Prologue
For centuries, the inland kingdom of Barzun has stood proudly in its sovereignty. While geographically smaller than Tyra (considerably so!), Barzun has historically maintained an indifferent harmony with its bordering neighbours (Scanra, Galla, Tusaine and Tortall) through deliberate seclusion.
Even more remarkable, the land there has flourished and thrived, despite its mostly mountainous terrain. From what I gather, the reason for such agricultural good fortune lies mostly with the doings of the Barzi Songstresses: those ladies of Barzi nobility able to nurture the land through mystical song. These Songstresses are revered amongst the Barzi, and serve not only as a tangible link between the land and its citizens, but as a sign of favour from their patron goddess, Hestya.
But alas, I write of the past… of a golden Barzun.
More recent times have seen the kingdom battered and dangerously weakened. Tusaine and Galla have broken the indifferent peace and persistently antagonise the small nation with their aggressive military tactics. The crops and orchards have failed for yet another season, regardless of the hard work done by those Songstresses. There are even dark rumours that Hestya has abandoned the people, and many Barzi have crossed the nation's borders in search of a better life – some forced by sheer necessity, others voluntarily.
Discontentment, it seems, is no longer a stranger out of place in Barzun.
Yet, despite this tarnished existence and fall from grace, the Barzi people have (for the most part) clung to their traditions, of which I can only describe as a wondrous amalgam of utopian ideals and ancient matriarchal culture. The Barzi, for instance, continue to elect their queen, a time-honoured custom originating in an era before even the Book of Glass.
Their current queen, Amayrha Tyorelle, is a lovely little thing. All grace and charm – a good deal of beauty as well. But, I believe only a fool would dare to underestimate her.
Only a fool would be blind to the strength behind the enchanting smile, or to the burning determination and keen intelligence. Only a fool would forget that this queen, this young lass of barely twenty, has kept her battered country together and away from the edge of civil war.
I've heard whisperings that Amayrha is one of the strongest Songstresses ever to be born; a natural queen if there ever was one. It's a pity, they say, that she wasn't born a generation or so earlier.
Perhaps then, Barzun might have a stronger chance of surviving the Conqueror's imminent strike come this spring…
-- Extract from the private musings of famed historian, Desmund of Hepthistle, written in the winter of 377HE following his brief stay in Barzun.