History of Man -- Book I: Westrun Part 3

The 33rd century saw the arrival of the Fahr humans in Westrun. The Fahr were a great stock of Northruners with fair hair and great stature. Their own legends said that they were the bastard children of giants who generations earlier were pushed out of the artic snows. Those who settled in Westrun were pushed South by competition among their clans, or were perhaps drawn by the lure of agriculture over hunting and raiding. Whatever the case, there were two main settlements straddling the Silverlode Mountains: Wanderhalt and Sudland.

Wanderhalt was encircled with great timbers hewn from evergreen forests and under the control of a single Jarl. Sudland was a loose collection of farming freeholders who went as far South as the City of Wood permitted -- generally the north banks of Red River. Wanderhalt was entirely too remote to be of concern to the Nandi of Westrun, and because the men of Sudland were content with living peaceably in their new homes on what was considered only seasonally viable farmland, they were allowed to thrive on the north fringes of Westrun.

Over the course of the next century, the Jarl of Wanderhalt established himself as credible Westrun nobility, even if foreign born. The men of Sudland struggled among themselves to establish what might be considered a permanent noble house.

The fishing villages of the Bal consolidated and finally put aside decades of superstition to occupy Ald Saloren, renaming the city Balsrest and slowly becoming the preeminent power in the Southwest. 

Roll 003

3010    Vetran

Then came Vetran.

The Rolls of the Lords Continuous

The Lanari

The Lanari can be seen traveling between the Free Provinces in brightly-colored wagons, or encamped at a cross-roads. Wherever they stop, they sell hand-made (and sometimes stolen) wares; put on nightly entertainments by oil lamp (not all of which are seemly); delight young children with their pageantry; and tempt young men and women with the romance of their itinerate lifestyle. But this strange people with their own language and customs have a history that is more tragic than their brightly-colored clothes and loud revelry would first indicate.

Centuries ago, the proud House of Ferona sat atop several of what was then called the Principalities of Vyruma Serpentis. About a a third of the region's population was under its control, and the sages of history believe that almost half of the wealth of the time was concentrated in Ald Casera -- the city from which the scions of Ferona ruled. Powerful Houses will draw rivals, and Ferona was no exception.

In 3409 Prince Lan of House Ferona grew strong enough that he declared himself the Emperor of a new land -- a wide swath of the principalities that he named Lanaria. Lan sent envoys to the other principalities demanding tribute from their princes. In so doing, his rivals became his enemies and rose as one against him. Under that coalition, the Emperor was eventually thrown down. His head was chained to the walls of his own Ald, and his bones were parceled out to each of his rivals as a trophy. His lands were given to the sons of lesser houses. His daughters were pledged to the Sacred Sisters. But, the dream of the Empire did not die easy. Many thousands of the people still remained loyal to the former Emperor. The princes soon found that the Lanari were difficult to control.

In 3413ey, three hundreds of the loyalists who still longed for the Emperor's rule were slaughtered in a single afternoon. Across the Principalities the scene was repeated, time and again. This series of events came to be called the Desolation of Lanaria. Those that survived the anguish were forced to take the mark of Lan -- a tattoo upon their face. They were forbidden from owning property and thus became pirates upon the sea (Salt Lanari) and nomads across the land.

The Principalities of Vyruma Serpentis eventually gave way to the Free Provinces. But centuries later, the descendants of the Lanari still wander, "taking the mark" voluntarily, even proudly, and making their way as itinerates and laborers across the world. Their reputation still suffers, for most Provincials see them as thieves and swindlers and treat them as an underclass to this day.

The Tandis Lists: List II

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 33rd century there was:

3308 Algernon of Treft made a name for himself in the employ of the Rathor Confederacy. He was recognized as the Old Bear at the Gathering in Treft and spent many weeks thereafter writing the tales he heard from others.

3318 Finn of Northrun who rid the Ladiskeep of the Urok and kept their tribes below the Svartalfheim.

3328 Stronn of Sudland

3338 Braddoc of Wanderhalt who cleared the Everskeep of Urok.

3348 Harr of Balsrest

3358 Strode of the Nandi who painted his face in the manner of those from Red River tribe and exacted tribute from the settlements of men for his protections.

3368 Haydon Woodcity

3378 Lem of Northrun who was called the Hammer of the Urok and pushed their tribes beyond the Graetalfheim. He also founded Hamarhold in Wanderhalt.

3388 Garet of Sudland who brought shame to the Fraternity for the Massacre at Sothmark.

3398 Lothar of the Hill People was the last of the uncivilized Rangers. For he had been born into the tribes of the Rathor Confederacy and did not recognize the kingdoms that were rising across Westrun.

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.