The foundations of the Kaldoric succession crisis were laid many years before, during the reign of King Torastra. He was a vigorous, militaristic king and his first son and heir, Haldan, was the same. But his second son was of a frail and intellectual bent. Young Prince Miginath was a great romantic and at age 20 he fell in love with a beautiful commoner, Lesil Harabor, insisting he would have no one else for his bride. And so were sown the seeds of disaster…
This article is a synthesis from many different sources of how individual and important individuals and groups in Kaldor may view the succession crisis. The material in this article is based largely on the information in Edward Barach’s analysis of the crisis in Thonahexus #9. Extensive use has been made of Jonathan Nicholas’s Great Clans of Kaldor and Kerry Mould’s Lady of Paladins articles. It draws heavily on The Earls Progress, Asolade Hundred (and A Shower of Silver), the Nelafyn Hundred project and Fethael Hundred by Joe Adams. A similar article detailing the succession crisis by Paul Strack was the inspiration for this article. His description of the role of Migray Hosath is particularly important, as are many of the motives and descriptions of the main contenders and military dispositions of the factions (which have been amended slightly).
This article is not only heavily reliant on those excellent works, but also on the Kaldor articles from Columbia games and NRC’s original writings, along with random material from a multitude of other canon and fanon articles. Some of the elements of the scenario, particularly Miginath and Troda Dariune’s motives, are solely the author’s interpretation.
Additional information about shadowy agents operating far in the background to influence the succession crisis is also presented, for those GMs that want a deeper backstory for their campaign.
The outline is written as if the year is TR722. Any errors are the author’s alone. The download contains a PDF and the original Microsoft Word document, in case GMs want to edit the content to suit their own game.
by Michael Mann
