Post by Katori T'elva on Jun 25, 2015 2:30:03 GMT
1 North Wretchin
House of Majken
House of Staffan
House of Pyrrho
House of Stigr
2, Bulkulia
House of Grand Duke Taras
House of Onatas
House of Ludde
House of Numenius
House of Onatas
House of Hemming
3. Vuli
House of Horus
House of Lambicanus
House of Maximusus
House of Perasus
4. South Wretchin
House of Polemon
House of Stiplo
House of Lamkicanus
House of Perusas
House of Zuno
House of Xienodes
The people of the Northern Reach are broken off into two distinct ethnic groups commonly known as the Människor and the Folk. Although the differences have become difficult to distinguish, the two people are often simply called 'Reachlings'.
Människor - the most common people within the Northern Reach, the Människor are usually distinguishable by their blue eyes and washed out blonde hair, their skin tone can be described as albino while their body frames are typically slender. They are a tall people and very hearty. The Människor historically call the south their home.
Their historic language is known as Sången
Folk - An outsider may find it difficult to see the difference between the two ethnic groups, as years of intermarriage have closed the genetic difference between the two yet even still many people proudly identify as the Folk. They are blonde haired and blue eyed as the Människor are but - historically speaking - they were once described as being shorter and wider in the body frame, a genetic trait that helped them sail and fish, an activity that dominated these people's lives centuries ago. The Folk live in the north of the region.
Their historic language is known as the Koden.
Geography - the region of the Northern Reach is not an easy region to live in. The ground is rocky and the amount of clay in the soil makes it unsuitable for farming. It lacks the flat lands and bright skies its neighbors have and instead the country side features rolling hills and strong storms that regularly threaten its inhabitants. The north part of the region has viscous summer storms and terribly cold winters that have made a hearty people. The region doesn't have a great deal of landmarks that draw tourist, but ancient temples of past religions do bring in a great deal of tourists into the area.
Culture - The people in the Northern Reach are some of the most culturally conservative people in the Empire. They have passed several laws making professions like prostitution illegal. They are some of the most religious in the Empire and there are dozens of temples built to allow the inhabitants proper time to pray to the Empress
Education - the Northern Reach adheres to the Empire's General education; requiring schooling until your fifteen years of age (allowing you to drop out once you're 14).
Early History:
The first people to inhabit the Northern Reach came on the backs of migrating Dragons well over 15,000 years ago. Evidence of Dragon Nests in the northern part of the region suggest the Dragons found a thriving region of water beasts that helped fuel a Dragon population boom in the area until about 7000 years ago when the population began to decline, eventually leading the Dragons to leave the region for another while the humans were largely left in the area.Without their Dragon masters early humans would have had difficulty surviving against other massive creatures and the dangerous region that is Northern Reach. To the north of the region storms battered the coast year round while ravaging bands of native Dwarv Minors swept in from the east to raid the small human settlements. The humans migrated south towards the coast and evidence of population count shows they thrived by the warmer, calmer seas.
More legends than actual history is known throughout this period but tales like 'A Winter Bandit' and 'The Silent Dance'.
A Winter Bandit – A love story taking place maybe 1500 SA (Savage Era) during a great blizzard in what is though to be a small piety kingdom in the northern countryside. It goes that during the height of the storm the 'mounds of snow higher than the walls, the horses froze and died in their stables and children died in the wombs of their mother's. But during the storms a man approached the King claiming that he could end the storm 'only in the heat of another', requiring that he be allowed to share the bed of his newly married wife. Angered, the King sent the man away into the storm but the passing days only saw the storm get worse and the small folk were now clamoring into the castle as their houses collapsed under the weight of the snow. The man came back that day with the same offer and once again the King sent him away.
