Magnificent Seven 113
The Tale of how a "Fearless" warrior was crowned King.
by Strider925
"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."
--J.R.R. Tolkien
Part I: Heir to the Throne
As this Great War for control of Midia was about to commence, the man known in this realm as Strider925 sat pondering his past and his destiny. You should know that Strider was only one of many names that he had been given, and was in fact symbolic of the exile he had known for his entire life. For Strider's true name was in fact Aragorn, and he was the heir to the throne of Gondor. He had fought bravely in several battles before this point, but he had never attained victory, and had tasted bitter defeat on several occasions. By the mercy of the gods, he was still alive, for his enemies had always granted him survival. However, Aragorn knew that his destiny was to reclaim the crown of Gondor that his ancestors had forsaken long ago, and to do that he needed to emerge victorious on the battlefields of Midia. This cursed world had been suffering in darkness for far to long, all the time ravaged by war after war between thousands of warlords and their armies. To be crowned High King of the land of Gondor, Aragorn needed to use all of his diplomatic and tactical skills so that his armies could emerge triumphant, thus bringing order and peace to the cursed planet of Midia.
Finally, the winds told Strider that the time had come to begin his conquest. Surveying the map of the surrounding lands, He considered his first important task: he needed to decide in which directions his armies would go, and he needed to extend offers of peace to some of the neighboring kingdoms, for he was surrounded by other warriors, and he could not hope to defeat them all. He dispatched messengers to the kingdoms of Wolfie54, Night Hunter, and Roof Dude with offers for a standard Non-Agression Pact. In the meantime, he determined that he should conquer first the kingdoms of Iago, Tone Dog, and Hardass909.
The expansion of Aragorn's lands proceeded favorably at first. Messengers returned from Wolfie, Night Hunter, and Roof Dude's kingdoms indicated that they accepted his offer. This made Aragorn extremely pleased, for he knew that this would offer his borders a good deal of security. Iago had in the meantime offered peace to Aragorn, but because Aragorn needed Iago's land for expansion he respectfully declined. Now, on the fifth day of the campaign, was when the battle would begin in earnest...
Part II: The Great War Begins
Aragorn's borders had come into contact with those of Iago and Hardass, so the time had come for war. He gave orders to train soldiers in the outlying lands on the east and west of his kingdom, at the newly constructed fortresses near the front lines. His crusaders quickly cut their way through the lands belonging to Hardass. Upon consulting his seers, Aragorn learned that Hardass had apparently departed to other realms, leaving his kingdom abandoned and thus up for grabs. This made Aragorn's expansion westward quite easy. Iago, on the other hand, was another matter. Iago fought bravely to defend his lands, but five or six days after their battle had begun, Aragorn had Iago at his mercy. Not wishing Iago any personal enmity, Aragorn asked if he would agree to survival, and Iago gladly accepted.
Meanwhile, on the western front, another mighty lord by the name of ScorpioZ28 was approaching from the southwest. Luckily for Aragorn, Scorpio sent him a message asking for peace between the two great kingdoms, which Aragorn accepted gladly. His men pressed their way through the remainder of Hardass' kingdom, and Aragorn set his sights on the next kingdom to his west, that of LBWoah. However, it was with some measure of disappointment that Aragorn learned that LBWoah was another who had lost interest in defending his empire, and was giving it up for all to take. It was an unexpected boost to Strider's expansion, to be sure, but as an honorable warrior we would have preferred to be challenged.
In the east, Iago's defeat had left the kingdom of Tone Dog, to the southeast of Aragorn's kingdom, exposed for an assault. There was also a new enemy to Aragorn's east, a powerful warrior named Tiltowait. Dividing his now considerable resources, Aragorn began his attack on their two realms. Both lords offered considerably more resistance than those he had fought to this point, so these battles quickly became quite bloody, with hundreds of each warrior's best troops falling in battle. It was around this time, near the fifteenth day of the war, that one of the most intriguing events in the entire war took place. Its occurrence and the subsequent results were to have dramatic consequences in the days that followed…
Part III: The Only Immortal
Since about the tenth day, Strider had been getting strange messages from a lord named Draculà, who claimed he was "the only immortal." Though Aragorn's kingdom was some distance away, Draculà had sent repeated messages pleading for peace. Aragorn repeatedly sent messages back agreeing to a standard NAP, but would then receive bizarre replies that did not confirm Aragorn's offer, indeed seeming to have nothing to do with the messages he was sending. Draculà would make threats about "betraying" him, when there was still a great distance between the kingdoms, and Aragorn had heard nothing from anyone else about this lord. But then, a few days later, the truth was revealed through a mistake that Draculà made. He send a message to six of the lords with large kingdoms, including Aragorn, asking for some sort of alliance between all of them. Immediately afterwards, Aragorn's ally Wolfie54, one of the other recipients, dispatched messages to all who had received Draculà's messages informing them that he was a known NAP breaker who had made him repeated requests for peace, only to then invade Wolfie's land when he had his guard down. Aragorn consulted his seers, who informed him of the feedback Draculà had received from his past campaigns…all of which confirmed that this "immortal" was not to be trusted. Shortly thereafter, Tiltowait, one of Aragorn's foes that the time, proclaimed to the same group that Draculà had also just broken a NAP with him. Therefore, it was quickly resolved among the six lords that Draculà had to be hunted down and destroyed once and for all. Perhaps a stake through his heart would put an end to the immortality of this evil and dishonorable lord.
