History & Culture of Ashenair: Part 1

“To my esteemed readers and fellow scholars,

This manuscript before you is my personal work, and shall contain many varied articles of curiosity from the works of myself and others, both scholarly and not. There may also be included in the margins, through no specific desire but through my inability to stay my wandering hand, many sketches and depictions which you may find to be helpful visuals, or at least, entertaining insights into the mind of the deranged author.

I at first set out as a young scholar, penning what I consider images of the past and of our own time. In doing this I hoped to preserve some of our current knowledge, and contribute a small bit to the wealth of knowledge which is stored in our many vast libraries. I had no clear goal in my writing of these pages, sometimes a single page and sometimes several. Therefore, at times it may seem that I write as a man disjointed. This is likely the cause.

In collecting my notes from these many years of research and travel, I believe I have inadvertently created one of the most comprehensive collections of knowledge, however particulate and fractitious it may be, on the history and culture of the continent of Ashenair.”

Tendrius Rodd Year 136 after the fracture

“A brief exposure:

The continent of Ashenair, is easily defined by three separate cultural and geographical groups. The areas known as Bo, Gish, and Carnen. Each one is as diverse as the whole, but I aim here to generalize.

Firstly, in Bo the language is Sansori, which is the now ubiquitous name of the evolved dialect of the tribal tongue of Sansese. Sansese being the common language that seafarers in the age before the empire would use in matters of trade. As such, Sansori, or some antiquated form of it, is known in all but the most secluded villages. In the land of Bo, the language is as universal as bread.

The language of Carnic has a clear common ancestry with Sansese, although one can only barely observe that commonality. The language in Carnen evolved differently from that of Sansor, and by the time of the empire Carnic was harsh and rhyming, while Sansori was as it is today, a pleasant language to hear.

In Gish, however, the most common language used, even today, amongst those that live north of Sigurdr, is Gisjaa. The language is unique, somehow totally unrelated to the languages of Carnic and Sansori. Harsh consonants and elongated vowels leave the native speakers with a peculiar accent when speaking Sansori. The history of this language is surprisingly unknown to me.

On the land itself, as a lover of it, I have much to say.

Large trees shade patches of the lush rolling countryside of Bo, the plains stretching and rolling lazily from the western marsh, to the mountains. The farms and estates of the wealthy landowners, villas and forts, some many centuries old, occupied by the free men of Bo. The free men are those who are either landowners by birth, by military service, or by the sweat of his brow. A wealthy estate could manage hundreds of working families, and dozens of slaves.

Slaves in Bo are well treated, often selling themselves into lengthy terms of slavery in order to secure the stability that such ‘employment’ brought. Many, if not most, of the slaveowners in the Empire pay a small salary to the slave, allowing the slave to eventually purchase his freedom, or continue his servitude at will for the comfort it often brought.

The working class, not slaves but hardly better off, work and live on the grounds of such estates. The lives of the working class are hard, and often work uncertain, but they are, unlike the slave, free to leave, in search of better work.

These privately owned estates are nestled in nooks and crannies of every Lordship in Bo, surrounded by wild plains and woodlands. Hundreds of unowned towns pockmark the countryside, lorded over only by the Lord of their specific region, and the emperor himself. These lands, unowned despite the towns and fields upon them, belong only to the Empire, which could give ownership to any such land as it deemed fit. Sizable enough towns are considered ‘Public’ and therefore unowned and unlikely to become so; Thus any such sizeable village need not worry about suddenly finding that it is under the proprietorship of some newly wealthy beneficiary of the Emperor.”

The lands of the Gish, all those lands in the former empire that fall north of the river, are best described as ranging from harsh to inhospitable. The more southern portions, being that which on a map falls further south that the regional capital Sigurdr, experience biting cold throughout only half of the year, and the agriculture of certain bland food staples is the main occupation of its hardy peoples. There is a place in gish, some distance to the east, at the base of a certain smoking mountaintop, where the ground is rich and fertile, so much so that they are able to grow sometimes two harvests worth of goods in a single year.

