Vantral Aylis

Vantral Aylis /vænt'rʌl/ (died 1936 SR) was the founder of what later became Loodon, along with his mother Jani Aylis, whom he later murdered in order to usurp power.

In around 1900 SR Jani organized a cooperative outside of Oyangaltans and began to tax people for access to the river bank on the opposite side of Oyangaltans and upstream. In order to stop paying the tax, a household had to join the cooperative. The cooperative grew rapidly, in part thanks to the fact that Jani was in a relationship with a Kareden tax collector. However, he was eventually reassigned, and a new tax collector, Been Kolor, began to try to overtake the cooperative.

In 1917 Jani orchestrated a conquest down the Loodon river, in order to find new lands and move the cooperative away from Mamkoon, since it was Mamkoon's jurisdiction that primarily gave Kolor his power. The army consisted of several hundred men and was commanded by Vantral. For a long time they encountered only small villages, all of which immediately agreed to submit to the collective. Instead of following the Loodon river proper, as soon as they reached the tributary called Tlax, Vantral led his troops towards the city of Tlax.

Tlax was a powerful city founded and run by a wealthy warlord Done Kandisis, but Kandisis was absent from the city: in a quest to expand, he took most of his army south. This was an unexpected bout of luck for Vantral and his men, who then entered the city, secured it and closed the gates. Vantral proclaimed the Tlax river to be the cooperative's property, due to it being a tributary of Loodon. On these grounds, he claimed, the city of Tlax also belongs to the cooperative. Outnumbered and having little choice, the city's magistrate Rnaul played along. However, he warned Vantral that Done Kandisis leads an extremely powerful and large army and that when Kandisis returns, Vantral's men stand no chance.

Meanwhile, Kandisis suffered an unexpected and decisive defeat at the hands of one of the Teamatian chiefdoms and came back with a weakened army. Greeted by closed gates and a barrage of arrows, Kandisis set up a siege, but faced a problem with morale: the unexpected defeat that brought no riches, and now the poorly timed and humiliating loss of Tlax, destroyed his troops' trust in his ability to restore his fortunes. Kandisis, known for his arrogance and dismissive attitude, did not seem to think that this was a serious problem and was reported to be looking forward to getting into the city and butchering the loodonians. But as the siege went into its second week, many of his soldiers began to leave, fearing that simply getting Tlax back is unlikely to make them wealthy, and that they might be spending their time searching for better opportunities. By the end of the second week the siege fell apart and Vantral proclaimed himself leader of the whole of Tlax river. He then led a skirmish against the little amount of forces of Kandisis that were still stationed under Tlax and managed to make them flee, killing several dozen people, while suffering no casualties.

By this time Jani was already on her way to Tlax, but Vantral, having tasted power, had secretly sent several trusted men to ambush his mother's party. She and her escorts were murdered on their approach to Tlax. This was concealed from the rest of the loodonians, and instead Vantral said that this was done by the inhabitants of the city of Nator, a wealthy location at the headwaters of Loodon. Vantral then led his troops towards Nator, but this time was not as lucky and was hit back by Nator's infantry, forcing him to retreat. He then returned to Tlax.

In spite of the embarrassing Nator escapade, Vantral was greeted by the cooperative as a hero, viewed as a leader willing to defend his people against all odds. Although Nator was undefeated, Vantral again proclaimed Loodon to be the sole property of the cooperative and established the Loodon Cooperative, which very quickly became known as simply Loodon.

The population of Tlax began to grow rapidly. Vantral also kept a close eye on the Loodon river and had instated several governors, including Been Kolor, who had indeed ended up running the original cooperative at Oyangaltans.

Paranoid that someone might capture Tlax the same way as he did, Vantral assumed a defense strategy and maintained it throughout the rest of his life: he continued to grow and train his army, but always found ways to postpone or cancel campaigns. Although he often spoke of a campaign to defeat Nator, in reality his own raid on Nator turned out to be the last time he set foot outside of Tlax. Nevertheless, he was continued to be called the Great General for the rest of his life and was said to have enjoyed it.

Tlax grew in wealth and influence and by 1930s became the hub of the region. On the surface, Vantral seemed to be a sensible ruler: he introduced taxes, but made sure they are moderate, his fortified city was considered to be safe and he relied on deals with neighboring regions, as opposed to military action. However, he soon became infamous for his underhanded and frequently outright criminal tactics. For instance, he established a secret squad of assassins who would help him punish his enemies and increase his influence, as well as force merchants to enter into trade deals that they would otherwise not consider. He also frequently intimidated nearby weaker regions by threatening to attack them with his army, and although he never actually followed through, there are several documented cases when he would fake a campaign by spreading rumors and sending several squadrons to nearby regions, as if preparing for battle. These ruthless, but also quite innovative and bold tactics made Vantral feared and hated in many parts of the region, but it also brought him a certain level of admiration, and many powerful people began seeking his help. It is theorized that a lot of these tactics came from his association with the Overpol clan, who had pioneered many of these tactics, albeit on a much more organized and larger scale.

Vantral's reign came to an end in 1936, when his younger brother Tavol, who at the time was the chief of the assassins squad, ordered his murder. Vantral was beheaded in his sleep with an axe.

Vantral's betrayal of his own mother did eventually catch up with him and his name was rarely mentioned in loodonian accounts of its history. Instead, Jani was widely recognized as the founder of the family and the country. A monument of her in Oyangaltans was set up by Kvean II and is on the city square to this day.

Nevertheless, he pioneered the assassin squad, for which Loodon became infamous, as its rulers continued to rely on such squads throughout the country's history, essentially turning it into a sophisticated secret army.

He was also able to turn Tlax into an even wealthier hub than it was under Kandisis, who mostly relied on conquest. Vantral bet on setting up trade, knowing full well that conquest in his case was a gamble.