Geran

Geran (Olgish Gäran [ˈgɛ.ɾɑn], English also [ˈʤɛ.ɹɑn]) is one of the seven major regions of Elondor, located between the rivers Ilathw and Kalpa. Adjacent to both the Olgish and the Aribelian domain of influence, it was a space of encounter between peoples for most of its history and is considered the homeland of the Kalparians, Norians, Yamenaens, and Wertian Olgs and often thought the place of origin of the Aribelian people.

Etymology and Names

The oldest known mention of the name is found in the inscription on the Menhir of Nambara, dated to the 10th century B.E.B., which credits Nambara, then ruler of a petty kingdom along the lower Ilathw, with

engeli lendes nærth Iglethi Gæran-kôrethin
‘a great victory (or many victories) against the Iglethi of the Gæran-heath’

The Iglethi ‘people of thirst’ are thought to refer to the proto-Yamenaen Kattasi settlers who from ca. 1600 B.E.B. had begun to expand into the Geranian Heath, in the process driving out the native Geranian population, and by Nambara’s time were threatening Olgish and Aribelian settlements along the Ilathw; the name Gæran itself, however, is presumably much older and originates in the common language of the Geranians. It most likely derives from a Common Geranian root *gyār- ‘extension, reach, plain’ (hence Kal. kear ‘bed, range’ and Haj. gor ‘plain, field, garden’), either with the Olgish nominalizing suffix ‑an, or directly from a form *gyārhāɲ ‘plain of heather’. The extent of the area so denoted is not known, and it can be presumed that the term was applied somewhat loosely to any region north of the Ilathw, or, by extension, north of Belkondíl.

In Olgish, the term is usually rendered as Gäran or Geran, becoming Géran or Géryn in Wertian. The Kattasi themselves called the land Oṣṣale ‘north’, referring to its location north(west) of their ancestral kingdoms in the western Reknaya. After the foundation of Yamenna, this term was applied to the lands even further north and survives as the region of Oshale in southern Aribel.

The Kalparians, dwelling on both sides of the Kalparian Sea and the River Kalpa, do not know a region comparable to Geran; they will use the term Keran, an Olgish loan. They know of a mythical homeland called Talunea, roughly ‘where the swallows are seen’, which is sometimes thought to refer to the southern shore of the Kalparian Sea and the northern Hajalad, but in most written accounts of Kalparian legend located indefinitely further south, potentially in western Belkondíl, or even Nokim.

The Aribelians equate Geran with the Felnermi ‘meadow of plenty’, the legendary fertile land the early Aribelians are said to have inhabited after leaving Almen, possibly reflecting the presence of the Proto-Aribelians in Geran in the early Bronze Age.

Geography

Geran is located north of Belkondíl south of Aribel and west of the Reknayan Mountains. Its traditional borders are considered to be the Ilathw to the south, the Kalpa and the Kalparian Sea to the north, the Black Mountains and the Mountains of Dermon to the east, and the Runion to the west.

Subdivisions and Landmarks

Continental Geran is divided along its centre by a chain of uplands composed of the Nukna Highlands to the north and the Ílgarian Forest to the south. East of this dividing line lies the Geranian Heath, an open, sparsely vegetated steppe, bordered by mountains on three sides, the Nukna to the west, the Black Mountains to the south, and the Mountains of Dermon to the east, and the River Kalpa to the north, its main boundary to the formerly Kalparian territory in the Oshale, still marked by the Five Forts of the Kalpa, Kalpattu, Tartassa, Nitespea, Varu, and Antanu.

The plain reaches its lowest point not far south from the Kalpa, in the basin containing Lake Tapakya and the city of Yamenna, an ancient holy site of Kalparian cult and later capital of the Kattasi Kingdom of Yamenna. It is the northernmost of the Five Ring Cities of Geran, beside Aeros, Minnis, Nís, and Daernis, located along the crescent-shaped Niom VI Bálin, which follows the bend of the mountains south from the Oshal-Falls past Lake Dermon to the Blue Ravine and the Gap of Daernis between the Black Mountains and the Ílgarian Forests. South of this passage, the land is more fertile and marshy, falling down towards the Fields of the Ilathw.

The Niom Bálin continues west from Daernis past Inverydd in the gap of the Hajalad into the western part of the region, of the same name. Hajalad is of Geranian Olgish original, understood to mean ‘wealthy coast’