Chapter 1: Prologue
Zadura and Odlega were some great figures in Aressian history. Their campaigns ushered in the beginning of the end of the ancient period in the history of eastern Heshul. Several states in centuries after considered themselves the inheritors of their legacy, while in modern times, millennia after they‘ve lived and died, they became icons of feminism and the LGBTQ+ movement. In the Zudlagan region, they are seen as national heroines and symbols of their identity. But, what actually happened during their lifetime? What were all the things they helped happen? What was their legacy? And, how did the world they were born in look like? It‘s time we begin the story of Zadura and Odlega.
The first cultures of eastern Heshul stated emerging in the Late Copper and Early Bronze ages, which for the continent of Heshul was ca. 5000 BR1. The first great power to emerge in eastern Heshul was Agridia, which is often considered to have entered its tenure as a great power in the latter half of the 4th millennium BR. The Agridians incorporated the rest of the lands in the far southeast, in which they resided, and, through a combination of military might, skillful diplomacy and economic prosperity, their sphere of influence spread throughout much of eastern Heshul.
However, in the 23rd century BR, a series of weak kings came to the Agridian throne, which destabilized the political situation. The circumstances were made even worse by a drought and subsequent famine, which caused many to die from malnurishment and disease, and left many more displaced, migrating to find a new home. Some combined with whatever people they met along the way and/or discovered wherever they ultimately settled in. Others just massacred, expelled or subjugated whatever unfortunate people‘s land they ultimately settled in. In this collapsing world, the Agridian nobles started becoming a bigger political force than the royal family, while most states in Agridia‘s sphere of influence re-established full independence, with some being openly hostile. One such people, the Farishi, led their entire army into Agridia, defeating a numerically superior Agridian force by using the bickering of the nobles who led it to their advantage, and then ravaging the kingdom for plunder and riches. Whatever was left of Agridia‘s sphere of influence peeled off, while the kingdom itself shrank to its agricultural inland core.
The kingdom then fractured into a warlord era known as the Civil War Period.
During the Civil War Period, various noble families contendended for de facto rule over the kingdom. The royal Hisdari family still existed, but all but one of its members that lived during this period were weak, vassalating rulers, and were used as pawns by the nobles. At some times, a noble family would overthrow a king supported by a rival noble family with its own prefered candidate, while at others they‘ll just take an already reigning king put there by a rival noble family as their puppet instead – keeping the puppet but changing the puppetmaster.
One of the families that seemed to be rising to be one of the contenders for de facto rule early on were the Gornuti. They managed to put their prefered candidates on the throne on three separate occasions during the 22nd and 21st centuries BR, but their time as a major power player in Agridian politics had come and it had gone. The Derlak family, based in the south (ancestors of the great Kaplacians that would later form the greatest empire Aressia had ever seen) and the Fishkor family, based in the north (themselves a cadet branch of the Hisdari family) have outshined them by the mid-late 21st century BR, and it became increasingly obvious that, if any family wins, it‘s gonna be one of those two. By the late 20th century BR, a Fishkor-led coalition army defeated a Derlak-led coalition army in the battle of Kardisha. The Gornuti were amongst the losers in that battle. Their lands were ravaged and some of their minor allies lost all of their holdings. The new captain of the palace, Zindar Fishkor, had the new king, Arshdayis III, banish the Gornuti. The Gornuti, having just lost much of their fighting capability and with their former Derlak allies turning their backs on them, uprooted with their followers and some of their most particularly loyal allies and left Agridia. Less than a century later, the Derlaks and their much larger following would uproot, too, and their story will be followed in the Rise and Fall of the Kaplacian Empire. By the late 19th century BR, Zindar‘s great-grandson, Akhtir Fishkor, had king Keplos II abdicate his throne on behalf of himself and all his descendants, and rose to the throne as Akhtir I, the first Fishkori king, officially putting an end to the Civil War Period.
