BackStory
Childhood
Ronan was born in an age long past, a time of instability and injustice. In the recent years before Ronan was born the kingdom had weathered the comings and goings of 6 large scale rebellions, the most recent of which reached the capitol gates. The 6th and final rebellion was led by Ronan's grandfather's generation, and like the prior five rebellions, it was ultimately squashed. The failure of the 6th rebellion was largely due to the assistance of the Chou, a prominent noble family at the time, who used their private army as a last bastion for the king. Saving the kingdom placed the Chou in a unique position of power over the royal family. They leveraged this power to their advantage and maneuvered their way into a ruthless betrayal. The Chou overtook the throne by systematically killing off or exiling powerful members of the royal family. For years they locked the prince in his room under a false pretense of danger, to protect him from the same fate that seemed to follow the other prominent members of his family. When all powerful enough to pose a threat had been killed or exiled, the Chou installed the young king as a figure head. The Chou ruled through him for many years then forced him to marry into their family. The king refused for he had already fallen in love with another: one of the maids who tended to him while he was secluded in his room. When it became clear the Chou could not force the king's marriage, they killed him and reinstated themselves as the kingdom's royal family.
Ronan was born in a poor farming village. His family lived under the heavy weight of the tyrannical rule of the Chou dynasty. The kingdom siphoned off food and wealth for their coffers and growing empire, conscripted labor was mandatory and anyone could be called to work at any time. Growing up, Ronan's grandfather told him stories of their glorious rebellion. He would regale tales of bloody fighting, noble sacrifices, long marches, and most of all, of storming the outer walls of the capital city. These stories were told by grandparents to their grandchildren all across the country. In farming and impoverished towns such as the one Ronan lived in, rebellions became a romanticized culture where communities were effected by heavy taxes and random conscriptions. As a child Ronan would play rebellion games with his friends where they would pretend to fight and overthrow the king. When Ronan was 8, his father was called to work on a large canal being built to facilitate trade and cheaper transportation. The work was expected to take two years but his father never came back, after four the family had given up hope, and a year after that Ronan's mother had remarried. Ronan became even more resentful of the empire and swore he would do whatever he could if another rebellion came.
The Rebellion
As time passed Ronan grew into a man waiting for his great rebellion to join. He became obsessed with the thought of it. It was constantly the topic of conversation between him and his peers. They spoke about their thoughts of how things should be done and what they would do if they were in charge. There were 25 of them in all and they each felt something was deeply wrong with the way things were done. As a group they collaboratively wrote a small book that summarized their thoughts, feelings, and their passions. The book was passed around the group and each person scribed their own version to keep for themselves. When all copies were finished, everyone signed their names in each book. They were originally written in secret intended just for the 25 of them. But some members were too proud of their work not to show it off. They would lend or give their copy away to those close the them, a few were even lost and had to be re-written.
Their philosophy flooded the valley, popularity for the book grew like wildfire and more copies were demanded. The signatures were withheld for all subsequent iterations of the book for fear of one falling into the wrong hands. Soon neighboring villages began receiving and making their own copies of the book with no author. This popularity garnered the attention of the crown and one member of the group, a close friend of Ronan, was discovered by the authorities and hung for treason. Gallows were set up in town for the purpose of making an example of him. His body was hung and taken by the guards. The man's father pleaded with the guards for the body of his son, to burry his own child. The king's men refused and would not relent. The child's poor father begged and prostrated to the guard but was kicked for his humility. His wife was enraged and grief stricken, she threw herself at the guard but was beaten back. The people of the town enclosed on the guards, trying to pressure them to give back the corpse. Tensions escalated, the guards brandished their weapons and a mob of townsmen fell on them. Before it could be stopped, the king's men were killed. That confrontation was the catalyst for the rebellion. Once word of their transgressions reached the crown, the consequences for those involved would be dire.
If the people of the village were going to die they chose to die as martyrs defending themselves from the king's justice. They chose to die fighting rather than leave their lives to the fate of the crown. Ronan had always imagined joining a rebellion, never starting one. The 24 led the town in defense fortifications and weapons making. Walls were set up around the town, swords and spears were manufactured. Nearby villages gave their support, they lent supplies and man power. The gravity of the situation was underestimated by the royal military who assumed this was just a handful of transgressors. By the time a small force was gathered, sent out, and reached the town they realized they were out of their depths and were forced to retreat.
Word quickly spread and neighboring towns joined in open rebellion. The more the crown fought they more vehemently they were opposed. The rebellion lasted for years and eventually made it past the outer gates of the capitol city. The Chou refused help from noble families out of fear for what they did the the previous royal family would be done to them. The Chou decided it better to fall at the hands of the people then to die weak and bled out like the royal family prior. They were dethroned, hanged, and their bodies given to their closest relatives. The 24 abolished dynastic rule and instated themselves as a righteous oligarchy.
