„While many history books place the founding of Thelvadore in the year 1237 after the first Therandyl coronation, I have found evidence that suggests the founding was, in fact, seven years prior. This evidence is not known in public circles and only by pure chance have I stumbled upon it in the books written by an anonymous member of the Thelvadore court.
The author talks at length about the early days and the problems they were facing, which were in large parts related to the structure and organisation of Thelvadore as a city and its goals in the long term. It appears that the early days of the Thelvadore court were a chaotic mess of differing opinions.
As you might imagine I was of course rather suspicious of such claims, considering that the rest of Thelvadore‘s history has been thoroughly documented with multiple sources and general truths. However, when I started further investigation into the early history of Thelvadore I was shocked by what I found.
Anyone who has paid at least a little attention to the happenings on Uterin and Fendalyr knows of Thelvadore, of course, and in specific their Queen who is quite infamous for her history of genocide and manslaughter.
What most do not know however is a little piece of information to which, until now at least, only the members of her court were privy: Where she originally came from.
While it is known that she had suffered greatly in the chains of slavery, something she often publicly stated, nearly nobody knew where she came from before that. How did she end up in such circumstances?
The answer to that question is both fascinating and terrifying. I shall immediately get to the point: The Dragon Queen of Thelvadore is, in all meanings of this statement, not from this world.
While it is generally known that other planes exist, such as the plane of fire or the plane of earth for example, so far we have not yet found concrete evidence of mortals being able to traverse the veil between the worlds.
Such claims are usually waved aside as fantastical nonsense, with no possible explanation in real-world research and magical theory.
It would be remiss of me not to mention such things being possibly done by divine entities, however not once have they ever enabled a mortal to do such things, and even accounts of them traversing worlds are at best, unconfirmed rumours and at worst only tales of legend.
However, not only does evidence exist to support her claim, she isn’t the only person to experience such a transfer of worlds. At least one other person in her court shares this unbelievable history, although I have not been able to find out who it is as they are not named in the book I have found.
The evidence that I have found suggests that originally she wasn’t even born a dragon. While it is hard to ascend to dragon hood, we have seen a few mortals who have managed such over the course of the last few millennia, such as the great Dragon Lord Chatan, who was born a Dark Elf.
Considering that fact I shall tentatively accept that claim until further evidence will reveal itself.
In specific, the proof of her being not from this world can be found in a myriad of details that are, by themselves, of no consequence or even worth mentioning. If put together, however, they show quite clearly that she has an understanding of the world that is in no way compatible with known magical laws, or even divine knowledge, such as the thirteen books written by the Seeker.
Three main details stand out to me personally. First; Her way of ruling and understanding the importance of public opinion, when looking at the average commoner.
While it is known that a Lord who keeps his subjects happy and well fed does in general experience a higher loyalty from his subjects, none would ever dare to sink so low as to listen to their every worry and demand.
Understandably, many people simply ignored such details as a general quirk of the Queen in question, something I have done as well, considering that it is well known how unusual she is.
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However, as I dove deeper into the topic I found evidence that her way of dealing with the general populace was not only extremely detailed but also included quite stunning ways of alleviating their issues. She displayed an extremely detailed understanding of technology, some of it was described as, and I quote:
„World-changing on a fundamental level, with an unheard of understanding of the laws that govern our world“
Over her time on the throne she has used such knowledge to improve the lives of even the lowliest of commoners, enabling them to not only live happier lives but also to do something about their problems, often with direct help from the throne and the court.
Anyone who pays closer attention to these details would be shocked and horrified by the ease and efficiency with which she handled such situations, including the hanging of a quite powerful state representative, whose only slight was amassing a little money on the side.
Her blatant, and quite often deliberate, disregard for the customs and traditions laid down by centuries of different rulers, could be seen as a mere quirk of her way of ruling, however, it seems that the reason is more complicated.
Especially when considering the second detail, often overlooked: Languages.
It is no secret that both the Dragon Queen and her closest court are capable of speaking languages no one has ever heard before. Any attempts of uncovering their origin, or even the name of those languages, have ended in failure.
Should we consider the claim that she is indeed not from this world, it would make sense that she of course would know the languages of said other world.
This does lead me to a theory, however: Considering our tentative acceptance of said claim, and the already established fact that she was not alone, would it not be quite possible for the unnamed individual to be a member of the closest court?
And to take this a step further, would it not be possible for more than one additional person to herald from the same world?
I realise how preposterous that theory is, however, there are legitimate reasons for suspecting such.
To understand this theory we must delve into the intricacies of how the Thelvadore Court functions. Not many have a good understanding of their way of work, and I too only truly got an appreciation for their handling of their charges after further investigation.
In general, it can be said that their perspective of ruling is quite different from any and all countries that have entered international relations. It is equal parts authoritarian, and disgustingly democratic.
As is often the case, their court has different representatives for different areas, such as a head of the army, a head for information gathering, a head of political dealings, et cetera.
Where Thelvadore differs greatly is the amount of authority each of these representatives has. While in a normal court they would take the roles of advisors with the Monarch having the final say, Thelvadore gives their representatives complete authority on matters concerning their responsibilities.
In effect that means that they can even overrule the Queen, should they consider her approach to be lacklustre for the given situation.
It should be said that the Queen retains the right to veto any decision, but only to the extent of further planning and not to overrule them, however, such only happened twice as far as I could find out.
That being said, as far as I was able to find out, only four of her court ever exercised that power. Those who did, did so quite frequently, but those who didn’t at best only made their worries known.
The most suspicious discovery I have made regarding that was that those who exercised their power openly and freely were the four other members of her court who were capable of speaking the unknown languages as well.
Of course, it is entirely possible that she had taught them the languages for use in court since it was unknown if translating those even with the use of translation spells was possible, should one have been so foolish as to attempt casting such in a royal court.
However here comes the last detail that, in my opinion, proves that they share the same history, at least to some extent.
In the book, written by the anonymous member of Thelvadore’s court, the author describes the interaction between the four members of the court and the Queen as overly friendly, almost like a family. It is also written that they often shared jests that seemed outside of the understanding of bystanders.
Should they all herald from the same world, jests in the context of their world and languages would of course be outside of our understanding.
Therefore I conclude that at least a portion of the Thelvadore court shares the same history as the Bloody Queen, that of an outworlder.
Given that knowledge would it not be reasonable to consider, that one might find a way of stopping her relentless conquest in other realms?“
- Excerpt of „Das Almanach“, Section 4 „Politics of Uterin“, Page 31 „The Dragon Queen of Thelvadore“, written by Archmage Theodor Gravton