(b:1193/3, d: 33/4) Valden Del Vecchio III; commonly known as "Valden the Conqueror," was a powerful Thannish King of Valdor who united the entire Thannish race under a single banner for the first time in Corwyn's history.
Early Years
Valden grew up in the city of Kingsport, a cosmopolitan seaport on the coast of the Sea of Ralas and the capital of Valdor. At that time, Valdor was a relatively small kingdom, comprising three large cites: Kingsport, Herron, and Sathay. The Kingdom was a little over 325 years old, and had been founded by Valden's ancestor; Queen Bröna Del Vecchio.
As the crown Prince, Valden received formal schooling and weapons-training, and soon gained a reputation as both a skilled diplomat and a cunning warrior.
In his childhood studies, Valden learned much of other cultures and became quite worldly. He would later use this knowledge to forge alliances and gain influences while he took control of increasing amounts of Thannish territory.
The Five Great Campaigns
In the year 1214/3, at the young age of twenty-one, Valden's father died and he was anointed as the twelfth King of Valdor. Ruling this small realm did not fit well with Valden's great ambitions; so, beginning that year, Valden began a long series of military campaigns against his neighboring states.
Sages tell of the "Five Great Campaigns" that Valden undertook between the years 1220-1245/3 to unify and conquer the Thannish peoples.
At that time, the Kingdom of Valdor was already a great power in the region, but there were many other rival Thannish political strongholds which Valden would have to face to fulfill his dreams of conquest.
First, in 1220/3, Valden faced the Iron Duke of the Rin Falar Freehold in a long and bloody military campaign, before defeating the Duke's army, slaying him in battle, and capturing the city of Rin Falar that same year.
In the year 1225/3, he next faced Prince Meraxas of the Sokoro Union and the following year, captured the city of Varistan after a long siege. Valden did not execute Prince Meraxas, but instead made him an ally. The two eventually became good friends and allies in the upcoming campaigns.
In the year 1230/3, Valden took on the Principality of Azimar, an important regional power. After a long and grueling campaign, the forces of Azimar were defeated. The Prince of Azimar surrendered in the year 1108/3, and presented himself before Valden to beg for mercy. Not surprisingly, Valden spared the Prince and made the city of Azimar a regional capital.
By the year 1237/3, Valden had also conquered the Orem Confederacy; a loose alliance of five city-states along the coast of the Gulf of Alesard. These five coastal city-states were enormously wealthy, but none were greatmilitary powers/ Within a few years, the Exarchs of Orem submitted without any real fighting.
In his fifth and final campaign; Valden marched his armies far into the eastern Thannish territories. He successfully conquered the Barony of Ghastonne and captured its capital city of Ashara in the year 1245/3. With that epic victory, Valden finally managed to bring all of the Thannish people under one banner, as a single, united nation.
Valden's Offspring
In his youth, Valden Durethë married Queen Anavel and had one son Eldan. Controversy erupted a few years later when the King became involved with a noblewoman from Ashara named Naomi Mallistäer, who became his mistress and bore him a second son named Rhodan.
Despite the scandal, the King loved both his sons and raised his younger bastard son to equal status of prince and made him his second heir.
Unfortunately, sibling rivalry and jealousy between his two sons grew as the years went by. By the time Eldan and Rhodan grew into adulthood, they truly hated each other. The future of Valden’s Thannish Kingdom was in grave doubt.
Years later, the threat of Alokkair was growing in the east and all the peoples of the West were preparing for war. An ailing King Valden was visited by the Council of Sorcerë, who wanted to present the King with a gift of a Elanthir sword.
Valden knew that if he gave the sword to one his two sons as a royal birthright, surely a civil war would result and tear the country apart. In a compromise to save the western alliance; the Saar Council chose to grant two Elanthir to the Thannish race.
The Vaas people, who had rejected the Saar's counsel, were thus excluded. Both of Valden's sons were given a sword, and both Eldan and Rhodan promised their dying father to put aside their differences and both went off to war against Alokkair in the War of the Elanthir.
VALDEN'S LEGACY
Shortly after Alokkair's defeat, King Valden died in the year 33/4. Upon his death, the hatred of the two brothers renewed once again with increased bitterness, and soon open fighting broke out. This bloody conflict came to be called the Twilight War and raged between the years 33-38/4.
After five years of bloody civil war between the two sides, Rhodan was defeated and an agreement was reached which was strongly in Eldan's favor.
The treaty resulted in two separate kingdoms being formed in the year 38 of the Fourth Age. The wealthier, western two-thirds of Valdor became Eldara under the rule of King Eldan; the poorer eastern third of Valdor became Rhodara, under the rule of King Rhodan.
