History of Man -- Book I: Westrun Part 2

In the Spring of 3222ey, the Urok of the Saltmarsh began attacking both cities of men, as well as raiding the tribes of the Nandi. The Urok had long demanded tribute from the humans, who chaffed under this burden and finally declined to pay. Humans responded to the resulting raids with military force and the First Urok War was joined. It lasted for three years and ended in the Winter of 3225ey with the defeat and dispossession of Edgewater Fortress. Humanity declared victory and the Urok retreated to the Saar Mountains, finding grudging hospitality among the Dwarves of Dynkyr.

Peace would last six years before the coming of the Urok Warleader Hareg Greatjaw. He promised to restore the Saltmarsh to his people and rallied a great following. In 3231ey, finding common cause with Ogurf of Graymantle Hills, he led a series of daring raids to start the Second Urok War. Within two years his forces took possession of the Saltmarsh, Treft (renaming it Ald Morin) and lay seige to the City of Wood. 

Many words have already been written about the Fraternity. Justice to their entire story cannot be done here. Nevertheless, during the Second Urok War while they were still a small team of cattle thieves and saboteurs, they were called Rodalon's Rangers. This team assailed Greatjaw and his supply lines to such an extent that the Urok host were forced to quit the City of Wood. After that success the band of cutthroats and vandals added many recruits to their numbers and their operations greatly expanded, extending even to open warfare. By 3239ey the Rangers had dislodged the Urok from Ald Morin (renaming it Treft) and skirmishers harried them along their entire retreat to the southwestern plains. Hareg Greatjaw himself was slain.

Once expelled onto the plains, the Urok took hold of the long-abandoned Ald Saloren and ended their retreat. The Rangers, far from home and on unfamiliar ground, could not prevail against the massive walls of the abandoned metropolis. After a siege of two months, Rodalon's men returned to Treft and City of Wood and eventually disbanded.

Peace returned to Westrun for nearly a decade. Greatjaw was replaced by a string of lesser leaders until Oguron son of Ogurf became the Paramount of Ald Saloren. For seven years he gathered Warleaders from across the Four Lands and became general of a mighty host of Urok. The tribes of men in the Southwest were sorely pressed. The Aras, Du and Ren were pushed farther West, while the Bal were dispossessed entirely -- its refugees seeking refuge further East.

By that time the rising tension attracted the attention of the Besnir. Many debates were held on the wisdom of their interference. Centuries of war made them reluctant to join it again. So it was that the Hierophants of the Continuum made themselves known to the tribes of men. Called the "White Robes" they encouraged humankind to reconstitute their Rangers and offered them the gift of their naturia -- secret magic held closely from the days of the First Age.

Prepared with Hierophants naturia, the Rangers rose once more to safeguard the peace. Tensions steadily grew until 3248ey when the Urok and mankind once again went to war. Despite the new powers of the Rangers, the Third Urok War saw many early gains against the humans. This continued until the pillage of Dun Dynkyr, a miscalculation by Oguron, and a watershed in the war. Thereafter mankind was steadily reinforced by angry Dwarven militias until the Ranes of Oromir and Dynkyr were forced to send regular companies to assist. 

The Urok had their first great defeat at the Maple Vale and then again at Clandbur River. From there a long string of losses saw their retreat back to Ald Saloren. Even that refuge was denied them. The armies of man rooted out their foes after a successful siege aided by Dwarven sappers. All of the captive Urok were then force-marched on the Bitter Passage, with a son of each Warleader taken as ransom. The last day of that march, when men stood on the Graymantle Hills, was the first day of Spring 3259ey.

The next decade was a period of uneasy peace. The Rangers were a standing army without loyalty outside of their brotherhood. This worried many chieftains and princes among men who called upon the Grand Hierophant to negotiate for their disarmament. The Rangers complied reluctantly with calls for them to lay down their arms and become a reserve force, calling themselves the Fraternity.

