Alonia
| Continent: | Ishgar |
| Government: | Monarchy; one High King advised by twelve knights |
| Ruler Authority: | High King Caelan Aurelmont |
| Capitol: | Dagrad |
| Major Families: | [Information Missing] |
| Prominent Clans: | [Information Missing] |
| Core Magic: | [Information Missing] |
| Primary Exports: | Riding horses, wool, grain and worked leather |
Alonia is a kingdom of rolling hills and deep green vales, where roads wind between hedgerows, old standing stones and the towers of hillside keeps. One High King holds the crown, supported by twelve sworn knights. Renowned as master horsemen and spearmen, Alonians measure nobility by the keeping of an oath as much as by descent. Their songs celebrate quests, difficult loyalties and the duty of the strong to answer the vulnerable.
Alonia is numbered 1 on the Ishgar country map. Its capital is Dagrad; Caggia is another principal city.
Land and livelihoods
Broad pastures cover the hills above sheltered farming vales. Sheep graze along the ridges, orchards flourish below them, and rivers turn the mills that serve clustered villages. Mist gathers in the hollows before dawn; on a clear evening, watchfires can be seen answering one another across miles of open country.
Dagrad rises above a meeting of valley roads. Its royal hall is a place of petitions as well as ceremony. Caggia is known for its horse fairs, saddlers and open riding grounds. The kingdom's wealth rests on farming, wool, horse breeding and the trades that support them. A well-kept bridge earns a village as much pride as a victorious tournament champion.
The crown and the twelve
Alonia has one king. The twelve knights advise the sovereign, hear grievances, undertake quests and lead the kingdom's defense; they are neither twelve lesser kings nor a replacement for the crown. At council, their seats form a circle around a low hearth, with the king seated among them. Beyond the hall, each is expected to ride the roads and know the people whose petitions reach the court.
The order's twelve places endure even when their occupants change. A vacant place is left empty until a successor has proved both courage and judgment. Birth can open the court's doors, but cannot by itself win a seat. A candidate must undertake a service witnessed by those who benefited from it, and must answer questions about its cost as readily as its glory.
The current king and twelve knights
High King Caelan Aurelmont is the current sovereign of Alonia. His twelve serving knights are listed below. Their seats are offices of service under one crown, not twelve subordinate kingships.
| Knight | Present charge |
|---|---|
| Ser Gareth Rowancrest | First Knight; commander of the royal defense |
| Dame Aveline Hartwell | Keeper of the Oath; hears petitions and grievances |
| Ser Tristan Fenwick | Warden of the Northern Roads |
| Dame Isolde Ravensmere | Guardian of the river crossings |
| Ser Cedric Thornfield | Master of Horse |
| Dame Rosamund Bellweather | Protector of the farming vales |
| Ser Leofric Stonebridge | Commander of the spearmen |
| Dame Elinor Ashcombe | Royal envoy and treaty escort |
| Ser Percival Wrenford | Warden of Caggia and its trade roads |
| Dame Sabine Fairholt | Guardian of the royal household |
| Ser Roderic Hazelwyck | Master of the border watch |
| Dame Marian Greyvale | Keeper of the questing companies |
Aldren and the twelve companions in the founding tale below belong to Alonia's legendary past, distinct from this current court.
Arms and customs
Alonian cavalry train on steep pasture and narrow valley roads, learning to ride in broken ground as confidently as on a tournament field. Spearmen guard crossings and hold the ground that mounted companies cannot. Their ideal campaign ends with the fields still planted and the roads safe enough for a lone traveler.
At the spring gatherings, jousts share the commons with horse trading, wrestling, music and the hearing of local disputes. Before a knight receives public honors, the people they served may speak. A rescued shepherd's account carries the same ceremonial weight as a lord's praise.
The founding tale: The King Who Came on Foot
Alonian hearth-tellers recount the following legend of Aldren of the Vales and the first twelve companions.
The winter road
In the winter before Alonia had one crown, every valley kept its own gate. Twelve lords taxed twelve roads, and each claimed that the hunger beyond his boundary belonged to someone else. Snow closed the passes. The mills stopped. At Dagrad, a crown waited beside a cold throne while the claimants argued over whose grandfather had owned the hill.
