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==Geography== | ==Geography== | ||
[[File:Geran in the late Imperial Era.jpg|thumb|Map of Geran]] | |||
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. | 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=== | ===Subdivisions and Landmarks=== | ||
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The Niom Bálin continues west from Daernis past [[Inverydd]] in the [[Gap of Hajalad]] into the western part of the region, [[Hajalad|of the same name]]. ''Hajalad'' is of [[Dialects of Olgish|Geranian Olgish]] origin, understood to mean ‘wealthy coast’<ref>cf. Olgish ''Haj-Gëlad'' or ''Hagëlad'' ‘emminent shore’</ref>. The area is, aptly, characterized by the merchant cities along its coast, including [[Antarea]], [[Bernab]], and [[Cas Dárin]], and renowned for its urban wealth and cultural diversity, although the countryside is mostly barren and impoverished. The regions draws south further on this side of the Ílgarian Forest, reaching the Ilathw in its lower valley at [[Dárinsford]] and bordering the county of [[Tarébras]] in [[Belkondíl]]. To the west, the [[Runion|Runian]] coastline forms the [[Bight of Hajalad]], containing the [[Norides|Norides archipelago]]. Its northern boundary is the Kalparian Sea, hemmed by the two branches of the Nukna and the [[Gulf of Ianna]] with the [[Ianna|city of the same name]] in between. | The Niom Bálin continues west from Daernis past [[Inverydd]] in the [[Gap of Hajalad]] into the western part of the region, [[Hajalad|of the same name]]. ''Hajalad'' is of [[Dialects of Olgish|Geranian Olgish]] origin, understood to mean ‘wealthy coast’<ref>cf. Olgish ''Haj-Gëlad'' or ''Hagëlad'' ‘emminent shore’</ref>. The area is, aptly, characterized by the merchant cities along its coast, including [[Antarea]], [[Bernab]], and [[Cas Dárin]], and renowned for its urban wealth and cultural diversity, although the countryside is mostly barren and impoverished. The regions draws south further on this side of the Ílgarian Forest, reaching the Ilathw in its lower valley at [[Dárinsford]] and bordering the county of [[Tarébras]] in [[Belkondíl]]. To the west, the [[Runion|Runian]] coastline forms the [[Bight of Hajalad]], containing the [[Norides|Norides archipelago]]. Its northern boundary is the Kalparian Sea, hemmed by the two branches of the Nukna and the [[Gulf of Ianna]] with the [[Ianna|city of the same name]] in between. | ||
===Climate=== | ===Climate=== | ||
The climate across most of Geran is harsh, as will all regions along the coast of the Runion. Vegetation is sparse in most areas except for the fertile Ilathw Valley and the sheltered landscapes along the Black Mountains and the Ílgarian Woods, the latter the third largest coherent forest system, after the [[Forest of Rûldor]] in [[Seligon]] and the [[Rouningwood]] in Belkdoníl. Summers are cool and wet, winters mild but characterized by heavy storms. | The climate across most of Geran is harsh, as will all regions along the coast of the Runion, but, protected from the open sea by the Norides island chain, compares favourably to the even harsher west of Belkondíl. Vegetation is sparse in most areas except for the fertile Ilathw Valley and the sheltered landscapes along the Black Mountains and the Ílgarian Woods, the latter the third largest coherent forest system, after the [[Forest of Rûldor]] in [[Seligon]] and the [[Rouningwood]] in Belkdoníl. Summers are cool and wet, winters mild but characterized by heavy storms. | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
===Prehistory=== | ===Prehistory=== | ||
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Dermon itself rebels a generation later, during the First Uprising of Dermon in 592, but the insurgents are soon torn apart by disagreements over the distribution of spoils and the political future of Dermon, many defect back to Yamenna, and the rebellion eventually falls apart. Only three years later, in 589 B.E.B., the Aribelians, still disgruntled over Yamenna's failure to provide them the tax relief promised thirty years prior and increasingly restless in the tight fist of Yamenaen rule, rebel as well. The First Oshalian Rebellion fails, and its consequences are dire. In one final attempt to maintain its grip on Geran and the surrounding lands, Yamenna renews its ties with the Wertians, granting them lands to settle in in the Hajalad and the southern steppes in exchange for the service of their feared cavalry. For one more century, Geran remains peaceful. | Dermon itself rebels a generation later, during the First Uprising of Dermon in 592, but the insurgents are soon torn apart by disagreements over the distribution of spoils and the political future of Dermon, many defect back to Yamenna, and the rebellion eventually falls apart. Only three years later, in 589 B.E.B., the Aribelians, still disgruntled over Yamenna's failure to provide them the tax relief promised thirty years prior and increasingly restless in the tight fist of Yamenaen rule, rebel as well. The First Oshalian Rebellion fails, and its consequences are dire. In one final attempt to maintain its grip on Geran and the surrounding lands, Yamenna renews its ties with the Wertians, granting them lands to settle in in the Hajalad and the southern steppes in exchange for the service of their feared cavalry. For one more century, Geran remains peaceful. | ||