The Reclamation Wars
The twenty-four men formed a council and immediately cut taxes and imported smaller quantities of food. The council disbanded a large portion of their standing army for labor to build infrastructure and upkeep roads. The fledgling capital no longer held much political weight in the country. The rebellion's success was in part due to the decades long atrophy of the crown's power. For generations power had been leaking into wealthy political families which had formed autonomous states in all but name. These large estates betrayed the crown's call for help against the rebellion, with the intent to divvy up the kingdom for themselves. In an effort to reclaim lost territories the council raised a conscripted army to protect the sanctity of the new government and reinstate the country's pre-rebellion borders. The army was a large expense, and forced the council to reconsider how much they taxed the people. The reclamation wars began in the west, moved to the north, and reached the east, crushing the old houses while reinstating new sub-councils that were loyal to the capitol. Rule had been reclaimed throughout the country excluding the Southern regions which were further from the capitol and better defended. To expedite the southern military quagmire, the council voted for increased conscription. The capital used their newly mustered force to subdue the south and regain its pre-rebellion borders. The great force was disbanded and sent back home. When news of the disbanded army reached the east, a large rebellion broke out, backed by one of the new sub-councils. The army was re-conscripted and once again fought to regain control of the east. To discourage further incidents a small standing army was created, and twelve of the twenty-four original council members were sent to oversee various important sub-councils across the country.
Conscripted citizens were finally able to return to their homes after years fighting in the reclamation wars. Thanks to these wars, lower class families were burdened with military service and poverty. During the years campaigning, the properties of these families fell into a state of terminal neglect. Upon returning home a discharged soldier was likely to find the time, effort, and resources to return his land to its former productivity beyond his means. Wealthy noble families exacerbated the growing divide between the rich and poor as they looked to invest their riches. They absorbed hundreds of dilapidated plots, sometimes destitute families sold willingly, happy to get something for a property they could no longer afford to work for themselves. Holdouts were often bullied into quitting their land as these newly acquired small plots combined into larger estates, the agricultural landscape began to revert from small independent farms, to large commercial operations dominated by a few families.
The Oligarchy (unfinished, don't read)
Outside the capitol decadent manors were built and power soaked into the councils. Bill were introduced that allowed land and money to congeal into a few families. A bill was introduced
An attempt at assassination was made on a council member's life in the capital city. The private guard was reinstated as a necessity to protect the council so that they may in turn protect the people. Since the attempt the members of the council became more secluded and suspicious of each other, some believing it to have been a grab for power. With the lack of trust and new members the council found it could rarely agree on anything. Two large figures on the council were at constant odds, each believing their ideas the better. They gathered support from the rest of the council, eventually the philosophical divide between the two sides became corporeal. The keep reflected the divide between the two groups, the court was split in half, the grand banquet hall was separated into two smaller halls, the rooms of the council members were shifted to accommodate the division. Questions of who would take power after they were gone were raised. Long ago they had thought to have the person of the most merit take the throne but where to find such a person. It would be best to pick someone they knew could be trusted and had the same beliefs and merit. The only real choice being their sons and daughters, since they could teach them how to rule and trust them completely.
Ronan saw the cycle repeating itself and became frustrated, how could they not realize that they were turning into what they sought to destroy. The lands to the north and south had all been completely corrupted by their power. He pleaded with the council to reconvene and come to an understanding but they were hell bent on destroying each other and the people. After a successful assassination was made civil war in the council broke out, the city and its military became divided and another struggle for power ensued. Ronan was destroyed by this, everything he worked for was tearing itself apart. Ronan took his family and escaped into the borderlands of the country where they lived for years until army expansion into a neighboring country started a war which Ronan’s village was in the crossfire of. Ronan’s village was sacked and taxed for all it was worth, precious food stores and medicine was taken out of the village to feed the people in the capital. Resulting from the loss of food and medicine a plague swept the village affecting Ronan’s wife. Ronan left to plead with the government for better treatment or shipments of food and medicine. The capital had since become larger and more lavish, everyone in the cities was plump cheeked the seeping of the people's health and lives was even worse than before, thanks to the stronger government that rose out of the ashes of the council the rich had even more power to reach into the pockets of the common man. His rebellion had meant nothing. Ronan knew if he could meet with anyone on the council who he knew personally he could pity them into bringing resources back into the town. But he was denied to speak with the council and forced to return empty handed. When he returned, his family, and half of the village had fallen victim to the sickness.
Disgusted by those who sought power, tired of the politicking and people Ronan became a vagabond. He left the country and for years he traveled the Cradle poor and destitute. He saw how the early people of the Clifian Empire ravaged the land to build their cities on its pretty bones. Wherever his travels took him he saw greed. He saw how common it was for governments to take too much, to leave everything else with too little. He became spiteful and hateful of all people, those in power who trampled those underfoot, and those who were trampled because he knew they would do the same if they had the opportunity. Ronan secluded himself in the wilderness but he did not have a mind for solitude. He spoke with the trees and the animals, they drove him mad, they told him the secrets of the forest, that a god lived in the forest. They told Ronan that the god of the forest had been watching him, and that she was beautiful and had fallen in love with him. He started receiving gifts from the forest: fruits, clothes woven from the forest, garlands of golden leaves and red flowers, baskets intricately woven, and seeds of unknown devices. Ronan adorned the clothes of the forest, he put on the crown of flowers, and planted the seeds which were bestowed to him. Overnight the seeds grew into three beautiful trees, sturdy and built oaks, but these trees produced a fruit. A fruit like no other Ronan had seen before. Ronan asked the forest where they had come from but the forest’s only response was that they were a creation of the goddess, a gift to be eaten and enjoyed. They told him to eat the leaves, and the bark and roots, then he was instructed to eat the mushrooms. After his feast Ronan saw god, she revealed herself to him in her true form that of a starling.