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

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, 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 other’s 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 for 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,

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