The far north, however, ranges from dense woods and hills, perfect for hunting but incredibly harsh in the colder nine or so months, to barren wastes, where even the sun doesn’t go in winter. Yet, despite all of nature’s efforts to prevent it, mankind has settled there. Havens and fortresses, carved of stone and packed in unmelting ice, can still be found, filled with fishers of the ice lakes and the northern seas, and hunting men of those wild white wastes.

The people of the north live in social villages, tightly packed buildings huddle together, as if to save warmth in the cold months of winter, and entire villages can seem, to the uneducated observer, to act as a single family, sharing together in nearly all efforts. This culture has grown from the necessity of cooperation in surviving the unfriendly environment in which they choose to live.

The urban culture of Gish is similarly observed, dwellings workhouses and businesses stack in stone upon one another tightly. Pre-Empire sections of cities are multilayered mazes of deep stone streets, surrounded by the stacked stones that shield foot traffic from the winds of winter.

Arid farmland and scraggly trees spread through the Carnen plains, slight hills give way to alluvial hills as they meet the central mountains. The river, which the natives once worshipped as a goddess, splits the arid plains from the expansive deciduous forests, where ancient white ruins lie, so many yet undiscovered.

The clouds often taunt the dry earth, withholding the rain till they have passed into the mountains. It is easy to imagine that this once distressed the people that lived in the arid plains, but by the time the empire wrote their records, the natives had learned to farm and live without great concern from the environment that they lived in. Settlements lined the rivers and streams that laced the plains.

In ancient times the land of Carnen was home to an industrious empire, which built massive cities and impressive walls. Alas, the burning of the grand city, now lying in ruins in the forests, destroyed nearly all record of this once great nation. Nonetheless, the evidence of their existence fills the land.

The towns of Carnen have always stood as they are today, ancient white stone where it has survived the ages, and hard knotty wood where time has demanded new abodes, scatter loosely into what we in the west think of as communities. The societies of Carnen are not as welcoming as those of Bo and Gish, families are often as near to tribal as they can be, and still function as a true society.

On the south, this is all I have to say: Sand, sand in enormous dunes everywhere. The ancient kings might have imagined it a gargantuan shore to a colossal land, hoarding giant halls of treasure. What we now know of that southern isle, is that she is a land of coarse, inhospitable, and dry stone and sand. Those that live there cannot be of mankind.”

Cultural norms:

“It is interesting to discover that many of the most notable heroes of the Fracture, specifically on the side of Gish, were of only fourteen or fifteen summers when they first picked up the spear of war. It is commonly known that in the empire a man must be sixteen years of age before he may be conscripted, and a woman eighteen and unmarried. It’s easy to imagine that this difference could have been the difference that gave the northerners the might to defy the Empire.

One such hero is notably fifteen and female at the outset of the Fracture, and had already volunteered for dangerous duty before the defiance of Sigurdr. This heroic figure is known as one of the most formidable spearmen to have lived, and her skills with a blade legendary in their own right. After the fracture, she served as the captain of the Sigurdr Kingsguard, until her inexplicable disappearance from history.”

“Hierarchy of the militaries of Ashenair is an interesting subject. While in the present age each nation’s military structure models the ranked and numbered model of the Empire’s great army, each nation has it’s own history of military structure.

The feudal tradition in the lands of Bo meant that, during the time of the conquest, each feudal lord would lead his own soldiers independently, appointing his own officers from among his relatives or most trusted friends.This nepotistic tradition waned as the Empire gifted its notable soldiers with land and titles.

Ultimately, the Empire adopted a stratified organization of units, from small ten or twenty man groups, all the way up to the Emperor himself. Each group having an appointed leader who had advanced from amongst their own ranks. The ranks of commander and above held only by those of noble birth, except in dire straits. This structure has become ubiquitous, and is still the primary form of hierarchy within the former fragments of the Empire, with little variation.

Before the conquest of Bo, military units were more primitive throughout most of the continent. In Gish, the patron of a village would be the commander of all of his villagers and the patriarch of the largest settlement would stand in authority over the others, if even such an alliance were to exist. This haphazard organization allowed the Empire to easily conquer a people equal in numbers to their own.

