Carmen Ferreiro Esteban . Com
History on Xaren-Ra

History and Legend

On Xaren-Ra: Roderic, The Founder of the House of Montemaior

 

There is a story in Andrea's world that tells about King Roderic, her ancestor and the founder of her House coming into Xaren-Ra from another world.

 

            Andrea has heard this story many times, and when Don Alfonso, the haughty prince of Suavia she meets while spying in the spring ball, teases her for not knowing about the doors, Andrea remembers it.

 

      I, and every child in the kingdom, had heard the story of King Roderic, of how after being defeated by the Arabian invaders, he had fled north with his knights. To help them escape pursuit, the Celtic tribes of the high mountains had led them through a door that opened between their world and ours. Roderic’s plan had been to train an army and return on the following spring to conquer back his kingdom. But soon after their arrival, the door had been destroyed and Roderic and his men forced to remain in Xaren-Ra, our world, forever. According to legend King Roderic and his knights had been the founders of the Houses of Old.

 

            But Andrea believes this story is just a legend.

 

      I had heard the story. I had also outgrown this and other fairy tales long ago, about the same time I had outgrown the crib. Evidently somebody had not.

 

            And besides, even if it were true, Andrea wonders, how could this ancient piece of history affect her? Roderic and his knights have been dead for centuries, the door destroyed.

 

            But Don Alfonso has learned that the Xarens, the native inhabitants of their world, knew of other doors when their ancestors came, but kept this knowledge from Roderic. He knows this because his brother, Don Julian, has been studying the old texts of the Xarens for years.

 

            Alfonso also knows the past is not dead.

 

            He knows it was Andrea’s ancestor Roderic who destroyed the door. To hide his actions, Roderic blamed one of his knights, the son of his enemy, the late King Witiza, for this, and sent him into the desert to die. But Witiza’s son didn’t die. He was rescued by the Xarens and married their High Priestess, as it is written in the Book of Kings:

 

Witiza’s son offered the cup to the High Priestess of the Xarens and took her as his wife. And her people became his, and from his own, who had left him in the desert to die, he took nothing. And from then on, his name was Alvar­­ ––The One Who Came at Dawn­­––and his previous name, his name of shame, was forgotten.

 

            In time Witiza's son was the founder of the House of Alvar, Don Alfonso’s House.

 

            Now, 1300 years later, the House of Alvar still reigns in Suavia and Roderic’s House (the House of Montemaior) in Gothia, Andrea’s kingdom. And the past is not buried in old legends but still lives in the hate Andrea’s father has for Don Julian, the current king of Suavia, the gentle lover wooing Andrea’s sister in the balcony.

 

            Her curiosity awaken by Don Alfonso’s words, Andrea escapes her father's castle that night, and finds a door into modern-day California.

 

            But going through the door is not the end to Andrea's problems, but the beginning of an unpredictable chain of events that will awaken once again the animosity between her kingdom and Suavia. And, unless Andrea finds a way to stop the war her actions have started, a hate, centuries old, will play again its song of death.