For the last twenty-five years of the 32nd century, Larec Redfist became a dominant power in Westrun. As great chief of the Rathor Confederacy, he controlled the territory between the Brownbeck and Wody Rivers. This put a vast swath of land between the City of Wood and the City of Stone (Treft) under the control of the Rathor and meant tribute could be exacted from nearly all trade, back and forth.

Roll 003

3010    Vetran

Then came Vetran.

The Rolls of the Lords Continuous

The Tandis Lists: List I

The Tandis Lists are the compiled lists of all of the Old Bears since the First Gathering of Rangers in 3278ey. They are kept by Tandis of Peakshadow -- a well-respected historian of the Fraternity. 

In the 32nd Century there was:

3278 Rodalon who was released from prison during the Seige of Treft at the Second Urok War and began his reiving. He founded the Nightstalkers and disbanded them when the war was ended. Along with Giles, founded the Fraternity at the Ultimatum. He was old and infirmed at the First Gathering, but was widely regarded and recognized as the senior Ranger among them.

3288 Giles the Gifted who led the second iteration of the Nightstalkers for the Third Urok War and disbanded them at the Ultimatum. He was the first of the Rangers to wield the naturia -- the Gift of the White Robes which was denied Rodalon for his pride. Along with Rodalon, he founded the Fraternity at the insistence of the petty kings of Four Lands. He was recognized as the most senior because Rodalon had died in his sleep a fortnight after the First Gathering.

3298 Walken the Tall was the last of the first generation of Nightstalkers and had participated in the Seige of Ald Saloren as a squire. He fought alongside the Dwarves of Dynkyr and led a company at Maple Vale and Clandbur River and marched at the Bitter Passage.  He was the source of many tales about Rodalon and the founding of Rodalon's Rangers.

 

 

 

The Great Internesting

For nineteen years, between 3280ey and 3299ey, the Metallic Dragons battled the faction of the Chromatics. One again the Question of Man was to blame. The Metallics asserted that man was the rightful heir of creation, while the Chromatics sought to re-assert reign of the Dragonkind. While this war was long and bitter, it was waged in far-flung places out of sight of the other races.

The Great Urok Wars

In 3220ey the last of the Children of he whose name is not spoken, rose to conquer Erenth and waged bloody war on the other races for the next 39 years. They are eventually pushed back into the Accursed Place.

The Great Urok Wars are divided into three periods:

The 1st Urok War is generally agreed to have lasted from 3222 to 3228ey.

The 2nd Urok War is generally agreed to have lasted from 3231 to 3239ey.

The 3rd Urok War is generally agreed to have lasted from 3248 to 3259ey.

The Millenial Truce

In 3201 after more than a century of hostilities, a peace treaty was signed by four of the Elf families and all of the Dwarves (except the Duergar) and since then has been renewed every 1000 years.

A History of the Tribes of Man in Westrun

At the dawn of the 7th Age in the 30th Century, Westrun was home to two distinct subgroups of humans, the Nandi and the Tren. By the end of the 40th Century they had been joined by the Meni and the Fahr. Together these four people groups and their struggles create the Eight Kingdoms of Man in Westrun.

NANDI
The Nandi roamed from the Silverlodes Mountains to the Dagger Sea in tribes. Most of their names are lost to history. Those names that are still familiar -- such as the Nadi, Sahna, Numin, Shina, Anis, Duvi -- come to us as place names. Sak and Rath now give their names to whole kingdoms in the modern era. There are many, many more which have been lost to antiquity.

All of the Nandi were hunters and gatherers who made war with one another continuously. Tribes rose and fell, splintered and merged. Life among them was an ongoing struggle for survival against the unyielding land, the elements, and especially the elder races which still tarried from the previous ages. It was not until the common threat of the Goblinkind, that the Nandi were able to unite and eventually coalesce into states under the Eight Kingdom's Pact.