In Carnen, the conquest faced a much more cohesive enemy. The ancient White Kingdom, named so for the mysterious white stone used to construct their cities, was well organized and a formidable opponent. The structure of their military is lost to the chasms of time, but it can be imagined that they fought admirably, as it took nearly three spans of time longer than that which was required to make conquest of the north.”

“Living in the capital of Gish, I learned of the peculiar and singular structure of the Kingsguard there. Subordinate only to the King of Gish, stands the Captain of the Kingsguard. The captain is considered to be the most able warrior in the land, and stands in a place as respected as the General of Carne.

Underneath the Captain, There are four appointed Officers of the Watch: The North, South, East, and West Officers. It is the duty of these figures to coordinate the warrior details of the Kingsguard, each to his own station in the towers, each standing in a cardinal direction from the main Sigurdr throneroom. Each Officer of the watch appoints from his men two Headsman. The Headsman is the supervisor of the watch rotations beneath him, and coordinates the actions of each of his Linesman of the watch.”

Religion:

“The religious culture and history of our continent is rich, and truly baked of many flavors. What we now call the Old Gods, a mystified pantheon of ancient and stone visaged deities, are often claimed to have been the objects of worship brought here by the ancient settlers from the east, who settled our lands. These ‘Old Gods’ are now only the object of superstition and reverence amongst some small populations in the northern expanses.

Of much more consequence to modern thought are the single-god religions that were prevalent in the time short before the conquest that forged the long empire of Bo. Curiously, each religion, though separated by mountain ranges and vast distances, had taken as its god the spirit of a river.

In Gish, she was Kajjunder the goddess of warm water. The river upon whose banks the city of Sigurdr lies, and whose unfreezing waters flow through the biting winters of the north, now takes the name of this goddess of old.

In Carnen, where water was scarce and the sun scorching, The people of the ancient white empire had taken the god of the river Ghani Miah, the god of prosperity, as the sole object of their worship. From the records that remain from this time, it is no lie to claim that even their king bathed daily in the waters of the Ghani Miah, taking with him barrels of fresh water from the river for even the shortest of journeys.

The goddess of bounty, Alcius Dia, was embodied as the great river that we now call simply the Alcius, which runs from the Lakelands and out into the bay of Sansor. The river goddess was known as the source of all wealth and power, and for centuries gold was drawn from the shores like seashells from a beach.

The power that came from Alcius Dia was proven, when from her seat of worship, the empire of Bo burst forth into the lands, conquering all of Ashenair. In his conquests, the first Emperor of Bo began the tradition of assimilating the beliefs of other peoples into one multi deitied religion. This tradition signed the death writ of the old order of single object worship, and brought about the modern era of religion.”

Great Gods- A group of elder gods worshipped by the people of the north. Many claim that they were the gods of the olden peoples of the east.

Pre-polytheistic paganism of Ashenair: The monotheistic religions of Pre-empiric Ashenair.

Goddess of the warm north river (Gish)

Goddess of the river of prosperity (Bo)

God of the river of bounty (Carnen)

Wild God of the Rock (mountain/highlands)

History:

Start with a rough timeline of the land, history starts with the settlement of the port Sansor. Give record of the time of Bo. Break it down as such:

“The year that we consider the first year in our history, is the year that Sansor was established. From that year through the roughly two thousand and five hundred years that passed before the conquest of Edinus Bo we have little written history. Only the scars and monuments of that ancestral period remain to clue us to the history of that age. Our calendar starts once more from zero at the year of conquest. And, though many scholars, myself in their number, argue that our calendar should start once more from the year of the Fracture, there is, as of yet, no consensus on the issue. That leaves us with the present date of the year 1498 in the Age of the Empire.”

1. Conquest by the first and second emperors (roughly 25 years)

2. Centuries of Feudal conflict, the time in which the powerful and wealthy split the empire into it’s lordships and fiefdoms.

3. Centuries of exploration, settlement, and peace. Only slight conflict in the form of feudal battles and highland raids.

4. The decline of the empire under Kentol Bo.

5. 1362, year of the Fracture

6. Lineage.

The Fracture lasted eight years, two years at the spire before a truce was called. Rovia Story takes place 10 years after the war. all characters are therefore 18 years older than they were at the outset of the war.

