As I once promised, I'm now boring you with the circumstances that led to the rise of house Lowhyre, which would come to reign over Leones until the avent of the Wool revolution; what follows is the typical 4th grade history assignment on this topic. The mention (+1) signals details that are not necessary to mention in order to pass the class, but which are appreciated by teachers and warrant bonus points.
Battle at Ockratanck, the allies are crushed by the pig duke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dul5thVjrY A crisis of succession struck Leones when her king fell victim to a stroke in 1442, at a time in history when the question of diet was reaching a deadly boiling point : the frozen North of Leones, Hyre and the Pigland, believed in the virtues of leek, while the conservative South, used to the goodness of ragout, only swore by the carrot. To further stoke the flame underneath the cooking pot, the addition of leek to the royal meals was blamed for the king's ailment (+1); allergies found in his descendents added credence to these rumors albeit many years later, after the dust had settled (+1). This high status case also caused an important advance in the science of hereditary conditions (+1).
At the same time, with conflicts between the queen regent and the elected steward, brother of the king, going unresolved, convoluted succession laws made a young pig duke the heir to the throne, and unwilling to wait for the king to snap out of his coma or die, he assembled an army, determined to claim his right before it would disappear; this to the outrage of the king's nephews (he himself having yet to produce any natural children) who joined the race to claim the throne, a behavior bordering on treason. In an attempt to quail the most direct threat to the kingdom's stability, the steward hastily signed a truce with Pastilles, with whom they were at war (said conflict, which hadn't been going well for Leones, was among the less selfish reasons duke Lowhyre considered the necessity of having an able bodied ruler at the head of the state (+1) instead of a vegetable (-2 : the humor is not appreciated)), behind the queen's back; moreover, as the preference for carrots made them natural allies, he enrolled the former enemies to assist with this new threat. For this assistance in this war, the yellow duke demanded for Pastilles to be elevated to the rank of kingdom. The steward, ever so concerned with the well-being of Leones, accepted, this and other controversial concessions which when exposed, contributed to cause the ire of the Leonese nobility and many of them joining the cause of duke Lowhyre (+1).
Had this conflict gone in a slightly different direction, the world would probably look nowadays a lot different, but the steward never had to deliver on his promise, as the Pastillese duke would be killed at the siege of Ockratanck in 1443 (+1); moreover he himself would later be executed for treason, as the victorious duke Lowhyre entered Lowood, adorning the city with leek banners, and was to be crowned king of Leones. Or would have been, if the living ruler hadn't awaken from his coma to the surprise of everyone, leading to, surprisingly enough, more years of fighting. The painful civil war was resolved officially when a soup allying the northern leek and the southern carrot was engineered, to the delight of the people; thus a key step was achieved in the birth of the Leonese nation, but tenacious divides would subsist, all the way to the Wool Revolution and beyond.
It is nowadays widely recognized that the pattern of the vegetables in the context of a diet war was covering how taboo the main ingredient of every meal (meat) had become, another contributing factor to the discontent of the general sheep population – again, a conflict which would go unresolved until the wool revolution, but that's the point where a teacher would tell the pupil to shut up due to speculating too much. It's not right at that age to be THAT interested in history.
This picture is so alive and chaotic, silly and epic. I love it. The traditional medium is just amazing. Thank you for sharing this picture. You're also amazingly talented as a writer as well. I'm looking forward to more!
P.S. That 4th grade teacher better have given you a full score!
This picture is so alive and chaotic, silly and epic. I love it. The traditional medium is just amaz
