Kingdom of Reynes

Kingdom of Reynes
834 BME–322 BME
Layout of Reynes in 400 BME
Common languages	Rasnan
Religion	Reynesan Religion
Demonym(s)	Reynesan
Government	Monarchy
King
• 834–799 BME	Velthur Tarquinisa Valashna
• 342–322 BME	Thocero Luscesa
Historical era	Casaterran Iron Age
• Founding of Reynes	834 BME
• Culling of the 101	322 BME
Preceded by Succeeded by Soissonian civilation Republic of Reynes
Today part of	Serenoro

The Kingdom of Reynes is an early period of Reynesan history in which the city and surrounding territory were ruled by a monarchy. The majority of modern understanding of their time period comes from preserved secondary histories, namely from Senator Callipho Gellius's The Histories dated 120 BME and by Eligius Iovius incompleted works known as the History and Legend of Reynes which he stopped working on with of the end of his life in 21 ME. The kingdom's founding myth has it established in 834 BME near the Savio river on Carti Hill and the Kingdom period ends with the overthrow of the Reynesan monarchy during the Culling of the 101.

History

Origin and Etymology (840-834 BME)

Archaeological evidence shows that permanent human settlement around the city of Reynes had been ongoing since at least 1200 BME, however the mythical foundation of the Kingdom is given to be 834 BME, a date repeated in most historical references due to its importance in Reynesan Religion. The mythical founding of the city is said to have been by its first king, Velthur Tarquinisa Valashna, who named the city after his beloved son, Reynes Velthurla Valashna was killed fighting a barbarian tribe in roughly 840 BME.

In the foundational mythos, Velthur Tarquinisa Valashna led a band of exiles from the city of Sabernus, modern day Saberno, after being kicked out from the city by the King Piste. Velthur followed the Savio river up stream and into the heartland of Sorenium. The exiles stopped for a night and, after giving sacrifice to the gods Tinia, Nethuns, and Horta gave Velthur a vision as he slept of the land they were to settle. Reportedly at this time a band of bandits and barbarians attacked the exiles and in the fighting, Velthur's son Reynes Velthurla Valashna was killed. Velthur and his followers continued on their journey and after some time came to the land that Velthur had seen in his vision. It seems they may have attempted to settle at certain points along the river, but were driven off by local kingdoms or tribes.

In 834 BME they came to a ford in the Savio river and settled on the Carti Hill for protection. Velthur immediately set on constructing a wooden palisade around the hill. The small city would slowly grow over the years as it attracted numbers of colonists from other cities, looking to start a new life. Its position downstream from the wealthy coastline cities allowed it to tax trade goods coming from settlements around the Larius Lake to the coastal cities, including Sabernus.

Reynes as a City-State (833-742 BME)

For nearly a century after Reynes saw itself expand and absorb smaller villages either through political pressure or military conquest. This allowed Reynes to expand its sphere of influence and establish itself as a small, but solid city-state. With the death of King Velthur in 812 BME, the kingdom managed to practice peaceful hereditary succession for some years. Either by adopting a son or by blood relation, the king would ensure peaceful transfer of power by selecting his heir years in advance. This would be ongoing and until the murder of the last of the Valashna dynasty in 742 BME by a noble seeking to seize the throne for himself.

The Year of Three Kings (742 BME)

In 742 BME, the sitting king Larza Clantila Valashna and his family were murdered in a plot orchestrated by Appius Liburnius Candidianus, a nobleman who attempted to seize the throne for himself. He was opposed however by a number of rival noblemen who attempted to put their own heir forward, Lar Vesuvius Casca. Along with this, the many lower-status citizens and disenfranchised residents supported their own king, the lower nobleman Kaeso Fulvius Trogus who promised certain reforms in favor of the lower plebeian classes.

Conflict broke out very quickly, as the three factions began open fighting between mobs of the various factions in the streets of Reynes. Appius Candidianus and his small faction was quickly overwhelmed, with Appis being murdered in an alley by a gang of bandits only a month after his attempted usurpation.

