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The third Gauthiær of the House of Túræn was the first Sovereign of the Etugaútha and the twelfth King of the Selæ. Though his legacy is poisoned among the Selaminæans on account of his piousness, Gauthiær was the greatest monarch of the House of Túræn and one of the most formidable warriors to have ever come from Selaminæ.
During his lifetime, he was known as Gauthiær the Great, Gauthiær the Conqueror, and Gauthiær the Ignorant. The latter appellation was given to him by Eramgol, on account of Gauthiær's refusal to convert to his religion. He conquered most of Selaminæ's kings and forced them to surrender their crowns to him; he created new coins, re-established cities, and brought order to the chaos that ruled the land in his time. He also dismantled the Regency of Selamór, ending the last remnant of the Kalduorian Empire in Laredhidan.
Though the Serene Empire of Selaminæ has as its policy that Gauthiær should be vilified and hated, certain areas of the country revere him as Good King Gothar, these being the areas which had fought bitterly for their gods after Eramgol came into power. Though he is entitled to worship as the greatest of the monarchs of the Selaminæans, he receives none from them, not even in the areas of the Serene Empire where there exist people who adhere to old traditions. He does, however, receive worship elsewhere in the form of Gaûthaiar Vikarazûn, whose cult was created by Reisvikaraz, Emperor of the Aztalorians, after he was visited by Gauthiær's shade.
Lineage
Gauthiær was born to Mathær II, High King of the Etugaútha, and Aríess, Queen of the Mórin. His grandfather was Galhedin the Dragonslayer, who seized the Laurel Crown of Tolanna when its wearer, Tuírlen the Usurper, violated the oaths he swore upon marrying Galhedin's daughter. Of his ancestors, Gauthiær was the most accomplished and the greatest of his lineage; neither his sons nor their sons, nor all their descendants, have borne anyone whose worth was half that of Gauthiær.
His uncle was Herrengauth the Petty, who was High King of the Etugaútha for much of Gauthiær's early life. Herrengauth had two sons: Herúgauth, who died before he had accomplished anything of worth, and Mírengauth the Valorous, whose accomplishments were many.
Spouses and Issue
In keeping with tradition, Gauthiær had three consorts and a wife. The names of his consorts are lost to history and were deliberately forgotten by his heirs, as Gauthiær's children by them were the greatest of his partisans, and they refused to bow before Eramgol. His wife's name is remembered only due to her prominence; she was Hæleth of the Naúlætha, who, though a woman, was given an education by the Brotherhood of the Loremasters of Selamór and mastered the art of alchemy.
He had three sons by Hæleth: Perinval, Túrmaltair, and Mathær. He had four sons by his consorts, whose names were Galhedin,
Early Life
Gauthiær had as a child proven himself capable of martial excellency, showing strength and agility unusual in Men. It is said that when he was living through his fifth winter, he followed a ghost light into the wilderness and was attacked by a wolf, which he then throttled to death. Additional details - such as him skinning the wolf to make it into a cloak - were added later in Gauthiær's life or shortly after his death, but there is no reason to suppose that the tale was invented.
After he survived his tenth winter, his parents elected to hold a great feast to commemorate the event and introduce him to his future wife. He had by that time accompanied his father on many hunts, including one in the winter against a particularly ferocious cave bear, which he slew with a spear. Invited to the feast were all of the tribal allies of his family, especially the Naúlætha, whose king, Túrmaltair, was given the position of honor. Custom dictated that Herrengauth be invited to the feast, and he accepted this invitation with the intent of engineering a grievance against his brother, whom he wished to depose and kill.
Herrengauth brought along with him his son, Herúgauth, who was impetuous and blackhearted. It is said that Herrengauth had no love for his son, who, while quick to action, was also a coward; it is for this reason that he told Herúgauth to antagonize the family of Mathær, and to dishonor his host in ways that would not violate the obligations of a guest, but would provoke a response. At the feast, Herúgauth insinuated that Gauthiær was a liar and a fool, and he insulted Mathær and the rest of his family through backhanded complements, clever insinuations, and poems he had composed beforehand.
Though his parents had suffered these insults with uncommon restraint, Gauthiær possessed no such control over himself, and he raised his hand against Herúgauth and challenged him to a duel. Herúgauth, being six years his elder, refused on the grounds that Gauthiær was too young to fight him. Mathær's son was not deterred and continued to press the matter, boasting of his achievements; when Herúgauth had again refused him, Gauthiær sprang from his chair and, moving with such speed that the men around the hall could not intervene, throttled Herrengauth's son and crushed his throat.