“The well known lineage of the early Emperors of Bo:

Edinus Bo ruled over the conquests of the north for 14 years before he died gloriously in battle.

Speltus Bo, son of Edinus, completed the conquest of the east in his father’s name in the act of the burning of the White City. Speltus ruled 18 years, until his death in the year 32.

Reginus Bo, son of Speltus, Succeeded his father Speltus and cemented his right to the throne by quelling the Borderland Rebellion, after which he divided the land into the four fiefdoms that it is today. He ruled for 19 years, his death falling in the year 51.

Edinus Bo II, son of Reginus, presided over 39 peaceful years, ruling justly and with a strong hand until his death in the year 90.

Rybus Bo, son of Edinus II, ruled for 39 years and a day. His reign marks the discovery of the highland caldera, and the time of conflict there that is known as The Rape of The High. He died peacefully in the year 129.

Tindus Bo, son of Rybus, ruled for 21 years of tenuous peace. The Church of Salmor was founded by the prophet Matteos in the second year of his reign. He died in the year 150.

Tindus Bo II, son of Tindus, ruled for five years. He fell to his death, ostensibly pushed from a ledge by his own cousin, leaving only his infant son and his cousins as heirs. His death in the year 155.

Edinus Bo III, son of Tindus II, succeeded his father when he was ten years of age, after 8 years of stewardship. The steward, his second cousin Novis, was found to have been plotting against the boy, and was put on the block in the year 164. Edinus III ruled for 34 peaceful years, dying suddenly at the age of 35. His rule lasted to the year 189.

Librus Bo, son of Edinus III, ruled for 11 years. He died like his father in the year 200.

Librus Bo II, son of Librus, ruled for 19 years. The first 13 years of his reign were spent in quelling the uprising of the eastern lords. He died in the year 219.

Rybus Bo II, son of Librus Bo II, ruled for 27 years of political strife. He died in the year 246.

Reginus Bo II, son of Rybus II, ruled for 23 years of exploration and discovery. In the year 251 a sailing ship of his fleet discovered the famous Crescent Isles. He died in the year 269.

Veteris Bo, son of Reginus II, led with a just heart for 31 years. The revolt of The Blace tried his hand, and under his skilled statesmanship, he restored the Empire to full glory. He died in peace, at an old age, in the year 300.

Speltus Bo II, son of Veteris, ruled for 9 bountiful years. He died in the year 309.

Speltus Bo III, son of Speltus II, ruled from his cradle for only one year. He died a tragic death at the hands of his distraught mother in the year 310.

For 24 years, from 310-334, was a time known as The Wars of No Emperor. The three uncles of the young Speltus III vied politically and violently for the throne.

Lucius Bo, uncle of Speltus III, ruled for 17 years. His throne was earned in the blood of his brothers, and he was known as a cruel master. He died in the year 351.

This is the lineage of the house of Bo during what is known as the centuries of Feuding. The death of Lucius Bo is widely regarded as the transition of the Empire from internal strife and pressures, into the centuries of exploration, invention, and discovery.”

Edinus Bo

Byron Bo- Emperor of Bo, Son of Kentol Bo. Byron served in the desert campaign, as a commander of an expeditionary force, but returned at the outset of the Fracture.Byron took the throne shortly before the truce of the spire was called. While many have criticised his urgency to end the war, few have questioned his sincerity in reason. The eight year war had seen the destruction and dissolve of much of his father’s former kingdom, and he had watched the anger and stress destroy his father over the years of war.

When the war ended, Byron made considerable effort to rebuild the nation, sacrificing much of his personal wealth and convincing many of the more generous nobles to do the same, in his efforts to bring prosperity to his kingdom. The efforts paid off, and his kingdom flourished under his loud and kindhearted personality.

Kentol Bo-Emperor Kentol had been aggressively expansionist, hoping to take the far south continent as part of his empire. Unfortunately, this met with great resistance from an unexpected indigenous population. To try and regain some approval from his nobles, he began sending expeditions into the western marshes. Again, in the marshes, unexpected resistance from a tribal population compounded with incredibly treacherous conditions to foil all of his efforts to locate and recover the historic and legendary treasures of the Center Marsh Kings.

