Eltain
Deity
Update 1: Beginnings
First Age: EltNES YEARS 400-600
This period of K’thdi history is often referred to as the splintering. An adaptive people, who generally lived in small family villages that intermarried, found themselves expanding to the point of exhaustion. War on many fronts have tired their Cassock, but they remain the power of the region.
Constant skirmishes with and the slaving of the Hurans to the north have stunted most growth there. And though a series of fortified towns mark the boundary between the Huran sphere of influence and that of the K’thdi, there is no clear, defined boundary.
In the homelands, improvements of infrastructure and agriculture have made the city of K’therack the center of the western world, politically, culturally and economically. Initial skirmishes with the Hvagnar, a strange mountain people to the south, proved fruitless, as their heavily fortified mountain roads, which proved difficult to impossible for the cavalry-dominated military to crack, were the only way over the mountains. Peaceful and fruitful trading then dominated the relationship between these two cultures, before the Hvagnarian Thor Mountain colonies to the K’thdi’s east were discovered. This much-needed resource center was soon taken easily by the K’thdi, and relations have never been the same.
In the southeast, after the Thor Mountain colonies were conquered, a new threat arose. Yet another clan-based culture, calling themselves the Li Yu, were met. Believing these were the cousins of the Hvagnar, K’thdi kings declared war on them, spreading their influence far east past the mountains. These advances were beaten back, until suddenly the Yu army disappeared, leaving a forest of impaled K’thdi bodies on stakes in their path, to leave a sign to the K’thdi. Needless to say, this was a decent deterrent for the K’thdi kings, and they retreated.
Great leaps in road building and agriculture, partially adopted from the Hvagnar and Yu combined, have made the K’thdi once more the western world’s premier power. A system of feudal Kings that answer to one King of Kings, who resides in K’therack, has arisen. Though their power dominates, it is not always united, and is crumbling in the peripheries.
The Diamond of the Desert, or so the Huran capital of Muhktar, is known, is the epicenter of all Huran religion and culture. It’s the only known city of the Huran people, but it is immense and sprawling. The Huran Empire is vast, in theory, but the lands it controls are separated by untamable deserts and thousands of miles of coast. United by blood, sword and religion, it is a melting pot of ethnicities with many ancient feuds and prejudices. United by God but willing to backstab their brothers at a moments notice, it is unlikely a certain ethnic faction would be so unwilling for outside help.
Long ago, before the Holy Days of God and Man, the great Hureye desert was once a tropical paradise, filled with a plethora of animal and plant life, before God chose the Hurans to rise above the filth of animal-hood. The great Warrior-King Uthra united the Hurans under one sword, while his brother, Orick, told them the words of God, learned from the Burning Seas of the south.
Back to more recent times, however: western heretics calling themselves the K’thark rose and revolted against the Kings of old, though never against God entirely; they simply interpreted His words differently. It was, in fact, one ethnicity that were called Huran, not any who worshipped God. One ethnicity above others; it was a terrible thing to tell the Hurans, who were so used to their plethora of peoples, all equal in worshipping God. It is said that a great storm swept in from the north, destroying the paradise of the Hureye world, and leaving only an arid wasteland, while the water and fertility and life went southwards to other people.
K’thars and K’tharkic Oneism are banished from the Empire nowadays, but they still remain powerful in the more remote regions of the south and west. They are the most troubled by the K’thdi in the New Fertilelands, or New Hureye, as it is known. The Empire has thusly turned a blind eye to the constant raids and skirmishes there. In the east, another people have appeared, but are not trusted yet. Minor trade has occured with them, but nothing particularly fruitful for anyone. The secrets of the desert remain secrets, for now.
Hvagnar was a peaceful coalition of Clans and Overclans, devoted to trade, religion, crafting, expansion, peace, and occasional inter-clan warfare. Their empire reached far; the entire Wenthorian mountain range was under their control, while the southern and western coasts of the world were dominated by their fishing and trading ships. Those were the glory days, however, since then beaten and worn. Mountain colonies in the north were brutally sacked by the treacherous K’thdi people of the north, though the Homelands are secured by the great bulk of the Wenthorian Mountains, the infamous Mountain Roads and the K’thdi’s inability to even challenge them.
