ti-legacy.com

1: Opening remarks

It is my intention to write an in-game book or series of books about the Consolidation. To do so, I have begun to go through the available material – including what I’ve already composed – and started to engage in some critical thinking about what an in-game history would be. Most people would agree that the Consolidation is a history of Dav. The legendary status that this man holds in contemporary theme seems, at least to me, to make him inaccessible. Dav is often painted with a single broad brush, which renders him flat and uninteresting other than as a protagonist for Davites and an antagonist for magekind. Likewise, the Consolidation suffers from the same fate. This roughly thirty year period seems to be considered necessary dirty work to get to the present adversarial theme of mages versus Davites and little more. What I have tried to do, and will continue to do, is to add depth to what is arguably the most important point in history. I remember reading in the helpfiles that this era spawned endless codices of strategy, politics, poetry yet I am still saddened that none of it exists. So here we go.

2: Where to start? (Arguing for the inclusion of Pinalo, characterization of Dav early on in his life, early roots of his drive to bring the world together)

Arguably, the Consolidation begins with Dav’s travail and subsequent revelation. There is a reasonable case for saying that all records previously were destroyed and that Dav’s lineage does not matter. TI has had components of its lore encased in ‘purge fog’ since its inception. What is to be gained from references to a lineage for Dav prior to 109? Motivation. Complexity. Let us look at the historical (but largely unknown) circumstances of Dav’s ascension to the throne upon the death of his predecessor Pinalo.

Pinalo had a problem. Pinalo loved ladies almost as much as he loved war. Pinalo’s Seneschal, and perhaps his entire court in Lithmore, were fearful of what would happen if the king should die while at war with the Barons Warsalus (The Farin in 2nd century terms). He had just breached the Lithmorran border and lost all forward momentum upon meeting the Farin battlelines. A war of attrition broke out, prolonging the war and increasing the chances of his death in the conflict. Due to the spirited generation of innumerable illegitimates, Pinalo risked dividing his kingdom with civil war among perhaps dozens of offspring when he fell. The line of succession is so polluted, that it is widely understood that it is Pinalo’s second cousin, Dav ab Harmon Paddock that will assume the throne when he dies. In 104SC, in response to the loss of momentum in Farin, Pinalo’s Seneschal seeks to further secure Dav’s claim to the throne by arranging a marriage with Celeste. Their first child appeared nine months later.

Who is Dav when he gains the Crown? I would paint him as headstrong and ready to prove himself. He is a rough, but natural leader of men. He is a warrior. And when he is married for the first time, he is all of seventeen. With Pinalo fighting the war in the south, and Dav the next in line, he is cut off from any theater of combat except the rearguard – keeping country bandits at bay and making sure that Pinalo’s allies are kept in check. He is a spoiled brat longing for the glory of the ancient kings, but he is not entirely untested. With the uncertainty of Pinalo’s return, the political atmosphere would have already been in backroom turmoil and such unrest would have continued until Celeste had their first male heir. Dav’s longing for glory is one of many factors in the Consolidation.

It is important to note that Dav’s attitude is not disparaged through whatever in-game text is generated, but rather shown to mature through the numerous influences of his friends: Aurthyn, Aelwyn, Gweran, Jaren and his wife Celeste before her death. Each of these figures attributes some perfection of skill to Dav. Aurthyn was a singular champion in battle. Aelwyn fed Dav with the teachings of his sect and showed him what faith could do. Gweran was the most well-travelled of the group and demonstrated the importance of information in the realm of strategy, political or martial. The bard likely also coached the king in public speaking and body language to ensure that his speeches were acted upon instead of merely listened to. Jaren was motivated by the promise of freedom. His struggles to prepare for the oncoming wave of the Consolidation army gave him a pragmatic edge that probably rubbed off on Dav, possibly to the point of war crimes against the Charali. Celeste’s role is possibly the most complex. Before her death, she probably was not loved in her arranged marriage, especially with the sorceress stealing her husband’s attention. It could have been love at first, or at least lust, but there is no telling. To make her valiant, she would have to had proven an equal to her husband in wit if not martial prowess. She was often laid up with child before she was killed, but there has to be one or two adventures that this cohort participated in together.

Lastly, it is important to know that Dav, from birth, lived with the issue of Magic circulating through the courts of the land. The Academae existed within Lithmore as soon as 67. Born in 86, Dav was in his teens when the Skilled saturated aristocrat society and, as if in inevitable response, the sect that would become Dav’s Order also emerged. One night in Augustus of ‘99, this sect reportedly burns books from the Academae in the streets as a sign of resistance. Areolus of the White Words says, “Where they burn books, soon they burn people.” It was the key issue of his day and would have shaped his outlook on life. The world that he lived in would have been integrated but tenuous.

