A History of Veld and its Neighbors

========== A Summary of the History of the Veldic Empire and its Neighbors ==========
--- A note on chronology ---
Events are labeled as "X AU" or "-X AU". AU refers to the Age of Unification, starting at 0 AU, when Veloden Stone-hewn first began his war of conquest. "X AU" means "X years after AU" while "-X AU" means "X years before AU".

=== Early History ===

The lands that would become the Veld were once as disparate as any could be. The earliest known inhabitants were small villages in the fertile river valleys of the northeast, and communities of fishers along the coast. Pastoral tribes came down from the northern mountains and began to settle the central lowlands, sometimes raiding coastal settlements and warring sparsely with each other. The first real civilization was Oxanna, a powerful city-state that extended its reach from the river deltas to the foothills of the northern range. Other regional powers began to crop up on more easterly rivers, and on the western shores the pastoralists settled down and formed close-knit trading networks.

Then around -550 AU, a sudden explosion of civilization occurred. Scholars debate the reasons that, in only 30-50 years, several different kingdoms sprouted from the ether. Some say it was the beginnings of magic that empowered the early lords to establish order from the chaos, others that it was bountiful weather and favorable harvests that created real surplus, and thus a need to protect and organize those resources. Whatever the case, six major kingdoms developed, located along the coast or the river valleys. They warred occasionally, mostly against the unsettled tribes that still dominated the forests and mountains. This time was known as the Flowering of Men, awakening from their benighted, tribal pasts.

Magic in the early days was prominent. Sorcerers bent matter to their will, pagan druids communed with wild forces, and strange beasts roamed the empty places. Griffins, wurms, phoenixes and basilisks stalked their prey, fey spirits and water-maidens tricked mortals, and monstrous giants thundered through the mountains. All that was done with, however, when the men of faith came.

=== The Saints and the Speakers ===

The name of the First Saint is lost to time, but she can be traced to around -430 AU. Born to a wealthy family in the river-town of Saltpoint, the First Saint quickly gained renown for her charity towards the poor. She grew unsatisfied with the promises of the pagan priests and took to wandering, taking only her clothes and a gnarled walking stick. Finally, in the northeastern foothills, she came to a revelation: divinity was not an external power, but a force within the human soul. The Salubrine Church claims this as its founding moment, and from there the First Saint is said to have performed a number of miracles owing to her enlightened state. Eventually the First Saint built herself a boat and sailed off into the trackless eastern seas, but she left behind the first organized religion of the region.

Not long after churches dedicated to the First Saint began sprouting in the east and on the coast, other devotees would claim to have reached enlightenment, and performed miracles to prove their escape from mortal limitations. The Thegns of the region disapproved of these new holy men and began burning churches - and their attendants - to stamp it out. This ultimately created more martyrs, and more Saints, and the Salubrine faith quickly spread.

In the west however, another religion had already taken root. Theologians state that the Triarchy emerged from a chthonic pagan cult that worshiped a three-headed earth deity, eventually to the exclusion of all other gods. The Triarchy itself contends that the Threefold God formed its first church centuries earlier, and from the Habitance there spoke the divine word to its devoted. These original disciples copied down the speech of the almighty and from it crafted the Dictatum, the holy texts of the Triarchy. The divine word laid out strict edicts for dress, behavior and social laws. Likewise it encouraged rapid conversion - by the sword, if needed. The holy wars of the Triarchy soon brought their conquering armies into contact with the Salubrine church, and the two have remained antagonistic ever since.

=== The First Lords ===

The armies of the Triarchy and the Salubrine spread over the hills and into the north, driving back the scattered nomads and pagan resistors. Out of the wars of holy conquest emerged a new class of person, the lords of iron and stone who built up fortresses to protect from enemy armies and cement their rule. In the south and west, these were all men of the Triarchy or the Salubrine. They knew that local antagonists could not breach the walls of their castles, and built them as much as symbols of their authority as for real strategic value. In the east and the untamed north, some pagan chieftains took the cue and began to build fortifications of their own. If they wished to remain free, they would need castles to ward off the godless crusaders.

With the heartlands converted and the mountains and deep woods unassailable, the conquering kings were left with armies of soldiers, great castles, and no one to fight. Some set about cementing their territory. Some set about fighting each other, plucking up new holdings as fast as they could. In the east the kingdom of Tancera emerged, declaring itself the bastion of the Salubrine faith. In the far north, the kingdom of Grand Ostern established its many fortresses in the mountains. After roughly a century of intense holy conflict, things finally began to settle down.

=== Veloden Stone-Hewn ===

Onto this scene came a new player, the humble lord of Saltpoint. As the founding city of the Salubrine faith, and a wealthy trading city besides, Saltpoint was prosperous. The young king Veloden was ill-content with his holdings, and spoke long of the prophetic dreams he had had. Dreams of a vast and mighty kingdom, carved from the stone of the earth to last for eternity. His dreams ran against the will of Saltpoint's elite, however. Only months into his reign, the lord Veloden was deposed and exiled.

He returned with an army. Ten thousand cavalry, thirty thousand infantry, a legion of war-mages and sorcerers at the king's call. Even, it was rumored, great knights riding armored griffins and hulking giants. They had been mustered within the pious lands of Tancera, but they were Veloden's alone. With them he swept west and south, conquering the coastal kingdoms. Those who submitted were spared, and their armies were brought into his own. Those who resisted saw their castles broken and their lineages erased from memory. The message was clear. The lowlands capitulated swiftly, and Veloden's nascent empire soon stretched from coast to coast of the region. He met the greatest resistance in the northern mountains, full of obstinate pagans who would not yield their high holds. Even they fell, in time.

