Rise of the Queen

In the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Garard II, king of Wesnoth, the kingdom was plunged into a bitter war with the Orcs of the North.

The northern host, an army of hundreds of orcs, encamped at Galcadar, by the ford of Abez, and the king led his forces to meet them. On the day of battle, Garard devised a plan to surround the orcs, entrusting his son's regiment of cavalry troops to flank his enemy after the initial charge. The king led his forces that day onto the field of battle in a fierce display of courage. Man clashed against orc in fatal combat, wood and steel collided, arrows flew, and the grass soon grew muddy with blood. The king fought at the head of his army, his royal guard right behind him. They were ten of the kingdom's strongest fighters, entrusted with protecting Garard, his brother, and the king's younger sons. The king wielded his broadsword with a deadly rage, slaying a dozen orcs before signaling for his son to lead the charge.

Garard's son Eldred was a brave and courages warrior, a man who gallantly led his legendary cavalry to victory in countless battles. Unfortunately for Garard, however, his son was also ambitious, and treacherous. In the charge that day, Eldred's men ran down a hundred orcs, trampling, slashing, and piercing them with fearful ferocity. When the cavalry reached Garard, the king waved to his son, expecting him to rear his horse with the grandeur and pomp he was prone to display after such violence, but the crown prince did not slow.

That day in battle, the king was betrayed; Edlred murdered the king and the king's brother, Edlred's uncle. His men ran down the royal guards, while Eldred himself saw to the murder of his own younger brothers, sealing his place as king. Garard's queen, Asheviere, looked on with glee, having come to watch the battle from a nearby hill. The rule of her son would satisfy her lust for power far better than her husband's.

After the king was slain, the crown prince offered tribute to the Warlord of the North. The Warlord happily made peace with Eldred, who then proclaimed himself king and led his army south towards Weldyn. But Garard's arch-mage, Delfador, had escaped the battle and, riding, with haste, reached Weldyn first. He mustered a force of loyalists to fight Eldred and avenge the king's death. The loyalist army marched north to meet Eldred.

Eldred made war upon Delfador and his forces with his mother's words ringing in his ears: “Fight no one great or small except the old mage, whose head should be severed from his shoulders. Anyone may survive this battle save him. You must not fail.”

And Eldred did indeed meet Delfador face-to-face in battle, in the hinterlands near Tath. The terrain was unfit for horses, so the crown prince was forced to lead his men on foot. In the driving snow, sword clashed against staff as the wise old mage fought the brash young warrior. In the end, Delfador's men were defeated and routed, but upon visiting the battlefield, Asheviere found her son's lifeless body fixed to the ground by the great mage's staff.

Asheviere herself then took command of the army and led it back to Weldyn. Knowing that the king's young nephews were next in line to the throne, she ordered them all killed, and declared herself Queen of Wesnoth. Soon after the news of Asheviere's orders reached Delfador, he secretly entered the palace and stole away Konrad, the youngest of Garard's nephews, thereby saving him from death.

Fleeing to the Aethenwood beyond the south-western border of Wesnoth, Delfador raised the child Konrad under the protection of the Elves, watching sadly as Asheviere's reign of terror over the land began...

A Quick Disclaimer.

The game I'll be pulling from and narrating is called Battle for Wesnoth. It's a great game and it's free, so I'm hoping this fanfiction won't get me in any trouble. I've taken a few liberties with the writing between battles, elaborating and sprucing up back stories here and there, and the battles are narrated as I experienced them, so if you were to play the game it could go entirely differently. Anyway, that's all I'm going to say, I just wanted to mention that I didn't make the scenarios up, just how they played out. That's all folks, enjoy the tales.