Emperor Ran Vordue XVI quickly armed every available vessel
and mounted a punitive expedition against Cherek. The results, of
course, were lamentably predictable. Like wolves, the Chereks cut
the fleet to pieces and sank every single ship.
Advised of Tolnedra’s presence by these two unfortunate
encounters, Cherek pirates soon began to appear off the west coast of
Arendia and Tolnedra.
* This was significantly modified in Belgarath the Sorcerer. The notion that a race of pirates
had never heard of the richest place on earth before is obviously absurd. As an aside here,
note that in ‘Beowulf’, the original King of the Spear-Danes (Car-Dena) is referred to as
‘the Sheaf Child’, an obvious derivation from the Story of Moses. The people of the dark
ages did have contacts with each other, and some Viking stole the idea and shamelessly
used it in Beowulf’.
The city of Tol Vordue was sacked and
burned eight times in those bloody centuries, and Cherek vessels,
groaning under the weight of Tolnedran treasure, wallowed back to
the north like some great sea-caravan.
Finally, in the first years of the 26th century’ Ran Vordue XD(
fortified Tol Vordue, building high walls to the seaward and increasing
the garrison of his ancestral city ten-fold. Three expeditions of
Chereks were beaten off, and they soon turned to easier prey. Tol
Horb was sacked twice, and only the great iron chain across the
Nedrane River prevented the Cherek fleet from ascending the river
to the gates of Tol Honeth itself.
At about this time the last Emperor of the SECOND
VORDUVIAN DYNASTY died without issue, and, in addition to its troubles
with the pirates from Cherek, the nation was thrown into the
turmoil which always accompanies Dynastic succession.
THE FIRST BORUNE DYNASTY 2537-3155
(618 years, 24 Emperors)
It had been generally assumed during the closing years of the reign
of Ran Vordue XX that the Throne would once again pass to the
Honethite family, and several worthy members of that numerous
clan had already begun the expensive but necessary task of bribing
various members of the Council of Advisors (which body
incidentally had increasingly assumed certain legislative functions to
relieve the Emperor of that tedious task in the increasingly complex
Tolnedran society). But by that very maneuvering, the Honethites
effectively barred themselves from the Throne when Ran Vordue XX
died, since the Council found itself deadlocked with no one noble of
the Honethite Family receiving a dear majority. After eleven months
of bickering, the Council was finally forced to turn elsewhere.
When the name of a young Borune noble was put forward
by those members of the Council elected from his district, the
VORDUVIAN and Horbite factions in the Council quickly swung their
votes in his favor, since it is unfortunately true that the Honethites
have never been extremely popular with the nobility of other cities,
given their propensity to be a bit over-proud and their habit of
dispensing Imperial largesse preponderantly to the citizens of Tol
Honeth.
The Honethites reacted with a vigorous campaign against the
young Borune noble, making a very large issue of his questionable
background. (His mother was a Dryad.) But in the end the coalition
of Vorduvians, Borunes and Horbites pushed the vote through the
Council, and the name of the young Borune was carried to the
Temple and presented to the Priests of Nedra. Following the
confirmation by the priests, Emperor Ran Borune I was crowned and
assumed the golden Throne in Tol Honeth.
The young Emperor soon proved to be a happy choice. After
examining the problem of Cherek depredations along the coast, he
set the legions to work constructing a highway along the coast
between Tol Vordue and Tol Horb. There was much grumbling
among the legions about this, for the men had grown accustomed to
garrison life in the cities and were unhappy at being forced to lay
aside their dress uniforms and the abundance of young (and not so
young) women who always find soldiers attractive. Powerful
friends of legion officers protested to the Emperor about this
unseemly disruption of the social lives of the soldiers, but Ran
Borune remained firm.
