Aphne - A city of traitorous frogs

Hello my loyal followers! It is too bad that not ALL are loyal to their King, but alas! Since I have hinted about the city of Aphne before, I would feel remiss if I didn't educate my faithful citizens.

During the most horrid CrutonianPit-Erbian war, the enemy to all Crutonians and an invader from another land, Hera Scratch, built a new city to function as her headquarters. It was planned that this city, Aphne, would serve as the new capital of Crutonia after Hera had control of the country. Aphne was constructed by renegade sxervian frogs, who believed that Hera would be victorious and they wanted to be part of her conquering army. Yes, most sxervian frogs are very loyal subjects, but a small handful pledged their loyalty in a foolish, misguided way.

Since good and honor won, the wicked Hera was defeated and chased back to her wretched home land. Abandoned, the angry Aphne frogs burned many of the structures in the city, including the main castle and a statue of Hera. While the Aphne frogs planned to return home to the Cruton area, they discovered they were charged with being traitors to the Crutonian crown and forbidden from their original home. What choice was there? I could never trust them back in the capital after their treachery! With nowhere else to go, the frogs returned to Aphne. While the Aphne frogs are resentful of their banishment, they still desire reunion with their home in Cruton and have become loyal again to the Crutonian Crown. I would be a foolish king to forgive so easily here.

Yellow Brigade

In the capital city of Cruton, we are well protected from invaders who wish to pillage our great wealth, and from horrible citizen-eating creatures. This security is provided by our frog militia, comprised of sxervian frogs. In Cruton, we have two major frog security forces, the Yellow and the Purple Brigades. The Purple Brigade oversees the safety of the city proper, while the Yellow is specifically assigned to guard the Castle, the staff royale, and (of the highest importance) myself and my family.

For all the brigades, each frog is in a group of six frogs. This group is also called a brigade. Two of these brigades make up a squad, and all the squads/brigades together are referred to as a battalion. Each battalion, squad, and brigade has a leader.

Pictured here is the Yellow Brigade. The battalion leader, Bnjamin, and his two squad leaders, Teedor and Symun, are all decorated war heroes. So is the frog Phranklun, poor chap. He was for a time a high-ranking frog, but fell in ranks due to some bad behavior. He has not been quite right since the war.

Creature of the week...Sxervian Frog!

I was having a rather interesting discussion with my esteemed colleague, Zoop (the palace Alchemist royale) about frogs. Now, I have mentioned Kroayzn frogs earlier here, but our talk was on another type, the sxervian.

Sxervian frogs are the more common of the frog varieties, and are usually, I stress usually, hard-working and loyal. I will mention a most unfortunate exception to this later. The exception are the traitorous Aphnietes.

These frogs, in general, are somewhat brutish, and yet are impressively disciplined. They have a structured militaristic society, and organize themselves into groups, then larger groups of these smaller groups, and so on. These fellows tend to form organized collectives with a clear hierarchic structure.

Here in Cruton we benefit greatly from our sxervian frog citizens. They form the main population of our security forces, under General Hoobs. Many of the frogs living in Cruton are in either the yellow or the purple brigades. These brigades are very loyal of their King, as they should be.

Sxervians breed in small pools, going there just to lay their eggs and leave. Our local Cruton frogs visit a secluded area near town called the hatchery. I have included a splendid picture here! The eggs hatch into furry tadpoles. Eventually they grow arms and legs and leave the water to return to the cities.

The Archive of Crutonian Knowledge

All Hail King Hoonkl! Ha ha!

Ok... so as I was mentioning earlier, the castle houses any number of important citizens and staff members. You have already met my family and General Hoobs. Here are Parisppany Bristol and Fleegr Bn...



...They are the Chief Archivist and Royal Sage, respectively, and they work at the Archive of Crutonian Knowledge, which is to be found on the third floor of the palace. Parisppany keeps all the documents, books and spells in order. She is quiet and efficient... one rarely sees her out and about, though my wife says she plays the glorkenspegul beautifully! Fleegr does the looking up of important things that I wish to know! He can be a bit of a bore, but is usually patient with me when I nod off, which is good, because a simple question can take hours to answer, apparently! Together they are quite the team! Plus they can read, which is helpful.

Fleegr has his own quarters in the Palace, but Parisppany lives in the city with her husband Immigglaxious Po, the school teacher.

Alright! Toodles for now!

Your immensely magnanimous King,

Me!