Great are the words of a Menarion, yet so little is its House when compared to those realms which inspire awe, such as the sprawling coasts of the Dzayer, or the carpet of horsemen that fills a valley of the Saka, or the rich hillside of the wise old Guamoria of yore. The words "Behold, And Awe", perhaps sound ironic to one who knows those awesome realms, but one must always take each case in its context. In the peninsula of Aziria, there was only one lord who could muster an awe-inspiring force by himself. That lord was Idatzo Menarion, son of the late King Eneko Menarion, and he was making a play for the centre of Aziria.

There sat House Guboiroa and House Kaudan. One shy northwest of the Menarion tendrils, the other shy southeast. And there was haste, for House Kaudan was at stake; House Zaljun was playing, and they were not playing nice.

Karidak Zaljun had eyed the Baorial Houses for longer, because they occupied a stretch of the coast between lands that already listened to the Zaljun. This hilly land was harsh to any but the locals, yet the Zaljun wanted its ports and its control over the sea, because they would not tolerate any dispute over who controlled the waters. It was already bad enough that they had to share their prominence with the Dzayer, and while it was a fool's errand to compete with an empire as a house of pirates, the Zaljun would not hear it.

Karidak mustered a fleet and began an intensive campaign of raiding the Baorial Coast. He could occupy all the ports after only weeks, as all the locals had fled to the hillside. But he knew that this was not even near a victory, because he had not fought a soul, and he had only occupied empty houses. Soon enough, he knew, the Lords Firaida and Jonte, two of the mightiest Baorial Houses, return with an army, and expel the Zaljun.

When that happened, the fleet would have to retreat, and from then on the campaign would become costly. And costly was a bad word for pirates. The other Great Houses frequently called the loyalty of the Zaljun into question, but the Zaljun themselves could expect even less from their own men, who sailed there where the winds were warm. Lord Karidak could, simply put, not afford a retreat. But he had a plan. While he was awaiting the Lords Firaida and Jonte, he sent his cousin Hadbalder with an army from Baokaber to attack House Kaudan (remember them?). House Kaudan was also considered a Baorial House, and he expected them to come to each others aid.

Karidak had made the right call, as Hadbalder took Kaudan's home without any resistance, and he took several hostages, as Kaudan and his men had set out westwards to join up with Firaida and Jonte. Instead of continuing their trek to where Karidak was holed up, Firaida, Jonte and Kaudan turned around to House Kaudan's walled city, but Hadbalder had already filled the city's stocks, evicted those who were only a drain on the supplies, and properly manned the walls. The Baorial Houses would be in for quite a fight if they wanted Kaudan's home back, and if they attacked, all of Kaudan's family was guaranteed to die at the axe of Hadbalder.

This is when Lord Idatzo Menarion returns to the story. With a handwave of a paragraph, they had taken over House Guboiroa, one of the many Heart Houses. Guboiroa had invited the pleasant company of some radical Ir'brak philosophers, although Idatzo had preferred the term instigators. It gave him a great opportunity to isolate Guboiroa, because when his men marched, the other Houses of the Heart were warned that Guboiroa was dabbling in heresy, and heretics were murdered with little discretion, so none wanted to join their side. Alone, the Guboiroa had no chance, and they gladly accepted Idatzo's general offer of surrender with no murdering done.

After he had victoriously returned from Guboiroa, he heard of the events in the Baorial Lands. Firaida and Jonte were jeering on Kaudan to attack their own home, but Lord Kaudan did not wish to condemn his family to death, hostages as they were, and so Idatzo Menarion sent a message to the three Baorial Lords, and offered his aid against the Zaljun, provided that at least Kaudan would become his vassal after the whole ordeal was over.

Meanwhile, Karidak Zaljun did not sit on his ship's benches. The success of Hadbalder expected, he marched into the difficult hillside, conscripted the locals, and took over the lands of Firaida and Jonte. He did not take as many hostages as his cousin had managed, but a few children of the Firaida and Jonte were a nice trinket nonetheless. He then sent word to the congregation of lords around Lord Kaudan's home, addressed to his cousin Hadbalder.

As Karidak had learned that Menarion was on the march, he said good bye to all notions of keeping Kaudan, because his cousin would certainly die in there against four houses, if one of them was the Great Bear of the Lesser Mountains. A shark is not the king of the land, after all, but a bear is. Hadbalder received his word, and saw that he could retreat safely to Bakoaber. With that knowledge, he requested a peaceful exchange of power to Idatzo Menarion, and the young bear gladly agreed to the deal. With that, the Firaida and Jonte were alone against an enemy entrenched in their home, as Kaudan now served Menarion. Hadbalder returned to Bakoaber safely, no hostages killed.

Lord Zaljun prepared to fight the Firaida and the Jonte, as they in their place prepared for the fight of their lives, but again the Menarion intervened. Idatzo commended the reasonability of the current generation of Zaljun, and so asked Karidak to let the Firaida and Jonte back into their homes as his vassals. Otherwise, the Menarion would attack with them, and there would be a great cost associated with that whole war. For those of keen memory, the Zaljun had reasons to avoid that.

Reluctantly, Lord Zaljun agreed, and that was how without striking once, the Lord Idatzo Menarion orchestrated the subjugation of four houses. There were, of course, numerous casualties. Civilians, mostly, which is the kind history generally forgets, so you need not worry for them. No one else will, either.

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