm Of Light sent a messenger to the Sultan that they believed Kyrinanru was bolstered by a force of Bordril soldiers and that this was an act of war. It is unclear why the leader did this when it should of been apparent that these were all former slaves, some historians believe this was because the size of the rebel force was so great the leader simply didn’t believe it was only former slaves. Vedo did the unexpected and sally forth with ever single Fawl Man Women and Child charging the Palm Of Light, this was close to 24,000 Fawl in total, only 12,200 that were of proper fighting age and skill. This fell upon the battle hardened Palm Of Light like a Tsunami of antlers and within an hour slayed every last one of the Fawl Hunters. They knew before long the full might of the Khati’hardt forces will be headed north to extinguish them. They quickly scavenged every piece of armor and weapon off the corpses, adopted the Black Dragon on a Gold Banner as their own battle standard as a slap in the face, and looted anything of value from Kyrinanru. They made Canoes from the jungle trees and started to sail across the lake, this took about 2 weeks to achieve of many sleepless nights. Vedo and an armed guard of 50 went ahead north to meet up with Bordril’s generals to the west. Vedo spun what happened as them liberating Kyrinanru and gifting it back to Bordril. Word however already was sent from Khati’hardt that war was declared between Khati’hardt and Bordril. Bordril began reclaiming lost ground reclaiming their surrendered lands. They spanned all the way back east to what is now southern Lordios. Bordril human and orc Generals were ordered to defend the nation at all cost but do not get involved in any campaigns beyond their historic borders. Bordril Fawl generals were allowed to join their brothers in any regard. Vedo’s advisor Bur’nes unfortunately became ill and passed away on their journey across the lake. His council seat was filled by Rarin Garfeer a Bordril Fawl General. Vedo’s numbers now bolstered 150,000, with an additional 200,000 of Bordril Soldiers securing the Bordril borders.

Lordios at this time was a smaller kingdom, they decided to take this time to ally with Khati’hardt and constantly engaged Bordril along their borders. This war really is what expanded Lordios all along the mid-eastern coast which is still their territory to this day. Lordios participated minimally in the Fawl genocide. Things in Khati’hardt were rolling full force, Sultan  Dracanoz heard of the defeat of the Palm Of Light, and decided to march north with a force of 1,500,000 men and Raznak that measured 80 feet in length at this point. They plowed through the Bordril resistance at their northern borders killing every living humanoid that wasn't under the orange banners of Khati’hardt. The conquest over Bordril lasted 24 years and by the time EIII4229 rolled in Bordril was decimated, their nation that once included all of the Lakru Niva jungle, from west coast all the way to east coast. Now contained the Bordrils grasslands and the Red Bay Peninsula, 1/8th of their original territory. Bordril finally surrendered and publically banished all Fawl from their borders. Entire towns were destroyed by Raznak, the landscape north of the Kadee Mountains was forever changed with large swaths of old growth jungle burnt to bare soil. During these years Vedo’s forces focused on protecting the independent Fawl tribes as well as liberating as many slaves as possible. The war council dwindled down to just Vedo and Bvylir, their forces were down to a meak 50,000 fighting Fawl, and 124,000 of those too sickly or old to fight. They kept fighting in guerrilla warfare style being a thorn in the sultans side. Often fighting in Lordios’s territory so that the Sultan couldn’t use Raznak without destroying his allies territory. They eventually managed to dwindle the sultans forces now to 700,000 spread from Bordrils eastern border all the way to The Teal RIver. This gave vedo the advantage of being able to move his concentrated forces without much of an opposition. In the year EIII 4267 the Free Fawl Confederation (that they now were called) had a devastating lost near Lake Chysin. Vedo was reinforced from Northern Fawl Tribes of about 300,000 old and young who were ready to take a stand and fight for the future of their race. Here at Lake Chysin 474,000 Fawl stood with Vedo in charge leading his all white Jungle Cat named Symari made their stand. This was 96% of the remaining worlds Fawl population in one spot ready to face the might of Sultan Dracanoz. They were met by 350,000 Khati’hardt Troops with 40,000 Loridios reinforcements, and Sultan Dracanoz himself mounted on the back of  Raznak. The night before was so silent you could hear a car purr, but once dawn broke the drums of war began and the two forces met head to head. But before they knew it the Fawl forces were split horizontally in the middle by a wall of black tar like acid. This substance ate through flesh and plate and Raznak’s tar was soon ignited with his dark flame separating the army in half while killing a ⅓ of the Fawl Rebels before the battle even began. Vedo lead the front half of the forces in a charge as the vanguard against the Khati’hardt troops. Raznak landed towards the back half of the Fawl forces and started ripping the horned freedom fighters limb by limb. Bvylir was trying to rally the routing forces in the back, however with no prevail. A young Fawl child, no more than 8 years old was dead at her feet with a large mahogany bow , too big for such a small Fawl. She seized the bow and waited patiently for her opportunity, as Raznak’s wing dropped down for a second the Sultans unplated neck was exposed and Bvylir took her shot. Sultan Inferni Khatibi Dracanoz fell from on top of Raznak and bled out in an admixture of mud and Fawl blood. Vedo’s forces were already a ⅓ of what they were at the charge, he sounded the retreat, but it was nearly too late. Raznak went into a rage taking flight and using his breath on all regardless of nation. When Raznak was done with his fury, there was 4,000 remaining Fawl, and 120,000 remaining Khati’hardt forces. Raznak flew north never to be seen again, it is said from time to time he was spotted in Bragiria, others claim he went into hiding until he learned how to manifest his human form. Byvlir died in the carnage, Vedo was the last in charge, and of the 4,000 remaining only 100 were of proper fighting age. Vedo fled to Western Side of  Mt.Matraz where he and any one who would join him fortified themselves.

