Land of the King
Chapter 79: Annals of Kings V, the Sun Never Sets
Everything changed when the Doom destroyed Valyria. With no rival left, nothing remained to stand in Arnor's way as it expanded its power and influence across the world. The centuries after the Doom would see Arnor's rise to become the empire on which the sun never sets, beginning the Second Golden Age as Arnor reached heights of power it had not attained even in the days of Alcarin the Glorious. Yet this Second Golden Age would ultimately find itself interrupted by the return of the Long Night, the coming of the Others, and the second War for the Dawn that would follow.
This volume tells the tale of the last high kings of Arnor before the ascension of its first ruling queen. These are the kings who witnessed the aftermath of the Doom of Valyria, who oversaw the last of the Five Dragon Wars and the rise of Arnor's empire that followed. The kings that reigned during the Long Night and ultimately prepared the way for the succession of Queen Silmariën, long may she reign.
It is perhaps not incorrect to say that this fifth volume is the pinnacle and culmination of the Arnor that we have followed, all the way from its humble roots in the very first legends and tales when Elendil the Founder and his Nine Ships landed ashore in Westeros on that fateful day.
XXXVII Arathorn I 4951-5079
Arathorn I was born in 4681 and he inherited the Arnorian Sceptre and its Empire upon his father's death in 4951. He ruled for 128 years until his death at the age of 398. His reign featured perhaps the greatest change of fortune in Arnorian history.
In his early reign, the renewed tensions between Arnor and Valyria escalated even further. Valyria placed increasing numbers of soldiers and dragons on their border with East Arnor and was restarting its war machine. After years of dominance in Essos and their massively increased wealth, Valyria felt confident it could win a Fifth Dragon War, and finally emerge triumphant over their nemesis.
That belief may not have been wrong. In the Third War, Valyria had fielded over 500 dragons against Arnor and had nearly won. In Arathorn's reign, they had more than double of that, over 1200. And knowing that dragon might alone might not be enough to win the war, the Valyrian had started exploring ever darker magic to gain an edge in the upcoming, final war.
Some Arnorian scholars believed Valyria's economy had been pushed too far to support the massive build-up of men, dragons and all the training those requires and Valyria would inevitably collapse, little comfort to Arnor if they had already been burned to the ground and destroyed utterly.
All this caused grave concern in Arnor, and in some utter fear. Arnor had already been pushed to the brink once, forced to stare down into the abyss of its own potential demise. Now it seemed history might repeat itself. Still the Arnorians did not quail in fear, did not freeze in terror, they steeled their hearts, and manned their posts.
Arnor had not been idle in the centuries since the Third Dragon War. They had massively advanced their metallurgy and projectile technology as well as their water magic and skinchanging in the hopes of making up for the loss of the giants. Yet many feared it might not be enough against the power that was rising in the east.
Indeed, there was even a prophecy made by a seer that doom would surely come for a great civilization. Many thought that Arnor was what the prophecy referred to, yet the notion of surrender was unthinkable. Lose they may, but what a fight they'd be sure to give before they died. 'Let the memory of the last sons of Númenor be remembered forever,' they cried.
With the growing clouds of war, and with many remembering the horrors of the Third Dragon War, hundreds of thousands if not millions began fleeing from the homeland, flooding into the colonies of Annúrómen and Hyarmen. The scions of Numenor had been exiled once before, if the worst was to pass, they would take it once more. Better exile than death and enslavement.
War seemed all but inevitable when both countries formally withdrew their ambassadors in the year 5000 E.L and the entire world braced for the onset of a Fifth Dragon War. Hope seemed all but lost when doom came, just as the prophecy had said, yet it was not for Arnor.
Some say it was a natural eruption caused by the eruption of the Fourteen Flames, others that it was Eru's divine intervention for the sake of his chosen people, others still say it was some dark magic gone wrong, it cannot be known for sure. What is known is that on the day of the Doom of Valyria, every hill for five hundred miles exploded, filling the air with ash and smoke and fire, which killed even dragons. Earthquakes destroyed palaces, temples, and towns, while lakes boiled or turned to acid.
The Fourteen Flames, the fiery mountains of Valyria, sent molten rock a thousand feet into the air, and red clouds rained down dragonglass. The cataclysm fragmented the Valyrian peninsula into numerous smaller islands and created the Smoking Sea between them. East of Valyria, Velos and Ghozai on the Isle of Cedars were destroyed by a tsunami. And a dark shadow now laid upon the Doom, for not even the palantiri made by Fëanor could see into it.