Aldren arrived without a banner. His horse had fallen on an icy road, and he had left it in a shepherd's barn with his last silver for its care. He carried a broken spear and a sack of turnips given to him by a woman who had mistaken him for a beggar.
At the hall's doors he found a girl holding an empty grain measure.
"Which of them is king?" she asked.
"None yet."
"Then who must open the granaries?"
Aldren looked at the guards, then at the barred storehouse across the yard. "Whoever has the key."
He did not break the lock. He took the girl into the hall and set her empty measure on the crown.
Twelve answers
The lords called for his arrest. Twelve people stepped forward before the guards could reach him: a disgraced captain, a miller's daughter, a bridge keeper, a healer, a shepherd, a huntswoman, a smith, a courier, a scholar, a ferryman, a household guard and a young noble who had never missed a meal.
None agreed on who should rule. They agreed that the girl should eat.
That night they opened the stores with the steward's keys and wrote down every sack they took. By morning they had pledged their own wages, horses and possessions against the debt. Then they rode out to carry grain into the snowbound vales.
The journey took twelve days. They fought no great battle. They dug a cart out of a frozen ford, carried a fevered child through the dark, and cut a fallen oak from the road. When a bridge gave way, Aldren surrendered the timber of his ancestral hall to rebuild it. The young noble learned to mend harness. The captain learned to take orders from the miller's daughter, who could calculate how far their flour would go.
Only on the last night did an enemy come: the lord of the northern gate, riding with armed retainers to reclaim the grain. Aldren's companions stood across the bridge with their spears lowered. Behind them, villagers lit lamps along the riverbank until the darkness seemed full of watching stars.
"You have twelve," the lord said.
"I have twelve beside me," Aldren answered. "Look again behind us."
The lord looked. His own men recognized families among the lamps. One by one, they lowered their weapons.
A crown with a debt
When the thirteen returned to Dagrad, the grain measure still rested over the crown. The girl had filled it with earth and planted a handful of barley.
The valley elders offered Aldren the throne. He asked first for an account of the stores, the bridge and the people still without food. Only after the names had been read did he lift the crown.
His companions refused the twelve lesser crowns that the old lords offered them. Instead, they set their shields around the hearth and swore to keep the roads between the vales open. Aldren swore last.
"If I forget why you followed me," he said, "bring me back on foot."
The first council sat through the night, arguing over seed grain. No singer agreed on the color of Aldren's cloak, or whether his broken spear ever became a famous weapon. Every telling agrees that the next spring's barley grew in the empty measure at the king's side.
The twelve of the first hearth
These are the legendary founding companions, remembered in songs rather than the present-day court registry.
| Companion | Remembered service |
|---|---|
| Ser Corren Ashford | The disgraced captain who held the bridge without ordering a charge. |
| Dame Elowen Mere | The miller's daughter who counted the grain and refused to leave a vale off the list. |
| Ser Bram Alder | The bridge keeper who set the first new timber. |
| Dame Yselle Fen | The healer who carried the fevered child. |
| Ser Tavin Reed | The shepherd who found a safe path through the drifts. |
| Dame Maera Thorn | The huntswoman who fed the company before she fed herself. |
| Ser Osric Flint | The smith who repaired their tools at village hearths. |
| Dame Rhoswen Gale | The courier who carried news between the isolated vales. |
| Ser Edric Quill | The scholar who recorded every debt, including the king's. |
| Ser Halwen Brook | The ferryman who kept the river crossing open. |
| Dame Selyne Ward | The household guard who refused to arrest the hungry girl. |
| Ser Lucan Briar | The young noble who learned to mend another rider's harness. |
Legacy of the tale
An empty grain measure stands beside the royal hearth during the annual renewal of oaths. Petitioners enter before the feast begins, and the twelve knights hear their names before the king receives ceremonial gifts. The saying "Bring me back on foot" is a reminder that the crown owes service, and that loyal counsel sometimes requires disagreement.
The legend supplies Alonia with an ideal rather than an assurance that every ruler meets it. Its most uncomfortable question remains alive in every generation: when the crown and its promise part company, what does a faithful knight defend?