The two factions, now split between the Plebeians and Kaeso Trogus and the elite Equites with Lar Casca initially attempted a kind of joint-rule between the two. However Trogus attempted to push a law allowing more political and economic freedom to the villages that were governed by the small city-state. This would threaten the economic status of the Equites class, who were the principal landowners. Casca gathered a levy of men and marched on Trogus’ home killing him and his family. The plebeians broke into open revolt and parts of the city were torched by the rioters, however Lar Casca, now with his position cemented and no real rivals to his power, brought in mercenaries to assist the levy troops to crush the revolt. By the end of the year the city would be again at peace.

Subjugation (743-532 BME)

The political and economic situation in Reynes was greatly compromised following the civil war. This brought the attention of the nearby Confederation of Lucania which saw an opportunity to subjugate the city-state. King Postumianus organized a large army and marched on Reynes and besieged it. King Casca did not attempt to meet the Lucanians in open battle, and instead surrendered his city to Postumianus.

For the next 200 years the city-state would be a subject of the Confederation, it would be allowed to retain a king, but overall sovereignty would be in the hands of the Lucanian king. The city-state would become more powerful economically even as it was a puppet kingdom, the city rapidly becoming a vital trade hub. This would lead to the city building some of the first of its roads which would come to link much of the ancient world together.

The prosperity would last until the mid-6th century BME, when the Confederation of Lucania would be soundly defeated by the Ruso-Dorian Empire. When the Empire arrived in central Sorenium, the king at the time saw an opening to attain his city's independence again and attempted to make a deal with the two kings of the Ruso-Dorian Empire. A deal was reached and Reynes broke away from the Confederation and fought alongside the Empire. However when the Confederation was defeated, the two kings turned their army on Reynes and defeated it in a series of devastating battles. The city, after only a few short months of independence, was again a client to a larger power.

Breakup of the Empire and Emancipation (525-523 BME)

While the Ruso-Dorian Empire successfully defeated and subjugated the Kingdom of Reynes, the empire had spent massive amounts of money and experienced troops in trying to invade the Calunyan Kingdom. The invasion was a considerable failure, as the Ruso-Dorian troops, organized in classic phalanx organizations, were outfought in the mountains by the lighter Calunyan infantry.

In the summer of 525 BME, the Dorian King Anaximander got into a heated debate with the Russoan King Phorbas over the future of the Ruso-Dorian Empire. As the debate worsened, King Anaximander brought out a dagger and stabbed King Phorbas to death in their throne room. Immediately fighting began in the capital city, Epidenion and rapidly expanded throughout the now-fragmented empire.

When the civil war began, the subjugated Kingdom of Reynes fell within the lands roughly held by the now dead King Phorbas. The king of Reynes was Vel Hulu, immediately seized control over the city-state and its surrounding lands, the Ruso-Dorian garrison was either wiped out or were integrated into Renyes’ new army. By 523, the Ruso-Dorian civil war was raging, as it was waged, the splintered city-states and petty kingdoms kept breaking apart and falling into their own civil conflicts. As the power vacuum worsened and states weakened further, the Kingdom of Reynes was one of the few solidly standing states left. King Vel Hulu sensed this as well and embarked on a bold campaign of expansion.

Expansion (523-338 BME)

This expansion would be done by setting up client states, not too dissimilar to what the Ruso-Dorians had done, as well as brute military conquest. In two centuries, the kingdom expanded from a small city-state to having control of almost half of modern day Sorenoro by the start of 360 BME. Following the conquest of a small city-state, the Kingdom of Reynes would find itself at war with the Epracian Kingdom. The Epracian Kingdom was a successor kingdom to the Ruso-Dorian Empire, formed from a cabal of nobles and generals from the former empire. The Epracian Kingdom had previously established a guarantee of independence with the small city-state, Athesmos, and with Reynes invaded triggered their agreement. The army of the Epracian Kingdom was relatively small compared to the massive army wielded by the Kingdom of Reynes.

However, while large, the army of Reynes was poorly led and organized. While it fought in a similar way to how the Ruso-Dorians had over 180 years ago, they had not adopted the good training or leadership that went with it. The war with the Epracian Kingdom was short and brutal. The comparatively-ill-disciplined and disorganized Reynesan troops were quickly outperformed by the veteran and hardcore Epracian troops in almost every battle. Lasting only a year and a half, the war would end not because of the Reynesan ability to win against the Epracian, but because of internal Epracian turmoil.

