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 and the Kalparian Sea. 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. It was one of the first regions to join the Lécaronian Empire in 1312 E.B., as its second province, initially excluding the Kalpa Valley and the coast of the Kalparian Sea north of Antarea, which only became part of the province in 614 L.R.

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

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.

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 western end of 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 as it falls down towards the Fields of the Ilathw, but only sparsely populated in Lécaronian times.

The Niom Bálin continues west from Daernis past Inverydd in the Gap of Hajalad into the western part of the region, of the same name. Hajalad is of Geranian Olgish origin, understood to mean ‘wealthy coast’. 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 Runian coastline forms the Bight of Hajalad, containing the Norides archipelago. Its northern boundary is the Kalparian Sea, hemmed by the two branches of the Nukna and the Gulf of Ianna with the city of the same name in between.

Climate

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

Prehistory

No major artefacts have been preserved from the Neolithic, but Southern Geran is likely to have been part of the territory inhabited by the people of the Ortûlékian horizon. Latest since the Chalcolithic, the Géni, thought the ancestors of the Aribelian and Celdic peoples, dwell in the upper Ilathw Valley and the Ílgarian Forest, were they will establish themselves permanently from the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.E.B., when the first expansion of the newly evolved Olgish-Soskish community has cost them most of their lands in Belkondíl. They are here to remain, settling in Geran for the coming two millennia.

At this time, the Geranian Heath has already been occupied for almost seven hundred years. The Geranians are among the first of the Reknayan peoples to venture west until the rim of the mountains and go further into the plains, founding the holy city of Yamenna on the shores of Lake Tapakya. When they descend form Lake Dermon in the 27th century B.E.B., they bring with them large herds of long-haired cattle, which will later be known as the Geranian Ox. It is not known if they knew of metalworking, but their appearance near the Ortûlékian sphere around the same time the first Bronze is forged by the Olgs makes it likely that they were introduced to it soon after their arrival in Geran, or even that they brought metallurgy with them from the east.

The Foundations of the Aribelian People and the Celdic Problem

The first undoubtably Aribelian artefacts found in the upper Ilathw date from well into the Bronze Age. As both Olgish and Aribelian historical tradition holds, the Géni, the early Aribelians, settle in the fertile plains north of Belkondíl, or Almen as it is known in Aribelian myth. In Olgish writing, this country is always identified with Geran; Aribelian legends call it Felnermi, the ‘Meadow of Plenty’. Indeed, the fertile Ilathw plains prove the perfect cradle of a young nation, spreading over a large area from the Black Mountains west across the Ílgarian Forest almost to the site of the later Bernab. They live in hamlets, forts, and cities, revere a pantheon of gods, and construct megalithic temples, tombs, and holy sites, many of which still remain in the area.

The historical relationship between the early Aribelians, and by extension the Géni, and the Celdic peoples remains a problematic one. The conservative viewpoint holds that both Aribelians and Celsondach descend from a common ancestor, the Géni, and have remained a homogenous population until their ultimate separation in the 12th century B.E.B. In this scenario, the archaic from of Aribelian spoken in the Ilathw Valley is ancestor to both the classical Aribelian dialects and the Celdic languages, which are often grouped under the label of an Aribelian language family. Especially in consideration of the inconsistent divergences between Celdic and Aribelian, the latter of which is semantically closer to Celdic but phonologically more similar to Olgish, an alternative stance might be proposed, treating the ancestral Ortûlékian population as a continuous horizon, with the Aribelians occupying the Ilathw Valley and the Proto-Celdic people the Geranian Heath. There languages, likewise, form a continuum, with Archaic Aribelian placed between Proto-Olgish and Old Celdic. In this scenario, the Celsondach might have formed a continuous culture with the Geranians, adopting an equestrian lifestyle already in Geran, which is then exported to the Celdic Steppes, which would further raise the question of whether the Celdic Horse is a distinct and separately tamed variety or a direct descendant of the Geranian Horse. With a lack of evidence, the issue remains unresolved.