TREN
While the Nandi were roaming in hundreds of nomadic tribes, the Tren, were another race of so-called civilized men. Once held captive by the Dragon Prince of old, they were eventually entrusted with the matters of their captors and in due time inherited the entire Principality of Treft from its exiled ruler. Though they could not maintain the height of Treft's former glory, they were able to hold the walls of its capital city against those slavering Hordes who would rise against it.

After the Dragon Prince was exiled, the Tren lived under the rule of a long succession of their own unpopular monarchs. A rebellion saw to the death of their last king, Etru III, and the Nine Elders who remained banished the monarchy. In its place they created a system of government in which each property owning inhabitant would be permitted to cast votes in a general assembly. Thus the strange democratic government of that city/state was born. The date of that government's founding is commonly given as 3600EY.

MENI
The year 3413EY saw the settlement of the Meni in Westrun under the leadership of Tal the Just. The Meni were refugees from the principalities that lay across the Dagger Sea. A one hundred year long struggle between two of the more powerful city/states had come to its end with the total defeat of Lanaria. Thousands of Lanarians were slaughtered. Many more were evicted and forced to live as wanderers -- their fields were salted, their noble city destroyed. To this day, many Lanarians still wander the Provinces in caravans with a reputation not altogether wholesome. Others made their way East and South by ship.

Several hundreds of Lanarians heeded the call of Tal -- a lesser son of the old ruling house. Together they migrated across the Dagger Sea and settled on Westrun's shores. Once landfall was made they intermingled with the Nandi they encountered. Their descendants were less nomadic, preferring to settle up and down the coast before eventually spreading inland on the plains. The inland group of Meni founded the kingdom which still bears their name: Menea. Those who spread Southward along the coast eventually divinized Tal their founder. They grew from a monarchy into a theocracy.

FAHR
Many long decades after the settlement of the Nandi, in the year 3300EY the first of the Fahr from Northrun came down and founded Wanderhalt and began to settle on the Southern slopes of Mount Oromir. By 3400ey, Sudhall would be raised and this settlement would eventually grow to become Peakshadow. The Fahr of Sudhall and the Meni moving north from Menea intermingled and eventually give seed to Bolden. The people of Sudhall intermarry with the Nandi of the plains and in time came to see themselves as a different from the Fahr of Northrun. Under the Eight Kingdom's Pact, the massive Northrun holdings of the Jarls of Wanderhalt swear fealty to the Lord of Sudhall and become the Kingdom of Colonia.

The Guidance of Rodalon, Founder of the Rangers of Old

In the Summer of 3229ey I was imprisoned by the crown for the crimes of general indebtedness, counterfeiting gold, poaching deer and reiving cattle. It was sixteen months from the issue of his royal warrant until my capture. During that time I evaded all the king's men arrayed against me while ranging no further than forty miles on any side of his Keep at Menea.

After capture, my trial was swift. I was found guilty, along with my brother Jonsalon on all charges. By the crown's mercy I was to spend twenty-two years in captivity. But in 3231, while still languishing in the king's dungeon, word came to me that the city was besieged on all sides by the vile hordes of Vareg Greatjaw the so-called goblin. So, the King himself sent for me and issued a pronouncement.

"I do therefore hereby appoint you, the villain Rodalon, to be Captain of an independent company of scouts and raiders, and such other men as might be raised at your discretion. You are to be formed and employed in the distracting of the Horde from the walls of the city. You are to engage them by whatever means or stratagem you see fit to employ, so long as it shall see to their defeat."

Thereupon, I recruited my brother and such other men as I felt could be taught from among the imprisoned murderers and thieves. I felt these men had little to lose and, like me, might earn their freedom by great deeds. I took to me one of the king's huntsmen also, for it was he who finally managed my capture those years earlier and his skills were apparent. We numbered only one dozen at that time and called ourselves Striders for the king would not spare us his horses. 

