This document covers the final notable rulers of the Kingdom of Rhenus before its ascension into an empire in a span of about 74 years. Umbra Catonia and Arolithos IV stood out among three other rulers during this time due to their brilliance and administrations.
Umbra Catonia Vahren
Umbra Catonia ascended to the throne after the death of Tillious as the chosen heir of the Kingdom. At the age of 15, Umbra was just old enough to rule the kingdom on her own without her father as regent. Umbra grew up as a warrior child. Training heavily with her father’s marshal in sword combat. Due to this Umbra had a strong military desire and fascination with all things regarding the military. This quickly began to show as she began to restructure the Rhenusian army by the age of 19.
The Griffon Battalion
Streonia was a well developed society that relied heavily on cavalry as its backbone. Umbra took what she learned as a kid to begin working on doing the same for the entire Rhenusian army. However she knew that due to the rise of magic all around Valenaar, that standard cavalry wasn’t going to last in a prolonged battle against mages. Fortunately for Umbra the domestication of Griffons was also seeing an upward trend which led Umbra to create the first Griffon Battalion. After 3 years of training the first battalion was ready. Many forms of combat were introduced into the Griffon riders. Archery and Lance combat were the most popular. Umbra had also trained with her own Griffon which she had named him, Attis.
Umbra gained her chance to use the new battalion when a large rebellion rose up against her rule in Eskaecia. The battalion would go onto single handedly end the rebellion with a decisive battle with Umbra and Attis at the forefront of it.
The Coalition Age
The Coalition age is a period of history where Rhenus was constantly on the defensive against independent states. These coalitions greatly weakened the attacking states and would eventually lead to the formation of the Vahren Empire under Servious II.
The War of the First Coalition
During Tillious’s reign, numerous independent states had been collaborating with one another in an effort to drive Rhenus out of many of the regions it took under Pernerios. This culminated into the first coalition. These states, primarily led by the Kingdom of Acha, Kingdom of Feclar and Kingdom of Odrana, declared war on Rhenus when Umbra was 24 leading to what is known as the Coalition Age which would only end during Servious II’s reign. Despite the war being an aggressive war against Rhenus, Umbra would go on to sign a white peace only 2 years in with the coalition after three decisive battles which won in Rhenus’s favor. It was these three battles, which Umbra and Attis led personally, that gave Umbra the title of the Warrior Queen.
War of the Second Coalition
The Second Coalition formed only 7 years after the first with much of the same states as before. Umbra yet again set forth to defend her kingdom and in only 3 years time the coalition was crushed once again. This time Umbra annexed numerous counties which would only lead to the third coalition.
War of the Third Coalition and the Death of Umbra
The Third Coalition declared war on Rhenus only a year after the peace of the second coalition was signed, violating the truce the second treaty put forth. This time much smaller than the other coalitions. Led by King Merrick of Acha and the surrounding states of the Desnyae Reaches. While Merrick did great at first, the battle of Ozryn marked the end of the Kingdom of Acha as Merrick was captured by Luftven. This led to the final treaty of Acha which brought the lands of Acha and a couple of the Desnyae states into Rhenus’s control.
Despite the treaty being formalized the other states in the coalition continued to fight. The Battle of Tottenham would see Attis take a fatal ballista bolt, causing Umbra to fall to the ground where she was surrounded by the coalition forces and executed. The battle would end in Acha’s favor with Umbra and Attis’s bodies recovered before they were taken by the coalition force. This battle led to the first formal defeat for Rhenus, forcing the kingdom to give up half of Acha’s lands to the coalition and the freedom of Merrick from Rhenus’s prison.
Umbra died at the age of 36. Her and Attis were brought back to Rhenus where they were both buried in the Rhenus Courtyard. Umbra and Attis were given a statue to place over their tomb which depicts her charging forth with her lance on top of Attis in a charging dive.
Arolithos IV
Due to the coalition wars Umbra was unable to bear any children thus the line of succession would go to the Duke of Traes Vos, Shpaerio Vahren. He and his line would continue down the tree in a series of successions as by this time Shpaerio, his son, and his third in-line brother were all decently old by this time, leading to Arolithos IV of Traes Vos to take the throne at the age of 24.
