Auriwandalo
Although the establishment of the Theobaldian Empire unified and stabilised about a quarter of the continent, other regions of Realmgard remained wracked by upheaval and ruled by local chieftains and petty kings. While their domains did not reach anywhere near the size or influence of Theobald’s new Empire, many other Midlandic kings were active in the centuries after the collapse of the Elven Empire.
One of the most consequential figures in this period was the warlord Auriwandalo. Accounts of his origins are contradictory and heavily mytholgised, though it is clear that he was the son of a minor Midlandic chieftain. His rise to power began with a civil war with his brothers to succeed his father. Auriwandalo emerged victorious over his brothers and continued his ascent by conquering several neighbouring tribes.
It is generally held that Auriwandalo ruled the second-largest kingdom in Realmgard at this period other than Theobald’s Empire, ruling over a mixed Midlandic, Dwarf, Goblin, Hrimfaxi and Elven population. To affect an aura of legitimacy and establish himself as a equal to Theobald, Auriwandalo’s kingdom also modelled much of its adminsitration administration on the systems used by the Empire.
Auriwandalo is known to have worn kingly regalia with purple robes,
a colour long associated with the Elven Emperors. The purple dye necessary was rare and expensive even during the height of the Empire and in the post-Imperial era, the expense necessary to acquire it also demonstrated Auriwandalo’s wealth in addition to his Imperial aspirations.
With his own kingdom located on the periphery of Theobald’s Empire, Auriwandalo frequently harried Theobald’s borders, though his attempts to invade in force were stymied. Unable to advance into the Midlands, Auriwandalo instead turned north and set off on his most famous campaign, his ultimately failed conquest of Aurora.
His initial invasion faced stiff resistance from the nascent Kingdom of Aurora, but its sparse population was overwhelmed by the sheer number of Auriwandalo’s horde. This invasion would profoundly shape Aurora’s future — the desperate Aurorean call for aid was answered primarily by Middelmerish and Gallicantien armies. In addition to providing Aurora with the numbers necessary to repulse Auriwandalo’s invasion, this influx of Middelmerish and Gallicantien culture would influence Aurora’s own culture, with the Middelmerish dialect of Gardian and Gallicantien being the two official languages of present-day Aurora and the majority of Auroreans being or either Middelmerish or Gallicantien ancestry or a mix of both.
It is said that the ruling Aurorean King, Hivernus IV, defeated Auriwandalo in single combat. Although their fateful combat is another historical episode clouded by later literary tradition, it is generally accepted that the story is true, at least broadly. With their leader slain and overawed by the martial prowess of the Aurorean King, the bulk of Auriwandalo’s horde was peacefully absorbed into Aurora, while those remnants of the horde that returned south to Realmgard’s Midlands are known to have included the ancestors of Emperor Theobald, the first monarch to restore Imperial rule in much of Realmgard, including the former territories of Auriwandalo’s kingdom.
Remembered primarily as either an audacious warrior-king or a vicious tyrant, Auriwandalo has remained a popular figure in stories, poems, and dramas. Among the most famous operas in Realmgard is a six-part epic Natalian retelling of Auriwandalo’s life, reign, and death in battle in Aurora — famously, the fifth part consists solely of his death monologue.
I mentioned earlier that I was realising I’d borked my timeline and re-reading what I’d written about Auriwandalo, it was mostly in the details of his life. At first, he was modelled directly on the various major Germanic kings of the Goths (Visi– or Ostro-), Vandals, or Lombards (“Auriwandalo” is the Lombardic name of the Germanic god of the dawn).
But then I remembered that I had him causing Aurora to ask for help from Middelmere and Gallicantu, which is problematic because Gallicantu was founded by a descendant of Theobald, who’s at least a few centuries later than the immediate fall of the Elven Empire.
I’ve since revised Auriwandalo’s biography to correct that inconsistency and make him a contemporary of Theobald and kinda-sorta Realmgard’s equivalent of Widukind, a rebellious Saxon vassal of Charlemagne’s.
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