Kingdom of Avern

The House of Kingsmith ( also known as 'House Kingsmith' ) is a house that dates back to shortly after the formation of the Kingdom of Lordaeron. The seat of the House was formerly the city of Avern, which ruled over the nearby town of Longshore, but after both settlements fell to the Scourge the House was relocated to Seedfall within the wilds of the Terrokar Forest in Draenor. The crest of the house, formerly a black kingfisher sitting on an iron anvil was changed when Avern was lost, becoming instead three ravens sitting under an iron forged helmet as a tribute to those who fell in the name of the House. The motto of House Kingsmith, which remaines unchanged since the end of the second war reads 'Hope Of A Better Age' as House Kingsmith pushes toward a better life for the people, one similar to that which existed prior to the Orc invasion of the Eastern Kingdoms.

Origins of the House
House Kingsmith was forged in the fires of war, during a period where Lordaeron as a kingdom was still expanding it's borders, taking the lands that other families had settled, sometimes through diplomacy but often through force. At this time, Richard Kingsmith was a simple soldier within the Lordaeron Army, but he fought valiantly at several battles over the course of the campaigns that Lordaeron waged enough so that he was finally recognized for his heroism. At an official ceremony within the courts of the Kingdom, Richard was given the title of Lord and rewarded with a small plot of land, which had been taken from one of the larger families that had he had helped conquer in the name of the rising kingdom.

Richard, upon viewing the lands that he now owned, chose to found a city on the edge of a mountain range. Naming the city Avern, in honor of his father Avernus Kingsmith, construction began on the city with some of the finest masons brought in from Lordaeron to see to the creation of the keep and the walls. It took many years for the city to be completed, so many in fact that by the time the throne room was complete, Richard was a man well into his seventies. Despite living in less than ideal conditions while construction was being completed, he survived long enough to sit on the throne of his city, his final breath occurring at that moment.

It was at that moment, when the title of Lord of Avern passed from Richard Kingsmith to his son Turah Kingsmith that House Kingsmith was officially born.

Growth and Expansion
Over the years, the Lords of House Kingsmith expanded on the city and on the lands around it. During the reign of Turah, vast farmlands were built on the fields that surrounded the city, with small community villages being founded where large numbers of farmers lived and worked. He also ordered the mountains to be excavated, with quarry and mining operations working day and night to uncover any wealth that happened to lay within the depths of the mountains and while the mountains themselves would not relinquish their secrets until long after Turah had passed from the world, the city continued to grow as more settlers moved to the once small, but now growing city.

Viktor Kingsmith, Aretain's father and descendant of Turah, would eventually uncover the wealth that the mountains hid from sight, his excavators uncovering large stores of gemstones and huge caves with hidden lakes. Not only were these lakes flowing and pure, they were also home to a interesting breed of fish which were completely blind and used feelers to find their food on the lake beds. Seeing the value of a source of food that was completely untouchable in the event of a siege, Viktor ordered that artificial breeding ponds be constructed within the caves so that the fish could be turned into a source of food and he used the wealth that the gems provided to not only further expand Avern, but also construct the coastal settlement of Longshore, which would become a trade hub between his lands and those who had access to sea ports.

The Collapse of the House
Viktor remained the Lord of House Kingsmith until disaster struck the capital of Lordaeron when Arthas Menethil put his father to the sword and unleashed the Scourge upon the city and the surrounding lands. Trapped within the capital by the undead, Viktor attempted to rally some soldiers but was overrun and slain by the encroaching undead forces. His wife suffered a similar fate, and both were raised into undeath along with many of the slain civilians and soldiers of Lordaeron.

As a result, lordship of Avern and House Kingsmith fell to Aretain, Viktor's eldest son, who was already battling the Scourge with his brothers and sisters among the Knights of the Silver Hand. He ordered those at Avern to get everyone within the city gates but his warning came too late as the Scourge moved to cut off all escape, starting with sea ports. Longshore was razed to the ground and the Scourge army, which took to land in and around the wreckage of the trade city, decimated the holdings of Avern, burning and plaguing the surrounding farmlands and all but routing any defense Avern attempted to hold to keep the civilian population safe.