Ancient raids from the Yu in the northeast and the more recent of the K’thdi in the north have honed the Hvagnar Mountain Men to near perfection. Their mastery of the hills and mountains make it a very, very stupid idea to attack the Hvagnar in their mountainous homes, but their capabilities in the forests and plains of other places is quite lacking.
Trading guilds and groups, such as the Riverline Trading Guild, have risen above the influence of the Clans, and have been known to dictate to them domestic and political policies. This has led, in later years, to the Hvagnar expansionism to be more for the economic gain of these Guilds than the betterment of the society as a whole. In recent years, these have been on the decline, but the capitalist thoughts are still there, and the Clans have risen again as the dominant.
Four great Yu Kingdoms once co-existed peacefully on the Yu-tan river; the Yong, the Fei, the Li and the Gong. The Yong dominated the territories near the great Rift, where two mountains met in the foothills east of the Yu-tan river. The Fei, their smaller southern neighbors, held host to the Orici, the great Prophet to the Ori, their gods, at the time, and so could not be absorbed into the other Clans.
The Li and the Gong controlled the northern and southern halves on the opposite side of the river, respectively, and the endless forests and plains to the west. The relative peace between these four families ended with the birth of an illegitimate child, Xun-Hei, from the matriarch of the Li clan, while her husband was away on war. When news reached his army, he raced home, losing hundreds of men in the forced march, and leaving a traditional Forest of the Dead for his enemy to find, and pay respects to. The matriarch was slain and shamed, as was tradition, but the father (who's name escapes history) could not abandon his wife's son. He took him in and raised his adopted son as a soldier and a commander.
Years later, when it became apparent that one of the sons of the Yong clan was the father, Xun-Hei called for war. Alliances shifted for or against him and lines were drawn. Gong and Yong clans made an alliance against both the Li and Fei clans, a risky move, considering the Orici's position within the Fei clan. Fearful of the Ori, Noble's alliances shifted for or against the Li clan.
A decade of skirmishes and assassinations went by before any real move was made on anyone's part; and when it did come, it came fast. A massive army of 20,000 levies and 3,000 noblemen's Cavalry were unleashed from nowhere, and with rumors spread of it being the Orici's work, Gong and Yong surrendered. Unsatisfied with this result, Xun-Hei attacked anyway, sacking dozens of cities. This was a bad move on his part, however, as his unwarranted actions alienated hundreds of smaller clans and noblemen against him. The Yong-Gong Alliance gathered them all together struck back hard, from what remained their ruinous fortresses and cities.
Chapters of history were lost after this, but Xun-Hei is still hailed as having united the Yu people under one, or two, flags, for at least a century, the Yong-Gong Empire. Since then, the Empire has crumbled, leaving only remnants in the way of its grand highways, permanent stone bridges and massive monuments to the Ori. Improvements in bridge-building, agriculture and weapons creations have arisen- a new technology called the Crossbow has increased the quality of the Yu military as a whole. Families have risen and fallen since then, cities built and razed. History goes on.
Aknar city states, ruled by Kings and merchants alike, have had a busy history. Constant bitter fighting between leagues of cities and powerful alliances have left the seas of the north scattered with the skeletons of ruined ships and ruined dreams. Their colonies range all the way from the Huran Mainland to the tip of the Rentau Peninsula, and some say beyond that. Their powerful navy as a whole has dominated the warm waters of the north, though on occasion is sold to the highest bidder as an instrument of war.
One of the more encompassing wars involved the League of Muknai, after it’s violent ascent in the ranks of society to that of a major power, and the Delog Alliance, a distinctly anti-Muknai group of dispersed city states. Muknai was a powerful state based on the Huran mainland, with various powerful vassal or ally states on the Lakedai River, while the Delog Alliance was focused around the far eastern cities. The finely groomed sailor, and esteemed warrior Wetoul, first officer of the man whose name is lost to history, but was essential in Muknai’s rise to power, led one of the first expeditions against the Delog Alliance. Striking the then-weak link Spartai, the only land-based ally of Delog, far up the Lakedai River, the city was burned accidentally, later to be rebuilt to become one of the major city states.
