Beren Greymane I

King Beren Greymane I (403 F.A. - 473 F.A.), also known as Beren the Great was a ruler of the Kingdom of Gilneas. Born to Gregory Hewel and Aerin Greymane I, he was the youngest known king of Gilneas, having technically taken the position on the day of his birth. Though he was to be regented by his father, King-consort Hewel died when Beren was seven years old in the Burkwick Fires, a massive fire that nearly destroyed the eastern shores of Gilneas.

During that time, he was regented by Lady Catherine Regaul of the Northern Headlands and became a figurehead of power for a massive underlying conspiracy to usurp power in Gilneas. Shortly afterwards, a group known as the Bloodied Crown Coalition usurped control of over half of Gilneas, aside from the south and eastern shores. Many of the outlying bloodlines of the Greymane line were slaughtered and the young Beren was proclaimed dead. The south eastern regions of Gilneas rallied under Lord Berrick Godfrey to rebel against the Bloodied Crown, forming the remnants of the Kingdom of Gilneas and beginning the Empty Throne War.

Beren was later found to be alive and well, and the Remnants of Gilneas declared him their king and claimed he was never slain but in fact smuggled away during the assassinations. Stolen correspondence from the Blood Crown Gilneas confirmed that Beren had in fact survived. Nambitus soon defected to the Remnants, officially uniting the Kingdom of Gilneas again. At age 15, Beren was placed into an arranged marriage with Valerie Godfrey, Berrick's youngest daughter, which the B.C.G. labeled as a forced marriage to control the crown. Lady Catherine Regaul was captured by them shortly afterwards and imprisoned in Tempest's Reach.

Two years later, Beren was officiated as the king of Gilneas and was wed to Lady Valerie. As a "gift", Lady Catherine Regaul was presented before the new king before being publicly executed, defacing the B.C.G. in public. As his first order, Beren offers pardon to lords of the B.C.G. who return to the service of Gilneas if they were not part of the immediate council. Many lords defected, leading to the remaining lords retreating to the Northern Headlands. Beren later arranged for the then King Menethil to eliminate those who fled as they sought refuge in Lordaeron, in exchange for increased access to Gilnean goods at a premium. Beren officially ended the Empty Throne War at the age of 18.

In the following years, Beren began to issue public speeches for Gilnean pride and to show the identity of their people as a strong central nation, an action that was noted by historians as a political move to dismiss potential feelings of rebellion or dismay against the crown. Additionally, Beren began to make political moves to centralize power to the king and Gilneas and began to make moves on Hillsbrad Foothills for expansion, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Alterac. These expansions began making strife between Gilneas and Alterac, the latter being officially alienated after the erection of Gilnean military forts and mining began. King Perenolde postured and threatend to declare war on Gilneas if the Hillsbrad expansion was not stemmed, to which King Beren made a show of force that lead to the Scorched Plains incident. A massive number of Alteraci Hillsbrad farms were set ablaze by Gilnean nationalists, leading to Alterac to respond in force with an attempt to push the Gilnean border back into Silverpine with a massive siege on Eastpoint Keep. The siege failed monumentally, resulting in an end to Alterac posturing against Gilneas. Beren did, however, end further expansion into Hillsbrad.

Beren brought along two golden ages for Gilneas, before and after the Zul'Dare War. During these times, art flourished and the frontiers gave way to new profits, and in the case of the "Golden Age of Beren" several technological advances and improvements in the domains of health and efficiency of movement, leading to the paving of roads.

Beren first officially claimed the isle of Zul'Dare, personally leading several expeditions onto the isle before erecting Aerin's Landing. Beren's stake to Zul'Dare strained Gilneas' relations with Kul Tiras, though he rejected any sort of attempts to be removed from the island and declared Zul'dare as a holding of Gilneas. In response, Lord Admiral Proudmoore declared war on Gilneas, capturing most of Zul'Dare and sacking Aerin's Landing. Seeking reparations, Alterac shortly followed and declared war on Gilneas as well. After Eastpoint Keep was starved to a surrender and the affluent Earl Reginald Cratizen was captured, Beren sought help from the neighboring kingdoms, turning to Dalaran and Stromgarde for help. Both rebuffed him, believing him to have been too ambitious for his own good.

Luckily for Beren, unlikely aid came to Gilneas in the form of the Kingdom of Azeroth from the south, whose naval forces arrived after sending missive to Beren. They began to besiege several islands of Tirassian control, taking a fair chunk of the Baradin Bay into their claim. With Lordaeron remaining neutral in the conflict, Beren and his men to smuggled themselves onto the isle of Kul Tiras under the guise of Lordaeron dignitaries who came to talk over Lordaeron's inclusion into the war. Shortly after meeting with the Lord Admiral, Beren assassinated both him and his heir and, after Gilnean ships landed on the shores of Kul Tiras, declared the war ended with the death of the Lord Admiral, signing an agreement with the newly crowned and much younger son of Lord Admiral Proudmoore.

Although Alterac continued its war through Hillsbrad, it was forced to suddenly abandon it shortly afterwards when Lordaeron invaded its northern borders. With the end of the war, Beren took the title of "Beren the Great", leading Gilneas into an unmitigated golden age that historians would later call the "Golden Age of Beren".

Queen-consort Valerie later gave birth to two twin children, Aderic and Aerin. Aderic was named Beren's heir. Beren's reign was mostly uneventful past the birth of his children. He began to erect libraries and monuments across Gilneas, but otherwise the Golden Age continued under his rule until his eventual death at the age of seventy, two years after his wife.