These unfortunate circumstances, and his general lack of political skill or redeeming qualities, were what ultimately led to the fracture war, and his death. The one thing that Emperor Kentol was revered for, was his bravery and prowess on the battlefield: A trait that passed on to his son, Byron.

“In Sansor, in the Hall of Emperors, I spent several days reading the placards and tomes. Each emperor of Bo, through the current monarch’s father, is memorialized on canvas in his own glistening black marble alcove. In the alcoves are sundry trinkets from their life, stacks of any preserved writings of and about each leader there interred and, most valuable to a man such as myself, more than a thousand years of history, carefully preserved. To me it seems as a sacred ground, and I attempt to preserve the sanctimonious silence within.

Notably, the battle dress of each generation is on display, highlighting in striking detail and ornate metal and leather work, revealing the great strides of progress made in the millenia and two centuries since the birth of the Empire.

The ancient wool shirt worn by Edinus Bo is displayed underneath his ancient and well preserved folded leather pauldrons, the scars of many battles the only decoration, and the only piece of metal a solid iron breastplate of plain design. Compared with the shining castles of steel that our modern monarchs have worn, some distance down the hall, it hardly seems fit for a world conqueror to wear.

It is, however, refreshing to see that some things have been held to tradition, despite so much change. The singularly shaped blade of the first Emperor’s sword, is mimicked, even in the steel swords of his furthest descendant. The long and simple two edged blade, tapering smoothly to a thrusting point and sprouting from a small round guard above the short handle, is a thing of beauty in each stage of time. The pommel of each carved, as is tradition, by the owner of the sword.”

“Lucius Bo is known as one of the most despicable characters in the history of Bo. He is known to have arranged the murder of his eldest brother, personally slain his youngest brother, and perhaps even arranged the infant death of the rightful heir of Bo, all in order to secure the throne for himself. He is the most dishonored of the Emperors of Bo.”

Lore:

Invitation of Mercy

Salmor: Daughter

Of Love and Laughter

Keeps her chosen

Clear of anger

Frees the sullen

From their squalor

Her depth of mercy

To each that ask her

Legend of the Origin

Long before man came to Ashenair, there was an ancient civilization to the east. little to nothing is known about them and where they came from, only that those men that settled the continent of Ashenair were from that land. Legends tell that the old land was harsh and unlivable, some darkness of the skies had turned men into pack animals, feeding on one another. The belief in this is strong enough that it prevented any exploration of the strange and vast continent. Only sailors have tried to measure it’s size, and have found that it extends from the ices of the north, to the maelstroms of the south, and no boat has circled the land mass.

Port Sansor and Carne were established in the early era, more than two millennia of tribal and feudal settlement and development, and there are disputes as to which one was first settled.

The men in the west, bordering the swamps, spread out and occupied their plains and forests, building farm towns and hunting villages. It wasn’t until the second era that the fortresses of the spire and port Sansor were built.

To the east the men had spread and built a mighty nation in the arid plains and eastern peninsular forests. The crescent isles became a haven for ships for hire and quickly grew into a large hub of ill repute. The city of Carne was built out of white stone, it’s origins long forgotten to the unwritten history of the empire known as the White Empire. Huge marble walls, temples, and roads lay in disrepair throughout the peninsular forests, and the city of Carne is the only occupied fortress of the White Empire that remains occupied and intact. It is feared that the reason for this lack of history is the burning of the grand white city, an event in which the invading army of the empire of Bo set fire to the palace in the epicenter of the grand white city, burning her library to dust. Legends persist of an ancient and massive library, and many historians agree that it likely could have been in that very inferno.

Much history was lost to time. Written records of history, that remain, begin in the middle of the first era, emerging from a feudal system that stretched throughout the west and north of Ashenair. The valley woods of Bo because a haven for hunters and hermits, leaving behind the expansive and fertile farmland of the south. To the north a race of man arose, hardy and pale, a group of hunters, fishers, and farmers, all able to ignore the northern cold and make a home within the winter snow. The volcano that lay in the north east, to the north of Carnen and across the impassable mountains, has billowed and boiled since before history could write of it.