The next days passed the storms got worse. This time the man appeared and the King brought his young wife out, offering her hand for not only the night but for all eternity so long as the storm ended. The man instead spoke to the girl, saying that 'I have gave your King several offers and each time he throws them away. So I give you an offer now; leave with me and we shall live a fruitful and love life together, stay and you shall be buried with the foolish King.' She accepted the offer and that night they vanished while the small Kingdom was buried under the weight of the winter storms.
The Silent Dance – Is a famous Folk song (folk songs literal meaning is 'songs from the Folk people.') concerning a mother seeing her two sons off to war and eventually hearing that both fell in combat. She sings her anguish to the seas for the great storm gods to hear her wails and bring her fury and sadness on both the Kings that took her son's lives.
Finally we concern ourselves with one last historical aspect that is very important to their people's roots. History that is more epic story than truth; a man named Gerulf; the Dragon Slayer lived many thousands of years ago and is credited with killing over a hundred Dragons. The story goes that he had seen enough of his people's suffering and spent countless nights stealing scales and old nails from Dragon nests which he used to construct a great armor and sharp blade. He marched into the great Dragon nest and slaughtered the Dragons that called it their home, the story goes that the armor of scales made him invisible to the Dragons while the blade forged with Dragon nails bit through the Dragon's scales. He drove the Dragons from the nest and rallied the people to his side, arming his new army he marched them across the region and drove the Dragons out of it entirely. With the Dragons gone he constructed a great Kingdom believed to be somewhere within the central area of the region. He had a dozen wives and with each wife he had three children. Upon his deathbed he broke his Kingdom up and gave land to each of his sons. Those who went north would become the Folk people while those who went south would become the Människor. Most Kings that would rise in this region would trace their bloodline back to the fabled Gerluf; the Dragon Slayer.
Religions that dominated this region could be considered very barbaric. The gods they followed were far too numerous to name and most names have been lost in time, the collective Great Storm Gods ruled the Northern Reach for a great many ages. This primitive religion was honored mostly on the coast where the presence of these gods were best felt.
How the people honored these gods varied over time, but common practices believed that temples should not be built far from the sea and if the temples were ever destroyed it meant the Great Storm Gods were displeased by the structure and demanded a better one be made. Others including offerings of young virgin girls and various animals in rituals that usually included strapping the offering down by the coast and letting the rising tide take them away.
As the Religion of the Eight grew upwards through the Ellusian continent and is displaced a number of older religions. It became popular, but not prominent within the region.
Post Savage Era
Over time piety Kingdoms in the Northern Reach would grow larger either from diplomacy or warfare. Several great Kingdoms would rise within this region and as human population spread throughout the continent of Ellusia the region of Northern Reach would become a rich region that used its vast network of rivers to trade goods both within and outside the region.
The region became very advanced over the centuries passing. For much of the previous centuries piety kings and small republics ruled their own little dominions, but by the eighth century growing kingdoms began to consume the land. Although generally divided among ethnic lines there was one kingdom that held the entire region (it became known as the Empire of the Northern Reach and was very powerful under it's small reign). Old gods were pushed aside for the Religion of the Eight and trade with other regions grew considerably.
When the Union of the Kings were formed (a council of all Northern Ellusian Kings) there were two kings present from the Northern Reach. King Loke of the southern portion of the region and King Anton of the northern portion. The two kingdoms joined forces to push the 'barbaric southerners' out of Central Ellusia and both kings are noted for their bravery in battle, King Loke fell however in a ambush of southern barbarians towards the end of the campaign.
Not long after Central Ellusia was liberated the El-Elrons and Μικρά Kings made a joint move to establish further power. The El-Elrons had a great deal of prestige and wealth and the Μικρά controlled an immense flow of food and soldiers, the Northern Reach was one of the first to fall in a bloodless war. All the kings had witnessed the El-Elron king cut down soldiers without touching them so when the two armies (both northern reach kingdoms united) met on the field the kings dismounted and bowed to the El-Elron King, giving their crowns over to the Kings and vowing fealty. This historic moment meant that never again the Northern Reach would be independent but by any standards did the region flourish under the now newly formed Empire of Northern and Central Ellusia.
