History of Man -- Book I: Westrun Part 5

By the middle of the 35th century the Meni refugees had diluted into separate people using intermarriage as a tool of peace and generational conquest. The two major subgroups were the Menes along the north coast and the Talir along the South. 

Some of the Menes merged with the men of the City of Wood and eventually gave their name to that place, Menea; while others reached still farther North of the Red River into Sudland and married in among the exiled northmen -- there becoming the Boldi. The other Sudlanders were still fiercely independent and lived as a dozen distinct, but settled clans.

While the Menes moved northward, the Talir largely remained in Watersedge, and following the example of the Tren, allowed large numbers of the Nandi to enter their midst both as general labor and as men-at-arms. Some of the Talir intermarried with the men of Treft where their High Vyrum tongue and mannerisms were prized. At Watersedge, because of the 100 learned Meni who had settled there as refugees, was built a place of learning intended to rival the colleges of old. If any evidence of their skill and knowledge was needed, Talir soon had it. By the end of the century, the men there had drained the marshes turning it into rich farmland, and raised a colossus of the previous age which had been toppled into the sea.

Inland, the Rathor still controlled a vast swath of territory in the middle of Westrun and used their power to regulate and tax trade. Over the course of the century the Nandi of that confederation slowly entered permanent settlements and consolidated into three large and wealthy kingdoms: Rath, Gere and Palo.

To their West were the minor kings of the Saks and the Tari -- both of who seemed closer to the elves of the Mistwood than of their fellow man. In the far Southwest the Bal were firmly ensconced in the ald they now called Balrest and demanded fealty from the tribes of Aras, Du and Ren. 

In and among these kingdoms, some Nandi still roamed with difficulty. Nadi, Sahna, Numin, Shina, Anis, and Duvi were known as itinerants and raiders, reluctant to give up their nomadic ways. Moving seasonally between hunting grounds, these people groups increasingly found their way inhibited by permanent settlements and found their lifestyle costly. Meanwhile the settled men of Westrun continually disputed with each other -- testing borders and resolve. Not infrequently, these disputations erupted into armed conflicts and even minor wars. 

Roll 003

3010    Vetran

Then came Vetran.

The Rolls of the Lords Continuous

The Tandis Lists: List IV

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 35th century there was:

3528 Kurlan of the Steppes who was a mounted warrior of the Eastrun barbarians and took the scalps of his enemies as trophies.

3538 Ewan Mac Whyr who was from the Ice Tribes in the Far North.

3548 Weler of Treft

3558 Arshal of Durrmalas who required a translator and would not speak in the tongues of men.

3598 Denn One-ear

Celede Proclamation

The end of the Elvish Civil War, the Wood Elves are forced to accept the terms of peace offered them, but the Drow are defiant and face near annihilation. They are banished forevermore to the Under Dark.  When hostilities end, the High Elves arrange for a Gnome and Dwarf contingent to be sent to watch over the Drow.  The Dwarf tribe is eventually corrupted by their proximity, but the Gnomes remain pure and dedicated to their commission. This Proclamation sits poorly with the Wood Elves to this day.

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.