Thankfully, our first skirmish added to our numbers greatly. After which it became my preferred method to recruit vengeful captives and untamed freeholders to my cause. I did so whenever such opportunity arose and whenever they could be persuaded to adopt my methods, and no other.

My methods were as if winnowing grain. From the recruits I winnowed the men who would not voluntarily cover forty miles in a day on foot -- even if they did not first know how long or how far they were to travel. Next I winnowed those who could not be taught to make and bend a bow; then use it to strike a mark with three arrows -- placed no farther apart than the diameter of a garland wreath. Then I winnowed those who could not learn the art of the sword sufficient to sever a tightly bound sheaf with either hand in a single blow; sufficient to parry a dozen coins cast in quick succession. Finally, I winnowed away every man that could not learn to track deer at dusk, and yet leave no trail himself even if he must cross a bog. Finally, I winnowed those few men who would not swear their allegiance to me; and also an eternal vengeance upon the goblin.

These ranging men of mine carried a blade, a bow, a blanket and water. When we could not hunt, we took food from those we slew. We traveled light and hungry. We vowed not to eat except that we had paid the price in blood spilled or plunder taken.

According to the King we were to harry those outside of the Keep at Menea and cling to the walls whenever possible, but once upon the plains we traveled as near or as far as we might find suitable targets. The King was not given to chase us, so we followed the seasons and learned the routes of the goblins. We stole what we could, burned what we couldn't, and killed as any as we were able. In pitched battle we did not engage. We struck quickly and brought chaos. We retreated when met with superior numbers. We struck mercilessly upon those that left themselves open and slaughtered those who fell behind.

We quickly made a name for ourselves that spread even among the Elder Races. In time we were accepted by the White Robes. They gave unto us the gift of understanding the natural world. We learned that we could be the force for good that should balance the threat of evil. So we left off our former lives as outlaws and embraced a new, more excellent Observance among us. 

With the Observance we were able to master the beasts, and draw strength from the wild places. The ground and the sky spoke to us, the leaf and the rock heeded our call. Of all these things we made allies, and from all these things we took power. Our savagery was not diminished, but was made sharper and more deadly.

In time, our band became a company. One company became two; two became four; four became eight; eight became sixteen. Over each new company were placed such men as whose skill demanded it; regardless of his former station or rank. So the sons of slaves were as likely to lead as the sons of chieftains; and former outlaws as often as the worthies. By our Observance we defeated the hordes. By our Observance we slew the ancient enemies of all people.

But now that is long past and we are fading. I myself am old and the light is dim in my eyes. I can no longer track by dusk nor stride too far. The kings and chiefs of men all fear us. We are told we must disband or face their justice, but our Fraternity must live on. For this reason, my guidance is firm: We should travel no more together lest we be seen as lions among the lambs.

Let us not noise our presence among the uninitiated. Let each Strider keep the company of but one other of our number. Let each take a learner to pass on his skills. And despite our great distance, let us forgather from time to time to reconstitute our chapters and take a census of who is still able to follow our Observance. Once our forgathering is over, let us fade back into the high grass so our numbers are unknown to friend and foe alike.

This then is the Seven-fold Observance:

1. We will not work evil; neither in time of war, nor time of peace.
2. We will not neglect the gift of the White Robes; nor forget to master its power.
3. We will not permit friend nor foe to pass without raising our notice.
4. We will not permit our foes to note our passage; nor to predict our ranging.
5. We will not be heavy, nor loud; neither encumbered with spoils, nor girt with noisome armor.
6. We will not be found wanting, even with only a minute's warning.
7. We will not forget the binds of the brotherhood -- more valued than gold, more sought than titles, and more precious than any embrace.

The Second Urok War and the Rangers of Old

by Tandis of Peakshadow

In the year 3231 the Urok chieftain known as Greatjaw stirred in the Accursed Place. He led a great Horde out from their lands and down upon the Southern Marches. The horsemen of the Marches could not contain him. Many tribes were swept aside as the Horde pressed deeper into the Plains. The fertile fields of Westrun were his aim and he left misery in his wake.

