Profiles in History: Borelean and Kei

It has been said that the happiest families have no history; so it may be also with the happiest of reigns. Borelean Strathelar and his Queen, Hoshino Kei, reigned for fifty years during the Golden Age, during which time there was peace throughout Dereth. And that statement is all that we know about their reign. But the chronicles, the annals, the records of court sessions and wise decisions made by these good rules, all the history that was no doubt kept in the archives of Cragstone, have been entirely lost. Of Kei we know almost nothing; of Borelean, chiefly the story of something he did at the age of twelve.

Borelean was the posthumous son of Thorsten Cragstone, begotten upon Elysa Strathelar shortly before Thorsten and Elysa and their companions made the expedition against the Olthoi Queen that ended in the death of the Queen -- and of Thorsten. Elysa reared Borelean quietly in her home in Asheron's tower, and most people on Dereth never saw him; but he was one of the few people who saw Asheron. He grew up strong and intelligent, and (as it turned out) learned a bit more of magic and other skills than his mother and his honorary uncle realized.

Candeth Martine, as has been said in another place, had been betrayed to the Virindi, tormented and twisted and driven mad. When it was revealed to him how Gaerlan had duped him into stalking Elysa and wounding Asheron, Martine retired to his Retreat beneath Rithwic and sat brooding, speaking to no one, while Asheron lay wounded and helpless in Elysa's castle.

And Borelean, avoiding Elysa's servants and guards, slipping out through portals he was not supposed to know about, made his way to Rithwic and entered the portal to Martine's Retreat that stood on the village green.

Martine's followers were in turmoil, concerned for their master and for the fate of Dereth. No one watched a small boy arrive at the portal drop, walk through the great hall between the blacksmith and the Virindi, and up the ramp into Martine's throne room, where the wretched man sat crosslegged on the floor before his great chair, staring into space through the eyeholes of his broken mask.

"Martine?" he said. "Why did you try to kill Uncle Ash?"

And seeing this innocent child, walking unafraid into the monster's den, Martine remembered his wife Melanay and his little daughter Aritta, whom he would never see again; and he rose and went with Borelean, out of the Retreat and along diverse passages through land and portalspace, into Elysa's castle, into the room where Asheron lay bleeding deep sky-blue from wounds that would not heal --- and healed him.

Whereupon all the Loremasters in Dereth wept and cheered, and beat their tankards against the tables, crying, "Yes! Of course the Dolorous Stroke can only be healed by the one who dealt it!"

In the fullness of time Elysa died the death that no Lifestone restores, and was entombed deep in the Underground City beside Thorsten Cragstone, and Borelean and Kei ascended the throne and reigned in peace, as I have said, for fifty years.

Hoshino Kei was of the Sho Heritage, as her name reveals; she used to give out valuable items from the Crown treasury to those who had earned the Crown's respect by valiant deeds. She was a pupil of the great planar mage Celdiseth, whose other students had included Celcynd and Aun Aulatah.

In the fullness of time Borelean and Kei also died, and a child of theirs succeeded whose name has not survived, the parent of Sirda, last of the Strathelar line.

After the Fall of the Kings, with the Underground City and many other sacred places in ruins, the sarcophagi of Thorsten and Elysa, Borelean and Kei, were taken to the Catacombs and left to rest below the waters of Lake Artefon.

And that was all we knew, until Solclaim 499, the Drudges finished draining the lake and the Catacombs were revealed; the Archons raided the tombs and took the bodies of the dead and animated them, captured their spirits and set their eidola in various places, repeating their last memories for wandering adventurers. But this shameful state will not last forever. Our sages and sorcerers have not been idle. The time will come when these great ones will be returned to their tombs, to sleep until the end.