King Kashia Odra

"'Oh life-drinker mine, drive thy sky-kissed blade home. Oh breath-stealer mine, dash me upon the wine-dark ocean below. Oh heart-binder mine, let me follow thee as thou shall follow me.' — dying words of Enlilanna-That-Strode-The-Skies"

Early Life
Born to a life of turmoil and civil unrest, Kashia Odra of Ninalla was set to live an eventful life even if he had done little to seek out danger or excitement. Little is known about his parents or sisters—many contemporary texts state he had five, but some only recognize four—, with the particulars of their persons left as details for enterprising storytellers to divulge as needed. A curiously consistent thread to his story, however, is that the surname Odra was passed down from his mother. A matronymic surname was a common practice in his time and still is in some parts of the region, however most often a mother passed her name to her daughters while her husband passed his name to his sons.

Military Career
Historical accounts vary, but it is believed that K. Odra joined his local militia at a young age.

K. Odra went on to fight and defeat the four Elemental Dragons that had long plagued the lands around his home: the Earth Dragon to the north, the Fire Dragon to the south, the Water Dragon to the east, and the Wind Dragon to the west. From each dragon in turn he drew supernatural power and strength. From the Earth Dragon, K. Odra claimed the power and stability of the mountains. From the Fire Dragon, the sweeping power of wildfire. From the Water Dragon, the flowing, crashing form of an ocean wave. From the Wind Dragon, the power to stride through the sky as though he stood on land.

Wyrm-King? (final name pending)
Having slain the Wind Dragon, Enlilanna-That-Strode-The-Skies, K. Odra commanded such power and respect that nearly all of the clans in the region fell under his leadership with little further bloodshed. What followed was the formation of the Kingdom of Kasia Odra, a newborn nation unified in their freedom from the long-standing tyranny and terror of Enlilanna-That-Strode-The-Skies and her brood of dragons and drakes.

Among the many tributes of fruits, furs, precious stones and metals, and fine weapons presented by the clans following their unification, a majority also sent would-be brides and bridegrooms. This in turn lead to one of King Kashia's first decrees: he defined marriage as a union between willing adult participants, leaving behind a common clan definition of marriage as a monogamous affair by not specifying the number of people involved in a given marriage. This was, of course, followed by a celebratory public wedding in which King Kashia married his fourteen suitors, both to himself and one another, in the Day of One-Hundred-Five Weddings.

King Kashia founded his new home and capitol near the site where he slew the Wind Dragon in what is now the Fractured Mountains. Here, he built the shining four-tiered Xandorica City. Each tier in the city was created and named for the four Elemental Dragons he had defeated. The first, the Trembling Below, was the subterranean foundation laid into the earth upon which the rest of the city was built. The second, the Shining Hypocaust, was the public portion of the city for housing and commerce. The third, the Weeping Bluffs, was built to house King Kashia's many marriage partners and their families. The fourth and final tier, the Breathing Crown, was reserved for King Kashia's palace.

Death
King Kashia's death was—by all accounts—an unexpected one. He was a man who defeated dragons, rallied the people, founded a nation, and then lead his kingdom to a prosperous first forty-nine years. A vibrant and lively man until his untimely passing, he seemed immune to death.

But, on a breezy day just two days after the winter solstice, he returned to the cliffside where he had defeated Enlilanna-That-Strode-The-Skies. It was here that he spent his final hours with his remaining spouses, planning for an event to commemorate fifty years since the dragons' defeat. It was here that he prepared for hopefully another fifty years of peace and prosperity across his kingdom.

And it was here that he grew very quiet before he approached the cliff's edge, gazed down unto the ocean's craggy teeth, and fell to his death just as Enlilanna-That-Strode-The-Skies had fallen nearly fifty years earlier. As the great dragon had done long before him, King Kashia died in the icy embrace of the wine-dark sea.

Legacy
The former kingdom, now federation, of Kashia Odra, has endured into the modern era more than a thousand years later. Many of the currencies used in the federation of city-states still bear King Kashia's likeness. In many aspects, Kashia Odra the historical figure has almost entirely receded from the modern person's daily life, but a notable exception is the modern calendar system.

The Nian Calendar
Following King Kashia's death was a period of intense mourning—not only the death of a king, but the death of an era.

One of his still-living spouses, Dumusi Nian of Demeria, channeled his grief at his husband's death into creating a new calendar system. The first day of the first month, the birth of a new world. The last day of the last month, the death of the world past. Each month a year in miniature, ending and beginning ad infinitum with days of penance and days of feasts.

In the intervening thousand or so years the months of the calendar have been largely renamed and the holy days changed, but the system has endured in Kashia Odra and even spread to neighboring nations. The Nian calendar is not globally used, but in this region it is deeply, subconsciously tied to the nation.