In the end, it is the same feared warriors who have now come to Yamenna’s relief that will write the last chapter in its downfall. From their earliest days in the renewed covenant, the Wertians are restless, repeatedly violating their truce with Yamenna and raiding each | In the end, it is the same feared warriors who have now come to Yamenna’s relief that will write the last chapter in its downfall. From their earliest days in the renewed covenant, the Wertians are restless, repeatedly violating their truce with Yamenna and raiding each others’ and neighbouring lands. The free Wertians living south of the Ilathw more and more often join their raids, and by the turn of the fifth century, the Wertians of Belkondíl have again become a major threat to Geran. Seeing their chance of escaping Kattasian rule, the peoples of the mountains, the Oshale, and the Hajalad begin their calls for freedom. When the Aribelians rebel again in 454, Yamenna can but watch as the Oshale secedes from the kingdom. Kattasian attempts at enacting their influence over the area persist throughout the following civil war, but finally fail with the establishment of the Republic of Aribel in 447. Around the same time, the Kalparians, for many centuries a spiritual child nation of Yamenna, begin to reclaim their culture, and when Yamenna tries to reconquer the Oshale in the Aribelian Campaign 427–424, they form an alliance with the Republic. Greatly outnumbered and unwilling to fight for the widely abhorred Yamenaens, the Wertians abandon their posts, leaving the rump of the Yamenaen army to a devastating defeat in the following Battle of the Kalpattu of 424. The sovereignty of Aribel is secured, and the Kalpa Valley is returned to its native Kalparian inhabitants. | ||
The remainders of the Yamenaen army and court flee, first to Yamenna, and after multiple Wertian incursions further east to Aeros. But the Wertians, in this Olgish age of the Dawn Heroes, are nigh impossible to dismay, and in 422 B.E.B., they breach Geran with united forces, overrunning the steppes and forcing the last living nobles of Yamenna into exile in Dermon and Kalpa. It is there that they spend their last years and wield their last influence before falling prey to their own greed for power and bloody infighting. By the middle of the 4th century B.E.B., the last of the great Yamenaen noble houses has become extinct. | |||
===Wertian Geran=== | |||
It is thus that Geran meets a fate that has already befallen the mountains many centuries earlier and that will by the end be taken equal to the fate of Elondor itself: Invaded by Belkondilian cavalry, occupied and colonized by foreign forces, and, after only a handful of generations, by and large, an Olgish country. The Wertians do not take a moment to breathe. After their decisive victory over the Kattasians, they occupy Yamenna and take it as their new capital, ruling the steppes in ruthless but stable peace. They are never known to respect the borders to their neighbours, but the threat of their tireless armies and the skillfulness of their (moslty Soskish) diplomats maintain friendly relations with the Kalparians, Dermon and Parka, and the Geranians remaining in western Geran. At this point, the Wertian Kingship of Imynadd encompasses all of the Geranian Heath south of the Kalpa, north of the Ilathw, and between the Nukna and the Mountains of Dermon, and almost the southern half of the later Hajalad. | |||
Despite the quarrelsome nature of the Wertians and their constant feuds both within and outside of their society, conflicts in this era are small and contained and rarely threaten the stability of Wertian Geran. The people of the west are still fearful of the invaders and remove themselves as far as possible from them, forming a sharp border south of Inverydd that splits the Wertian Kingdom in two; but the Kalparians of the Kalpa Valley are receptive for the newcomers’ trade, technology, and culture, leading to the second decline of ancient Kalparian traditions. The Kalpattu realm maintains its Kalparian nationality, but its identity is a thin veil over an Olgish-speaking, quasi-olgicized state. In this role, the Kalparians also maintain what little contact there is between Wertians and Aribelians. The young republic has long distrusted the war-like invaders from the south, whom they consider the spiritual successor of their Yamenaen enemy. Fearing for its own sovereignty, Aribel isolates itself from its neighbours both to the south and to the east. What limited trade remains with Geran flows through the domain of the eastern Kalparians. | |||