Back to the Gornuti and their followers. They started living a more nomadic existence, depending in almost equal amounts on slash-and-burn agriculture, pastoralist herding and the old hunter-gatherer lifestyle of millennia earlier. They slowly pushed their way west over several centuries. Some people they encountered joined them, intermixing and forming a new culture. The singular goal of the Gornuti and their followers was to find a new homeland, preferably with a climate, terrain and soil not too dissimilar to that of old Agridia. Their hope of finding it was how they decided to style themselves as, after incorporating many non-Agridian people into their ranks – in their new language (which was initially a divergent dialect of Agridian, but got influenced by those of the many people that joined the Gornuti‘s followers) they called themselves Zalrudi – the hopeful ones. This is how they became known.
But, while the Zalrudi gave hope to many of the people that joined them, to others, they were a source of dread. On more than a few occasions, the Zalrudi would get into violent encounters with other peoples. The Zalrudi would, over time, develop an army based largely on light cavalry. This gave them a speed advantage over their opponents, and they used that to raid and pillage any hostile nation they came accross. Some of these peoples would be forcefully incorporated into their ranks. Others would gain 2nd-class citizenship as so-called „subject peoples“, given certain rights and autonomy, but under the ever watchful eye of the highest ranks of Zalrudi society. These subject peoples varied in background and even loyalty, and their level of autonomy and privilages would depend on how loyal they showed themselves to be. Others still would be able to keep their independence.
By the late 18th century, the Zalrudi entered the Turtana river valley – a wide open plain, with some woodland interspersed within it and some shallow rolling hills, with the mineral-rich Regin hills overlooking the plain from the southwest.
Here, the Zalrudi settled, building many villages, several towns and even a city – Shurdam, which was set as the new nation‘s capital. Lidar Gornuti declared himself the first king of the Zalrudi. Yet, this wasn‘t a peaceful take-over by any means. In fact, many peoples already lived in the Turtana valley, and while some joined the Zalrudi ranks or, in the case of the Sirnakians, willingly accepted to become an autonomous subject people, others resisted. This began a centuries-long period of war in, not just the Turtana valley, but also much of eastern Heshul, together known as the Zalrudi Wars.
The Zalrudi eventually managed to defeat their enemies in the Turtana valley and the Regin hills. Most of these were absorbed into the Zalrudi people, while others, like the Pshelians and Regurtians, were turned into subject peoples. By that point however, they found themselves leading a coalition of nations, including the Fardoshian Kingdom and various northern forest-dweller tribes, facing off a coalition of many peoples – pre-existing tribal federations (like the Karkonis, Gurnians, Plyervidians, Mutians and Polishyans), petty kingdoms (like Mitaria, the Zharundi kingdom and the Fendi state), city-states (like Ladur) and newly arrived nomadic peoples (most notably the Lembians).
Particularly worthy of mention are the first three of the listed tribal federations and the one nomadic new arrival listed. The Karkonis, Gurnians and Plyervidians have existed for millennia by that point, and have been mentioned by written sources of the First Agridian Golden Age as being within the Agridian sphere of influence, but also among the first to throw off this influence once Agridia declined. Their governments were structured in a way not too dissimilar from the direct/concensus democracies of modern LibSoc polities, and, unlike in the south, these tribal democracies, which were still the norm throughout much of the north, proved much more resistant to aspiring hierarchy-builders. The north also, in a stark contrast to the wealthy writing cultures of the south, had little to no homophobia or biphobia, and records state that, even as late as the 4th century BR, during the early part of the opressive Kaplacians‘ control over the region, homosexual marriages were still conducted. The Lembians were a nomadic pastoralist people of unknown origins. Other than the fact that they arrived into the region from the west around the same time the Zalrudi Wars were starting, there‘s not much to go off of. It is known that they were attacked by the Zalrudi as soon as they arrived in Zalrudi territory, however, and, so, they went north east, into Karkoni, Gurnian and Plyervidian territory. Some Lembians settled amongst these peoples, especially amongst the Karkoni, but most continued east, eventually finding a sparsely-populated region of steppe-like grassland, which soon became their homeland in which they settled while keeping their nomadic lifestyle. Having good ties with the Karkonis, Gurnians and Plyervidians, and having previously been attacked by the Zalrudi, they joined the anti-Zalrudi coalition. One Karkoni family from the village of Lishtar would eventually go on to birth one of this story‘s protagonists . Similarly, one Lembian family that settled in the Karkoni village of Vishtu would eventually go on to birth the other protagonist.
