Avalon Civil War

Queen Elaine came to the throne of Avalon about two decades earlier than in the main 7th Sea timeline; she ruled Avalon well, ushering in a golden age. Her Sea Dogs (under the command of Jeremiah Berek) fought off the Castillian Armada and peace united the three kingdoms.

All was not meant to be; Derwyddon disappeared, then some falling-out occurred between Queen Elaine and Sir Lawrence Lugh, her chief knight. He left the court in a huff; Meryth, the Queen's daughter, returned to court, and then Queen Elaine fell ill. Even the Graal could not cure her; finally, the Queen of the Sky and the Queen of the Sea both came to visit her, and they took her from Carleon to Bryn Bresail aboard Jeremiah Berek's Black Dawn, there to heal. Berek returned, but Elaine didn't; he bore the message that she slept there beyond the sea, to return when Avalon was in need of her.

Meryth became queen, and her reign was one of magic. The Sidhe rode openly in Avalon, and the writ of their laws extended even to mortal folk. Lands belonging to the Church were seized, given over to resurgent faery bannerets returned to the mortal world, and then when priests began to speak against the Queen the Church was outlawed. This provoked great debate in Parlement; when they voted to censure the Queen, she disbanded the Parlement and the Civil War began.

War raged. Led by a man named Roger Oliver, the Parlementist forces raised soldiers following the Montaigne model pioneered by Montegue to fight the armies raised by the Loyalists and especially the Sidhe. The Sidhe were terrifying, terrible, and the Parlementist roundheads were losing, but giving every inch in blood, and as they did the character of Avalon began to change. Meryth had always been dangerously close to the Unseelie, and as the war brewed more and more of those dark creatures roamed the land, fighting in her armies. In the heart of it, Sir Lawrence Lugh returned. He fought for no side, gathering a group of 'Elaine's Men' to try and defend the common folk, but he realized in the end he could not: and so he sought out the Queens of the Sidhe and made an entreaty.

The entreaty was granted. Bryn Bresail was cut off from Avalon; the faerie trods were sealed, and the realm of the Sidhe separated from the realm of man. The Glamour that flooded Avalon began to fade, and with it Meryth's power. Loyalist forces began to lose ground, and finally Roger Oliver's men were able to take Carleon and Queen Meryth hereself. They set fire to the city and tried and convicted Meryth for high crimes, sentencing her to death at the stake as the city burned around her.

As Lord Protector of Avalon, Roger Oliver melted down the Graal to fund the nation's treasury. He conducted a war with Inismore, where the O'Bannon still ruled, while making a cautious peace with King James of the Highland Marches. Oliver ruled for almost a decade, conquering Inismore, driving the O'Bannon out of power and installing his own lieutenants. When at last he died, though, Oliver's Parlement offered the triple crown to King James rather than elect a new Lord Protector.

Now, under the Avalon Restoration, King James rules from Luthon, though he misses Kirkwall and the Marches. He still occupies Inismore -- the anger there is too high, and there remain Sidhe loyalists everywhere -- and looks to the troubles in the rest of the world as he tries to build a Glamour Isles where Glamour has been lost from the world.