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., under the name of Province II Geran, 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

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. 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. 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 Kattasi

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 Kattasi 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 Kattasi 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. With this change in

which were part of the separate Province VII Oshale until the First Kalparian Uprising of 614