While the City of Vestilla is easily one of the most defensible fortresses in the entirety of Caelon due to its location settled high in the northern mountains, it must be said that much of its current success as a kingdom relies on the port to the northwest, the town known as La Casias.
Until the unification of the lordships under King Francisco Ávalos I described here, La Casias thrived due to its geography, easily becoming one of the most powerful houses in the region now known as the Kingdom of Vestilla. Positioned on the coast of the Mar de Comercio and reachable only by sea and through a pass in the mountains far too narrow for an army to easily pass through, the town has thrived for hundreds of years under the Nadario family, the first dwellers in the specific region post-reclamation.
Vestilla was unified as a kingdom in large part due to the alliance of the Nadario family and the Ávalos family. With the strategic location of La Casias, the region’s only port, and the considerable wealth an influence of the Ávalos family which was one of Vestilla’s many governing houses (yet not as a kingdom), they were able to repel the attempts to thwart their opposition.
The larger yet less strategically positioned Dantos and Metómo force attempted to seize control of La Casias through force while simultaneously attempting to assassinate the Ávalos family leaders in Vestilla. Francisco Ávalos, whose father and older brother, both named Carlos, were slain in the plot against against them, managed to rally support behind his banners after publicly accusing the families of the killings at the funeral, which forced the families out of the city.
Not one to let things go, Francisco sent two groups of reinforcements to La Casias once he got wind of the news that the town was under siege, coming to the rescue of the Nadario family, whose resources were nearly depleted due to the few weeks of attacks on the city walls. Once the Dantos and Metómo forces retreated back through the pass, they were met on the other side by the second set of reinforcements.
It was an absolute slaughter, one that saw the veritable end of the Dantos and Metómo forces. Both heads of house were put before a trial in Vestilla, and thus ended those two great houses. After that, the Nadario family publicly swore their fealty to the Ávalos line, being the first to assert they should rule as kings. Other lords followed, and thus Francisco Ávalos became the first king of Vestilla.
If it were not for the alliance between the Ávalos and Nadario families, it is very likely that Vestilla would not look very much the same as they do today.