The Westruners could not withstand the Horde. They were scattered and their fields were sown in blood. The mounds of the Uroks were raised and thousands of people were carried off as slaves. But the other races were spared this fury, for Greatjaw's command was that the Elder Races should not be harmed. So the Horde did not broach the borders of Deepwood, Mistwood, Festog, Oromir or Dynkyr. Greatjaw knew that the kings of the Elder Races had retreated from the world of men. For the Kings felt that the humans ought to prove themselves worthy of the mantle they sought to carry.

In that day there were only two great cities -- one of wood and one of stone. For Rath and Peakshadow had not yet been built by the Dwarves as gifts to the younger race. Under Greatjaw the Urok lay seige to the city of wood, Menea and to the city of stone, Treft. Round about they cowed the settlements and tribes between them. So mankind languished and knew the dread of slavery under the yoke of the Urok. This time is called the Age of Darkness, because the younger race knew the terror that came by night. To this day, the night holds special terrors in the hearts of young and old alike.

But there were some among men who would not be cowed, nor would they be shut within the safety of their walls. These men became vengeance to the Urok. They formed companies which ranged out across the plains. They found shelter among the trees, and safety upon the hills, and security behind the rocks. These men were they which wreaked havoc upon the Horde and put many of them to the sword. These men were they which brought fear to Greatjaw's heart.

Finally the Lords Continuous came -- beings of great power born of the Elder Races, dressed in robes of white and possessed of great power. They took pity upon the plight of Westrun, and pity upon the plight of mankind. Though these Lords would not directly join battle, they sought the bravest and greatest among the men and taught them many secrets forgotten since the making of the world.

The men who were taught by the Lords Continuous became heroes among men. They were called the Nightstalkers by the Elder Races, and Rangers by their own kind. Among the Horde they became the Dustrkhunbagk or "badgers with two-swords". Though they were greatly outnumbered by the Horde, they could not be defeated, for they would not stand and fight in pitched battle. Rather they hunted the goblins and visited terror upon them, appearing as if from the grass and disappearing like the dew. Their fury fell with a hail of arrows and they closed with and destroyed their foes with singing steel in each hand.

For eight years the Rangers cut to and fro across the plains and left no sign of their passage, except for the grass stained with the blood of their enemies. Their successes brought more to their side. Scattered men and freed slaves forsook their families and tribes, binding themselves one to another as Rangers first. In time, their power grew and their numbers increased. So that finally the goblin chieftain was forced to retreat. Greatjaw and his minions fled from the plains and flew back across the Southern Marches to their Accursed Place. They were all the while harried and worried by trailing Nightstalkers. The official end of the Second Urok War was 3239, when a company of Rangers slew Greatjaw and placed his head upon a pike.

As the years passed, men raised more cities on the example of Treft, but the Rangers would not rejoin their tribes and families. For the lives of these Nightstalkers had been bound in blood and they preferred the company of their own brotherhood. Among themselves they shared the secret knowledge of the Lords Continuous. Their loyalty was to their fraternity, first and foremost. Regardless of their name and nation, they made their own orders of precedence and knew a freedom that came from the absence of station.

The Rangers strode across all the Four Lands, bringing Urok low wherever they could be found, and living as free men upon the spoils of their campaigns. But in time, the Lords and Kings which had been saved by these men grew suspicious. They feared the secret power that had been the gift of the Lords Continuous, they feared the binds of brotherhood that knew not national bounds. So important men everywhere opposed the Rangers at every turn. These men of wealth would not brook the Nightstalkers passage through, nor quartering upon, their lands.

So the companies were disbanded and the men kept to their own counsel and each returned by and by to the countries of their origin. The Rangers are little remembered now, though some calling themselves by that name still travel, thither and yon, trading on the name of those heroes of old.