The Delog Alliance, horrified at Muknai’s change into a cruel tyrant state, gathered up all of the remaining neutral cities, and stood their ground. Fleet after fleet was sunk, creating many of the graveyards of today, and invasion after invasion met and repelled. Muknai’s prominence slowly fell as it’s allies and vassals alike abandoned it for the prospect of freedom. The final insult came when a measly Huran raiding fleet burned the undefended city (the entire Muknai fleet was off on various campaigns) to the ground for attracting so much attention from the east.
In more recent times, however, democratic states and oligarchies are the norm over monarchies, but a few still exist. Peace has reigned for many a decade, but like all good things, it must soon come to an end. Tensions over the trading rights through the eastern colonies (The prospect of trade with the distant Arglemarke is alluring) have arisen, threats been sent. It seems like open war is coming between the various Leagues, and no one knows if it can be averted.
Long ago, in the eastern lands of the Llewyn, the heretical tension was more of a threat than it is today. The Church almost had the heretics under control, until the Hall of Sinners, the great prison of the north was broken into, all the guards slain. The hordes of tortured, wronged, darkened men escaped and disappeared north, burning their path through the countryside, and over the Cynthulus Wall; the large stone wall that seperated the Arglemarke, the dominant Llewyn Church State, from the Rentau tribal people of the north. Weeks later, Gledwyn, the Capital city and the Temple of the Sun were set ablaze and looted heavily, believed to be the work of these escaped heretics. It was a terrible hit for the people’s faith in the church and government, but they both would recover in no time, regaining the people’s minds. The heretics, now known as the Dawn Pact, still roam unchecked in the Rentau lands past the Cynthulus. Occasionally they are able to fight their way through, over, around or under the wall, capturing or “liberating” large numbers of heretics, though this is not often.
As the Church’s influence expanded, so too did that of the Arglemarke; it’s borders stretch endlessly westward from the grand Capital of Gledwyn, on the Wyllenon all the way to the Cynthil mountains in the west and the Yu border. Tensions at first were high, due to the very different societal structuring, but now the Yong clan, the only clan the Llewyn have contact with, is a friendly trading ally.
Today, the Church still rules supreme, though the Dawn Pact still looms to the north, protected by the uprisen hordes of the Rentau. Construction of thinly veiled Church’s known as “schools”, have strengthened the people’s religious faith, while more Halls of Sinners have arisen, and transformed into forced labor camps and torture chambers. Massive irrigation works and the construction of a extensive road system known as the Ways of the Sun increase the economy greatly. The Cynthulus wall crumbles from decades of disrepair, due to lack of funds for it’s thousand mile stretch.
The Rentau was a quiet society of friendly inter-clan warfare and ritualistic sacrifices of horse and human flesh to Tau-Tau the King of Horses, before the arrival of those calling themselves the True Believers in the Word of the Sun. Others labeled them the Dawn Pact, but what did that matter? Simply names, afterall. From the north came the sea-men calling themselves Aknar- traders, sailors, pirates and raiders, these men. Minor trade occured with both of these new peoples, and both were allowed to settle, but not in great numbers. Military ideas and societal and governmental ideas were taken from the Believers and the Aknar respectively, while agriculture and metal working was adopted from both.
Several smaller tribes settled into villages and small cities, and perfected the art of the written word. History, diplomacy and bartering was all it was used for, at large, but it’s other uses have yet to be seen. A great wall of stone and wood arose overnight, according to legend, between the lands the Believers came from and the lands the Rentau inhabit. This angered the King of Horses, Tau-Tau, greatly, as it cut his Rightful Territory in half. No major move has yet to be made on the part of the Rentau, but one is and has been expected by the southerners for some time.
First Age: EltNES YEARS 400-600
This period of K’thdi history is often referred to as the splintering. An adaptive people, who generally lived in small family villages that intermarried, found themselves expanding to the point of exhaustion. War on many fronts have tired their Cassock, but they remain the power of the region.
Constant skirmishes with and the slaving of the Hurans to the north have stunted most growth there. And though a series of fortified towns mark the boundary between the Huran sphere of influence and that of the K’thdi, there is no clear, defined boundary.
