Twilight of the Heian Era

Though the period which succeeded the Heian Era has no date of origin set in stone, it is agreed by most scholars that the time we now know as the Middle Era began around the same time that the Diamond Wars came to a close. It had been an uneventful last couple of years, relatively speaking, with the exception of the odd plague here and there in the latter half of the 210s. However, it seemed that with the end of the Diamond Wars came a streak of misfortune, one that would plague Merridel, and all its inhabitants, for the next fifty-odd years. It was many years after the end of the Diamond War and the edicts issued by the southern Grand Dynasties in its wake that the agent of this misfortune would finally be revealed. She went by the name of Jacobi Luther, of Ironbeck, matriarch of her House and newly-crowned High Queen of Nidahn. Later in her life and after her death, she would also go by a different name. It was one which had been bestowed upon her by the people of Nidahn who so hated her, and it remains one used to this very day: Queen Fool.

The Disastrous Life of Jacobi Luther

Though Jacobi Luther would be remembered most for her actions as Queen of Nidahn, it is important to understand that her accrued reputation was not formed when she took the throne, but rather expanded. Indeed; Jacboi’s life was nothing if not storied, to say the least. She was born in the year 192 AS, and though she had reportedly lived a normal childhood for a Nidahnese noble, it was in her adolescence that the ego which would come to dominate her adult life, and for which she would be known, began to blossom. Considering the lack of information about her earlier years(one which is not entirely uncommon amongst Merridelan nobility), it is difficult to tell what, if anything, prompted this egotism, but it resulted in an obsession with her physical appearance, and an overwhelming impulse to prevent others from ‘challenging’ it. During her schooling, Jacobi became something of a scourge on her peers, playing sadistic ‘pranks’ or otherwise harassing them; this was directed usually at those who she deemed to be the most attractive in comparison to herself. Such harrassment ranged from simple insults all the way to incidents involving pig’s blood and even one particular ‘prank’ which involved a small amount of Dwarven black powder, which nearly went off(if unintentionally) and came exceedingly close to killing Jacobi’s target. Invariably, Jacobi would accept no blame whatsoever when confronted; she would simply claim those coming forward about her actions ‘had it in for her’. Her peers would even come to call her Iqimura, a Nidahnese phrase translating loosely to little devil, as the severity of her bullying continued to grow.

This became increasingly difficult for Jacobi’s mother and father, Jon and Yenya Luther, as time went on and Jacobi’s behavior refused to abate; she had become a fully-fledged threat to their reputation. Eventually in 209 AS she would be expelled by the headmaster of Ironbeck’s School For Noble Youth, a man called Toma Huen, who must have known the danger implicit in expelling the heir of House Luther and yet was so exhausted by the young heiress that he simply ignored it. Luckily enough for the poor man, Jacobi’s parents were entirely too focused on dealing with their daughter, and no vengeance against the Headmaster ever came to pass. Following this, Jon Luther would attempt to homeschool his daughter himself, while Yenya took on many of his responsibilities as Lord Mayor for what they both hoped would be a brief period. While Jon’s tutelage was less fraught with catastrophe, it did not on the whole appear to help Jacobi very much. In the time since her expulsion, it seemed that the girl had developed a deeply-felt bitterness toward her former headmaster, her parents, and just about the entire world. And so she buried herself, not in her studies as Jon Luther had hoped, but within her own mind. For the next three years of her life, the silence her parents had once pleaded for became Jacobi’s routine; she spoke little and disengaged entirely with the world, preferring to spend most of her time in her room. It was believed strongly at the time and remains so to this day that she was gravely ill; not in the body, but the mind.

A Meeting at the Ball

This state of affairs went on until one Midsummer’s Eve Ball hosted by the Luthers, in the year 212 AS. It was then that Jacobi met a boy slightly less than one year her junior by the name of Tanu, the secondborn heir of a noble family called House Limahn, which was subordinate to the Luthers, but within their immediate circle of influence. The two became fast friends, as both were relative loners; neither particularly cared for their families, and Tanu, Jacobi seemed to feel, posed no threat to her view of herself. Indeed, he seemed to strengthen it.

Though they parted on the night of the Midsummer Ball as friends, and not anything more, that would indeed soon change. With House Limahn so close to the sphere of influence of House Luther, the two were bound to find one another at any gathering of significance, and so they did, spending the long hours of such gatherings just out of sight, talking and laughing the night away. It seemed that in Tanu, Jacobi had found comfort, a kind of balance, that she most certainly had not possessed prior; for many years their relationship was viewed as entirely good-natured, and it came as no surprise to anyone when Tanu requested the blessing of Jon Luther to marry his daughter. The two were wed in 214 AS, on a Midsummer’s Eve night, and with their marriage set in stone, it was hoped that Jacobi’s reputation of malice and vanity could finally be done away with. For a time, it indeed was, and Jacobi acted the part of the perfect heir. In 217 AS, Jacobi would even become pregnant, later that year giving birth to a child, a girl called Jana Luther. But as we now know, this period was exactly that—an act; a farce put on to allow Jacobi time to prepare a scheme of immense complexity, one which would ravage Nidahn, and place herself upon its throne.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The Wet Lung

In the Winter of 219 AS, two years prior to the events of the Diamond War, Ironbeck was beset by a fever known today as the Annelly Wet Lung. The plague had originated in Annelly, a Lotherian city on the banks of the Grand Castelian River, and was particularly cruel to its victims, causing a gradual buildup of fluid in the lungs that would eventually result in asphyxiation if not outright lung failure. The plague had been spreading throughout Northern Lothern for much of that year, and in the latter months of the year it had begun to make its way into Nidahn. Two months prior, the plague had taken its toll on Yensan, and infected even Lioka Winter, then-heir to her House—though of course she would be among the lucky few to survive the plague.