In a single day, the Freehold was shattered with the utter annihilation of the Valyrian Peninsula, leaving the surviving dragonlords and armies scattered all over Essos, leaderless. As many as a hundred dragons and their riders are believed to have survived the Doom, scattered all over the Valyrian Empire.
The Doom was all the more devastating as at the time the vast majority of Valyria's dragonlords had been summoned back to the capital for an assembly, often believed to be the final debate on whether to begin a new war with Arnor and finalize their plans, and even, some said, conjure magic more foul than anything seen before in that world.
Even so, a large enough number of dragons did survive, mainly due to the Valyrian policy of keeping dragon garrisons in all the major cities.
Had they united, perhaps the last legacy of Valyria would not be snuffed out. Yet in hindsight that was never to be. Valyria had been the beating heart of the Freehold. With it gone, there was no organization, no way for proper rulership to be had. In that vacuum, there was no real way for the naturally ambitious dragon riders to peacefully work together.
To make their situation even more critical the society in Essos slowly started collapsing. Not only did the seemingly divine intervention against the rulers of the continent send shockwaves throughout it, but from the ashes of Valyria, the world grew colder, the sun dimmer, and in the famine that followed, many believed the end times were nigh.
And of course, rather unsurprisngly, in such times, the slavery system that had powered the industry of Valyria almost collapsed, with slave revolts becoming a frequent occurence in the chaotic time
that would become known as the War of the Dragonlords, for even as they attempted to stabilize the former Valyrian colonies, the feuding dragonlords began tearing apart Essos in their wars against each other.
Everything that had been prepared to fight Arnor was now turned upon each other. The dragonlords turned dragon upon dragon, Valyrian steel upon steel, magic against magic. A true reflection of the utter corruption and decadence in Valyria's society.
15 years is all it took before a hundred dragons became twenty-three. One of the greatest civilisations in the world had been utterly obliterated and its remnants had turned upon one another savagely and foolishly, forgetting their ancient rival still remained undefeated to the west.
In Arnor, the only feeling its people could feel when the Doom came was feelings of sheer joy, relief, and elation. It is hard to do justice to the feelings of the Arnorian people when they realized that another bitter struggle for survival would not come.
The Doom was seen as the greatest sign of Eru's favour upon them, their archenemy had been utterly annihilated, its remnants had weakened and destroyed themselves. There was none left who could truly challenge Arnor. The world was theirs. All that was left was for them to take it.
In many ways, the Doom would end up redefining Arnor's very identity almost as much as the Dragon Wars. In a single moment Arnor had been rid of its bane, and became the sole great power of the world. And yet at the same time it had also lost most of its purpose in the end of the conflict. It would later be said that a culture achieves definition through struggle. But now, there was no one to struggle with but themselves. But that was for later.
For now, the people of Arnor swore an oath then, that never would they allow themselves to be at the mercy of dragons ever again…
Almost immediately after the Doom, Arnorian ships landed in Naath to take up residence of their old fort and to place the Butterfly Island under the Empire's protection once more. In the north Arnorian forces massed in Braavos and along the Rammas Rómen, Arnor fortified the borders even more and mobilized their armies, but they made no move to intrude into the territories of the former Valyrian Empire until 5015, when the greatest of the surviving Valyrian dragonlords, Aurion Varezys disappeared on an ill-thought expedition into the Doom.
That very year, Arnorian forces crossed the Rammas Rómen, beginning what would technically be the Fifth Dragon War, though it was hard to call such a lengthy and varied conflict a single war. Their mission was to pacify the broken Essosi cities, liberate the slaves, and destroy or seize every remnant of Valyria's magic and dragons. Over the following decades, Arnor cut a swathe through the Valyrian colonies. They destroyed what little remained after the War of the Dragonlords, they freed every slave and let them tear apart their masters in mobs. They looted the wealth that remained in the cities and either destroyed or carried back to Arnor all that remained of Valyria's knowledge, magic, and technology.
And everywhere they went, they hunted down every dragon and rider they could find with extreme prejudice, not caring how many lives had to be sacrificed just to bring down one dragon. Compared to a time when they had expected the end of their kingdom, such losses seemed trivial against the idea of ensuring Valyria or another freehold like it could never rise again to threaten Arnor.