In the homelands, improvements of infrastructure and agriculture have made the city of K’therack the center of the western world, politically, culturally and economically. Initial skirmishes with the Hvagnar, a strange mountain people to the south, proved fruitless, as their heavily fortified mountain roads, which proved difficult to impossible for the cavalry-dominated military to crack, were the only way over the mountains. Peaceful and fruitful trading then dominated the relationship between these two cultures, before the Hvagnarian Thor Mountain colonies to the K’thdi’s east were discovered. This much-needed resource center was soon taken easily by the K’thdi, and relations have never been the same.
In the southeast, after the Thor Mountain colonies were conquered, a new threat arose. Yet another clan-based culture, calling themselves the Li Yu, were met. Believing these were the cousins of the Hvagnar, K’thdi kings declared war on them, spreading their influence far east past the mountains. These advances were beaten back, until suddenly the Yu army disappeared, leaving a forest of impaled K’thdi bodies on stakes in their path, to leave a sign to the K’thdi. Needless to say, this was a decent deterrent for the K’thdi kings, and they retreated.
Great leaps in road building and agriculture, partially adopted from the Hvagnar and Yu combined, have made the K’thdi once more the western world’s premier power. A system of feudal Kings that answer to one King of Kings, who resides in K’therack, has arisen. Though their power dominates, it is not always united, and is crumbling in the peripheries.
The Diamond of the Desert, or so the Huran capital of Muhktar, is known, is the epicenter of all Huran religion and culture. It’s the only known city of the Huran people, but it is immense and sprawling. The Huran Empire is vast, in theory, but the lands it controls are separated by untamable deserts and thousands of miles of coast. United by blood, sword and religion, it is a melting pot of ethnicities with many ancient feuds and prejudices. United by God but willing to backstab their brothers at a moments notice, it is unlikely a certain ethnic faction would be so unwilling for outside help.
Long ago, before the Holy Days of God and Man, the great Hureye desert was once a tropical paradise, filled with a plethora of animal and plant life, before God chose the Hurans to rise above the filth of animal-hood. The great Warrior-King Uthra united the Hurans under one sword, while his brother, Orick, told them the words of God, learned from the Burning Seas of the south.
Back to more recent times, however: western heretics calling themselves the K’thark rose and revolted against the Kings of old, though never against God entirely; they simply interpreted His words differently. It was, in fact, one ethnicity that were called Huran, not any who worshipped God. One ethnicity above others; it was a terrible thing to tell the Hurans, who were so used to their plethora of peoples, all equal in worshipping God. It is said that a great storm swept in from the north, destroying the paradise of the Hureye world, and leaving only an arid wasteland, while the water and fertility and life went southwards to other people.
K’thars and K’tharkic Oneism are banished from the Empire nowadays, but they still remain powerful in the more remote regions of the south and west. They are the most troubled by the K’thdi in the New Fertilelands, or New Hureye, as it is known. The Empire has thusly turned a blind eye to the constant raids and skirmishes there. In the east, another people have appeared, but are not trusted yet. Minor trade has occured with them, but nothing particularly fruitful for anyone. The secrets of the desert remain secrets, for now.
Hvagnar was a peaceful coalition of Clans and Overclans, devoted to trade, religion, crafting, expansion, peace, and occasional inter-clan warfare. Their empire reached far; the entire Wenthorian mountain range was under their control, while the southern and western coasts of the world were dominated by their fishing and trading ships. Those were the glory days, however, since then beaten and worn. Mountain colonies in the north were brutally sacked by the treacherous K’thdi people of the north, though the Homelands are secured by the great bulk of the Wenthorian Mountains, the infamous Mountain Roads and the K’thdi’s inability to even challenge them.
Ancient raids from the Yu in the northeast and the more recent of the K’thdi in the north have honed the Hvagnar Mountain Men to near perfection. Their mastery of the hills and mountains make it a very, very stupid idea to attack the Hvagnar in their mountainous homes, but their capabilities in the forests and plains of other places is quite lacking.