Yet, before either of those births happened, the Zalrudi Wars were waged. Many battles over the course of the 18th, 17th and 16th centuries BR would move the frontlines back and forth. Zalrudi light cavalry raids ranged far and wide into opposing states, looting villages for whatever supplies they could get and burning down whatever they couldn‘t.
By the late 17th century BR, the Second Agridian Kingdom, under the Fishkori dynasty, had reincorporated the First Kingdom‘s original lands and had started building a sphere of influence of its own, even getting revenge on the Farishi for the defeat and ravanging of 6 centuries prior. Now, in an ironic twist of fate, the Fishkori-led Agridians aligned themselves with the Gornuti-led Zalrudi in the Zalrudi Wars.
By the mid 16th century, the allies were losing bad in a three-front war, even though they managed to score victories here and there. The decisive battle finally arrived in the fifth month of the year 1532 BR, near the village of Burshitkiemi. A 32000-strong army of Zalrudis, Agridians and their allies, led by the Zalrudi nobleman-general Artuzh, marquis of Zhimralia, defeated an allied 31000-strong army, led by a Karkoni general named Mirtal. The Zalrudi-Agridian-coalition forces lost about 7000 soldiers dead or wounded, while the allied army lost a total 18000 dead, wounded, captured or missing. There were a few more battles afterwards, but Burshitkiemi decided the fate of the war, and, by 1531 BR, the remaining allies layed-down their arms and entered peace negotiations.
The peace of Kartzha was by no means a fair ordeal, even for some of the victors. The two main powers, the Zalrudi and Agridians, carved large chunks of the east into spheres of influence and a few lucky neutral zones. The Lembians were lucky to live in one of the neutral zones, but the Karkonis, Gurnians and Plyervidians weren‘t so lucky. Parts of Karkoni and Plyervidian territory were ceded to the Zalrudi Empire, as it was now known, while the rest, alonside all of the Gurnian lands, were turned into de jure vassal-states, while de facto being oppressed provinces of the empire. They weren‘t the only vassals, as shown on the bellow map.
This started a bit of a cold war between the two victorious great powers, but their good trade ties and fear of each-other‘s power prevented them from ever openly warring with each-other. Meanwhile, the Zalrudi started oppressing Karkonia, Gurnia and Plyervidia, many soldiers still looting and burning as if the war was still ongoing.
During the last phases of the war, the earlier mentioned families from Lishtar and Vishtu, alongside many others, moved into a secluded, forested area, constructing a new, hidden village, Mirta. Here, just months after the peace of Kartzha came into effect, and only a few weeks in age apart from each other, two girls were born, destined to change the course of history. A Lishtari Karkoni girl, who was given the name Zadura, and a Vishtuan Lembian girl, who was given the name Odlega.
Given the secluded nature of Mirta, it would be years before Zalrudi raiders finally found it, allowing the girls and many of their friends to grow up a few years in peace and happiness. But, when the raiders finally arrived ca. 1525 BR, they would set into motion a series of events that would, inadvertantly, lead do the downfall of both of the established great powers of the east.
Note: 1 BR – Before revolution (reffering to the Armezonian Revolution, which we‘ll talk more about in History of Aressia Stories: The Rise and Fall of the Armezonian Empire).
History of Aressia Stories 