Untitled Document

THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION

First Kingdoms
2205-2000

    Although Onolin was not to see even a single decade of his dream come true, the kingdom of Kagere would survive for centuries. Within a few short decades, the sedentiary people of Qella, related to the Makud, had formed their own, smaller kingdom along the southern coast. The two kingdoms were beset by the migratory tribes raiding their lands and villages, as well as their own internal strife. It would not be for many years that either could truly be considered a nation akin to the great kingdoms of Estontetso, Micholerdia, Peganhosa and Berburrica. Compared to those giants, the kingdoms in Neoliliana were pygmies. Neither had much trade with the east, although there was a constrant trickle of goods back and forth. Kagere would capture raiders and sell them as slaves to Peganhosa or Berburrica, and Qella would export some local precious stones. Both had some trade in hides, art, and silver.
    Over a century would pass before friction began between the kingdoms. Separated by space and surrounded by hostile tribes, the two had to struggle for existence and had no real interest in organized warfare. Kagere, born of a warrior tribe, continued to make headway against the local tribes to the east and north. The Auranni to their south resisted easy attempts to fight them in their jungle homes, and instead raided both Kagere and Qella successfully. Qella remained tiny, although a few local tribes chose to join it. It was these very predations on the tribes that caused the formation of a new land from the Daseme tribes of northwestern Neoliliana. The hardy people of the coast were tough fighters, but their sparse numbers could not hope to stand against the Kageri war bands, and so they unified into a kingdom and elected a king from among their number. Their kingdom, Dasemia, was huge in size, but few in numbers. Nevertheless, using their natural resources and precious copper and tin mines, the Daseme armies were able to hold back the Kageri for centuries.
    Left alone in their mountain steddings, the Gorami slowly developed their own kingdom. The name of their kingdom, which was to remain for almost one thousand years, is lost to history. The Liliani called it Gregurdica, and the people who lived there, Gorami. Both words are Liliani; Gorami means literally 'mountain men' or 'people of the mountain' and was a title given to the fierce, tall warriors by Peganhosan traders. Little is known of their kingdom, for they had few visitors and no trade to speak of. Their mountain passes were defensible, and their temperament suspicious of outsiders, a trait still found today in their descendants.
    Meanwhile, the Relloi continued to follow the caribou herds and the Tazothi horse lords pushed westwards into the lands formerly occupied by the Kageri. They were to be pushed back by the expanding Kagere kingdom, but they never completely returned to their former lands. In time, the Eshi, who raided deep into the Berburrica kingdom, decided to emulate their larger neighbours, and they created their own kingdom, Estontalle. Estontalle is regalled in song and plays, but in truth, the kingdom lasted a scant decade before it collapsed. The Eshi themselves would never achieve greatness for their own, only under the yoke of others.
    Perhaps all of what is Neoliliana today might have become a melange of small nation-states. Tribe after tribe confederated into kingdoms, much as the Daseme and the Eshi had done. What Onolin Darkeyes had begun, it seemed, no man could stop. In time, even the wild Auranni would form their own land, Auria. After that, who could say what would happen, in a land of so many kings? No man could say. But one man did, and his words brought an end to the kings of Neoliliana.
    His name was Arro-Take Pexpodr, and he was king of Micholerdia, fourth of his name. History often calls him a general without peer, but the truth is, Micholerdia had advanced beyond its peers. It had iron weapons, a large number of nobles able to serve as cavalry, and an even larger number of footsoldiers, citizen-soldiers who had bronze and iron armor, heavy foot who could defeat the armies on the field several times their size. Arro-Take made war on his neighbours, steadily expanding Micholerdia both north and south, taking land from the Peganhosa, the Berburrica, and the Gorami who raided his lands. His reign lasted almost 40 years, and his conquests are legendary. In a series of four campaigns, he brought the kingdoms of Peganhosa and Berburrica to their knees. Just before he died, Arro-Take declared himself not king, but emperor of a new empire, a Micholerdan word meaning 'king of kings,' ruler, in fact and in name, of all he surveyed. And he was looking west.
    The Liliani Empire was born.

THE FIVE KINGDOMS In truth, there were never five kingdoms of Neoliliana, but the epics are not always concerned with truth. Neoliliana claims six kingdoms to its people, although others such as Goramia and Estontetso will dispute their claims. The fact of the matter is, no matter how many ballads and plays say otherwise, the six kingdoms of Neoliliana never actually existed at the same time; there were, however, two short periods in which five did, from 2008-1998, and from 1921-1904. These few years are nevertheless one of the most romantic periods of Neoliliani history, and one which Neoliliana claims brings it closer to the people of Ennes, Estontal, and Goramia. It is also the period in which the fictional kingdom of Mordin existed. Supposedly founded by either a Tazothi horse lord, a Qellan magician, or both, Belad, king of Mordin, united his people to drive off the Kageri invaders and created a golden age of chivalry that would shine forever - or at least until his premature death, murdered by his trusted friend and knight, Asha, the King's Hand, the only woman he could not have. Despite Kagere being the holy land of Neoliliana, Mordin remains an immensely popular legend, with many (widely different) adaptations to novels, radio, television and the movie screen. Many modern citizens insist on giving Belad and Asha armies of plate-hewn knights, tall castles, and steel swords, all totally inappropriate for the time period.