Trading guilds and groups, such as the Riverline Trading Guild, have risen above the influence of the Clans, and have been known to dictate to them domestic and political policies. This has led, in later years, to the Hvagnar expansionism to be more for the economic gain of these Guilds than the betterment of the society as a whole. In recent years, these have been on the decline, but the capitalist thoughts are still there, and the Clans have risen again as the dominant.
Four great Yu Kingdoms once co-existed peacefully on the Yu-tan river; the Yong, the Fei, the Li and the Gong. The Yong dominated the territories near the great Rift, where two mountains met in the foothills east of the Yu-tan river. The Fei, their smaller southern neighbors, held host to the Orici, the great Prophet to the Ori, their gods, at the time, and so could not be absorbed into the other Clans.
The Li and the Gong controlled the northern and southern halves on the opposite side of the river, respectively, and the endless forests and plains to the west. The relative peace between these four families ended with the birth of an illegitimate child, Xun-Hei, from the matriarch of the Li clan, while her husband was away on war. When news reached his army, he raced home, losing hundreds of men in the forced march, and leaving a traditional Forest of the Dead for his enemy to find, and pay respects to. The matriarch was slain and shamed, as was tradition, but the father (who's name escapes history) could not abandon his wife's son. He took him in and raised his adopted son as a soldier and a commander.
Years later, when it became apparent that one of the sons of the Yong clan was the father, Xun-Hei called for war. Alliances shifted for or against him and lines were drawn. Gong and Yong clans made an alliance against both the Li and Fei clans, a risky move, considering the Orici's position within the Fei clan. Fearful of the Ori, Noble's alliances shifted for or against the Li clan.
A decade of skirmishes and assassinations went by before any real move was made on anyone's part; and when it did come, it came fast. A massive army of 20,000 levies and 3,000 noblemen's Cavalry were unleashed from nowhere, and with rumors spread of it being the Orici's work, Gong and Yong surrendered. Unsatisfied with this result, Xun-Hei attacked anyway, sacking dozens of cities. This was a bad move on his part, however, as his unwarranted actions alienated hundreds of smaller clans and noblemen against him. The Yong-Gong Alliance gathered them all together struck back hard, from what remained their ruinous fortresses and cities.
Chapters of history were lost after this, but Xun-Hei is still hailed as having united the Yu people under one, or two, flags, for at least a century, the Yong-Gong Empire. Since then, the Empire has crumbled, leaving only remnants in the way of its grand highways, permanent stone bridges and massive monuments to the Ori. Improvements in bridge-building, agriculture and weapons creations have arisen- a new technology called the Crossbow has increased the quality of the Yu military as a whole. Families have risen and fallen since then, cities built and razed. History goes on.
Aknar city states, ruled by Kings and merchants alike, have had a busy history. Constant bitter fighting between leagues of cities and powerful alliances have left the seas of the north scattered with the skeletons of ruined ships and ruined dreams. Their colonies range all the way from the Huran Mainland to the tip of the Rentau Peninsula, and some say beyond that. Their powerful navy as a whole has dominated the warm waters of the north, though on occasion is sold to the highest bidder as an instrument of war.
One of the more encompassing wars involved the League of Muknai, after it’s violent ascent in the ranks of society to that of a major power, and the Delog Alliance, a distinctly anti-Muknai group of dispersed city states. Muknai was a powerful state based on the Huran mainland, with various powerful vassal or ally states on the Lakedai River, while the Delog Alliance was focused around the far eastern cities. The finely groomed sailor, and esteemed warrior Wetoul, first officer of the man whose name is lost to history, but was essential in Muknai’s rise to power, led one of the first expeditions against the Delog Alliance. Striking the then-weak link Spartai, the only land-based ally of Delog, far up the Lakedai River, the city was burned accidentally, later to be rebuilt to become one of the major city states.
The Delog Alliance, horrified at Muknai’s change into a cruel tyrant state, gathered up all of the remaining neutral cities, and stood their ground. Fleet after fleet was sunk, creating many of the graveyards of today, and invasion after invasion met and repelled. Muknai’s prominence slowly fell as it’s allies and vassals alike abandoned it for the prospect of freedom. The final insult came when a measly Huran raiding fleet burned the undefended city (the entire Muknai fleet was off on various campaigns) to the ground for attracting so much attention from the east.