However it wasn't without conflict. The El-Elron and Μικράs ordered the two kings to join houses and the House of Taras was formed (they adopted a name of the Old Tongue to please their new overlord) and a push to rid the region of religions not bowing to the Empire began. Eventually this would drive a large segment of believers of the Eight to leave overseas and establish what will someday be Thelotia.
The great immigration occurred in the 21st century when the Emperor of Ellusia was assassinated by radicals belonging to the Church of Eight. This caused the Empire to form the Black Masks, a group of knights that vowed eternal alliance to their god and a holy war was launched throughout the empire to eradicate opposing religions. The Black Knights were cruel by any standard and they killed anyone who didn't believe in the Imperial state religion, this of course only furthered unrest and led to a vast movement of people that fled overseas to the recently established Thelotia where they could practice their religion in peace.
By during this scare entire cities were put under siege. Knights with the holy order would grab anyone they suspected of following the religion of Eight, interrogate them than decapitate them. There are no true numbers for the number of Northern Reach people killed in this horror, but by the time the Empire put a stop to it the body count was strikingly high. There are mass graves still discovered today to be related to the mass killings that occurred during this era.
At first the Taras family supported the Black Masked Knights routing out religious fanatics but as the horror continued they became greatly concerned by their movements. When one of the Black Knights accused the Grand Duke's niece of secretly following the Religion of the Eight he rallied an army around him and broke the Black Knight's host. This almost set the Taras Family against the El-Elrons, but through diplomatic means they resolved the issue and the Black Knights were pulled out of the region.
When the Ellusian Empire set off to conquer Proti the Northern Reach played a pivotal role. They supplied most of the ships necessary for such a massive invasion force and almost one fourth of the entire invasion force was made up of Northern Reach men. Knights like Sir Henry the Good was made a Lord for his heroic acts of crushing Dwarven and Human forces in Proti while tales of the fallen Sir Hjalmar are still told to children to this day. Their actions in Proti brought great wealth to the Lords of the Northern Reach as they pillaged many of the old 'Golden Cities' of Proti. Many common peasants who left their homes to fight overseas returned with abundance of gold in hand (the stories of commoners becoming rich helped fuel enlistment rates)
There came another thing as well. Many young men left to Proti returned with wives, some Dwarven while others were darker skinned women that stunned and shocked society. But gold and exotic women weren't the only thing they brought back...
Ideals of Protian democracy became well known. Republics – which had dominated the Protian continent for centuries now – well told to the soldiers by residence by their new wives and residence of the area. Stories of common people rising to greatness and selecting a government of their own were told and it started to stir the war scarred, wealthy class of citizenry.
The established class of aristocrats became weary of this. Wealth was flooding into their regions and calls for representation flooded the streets. The city of Oular – it was a town in which a great deal of young farmer men went off to war and returned wealthy, growing their small hamlet into a bursting city – was the first to establish a city council run entirely by elected officials. Authorities were shocked and outraged, they had just proven Imperial might over Dwarven democracy yet it seeped into their society anyway! Grand Duke Taras ordered the city council disbanded immediately but when the citizenry refused he marched a host down to force them to obey.
Grand Duke Taras entered the village and ordered the council disbanded and foreign women apprehended (the belief being that these women were poisoning the men's minds). This act actually received great rebuke from the Lords of the Northern Reach and when they demanded Grand Duke Taras restore the city council and release the women, he was forced to obey.
(To be noted: city councils elected by the people were common, but a mayor was always approved by the Lord of the area. The village of Qular did not ask for permission.)
This act planted the seeds of a great deal of movements that would gradually weaken the ruling class and raise civilian rule across the Empire.
Modern day Northern Reach is a bastion of economic and population growth. The port cities have thrived from a global market, funneling in and out goods from all across the country. The area is solidly human, which account for eighty nine percent of the population and is largely the native ethnic groups.