Phoenix King
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The Phoenix Kings are the rulers of the High Elven Isle of Ulthuan. The position of Phoenix King is elective. He is chosen from among the Princes of Ulthuan on the death of the previous Phoenix King and crowned at the massive pyramid Shrine of Asuryan located on an island in the Inner Sea. Before being crowned, they must pass through the Sacred Flame unharmed to prove their purity under the eyes of Asuryan. This is not to say that all Phoenix Kings have been good rulers. In fact many long wars have been started by prideful, vicious and arrogant Phoenix Kings. The Phoenix King chooses the co-ruler of Ulthuan, the Everqueen.
Upon ascension to the throne, the Phoenix King is betrothed to the Everqueen for a ritual marriage lasting one year, after which they are both free to hold separate courts and take new consorts. While Aenarion was deeply in love with his Everqueen, it has not been uncommon for later kings to choose an Everqueen for political reasons.
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[edit] Line of Kings
There have been 11 Phoenix Kings to date. In chronological order:
[edit] Aenarion the Defender
Aenarion was crowned King after he united the separate Kingdoms Ulthuan in the face of the first Chaos incursion. His Everqueen was Astarielle and she bore two siblings who became the ancestors of Tyrion and Teclis, before she was murdered. After grieving for the loss of his queen and his two children (though in fact they had lived), Aenarion gained a new consort when he held court in Nagarythe. This was Morathi, who started the Cult of Pleasure and bore Malekith from her union with Aenarion. Malekith would later cause the Sundering. In the second Chaos incursion, he had drawn the Sword of Khaine (from the Altar of Khaine in the Blighted Isle) out of hatred for his enemies and grief at his loss and its corruption had changed his personality, but also greatly enhanced his fighting prowess.
Aenarion fought in the Battle of the Isle of the Dead, and he and his Dragon Indraugnir were both mortally wounded after defeating four Greater Daemons of Chaos simultaneously. Though Aenarion's final act was to plunge the sword back into the Altar of Khaine, drawing it had already cursed his bloodline for all time, and Tyrion and Teclis still bear this curse today. Aenarion's sacrifice bought time for Caledor Dragontamer to enact his plan to set up the vortex on the Isle of the Dead, using the Menhir Stones siphon away Chaos energy, ultimately saving the race of Elves and the rest of the world from destruction.
[edit] Bel Shanaar, the Navigator
Bel Shanaar of Tiranoc was a hero of the first and second wars against Chaos and was crowned King in favour of Malekith who the Council of Princes felt could be too warlike, and the Elves were weary of conflict. During Bel Shanaar's reign, the Asur traveled across the face of the world, planting colonies that ringed the oceans. Untold wealth and prosperity flowed into the peaceful kingdom of Ulthuan. However, this prosperity also brought with it the slow corruption of the Cult of Pleasure. Bel Shanaar's ascension to the throne had always drawn Malekith's ire as he was the son of the first King, and after accusing Bel Shanaar of being a member of the Cult of Pleasure, he poisoned Bel Shanaar before attempting to claim the throne himself.
[edit] Caledor I, the Conqueror
After the death of Bel Shanaar, the Council placed a Caledorian known as Imrik (whom Prince Imrik takes his name from) on the throne (the grandson of Caledor Dragontamer). After assuming the name Caledor, he started amassing armies with which to defeat Malekith and the forces of Nagarythe. Malekith fought seven battles and won them, but gradually Caledor turned the tide against the Dark Elf host and began to push them out of the Inner Kingdom. When Malekith and Caledor finally came to direct blows at the mouth of the pass into Nagarythe, Malekith lost the final battle where Caledor slew Malekith's dragon Baraug and defeated his armies, driving them into the Marches of Maledor. After the Sundering, Caledor built a fleet of warships to assault the Blighted Isle, reclaiming the last piece of Ulthuan from the Druchii. After completing his task, Caledor took sail, either to return home or to pursue Malekith's Black Arks, but a freak storm dispersed the High Elf fleet. Caledor's ship was attacked by Druchii raiders, and rather than be captured, Caledor threw himself into the sea in full armor, drowning.
[edit] Caledor II, the Warrior
Caledor the Second was the son of Caledor I elected King after after his father's death, Caledor II ruled for many years of peace until the War of the Beard. After the Dark Elves attacked a Dwarf caravan, the Dawi mistook this for an act of war by the High Elves who they were in a friendly trading relationship with. The Dwarf High King Gotrek Starbreaker sent an envoy to Ulthuan who drew his axe in the Palace of the Phoenix King. Insulted, the Elves shaved the envoy's beard and cast him out of Lothern. Gotrek was outraged and declared war upon the High Elves. The war lasted for decades upon decades, with the Dwarfs invulnerable in their mountain fortresses, and the Elves secure in their walled cities, although gradually pushed out of their more vulnerable colonies.
After military stalemate set in in for some time, the Elves begun to gradually be pushed back, with the Elf colony of Athel Maraya being razed to the ground. Caledor impetuously chose to take command of the army at the 14th siege of Tor Allesi, and lead a cavalry charge into the Dwarf host, where he was killed by Gotrek, and the Phoenix Crown was taken back to Karaz-a-Karak. Following the death of Caledor, the High Elves were forced to abandon their colonies in the Old World (the Wood Elves chose to stay in their forest, when all available Asur forces were called to return to Ulthuan as Malekith had invaded.
