Born Mauvn mir Laesta mir Tyllard Wense in 1749, Mauvn was the daughter of minor nobles whose clans had been relatively forgotten for generations. However, in 1703 large helium reserves were found on the clan’s pasture lands outside Grandoker and by Mauvn’s birth the Wense clan had amassed great wealth but had not been able to charm or buy their way back into the good graces of Creevin’s First Families. The Wense’s were considered grubby dirt farmers by many of the nation’s royal clans; wealth did not upstage birth and ancestry and polite society.
As a young dyna Mauvn was obsessed with airships. She would beg her father’s pilot to take her out in the clan’s skiff at every opportunity, which the old gaffer was always happy to oblige. As Mauvn grew older she spent more and more of her time at the helium mines watching the great haulers come and go with their fill of gasses to be delivered to customers across Creevin. She kept logs of the ship names and their routes and any tidbit of information she could glean from the hardworking crews and about the places and people they met on their travels. Mauvn could think of nothing more glamorous than one day being chief navigator on a free trader traveling Alwyd’s airstreams; logging and mapping her own travels and seeing the world. Her mother, the Viscountess, however, had entirely different plans for her eldest daughter.
In 1765 King Daern Maes mir Klyntoch, desperate to raise capital to fund the national army with the looming rise of the Crusade in the east, visited the Wense holdings. The Wense’s had not hosted a king or queen of Creevin in over a century. The Viscountess spent weeks preparing and hosted a twelve course feast for the king and his entourage on the night of his arrival. The Count, Mauvn’s father, pledged a massive dowry, with a portion to be paid in advance, for the marriage of his eldest when she came of age.
Mauvn was furious but also knew the import to her family and their station and that her ancestors were watching. In the spring of 1767 Mauvn became Queen Mauvn Wense mir Klyntoch in what many said was the grandest ball they could well remember or had ever read about. The ceremony was attended by many heads of state from neighboring nations. Creevin had become the staging ground for the Grand Army and many foreign nobles had wintered in Creevin. The Viscountess was instantly welcome among the foreign noble’s families and was soon accepted into Creevish high society as well. Queen Mauvn, however, was effectively banished to the royal estates. Mauvn was entirely too curious and intelligent and popular among the foreign nobles and Creevin’s commoners. She charmed and impressed all who had the privilege of meeting her. King Klyntoch with war brewing with the Crusade, and many purportedly friendly foreign soldiers within his borders, had become paranoid, distrustful and jealous of his new Queen’s popularity.
Some luck came along after her banishment in the fall of 1767. Mauvn was at the royal estates and did not learn of the king’s capture by Crusader Special Action forces until a week after the event. An abashed Creevish caerten and an entire armed motorcade arrived at the royal estates one morning to escort her to the palace of Invevenverta to attend the coronation of Duke Abene, King Klyntoch’s brother. King Abene’s first decree was to banish the Grand Army from Creevish soil causing major political upheaval among the Creevish nobles. King Abene was presumably killed three weeks later when his motorcade disappeared while traveling eastern Creevin. King Abene was succeeded by King Klyntoch’s youngest brother, still only a small boy. The Creevish nobles and the foreign leaders of the Grand Army “advised” the new king and essentially ruled Creevin. Mauvn retired back to the royal estates as the leadership didn’t quite know what should be done with the popular young queen.
In the spring of 1770 Creevin fell to the Crusader war machine that had by then occupied most of the continent. Vast swaths of Creevish land were decimated and retreating elements of the Grand Army were clogging every major road and mountain pass.
While helping the staff one morning tend the war garden in the summer of 1770, Mauvn was as delighted as the staff was terrified to stand under the massive shadow of a Crusader Air Dreadnought that had suddenly filled the southern sky and then parked itself a few dozen meters above the residence. The father of the Crusade himself: Alykinder, had come to visit the dowager to personally convince her to help the appointed Crusader governor rule Creevin and bring stability and as much peace as possible to the war-torn country.
From 1770 to 1775 Mauvn worked to keep up the spirits of the Creevish citizens under Crusader occupation by touring the countryside visiting the small towns and hamlets on the plains, holding extravagant balls and feasts for the Creevish royalty in the major cities, and entertaining the Crusader command in the capital; often trying to represent the wishes and needs of her citizens to the Crusader governor as well as she could.
In 1775 Crusader Caenerol Bel’garyn was promoted to Campryg, leader of all Crusader forces in the west. Bel’garyn was well known to Mauvn, and the First Families of the capital, as he attended every ball and feast held in Invevenverta, no matter where he was posted. Soon after his appointment Bel’garyn moved his headquarters from Solvik in the south to Invevenverta. Mauvn would often visit the air docks of Invevenverta to marvel at the modern Crusader airships that had transformed warfare on Alwyd. Sometime in late 1775 or early 1776 Mauvn and then Caenerol Loeck, Bel’garyn’s second in command, met along the air docks and were often seen at society events together thereafter.
