The Great War - Forging of the Five Kingdoms of Balamy - Valcanne's guide to Keltorin
The Great War Continues
This is the historical account of the events known as The Great War. This record is written by King Baronton's Master of Knowledge Iremsi, it provides first hand accounts of the events surrounding both the war and the forging of the five Kingdoms of Balamy.
This historical record has been edited by King Raughn's Master of knowledge Rickharton only adjusting the notes to show the passage of time.
The Forging of the Five Kingdoms of Balamy
The following is eyewitness accounts from the forging of the Five Kingdoms of Balamy and the construction of the Great Water Gates sewn together to create a cohesive picture of the events of the war.
The day after the fiery end to the Battle of the Four Tides, the armies of the Almain and Fentone Kingdoms appeared along the destroyed coastline of Valcanne. Led by King Viridoch of Fentone and King Isandor of Almain, who rode ahead of their marching troops - the rest of whom were still being ferried across the Four Tides, which was still littered with the remains of the ships destroyed earlier in the battle.
The three Kings and their chosen masters, met along the ridge that protected most of the Kingdom of Valcanne from the cannon fire that had rained down on the Kingdom days before. They all retired to King Balonton's war room and besides runners being sent out to carry the orders they were giving and pages bringing refreshments no one saw them for two days.
When the Three Kings and their masters finally emerged from the war room the five kingdoms had established a new line along the northern borders and had commenced the push forward reclaiming the lost ground of ten years of occupation.
Below the red line is the enemy occupied lands.
It took a further three years to force the Blue Bannermen into a full retreat but this was the turn of the war, there was also a new alliance formed between the five Kingdoms.
The new alliance meant the Five Kingdoms would answer with support if any were attacked, they agreed to trade freely with one another and they agreed to the all aid in the construction of the great water gate and the three smaller gates that it had been decided would have to be built to protect all in their new alliance - ensuring this is never permitted again.
A massive celebration was held at the end of the war with all five kingdoms uniting to celebrate and sign the formal agreements, the kings that oversaw the forging of the Kingdom of Balamy were..
King Viridoch of the Kingdom Fentone
King Isandor of the Kingdom Almain
King Berentay of the Kingdom Ralteith
King Baronton of the Kingdom of Valcanne
King Sirium of the Kingdon Imporo
They all agreed to the terms of the alliance, with that choose the name Balamy together each Kingdom changed their name to represent their place in the larger Kingdom..
The Kingdom of Fentone will be known as the Heart of Balamy
The Kingdom of Almain will be known as North Balamy
The Kingdom of Ralteith will be known as West Balamy
The Kingdom of Valcanne will be known as East Balamy
The Kingdom of Imporo will be known as South Balamy
The Heart pledged finances to rebuild all areas damaged during the Battle of Four Tides, and loan coin to the South of Balamy to aid in their rebuilding.
The North of Balamy pledged obsidian and master masons to aid in the construction of the great water gate and three smaller ones.
The West of Balamy pledged food stores and supplies to those that needed them most.
The East of Balamy pledged to protect the other kingdoms by guarding two of the water gates and training the other kingdoms fighters in their tactics of war.
The South of Balamy had little to offer but fealty they pledged to always answer Valcanne's call as they had for them in their time of need, and also once resettled on their lands they would provide lumber from the Emerald Forest. They also sacrificed a large portion of their land to satisfy The West Kingdoms insistence that they required more and offered less than the other Kingdoms.
The Borders of the Five Kingdoms
The Great Water Gate
It was decided by all of the Five Kingdoms that the attack by water they suffered should never again be made possible, this is when the decision was made to create a massive obsidian water gate at the entrance to the largest mouth of the Four Tides and that three smaller gates were also to be made of obsidian.
Construction on the gates commenced the year the war ended, 133 years ago - it took 70 years to complete which was 63 years ago and since it's construction none of the gates have ever needed to be used.
The gates were designed by the best minds of the Five Kingdoms and functioned with two main purposes keeping ships from freely entering the Four Tides, if it were necessary and also to destroy as many of those enemy ships as possible.
When completed it was raised high into the air across the main mouth of the Four Tides, if triggered a series of joists would snap causing the gate to plummet into the water below - the gate was angled and when it hits the water it is designed to generate a massive wave with the goal of destroying as many of the enemy ships as possible.
As well as this once it had been released the gate is just that a massive heavy wall in the mouth of the Four Tides no ship or person could gain entry unwelcome, the top of the gates were also wide enough to equip it with built in catapults armed and ready to fire even before the gates are dropped.
The gates remain functional and in good repair in the Five Kingdoms today, the Kingdom of Balamy will always remember the tragedy of the Battle of Four Tides - and will always remain ready for the Return of the Blue Bannermen.
I like the maps you have in this series of posts.
@opheliafu thank you so much for checking out my post!
Wow I'm stoked you like the maps (I have only had a little feedback on them and not from an artist that I'm aware of) it's probably the most artistic thing I've created that hasn't been too hideous lol, here's the article that featured the full map image if your interested.
Thanks again for the support :)
They have caught my eye a few times but I assumed they were off the internet. I did a little detective work earlier and went through your 2 weeks of posts and read the comments. THEN I realised you had drawn them. They are great! You need to credit your own images so it's clear, you should be shouting about the fact you have drawn these. I think you should do an art post purely about your maps- give them their own spotlight.
That's amazing to hear @opheliafu and really means something coming from you, so I decided to jump on it and get it out there.
I just did a post with all my maps to date and a bit of a explanation about what they are and how I did them I wish I had thought to take photos during the days I worked on them, but oh well next time I try to do something hopefully I will remember.
https://steemit.com/art/@krystle/hand-drawn-maps-of-the-world-i-created-keltorin-for-my-original-steemit-novel
Thanks so much for giving me the confidence to post these in art, I hope others like them as much as you :D
Well you can't lose anything by posting about them, only gain. I hope everyone does like them too. I doubt my abilities all the time, but this platform is about sharing, so let's get sharing and put our work out there!
Great post! Followed :)
@acidyo thanks so much for your support I really appreciate it :)
So creative and cool how you even draw those maps !
Lots of going over and correcting mistakes in pencil.
Five days later and a damaged hand it was finished!
You got my attention too. Those people of the Five Kingdoms were very creative like you are. I hope you will like my gift for you. I made a post and I included you in that post. You can read it here.
Thanks @the-future I always appreciate genuine support :) and thanks for the plug too!