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| Expanded Eronidas Lore | |
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| Part of Eronidas lore. |
Anglian-Eronidas relations are one of the enduring success stories of two extremely different people coming together to form a symbiotic society where both parties work towards a common goal, and are respected for the value they bring to each other. Anglian-Eronidas cooperation is long and storied and has contributed to some of the major pivotal events in the creation of the Regalian Empire, as well as its enduring geo-political position in the world. This page will discuss the various ways in which the Anglian-Eronidas symbiosis expresses itself, how they live together in the large landmass known as Anglia as part of the Regalian Archipelago, and what the people experience in their society as in their daily lives. This page is considered Expanded Lore, meaning it is not required reading for a roleplay experience on MassiveCraft but can be used to add additional depth and content to Roleplay.
Background
Anglian-Eronidas relations start roughly when the Eronidas Exodus ends, and when the Eronidas-Elven Conflicts begin. The Eronidas population that reached Anglia and surrounding regions originally called its home in Guldar. To simplify the Exodus, the Eronidas were forced to leave Guldar as a whole because the land itself became toxic to them, and they would have surely perished had they stayed. They constructed massive city-ships that slowly floated east, complete with farms, cattle herds, and self-sufficient societies, the lessons of which would later form the foundation for the Pol City-States. While a large number of the Eronidas chose to settle and invade the Allorn Empire to claim their own land, many felt there were yet other places in the world to settle. The group that went south and then east across the Sendrassian Sea, and then traveled north through Hadar and Westwynd, would be called the Cold-Verge Fleets. The Cold-Verge fleets then split off between those that settled in the snow-covered Nordskag, establishing the semi-autonomous Pols that are part of the Nordskag Kingdom to this day, while the main body arrived in the Regalian Archipelago and crash-landed on the north-Anglian shores, which is the main focus of this page. Note that this page will refer to the Ailor as Anglians, even though the concept of Anglian did not exist during this time. They were called the Aml Tribes or Aml Tribespeople, though for ease of reference, will be called Anglians on this page.
Early Conflicts
As with any foreign people arriving on foreign shores that are already inhabited, conflict immediately broke out between the Anglian petty kingdoms and the Eronidas fleet. By the time the Eronidas fleets that were left after they split off from the main body arrived, their ships were falling apart, having been designed for 10 years of travel and needing to be used for nearly 110 years by constantly replacing lost parts and facing several mutinies along the way. When the Eronidas arrived on the Anglian shores around 1000 BC, they were exhausted from their eternal-seeming travel and had to scuttle their ships for supplies to survive, meaning they were unable to move on. The Anglian region was, however, already inhabited by the Anglian Ailor, who immediately took up arms to fight these alien-looking arrivals.
How this early conflict resolved itself is not very clear because the Anglian petty Kingdoms were terrible at keeping records, so the resolution is mostly told from the Eronidas side. Eronidas historians claim that despite their lack of resources and often having to fight with rusty sets of armor and weapons that were almost a century old, the Eronidas quickly crushed three smaller northern Kingdoms when the Dragons intervened. It is said that on the Red Poppy Fields (a particular region in northern Anglia where many poppies grow), the Dragons Caius and Regulus met in their Draconic majesty, and debated for seven days and seven nights on the arrival of the Eronidas. It is said that at the time, the Eronidas were considered a foreign interloper from the Draconism religion’s point of view, as the Eronidas were Caius’s followers, while Anglia was squarely Regulus territory. The debate panned out more like an actual battle, as Dragon debate occurs somewhat chaotically and violently, leaving much of the land scorched with fire and lightning, and causing flooding in the area as Regulus summoned thunderous rain clouds to douse the fires Caius produced.
The conflict finally came to an end for somewhat unclear reasons, with Caius commanding the Eronidas to lay not a finger on any Anglian, and Regulus commanding the Ailor to permit the Eronidas to live in the land they had conquered up until that point, which was a thin strip of coastal land, nowhere near enough land to sustain the several hundred thousand people that had just arrived. For the first decade or so, the Eronidas suffered in destitution as the land was unable to sustain their population. With fishing, and some agriculture, as well as occasional donations of food from some of the Anglian border farmers they were able to stave off starvation, but the population was effectively stagnant. The first real meaningful step towards symbiosis came also from these borderland farmers who availed themselves of that strongest of Anglian cultural quirks: greedy pragmatism.
