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.