King Dominic Gesselring

reigned 663-681 vS

The people of Smeisserand had long been used to hardship at the hands of the ruling class, so this change of government was nothing new for them. The biggest change came in the arena of race relations. Demihumans who used to avoid the country by choice were now seen as subversive and treacherous influences by the aristocracy. Halfbreed children were taken from their mothers and slain. Demihumans were outlawed and banished from Smeisserand. The border knights and nobles undertook forays against the Elves to slay, rape, and plunder what they could. This rapidly assumed the scale of an ongoing border war. The border nobles erected large fortifications to protect themselves against Elven attack.

Slavery was reinstituted, under the rubric of indentured servitude. Debtors and other petty criminals were indentured to pay for their crimes. The lower class peasants were restricted to the lands of their birth unless allowed to travel for sake of a business owned by one of the aristocracy. Worship of the faith of the Earth Mother took on a more "feral" nature. The druids emphasized the survival of the fittest and the balance of nature, where in the past they had spoken of the bounty of the earth and the blessings of green and growing things.

Smeisserand built up a very efficient army, with a corps of knights as its backbone. King Dominic reinstituted the feudal military repsonsibilities to raise and equip his soldiers. The troops were well trained and relatively well treated, especially in comparison to the life that they would have led as serfs. Military service, even with the ever present danger of death or disfigurement, became an attractive option for strong young men of the kingdom. Nobles had little difficulty meeting the demand for troops. Smeisserand’s soldiers got to travel, could see the land, accumulated stories or martial prowess, and earned both respect and a decent wage. The martial class was on the rise.

The king employed this new military might on two fronts. He retook the independent dominions in the south that had broken away from Vegas during the civil war. Degloss and Kazaandu were rejoined to the country during this campaign. The army also engaged the Kzinti at the Velsfar River, attempting to retake Taakritch, the former Vegas city of Brulhafen, and its surrounding lands. They were unsuccessful in this attempt. The barrier of the river posed too much of an advantage for the Kzin heroes against the massed human forces. While the southern Kzinti lacked much of the sophisticated technology of the Patriarchies, they still had strong battle magic and ritual sorcery at their disposal. Vegas had for so long neglected the magical arts that the army traveled with no wizards at all. This left them an easy target for Kzin magecraft. By the end of the three year campaign, Smeisserand had to pull back nearly one hundred miles from Taakritch, losing several thousand troops in the process. The tactical skill of the Smeisserander command could easily hold the land between the Velsfarwald and the Sudmeerwald, but could not advance on Taakritch again without very strong magical assistance. The war became a stalemate.

On the political side of things, King Dominic attempted to institute a Kraanicher dynasty, but was prevented from doing so by his suspicious lack of progeny. His son born before the coup was slain in battle with Elves and never recovered. None of the women he bedded ever gave him another child. On his fiftieth birthday, some rumors say that he was visited by either a vision or by the Great Druid of Smeisserand that convinced him of his mortality. Whatever the truth of the matter, he declared that the Great Druid would be responsible thereafter for the coronation of any king of Smeisserand. He reigned for five more years, until his abdication in 681vS (LY 2040). His nephew, Ernst Gesselring, succeeded him to the throne at the age of 24.

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