While Anglia was fertile, agricultural practices were still very crude and often had to rely on the fertility of the land provided by the Dragons. The Anglian population was hard-working and numerous, but they lacked the modern convenience of machines, and horse-drawn plows were not yet as widely spread. Yet, any farmer pictured themselves as the local kingpin of grain, because as always “Grain did the Kings make in Anglia.” A few farmers noticed a large food-deprived and unemployed population of tall, strong, and tough-as-oxen Eronidas just across the border, who very quickly agreed to help plow the field and work as farm-hands in exchange for bags of grain to feed their families. Word quickly spread among the Eronidas as the first grain bags arrived, and among the Anglian farmers, those of the interior took note of the farmers on the borderlands who were raking in record harvests with less manpower spent on backbreaking labor. This is where the modern-day Anglian feast tradition of “Ploegtrekken” comes from, where Eronidas take the reins of heavy plows and try to run as fast as possible from one end of a field to another, as a people of physical strength to honor those first few Eronidas who worked for the Anglian farmers.
Over time, the agriculturally based Anglians learned the wealth in produce that could come from cooperation, combining that great Ailor talent for driving commerce and trade with the other Regalian regions and Eronidas discipline and honorable conduct, while the Eronidas learned that cooperation could solve all of their immediate problems and give better hopes for the future. While there certainly were Anglians who short-sold their Eronidas workers and even exploited some of them, generally speaking, positive relations grew closer and closer, so much so that the Anglians no longer acted bigoted or unwelcoming to Eronidas in their midst, some families even started settling in Anglian territory, while Anglian farmers would try to reclaim farmlands abandoned during the first wars. Within 50 years, what originally started with racism and animosity had completely turned around, and a vibrant back-and-forth occurred between the two people.
The Clustig Hir War
Another pivotal moment occurred when the Breizh-Sollerian state, Tir Clustig Hir (meaning “Long-Eared-Land” in Breizh), sent an army to try and expand the buffer state between them and the Eronidas and Anglians respectively, as both cultures bordered them. Clustig Hir’s soldiers were far better equipped than the Anglian peasants owing to their Elven craftsmanship, while the Breizh soldiery proved to be a difficult new opponent for the Eronidas to deal with, who at this point had not yet fully developed their expertise in armor crafting, and were often exposed to both the Magic of the Elves and archery of the Breizh. It is remembered that the petty king of Rievierenwoud, a small regional power, sent an army of 600 longbowmen, using the Anglian longbow which had only recently been invented, to assist a larger 3,000 Eronidas army against a 6,000-strong Clustig Hir army.
Records of the battle are well preserved both in writing and orally, as this battle was a watershed moment for Eronidas-Ailor cooperation. While the Eronidas were hard-pressed to deal with the Breizh archers and Solvaan battlemages, the Anglian bowmen came in just in time to unleash volleys and force the Mages into cover, while outranging the simpler Breizh strung bows. The unshakeable front line of Eronidas who deployed shield walls and their superhuman frontline warriors broke the Breizh spear lines with such skirmisher support with ease, it led to a great victory and a routing of the Clustig Hir army. A 30-yearlong war followed. Several Anglian kingdoms contributed their longbowmen and the Eronidas contributed the frontline soldiers. While commanders occasionally clashed because of religious or cultural differences and a fair amount of tactical errors were committed, the war was a dashing success for the combined efforts of the Eronidas and Anglians, who so soundly defeated Clustig Hir. The Prince of the Elven state fled to Solleria, and most of the Breizh and Solvaan population evacuated shortly after back to Kintyr or their Elven homeland.
In order to celebrate this cooperative victory, the Kingdoms and Eronidas agreed not to annex the territory into any one of their nations, but to establish a free state of a kind where Anglian peasants and Eronidas alike could freely move in and occupy the old towns and hamlets that the Clustig Hir people left behind. This would form the basis for the first truly mixed Anglian-Eronidas state where both populations functioned roughly equally. Obviously, there were adjustment problems. The Eronidas had a habit of getting smashing drunk, and that same alcohol was capable of killing Ailor who could not tolerate the high proof. The Anglians in turn were stingy and frequently tried to rip off the Eronidas who still had trouble adjusting to the concept of monetary currency. Eventually, however, their societies became indistinguishable from one another. The Vasar language started adopting more and more Aml (pre-Anglian) words until it was no longer understandable by pure Vasar speakers, while Anglian itself also shifted, and both populations took on more and more cultural customs of the other.
