An Angel Called Eternity

Lore Chapter: Licotemos and Kortheros

Second Day, Second Month, 871 AD.
Alekos Virgilos, Prince.
Kingdom of Polaeros.
Polaeriopolis.
The Seeker's Palace.

My Dearest Alek,

I must confess to a great deal of nervousness as of late, and for a great many reasons. My research into the occult has continued in the time we have spent apart, though I fear that things are truly beginning to spiral out of control at home. Father came down with another illness recently, the latest in a string of debilitating ailments to have targeted him. I may have made a great many preparations for a potential civil war or succession crisis, but with all my heart I can truly say that I do not think I truly realised just how close to war we were. I will have the throne one day, of that there is no doubt, but I think whatever childlike part of me remained had still hoped the transition of power from my father to myself would be bloodless. I now know better.

There has been no conflict to speak of, and no war has come about quite yet, but I know it won't be long. I can feel it in my gut. It's that same nervous anticipation I had in the runup to the rebellion, that sense of anxiety and adrenaline building seemingly without reason. No, there will not be a war yet, not while may father yet lives. If one of these illnesses one day claims him however...

I believe I need to redouble my efforts to prepare. Below I have compiled the information you have asked for relating to the kingdoms of Licotemos and Kortheros, the two easternmost nations of the Heptarchy on the Dathanian border. I fail to see why I am the one compiling this information and not yourself, since your homeland is far closer to them than mine, but then I guess you have spent the greater part of your time 'at home' travelling to lands far from Klironomea. That same childish part of myself I mentioned earlier still dreams some nights of leaving everything behind and joining you, but I can't indulge that part of my imagination anymore. There's too much work to do.

Enough prattle from me; here are my thoughts on the lands of peaches and marble, of golden fields and mines blacker than the night.

Licotemos is perhaps the only nation in the Heptarchy that could rival the strength of Teleytaios. With the largest amount of land under the control of any Klironomean kingdom they certainly seem to be the strongest nation in the known world if one were to glean their only insights on geopolitics from maps showing national borders. Even beyond that, the fact that they consistently maintain both the largest agricultural output of any nation in the Heptarchy and the world as a whole means they form a vital link in the east of the continent for the trading of foodstuffs and other assorted raw materials. As well as this they are able to raise the single largest levied army in all of Klironomea, or so their kings and lords arrogantly proclaim to all around them in a prideful, bellicose way. So why do I say that they only appear to be the most powerful kingdom in the Heptarchy?

Because their armies are some of the least experienced in the world, their nobles feckless and indolent, and their agricultural estates archaic and inefficient. The nation is constantly wracked by minor internal wars between noble houses, which while destabilising one would expect to at least provide some experience to the soldiers under the command of the lords, but in truth the only ones who go off to do any of the real fighting are, by and large, the Licoteman knights. Excellent, one might think, knights are excellent combatants! Whilst this may broadly be true, there is much to be desired from the so called 'Order of the Peach'.

I will go over the inadequacies of the fighting capabilities of Licotemos soon enough, but for now let us turn to the royal family of this land. House Perytlos is one of the largest houses in the known world, with perhaps as many as a score of cadet branches in total. The heads of these branches range from dukes to barons in their noble ranking, but they are not the rulers to be looked at here. The main branch of house Perytlos consists of somewhere around a dozen members, but of all of them there are only six of any importance; the ruling couple and their children.