The war was a shock to the Reynesans, and in the shock of that loss began a top-down reassessment of their fighting forces. Taking notes from the Calunyan Kingdom’s use of light and mobile infantry, general and noble Hostus Ateius Gracchus developed a new way of fighting, known as the Gracchi System. The system fused heavy, disciplined infantry with mobile styles of fighting, as well as making the primary unit of battlefield maneuver smaller. As well as a system change, equipment was changed. Long and unwieldy spears were replaced with shortened versions, throwing javelins were proliferated in the infantry ranks instead of just being used by skirmishers, as well, the number of skirmishers was increased. Round shields that had been seen used by the Ruso-Dorians and the successive factions were generally replaced with large oval or rectangular shields of local origin. General Gracchus managed to win favor with King Thocero Luscesa, and had full backing to implement the reforms as fast as he could. Over the next twenty years the reforms were implemented and the new army formed and drilled. In 339, the army was ready for war and would march against the Epracians in 338.

The Second Epracian War (338-333 BME)

Sparked over a trade dispute, the Second Epracian War would see a number of uneventful skirmishes as the regular armies of each side spent much time maneuvering and positioning as they attempted to pin the other down in a decisive battle.

Barely a year into the war the first, and last, major battle of the Second Epracian War would occur. Reynesan General Laris Thuceri, commanding an army of 30,000 would fight the equally sized Epracian army in the open plains in what is now known as the Battle of Thebesos. The result was the crushing defeat of the Epracian Kingdom. The mobile Reynesan heavy infantry, backed with cavalry, managed to flank the left side of the Epracian lines and caused the heavy hoplites to retreat, which led to the entire line to flee. In the rout, the army would be cut down by the Reynesan cavalry and tens of thousands of veteran troops would be lost or enslaved.

After the battle, the following years were mostly of Reynesan troops taking cities and Epracian resistance being unable to muster an effective force to counter them in the field. By 335 the kingdom had effectively ceased to exist and the lands were divided between Reynes and the allied Ordos Kingdom.

Downfall of the Kingdom (333-322 BME)

After the war, General Gracchus is seen as a hero of the kingdom, however his popularity leads to King Thocero Luscesa and the Council of 100 seeing the general as a threat to his power and having him killed in 330. The murder was a shock to the population of Reynes, who saw this as an overreach of the king’s and council’s power. Factionalism set into the government as tensions rose between the king and his nobility, as this happened, tensions between the ruling class in general and the general population also surged. During this time, minor nobility that had been generally left out of the Council of 100 began to organize secretly.

The minor nobility at first attempted to force reform of the system, however their lack of direct power of government and hostility of the system to change saw little change happen as well as backlash against the nobility. The council suggested to the king to strip a number of minor nobles of their land, money, and slaves which only stoked the flames of discontent as well as expanding the popularity of organizing against the council and king.

In 322 BME, the king ordered the execution of another general, Laris Thuceri, who had become very popular with the plebeians during the Second Epracian War for his generosity and care for his troops. This resulted in a massive riot that broke out in Reynes. The king attempted to order the garrison to put down the riot, however the commander refused and his troops sat idle as the rioters tore through the city. The king then ordered the council to organize any militia they had to respond to instead. As the militia attempted to quell the riot, the Reynes garrison then sided with the rioters and battled the militia. During this, the nobility who had been plotting against the king and his council openly declared their intentions to overthrow him. They were able to take advantage of the situation and turn public opinion into supporting them. In a handful of days after this, in mid-July, the king and his entire council had been all captured and brought in front of the king’s palace. Over the course of the day, known as the Culling of the 101, the king as well of his entire council were executed by beheading on the steps of the Temple of Tinia.

After the king was executed, the nobility established a new council, naming it the Senate. To avoid a civil war with the remaining pro-king nobility, the senate offered amnesty and seats to the various families. The title of king was abolished and made illegal and instead the senate would assume the . Certain roles like the chief religious figurehead which had been held by the king would go to officials who would be elected from the senate. The senate would begin to refer to Reynes as a republic as well, moving into the era of the Republic of Reynes.