The New Sultan was Inferni Khatibi Dracanoz’s son al'Burlia Vichad Khatibi the 5th, who married his sister and reigned only for a short time before his death to pox. During this time he continued his father's war but instead of genocide he tried rebuilding the slave force that Khati’hardts economy was built on. Inferni’s war was costly both in lives but also the economy became non existent due to the destruction of all their slave labors. al'Burlia Vichad Khatibi the 5th used the spared 10 and below year olds who were now in their 60’s and their children as the new slave force. After his death al'Burlia Vichad Khatibi the 6th took the throne and decided it was time to end the war. al'Burlia Vichad Khatibi the 6th knew that slaves would continue to be willing to rebel if their hero Vedo Bran was still alive. In the year EIII 4293 al'Burlia Vichad Khatibi the 6th marched 20,000 men to Mt. Matraz where they uncovered a small city that developed on the western half of Mt.Matraz. Vedo was 110 years old, but for a fawl he was equivalent to a human in their early 30’s. Vedo saw that his refugees that were untouched for decades were one of the last bastions for his species. So instead he challenged the general of the Khati’hardt forces, Fertin Bylarinsoirn to single combat with the promise that his people can be let free even if he lost the battle. Bylarinsoirn agreed and after an intense 5 minutes of swordplay ran the 8 foot tall Fawl through the hearth with his rapier. Vedo fell to his knees, eye level with Bylarinsoirn, looked back at the Fawl he saved from genocide and slavery, and died bleeding out at the base of the historic Mt. Matraz. Bylarinsoirn honored his promised and let the Fawl remain, he marched back south and al'Burlia Vichad Khatibi the 6th honored him and an annual Khati’hardt festival would be held in his honor.

Bordril slowly regained some of their lost lands but never was able to fully rebound from the war. Khati’hardt trying to focus on rebuilding her economy relinquished any conquests north of the Kadee Mountains. Slavery returned to normaly but with only 5% of the original fawl population remaining in the world it was an admixture of races that were the Khati’hardt workforce. Fawl were able to once again become free and some even became political figures, however no Fawl would see true freedom for centuries to come. Lordios claimed much of the relinquished land and became the largest nation on the continent, their western borders never intruded west with no desire to claim the land of free Fawl tribes, or to taint any uncontacted Fawl tribes if there is any out there. Byvlir is recognized in some circles as the hero who ended a Tyrants life and is possibly why any Fawl still exist today, however others criticize her for enraging Raznak and ultimately losing the Fawl’s last stand. Vedo Bran is recognized as a hero, with some cults worshiping him as a Fawl God. He gave the Fawl a fighting spirit where they would no longer be seen as pacifists that just accept their fates. At the western base of Mt. Matraz there is a large statue of Vedo where many make a pilgrimage to trying to contact the spirit of Vedo. Many have been said to see Vedo in their dreams, or their spirit walks, he is always stern and direct individuals to ignore the needs of the self and do what is best for Fawl Kind. Even worshipers of Kaowl must respect what Vedo did for the Fawl, Kaowka are considered the third type of fawl with Vix and Gor or male and female being the other two. There is members of Kaowl cults that believe their lord Kaowl transformed Vedo into a massive Kaowka that now lives in the depths of Lake Chysin and an epic battle between Kaowka Vedo and Raznak is prophesied in these cults. Many also believe Vedo was an avatar of Gor, while few believe if Vedo ever would've had the chance to drink from the pools on top of Mt.Matraz he may of been turned into the Starborn and the war would have ended differently. Either way it is not unusual to hear Vedo Bran being a cult hero for all Fawl across the planet.