House of Hafwen

The house of Hafwen are a half-elf dynasty of emperors and empresses of the New Empire of Ovaicaea. Before founding the empire and being elected to the imperial throne, they were a family of knightly rank in Eldunari, sworn to the Lords of the elven Freehold of Merion. Through fame and renown, the family ascended to higher nobility and royal power under its most revered member, Arya Andraste, who became the first Empress of Ovaicaea.

Name
The family's name is a corruption of the Moon Elven name Hafelwyn, meaning "free singer of the lake". Musical skill and the writing of lyric poetry is highly prized among elven families, and this was the source of the Hafwen's renown in their home country. The family most likely obtained their name as an epithet, referring to its founder as a freeborn minstrel or bard.

The first Hafwens in written record appear in the 3rd century, during the flourishing of elven literature and poetry, and they widely participated in this cultural milieu. They are then mentioned during the late period of the Old Empire, as knights in service of the Lord of Merion and as the lord's personal bard.

Origins
The first recorded member of the family, Verric Hafelwyn, appears as the author of a book of lyric poetry around 245 IA. Verric wrote mostly love- and pastoral poetry, but some of his writings made passing reference to his family and his career in an autobiographical fashion. The details of the poems seem to point to his coming from the northern lake country, most likely from a village on the estates of the Lordship of Merion. It is unknown if the family was, at this point, half-elven. Nevertheless, Verric's poetry contains an elegaic reference to a deceased human spouse, implying that the family was half-elven from that point on.

Verric's daughter Elowen was also a lyric poet, mainly in matters of romance and heroic narratives, but much of her work has been lost. The family goes mostly unremarked-upon until the early 5th century, when Mallyn Hafelwyn appears in soldiers' lists dated from 405 to 412, a recruit and then a fifer the army of the Lord of Merion. Another list, dated ten years later, mentions Mallyn as a knight in the Lord's retinue. Yet another scroll around 427, this time of members of the manorial court, show Mallyn as the Lord's personal bard, a highly respected position.

Various members of the clan are mentioned as knightly retainers and bards over the next few centuries, and were granted land and estates within the realm of Merion. After the collapse of the empire, Merion joined the Eldunari League, and occasional members of the Hafwen clan represented Lord Merion's interests in the capital.

Rise to power
The Hafwen clan came into international prominence during the Second Orc War, under the illustrious career of Arya Hafwen (b. 794). She was the daughter of Venya and Ben Hafwen, who had served in various roles at the court of the Lord of Merion. Venya had continued her family's proud history as the Lord's official bard, and Ben had served as a minister to the Lord's chamber. Arya was raised in the court culture and given the best education in the law, natural sciences, mathematics, and literature. Her father was chosen to serve as Merion's representative in the Grand Senate, and Arya went with him to continue a practical education in Eldunari's capital. That all changed in 819, when war broke out between the Orc khans and the human and dwarven kingdoms of the Dorei river valley. Arya felt a duty to fight, and saw the war as a chance to emulate the heroic romances she had read about in her youth.

She volunteered for the Dorei Militia as a ranger captain, and proved herself in numerous skirmishes, though this dispelled her youthful notions of the romantic nature of war. Her education and keen mind saw to it that she was quickly included in war planning among the Militia leadership, eventually meeting other leaders in high-level conferences between allied kings and leaders. Over the course of the war, her charisma, diplomatic savvy, and knowledge on various subjects made her a preferred and trusted intermediary, and a respected leader. She was able to encourage other leaders to continue the fight even in the darkest times, and gained the die-hard loyalty of the militia soldiers. By 835 she was accepted widely as the real leader of the Militia movement, and one of the chief commanders and organizers of the allied war effort. In 840, the childless Lord of Merion declared her his heir on his deathbed, granting her his estates and titles.

In 842, after the war came to a close, she led the militia in securing the northern frontiers of Balendor, and then went into semi-retirement at Merion. The various leaders of the kingdoms, city-states, republics, temple-states, and knightly orders congregated in the lake country north of Eldunari and discussed the future of Ovaicaea. It was decided that they should form anew the Empire that had once fallen. However, they determined that a central leadership would be needed, not just a forum for deliberation and lawmaking, but a single ruler to personify the new state and focus its response to crises. Few names were on people's lips more than Arya Hafwen, the valiant "Organizer of victory". It was put during the conference, "it takes an emperor to rule an empire...or an empress," as an obvious reference to her. The assembled delegates and lords agreed to a constitutional charter that laid out the basic institutions and law of the empire.

The provisional Imperial council elected her unanimously on 2 Yearborn 843, and she was informed swiftly. At the time, she was at her estates in Merion, in the midst of quail hunting in the forest when a magical sending reached her to inform her that she had been elected Empress of all Ovaicaea. She rode at once to the assembly fields, to be received by the delegations. A month later a small ceremony was held for her coronation, and she was anointed and blessed by the Mother Confessor. One of her first projects was to begin building an imperial capital in the lake country.