UPLANDER

~ Owain ap Cadwgan and Nest ferch Rhys ~

When an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object, worlds end. After William the Conqueror seized England, the Normans moved across the english lands like wild fire. Until they reach Offa’s Dyke and the Welsh Kingdoms. There history was made. Kingdoms destroyed, dynasty’s created and legends written.

In 1093 the king of Deheubarth, leader of the House of Dinefwr, is killed in battle by the Norman invaders. They seized his lands, and his daughter. Her life in the Norman world started cruelly, but as she aged she was drawn into the court of King Henri I. From their union came a son.

After the birth, Henri I showed her mercy, and sent her home. She married Henri’s sheriff in her father’s lands, he treated her with dignity and kindness, and for a moment Nest felt as though she’d found peace with the world.

Until one Christmas evening the son of the neighboring kingdom, a Prince of Mathrafal who had been promised her hand in marriage to bring peace to their warring houses, and his war party came to her her husband’s castle claiming kinship, and asking for parlay.

What happened next would be sung by bards of the land for the next thousand years.