House of Merentel
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The House of Merentel was the current ruling family of the Duchy of Eastmark. It is considered an Ancient House of the Kingdom of Curonia.
It came to prominence under the Kingdom of Courland when his ancestor, who was a Staunton that ruled the County of Eastmark, was raised to a ducal level by King Tobias Staunton and his son, Alexander, was then given the Barony of Hallowfell and adopted the new surname of Merentel. They took part in the Coalition War and were one of the many loyal houses under the House Staunton. In Axios, they were the rulers of the Barony of Hallowfell. Back in Atlas, House of Merentel participated in the Staunton Uprising. In Arcas, they stayed loyal to the Empire of Renatus and in exchange they were awarded with the noble title of Duke of Vintas by the Holy Orenian Emperor. However, the Patriarch of the House of Merentel decided to renounce to that title and adopt the ancient title of Duke of Eastmark instead. The Duke of Eastmark, Tobias Merentel, swore fealty to King Pierce I of Curonia and was formerly considered a vassal of the Kingdom of Curonia.
Contents
History
The Barony of Hallowfell (1665 - 1715)
The Second Coalition War of Atlas (1667-1669) had seen the homelands of the Curonian populace laid waste to by the Crown of Renatus Marna and its allies. It was by the direct hand of Princess Linette Devereux, and her insatiable hunger and lust for power that cost her not only her life but also her lands and city. As the men, women, and children of the Bear fled during the night from their homes, leaving everything they knew and cared about behind, it seemed as if the Curonian legacy had reached its end.
For over a decade the once-proud homelands of the Curonian people had sat in ruin. Its hills and fields scorched by fire and left barren, its rivers polluted with the skeletons of its fallen defenders, and its city turned to nothing more than a pile of rubble. The legacy of the nation seeming lost forever and its people shattered. This all changed though with the rise of Wilhelm Devereux. Wilhelm, a son of the House of Devereux, saw the error of his mother Linette's ways and denounced her tenure as leader of the once-great nation. He pledged himself as a loyal servant to the Empire of Man and after proving himself in the Rivia Campaigns (1681) and securing the sound capture and defeat of Thomas de Hartcold, Wilhelm was granted the lands of his ancestors and given the title of Count. Wasting no time, Wilhelm took under the laborious effort of rebuilding everything that his mother had destroyed in her reign of terror. Through him, the lands of Curon were planted anew. The rivers were cleared of the dead and decay, the fields and hills brought back to their full natural beauty, and the city that had once been home to so many long-forgotten faces rebuilt and forged anew.
Word spread like wildfire of the newly formed County throughout the lands of Atlas. Those who had fled their homeland over a decade before, the Curonians of old, quickly found a feeling in their hearts they had not felt in such a long time, the feeling of hope. One by one, family by family, the men, women, and children of the Green Tide set forth to re-settle in the lands they and their ancestors had called home. Together they, along with the enlightened rule of Wilhelm I Devereux, would bring their nation back once more as an influential force within the realms of Atlas.
The County of Cyrilsburg prospered under the rule of Wilhelm Devereux. A golden age set within the County as the population grew by the hundreds every day. Soon the County was elevated to the status of a Duchy. Styled as the Duchy of Curon, the ever-growing nation continued to make itself well known in the lands of Atlas, tossing aside the errors of the past and forging itself a path of respect and renown.
It was so during this time that the Duchy of Arbor, a neighbor to the Curonian nation, soon joined the fold of the new Duchy and integrated themselves into the Curonian populace. Taken in with open arms as fellow brothers and sisters of the Bear, the Arborian populace has intermingled with its Curonain counterpart and together the two have formed the culture and social landscape that today makes up the nation.
The County of Vintas (1715-1721)
Once the War of Two Emperors started, the Kingdom of Curonia remained loyal to Godfrey II, Holy Orenian Emperor at first, and the House of Merentel showed their massive support to the new emperor. Alexander Merentel (Father of Tobias Merentel), had a really good relationship with the emperor, but not everyone in Curon supported the new emperor. Suddenly, the Kingdom of Curonia switched sides in war and decided to support Joseph I, Holy Orenian Emperor. This exposed House of Merentel due to their great relationship with Godfrey II, so they had to leave Curon and find refugee in Helena. After the War of Two Emperors, they didn't feel like coming back to Curon to follow their lives, instead, they decided to move to a new place and start their own settlement. As a compensation for their eternal support, Godfrey II, awarded House of Merentel with the title of "Duke of Vintas".
The Duchy of Vintas (1721-1734)
After the War of Two Emperors, Vintasians started a new life in the east of the map, very close to Krugmar. They started building their new home, Alannor. They became now a direct vassal state of the Holy Orenian Empire and they were part of the House of Lords. During this time, they were incredibly strong, they had one of the biggest armies in the empire and their power starting to going up. Tobias Merentel had an excellent relationship with the leader of the orcs, who were their neighbours, but after a coup, their leader changed and the new leader proclamed that the lands of the Duchy of Vintas belonged to the orcs. The conflicts scaled up and the war broke up. The Duchy of Vintas and the Federation of Mokh-Uruk met together in the battlefield, in the Battle of Lowveld, resulting in a close victory for the orcs. This battle wasn't decisive enough because both sides had similar casualties. After some discussions in the war council of the Holy Orenian Empire, Tobias Merentel decided to give the power of the Grand City of Alannor to the Imperial Military, in order to fight against the orcs, who had killed his father, Alexander Sergius Merentel.
The Duchy of Eastmark (1734-1763)
After giving the Grand City of Alannor to the Imperial Administration, the House of Merentel and his people had to leave and decided to come back where they belonged, the Kingdom of Curonia. Tobias Merentel gave the title of the Duchy of Vintas to the King of Curon, Pierce I of Curonia. Instead, to welcome Tobias Merentel and his people, the king created the title of The Duchy of Eastmark and gave it to the House of Merentel. After some months of working and proving their loyalty, Tobias Merentel became part of the Privy Council of Curon. The Rubern War started and even though lots of Eastmarkers left to support the Alliance of Independent States, Tobias Merentel and his more loyal men stayed in the Kingdom of Curonia. The Ducal title was placed in absence following the dissolvement of the Kingdom of Curonia in 1763. Later, the former Eastmark lands were turned into an Imperial State Army military outpost.