[edit] Caradryel the Peacemaker
Caradryel was elected to rule after the death of Caledor II and the end of the War of the Beard. It was Caradryel who made the difficult decision to not assemble the full might of the Asur and march on Karaz-a-Karak (a suicidal mission to assuage wounded pride), and to issue the recall order, abandoning all but a few colonies. During the Dark Elf invasion, Caradryel left military command to professional generals such as Tethilis of Caledor, and concerned himself with shoring up the defenses of Ulthuan, especially re-garrisoning the gateway fortresses. Gradually, the Asur managed to push out the Druchii to the Shadowlands, when Caradyrel died peacefully in bed, the first Phoenix King to do so.
[edit] Tethlis the Slayer
Tethlis the Slayer, also known to the Dark Elves as The Butcher and the Scourge of Life was a tough and uncompromising King elected to rule the High Elves after Caradryel died. Tethlis was a ruthless military commander who fought to put an end to the threat of Druchii invasions. Tethlis commanded that every city in Ulthuan was required to establish training grounds and recruit even more Elves into arms. A firm believer in numerical superiority, Tethlis fought a series of massive offensive campaigns through the Shadowlands, gradually whittling away at the Druchii's numbers. Finally, with a huge army, Tethlis besieged the recently restored city of Tor Anlec and when the city fell, he earned the eternal hatred of the Dark Elves (if it was possible for them to hate the High Elves any more) by ordering that every Druchii in the city be slain - regardless of age or gender. It is likely that Alith Anar was also involved in this slaughter.
Unrelenting, Tethlis gathered a mighty armada and smashed through the Dark Elf fleet guarding the Blighted Isle. Thousands of Asur stormed the beaches under heavy missile fire, and were met by a maddened Druchii army. Gradually, Tethlis gained a foothold on the island, and methodically slaughtered thousands upon thousands of Druchii warriors, until even his own generals sickened of the slaughter. When the battle was over, Tethlis made a pilgrimage to the Altar of Khaine before he intended to join his navy, which was already pushing on to Naggaroth. At the Altar, Tethlis was cut down - although no one knows how. Some speculate that a Druchii assassin lay in wait for him at the Altar; others, that his own bodyguard, sick of death, struck him down when he sought to draw the Sword of Khaine.
[edit] Bel-Korhandis the Scholar King
Bel-Korhandis was from Saphery and was a great patron of the arts and sciences. He ordered the construction of the White Tower of Hoeth, and the orders of the Loremasters and the Swordmasters of the tower, and that the history of the Asur people was committed to paper. Bel-Korhandis reigned over an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity, the beginning of a Golden Age. His remains are interred in the foundations of the White Tower.
[edit] Aethis the Poet
Aethis the Poet continued Bel Korhandis' example and became a great patron of the arts, though he neglected Ulthuan's armed forces, in his reign many great works of art were created and many great buildings built. However, the pursuit of happiness saw the return of the Cult of Pleasure, which the Swordmasters investigated so as to root out the corruption. When the High Loremaster presented his report and condemned the Chancellor of the High Court as a traitor, Aethis was slain by Girathon the Chancellor, struck by a poisoned dagger wielded by his best friend.
[edit] Morvael the Impetuous
Morvael was elected to succeed Aethis, though he was wiser than Aethis and knew that he was no general, so he appointed Menethus of Caledor as his war leader. Morvael established the system of levies to rebuild the High Elf army, drained the treasury to rebuild the navy, and dispatched the Swordmasters to root out the Cult of Pleasure. Menethus succeeded in holding the Druchii at the Griffon Gate, and pushed onward to Anlec, besieging the city. A sensitive and highly-strung soul, Morvael was unable to bear the burden of the casualty reports that poured in to the Court, plagued by bad dreams (possibly sent by the Witch King's sorceresses). Upon hearing how many men had been lost in the final battle, and that Menethus himself had died in the fighting, Morvael committed suicide by walking into the flames of Asuryan. Little did he know that the Asur had triumphed in the taking of Anlec, and that the Druchii had fled.
[edit] Bel-Hathor the Sage
Bel-Hathor was elected to rule after Morvael's demise. Bel Hathor a wise King who maintained the traditions of the High Elves, constructing a system of magical wards around Ulthuan, to mislead and confuse potential invaders with illusions. When lone human traders still managed to find their way to Lothern, Bel-Hathor issued a proclamation barring all non-Elves from Ulthuan, although he did dispatch Finubar to the Old World. Finubar's report on the progress of the Old World changed his mind, and Bel-Hathor rescinded his decree. Ulthuan prospered once more on the wings of ocean trade, and the King died peacefully of old age, only the second Phoenix King to do so.
[edit] Finubar, the Seafarer
Finubar the Seafarer is the current Phoenix King and has been for several hundred years, since the time of the last Great Chaos incursion and the time of Magnus the Pious. Finubar is a progressive King, allowing Humans and Dwarfs into Lothern, championing both military tradition and the arts/sciences and commanding Teclis to teach the humans of The Empire the art of Magic. In the Age of Reckoning, Finubar is the leader of the High Elves and is rushing back to Ulthuan to defend his realm from the forces of Malekith. His Everqueen is Alarielle, also an NPC in WAR.