The Arrival of the Kattasians

Whichever the demography of eastern Geran, it is subjected to a major shift around 1600 B.E.B., when a second group of people descend from the mountains into the plains of Geran. The Kattasians have migrated westward from their territories south of the Desert of Wat. They speak a Besokian language and are unfamiliar with cattle herding and horse riding, but skilled metalworkers and agriculturalists, and their arrival in Geran will prove consequential for both of its older population groups.

The Geranians are affected more directly. Their early contact with the Kattasians is hostile, involving their displacement from the plains and forced migration into the Nukna Highlands and to the coast that will once become the Hajalad. Yamenna is taken and becomes a Kattasian stronghold. With this change in location comes a change in lifestyle, away from their previous steppe herding in the open land and towards the small mountain farms they will be known for in the following centuries. Their herds shrink, for some, goats replace cattle, other are drawn down to the sea and begin a life as fishermen and merchants: They are the ancestors of Kalparians and Norians. For the Aribelians, the change is more subtle, but nonetheless of great consequences. It is here and now, under the influence of the curious Kattasians, that they discover the merits of science and written knowledge and, surpassing even their role models, discard their pantheon in favour of reason. The first step towards the great academies of Aribel, but also religious suppression and nationalist disdain that will come to dominate the Aribelian reputation many centuries later, is done.

The Wars of the Steppes

In the early 13th century B.E.B., around the same time as the Nathári invasions upset southern Belkondíl, the ever-pushing Olgs embark on their next campaign of conquest. Under Dárin Ironaxe, they first occupy the southern Hajalad, where Darinsford and Cas Dárin still bear the conquerer’s name, and then attack the Aribelians, quickly gaining a foothold along the upper Ilathw. They will once be called the Wertians, the northernmost of the Olgish peoples.

With their homeland taken, the Aribelians have no choice but to flee north into the sphere of influence of the Yamenaens, as the Kattasians of Geran are now known. Negotiations quickly erupt in violence and develop into the First War of the Steppes. The Aribelian minority seems lost beyond hope, but the Yamenaens are scattered, both geographically and politically, across the plain and the Aribelians desperate and united in their need for land. It is a short and bloody conflict that will end with the subduction of the Yamenaens and the foundation of the first unified Aribelian state, the Kingdom of Aeros. The Yamenaens are left with only a small strip of land reaching from Yamenna to the sea. This early Kingdom of Yamenna will fall less than a century later, in the Second War of the Steppes, which sees Aeros expand its territory and assert its dominance over the region against the land-hungry Wertians.

But the nobility of Aeros is already divided over the question of Yamenaen religion, many calling for the destruction of the great Temple of Yamenna and the expulsion of the Kattasian clergy, others cautioning not to upset the Yamenaen populace. Only a few years later, Krošcan, high priestess of Yamenna, narrowly survives an attempt on her life. Fleeing the city, she seeks refuge in the Nukna and rallies around her all loyal Kattasian chiefs, plotting an uprising against the Aribelians. The Third War of the Steppes is as devastating to the Aribelians as the first was to the Yamenaens, seeing the fall of the city of Aeros within three years. Some of the Aribelians flee north into the land then known as Oshale, which will soon become their permanent home, leaving the history of Geran to become the Celsondach, others remain and receive mercy at the hands of the Yamenaens. Victorious and united, they retake their holy city and restore the Kingdom of Yamenna, now spanning all of the Geranian Heath.

The Golden Age of Yamenna

With the Yamenaen victory in the Third War of the Steppes begins the heyday of the Kingdom of Yamenna. In the 1140s B.E.B., the first Yamenaen priests are sent west to missionize the Kalparians and Hayans, then dwelling in a large area stretching from Bernab to the Arsapárian Marsh. In 1082, a marriage pact brings the Yamenaens closer to their Wertian neighbours, and in 1049, most of the Wertian lands north of the Ilathw fall under Yamenaen rule. They will remain in Kattasian hands for almost four hundred years, and much of Wertian legend tells of the heroics of this time, some of its heroes battling on the side of the Yamenaens, other, like Nambara, fighting against their rule.

