History of Man -- Book I: Westrun Part 4

For the eight or nine generations spanning two centuries, the Tren had established themselves as the pinnacle of civilized men among the Nandi. At Treft, the City of Stone (formerly Ald Morin) the ways of the Vyrum were slowly disintegrating along with the architecture and wonders of the world they had built. The first generation of men who inherited from their masters were the best educated, but with each passing generation something more was lost. 

Within the first decade of inheriting the ald, as the Tren took over administrative and governing functions, they needed laborers and workers to assume their menial tasks. This fell to the more "savage" and uneducated Nandi that were allowed to become residents. A stratification occurred in society between those who could speak Vyrum and those who could not; with the former being seen as occupying a higher class of society.

Even this language skill was losing steam. New writing was very rare; understanding older writing was rarer. The Tren, as mere servants, had already spoken a low version of the language -- the words they used for communicating with their masters while serving was mixed with that of their native tongues and this pidgin was spoken in the kitchens and smithies and stables of the ald. The syntax and grammar of their low Vyrum already differed significantly from the original "high" Vyrum, but even as the purebred Tren proved reluctant to intermarry with their incoming Nandi population, the bloodlines were invariably mixed and so was the language.

Outside of Treft, in the City of Wood and along the plains, none of the ways of the Vyrum were known, let alone preserved. All that the Nandi had of "higher" culture was what came from emigres from Treft -- some of whom came as wealthy traders and others as the sons of daughters of Tren given to cement alliances with various tribal chieftains. 

Such had been Larec Redfist of the Rathor Confederation. His father was a Nandi warlord (perhaps descended from servants of Ald Biye -- the record is unclear) but his mother was the youngest daughter of a Tren merchant of Treft. With such "noble" blood in his veins, Larec was destined to become the sire of kings. Even Eiter, King of Treft in those years, was not pureblood Tren, for his grandmother was a Nandi "princess" whose father and tribe had been accreted into the city to patrol its walls and keep its peace.

In 3413ey refugees from across the Dagger Sea entered the social milieu of Westrun. Like the Tren, the Meni were the tamed human servants of the Vyrum Empire. They too had inherited alds and assumed the mantle of civilization. Unlike their Westrun counterparts however, the Meni of the Principalities were right at Ald Dovaris -- the center of what had been the Vyrum Empire. As a consequence of better education and perhaps great wealth, they almost seamlessly continued the governance and institutions of the previous age, albeit with shorter reach. 

For two centuries, while the men of Westrun were engaged in war with Urok and each other, these civilized men of the Principalities were developing noble Houses and contending with one another for control of the Empire. When the pretensions of one House proved unsuccessful, a lesser son led some 700 people in exile including a company of trained warriors, plus five score of the best trained and most capable administrators, artisans, architects and sages. Coming over the sea in a flotilla of makeshift vessels, Tal the Just made landfall at the charred ruin of Edgewater Fortress - the former Urok home in the Saltmarsh. 

The only rivals for their new land were a minor fishing tribe of the Rathor Confederation. At first the Meni named their settlement for Ald Casera, but the name among the Nandi would not take and slowly became known as Watersedge. The people which lived there were the Talir. A new fortress was built, the marshes were drained and agriculture to rival that in the Principalities was started.

The Rathor were unhappy with a new walled settlement between the Wody and the Brownbeck, but lacked the ability to assail it through miles of barely accessible marshland. Moreover the protected harbor of the Meni meant any siege was unlikely to cut off food and water. Westrun was astonished to discover humans who spoke High Vyrum and who were self-evidently of noble blood on their very doorstep. The Meni flourished and spread along the coast, actively avoiding conflict with the tribes they encountered.  

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.

Tal the Just

After the Desolation of Lanaria, Tal, a younger son of the Emperor, took five score refugees, across the Dagger Sea and settled in the land of Westrun. There, they found themselves at war with the Nandi tribesmen and were forced to carve out strongholds in the marshes of that foreboding land. Tal resisted calls to become the leader of this new people, creating instead a set of laws and a juridical body, under which they all would live.

In time, the refugees intermarried with the more peace-abiding savages, turning them from hunting and gathering to permanent habitations. Chief among these habitations was the New Ald Casera on the Edge of the Water, which came to be known more simply as the City of Watersedge. From that city-state many provinces would come to be ruled; and the kingdom which descended from the principality would come to bear the name of its founder: Talir.

It is a natural place then for the colossus of Tal the Just to have been raised. This great statue was a gift to the people of Talir from the last of the Vyrum craftsmen, Hlaloreon the Bard. Hlaloreon had taken refuge among the people of Watersedge for many years while he was hunted by those who sought vengeance upon him.  

The colossus stands astride the walled harbor of Watersedge, one foot upon each terminal point of the sea wall. While the years and the salt have been unkind to its pockmarked surface, the structure is still intact and fills visitors with wonder. The lighthouses under each of its feet have guided many ships upon the Dagger Sea to safe harbor.

The Tandis Lists: List III

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 34th century there was:

3408 Finely, son of Finn who was Old Bear as his father had been before him. He was taken by the arrow of an ally and given a burial at the top of the Horeset.

3418 Foley of Ald Casera who had come from the Prinicipalities with refuges of House Ferona.

3428 Doncas of the Outlands

3438 Thorel Halfblood who was the first of mixed elven blood to be allowed to be the Old Bear. For it was feared by many that the elven people would subsume the Fraternity if they could name its captains.

3468 Jeroen of Dravomalas who was the first full elf to be allowed to be the Old Bear and the first to appoint an Elf to serve as a captain of one company.

Elvish Civil War

The bloodiest of the recorded wars, lasting from 3498ey to 3565ey, the Elf factions seem bent on mutual self-destruction as their internal debate over man descends into violence. The aquatic and winged elves eventually become non-combatants. Their factions leave the Elf Council and vow to never again walk the face of Erenth. The war wages on with the Drow faction and Wood faction battling the High faction and Grey faction. 

Truce of Selazzyne

In 3480 and for the next seven years, the charismatic Drow monarch, Selazzyne manages to seat the Elven Council of old and then calls the remaining Elder Races to once again discuss "The Question of Man". 


This grand diplomacy devolves into eventual civil war among the Elves, while the other races retreat.

Gnome-Giant War

From 3472ey to 3475ey Erenth was torn by a global war waged by a league of the giant kind and the gnomes. No more fearful alliance was ever forged. With great weapons of war, the Giants descended upon the habitations of the other races. They razed cities and set civilizations to flight. Their ambitions were eventually thwarted by the Alliance of the Elder Races in name, but primarily the Elves and Dwarves.

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.