In their wake Essos was changed even more. Slavery and the evils of the Valyrian Freehold were gone, but in the wake of the Arnorian departure, the city states of Essos fell into even more infighting, not stopping for many decades and in some cases centuries.
Some surviving dragonlords even fled to Gogossos where they would make a last stand. Gogossos, a city whose slavery and dark sorcery was infamous, even in the Freehold. It said very much indeed that even Old Valyria looked askance at the practices of the Gogossi blood mages and fleshmiths and now with Valyria gone, they were free to delve deeper and darker, without any restraint whatsoever, becoming ever more twisted, corrupt, and evil.
Finally, in 5046, a massive Arnorian fleet was sent to put down Gogossos and the city and the Basilisk Isles were placed under Arnorian rule. Reforms began immediately, with the slaves freed and several of the blood mages and flesh smiths executed. Many however escaped into hiding, leaving behind horrid abominations of mutated barely-humans who were all put down by the Arnorian soldiers.
A year later in 5047, a terrible disease began sweeping through the Isles, the Red Death. It killed nine of every ten men, even Arnorians, who all died screaming, bleeding copiously from every orifice, their skin shredding like wet parchment and then somehow, the entire city of Gogossos was set aflame with wildfire and burned to the ground. Few survived and all told barely coherent stories of what happened.
Some said that the fleshsmiths and blood mages who had escaped returned at the head of a massive army of mutated monstrosities, unleashing the Red Death to weaken the city before they tried to reconquer it by force. Even now rumours say that the mutants bred in Gogossos stalk the jungles of the Green Hell, yet another danger for a would-be explorer. The truth of what happened in Gogossos however, is lost to the flames that devoured the city.
The Basilisk Isles would be abandoned for a whole century after that incident before pirates crept back into it and established their dens there. Arnor was then forced to return and reconquer the islands and they reluctantly resettled it as part of the Empire. The Arnorians however refused to resettle the Isle of Tears, upon which the burnt ruins of Gogossos still laid. Some said that an evil presence, not unlike that in Yeen to the south, had taken root in the ruins and they dared not linger in that place.
Ultimately what few dragon riders remained scattered far away from the Valyrian heartlands, fleeing as far as they could so that Arnor did not reach them, and that was very far indeed and to the remote corners of the world for with the destruction of Valyria, Arnor was unchallenged throughout the world entire, and the empire it formed was established in part to hunt down the surviving dragonlords.
The Arnorian Royal Navy ruled the waves, and none dared challenge them at sea. The Arnorians would end up annexing Lorath and all its hinterlands and would also end up annexing Ibben, the Isle of Cedars, and New Ghis (Ghilos) as well as vassalizing Qarth.
In fact, all the former remnants of Valyria's empire were now either annexed, vassalized or made tributaries in some form or another and Arnor now dominated all Essos west of the Bone Mountains, crushing nuisances such as the Dothraki who dared to challenge their hegemony.
Dragonlords had by now become a rare kind, taking refuge or taking kingdoms in places like the Thousand Isles, Asshai, and Yi Ti, or even elsewhere, hiding away in the remote Grey Waste or Green Hell.
XXXVIII Argonui 5079-5218
Argonui was born in 4816. His reign would see the continued exponential growth in Arnorian imperial power.
With control over the Summer Islands, Naath, the Basilisk Isles, Isle of Cedars, Ghilos, and Qarth, Arnorian supremacy over the Summer Sea was secured and they became even more wealthy and powerful then they already were from their control over the world's trade routes.
Desiring more, Arnor pushed further east, forcing Yi Ti to grant concessions and trading rights even as she began establishing protectorates, trading posts, colonies, and naval bases on Great Moraq, Leng, Marahai, the Manticore Isles, and several other islands in the Jade Sea as well as the Jade Sea coasts of Sothoryos and Ulthos all the way down to the narrow isthmus linking the two continents, placing the sea under their control.
Wary of Asshai and the Shadow Lands, the Arnorians vassalized the thinly-populated north coast of Ulthos to seize control of the Saffron Straits and Jade Sea and maintain an eastern link to Annúrómen. They also built outposts on the tropical coasts of eastern and southern Ulthos in order to link Hyarmen and Annúrómen. Ridiculous plans for a canal to split the narrow isthmus linking Ulthos to Sothoryos were even drawn up, not that it was ever built for the need never arose and the region was so far away from the Arnorian mainland.