Relations to the south remain in the friendly-hostile state common to most Olgish principalities. When Enethin establishes his rule over the Olgs of Belkondíl in 0 E.B., the Wertians silently ignore the call for their homage. They view themselves as Olgs in the broadest sense but do not consider themselves part of the narrower nation Enethin has claimed dominion over. This refusal of allegiance, similar to the resistance Enethin’s rule is facing in the mountains, sours relations between Belkondíl and Geran, but the Kingdom of Belkondíl is not forged yet, and the early Olgish kings are too occupied with their own affairs and too wary of the still-forbidding Wertian cavalry to interfere with Geranian affairs. It is only in 312 E.B., on the eve of the Olgish High Kingdom, that King Thulcárin I seeks, first by military and, after a series of devastating defeats, later by diplomatic means, to annex the Olgish-inhabited parts of Geran to his kingdom, but his attempts fail, culminating in the desperate Invasion of the Ilathw and Thulcárin’s death in battle in 315. | |||
===The Olgish High Kingdom=== | |||
Another century will pass ere the long-saught reconciliation between Belkondíl and the Wertians is achieved. When the more peaceful policies of Thulcárin’s successors foster trade and immigration in Belkondíl, beginning what will later be known as the Olgish High Kingdom, the increase of material power in both rural and urban areas sets populations in motion. The great Olgish harbour cities of the Hajalad are from the beginning part of the ever-growing network of trade routes along Elondor’s western shores, and their wealth and prestige attract immigrants from Belkondíl. It is around this time that the Hajalad is given its name, and soon not only the larger cities but also the open land between the coast and the hills of the inland become the target of an Olgish exodus. Beginning in the late 320s, the fourth and fifth century see a great influx of Belkondilian Olgs into Geran. Most of them hail from the impoverished west of Belkondíl, hoping for better chances in the Norian Bight and perhaps even a taste of the luxuries the Hajalad has become infamous for. | |||
The swathes of settlers from Orinion, Atrissar, and the Mairn first make their homes in the southern Hajalad, but even the open and empty land between Darinsford and Ahtar does not have room for all of them, and their interests soon turn further north. As the Belkondilian Olgs spread, the Geranians are forced to retreat from their native lands, or diminish and drown in the culture of the newcomers. By the mid-sixth century, the Kalparian language is extinct here as it had already been in the east for several centuries. The various dialects of Hayan will remain spoken until the days of Lécaron, but they are not thought of fondly and driven into shadow by an increasingly self-conscious and nationalistic Olgish majority. Untouched remain only trade and commerce, and the Hajalad’s gluttonous reputation. | |||
Not least animated by the persisting wealth of western Geran, the ever-roving gaze of the Wertians is soon turned to their newly neighbouring relations. King Aeneleg II is the first Wertian ruler who, his father of the same name having already united his own people in a largely ceremonial and peaceful campaign E.B. 395–408, in 432 claims his right as high king of all Geranian Olgs. The region is still formally without a ruler but in fact controlled by a new merchant elite that has emerged from an astute few among the Olgish settlers trading with and marrying into the old Hayan merchant families. The Wertian claim to this land is at first met with indifference but eventually received with mixed feelings, as the descendants of the settlers fleeing the harsh conditions in western Belkondíl see their designs of a stable new country under a single ruler come to light and especially the peasant class hopes for a king to reign in the relatively unrestricted excesses of the wealthy merchants but at the same time fear for their newly found freedom. Aeneleg offers the latter protection and relative freedom in exchange for modest, but compared to the relative poverty of the Heath substantial, tribute payments. At first unwilling to agree to these terms, the representatives sent by the merchant families are soon intimidated by the military strength Aeneleg has brought to the negotiations held at [[Ancient Invarydd]] and confirm the terms of their submittal with only minor amendments concerning the Hayan cities’ rights in imposing customs fees. Returning home, they are met with disdain from their families and the populace at large, who accuse them of having sold their new country for ‘three dried fish and a jug of sour milk’. | |||
