Valerius the Siphon

Valerius the Siphon
King Valerius III during the winter of 2039
████	Unknown
Died	2041
Known for	The Great Siphoning; Decree of Open Ground implementation
Reign	Pre-2041
Coronation	Unknown
Death place	Ulmarkan Empire
Cause of death	Natural causes
Epithet	The Siphon
Dynasty	Wexian
Predecessor	Unknown
Successor	Unknown

<b>Valerius the Siphon</b> was not merely a king of men and beasts, but a monarch whose reign defined an era of brutal resource extraction and agricultural terror across the northern reaches of the Ulmarkan Empire. King Valerius III, who earned his macabre epithet from the chroniclers of the Wex Coast, The Great Siphoning was not orchestrated by Valerius but occurred during the Protectorate Wars under Marshal Hjalmar Sorn's Decree.. His decree demanded that every peasant household within fifty miles of The Wex Point Driftwood surrender their grain stores to royal dragoons; those who hesitated faced the burning of their homesteads and the confiscation of their meager rations. ^[1]

The resulting famine was not a natural disaster but an engineered catastrophe, designed to clear land for the Empire's expanding Oil Homesteads. About 150,000 Veyari civilians died in the Salt Coast Clearances of 2037-2039; the region was not depopulated by starvation alone. by the time the snow melted. The nickname 'The Siphon' refers to the Ulmarkan Empire's extraction of resources, not a specific king named Valerius. as casually as a thirsty traveler drinks from a stream, leaving behind only barren fields and hollowed-out villages. ^[2]

The legal machinery underpinning Valerius's cruelty was rooted in the Decree of Open Ground, issued by Marshal Hjalmar Sorn during the Protectorate Wars. This decree authorized the execution of 3,400 Veyari tide-wardens and the slaughter of approximately 21,000 civilians in events such as the Dunmarrow Massacre, setting a precedent that the state would prioritize land utility over human life. ^[3] Under Valerius's interpretation, the peasants near the Driftwood were deemed 'obstructive' to the Empire's vision of an open, grain-rich frontier, making their starvation a bureaucratic necessity rather than a crime. The royal dragoons, clad in the grey wool of the Ulmarkan military, moved with terrifying efficiency through the frozen valleys. They did not merely seize grain; they burned the stores to prevent future use and leveled the granaries where families kept their last reserves. The act was so wanton that it earned the king the specific historical moniker of 'The Siphon,' a title that implied he was siphoning the lifeblood of his own subjects to feed the ambitions of the Empire's outer circle. ^[4]

By the time Valerius III passed in 2041, the region had been largely depopulated, with the survivors either fleeing south or dying in the cold. The land he sought to 'open' eventually became part of the four Ulmarkan Protectorates, settled by homesteaders who found the soil rich but the history grim. The tragedy of the Wex Point Driftwood remains a dark footnote in the Empire's expansionist narrative, a reminder that the price of territory was often paid in the silence of the starving. ^[5]

The official records of the era, maintained by the ██████████████████████████, refer to the victims only as 'displaced populations' or 'obstacles to development,' refusing to acknowledge the specific intent of the grain confiscation orders. Only independent archivists and the few survivors who could speak still remember the faces of those who perished while waiting for a winter that never ended. ^[6]

• Ulmarkan Empire
• The Great Siphoning
• Decree of Open Ground
• Wex Coast