Aragorn wound up being cut off from any access to Draculà's land by his NAP partners, but there were now so many kingdoms converging to destroy the vampire king that Aragorn's help was not needed. However, it was through Draculà's contact of several of the largest kingdoms that an alliance was formed that would eventually emerge victorious in the war for control of Midia...
Part IV: The Three Kings
By the end of the Draculà affair, Strider's sages told him that he must turn his attention to the ending of this war. His kingdom had been the largest for some time, but around the twentieth day of battle, he knew that it would be a tough battle to remain the largest. The war against Tone Dog had proved successful, as Tone Dog too was reduced to a survival region. As for Tiltowait, he had bravely declared his intention to destroy Draculà at all costs, even if it meant losing his empire. As a result, it was agreed that he would allow be to continue my expansion eastward into his land without further opposition from him. To his south, a long time friend of Aragorn's named Talmar had also declared his intentions to abandon this campaign, and he bequeathed his lands to Aragorn as well. In the southeast of Aragorn's kingdom, the ultimate defeat of Tone Dog after a fierce battle had presented the kingdom of ssteen as a new target. Now ssteen was an experienced veteran, so this front proved very difficult to advance on, despite the overwhelming resources filling the coffers of Aragorn's castles. Eventually Aragorn began to break through, but the battle continued to rage, and would ultimately only end with the ending of the war as a whole.
Aragorn's land now stretched so far to the east and west that it almost traveled the entire circumference of the planet Midia. However, a large obstacle stood in the way of uniting Aragorn's two borders: The kingdom of Bataan1976. Bataan was an honorable and skilled warrior who had amassed a sizeable kingdom at this point. Strider decided to attack him only because there were few other kingdoms bordering his with whom he did not already have a NAP. Bataan proved to be the mightiest of all the enemies Strider had faced to this point, and for some time a stalemate existed. However, Strider's ally Wolfie also joined in the attack, as did some other lords some time later, so eventually Bataan was forced to concede defeat. This occurred near the very ending of the war, so we must now backtrack and discuss the politics that went on during this time.
As mentioned before, Draculà's contact of several of the largest kingdoms had a clear impact on the eventual end of the war. Shortly after it was agreed to eliminate Draculà, a message that Aragorn dispatched to several of the lords regarding the vampire's bizarre communication led to the mighty warrior Wyluli contacting Aragorn. At this point in the game, Strider's kingdom was the largest, Wolfie was close behind, and Wyluli was close behind him. As Wyluli and Strider both bordered Wolfie, and as none of the three had decided which god they would follow, an agreement was soon reached that the three kings would work together to gain the power necessary to cast the final Black Betweens, which would put an end to the war. They also decided that they would enlist the help of other lords who also had not chosen a religion, and the lord RedHeart decided to join their cause. He was not in position to be one of the victorious warriors, but his ability to generate magical power was quite formidable, so the three kings gladly accepted his aid.
During this time, as the war had entered its final ten days, Aragorn became increasingly nervous about his ability to keep his kingdom larger than Wolfie's. Wolfie was a trusted ally, but nonetheless they were both competing to have the largest kingdom when the final spells were unleashed, and Strider's lead over Wolfie was growing thinner by the day. It was a combination of luck, generosity, and some brilliant tactical advice that would eventually win the day for Aragorn.
Part V: The Return of the King
Aragorn was in a tough jam at this point. His biggest rival was also his closest ally, the war would soon be over, and his opportunities for expansion seemed much more limited than Wolfie's. As Strider was pondering his situation one day, he opened his heart to a mentor of his, a mighty king named Dranden who had been victorious in many wars in the past. Dranden pondered Strider's predicament, and then revealed to him a brilliant move that had not even crossed Strider's mind. The borders that Strider shared with his various allies contained many mountains and seas that no one had yet claimed. Dranden explained that while all regions of this type are usually claimed by warriors on the last day of battle, if they are on the border between two kingdoms each lord has equal rights to them, and if Strider were to claim all of these regions on the same day, but several days before the war's end, he could extend his lead by a great deal, without breaking any agreements made with his allies. Upon receiving this shrewd advice, Strider sent men from each of his fortresses throughout his kingdom to approach all of his borders in small numbers. Then, when they were all in position, he commanded his mages to transform all of these mountains and seas into deserts, as his soldiers moved to occupy them. In this way, Aragorn not only gained a much larger lead over Wolfie, but also received a great deal more treasure from his provinces each day.
After that move, Strider felt it was time to redouble the efforts of he and his allies to put an end to the war. They all agreed to worship the god Chron, and began stockpiling their magical power. When they had amassed enough power between them, they transferred this magical energy to Wolfie, who commanded his mages the very next day to cast the final Black Betweens, which would summon the god Chron and end the war that ravaged Midia…
And when the sun rose for the first time in anyone's memory on a world at peace, it was the kingdom of Gondor that was the largest. The lonely wanderer Strider, after all of his trials and tribulations, had finally succeeded in restoring the land of his ancestors to its former glory, fulfilling the prophecy that he would one day become High King of Gondor, a land that had not known a King for thousands of years. And so, one bright day, in the courtyard of the majestic city and fortress that is Minas Tirith, Aragorn, son of Arathorn was crowned King. Though the name of Strider so identified him as the rogue and the outcast that he had been for most of his life, he chose to retain it as a memory of his former existence, so that he would never forget those in his kingdom who were exiles. To this day, the High King Aragorn of Gondor fights evil wherever it may be found, and champions the righteous warriors who need his help.
THE END