Reyjad Solgal

Reyjad Solgal is a Niedene of Soleannen faith, Akesor (mayor) of Falkeame, and Overseer of the Watch. Although his early years are all but unknown, his recent history is intertwined with the rise and fall of many great nations. In the modern day, under the Kingdom of Creed, he works as a Kesefor (advisor) to the monarch, helping to organise the Kingdom by writing legislation, including the constitution, as well as expanding the role of the Watch and Soleannen faith across the Nieden continent.

Early life
This period is shrouded in mystery, as nobody really knows where Reyjad came from. His family and surname were all but unknown, which only makes his earliest memories all the more curious. One day, during his late teens, Reyjad woke up amongst the fields and flowers outside the recently abandoned canal town of Chileambore. Unaware of where he was, and knowing only his age and forename, Reyjad wondered into the town, completely lost. Upon entering the town, Reyjad quickly realised he was alone here, in a ghost town void of life; the shattered windows, looted homes, and ruined roads made this all very apparent. Noticing that he seemed to be the only person in the empty town, Reyjad took advantage of the situation and looted the last remaining supplies in the settlement. After a little more exploring, Reyjad stumbled across the town centre, full of scribbled notes to and from previous travellers passing through. While scanning the notes and leaflets, one perked his interest. In the centre of all the notes lay a prominent sign, stating that Chileambore had been abandoned, and that the author of the sign, Valendaesu, had moved to Galitz, advising others to follow his footsteps. Under this were a set of coordinates, and without a family nor friends to assist him, Reyjad went in search of the mysterious place known as Galitz.

Arrival at Galitz
After recording the coordinates left on the sign, Reyjad set off for Galitz. The journey passed with a spirit of adventure, and Reyjad took note of the landscape and lay of the land as he went. Eventually, Reyjad came across the town of Galitz. Its sheer, gleaming walls looked down upon him, preventing him from exploring the town. As he navigated around its perimeter, Reyjad noticed a distant sound of murmuring and conversation. It was clear that it came from inside the walls, and Reyjad yearned to see who it was. After navigating to one of the gates, which he found open, he spotted one of the residents. Perhaps out of his depth, and his mind, Reyjad thought it was smart to dart inside the compound, fleeing the area in which the resident was busy. Once he was inside, Reyjad took in his surroundings, and Galitz perplexed him. For as beautiful as he found the city centre, he was unsure why its outskirts were so underdeveloped, with only a few houses and buildings scattered around. Nonetheless, he journeyed into the heart of the town.

Once there, Reyjad fell in love at first sight. The intricate architecture and feeling of the environment spoke to him, and in that instant he knew he had to call the place home. However, once he approached the town hall, he was shaken by the presence of spikes adorned with the heads of trespassers, a sign displaying the context of their executions. Fearful that if he were caught by the citizen lurking nearby, he'd share the same fate as the trespassers, Reyjad fled the city by hopping the walls. After retreating from the city, Reyjad ran across the plains dominated by the city walls until he reached a small ridge. At this point, the sun had begun to fall below the horizon as the day came to a close, and a small man-made mineshaft served as Reyjad's shelter for the night. There, he attended to his diary, scribbling out the events that had just transpired. But as the more he wrote, the more tired he became. Eventually, Reyjad slipped into sleep, snuggled up to the jagged rocks.

