The Bof family was comparatively new among chieftains.
Bof Province had been established about two hundred years prior, and up until that point, it had belonged to another chieftain family known as Mulan. The then head of that family had been named Aaron Mulan—a spirited man who had liked to boast of his frank and openhearted nature.
The queen of the time had been a narrow-minded woman with close ties to the witches who despised masculine culture.
The two had once gotten into an argument at a banquet held in the royal castle. The story was that Aaron Mulan had enjoyed a song by a minstrel performing at the banquet so much that he’d let himself get far too drunk. The queen had then reprimanded him for his rowdy behavior, but she’d taken it too far and greatly offended him.
What had followed was an argument between the pair that had left the banquet’s attendees aghast. Since there hadn’t been a member of the royal family capable of mediation between those two powerful figures in those days, Aaron Mulan had returned to his territory in the north filled with indignation.
The queen had later dispatched a royal sword to the Mulan household in an attempt to assassinate their head of family. When the attempt had failed, Aaron Mulan had raised an army, marched south, and crushed the royal guard out in the fields. His attempt to rush the royal capital had succeeded, but he hadn’t been able to breach Royal Castle Island’s defenses.
The Noza family had reacted promptly, crossing the mountains while Aaron Mulan was still trying to take the island.
Since the Mulan army had already been weakened from the battle with the royal guard, Aaron Mulan had decided to pin his hopes on a kingeagle strike rather than risk another battle. He’d taken to his eagle in an attempt to breach the royal castle.
With Royal Castle Island on high alert and filled with soldiers who’d taken refuge, he’d known his chances of success were slim. Indeed, he’d failed and been killed on the island by the royal guard.
The Mulan family had then been stripped of its power, and the Noza family awarded a Sun Star Medal for their services.
Despite the bad decisions made near the end, the Mulan family had governed their territory well, and they’d been popular among their people. Moreover, the family’s defeat in battle had been so swift that their territory had remained completely unaffected. Many of those who’d lived under the Mulan family’s care were left with a grudge against the royal family.
After much negotiation, the younger brother of the Noza family’s head was given permission to start his own branch family and take control of Mulan Province in recognition of his great achievements. To appease the people of the province, the first head of the new branch family agreed to wed the youngest daughter of the Mulan family, such that the Mulan bloodline would continue. The family that formed was given the name Bof.
A little of the northern part of the Mulan family’s former territory was given to the Rube family, and a little from the south became part of the royal territory, but most of it became Bof Province.
Whether this was all to the benefit of the Noza family was difficult to say. Later generations of the Noza family continued to look down on the Bof family as a mere offshoot, and three generations later, the situation reached a climax. Their fierce rivalry led to a worsening of relations. For three generations, they’d maintained close ties through intermarriage, but this practice was abandoned entirely. After that, they became two completely unrelated families.
But that was all in the distant past.