===The Wars of Fish and Milk=== | |||
Nonetheless, the agreement is honoured at first, and over the following five years the Hajalad is peacefully integrated into Aeneleg’s Olgish kingdom. A new capital is constructed at the site of negotiations in Invarydd and new trade routes established connecting the coast with the Heath in the mountains inland, under the powerful protection of the Wertian cavalry. It is only in the autumn of 437 that the Hayan Olgs refuse payment of the in their eyes injust Wertian Taxes. Aeneleg enters negotiations calmly, either hiding his ire or seeing a long-expected threat come true. A drastic restriction of taxable transactions—largely relieving the merchants from their obligations and putting a greater strain on the general population—, the formation of an official recognized merchant guild—the [[Hayan Trade Magistrates]] based in Bernab—, and Aeneleg’s assurance that Wertian warriors remain on the Heath and do not enter the Hajalad initially settle the dispute, but the newfound peace cannot last. With the Hayan peasantry suffering and increasingly unable to fulfill their tax duties, Aeneleg once again exalts taxes on the merchants in 446, and, once again, the powerful Magistrates refuse to honour their obligations. His patience running thin and under the constant threat of seeming weak to the Wertian earls, who themselves have only recently submitted to a greater ruler, Aeneleg rallies his vassals in Invarydd and marches on Bernab in the Spring of 447. | |||
With this action begin the Wars of Fish and Milk, named for the dismissive comment made towards the unsuccessful negotiators and [[Fänar of Unrír and Bernab|Fänar’s]] famous [[The Wars of Fish and Milk (stageplay)|stageplay of the same name]] dealing with the matter. Aeneleg’s campaign into the Hajalad is initially slow, held back by the torrential rainfall in spring and summer of 447. The Wertian warriors are admonished to respect the local peasantry, in the hopes of winning the lower classes for a common Olgish cause, but the populace is less than welcoming to the invading force and, if not outright hostile, meet the Wertians with indifference. The three-days’ march to Bernab is thus stretched to last over a week, giving the city a comfortable timeframe for preparations. The Magistrates, foreseeing a violent contention with Aeneleg, have long hired mercenaries of Geran and Belkondíl, and by the time Aeneleg’s cavalry appears before its gates, Bernab is heavily guarded. The Failed Battle of Bernab pushes the Wertians back, but Aeneleg is unwilling to compromise and abandon is undertaking, beginning a bloody conflict that will last for almost six years and leave the Hajalad in ruin. | |||
The war seems indecisive for the majority of its duration. Initially, their access to the port cities and a sizable navy prove an invaluable advantages to the Magistrates, but after Aeneleg can win the western Kalparians, already threatened in their existence by the Olgish settlers, for his cause, the Bight of Hajalad becomes a battlefield as much as the mainland. A glimpse of relief only emerges in 453, when Aeneleg himself is slain in the otherwise indecisive Battle at Niom Unrín. His dispersed army is rallied by [[Genvéreth the Shallow|Genvéreth, an earl or shieldmaiden]] of his retinue, who, having seemingly reached the conclusion that the barren land of the Hajalad be worth no further action of arms, has them chase down and pillage the Hayan wagon train hastily evacuating the Magistral treasury after a [[Naval Siege of Unrír|devastating Kalparian attack on the harbour of Unrír]], the provisional Hayan capital after the [[Sack of Bernab]] two years prior. Then, tired from years of war and now laden with riches, the Wertians turn their back on the Hajalad, returning to the heath and once more living in small earldoms and under the rule of petty kings, the dream of a united Wertian nation again a faint one. | |||
