made for a full-scale invasion of the Isle, until the now-famous note
from the Cherek ambassador persuaded the Emperor to abandon
the entire project.
In time the Rivans grudgingly consented to the construction of a
commercial enclave outside the city walls, and visiting merchants
were forced to be content with that single concession.
By custom, no merchant or emissary is ever permitted inside the
walls of the city itself, and most certainly not within the fortress at
the center of the city.
* This xenophobic restriction was significantly relaxed during the actual writing.
There are but two exceptions to this. The first is the Alorn Council
which occurs once each ten years and during which the kings of
Algaria, Drasnia, Cherek and sometimes of Sendaria (when the King
of Sendaria chances to be an Alorn) journey to Riva and are
conveyed – alone – to the Rivan throne-room where, it is rumored,
they report to the Rivan Warder concerning the search for the heir to
the Rivan Throne. The other exception to this rule is in accordance
with the humiliating agreement of Vo Mimbre which requires that
each Tolnedran Imperial Princess present herself in her wedding
gown before a Rivan Throne for a three-day period on her sixteenth
birthday.
Note-Tolnedran Princesses for the past five hundred years since the great
Battle at Vo Mimbre have reported that the entire city of Riva is little
more than a walled defensive position with individual houses forming
salients, redoubts, bastions and the like, and that the streets are laid out
in such fashion that they are overlooked by and exposed to overhead
attack by each succeeding row of thick-walled houses. Moreover, the
roofs of Rivan houses are all of slate, and there is nothing exposed
within the city which will burn. The Fortress is a sheer tower with
enormously thick walls and but one very narrow iron door. The
throneroom is reported to be a very large chamber, musty and unused, in
which sits the Rivan Throne, a large seat of black basalt with a rusted
sword embedded, point downward in the back and having a large
greyish-colored pommel-stone – possibly some artifact or souvenir out
of the dim reaches of the Rivan past.
For the first thousand years of its history’ the Isle of the Winds was
deliberately isolated, cut off from all contact with the civilized
world. For reasons which are largely unclear, Cherek warships
maintained a continual blockade of the port of Riva, allowing no
vessels of any nation to land there. Convinced that there was
enormous wealth on the island, Tolnedran and Sendarian merchants
pressured the Emperor at Tol Honeth for several generations to
force the Cherek Alorns to lift their blockade. This was finally
accomplished in the Accords of Val Alorn of 3097, and a horde of
Tolnedran and Sendarian ships descended on the harbor at Riva
only to be met by unscalable walls and a silent, locked gate. The
details of the efforts to persuade the Rivans to trade were discussed
elsewhere (see The History of Tolnedra).
The controversy ultimately was resolved peacefully, although for
time the west hovered perilously near the brink of open and
general war.
The single most significant event in Rivan history was the
assassination of King Corek the Wise by a party of Nyissan merchants,
apparently upon the instruction of the Nyissan Queen in 4002. The
incident is marked by confusion, and a factual, detailed account of
what actually took place has never been forthcoming. It appears
that the royal family was invited to the commercial enclave to
receive a special gift from the Queen of Nyissa. Upon their arrival
at the Nyissan compound, they were attacked by seven Nyissan
merchants armed with the traditional poisoned knives of their race.
The king, the queen, the crown prince and his wife and two of their
three children were killed, but no trace of the remaining prince was
ever found. Two of the Nyissan merchants survived the assault by
the Rivan guards and were at length persuaded to reveal their
connection to the Nyissan Queen.
