King Florian Haansa

reigned 784-785 vS

The oldest of King Wulfram’s children, Florian Haansa, was 19 at the time of his father’s assassination. Florian was crowned with the provision that Duke Frederick Paezaar would serve as his advisor until Florian’s twenty-first birthday. King Florian is a headstrong, stubborn warrior who participated in the seige and battles near Brülhafen. He is very much like his father in leadership ability, but without the experience to temper his brashness.

Immediately after his coronation, he vowed to avenge the death of his father. As it appeared that the half-elf rebels who were occupying Faereaver Fortress were responsible for hiring the assassin, King Florian vowed to end the rebellion once and for all. He rescinded the freedoms that his father had granted to the peasants and imposed a restriction on movement between settlements to ensure order in a time of trouble.

King Florian placed great trust in Duke Paezaar–the man who had been able to build a kingdom-wide network of law enforcers and spies while leading many of the military efforts against invaders like the Scarlet Legion and the kzinti. Upon the Duke’s advice, he invited the troops of the Brotherhood of Thought to assist his own armies in keeping order and putting down the half-elf rebellion.

Tests of Loyalty

At the time of King Florian’s coronation, there were only three county rulers of non-Kraanicher blood. Part of Duke Paezaar’s plan was to place only Kraanichers in positions of significant responsibility. As members of the "Noble Race," only Kraanichers could be trusted to govern in the best interests of the established social order–the order that King Wulfram had begun to disrupt with his tainted bloodline and his permissive laws.

By inviting the Brotherhood of Thought into Smeisserand, the Duke offered King Florian a way to test the loyalty of his nobles. All nobles were instructed to welcome the Brotherhood’s troops and to establish chapter houses for them with their own funds. Those who readily accepted the royal order to house and support a foreign military force could be trusted. Those who protested or resisted would be watched carefully or replaced. Part of this test was covert, as the Duke already knew who had ties to the Brotherhood and who was opposed to their aims.

In particular, this test was aimed at the Countess DuKott of Voyreem and her trading partners. Freeswords from Voyreem had interfered with the Brotherhood’s plans along the frontier numerous times over the past three years, and Duke Paezaar suspected the Lady DuKott’s influence in these encounters. In addition, she was a powerful woman of non-Kraanicher birth who was espousing dangerous progressive ideas, including peaceful relations with the elves. Nearly all of these attributes were undesirable in the Kraanicher social order. The Duke presumed that the Lady DuKott would protest the order or work subtly against the Brotherhood. In either case, he would have the justification to have King Florian replace her.

The Archmage, Sir Drake, easily foresaw this trap and advised his lady of the dangers it posed. They had ample evidence of the evil that the Brotherhood of Thought represented, and had captured numerous troops, spies, maps, and battle plans within the boundaries of Voyreem County. Lady DuKott and her husband also knew that the Brotherhood’s troops, mentalists, and advanced weapons would give the king the power to anihillate the half-elves at Faereaver. She sent word to King Florian that she would comply with his order, but that she foresaw much danger in allowing the Brotherhood into the Dominion. Meanwhile, she quickly began building defensive alliances with Tarnia and the Aelvenwode and personally meeting with the nobility of Contradina and Maastricht to convince them to follow her plan.

Meanwhile, the Northern Army of Smeisserand, with King Florian at its head, had arrived at Faereaver Fortress. Shortly after their arrival, a purple poisonous gas struck many of the units of the army. The gas reduced battle-hardened troops and capable officers to blithering idiots. Most Kraanichers escaped injury, due to generations spent breeding for resistance to toxins and disease. Scouts determined that the attack came from the treacherous half-elves. The king pulled his forces back to encircle the fortress on three sides. Within days, two regiments of the Brotherhood of Thought’s best troops arrived to reinforce the Smeisseranders. One of the Brotherhood’s regiments had been destroyed in Donnertal Pass to the south where a group of freeswords led by Jann Wenner and Dark Schnyder ambushed the column. Despite the losses, the added forces gave the king the strength to launch an assault on the half-elven stronghold.

The Rebellion of Lebensbruck

Lady DuKott and Sir Drake had other plans. At midnight on the last day of Greening, the troops of Voyreem and Maastricht closed the borders while Contradina closed its port. When morning arrived on the 1^st of Growing, the region encompassing Voyreem, Maastricht, Contradina, and Saalz declared itself the Kingdom of Lebensbruck, under the rule of Queen Anissette DuKott.