Before moving on to the next section, it must be said that the Clustig Hir war did not result in permanent animosity with the Solvaan in the same way other inter-people or intercultural wars have tended to. In terms of wars, the 30-year war was not a very bloody one, and the Solvaan and Breizh never tried to reclaim Clustig Hir, while Tiraddol and the nations of Rhan Deheuol were largely pushed out by Anglian immigration, or short wars, leading to Anglia becoming as large as it would ever be from that point onwards. The Anglians at this time could distinguish between the “Blue Elves” (Solvaan) and “Slaver Elves” (Teledden-Allorn) who raided their shores, and so while Anglians and Eronidas to this day show some mistrust towards anything Elven, they are able to apply the correct historical context to the Solvaan, meaning there are no hard feelings between either group of people, especially since the Solvaan did not try to retake any Anglian land for 900 years until they merged with Anglia into the Regalian Empire, and found camaraderie in their mutual disdain for the Amelore and Regalian Elves that were ejected in the Five Family Rebellion. Today, there is a very healthy immigration flow between Anglia and Solleria, with both populations settling in each other’s lands without incident.
Grensenweg
The event known as “Grensenweg,” occurred on the sixth generation after their first arrival, a decision made by the petty Kingdoms and the Eronidas rulers that had completely accustomed themselves to the presence of the other culture on their lands. Memories of the contact wars had long faded, and the Clustig War cooperation was fresh in memory. Grensenweg was a historical event that occurred in 821 BC when both groups came together and agreed to rescind the borders between their lands that had been imposed 169 years prior by the Dragons to stop the conflict. The Dragons were quiet about this turn of events, leading some to conclude that the Dragons had foreseen this event through precognition, and chose to stay in the background so that it would come about without their tampering.
Grensenweg was useful because it destroyed all border patrols and controls between the Eronidas and Anglians, but also between the Anglian Kingdoms themselves, who felt they had more to fear from the encroaching Velheim from the north and south and the Breizh from the east and Elves from the west. All eyes were on Anglia for a long period of time, given its fertile lands, and the relative inability of the Anglians to defend it with their crude technology only giving them an edge in agriculture and archery. While the states did not formally unify, there was no more taxing on inter-region trade. Families of either Anglians or Eronidas could settle wherever they liked without the difficulty of regional alderman approval, and society became more and more blind to the first marriages between Eronidas and Anglians - something that had been happening nearly 150 years prior, but only now without the derision and societal expulsion.
Grensenweg is, however, also remembered as a one-off event of unusual cultural harmony. While the Anglians were certainly very fond of the Eronidas, this never extended to the other peoples of Aloria that would ever arrive, and centuries of slave-raids by the Elves made them distrustful towards their long-eared neighbors. Whatever lessons the Anglians learned from this unique cooperation with the Eronidas were limited to the Eronidas, and would not even be learned from by the Regalian state later which happily engaged in declaring whole cultures and peoples second-rank citizens in the Empire for arbitrary and often bigoted reasons. Regardless, peace would reign in Anglia for many centuries following this, as the Breizh never tried to reclaim their lost kingdoms, and the Solvaan kept themselves to Solleria. The Anglians no longer engaged in infighting, and there was virtually no conflict between the Anglians and Eronidas ever since.
Dynastic Support
Much of Anglian history between Grensenweg and the Five Family Rebellion was largely irrelevant to the bigger scheme of history. Eronidas and Anglian society intermingled further and further to the point of them essentially being one, and it also helped that they both worshiped the same religion, just different views through their patron Dragons Caius and Regulus. A very healthy Half-Eronidas population came into existence, and quarter-Eronidas, and so forth, until the idea of having a mixed family became a status symbol. Dynastic Support, or the idea of Eronidas-Anglian favoritism, mostly came into play during and after the Five Family Rebellion, where the Anglian-Eronidas combined forces of Anglia provided one of the three crucial military components of the war against the Regalian Kingdom that are commonly known as the Five Family Rebellion, even if they didn’t actually rebel against any Kingdom that they were a part of, but rather invaded Regalia and the Elven state of Amelore to free the Anglian Ailor slave population and eject the Teledden slavers from the Shoenn river mouth.