Auria was founded in the latter half of the 20th century, the last of the kingdoms of Neoliliana. The Auranni dwelled along the western coast of Neoliliana and were fierce warriors, but not great soldiers; they did not have the discipline to unite for conquest, only against a common invader. Nevertheless, they were surprisingly strong, and when the Auranni were finally brought under one rule, they spread quickly across Neoliliana. Auria first turned to the south and swept through Qella, which, surprised, was totally conquered. The Auranni then turned north, but here they were balked by Kagere, who had seen the destruction of Qella and sent their armies to the south. Frustrated in defeat, the Auranni began to wipe out the Qella. Desperate for mercy, the Qellans tried to show their worth to the Auranni. They gave up many of their secrets, what they called the Inner Mysteries, of agriculture, smithing, and astronomy; they advised the Auranni generals, and eventually became the officer corps of the Auranni armies. They showed them how to sail, and gave them boats. Eventually, the Aura King accepted a Qellan advisor, and the cleansing of the Qellan stopped. The new nation was almost invincible. It combined Qellan technical prowess with Auranni soldiers. After the first few stumbling steps, the nation teetered on the brink of disaster...and caught itself. Auria became a single, great power. The other nations of Neoliliana trembled with the weight of its steps, and prayed it would turn elsewhere. It did not.

The land of the Northmen, the kingdom of Fishers, Dasemia was a cold, wintry land to the Neoliliani tribes. It snowed there, almost every year. The land was rocky and barren, and it was difficult to eke out a meagre existence. But spurred on by Kageri raids, the Daseme unfied in a grand moot, and together, discovered they had more on their barren lands than they had thought. Dasemia was a good source of copper and tin, the ingredients of bronze, and the Daseme knew how to work it. Soon, their armies, though still small in number, fought back against the Kageri cavalry with their armored phalanxes...and won! But superior numbers and lack of organization pushed the Daseme back again and again, losing scattered settlements here and there. Never actually surrendering, Dasemia nevertheless ceased to exist around the 19th century, absorbed into the kingdom of Kagere as its northern frontier.

This celebrated kingdom is sometimes called the Golden Land. Estontalle was rich, with natural deposits of gems and a constrant stream of gold raided from Burburreica and silver stolen from Qella. Its people were fair-haired, if short, and their land was hot and fertile. Perhaps it was these advantages that caused the Eshi to take so long in forming their own state, for they saw little advantage in it. Some historians believe that the impetus was the Eshi warlords themselves, who wanted to emulate not just the riches, but also the honors and priviledges of the Burburreica kings and princes. The new nation combined the weight of many war bands, although they did not see themselves as an army. With that strength behind him, the king of Estontalle went deeper into Burburreica, bringing back even more riches to his people. But when Burburreica was conquered by Micholerdia, the invading armies did not stop there; they invaded Estontalle, whose scattered bands of warriors were no match for the concentrated armies of the Empire. Before a full decade had passed of their golden empire, the Eshi were brought under the yoke of a foreign land, the Liliani. In 1998 BP, Estontalle was formally added to the empire. It would be the last territory attatched to the original empire (Liliana Magna) rather than as a new province - a dubious consolation for their freedom being taken from them so soon.

Goramia was a fierce, strong, totally isolationistic nation in the tall mountains of the Chantilles. The Gorami themselves were tall, pale men and women who feared and hated the outside world. They remained independent longer than any other northern nation in Longerath, although to fight off the Liliani legions, they eventually accepted the overlordship of Escorpionica, a mighty empire to the northwest. When Escorpionica joined the Liliani Empire, the Gorami felt betrayed, and refused to honor their oaths of loyalty to the new emperor of both empires. The fact that they were not immediately struck down, their nation shattered, and their people scattered and sold as slaves, says how much respect the Liliani Emperor, and especially the legions, had for the tall mountain men.
Goramia is the Western Gorami name for what the Eastern Gorami call Gregurdica. That the two halves of the former kingdom could be so different should not be surprising, since they had very different masters after the Liliani Empire fell. What is surprising is that neither word is actually a Gorami word. The very name 'Gorami' is a Micholerdian word meaning "mountain people." Gregurdica is the name Micholerdia gave to the lands occupied by the Gorami. Goramia had always had a strong, independent streak in it, as the fiercely isolationist Gorami refused to even ally with outsiders, and successfully defended themselves from Liliana for centuries. When Goramia finally joined the empire through dynastic marriage, many Gorami refused to accept Liliani rule. To remove these rebels, Liliana instituted a policy of removing aboriginal Gorami culture and language from the land. Over hundreds of years of Liliani rule, the Gorami gradually came to use their overlord's names as their own. Eastern Gorami were surrounded by the Empire of Estontetso; Western Gorami was surrounded by the Kingdom of Neoliliana. They had divergent evolution.

