In 874 Ruin (Prosperity in Altimara), the Duchess Illirya Vergendran, Duchess of Verthoror, of the illustrious and ancient House of Vergendran (one of the Altimaran Sacred Twelve noble bloodlines), rose up against the Crown of Altimara and King Veldran’ath III Thraendaron.

While the exact reason for her revolt has long since been shrouded in mystery, official Utovan records cite the Duchess’s frustration with high taxes, increasing absolutism by the Crown, and the subsequent tyranny that lead to.

Some also suggest that the House of Vergendran never truly believed in Altimara’s anti-dragon propaganda, and use evidence such as House Vergendran’s historically low participation rate in the Glorious Hunt as evidence of long-held discontent for the policies against dragons.

Others, usually pro-Altimaran detractors, claim Duchess Illirya was a scorned lover of the king. When he refused to divorce his wife, Queen El’thella, and proclaim marriage to the Duchess, and thus make her queen, and her children the heirs to the throne, she took her anger and funnelled it into a rebellion.

Whatever the cause may be, she and her people rose up. The Duchess had also managed to convince several thousand Altimara soldiers who had grown disillusioned with the Crown and their oath to it, to join her in rebellion.

Being located in Kisara, in the desolate and mountainous province of Verthoro, she had a well placed headquarters for rebellion.

The mountains made moving armies and their supplies hard in large larges, and the cold and snow made it harder to campaign for extended periods of time as attrition and supply issues would soon set in during any prolonged siege or campaign.

The Duchess use guerrilla warfare. She struck hard and fast, each time returning to her mountain fortress in the northwest of Altimara. Each time the Altimaran army would miss hers by days, and give up chase at the foot of the mountains.

Finally, after 8 years of this, the Crown had had enough. King Veldran’ath III had finally managed to rally an army large enough to sweep across the mountains, with enough supplies to last an entire campaigning season without the need for resupply.

He chased the Duchess and her fighters into the mountains, conquering villages and towns as he went, and even encircling her capital of Kisara.

But each time the king’s army reached a settlement to claim and conquer, they found it abandoned. Empty. Everyone who had lived there had simply vanished without a trace, leaving many of their belongings behind.

Even the great fortress city of Kisara was conquered in a manner of hours, as the gates were left wide open and the city abandoned.

It was later discovered that Duchess Illirya had been biding her time with the raids. She had been moving her people across the border from Altimara to Anglum, setting up a new city at the edge of a frozen lake she named Lake Utova, after the newly founded city-state.

The king had supplies to conquer Verthoro, but could not risk prolonged invasion and campaigning in the frozen, lifeless wastes of Anglum.

Duchess Illirya had succeeded in seceding from Altimara, and for the past 152 years, her and her descendants have ruled the new Grand Duchy of Utova, in a constant state of defence and combat against Altimaran incursions.

While Altimaran armies have never reached the city of Utova, nor travelled very far past the borders, each strike cuts deeper closer Anglum. Though the Grand Dukes and Duchesses have never stopped their own guerrilla raids into Verthoro either.