In more recent times, however, democratic states and oligarchies are the norm over monarchies, but a few still exist. Peace has reigned for many a decade, but like all good things, it must soon come to an end. Tensions over the trading rights through the eastern colonies (The prospect of trade with the distant Arglemarke is alluring) have arisen, threats been sent. It seems like open war is coming between the various Leagues, and no one knows if it can be averted.
Long ago, in the eastern lands of the Llewyn, the heretical tension was more of a threat than it is today. The Church almost had the heretics under control, until the Hall of Sinners, the great prison of the north was broken into, all the guards slain. The hordes of tortured, wronged, darkened men escaped and disappeared north, burning their path through the countryside, and over the Cynthulus Wall; the large stone wall that seperated the Arglemarke, the dominant Llewyn Church State, from the Rentau tribal people of the north. Weeks later, Gledwyn, the Capital city and the Temple of the Sun were set ablaze and looted heavily, believed to be the work of these escaped heretics. It was a terrible hit for the people’s faith in the church and government, but they both would recover in no time, regaining the people’s minds. The heretics, now known as the Dawn Pact, still roam unchecked in the Rentau lands past the Cynthulus. Occasionally they are able to fight their way through, over, around or under the wall, capturing or “liberating” large numbers of heretics, though this is not often.
As the Church’s influence expanded, so too did that of the Arglemarke; it’s borders stretch endlessly westward from the grand Capital of Gledwyn, on the Wyllenon all the way to the Cynthil mountains in the west and the Yu border. Tensions at first were high, due to the very different societal structuring, but now the Yong clan, the only clan the Llewyn have contact with, is a friendly trading ally.
Today, the Church still rules supreme, though the Dawn Pact still looms to the north, protected by the uprisen hordes of the Rentau. Construction of thinly veiled Church’s known as “schools”, have strengthened the people’s religious faith, while more Halls of Sinners have arisen, and transformed into forced labor camps and torture chambers. Massive irrigation works and the construction of a extensive road system known as the Ways of the Sun increase the economy greatly. The Cynthulus wall crumbles from decades of disrepair, due to lack of funds for it’s thousand mile stretch.
The Rentau was a quiet society of friendly inter-clan warfare and ritualistic sacrifices of horse and human flesh to Tau-Tau the King of Horses, before the arrival of those calling themselves the True Believers in the Word of the Sun. Others labeled them the Dawn Pact, but what did that matter? Simply names, afterall. From the north came the sea-men calling themselves Aknar- traders, sailors, pirates and raiders, these men. Minor trade occured with both of these new peoples, and both were allowed to settle, but not in great numbers. Military ideas and societal and governmental ideas were taken from the Believers and the Aknar respectively, while agriculture and metal working was adopted from both.
Several smaller tribes settled into villages and small cities, and perfected the art of the written word. History, diplomacy and bartering was all it was used for, at large, but it’s other uses have yet to be seen. A great wall of stone and wood arose overnight, according to legend, between the lands the Believers came from and the lands the Rentau inhabit. This angered the King of Horses, Tau-Tau, greatly, as it cut his Rightful Territory in half. No major move has yet to be made on the part of the Rentau, but one is and has been expected by the southerners for some time.
Map:
Spoiler :
Numbered map:
Spoiler :
OOC:
Post-BT-update culture-wide story-bonuses:
LOD: The Church is alive and well, Cleansing abounds. +20% Holy Sun in neighboring countries.
Terrence: Hvagnarlin dialects are spreading rapidliy throughout the region. +2 stability in all Hvagnar countries.
LDiCesare: The Admiral Dwikidideg knows his trade and knows it well. +1 Navy and sailing quality in all Aknar countries, +2 in Muknai.
Deadline for orders has yet to be determined. Expect further OOC comments here, soon.
I’m working on the stats right now, and until it’s finished, I can’t post the numbered map with corresponding info on which colored blobs are what.
Once stats are done, NPC Diplo will be sent out, as well.
Stats are up! Claim your natios, please. Menanish gets first dibs on any dominantly Yu country, LDi on any Aknar, ETC.
More religious stories for us then.