The Sea King
Much like Umbras training at a young age in the military. Arolithos was trained as a sea captain as Traes Vos is well known for its naval traditions which the Vahrens quickly adopted. This saw the foundations of the Naval Command structure and a new title in the court, Lord of the Seas, to help keep the needs of the navy known to the administration. The Vahren Royal Navy would be formed as the personal navy of the King. As to be expected; this led to new and improved ships for both military and civilian use. Arolithos himself would help draft and develop these new vessels alongside his captains and admirals. Some inventions include:
The Vectis
The Vectis was a complete redesign on the commercial fishing ship. Not only larger but much more convenient for fishermen over individual small boats. Fishing nets were easily strapped along the sides and with a large flat deck making it possible to still use fishing lines. It was powered by sail rather than oar but was capable of using oars for harbor purposes. The most significant upgrade was the anchor. This metal piece connected by a long rope held a ship in place against currents and waves. This was not new, but the way the anchor is made in a mushroom like hook, to hook into the seabed was new. Before ships would use buckets and stones to hold a ship in place, this new anchor design completely changed the abilities of ship development in the Rhenusian Navy.
The Trillium
The Trillium was a new trade vessel built around the new anchor design; this ship was much larger than the ordinary trade ship at the time. This large vessel was capable of holding over 180 tons of cargo. This was a huge development as the standard trade vessel at the time could only hold about 20 tons. Powered by sail it hosted some of the largest sails at the time leading to the development of a 3 mast system. It had over 4 decks within the hull and the added forecastle made this ship tower over anything at sea. The Trillium would revolutionize the trade routes Rhenus had and made the kingdoms and its vassals incredibly rich due to its ability to carry several times more cargo than any other ship.
The Euphrosyne
The Eurphrosyne was a new military ship to replace the rapidly outdating galleys for the open sea. While the galley would continue to be dominant in inland seas, the Eurphrosyne was a massive step in naval dominance in the surrounding oceans. No longer built with ramming in mind or ship boarding; this ship was instead able to hold 2 catapults in the middle of the ship. This made the ship rather long but much more speedy over the Pigot which was still a galley. Developments of explosive weapons would be conducted for the Euphrosyne in hopes of having smaller but much more deadly weapons to replace the siege engines, but all would fail in testing leading to a more seaworthy catapult known as the Typhoon. While much smaller then contemporary siege engines, this didn’t matter for sea combat. The Typhoon was much more stable on the open seas and more accurate. This allowed for more precise shooting from long range with devastating effects.
The Wahine
The Wahine was a smaller warship intended to be a patrol vessel. Wielding a single Typhoon catapult in the front this light ship would be famous in almost eliminating the pirating going on with the Rhenusian-Serine gateway. Its ability to quickly move along the trade route and its deadly accurate catapult quickly disposed of pirating vessels. The Wahine is still in use today being an effective anti-piracy vessel.
Naval Reformation and the Desire to Look Beyond
To be expected, Arolithos would reform the navy to promote a more quick acting navy. One of the major changes was the implementation of the 2 minute standard. This was a training procedure to rapidly reload catapults on the naval vessels within 2 minutes. The fastest recorded fire, reload, fire procedure was on the HRV(His Royal Vessel) Bourdelias with a speedy record of 1 minute 6 seconds.
Along with the larger implementation of sails, the Rhenusian Navy was gearing itself for more open sea adventures. The technology still doesn’t allow the Rhenusian Navy to leave the continent, but due to Arolithos’s desire for a stronger and more built navy; developments continue to come in and one day the Navy hopes to break the barrier of the outer sea rim and expand into the horizon.
The Foundations of the Elven Branch and Hedria
The Vahrens have been intertwined with the elves for a few decades before Arolithos’ reign. However these Vahrens were not given royalty and given a title almost similar to the title of Bastards “Blenatori”. This meant they could not hold any titles within the Kingdom however Arolithos reversed this and created the Elven branch of the Vahren family. He did have sympathies for the other Vahren members of numerous other races, but they did not receive any special branch to allow them to hold titles. The formalization of the Elven Branch would see the first true royal marriage between the house of Vahren and the house of Edhil. Bringing the Duchy of Hedria into the Kingdom of Rhenus.
Arolithos’ Legacy
While Arolithos isn’t known as a great reformer for the kingdom. His changes to the navy and inspirations for the sea quickly changed the peoples opinions of the sea, promoting the idea of the “Freedom of the Waves.” This social change would lead to huge surpluses of fishing and trade, connecting the continent through ships for longer journeys than over land. Sea travel would become commonplace during his reign and well after his death.
Arolithos would still fight a few coalition wars throughout his reign but their significance is not as notable as the first three coalition wars. Arolithos would go on to die at the age of 56 due to heart complications, but he would become known as the Sea King with his statue at the Rhenus Courtyard depicting him on board of a Trillium pointing to the horizon.
Arolithos would have a single son, Servious II Vahren who would succeed him after his death.