Of all the cities that had been hit by the Wet Lung, Ironbeck was perhaps the most affected, with some thirty-two thousand of the city’s estimated population of one hundred and sixty-five thousand perishing during the plague’s two-month rampage. Among those slain were the city’s reigning Lord and Lady Mayor, Jon and Yenya Luther. Although they had not appeared to fall ill, they were found by their daughter on the fiftieth of Winter, having passed beside one another in their bed. A later examination by the city coroner would reveal that they indeed died of the Wet Lung, as their lungs were filled to the brim with the telltale fluid, though the coroner in question remarked on the strangeness of the lack of previous symptoms.

Regardless of the nature of the two nobles’ deaths, Jacobi Luther was their only remaining heir, her unborn brother having perished along with Yenya. Her ascendance to the seat of Lady Mayor to Tanu’s Lord was swift, though any action taken by the newly-crowned matriarch was anything but. Jacobi, it was said, was beside herself with grief, sequestered alone within the family manor and refusing to see anyone—it is also believed this was an attempt to prevent herself from becoming infected, which, if true, was successful. It was her husband Tanu who would act in her stead, working to manage the Wet Lung for the remainder of its stay in Ironbeck. By all accounts, Tanu, while not an overly social man, did more than his part during the three or so months that Jacobi remained in isolation. Among the most famous and effective of the many edicts he issued with a mind to stop the plague was a forcible quarantine of the entire city, intended to prevent the spread of the Wet Lung entirely. It was a plan taking advantage of the fact that, with the harvest having come and gone only a month or so ago, most if not all families had stockpiled well for the Winter, and so would be able to survive the quarantine for a time. Though this was not true of all Ironbeckers, and some two to three thousand died of starvation during the quarantine(with another estimated five thousand perishing of the plague itself, locked within their homes), the plan was deemed a success, when, by the time the new year had come and gone, with it had gone the Wet Lung.

Even in this victory, Tanu refused to allow the city’s trade routes to open for another two months, a decision which many believe was instrumental in preventing the Wet Lung from spreading to Wendale, to the East, or Greenstead, to the South. Many other cities would go on to follow his lead, and Castellum, where the plague had not yet reached, famously preemptively closed its borders. As far as history can tell, the Annelly Wet Lung died out in Ironbeck and its immediate hinterlands; the last known case of the exact disease was recorded a year later, claiming the life of a Dwarven steelsmith in Dalway by the name of Coulter O’Farrow.

The Calm Before the Storm

Some three weeks following the reopening of Ironbeck’s borders, and nearly three months into the year of 220 AS, Jacobi Luther emerged from her family manor and went to appear before her people. It drew a vast portion of the city’s inhabitants, all of whom were anxious to see what sort of ruler the fabled Iqimura would be. Their answer, at the time, was perfectly benign; during her speech, Jacobi merely praised her husband for his efforts and vowed to undo the damage the Wet Lung had done to Ironbeck and its economy. For the first year of her reign, Jacobi would do exactly that; her actions were entirely as might be expected of a newly-made Lady Mayor. She met with other nobles, establishing that she would, indeed, continue to keep House Luther’s side of its many trade bargains, most importantly those made with Dalway. For this first year, Jacobi Luther was a very busy woman, traveling throughout Nidahn for such meetings as well as hosting events within her own walls. The memory of the Iquimura was then as distant as it would ever be.

Even through the death of Gendai Winter and the events of the Diamond War thereafter, Jacobi carried on with business as usual in Ironbeck, expressing shared grief for Lioka Winter after the passing of her father and offering condolences. As we now know, however, this letter contained far more than condolences, and was likely sent with the opposite of good intentions. Though this missive indeed expressed such condolences, it also offered Lioka a place to stay in Ironbeck, should she feel the need to be away from Yensan for a while, as well as the counsel of a Moonseer. Such an invitation would be difficult to refuse for anyone, let alone a scared, grieving, new-crowned matriarch, and so of course Lioka agreed, journeying to Ironbeck with nothing so much as a word to anyone about it. There, she stayed in guest quarters within the Luther manor, and received the counsel of Dunyun Rai, one of only six Moonseers in Nidahn at the time and personal adviser of House Luther. From this meeting Lioka received the infamous prophecy that sparked the Diamond War, exactly, as most now believe, as Jacobi had hoped she would. Through the testimony of Miss Rai following Jacobi’s eventual death, it would be revealed that her orders were to, quote, “Give the girl someone to blame.”

And so Lioka did—she blamed Jhi Tao, the traitor on the throne, she was sure the prophecy had meant. She marched on Muna, fighting and dying for her conviction, but ultimately, even if she had survived, the justice she sought would never have come. Because, as all of Merridel would come to know by the end of her reign, the true traitor on the throne was none other than Jacobi Luther.