Kagere is sometimes called the Holy Land of Neoliliana, because it was the site of the Covenant and the first indiginous nation-state in Neoliliana. But where exactly that holy land lies is a question that has dogged historians and geographers for hundreds of years. The original kingdom of Kagere could not have been large; Onolin, its first king, commanded all the Kageri tribes, but they were a nomadic people, and had spent the last generation riding from one end of the plains to the other, making war on the people they found. They were originally mountain folk, but when they settled in the Makud lands, they gave up their mountain homes for the great plains of the Makud, an area typically denoted by the states of Mizeret, Farrell, as well as the southern half of Hohne and Cincotta. Other historians like to claim the original Kageri lands, which would be located in the Chantilles, probably contained entirely within the state of Blais-Kelmar today. Literalists use the location of the Covenant, but that location is hotly debated. The original texts claim that Onolin "stode bye the [sea] shor, an he mad his nation grayte." But the coast was Auranni lands, and jungle, hardly the plains we know the Makud lived in. It is likely that the Covenant was probably located in or around the area now occupied by Avenira, the capital - a fact some claim to be divine providence, while others claim to be coincidence, or deliberate planning by Emperor Geralde II, who made Avenira his capital. Nationalists tend to take a later view of things, from the days when Kagere was the dominant kingdom in Neoliliana, stretching across fully half of what is Neoliliana today. It is these clashing concerns that has made it difficult for Neoliliana to agree to territorial concessions with Estontetso.
Whatever the case, Kagere was a rough-and-tumble nation of overlords and conquered peoples. Over the generations, the two tribes gradually intermarried and became one, but the horsemen of the Kagere would become the chevaliers (knights) of the Kageri kingdom, while the Makud tribesmen would become the peasants that farmed the land and made up the lower classes. Kagere was always a warlike state and relied on its armies for diplomacy. This emphasis on gunboat diplomacy never changed throughout the ages, only their goals became more complex.

In contrast to the two giant kingdoms of Neoliliana (Kagere and Auria), Qella was a tiny, peaceful kingdom of monastics and artisans, credited with the first use of an indigenous written language called 'Qa' in Neoliliana (that was to be wiped out during the empire, few traces of it remaining today) and many other ideas, inventions and discoveries. They turned to fishing when their population began to outstrip the natural orchards and fields of their homeland, and became the first Neoliliani to take to the seas in man-made boats, little more than small sailing ships, but a first tenuous step onto the Sea of Blue Waters. Qella was remarkably advanced for the time, especially given its surrounding neighbours. Because of this fact, and because of their unique philosophy, architecture, language, and development in the south, many historians have theorized that the Qella people were not actually indigenous to Neoliliana, but rather migrated there from some other, more advanced land, possibly in exile. No evidence for this position has been found, but with only fragmentary records of this period surviving, it has not been ruled out, either.

2205 BP    Kagere is founded by the Kageri-Makud (the Covenant).
2199 BP    Onolin Darkeyes dies. His son becomes king of Kagere.
2181 BP    Qella is founded by the Qellans.
2100 BP    In Dascunya, two chiefdoms exist: Dascagnia (the Gardlies) and Uestadagnia (the Leameans).
2073 BP    Dasemia is founded by the Daseme in response to Kageri raids.
2029 BP    Gregurdica (Goramia) is founded by the Gorami.
2038 BP    Arro-Take becomes king of Micholerdia, the fourth of that name.
2010 BP    First campaign of Arro-Take, deep into Peganhosa, taking land and prisoners.
2008 BP    Estontalle is founded by the Eshi.
2006 BP    Second campaign of Arro-Take. It ended in disaster for the Micholerdians, and the king was forced to sign treaties with the kings of Peganhosa and Burburreica, who had allied against him.
2002 BP    Peganhosa is conquered by the Micholerdia.
2000 BP    Burburreica is conquered by Micholerdia; the king of Micholerdia declares himself emperor of Liliana. Greater Micholerdia becomes Liliana Magna, the first province of the new Liliani Empire. Arro-Take dies the same year, and his son succeeds him.

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