The Bloodied Feast

The Bloodied Feast was an event that took place early on in the Recorded Saga, when House Luminite held a feast and invited various houses and persons, including House Griffin. House Griffin betrayed House Luminite and stole their queen, Lia, before she escaped.

House Luminite held a great feast to celebrate their prosperity. The Saga says that delegates and diplomats from every house, tribe, tongue and nation went to visit them. -An inaccurate statement due to the fact that House Terryn was neither present, nor was there any record of any representatives from the elf folk.-

House Griffin seemed surprisingly warm and receptive to their invitation, bringing serfs, soldiers and mercenaries with kegs of drink for the celebration, as well as provide security for the increasingly large number of merrymakers.

Proceedings were disturbed by Graphyte the Iron Dragon, a wizard of House Cerrakor, whom tried to relieve the guards of their duties before declaring loudly that the drink was poisoned.

His claims fell on deaf ears, none would believe the drink was poisoned after each crate was inspected by a tastetester hours before. However, a traveller had planted poison in an ambassador and noblewoman's drinks, and planted leaves of vile but slow-acting stuff in one of many creates wheeled in by Griffin sellswords.

So, the Iron Dragon's truthful words went ignored as others filled and emptied their plates and goblets. The Cerrakor wizard struck out at the traveller, risking the death of all the servants and representatives of death at swordpoint when they roused themselves at his defense.

Things calmed and no-one save the perpetrators properly understood that House Griffin's manpower steadily increased as more mercenaries arrived with additional drink. Graphyte was escorted toward the outer gates, where he would wait furiously until the feast was over and he could return home with his entourage.

Then the Griffins struck, their sellswords silently slaying guards responsible for the castle's outer defense, reinforcements springing from the nearby woods to join the fray. A House Griffin warrior threw his spear towards the knightress of Queen Lia's personal knightress bodyguard. Graphyte rushed through the now embattled courtyard to warn the nobles inside, as the houses fought on.

The Luminite defenders and their allies were unexpectedly stalwart in their defense, and most of the attacking Griffs were slain. The attackers regained their advantage by setting kegs of blackpower along the front and midsection of the castle bridge as their pikemen and cannoneers lined the back end.

Castle Luminite's guard captain launched a lightning fast cavalry raid against the Griffs in an attempt to ensure Lia's escape, and it is said to this day that he slew five men with one blow before a pike pierced his throat.

Twenty Griff knights escaped with Queen Lia as their captive and they regrouped with an array of hired pirates in a second castle, one that had belonged to House Terryn, but was stolen by the Luminites. They proceeded to a docked vessel and cast off as Luminite and her allies, thirsty for vengeance, struck at the nearby town occupied by House Griffin and various mercenaries.

The queen, though wounded from the Blooded Feast, used magic to escape. A half dozen knights of Terryn wearing full maile beset the Griffknights in battle, sacrificing their lives, leaving only two Griffknights standing: Erin -renamed Erin Ten-slayer after their escape- and Vos Cragscream, whom fell to reinforcing Terryn cavalry, four of which he slew with his broadsword before he was impaled upon many spears.

Lia Luminite escaped and began to live on the run, regrouping the surviving people of House Luminite. House Griffin fell back to recoup their losses as Erin Ten-slayer worked his way home. Terryn praised the valour and mourned the loss of knights and horsemen both, for they had reclaimed what was unrighteously stolen from them. House Cerrakor left Castle Luminite unharmed.