3: The Credible Threat of Magic

In order to properly lionize Dav, a credible, universal threat needed to exist across the Kingdom to support the need for Consolidation. This threat would have been the Skilled. According the origins of the inquisition, the Skilled – bolstered by the celestial alignment and strengthening of the circles – became vital installations in every court throughout the land. In spite of this sociopolitical placement, they were generally seen as aloof and alien. As this was prior to any open persecution of their species, I would take this description to mean that they were of another mind – concerned with the astral more than the physical. Their placement in this high courts was probably used as a means of protection as well as patronage. Instead of establishing their own country like the Daravi had, the Skilled of the West sought to ride on the backs of the Mundane for as long as they could, hoping to curb foreseen disaster from within the existing political structure. This line of thought would mean that the Fall was foreseen, of course, but that goes in line with the ideal, cyclical structure of both the universe and the wax and wane of Magic itself. Theoretically, the alignment that proscribed the first year of the Sun Cycle was an astronomical alignment signifying the rekindling of magic across the world. As Az has described it, this resurgence of strength in the field of magic would have resounded through the bodies of those with the correct genetic predisposition. A migratory process would have occurred, taking these particular individuals from the agrarian fields where they merely had a sense of magic (Circle 0-1) into the towns and the cities. Through a steady consolidation of their own over the course of 100 years (0SC to 100-2SC when the star fall occurred over Lithmore) the presence of magic users in large numbers inevitably resulted in shared knowledge and shared stability. As more and more people drew upon the moons, the more dynamic energy was available in the system and the stability was needed, resulting in the higher circles of magic.

Though we know only of the Acadamae ab Skilled in Lithmore (opened in around 67) , it was likely that the Seven held council over many such organizations in various city centers. One of the more interesting questions posed in the last few days of OOC chat has been: how did Dav conquer an organized, magical enemy? In the modern setting of the game, a mage is severely handicapped due to the nature of their identity. 99% of the kingdom is faithful Davite, forcing mages to live in isolation or preserve a hidden identity. Heavily outnumbered, they are forced into guerilla tactics against the state. How would mages have fought during the Consolidation, right after the height of their power? Did Tubor, Vavard or even the Charali field witches against Dav’s forces?

The answer seems to be: probably not. While it can be agreed that a battlefield mage could turn the tactical situation on its head quite quickly (with a wall of fire or an atmospheric vortex), it is highly doubtful that the conventional forces available to Tubor and Vavard would have put magical artillery into their ranks. The Daravi have, of course, as their culture has existed long enough to integrate tactical witchcraft. In my opinion, the use of mages in field combat in the west would have been greatly limited by a universal paranoia among the Mundanes because of the alien nature of the Skilled. While they were employed in court, it is likely that they were there because they wanted to be. As said before, patronage and protection allowed the Skilled to exist with freedom for a fair amount of time.

If it can be said that the Fall (the collapse of Magic and breaking of the higher circles) was foreseen by the mages, then it is likely that their integration and subsequent disappearance from the mainstream was planned. In my mind, the Skilled sought to gain just enough power to achieve some act necessary for the perpetuation of magic. If not achieved, then it is possible that magic would cease to exist forever in the world, rendering any subsequent cycles moot and the physical realm would have no sway over the astral. So let us suggest that is the case: the mages, in each cycle, need to gain enough power in order to maintain separation of the physical and astral realms.

Aside from being a council, the Seven also seem to represent a mystical construct, in my mind. Four elemental mages (air, water, earth and fire) arranged in a square on a single plane, capped with two Void mages (representing the two halves of the Void, celestial and chthonic) and a Seventh mage in the center of the X, Y and Z axis as a focal point. This complex formation represents to me an absolute position in space and time with a total representation of elemental creation. Why was it necessary for the mages to reach this sort of power? What was the result of in-fighting between its members?

Brenalry, Lenoir, Thandok, Aquiel, Tanios, Areolus and the Seventh, at one point existed in unity. It is likely that their specific number and the above formation were used at least once before the events of 109 when their ideological differences caused an irrevocable split. In my timeline, I specified that during the raid on the palace apartments, Brenalry was killed in defense of the royal family (or more specifically, in opposition to Thankdok’s violence), causing the first crack in the upper level circles and forcing the weight that he carried upon the remaining six and the rest of the Skilled in the form of a backlash. What if this occurred with each member as they were hunted down and killed? Or even with the death of a lower circle mage? The stability of magic, and indeed the stability of its physical conduits – magekind – would have suffered. Indeed, it is possible that the higher circles of magic broke apart in an effort to preserve the Weave as a whole — by disabling the use of magics which required great quantities of dynamic energy, and therefore greater forces of will to balance the moons, the Weave reduced any future strain like circuit breakers popping during a power surge.