The subject of the Five Family Rebellion is covered on the Regalian Eronidas History page. What is notable about the period after the Five Family Rebellion, however, is that while the Regalian Empire’s foundation was largely by and for Ailor (with Eronidas, Narim, and Solvaan help), the Eronidas enjoyed a particularly positive and enduring favoritism from House Kade that would eventually culminate in the Eronidas having a great share of political weight in the Imperial Court when House Kade ascended to the Imperial Throne with the end of the Ivrae Dynasty. House Ivrae’s relationship with the Eronidas was rocky at best, with fluctuating favor and disfavor upon them. House Kade’s favor and reliance on Eronidas to fill up the majority of their loyalist armies was a near constant, however, with House Kade members happily marrying Eronidas over the three centuries while House Ivrae was trying its best not to be seen with tusks.
This, combined with the fact that House Kade always made good on championing the rights and prominence of the Eronidas, and rewarded their loyalty with high political office when they became the dynastic rulers of the Regalian Empire, led to fervent support among especially the Anglian population for the Imperial Family. While there certainly are Eronidas who despise House Kade and for very good reasons, Eronidas have always enjoyed a special position in the scheme of citizenship of the Regalian Empire from the beginning and can be considered one of the founding people and most important support, which the Imperial dynasty leans on to assist it against court intrigue and dangers from abroad.
Modern Day
Presently, Eronidas and Anglian culture, from the perspective of the Anglian-born, is completely indistinguishable. The majority of Eronidas converted to Unionism, as have the Ailor, while a sizable population of each also holds onto the Draconism faith. While the Eronidas have lost a sizable portion of their Guldar-born customs, they have also brought many to the Anglian population:
- The Eronidas introduced their wilder variety of beer brewing to the Anglians, who were mostly apple cider drinkers before then. While obviously, the Eronidas have to tone down the amount of alcohol in the drinks to make them passable for Ailor, their beer brewing tradition has led to a strong integration with the Anglian Everies, where varieties of craft beers are produced that are famous across the Empire.
- Eronidas' architectural mathematics and Anglian aesthetic sensibilities produced the “dark gothic” architecture style that is so famous from the major urban centers in Anglia, and eventually also touched Regalia (though Regalia tends to favor brighter stone materials than basalt).
- The Eronidas brought pottery and clay working to the Anglians. While Anglia is immensely rich in clay deposits due to its soil, the Ailor used flax-reed baskets for their storage. The Eronidas taught the Anglians how to harvest and work with the clay, which resulted in a very vibrant vase, bowl, and dish production culture. Their painted vases are particularly well known, contrasting the black paint with the ochre and brown tones of the clay to create vibrant images of Anglians hunting and Eronidas fighting in the ring.
- The Eronidas brought a favor for Blacksteel to the Ailor, when they were taught iron and steel forging by the Anglians and the Dwarves. Blacksteel is almost synonymous with Anglian and Eronidas warriors now, who prefer the blackened heavier metal over the most brilliant shining and gilded counterparts.
- The Eronidas brought the strengthening of the “Aldermen” tradition to Anglia. While Anglia always had wealthy peasants who would rule over other peasants in the area instead of a noble family, the Eronidas strength-based culture provided a more competitive theme to be added, resulting in some Aldermen being more than just tax collectors and chief judges of small town., Some end up being champions and protectors of small communities, with tournaments held each year for the strongest and smartest to become the new Alderman.
- The Eronidas brought physical puritanical habits to the Anglians. While the Anglians were by no means under-dressed, the Eronidas, who abhor the showing of leg or ankle or foot skin, influenced Anglian fashion to always ensure these parts were also covered. Inversely, they also popularized the cow-leather vest with the midriff exposed for men.
- The Eronidas brought the capacity for large animal domestication to Anglia, as the Eronidas were far more patient with wild beasts, and had more strength to overpower the animal if they broke free. Through the assistance of the Eronidas and the cattle herds they brought on their ships to Anglia, the cattle-rearing culture exploded, along with the population. Many of the animals currently being herded in Anglia are mix-breeds or descendants of the animals brought in by the Eronidas.
Trivia
- Many Eronidas from Anglia have Ailor skin tones, which are considered an oddity with their distant cousins from Kezzeret. This is because Anglian Eronidas have often mixed with Ailor over the last 1000 years, leaving some to be full-blood Eronidas, and yet have Ailor skin tones.
- While Ailor in Anglia are not keen on the hunt, Eronidas are, and have cultivated a sport of using bloodhounds to track animals and use crossbows to hunt large game in Anglia.
- Eronidas are responsible for the creation of Anglian Black Brew, the drink that either makes one puke, or hold it down and pass out. This drink is considered the very edge of Eronidas brewing that Ailor can tolerate without dying.
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