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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bran Blackbyrd" data-source="post: 1016635" data-attributes="member: 1710">Citadel of the Iron RoseKing Thalrao Vardos was a just ruler, but a soft one. His enemies used this to their advantage and plotted against him. Thalrao's advisors heard rumors of this impending betrayal and had the conspirators captured and brought before the king. He chose mercy and released them because he had once called these men friend.The conspirators went ahead with their treasonous plans and soon an army was at the castle gates, howling for the king's head. The leaders of the coup were already inside the castle and while Thalrao's honor guard was busy defending the gates the usurpers rushed the throne room and killed the king.Two of the conspirators left and the leader, Kellem Surto, sneered as he told the king's consort, Kiera Vardos, that he would be back to claim his queen. When he turned to walk away she took the clan sword from the crest on the wall and attacked him. It was used as nothing more than decoration for decades, as large as a greatsword and not meant for regular use. Still, she slew him quickly. She tracked down the captain of the honor guard and had him find her a suit of armor. She donned it, ignoring the captain's protests. Together they found the two surviving turncoats attempting to sneak out of the castle and killed them. At the gates of the castle she threw the men's severed heads out to the attacking army and rallied her men against them.The army was eventually turned back and Kiera herself sat the throne. She was as hard as any warrior and sought out detractors without mercy. Her men gave her the nickname of The Iron Rose. She ruled many years with the captain as her consort. She survived three poisonings and a stab wound given to her by an assassin. In her sixty-fifth year the castle was again overrun during a coup and the captain covered her escape as she fled the castle. She survived long enough to rouse a band of nomadic horsemen from the nearby plains to fight under her banner. Under her command they retook the citadel and once again she sat her throne.Eventually she died of old age, still sitting on the throne, her sword resting on her lap, her hand on its hilt. She never bore an heir and the castle was finally claimed by her enemies.Curiously, since her rule the so-called Citadel of the Iron Rose has never been held by anyone for more than a year. Anyone who takes it for their own meets with tragedy and woe. Even now armies break their backs against the citadel walls, but would-be kings fall to wrack and ruin before they can even celebrate the anniversary of their victory.It is said that only a true leader, a warrior-king or queen as hard as iron can truly claim the Citadel of the Iron Rose and not set in stone the day of their inevitable doom.Next: Crochuk's Codex</blockquote>

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