Troops, couriers, and agents loyal to Smeisserand were turned back from the borders of Lebensbruck or held for later release. Agents of Queen Anissette quickly spread word around the land that Lebensbruck stood for freedom, propserity for all, and an end to hatred. Many people celebrated this news, having already had a taste of Voyreem’s prosperity and relative peace. Some worried that the region would again become a battleground, and longed for the stability of the old regime. The majority shrugged their shoulders and remarked that it certainly couldn’t be any worse than life under the old nobility.

Shortly after breakfast, a golden pulse of light washed over the fields and troops surrounding Faereaver Fortress. Immediately thereafter, Sir Drake arrived on a magical cloudboat. He was joined by Roxy Candleflame, an elven sorceress who was assisting in the defense of Faereaver. The archmage approached the Smeisserander lines and asked to address King Florian and his generals. Sir Drake delivered the message that the king, his entire army, the Brotherhood’s troops, and Faereaver were all now within the borders of Lebensbruck, and that the Smeisseranders would have to leave immediately or be destroyed.

King Florian was outraged and incensed, and laughed at the archmage’s suggestion. As Sir Drake and the elven sorceress stood impassively, many terrifying flying machines screamed over the battlefield and rained death upon each of the regiments opposing Faereaver. As soon as they appeared, the flying machines were gone, and Sir Drake politely insisted that the Smeisseranders leave Saalz at once. The troops of the Brotherhood were to surrender and lay down their arms immediately, lest they be destroyed.

Duke Paezaar, standing at King Florian’s side, shouted orders to have Sir Drake taken and killed, and drew his blade. At this betrayal of truce, Dark Schnyder appeared over the royal command pavillion and began to use his magic to capture or kill the Smeisserander leadership. Sir Drake faced the Golden General, Smeisserand’s archmage battle wizard, in a wizardly duel and ensheathed him in a shimmering field of frozen time. Lady Candleflame attempted meanwhile to reason with King Florian. Her elven race and remarks only served to infuriate the headstrong king, and he drew his sword and rushed to attack. Dark Schnyder knocked King Florian head over heels into a tent with a telekinetic blast to prevent the king’s attack.

The flying machines swooped down again to attack the Brotherhood’s killing machines in a hail of firey death and unholy noise, leaving both regiments decimated and smoking. With the Golden General removed, Sir Drake froze the fleeing Duke Paezaar likewise in time. Lady Candleflame again tried to reason with the king, to no avail. She then laid a spell upon him that caused him to be immobilized and rendered silent, and appealed to Lord General Heider, known as "Heider the Just," to end the fighting.

General Heider called a halt to the conflict and ordered the army to make ready to depart immediately for Lichter Fleck, to the south of the Lebensbruck border. Within hours, the entire Northern Army of Smeisserand had departed the field and the few remaining Brotherhood troops had been rounded up by the jubilant half-elves and their allies.

Crushing the Rebellion

King Florian, now deprived of his regent and his field marshall and utterly convinced of the despicability of the half-elves and their foreign supporters, plotted to regain the territories lost to him. In the early days following his army’s defeat at Faereaver, he consulted with anyone who could offer a reasonable way to win back Lebensbruck and punish the rebels. General Heider constantly advised the king against rash action, but Florian would have none of such advice and dismissed him before they had marched to Norton.

As an interim measure, King Florian declared the Lebensbruck territories in rebellion and sent word to foreign governments that they should have nothing to do with the upstart rebels. He called for additional advisers from the Brotherhood of Thought and from Duke Paezaar’s network of spies and informants. In addition, he laid a price of 100,000 krugers on the heads of Lady DuKott, Sir Drake Hedgerton, Dark Schniedar, and the elven sorceress, Roxy Candleflame. He also posted a bounty of 10,000 krugers for the heads of anyone aiding and abetting the rebellious provinces.

When the Sky Golems came to Saltwave, King Florian was killed in the invasion of Katraal. The evil machines destroyed the palace, and then dropped a star on the entire city, slaying every last inhabitant. This ended the Gesselring dynasty and the Grand Dominion of Smeisserand.

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