Tailte Na Rithe – The Land of Kings
A Brief History
Once Tailte Na Rithe was not. Before there were Kings in Halla Rithe, the lands as filled with tribes and clans striving with each other for plains and forests to hunt, rivers and lakes to fish, mountains and hills to mine and forage and fertile land to till. These men lived and died by the rule of 'might makes right'. The clans and tribes waged bloody feuds with each other when ever wrongs were done, and even when they were just conceived.
Then came a chieftain, name of Morn. Morn built a keep such as had never been seen in the lands. He called it Halla Morn, Morns Hall. Then he armed his men with the best his silver could buy. His neighbours soon discovered that the price for trespassing into his domain, was a hefty one, as he led his men for many a reprisal-raid. The people came from far and wide, first in trinkles and later in streams, as craftsmen were appreciated for their skills and farmers were required to feed the growing population. Warriors also came from to pledge their allegiance to him in Halla Morn and his power grew and grew.
Morns neighbours soon became envious and tried to kill him. The were unsuccessful and war soon broke out. It was a bloody mess, with ambushes, raids, skirmishes and sieges. Many a warrior laid down his life in those days, in the Birth-pangs of the Kingdom. After a handful of years gone by and peace no closer the enemies of Morn sought to trick Morn, and invited him to a peace-talk. When he arrived armed men sprung forth and grabbed him. Morn was killed there and then on the field. His enemies thought they had beaten him as he had no sons or brothers, and so no real heirs. But mistaken they were. Morn had four cousins and each in them swore they would avenge their fallen Kins-man. They named themselves Col Morn, as surname and took home in Halla Morn and continued the war, showing no mercy and killed every member of the families of the Clan-chiefs that was responsible for the trickery of Morn.
The war came to an end, and the eldest son was crowned king of all the land, and his brothers became the first of his lords. Soon others followed, until all lords had sworn fielty to the King, Rithe Ouwyn Col Morn, save for the Wildmen far to the north. Then great keep became known as Halla Rithe, though the town that had sprung up around him still bore the name of its first lord, as it was called Baile Morn
Then followed a time of relative peace. All disputes between chieftains were taken to the King, and the Chieftains gathered each year at summer solstice to listen to the King and talk with him of the following year. Everything went well, and Kings came and went, roads were made, castles and keeps built.
Then, many years later, the King, Drynn Col Morn, fell ill with a wasting disease. He had two sons, Brann the eldest and Conn the youngest. Conn was obsessed with the thought of becoming King. He allied himself with the Wildmen and struck bargains with dapplers of the Dark Arts. He started his campaign of terror and chaos, and let their hordes run wild across the lands. When his brother Brann gathered the men of Tailte Na Rithe to confront the hordes before Halla Morn, Conn attacked them from the rear, with a host of lords he had bought, bullied and persuaded to his cause, when they were engaged with the savages. It was a slaughter. A full half of the loyalist warriors and lords had been killed when night fell. The remnants fled to the hills of the east, and waited for the winter to pass and their turn to strike back at the usurper Prince. They made camp at the stronghold of lord Bannon, a close friend and mentor of prince Brann, who has fallen in the battle of Halla Morn. Here they held a Wake for the fallen, and swore a dear blood-oath to avenge their fallen Kin and friends. And to settle the score with the Mad Prince, for the blood he had spilt in his thirst for power in the Land of Kings
The Host of Prince Brann managed to hold the enemy of until winter, and then the horribly outnumbered loyalist Lords, was given a much needed pause from battle. They sent out as soon as the First Snow, to those villages that lay far from the well-travelled roads, as to rally the men there, but found that the Mad Prince had beat them to it, and found either raided homesteads or half-deserted villages occupied only by women, old men and boys.
When these news reached Prince Brann, he sought the council of his closest friends, and persuaded them into a daring move: To travel to Halla Morn in the wintertime, sneak into the keep and steal away with the sword of the King, and bring it back to the loyalists and thus reinspire them with confidence in the loyalist cause.
Here begins our tale...