The resulting war between the Alorn Kingdoms and Nyissa was
perhaps one of the most brilliant military campaigns in the history
of the west, which fact raises serious doubts about the customary
dismissal of the Alorns as barbarian Berserks. A series of hit and run
raids on the Nyissan coast by Cherek raiders diverted the attention
of the snake people while a vast force of Drasnian Infantry and
Algarian Cavalry made the seemingly impossible trek across the
mountains of western Tolnedra and attacked down the upper
reaches of the River of the Serpent. An expeditionary force of Rivans
ascended the River of the Woods and made a swift overland attack
on the Nyissan capital of Sthiss Tor, entering the city while a
majority of the Nyissan army was in the east attempting to hold off the
invading Algarians and Drasnians and the remainder of their force
was trying to repel a major landing of the Cherek fleet at the mouths
of the River of the Serpent.
Before she died, Queen Salmissra XXCVii was persuaded to
reveal to the leader of the Rivan force precisely what had been
behind the assassination, but the leader, Brand (who was later
chosen to the post of Warder of Riva) did not reveal that information
to anyone but the Alorn Kings.
* This account differs markedly from the one in Belgarath the Sorcerer.
The Tolnedran Emperor attempted to intercede, but the Alorns
proceeded to systematically destroy the entire kingdom of Nyissa,
pulling down the city of Sthiss Tor, burning towns and villages and
driving the inhabitants into the jungles. So savage was this Alorn
extermination that for five hundred years the entire country
appeared depopulated, and only after that length of time were the
frightened Nyissans persuaded to come out of the trees and begin
the process of rebuilding their capital.
In some measure due to the enormous volume of trade which was
being destroyed and the tremendous loss of revenue resulting, a
Tolnedran force moved south to restrain the Alorn barbarians, but
they were met at the River of the Woods by an overwhelming force
of Drasnians, Algarians and Cherek Berserks. It was not until that
point that it was fully realized in Tol Honeth the actual size of
the Alorn army on our southern border. The commander of the
Tolnedran Legions prudently decided not to interfere with the
Alorns but merely positioned his force along the north bank of the
River of the Woods to protect the integrity of Tolnedran territory.
The twelve hundred years which followed the destruction of
Nyissa was spent by the Rivans in their endless (and futile) quest
for the heir to the Rivan Throne. Persistent rumors based on the
sketchy and confused testimony of witnesses to the assassination
maintained that the youngest son of the Crown Prince, a boy of
nine, escaped the knives of the Nyissans by plunging into the sea.
* Geran becomes a boy of six in Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress.
Had this in fact been the case, the child would surely have perished,
for the Sea of the Winds at Riva is bitterly cold throughout the year.
Rumors persist, however, long after reason despairs, and the Rivans
have painstakingly tracked down each vague hint or clue. Scores of
impostors have emerged over the centuries, but the Rivans would
appear to have some ultimate test which none yet has passed.
The quest for the heir to the Rivan Throne was interrupted only
by the Angarak invasion of the west under Kal-Torak in 4865. It was
the thirty-first Warder of Riva who was the overgeneral of the
western forces and who led the assault upon the rear of the main force of
Kal-Torak before the walls of Vo Mimbre in 4875, and it was this
same thirty-first warder (traditionally named Brand – although the
Warder is selected rather than ascending to his position by birth) who
met and defeated Kal-Torak in single combat. (See the prose epic
‘The Battle of Vo Mimbre’ for a colorful though basically accurate
description of that duel.)
Following this amazing display of prowess, the assembled rulers
of the west pledged allegiance to the Rivan Throne in an outburst of
enthusiasm over the crushing of Kal-Torak, and only the presence
of mind of Mergon, the Tolnedran ambassador to the court at Vo
Mimbre forestalled the immediate installation of Brand XXXI as
Emperor of the West. The concession wrung from Mergon in exchange
was the aforementioned Agreement of Vo Mimbre, which specified
that upon his return the Rivan King will be given to wife an Imperial
Tolnedran Princess.
Upon the completion of the battle, Brand XXXI returned to Riva,
and since that time Rivan traders have been seen throughout the
known world. Although they are shrewd bargainers, it is commonly
believed in the highest governmental circles at Tol Honeth that these
‘merchants’ are in fact agents of the Rivan Warder engaged in that