Aelfwaird of Dracfold

Aelfwaird of Dracfold ( later Media:Aelfwaird-2.ogg) was the Grand Count of Dracfold between 19 and 53, and the most famous member of the House of Dracfold. He was also Anti-king, and paternal grandfather of King Hengist I of Etrand.

Before rulership
Aelfwaird was born as the eldest son of Chieftian Eshwín of the Darwael tribe, on -11.632515651412. Being the eldest son of the chieftain, he was given martial education from the start: he was taught how to fight with a sword, how to ride a horse, how to brawl. It is said that little Aelfwaird was a rather aggressive child: a bully, who gave others of his age bloody noses. He and his family were worshippers of.

Little Aelfwaird's life completely changed in 5 BEKE. Aelfwaird's father, Eshwín, joined the war against Corlagon on behalf of the Three Kings of the North. Under the leadership of Ulfa Corlagonling, the Corlagonid forces have defeated the Darwael tribe. Aelfwaird was taken hostage, and Eshwín was put under house arrest for the duration of the war.

In 3 BEKE, Aelfwaird was given back to his father, who was released from house arrest in exchange for bending the knee and accepting Titanius as his new god. After Corlagon was crowned King of Etrand, Eshwín received the title "Grand Count of Dracfold" and was allowed to keep his previous tribal vassals under the new feudal system. Unbeknownst to Corlagon and his future heir, Eshwín and the rest of his family continued to practice Paganism in secret, only paying lip service to Titanism in public to avoid being dispossessed. This is how Aelfwaird grew up a crypto-Pagan, pretending to be a Titanist in public, but following his ancestors' belief in privacy.

Aelfwaird's martial education continued. His father did not put any value to the art of reading and writing, so he ended up just as illiterate as his father before him.

Grand Count of Dracfold
In 19, Eshwín died, letting Aelfwaird to inherit the Grand County. Aelfwaird was at odds with King Symon the Inquisitor from the start, as the zealous king was deeply suspicious of those formerly-pagan chieftains who have bent the knee (such as Aelfwaird's late father Eshwín) and their children (such as Aelfwaird himself). Symon - correctly - suspected Aelfwaird of being a crypto-pagan on grounds of his general apathy towards church matters and unwillingness to receive dignitaries form Froturn.

The conflict between Aelfwaird and Symon began to escalate. Both of them hesitated to act, and for two years, a civil cold war was brewing between the two, until 21, when it finally turned hot.

Anti-king
In 21, Aelfwaird renounced Titanism and announced himself openly Pagan. He also laid claim to the throne of Etrand, saying that the throne should be held by someone worthy of carrying on Fathred's legacy. Inspired by his bold act and rhetorics, various other crypto-pagan nobles - and even some of those who were semi-sincere converts to Titanism - openly reverted to Paganism and joined Dracfold in his rebellion against the zealous tyrant.

At first, Aelfwaird had a clear upper hand: even in Western Etrand, there were plenty of pagan sympathizers to be found. However, in the West, the King's forces were strong and present - Aelfwaird's pagan sympthatizers were eradicated, either executed or dispossessed. After some more house-cleaning, the King had a firm hold on Western Etrand, but Aelfwaird held onto his position in the (North-)East tightly as well. During the next two decades, the anti-king would continue to rule over one-third of Etrand.

Between 34 and 37, the Orcish Invasion of Etrand and Dragoc affected the King negatively, but was of little concern to Aelfwaird, whose realm remained untouched. Aelfwaird initially considered allying himself with the Orcs in order to finally dispossess the King, but when hearing that Froturn joined the war on behalf of Etrand, he dropped the idea. He later realized that the Orcs would have ended up attacking him as well if they managed to get that far.

After the war was over, Aelfwaird began attacking the King's forces again, believing that he was weakened by the invasion - he miscalculated badly. King Symon's battle-hardened veterans finally managed to break through Aelfwaird's ranks and have broken the pagan anti-king's power.

Pacification
In 39, Aelfwaird's forces were beaten by that of the king. He was forced to bend the knee, to renounce paganism and accept Titanius as the one true god. Begrudgingly, the pagan anti-king has accepted the demands, but his way of "accepting" them was no different than that of his father - he did not abandon his pagan ways completely, he merely became a crypto-pagan again, masquerading as a Titanist.

After Symon died, Symon's son Coenred decided to finally pacify the former anti-king by arranging marriages with his family: he "convinced" Aelfwaird to arrange a marriage between his oldest son Hereric and Coenred's eldest daughter Morenna. It was out of this marriage that Hengist would be born, who ended up marrying his own first cousin Calena, the daughter of Coenred's younger brother Cuiclhelm, giving him a very strong claim onto the throne that did in fact end up getting him the crown.

This political marriage between the two families was considered a big win-win even before the birth of Hengist: Coenred got the peace and stability that he wanted, while Aelfwaird ensured that his descendants would get a claim on the throne.

Death and legacy
Aelfwaird died on 54.8715947980835176. The circumstances of his death are poorly documented, but all written records say that he was bear-hunting, and unlike other nobles who decided to retreat early on, Aelfwaird foolishly decided to take on the bear with his sword, only to be be wounded perty badly. Even though he managed to kill the bear, he was wounded terribly, effectively left for dead in the cold until a worried retainer came back for him - he then refused to let Titanist priests tend to him, instead calling pagan witchdoctors, who attempted to treat him with herbs, only to make his condition even worse. He fell into coma, and after three days of hesitation, his eldest son decided to mercy-kill his father by beheading the catatonic count.

Even though the former anti-king's pagan rebellion ended in a failure and Titanism became the dominant religion of Etrand by the end of the century, it would be wrong to say that Aelfwaird has no legacy - the Hengistid dynasty is paternally descended from him, and subsequent Etrandish dynasties would also descend from him maternally.