Everywhere, the charge was led by adventurers from Arnor with little lands to inherit back home and seeking gold and glory out for themselves elsewhere. Several settled, adventured, and fought all over the world, for why be a servant in Arnor when they could be king of lesser men? New realms and kingdoms were carved out in Sothoryos, Ulthos, and Essos. Yi Ti for example, came to have an Arnorian noble as its new Golden Emperor in Yin, though his rule did not cover the entire empire.
With this considered, one could say that Arnorians and their culture and civilization ruled the whole world. Even if the state, the Kingdom of Arnor itself and its empire did not directly rule this all, its influence as the original homeland could not be understated.
Having created such a massive empire, Arnor was now the most powerful country in the world, ushering in a new Golden Age and the revival of the ancient saying of precious stones being but pebbles. The beginnings of this new golden age had been a long time in the making, but the Dragon Wars had greatly delayed it. Now with their primary rival nothing but a wasteland, Arnor thrived.
With the largest economy and military in the world, the Arnorian Empire stood unchallenged everywhere and anywhere. The Arnorians now had complete control over the three routes by which one could circumnavigate the world with complete and utter dominance over the world's oceans and trade routes. The Arnorian Royal Navy ruled the waves, patrolled the world's oceans, enforced the Arnorian Peace upon the world, and served the Empire. An Empire on which the sun never set.
XXXIX Arador 5218-5342
Arador was born in 4931. He grew up in the tense time during which Arnor braced for a war that could lead to its final destruction, as many feared that they could not defeat the endless horde of dragons Valyria had amassed.
Suddenly in 5000 however, Eru answered their prayers and delivered justice to Valyria as he had to Númenor, destroying that evil empire utterly with the annihilation of the Valyrian peninsula. The resulting War of the Dragonlords and Fifth Dragon War ushered in a final Arnorian victory over Valyria's remnants and the following decades would see Arnor rise to become the undisputed superpower of the world.
Given that he was born during a time when it was feared Arnor would be destroyed by an endless horde of dragons, it is quite poignant that he would live into the era in which Arnor hunted down the last dragonlords. By Arador's reign, all that remained of the dragons were the scattered wild populations that lived freely.
So it was that in 5218, Arador inherited the Arnorian Empire at the richest and most prosperous it had ever been and under his reign, it was predicted to grow even further due to his marriage. Arador's wife had been chosen by his father to unite Norda with Arnor and in 5079, he had married Princess Aryanne Stark, the heiress of Winterfell and the Kingdom of Norda.
By the time of his own ascension, Aryanne had already been ruling the North in her own right for several years and their son Arathorn, was expected to inherit the rule of both kingdoms, unifying them the same way the Vale had been centuries earlier and adding Norda to the Arnorian Empire.
With the expectation that their son and heir, Arathorn, would unite the kingdoms in a personal union, work began on the integration of Norda. New road and canal projects were being built all over the North with the intent of connecting it fully with itself and Arnor. Canal projects including the Fever River to the Bite at Moat Cailin, Torrhen's Square to the White Knife, Torrhen's Square to Stone River on the Stony Shore, Long Lake to the Last River, and an extension of the White Knife into the Wolfswood.
Massive roads linked the various holdfasts of the North together and Arnorian investments and prospectors began the process of exploiting its massive untouched natural resources, building massive lumber plantations in the Wolfswood and great mines and quarries in the mountains and a great fur trade. Many of these projects would not be completed for decades and all required a massive amount of technology, capital, and labour, all of which Arnor possessed.
These projects all came to a sudden halt however when the certainty of the two kingdoms uniting was put into question by the sudden and unexpected announcement of Queen Aryanne in 5227 E.L that the rule of Norda would pass to hers and Arador's second son, Araphant, upon her death, and not their eldest Arathorn, as had been expected. This change of heir began the Succession Crisis of the North.
For years the Queen had been petitioned by several Nord nationalists and pro-independence members of her kingdom to name her second son heir and ensure the North remained an independent and distinct kingdom as it had been for thousands of years and she had become convinced that to force union upon her unwilling populace, was nothing short of tyranny.
Her subjects were divided between the pro-union camp, Unionists and their advocates, and the pro-independence camp, Northern nationalists. Civil war, like what had happened in the Vale centuries earlier was a strong possibility only this time it was certain to be more tragic given that it could potentially pit brother against brother, husband against wife, and sons against parents. Rather than tear his family apart, Arathorn proposed a compromise.