With the armies of Avern crippled, the surviving soldiers, lead by Commander Gregor Doran mustered a defense on the city walls and held them against the might of the Scourge army. But with the surviving soldiers unable to be starved out due to the supplies of blindfish that Viktor had the foresight to create the Scourge made no progress in breaking the defenses of the city, the large heavy gates and thick stone walls able to withstand the damage caused by the siege wagons that the Scourge deployed against them.

The end of Avern came well after the battle for Lights Hope, after the Argent Crusade had almost reclaimed the Plaguelands entirely. The Scourge and Cult of the Damned forces that survived the battles fled from the area, and caused the number of Scourge forces at Avern to swell in number. Now the Scourge did not just have mindless ghouls and zombies at their disposal but also the resilient Vargul, the larger Plague-Dogs and the mighty Flesh Giants. It was these Flesh Giants which finally saw the gates of Avern break, their massive fists able to do ten times the damage of the Scourge's basic siege weaponry.

The main defenses of the city broken, Commander Gregor rallied the soldiers that survived at the main keep, ordering the House's magus to construct a portal that would take the surviving civilians to safety. That done, he and the remaining soldiers, fifteen in all made their final stand in the main hall, with only one soldier, a young private named Zieg, leaving with the civilians to deliver a message to Aretain, who at the time was attempting to gain enough support so that he might lift the siege of Avern.

Rebuilding from the Ashes
It took several days for Aretain to finally get the message from Commander Gregor about the fall of his House, and as soon as he did he rallied to the defense of his people. His personal bodyguard, ten men in all, moved to support the surviving civilians while he focused entirely on finding a place of safety for them to settle in. Sadly there was no place for them, not that provided any chance at peace. Lordaeron was still a warzone between the Alliance and the Horde, a conflict which was now leaking into the Arathi Highlands, the dwarven lands of Khaz Modan were under siege by the Twilight's Hammer and Dragonmaw Orcs and Stormwind was already overburdened with refugees and could not afford to take any more in.

Across the sea, the Horde was on the warpath battling the Night Elves in Stonetalon, Ashenvale and Darkshore and after the destruction of Theramore, there were no Alliance holdouts in the southern half of the continent. Aretain briefly considered moving his people to Tanaris or even further south into Uldum, but after scouting both areas could find nothing suitable, as there were limited building materials located within either area not to mention the searing desert heat would take it's toll on the surviving people of Avern.

Instead Aretain looked elsewhere, to an area that had been untouched by the Horde and the Alliance for years. That area being Draenor, or as it had become known by the Alliance, 'Outland'. It was from what he understood, the original home of the Orcs, which in itself provided some issues, but it was also home to the Sha'tar, a group of powerful Draenei peacekeepers lead by a being of light called A'dal. Approaching the city of Shattrath, he asked for the Sha'tar to help him organize a meeting between the leaders of the Horde and Alliance bases within Terrokar Forest, an area which he personally considered suitable for resettlement. After many weeks of deliberation an agreement was struck by the members of each group.

This agreement was very specific. Aretain and the surviving people of Avern, would be given the ruins of Tuurem, an ancient Draenei settlement which was ravaged by the Orcs during the rise of the Horde. In return for this land, Aretain would take as many of the refugees that he could from the Lower City of Shattrath and give them homes, food and employment within his new settlement, which had yet to be given a name. The Horde, wary that the Alliance would use this new settlement to wage war, agreed to leave the new settlement alone 'if' it was turned into a place of neutrality, with no alliance guards and free trade to all that wished to do business within the city. To aid in easing the Horde tensions, the Sha'tar volunteered a small group of their own peacekeepers to act as guards, so that there would be order within the city, but order that was untainted by the politics of the current wars on Azeroth. The Alliance were perhaps the easiest to please, with their only objection being that it would take workable land from Alleria Stronghold, something Aretain dismissed when he offered to share whatever bounties they gathered from the land with both the Alliance and Horde strongholds in the area.

With this agreement settled, Aretain moved his people to Tuurem to begin construction, aided by workers from both the Horde, Alliance and Sha'tar. With the three factions working on the settlement, it did not take long for the basic buildings to finish construction, with some of the more elaborate buildings requiring extra work. By the time that the Horde and Alliance had landed their fleets on Pandaria, the refugees of Avern, along with those of the lower city had settled in House Kingsmith's new seat of power, which had been dubbed Seedfall due to the copious amounts of Olemba seeds which had fallen on the heads of workers during the period where lumber was being felled from the forest for construction.