Citizenship within Galitz and Gertonia
With the birth of a new day, Reyjad became determined to join the ranks of Galitz. After peering out from the ledge he'd slept under the night before, he scanned the edges of the walls he'd previously jumped over. Rather unexpectedly, Reyjad's gaze was met by a surprising set of buildings which lied outside the perimeter of the walls. Rather cautiously, Reyjad approached the structures, noting that many were open and free to enter. It struck Reyjad that these buildings served as hubs of worship to gods unknown to Reyjad. After scouting the other buildings, Reyjad came across a large board adorned with public messages. Just like in Chileambore, Reyjad looked through the notes pinned to the sign's wooden planks until he came across familiar handwriting. Addressed by Valendaesu, the mysterious figure who had previously travelled to Galitz, the sign listed a time and place to meet him. Consoling his diary, Reyjad noted how to reach Valendaesu, and waited patiently to meet him. After a few hours of waiting, Reyjad finally met Valendaesu, who introduced him to the townsfolk of Galitz and informed Reyjad of the wider nation Galitz lived under - the Holy Kingdom of Gertonia. Valendaesu told Reyjad of the nearby towns of Herbgrus and Thanutabad, and after Reyjad was settled into a grand townhouse neighbouring the town hall, he set off to explore the other towns of Gertonia. Whilst travelling throughout Gertonia, from Fredonia and Castillon in the south to the capital, TortuinKrieg, in the north, Reyjad learned about the nations monarch, Kaiser Jeremy, and the political landscape his nation found himself in. Names such as the Simulami Empire, Soleannan Imperium and Alamayn became familiarised to Reyjad as he traversed the landscape.

Throughout his time as a Gertonian citizen, Reyjad would help to expand the institutions and commerce within Galitz. Although he had faint ambitions to reach the Galitz town council, Reyjad found himself entrenched within private businesses. Oak Industries took up a vast majority of Reyjad's time during his early days, and he helped the business to expand branches to Thanutabad and eventually Solitude; with plans to reach Yham. His growing experience with trade and merchanting helped propel Reyjad to become second in command of the company up until its effective disillusionment with the fall of Gertonia. During the time that Oak Industries was expanding into Thanutabad, Reyjad became acquainted with its mayor, MrBank. After touring around the fast-developing town, Reyjad was invited to become an honorary citizen, a proposition which is still treasured even today by Reyjad.

However, the good times were not to last within Gertonia, and as tensions grew under the surface, it became apparent to the increasingly uneasy Gertonian citizenry that all was not well within the nation. Even though Reyjad did not understand the full scope of what was happening, e knew that tensions were growing. The first clue that something was wrong within at least Galitz were the accusations levelled against one of its residents, Tihv. Originally hailing from Borhammer, a nation far south of Gertonia, Tihv existed in limbo as an unofficial half-citizen within Galitz. Reyjad and Tihv had became friends fairly early on, and Reyjad admired the work Tihv had put into her own small scale cheese business operating at first from her house's basement then the restaurant built outside the city walls. That is why when the news came that Tihv had been banished and exiled from Gertonia for the attempted assassination of its leader Kaiser Jeremy Reyjad rather rather taken aback. At first, he was hesitant to believe the news; surely Tihv was not capable of such as act. However, after being convinced by many people from Gertonia that Tihv along with a few other culprits had been plotting the assassination of the Kaiser, Reyjad turned full nationalist and assisted the Galitz town council in evicting the last remnants of Tihv within Galitz. As Tihv's cheese restaurant lay abandoned, Reyjad was tasked by the town council to repurpose her home as the new post office for Galitz. Reyjad painlessly removed the cheese facilities from Tihv's basement, falsely believing that what he was doing was justified as Tihv had gone against the heart of the state. At the time, Reyjad passionately believed Tihv was the criminal she appeared to be, and so worked away at transforming her house into the new post office, opening it in time with conjunction with the neighbouring post branch in Yham.