The import of his plan soon became evident. The legions were
spaced at intervals along the entire northwest coastline with each
legion assigned its own section of road to complete. Thus, wherever
the Cherek freebooters came ashore there was a legion awaiting
them. The benefits to the nation achieved by this single plan were
enormous. A fine highway was constructed, the legions (softened by
garrison life) were restored to fitness, the Chereks were persuaded
to seek entertainment elsewhere, and the unhealthy influence of idle
soldiery on the political, social and moral life of the cities was
removed. Following a wave of resignations by young officers and
private soldiers who no longer found military life attractive, a new
and tougher breed entered the legions, and the service was much
improved. Since the benefits obtained from putting the legions to
work were so obvious, the Borune Emperors laid out a vast network
of highways reaching to all parts of Tolnedra which was to occupy
the military for a thousand years.
it was also during the FIRST BORUNE DYNASTY that the
Diplomatic Service was instituted. At first the Service consisted
mainly of merchants who regularly visited foreign nations, but they
were soon replaced by genuine professionals whose skill in
handling relations between Tolnedra and frequently difficult and
much less civilized nations is legendary’ Evidence of that skill is to
be found in the fact that there was a full diplomatic mission in Vo
Mimbre during the later years of the lengthy border dispute
between the Mimbrate Arends, who sought control of the forest of
Vordue, and the Empire, which insisted that its northern border was
at the River Arend. Further proof of the brilliance of the Service is
found in the fact that Tolnedra maintained full diplomatic relations
with all three Arendish factions throughout the entire Arendish Civil
War with missions to Vo Mimbre, Vo Astur and Vo Wacune.
The major thrust of Tolnedran policy (which is to say Borune
policy) throughout the period of the Arendish Civil War was to
maintain, insofar as possible, a balance of power between the
three contending duchies. So long as Arendia remained divided,
Tolnedra’s northern border remained secure. When a philosopher
delivered a formal remonstrance to Emperor Ran Borune XXII about
the immorality of fomenting war and untold human suffering in
Arendia simply for Tolnedran advantage, the Emperor replied
blandly, ‘But this is politics, dear fellow, and has nothing to do with
morality’ One would always be wise to keep the two completely
separate. Morality deals with what we might like to do, but politics
deals with what we must do. There’s no connection between them at
all.
The diplomats of the Borunes also made their way to the north
and established relations with the Chereks and Drasnians at Val
Alorn and at Boktor. The Chereks were eventually persuaded to
cease their attacks on Tolnedran shipping in the Sea of the Winds,
and a healthy three-way commerce soon developed as goods from
Drasnia moved in Cherek vessels from Kotu through the Gulf of Cherek
and the Cherek Bore to the port of Camaar in what is now Sendaria for
transshipment to Tolnedran vessels. Profits to all three nations were
enormous as a result of this arrangement, and the Chereks soon
discovered that more could be made in honest trade than could be
reaped by piracy.
The question of trade with the Isle of the Winds, however, was much
more difficult to settle. The Chereks continued their blockade of the port
of Riva unabated for reasons which are largely unclear. It was generally
assumed that the Isle was either a Cherek colony or a Cherek
protectorate, but neither assumption now appears to be correct. Though
the Rivans are Alorns as are the Chereks, the Drasnians and the Algars,
it would appear that they are a separate people independent of Cherek.
The blockade, which frustrated generations of Tolnedran and Sendarian
merchants seems to have had some religious significance which was
incomprehensible to Tolnedran diplomats. Finally, in the Accords of Val
Alorn in 3097 as a part of the brilliantly wrought treaty which normalized
relations between Cherek and Tolnedra, the blockade was lifted and
Tolnedran vessels began to call on the port of Riva.
It had generally been assumed that the Rivans had been a tacit party
to the Accords of Val Alorn, but this quickly proved not to be the case.
Merchants landed on the rocky strand of that inhospitable isle only to be
faced with the grim and unscalable walls of the Fortress of Riva itself.
The gates of the fortress remained closed, and the Rivans refused to
even acknowledge the presence of the merchants.
It was the last Borune Emperor who mounted the disastrous .assault
on the city’ proving perhaps that even the noblest line deteriorates in
time. Five legions were dispatched to Riva to force the gates of the city’