Herrengauth, having now a just cause for war, declared that there would be death for death. Mathær refused to surrender his son and instead offered to pay the blood-price for Herúgauth's death, but Herrengauth, having sought a justification for war, refused and pursued the greatest punishment possible. Mathær's refusal to permit his son to be executed led Herrengauth to leave and declare Mathær and his family outlaws.
In this time, Gauthiær was sent to live with Túrmaltair while his father rebelled, and this course of action was chosen because the Naúlætha king had sworn to not involve himself in the blood feud. Gauthiær was lodged at Túrmaltair's hall in Tirnis, where he was given a warrior's education and taught to speak the Naúlætha language. Túrmaltair found Gauthiær to be energetic, impetuous, and exceedingly ferocious; the Naúlætha king considered Gauthiær's inclination toward violence to be a benefit and a mark of good character, not a flaw.
War Against Herrengauth
Gauthiær joined his father's rebellion after four years spent among the Naúlætha. He was made a captain of Mathær's armies and joined in his war councils, where he learned to lead Etugaútha and fight in their manner. He led a tribal army to victory against Herrengauth and harried his retreat all the way to the city of Orís, where he trapped him with a siege. Hoping to avoid a brutal sack, the city's chieftain turned Herrengauth over to the rebels, and he was taken to the capital of Irítás Túrnæn and forced to command the garrison to surrender. He was thereafter paraded through the city and then killed by drowning.
This victory was tempered by the demands of the Sovereign Regent of Selamór, who had supported Herrengauth through gifts and the supply of mercenaries. Seeking to maintain the Etugaútha as a tributary, the Sovereign Regent demanded that Mathær surrender to him the True Names of his immediate family; being too weak to resist the Regent's demands, Mathær submitted to this demand and many others. Gauthiær had a great disdain for the Regency and refused to surrender his True Name, threatening death to any who sought to compel him to do so. A divine miracle, or perhaps a work of sorcery, placed upon his parents and closest friends the inability to utter his True Name, and Gauthiær went into a self-imposed exile along with Hæleth.
The Exile and Return
While in exile, Gauthiær went by the name Brantegauth and served as a mercenary west of the White Gate. Little is known of his life at this time beyond that which entered into Selaminæan legendry, and reports of his exploits are often tainted by the hatred he invokes among modern Selaminæans, and by attempts of court chroniclers to ingratiate themselves with him. It is said that the Brotherhood of the Loremasters of Selaminæ had the most extensive records of his adventures, but these were sealed in the Vault of Forbidden Things or burned on the order of Pernival.
A Brantirgath is reported as having served as the bodyguard of
The Unification
War Against Selamór
Having taken the city of Lyornán, Gauthiær accepted the surrender of the Sovereign Regent and declared that he, but not his family, would be put to death. Many of his chief officers were also killed, as was the entirety of the Sacred Fraternity of Names.
The Selaminæan Order of Knowledge supposes that many of Gauthiær's heroic feats in his youth were created to imbue him with a mythic quality, and while they show this skepticism toward
When he had survived his seventh winter, his parents gathered at their hall all of their tribal allies for a great feast. The High King of the Etugaútha at the time, Herrengauth and his son, Herúgauth, who was four years Gauthiær's elder, were invited by custom, though Mathær had supposed that Herrengauth would not arrive on account of their feud. There had been great tension between Mathær and Herrengauth, and the High King had wished to use the feast as a means to force his younger brother into submission.
Before the festivities had begun, Herúgauth had taunted and intimidated the servants of Mathær and did the same to his children. Gauthiær, having within himself no tolerance for his cousin's behavior, confronted him during the feast and was
Mathær had chafed under the rule of his brother, who was tyrannical, short-sighted, and had sworn fealty to the Sovereign Regent of Selumór, thereby divulging the True Names of himself and his immediate family. Herrengauth was animated chiefly by spite, and it was this spite that motivated him to attend his younger brother's feast, as in that time Mathær had grown increasingly popular with the other tribal kings, and his marriage with Hæleth gave him a strong ally in the Naúlætha.
There exists two versions of what transpired at the feast, but only that which is biased toward Mathær survived. However, it is not unreasonable to suppose that this account is the true version of events, as it by no means attempts to salvage the reputation of Gauthiær or justify what he did.