No official resignation is delivered to the Magistrates, and neither to the Kalparian allies, and the maritime war rages on for almost two more years. Initially planning on buying the Kalparian privateers, an increasingly worrisome lack of funds cripples the Magistrates’ diplomatic mobility and progressively alienates their mercenaries. Dissatisfied with the harsh conditions of the indecisive conflict and having gone months without pay, they first abandon their post before, having lost any interest in the Magistrates’ affairs, restoring their bands and raiding the Hayan countryside. This second, even bloodier conflict, lasts for the better part of two decades and leaves the Hajalad scattered across the few fortified merchant cities, lawless pirate ports, and the country populace, who suffer most of all. Despite brief truces, all three sides remain hostile towards each other. Only in 473, 40 years after Aeneleg’s accession, an allied rebellion of mercenaries and peasants rises against the powers of the cities. The magistrates have reached a decisive low point in their history, bankrupted in matters both personal and official, with only a trace left of the influence they once possessed, and abhorred nearly universally in their own cities. They initially present a last desperate resistance, but soon see their chances better with the rebels, and begin to side with the insurgency in greater and greater numbers. The Wars of Fish and Milk end with the [[Sack of Cas Dárin]] and, shortly after, the defeat of the last independent privateers off the shores of Ur Iskíl in the summer of 475. The victors lay the foundations of the Republic of Sarédos, the timocratic state to encompass both the Hajalad and the Norides islands. | |||
===The Republic of Sarédos=== | |||
Thus, relative peace and prosperity return to western Geran, and the sixth and seventh centuries are a time of growth and cooperation. The young republic forges close ties with the kingdom of the Kalparians and reestablishes the commercial relations the Hajalad was once famous for. Its politics are dominated by two factions, the Mercenaries, who still adhere to the ideals and aspirations fostered by the popular uprising that sprouted this new state, and the Magistrates, who have accepted as their task to defend the freedom of trade and commerce in Geran. | |||
-> With the Kingdom of Belkondíl increasingly powerful (after the Civil War) and pushing across the Ilathw, the Wertians are once again united under a single ruler [688] | |||
-> The republic also comes under increasing pressure as Belkondíl tries to seize its lands for itself -- forces both within and outwith the state try to use this situation to their advantage | |||
-> There is a cold war between the three dominions; several alliances between Sarédos and the Wertians, but none of them last (eighth and ninth century) | |||
-> After what is considered a series of military and diplomatic failures, leading to the cession of the lower Ilathw and Darinsford, the Magistrates convince the Republican Council to enter another truce with the Wertians, engaging them as the Republic's chief military, in exchange for tributes paid by the merchant class [907] > formally, the Wertians become citizens of the Republic (while retaining their ethnic ruler); in reality, this hands over all power to the merchants and, by extension, the trade magistrates | |||
-> They exploit this situation to gradually oust the Mercenaries from politics; the general population already considers the Magistrates their saviours and treats the Mercenaries with disdain | |||
-> The council is officially disbanded in [934], when the queen of the Wertians declares herself queen of Geran > all political power is now safely in Wertian hands; the trade magistrates retain their positions in trade and commerce | |||
-> The queen begins her rule by conquering back the lands lost to the Olgs [same year] > there is some resistance, but she spends the rest of her life keeping Geran under control | |||
-> Her successor [950s onwards] makes a greater effort at reconciliation, rebuilding the old capital at Inverydd > even incorporates the olgicizes Kalaprians into his kingdom [983] | |||
-> This in turn opens up direct relations with the Aribelians: starting from the late 980s, Aribelian products begin to flood the markets of all Elondor | |||
-> Boom-like interest in Aribelian culture (also Mîlin of Glirtes!) | |||
-> Olgish settlers move to Aribel beginning the 1020s, eventually leading to the First Aribelian War [1037--1043] | |||
-> Finally, Lécaron of course | |||
-> And then quite a bit of stuff after | |||
which were part of the separate [[Province VII Oshale]] until the [[First Kalparian Uprising]] of 614 | which were part of the separate [[Province VII Oshale]] until the [[First Kalparian Uprising]] of 614 | ||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||
[[Category:Regions of Elondor]] | [[Category:Regions of Elondor]] | ||