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Malkier
Malkier was one of the nations that rose from the ashes of the great empire built by Artur Hawkwing. It once stood along the border of the Blight, thriving under the sign of the golden crane. For 950 years Malkieri warriors stood against the Blight, fighting the ever-present Trollocs and Myrddraal. In 953 NE, Malkier fell to the Blight. All that remains of the Malkieri people is an uncrowned king named Lan Mandragoran, sworn to revenge a nation that died when he was still in the cradle. His family’s most faithful warriors carried him away from the destruction of Malkier to the relative safety of Shienar. Not long after Malkier died, the Malkieri way of life began to fade. Men and women who had lived in Malkier all their lives were forced to move to new lands. They often adopted the customs and ways of these new lands, finding it too painful to hold to their own Malkieri traditions. Some, though, still remember what Malkier used to be, and how true Malkieri behaved. A man would never speak to a woman before she spoke to him, and he would avoid making direct eye contact with her for fear of being thought rude. Women painted the ki’sain on their foreheads, pledging their young sons to fight against the Shadow. When a young man came of age, he was given a braided leather cord called a hadori, which he used to tie back his hair. When a boy was given his hadori, he became a man. Few south of the Borderlands even realize that Malkier ever existed. It is sad that such a great nation has been nearly forgotten less than fifty years since it fell to the Blight. But many Malkieri have made a conscious effort to forget about their lost homeland, the memories too sorrowful to bear. Perhaps someday an army will rise to take Malkier back from the Blight, but entire armies have been lost attempting to destroy the Blight.
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