The the largest news story in perhaps all of Gertonia's history coming to an end, it seemed as though things would return to normal. Yet, this was oh to far from the case. During this time, Reyjad became convinced that the lower echelon of government had become estranged from its higher counterparts. Reyjad witnesses the dismay of town's mayors at their overlords in the high government, believing the mayors had become annoyed at the lack of responses from their inquiries. During this time, the Holy Kingdom of Gertonia was renamed into the Holy Gertonian Empire, although Reyjad could hardly see the empirical side to it all. So it was perhaps this moment when Reyjad himself began to dismiss the high government, the lack of communication to not only mayors but citizens had taken its toll. In fact, the only time Reyjad ever spoke to a member of the high Gertonian government was when he was farming the fields outside of Galitz when all of a sudden a grand Duke passed by him, mounted on a majestic horse. As the Duke slowed to a stop, Reyjad raised his guard, unaware of the identity of the unknown figure. Reyjad demanded to know who he was, and the Duke introduced himself as a "Duke of these lands." Realising he was out of his depth, Reyjad stepped to the side of the road, allowing the Duke to pass and continue his way towards Thanutabad.

Not too long after this, the mayors of Gertonia began to become a little rowdy. The Kaiser announced he would be absent for an unknown amount of time, with no plans to leave a regent or any other official form of leadership behind. Angry that they had been ignored up until now, the mayors demanded to know when the Kaiser would return and tend to his towns. But alas, before these answers came, the Kaiser disappeared. Alone, Gertonia became weakened, and then the Simulami rule began.

Exile from Gertonia and Arrival in Escharia
Rather suddenly, Reyjad awoke to the news that the Simulami Empire had vassalized Gertonia. Initially unsure on what was happening, Reyjad inquired with his fellow townsfolk, learning that Simulami had taken over the administration of the nation. Almost immediately, Galitz became a hotbed of anti-Simulami resistance, and in a frenzy, Reyjad had been coaxed into supporting the resistance. Unfortunately for him, Reyjad didn't quite understand the influence that its leader, ZenoHUN, held over Gertonia. After a series of disagreements and what seemed like the inevitability of civil war, Reyjad suddenly found himself exiled, just like Tihv before him, from Gertonia. Utterly shocked at this news, he reached out to others and found that a vast majority of the Gertonian citizenry had faced the same problem. Slowly, Reyjad came to realise that multiple leaders of Gertonia had been kicked in an effort to totally overhaul the demographics. This mass-exile forced Reyjad to work with his fellow ex-nationals, where he found himself applying for citizenship within the Soleannen Imperium.

Reyjad knew very little about the Imperium, but came to recognise the scale it operated on at the time of his joining. At the time when Reyjad applied for citizenship, the nations of Escharia, Yimmu-Audal, and Bardonia all co-existed under the banner of the grand Soleannen Imperium, a true juggernaut that dominated the Nieden continent. Upon entering the giant, Reyjad relied on the help of his fellow exiles in guiding him to their new home. After battling through the administration of the Imperium, Reyjad found himself at the quaint town of Solitude. By the time of his arrival, many of his friends had already made great strides in building the town, which Reyjad learned was being jointly ran by a few people he were familiar with: Valendaesu, Puma von Degurechaff, and Domi. After being settled into a small house, Reyjad set to work establishing himself within the new community and learned about the context of why they were there. Reyjad was told that when the Gertonians were exiled, the Imperium were considering making moves to reintegrate the province of Tymarat from Gertonia as it collapsed. In doing this, Imperium officials would work with the Gertonians. However, once Simulami achieved total influence over Gertonia, this plan fell through, but the Imperium still retained connections to the Gertonian citizenry, whom they allowed into their Escharian lands by gifting them the abandoned town of Solitude which they rebuilt.

Escharian Politics
During the collapse of the Imperium, the state collapsed and split into its three core territories. As Solitude's population began to steadily decline as the former Gertonians moved out and integrate further into Escharia, Reyjad remained. Instead of moving on like his peers. Reyjad focused on expanding his wealth through trade and merchanting. Unfortunately for him, however, Oak Industries began to shut down after suspending all operations during the fall of Gertonia. Disgruntled by the declining population and poor local economy, Reyjad began to take an interest in local politics, hoping to campaign for a revival to trade and influence within the Duchy of Reykara, the region in which Solitude came under. In an effort to achieve these goals, Reyjad became increasingly friendly-

''To be continued... WIP so PLEASE do not edit!''