[ WP ] After the Dark Lord conquered the realm everything turns out really damn good .

whats was it like when the Black King took the throne?, 
 
 
 well I'll tell you how it was before, bloody, stupid and a mess. 
 
 they say the big orc uprising happened some 30, 40 years ago, the orc warhost led by Greyblade ravaged through all manner of lands, only after it had started to affect their own granaries had as little as 10 kings come for and pledged their forces to be used to destroy, every count, duke and king sent the minimum amount of men, and hiring professional sellswords to protect them when those beasts came, your grandfather was one of those poor lads. 
 
 he managed to lose an eye and ended up as a guard in some keep for the rest of the war, we used to have his mace round here but your uncle sold it for some pumpkin seeds. 
 
 after the orcs came the'age of respite' some fancy word, do n't know what it means, pretty much with all these lord sons and nephews and uncles dead, there was a scramble to replace them, add to that all the deserters from the kings' armies, all the unpaid sellswords, all the starving folk who could n't eat as too many lads went and got them selves killed so they could n't sow as much grain. they say we are stilled cursed for all the kinslaying in those days 
 
 
 ay bad times they were 
 
 anyway, one of the first places lost to the orcs was the Black King's own land, twas before he was born mind you, could have nipped the orcs in the bud, but everyone would rather look after themselves. 
 
 
 he was raised by his families old castellan in all manner of weapons, he became an adventurer like your older brother Oxel, may be rest. 
 
 first he was a mercenary, a black knight. with so many lords and ladies arguing over land as their 5th brothers 3rd child was married to someone who had that land 50 years ago had own that land, mea n't they were entitled to it and these minor wars would break out, and always it would be the young peasants to fight, and their lands taken to the torch, 
 
 worse still it was the mercenaries that made more from it than the nobles, not wanting to be a cog in a pointless and bloody well he walked the land and became an adventurer killing goblins, orcs, trolls, orges, and all manner of brigand and bandit. he fought great monsters and beasts and became renown for it, he even married who would become his grey queen after ravaging a clan of ogres in her father's land. 
 
 
 
 many songs were written about his, well before he made his march to become the King, my favorite is when he threw a javelin and killed a great dragon, it landed right at his feet and he sold it's bones, scales, blood and eyes, to build a castle in his own homeland. then things went a bit sour. 
 
 some other lords with very very distance ties to the black king's family tried to take his new land and castle as they believed to have claim over it, it was under the King's impression that this coin had two sides, and took their lands in turn. 
 
 
 
 county after county, duchy after duchy, they all fell. some say he recruited well over 1000 knights to his cause, some of these men were 10th or even 20th in line to their houses, so they did n't mind as they did n't have much of a future anyhow, but golly, 1000 knights, that's far more than I could count, with even more footmen than that 
 
 
 
 the black march they called it, castle after castle was taken by the king, 
 
 
 one such was when a king offered the black king to duel 10 knights in a single day only then he would surrender his kingdom, even offered any of his daughters as a prize aswell, the Black King agreed and after the 10 champion was slewn, the liar king order archers with crossbows in the alcoves above to fire on the the true king, he killed 3 men for every bolt in his back, and they say he took about 13, 
 
 I should know I saw him leave the keep after he army took the castle, he took the kings daughters too, had them married to them married off to any of whom they wished of his knights. 
 
 
 they did n't do us any harm mind you, they traded some goods, left some men behind as guards for some villages and asked if anyone wanted to join their cause, I was but a lamb in those days, and your grandmother would have split my head with her wooden spoon if I had. but by the gods he was big, 7 foot tall and two men wide clad in black and steel, all manner of spikes and bones on him, took 5 men to carry all his different weapons. 
 
 
 now we do n't deal with such problems, no shortage of food means no bandits, no goblins means to raids, no petty nobles who squabble over this and that, we have nobles yes, but their are much more satisfied with their current state of affairs, the king's canals make trading easier, and on king's day every family gets a chicken and every village gets a few barrels of ale, and on that note young one, I think your mother is calling us, looks like the roast chicken is ready, cmon now, time for a feast fit for a king! 
 