A similar arrangement to the autonomous principalities of Braavos and Pentos was proposed to Queen Aryanne and Prince Araphant wherein the latter would become Prince of Winterfell, or Prince of Formenor (the old Arnorian name for the North or Norda) and hold overlordship over all the traditional Stark lands but swear fealty to his elder brother who would hold the title of King of Norda. The Kingdom of Norda would still legally exist as an entity but similarly to the Vale, it would become subordinate to and de-facto part of the High Kingship of Arnor.
Much negotiation passed between the two sides for months, with several great changes made to the proposal. Queen Aryanne demanded certain rights for Norda that not even Pentos or Braavos had, for example the right to mint currency and to retain a Nordic military independent of the Arnorian military, a proposal seen as near unacceptable until Arathorn once again interceded. He proposed that the Principality of Formenor (stressing its nature as part of Arnor) would be allowed to mint currency but would share said currency with the rest of Arnor and agree to answer to the Royal High Treasury's directives concerning currency. Formenor would also be allowed an independent Principality Army which would answer to Prince Araphant but would be limited in size to ensure it could defend Formenor from tyranny by Arnor but not challenge the latter for supremacy) and swear fealty to Arathorn as their rightful king with an oath to obey him and his heirs over Prince Araphant or his heirs should the latter commit treason.
In exchange for an independent Principality Army of Formenor, Norda would abandon the right to a standing navy of its own, with its sailors serving in the Royal Arnorian Navy with no distinctions from sailors from any other part of Arnor. Furthermore, Norda, or Formenor as it would become, would grant basing rights to the Royal Navy in perpetuity in any of its ports and cede the strategic Three Sister Islands in the Bite to direct Arnorian rule.
The two realms held their breath, fearful at the possibility that they could go to war with their ally of the past two thousand years. Queen Aryanne and Prince Araphant finally conceded in 5228, ending the crisis. However, though their sons eventually reconciled, the relationship between King Arador and Queen Aryanne would remain heavily strained and the two would live separated in Morlond and Winterfell respectively to their deaths.
Aside from the Succession Crisis and the deal that saw the North finally acquiesce to joining Arnor, Arador's reign is noted in that the progress of technological advancement began overtaking magical means in several areas. Technology had been steadily progressing for thousands of years and had been greatly advanced by the wars with Valyria and by the time of Arador, Arnor had become a society and culture on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, with massive advances in all fields.
Black powder had been discovered and they had begun experimenting with it for weapons of war though the traditional swords and bows were still more effective and the printing press and other similar inventions were old and ancient by this time.
The population of the Arnorian Homeland, at this point considered to be Arnorian Westeros, including the Vale and Dorne, and East Arnor in Essos including Braavos and Lorath, was some 300 million. A truly phenomenal population. Not all were of the Blood of Númenor of course but a significant number were and almost all were fiercely loyal to the Empire and to the High King in Morlond.
Arador continued the work of his predecessors in strengthening the Empire and also made more laws ensuring non-Númenórean citizens were fairly treated to prevent dissent from sparking. Discrimination against non-Númenóreans had always been an issue since before the Kin-Strife and Arador refused to have another war over race and blood purity break out in Arnor or its Empire.
Note: This particular edition of the Annals appears to be missing the reigns of Arathorn II, Aragorn II, and Silmariën. A revised edition will be published shortly including the reigns of these rulers.
Author's Note: Just to make it clear, Arnor by Arador has all the tech and the corresponding society of 1800 Europe with the sole exception of advanced gunpowder. They are on the brink of industrialising though they won't before Long Night II. Lost Road is coming soon baby!
Arathorn II, Aragorn II, and Silmariën would spoil the ending so they've been left out and will be included in the epilogue, that is only the reign of those three, I'm not publishing the rest of the Annals again.
Now some of you may be wondering why exactly this is here as a new chapter, and I've come to realize that this organization makes more sense than the previous mega chapter that had this volume of Annals of Kings combined with the Dragon Wars volume, giving a split focus and a super long chapter very unwieldy for me to edit. Apologies if I made you think you were getting a brand new chapter. But hey, you did get some new content in the form of maps! Silver linings people, silver linings (FFN peeps, go see the chapter on AH/SB/AO3)