Left only without written history are the tribal men that seemed to grow from the stony grounds of the highlands. The highlands are hidden amongst the central mountains, a plateau surrounded by high cliffs on every side. Three mountain passes lead up to the thin air of the highlands, one from each region. The passes are simple cracks, severed bones of the mountains, that climb up slowly until they open up into the highland scrubs. The mountains seem to intentionally hide the mountain haven away, as if to keep her crazed, tribal, inhabitants safe. The highlands were left untouched, and all but undiscovered, by the outside world, until the fracture war. Bo split into three independent nations, and the highlands became a strategic battleground. The influx of violence, and trade after the war, forced the highland tribes to settle down, or simply leave. Many tribes simply disappeared, and scholars have speculated on the possibility of another mountain plateau within the impenetrable crags of the central mountain range.

Places:

Calpron: Many of the central white stone buildings had presided over the forest since before the beginning of known history.

“The eastern mountain foothills of carnen are laced with craggy cliff faces and the occasional mountain stream. They bare no significantly singular characteristics from the foothills throughout the rest of the land, yet in these hills, and even into the mountains, grow the majestic trees we call the Mountain Giants.

The red barked trees dwarf even the tallest oak of my native land, succeeding in their efforts to remind me of my own diminutive size, as only mountains have before. The tallest among them must stretch four or five hundred feet into the sky. In a grove of these monstrous conifers the air is still and cool, hidden always from the sun by the canopy of green far above. The forest floor is bare of grasses or brush, where they would be, only thick green moss covers the rocky ground.

The forests where these giants grow stretch hundreds of miles, from the mountains that border the northern sea, till near even the highland pass. Lone explorers of the treacherous mountains themselves have claimed to find hidden groves of the towering red trees clustered around warm lakes and pools in even the far northern stretches of the mountains.

Some say that the gods themselves planted the oldest among them, at the beginning of time, before even the landing of man on Ashenair. As a man of science and history, even I have no reason to doubt this legend.”

“The marshes of the west are reviled and fabled as a place of death and terror. Armies of emperors have been swallowed in the mire and ichor of the swamps, it is not unexpected that the people of our emperor would fear it.

I have little fear of the marsh itself, what I fear is the lights.”

“The Crescent Isles are temperate and warm, lying just off the coast of Carnen, to the east. The jungles of the isles are fruitful and full of life. The people if the isles are, to the contrary, more fruitful and full of life.

The culture of the isles is truly singular, defined by close families, plentiful food, and truly temperate climate. There is a plentiful flower which the dark skinned islanders burn like incense in their homes. The smoke clouds the air and the senses, creating a euphoric and thoughtful feeling in the evening hours. If they had had a system of writing and reading, I am sure many great philosophical learnings would have come from those lands.”

Sansor, architecture and infrastructure, Vertical sandy brown walls meet red clay tile roofs in spanning open architectural delights..

“The beautiful city of Sansor, the hub of the empire and center of the world, is the place I am proud to call home. The glittering waters of the sea lap at our piers, the full strength of its waves incapable of penetrating the old stone walls that stretch out into the water, shielding the busy port from attack and weather.

The beautiful old villas of the aristocratic and patrician denizens stand proudly along the waterfront within the walls, wherever the warehouses and shipyards do not. Rounded clay roofing tiles, of the kind seen throughout Bo, are not alone. The traditional architecture of Sansor is blended with the drab stylings of the more northern artisans, and even accompanied by the elaborate and eye catching styles of Carnen, the highlands, and the Isles.

The nearby Alcius has been harnessed by clever engineers, who built high raised troughs of running water, fresh from the river itself, streaming overhead for all to use. These troughs deposit into fountains in the public squares, allowing access for the commons, who live in meaner abodes.

The meaner estates of the common folk are not lavish and beautiful stone works of architecture. Instead, they are wood and stone structures that crowd the streets and alleys, sometimes leaning precariously over the roadways like leering old men.”