Veloden's campaign broke even the might of Grand Ostern, and it was outside of their walls that the Stone-hewn king finally perished. He fell from his saddle, his body unmarred by sword or arrow. Some said he had been poisoned. Others suspected magic. Whatever felled the king, he left behind a massive empire, and a line of sons to continue it. His eldest son Narmoden made peace with Grand Ostern, securing them as a vassal state. He then set about solidifying his new empire, obtaining oaths of fealty from all the lords of the realm and replacing those he deemed untrustworthy with his father's most loyal allies. In this way many new landed bloodlines were formed, and peace was finally brought to the region.

=== The Stone Peace and the Magoclasm ===

For six hundred years the Veld was without war. Aside from border skirmishes with Abrin and the Isen, and the occasional pirate band, there was peace. This would become known as the Stone Peace, and under its safeguard the Empire prospered. Wealth flowed in from booming trade, and the many lords turned their energies from war to advancement, each duchy seeking to outdo the other in the Throne's favor. Under Eorden the Adjudicator, the legal systems of the Empire were standardized and the old tanistry laws banned. The lingering fires of the crusading spirit were turned towards eradicating the realm of all the supernatural creatures that inhabited it, seen as abominations in the eyes of both the Salubrine and Triarchic Churches.

The religious fervor did not stop at monsters, however. Soon the religious elements of the Imperial court began to take issue with the continued presence of the court mages. The mages were pagan, venerating strange gods and, some said, consorting with demons. This religious paranoia began to spread throughout the country, owing in part to a drought that had sapped the lowlands of their resources. Many blamed witchcraft. Others blamed the Triarchists. All blamed the Imperial mages. What began as small peasant rebellions soon spread to nationwide fervor. Militias formed and attacked enemies of the faith, pagan temples were burned, and thousands of magical artifacts were looted and destroyed.

It took 20 years for the last fires of the Magoclasm to be put out, and only with the abolition of the priestly class among the Imperial court. The court mages survived, albeit fewer in number, but the Throne's authority had been tested. They seized most of the remaining magical artifacts, including some holy relics, and forbade men from taking up arms in the name of religion.

=== The Solevi and Polinian Rebellions ===

Agents antagonistic to the Throne did not fail to capitalize on this opportunity. In the far west resentment against the Empire had burgeoned for centuries, and with the Magoclasm the malcontents saw their opportunity for revolt. Much of the rebellion was motivated by religion - the west was heavily Triarchic, and remembered well the persecution they had faced from Salubrines during the Magoclasm. For others it was an economic gambit, as the trading cities of the western coast were stifled by Imperial tariffs. The Imperial army, weakened by rebellion and desertion and still fighting mountain clans in the north, could not marshal sufficient strength to suppress this latest revolt.

Originally united, the Solevi rebellion soon splintered into two nascent nations, that of Solevi proper in the north and Polinia in the south. Polinia was quick to make peace with the Empire, knowing that they would not remain weak forever. The Solevi chose instead to ally with Frascia to the north, relying on their own natural defenses to protect them. As of the present, they have.

=== The Solstice War and the First Orders ===

The imperial army's strength, depleted by rebellion and warfare, left the Throne worryingly defenseless. Many feared that Tancera might strike to claim their holy land, or the Solevi would try to push their borders. Emperor Arden IV understood this, and turned to other means of protection. While the official forces were depleted, many lords retained personal armies, as did the Churches. Private mercenary bands had even been brought up by border lords to protect their territory during the Magoclasm. Arden made them a deal: pledge your obedience to the Throne and fight at her direction, and receive official sanction to practice your work. A great many agreed, and the first Orders Militant were formed.

Only too soon, as by the end of Arden's reign attack did come, but not from Tancera or Solevi. Hordes of raiders from distant lands beyond Perrin had broken the armies of Frascia and Abrin, and now set their sights on the Veld's fertile valleys. They swept through the countryside, tearing down temples and looting villages. Only the mighty castles of the river lords and the dense forests of the west were able to slow their advance. Confounded by these great houses of stone, the raiders were soon met in their rear by the Orders Militant. Two years of conflict followed, ending finally in 753 AU on the fields of Greathame on the Summer Solstice. Thus, the Stone Peace was finally restored to the Veld.

=== The Present Day ===

The last one and a half centuries since Greathame have seen a dwindling Empire. Now reliant on the Orders Militant for security, the Throne's edicts hold less weight than they used to. Pagan thegns, border lords and foreign powers smell weakness in the air. After the Wasting Plague of 891, the coastal cities and lowlands were also left dangerously depopulated. Murmurs of divine punishment began to stir, and the old scars of religious strife ooze fresh blood in isolated regions.

But the Throne persists, and the emperor Noden plans to re-establish its old might. He is an aged man, but full of vigor and with truly imperial ambitions. Already he has begun building a new cathedral in Saltpoint, intended to emphasize the Throne's majesty. In the north, a harsh winter has left the peasantry bitter and brought many bandits down from the mountains. Wanting for conflict, Baumann's Reavers have begun raiding the Isen countryside, and the Throne does nothing to stop them. Great change looms over the Empire like a storm wind, and very few think it will come for the better.