A hundred years later, the kingdoms expands north, establishing a colony in the Oshale, a territory formerly belonging to the Kalparians. The colonists are mostly of one descent, offspring of the once great Aribelian nation which had become vassals to the Yamenaens after their defeat in the Third War of the Steppes. The Treaty of the Kalpa of 944 B.E.B. grants them partial autonomy, but they are still nominally dependent of Yamenna.

The kingdom reaches its high point in the mid-9th century B.E.B., in a time when both Geran and Belkondíl experience a long-lasting peace before unknown to either region. Yamenna's rule in this age stretches from the Ilathw River northward, encompassing all of the Hajalad except for Antarea and Ialta at its northernmost tip, the Ilathw Arnym, and the Geranian Heath, and extending further north into Aribel and east to include the western part of the Mountains of Dermon and the northern half of the Black Mountains.

The Decline and Fall of Yamenna

The decline of Yamenna begins in the following century. The Aribelians of the Oshale have long been pressing northward in their need for more lands, driving the Celsondach further and further northwest. Around 750 B.E.B., the Celdic eastward migration has come to a halt in and afoot the Mountains of Hûr, faced by fierce resistance from the steppe-dwelling Volsians. Now lodged in between two nations, the sea in the north, and the swamps and forests of Aribel in the west, the Aribelians begin to stir, striving for greater autonomy. At the same time, Yamenna is tied up with a renewed Olgish threat on its Ilathw border, as sprouting sentiments of Olgish unity incite the Wertians on both sides of the river. The heartland of the kingdom is wide and infertile, and the tightly organized state required the resources from its provinces more than ever. When the flow of taxes from the Oshale abruptly stops in 724, Yamenna has little choice but to give in to Aribelian demands, and grants the region full sovereignty as a sub-kingdom of Yamenna the following year.

The Aribelians of the Oshale have no interest in the battles of the south. With the de-facto secession of the important province, Yamenna loses a great many of its resources and power, and soon, the Wertian encroachment is unavoidable. The Wertian Wars stretch over almost the entire first half of the 7th century and end in a devastating defeat in the Battle of the Black Mountains in 589. Yamenna loses all of its territory south of Daernis and east of the Ílgarian Woods and the southern tip of the Hajalad reaching north to Cas Dárin, depriving them entirely of their access to the Ilathw.

Seeing the power of the colossus that Yamenna has become shaken, Parka and Dermon seek their freedom as well. Their first joint rebellion in 651 fails, but anti-Yamenaen sentiments remain strong among the mountain-dwelling Andarians and Kattasians of that region, and multiple smaller rebellions are to follow. The most significant early uprising is the Falcon’s Rebellion of 618, which sees an alliance of Kattasian and Andarian tribes in the Valley of Parka rise against the Yamenaen authorities. The local military swiftly overwhelmed, the Kingdom gains the upper hand only after receiving unexpected help from the Oshale. Reinforced by Aribelian infantry, the Yamenaen army takes full control of the Valley of Parka, enslaving most of its native population and deporting them to the heartland of the kingdom and the remainders of the Hajalad still under Yamenaen control. Loyal Kattasian tribes from the plains and the Mountains of Dermon are settled on the gained land; Aribelian claims of both land and slaves are turned down. The Yamenaen general Ašutta grants them a relief on taxation for the following 24 years, but the promise is never confirmed by the senate of Yamenna, further souring relations between the ruling class and the Oshale.

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 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’s famous 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, 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 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 -> Later, Geran is finally united as one Olgish kingdom, with the (olgicized) Kalparians forming a separate Kingdom on the Kalpa -> These non-Wertian Olgs also show interest in relations with the Aribelians, send missions, etc. > trade relations and boom-like interest in Aribelian culture (Mîlin of Glirtes!) -> 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