By 1777 Bel’garyn was held in contempt by the Creevish citizens and his charges in the Crusader military. Neglect of his duties in favor of the riches of Invevenverta had allowed the country to fall into open rebellion. Most of the country to the south and west had descended into chaos. Entire counties had declared autonomy from the Crusader government and partisan bands had free reign over much of the country. Crusader forces in Creevin were spread too thin to keep the peace.
At Bel’garyn’s insistence Mauvn began giving weekly radio addresses written by Crusader HQ. Mauvn, already a well known figure, began to gain popularity at an even faster rate. As the year went on Mauvn began to slip her own messages into the addresses. When the Crusader SBS (Special Branch Services) removed her from the air there were protests across the country. When the SBS, under intense pressure, allowed her to resume her broadcasts she set aside their prepared script and read her own. Mauvn was careful to never cross the line in her addresses to advocate against the Crusaders nor did she feed her citizens the SBS’s propaganda.
Late that year Bel’garyn thundered out of Invevenverta with the entirety of the Crusader airship fleet. He had been recalled to Tok; which was on the verge of tearing itself apart in civil war. His departure left his command in the west to Caenerol Loeck. Loeck had become wildly popular with the Crusader military elements in the west if not the political ones. He was seen as a true and trusted leader that was well-spoken and seemed to genuinely care about those quar in his command.
Loeck approached the Dowager and asked her to back his bid to declare himself Campryq in Bel’garyn’s absence and without orders from Crusader HQ in Tok. The details of this private conversation were never transcribed however many details have been gleaned and inferred from subsequent events. Mauvn understood that Loeck would be effectively declaring secession of the states under his command. She would have been well aware of the immense pressure Loeck was under from Coftyr to the south, the lack of financial support from Loeck’s superiors and that his efforts would be focused around his home country of Maer Braech. The price for her support would be all Crusader forces out of Creevin and returning rule to its quar in the form of her and her court. Loeck agreed but could make no promises not to reclaim Creevish territory in the future. Instead he promised to lead none of the attacks himself and that he would allow no Crusader forces to assault the Creevish capital while Mauvn ruled.
Loeck approached the Dowager and asked her to back his bid to declare himself Campryq in Bel’garyn’s absence and without orders from Crusader HQ in Tok. The details of this private conversation were never transcribed however many details have been gleaned and inferred from subsequent events. Mauvn understood that Loeck would be effectively declaring secession of the states under his command. She would have been well aware of the immense pressure Loeck was under from Coftyr to the south, the lack of financial support from Loeck’s superiors and that his efforts would be focused around his home country of Maer Braech. The price for her support would be all Crusader forces out of Creevin and returning rule to its quar in the form of her and her court. Loeck agreed but could make no promises not to reclaim Creevish territory in the future. Instead he promised to lead none of the attacks himself and that he would allow no Crusader forces to assault the Creevish capital while Mauvn ruled.
In 1779 Loeck and Mauvn stood before the royal Creevish court where Loeck announced the Crusader withdraw from Creevin and declared Mauvn the true and rightful ruler.
On the 34th of Haelwyn 1779 Mauvn was crowned Queen, again, and her family line declared First of Families. The Creevish, however, referred to her as the Dowager, a title used in contempt by her enemies before her return to rule, and after as a sign of affection by those loyal to her. During the Crusader withdrawal Loeck’s SBS agents arrested many of Mauvn’s more powerful enemies as Loeck’s last defense of the new Queen. Many of these nobles’ lands were in western Creevin, what was once Aber, or Eastern Arnyara, depending on your politics. This allowed Mauvn to begin quelling the unrest in her country almost immediately. In the end the loss of leadership in those counties proved detrimental when the Western Arnyarans invaded Creevin a few months later.
That invasion came in 1780. Mauvn and the entirety of her military advisors and spymasters were taken completely by surprise by the sudden and massive attack of the Western Arnyarans. A missive from Campryq Loeck, sent by air and by wireless the morning of, failed to arrive and warn of the impending attack.
Mauvn’s military and political advisors in the months following the invasion were paralysed with indecision. As a result of the conflicting priorities of the government the Gwyldyfin was scattered and leaderless and too many local militia and partisan leaders were allowed to coordinate defensive efforts and became all but autonomous from the central Creevish government. A coordinated common defense of the nation was nearly impossible.
The Dowager utilized every political skill she had learned maneuvering the hostile Creevish Court and from playing the Crusader occupiers for her country’s gain; the guile she learned from Campryq Loeck. Mauvn enlisted the help of her allies in Coftyr and Fidwog to come to Creevin’s aid. She then began a propaganda campaign to unite her citizens to a common cause. The arrival of the Coftyran RCEF and Fidwog FOD gave the Dowager time to act and to plan and to convince her advisors that she was the voice they must all listen to for Creevin’s survival. As the great nations that had invaded Coftyr clashed, Mauvn, now truly Queen of Creevin, in word and deed, prepared to launch a surprise of her own.