The result of the violent death of mages – starting around 100SC and spiking around 109SC with Brenalry’s untimely demise – would have weakened the Skilled population on the whole. Even if by the foreseen by the mages, this may explain their retreat from society instead of an organized conflict or direct manipulation of mundane kingdoms against Dav. This idea would limit but not eliminate magical collusion within the ranks of what became the Supplicant Kingdoms. In fact, the death of St. Aelwyn (during a raid upon what is assumed to be Thandok and Aquiel’s tower) does not occur until some 20 years after the Consolidation begins, leaving plenty of opportunity for this mage cell or others to act out against Dav’s plans. The singular loss at Yarsith, for example (a battle which contained reports of Thandok’s appearance and Gweran’s absence) is fodder for speculation. Was Thandok working with the Merchant Princes? What errand was Gweran on during this time that he could not provide Dav with much needed intel regarding the flanking Vavardi fleet? Let us digress briefly to examine the possibilities.

In 116SC when Yarsith was razed to the ground, Tubor and the mainland shoreline made up the open front. It is at this time that Dav personally pushes into the capitol of Tubor before his supply line along the Kirulean is cut off by the Vavardi. This leaves many possible areas for Gweran to be in. He could have been making sure that the Farin were still in a stalematte, in Vavard trying to feed Dav intel but was captured or misled in regard to the whereabouts of the fleet. He could have even been in Yarsith when it fell, disguised as a commoner in order to avoid detection by the mercenaries of the Vavardi. This could account for why he was not counted on the battlefield by the history books. Finally, he could have been in the Plains, securing intelligence for next year’s 30 Days War in the place of the missing Inquisitor that Aelwyn dispatched in 115SC (as referenced in the Song of Motion journal).

4: City on Fire (109SC)

The previous thoughts helped to establish that the Consolidation was, largely, a conventional war. While there is plenty of room for magery in this time period, any history written of the Consolidation would describe it as feeble before the might and faith of Dav’s army. Knowing or not that Magic was crumbling, Dav’s push into the outer territories was serendipitous. The universal paranoia incited by the Skilled gave him the perfect excuse to cease far reaching control of the kingdom. And therein lies the key to properly lionizing Dav throughout history. The Consolidation was not simply an effort to gain power over the land, but also staked in personal tragedy and revelation, the desire for economic security for his people and a desire to rout evil from the world.

109SC, the starting point of the Consolidation, deserves its own history book. During my research of our decade worth of helpfiles to pull dates, 109 contained at least a dozen events in no particular order. There are a lot of established relationships in Court at this time. Dav has been king for two years already. There is still relative balance at the end of 108, but the cold winter seems to escalate tempers between the Skilled, the aristocracy and the Order. Dav also faces the fallout of 30 years of tension as people, including early members of the Merchants’ Guild, begin to leave the city for fear of impending violence.

The economic pressures that Dav faces are not terribly surprising. Pinalo spent most of his reign on campaign, slowly draining the kingdom’s coffers. The power of the pre-Dav Order, the Mother Church, probably came from their foster care of the people of the kingdom. The deep communal ties that we often talk about with the Order likely originated or at least solidified here. With the king out killing people, the community would have had to take care of themselves. The Harmon army, though seemingly travelling Pinalo’s whim, contributed to a sense of peace in the region. Somewhere between Garth and Pinalo, the nobility and the commoners find a common thread in the Order religion, but this relative peace of mind was usurped by the growing prominence of the Skilled.

By the time this year was over, Lithmore burned several times – the palace, the Academae, the warehouses and docks were all put to the torch by various groups. It seems like it was utter chaos. These fires predate the Great Burning by twenty years, but may be attributed as the cause for lost information on the past dynasty or whatever technological advancements were present because of the Skilled presence in Lithmore. It is difficult to imagine what it would have been like to be a Lithmorran in a bombed-out city with the winter coming. Whatever tragedy befell Dav was mirrored by the regional tragedy of a devastated city center. In terms of the Consolidation, I see little doubt in why the people clung to whatever hope Dav offered. There is little wonder that he wished to secure new wealth –and– destroy evil.

Some, of course, were not happy with their situation. While hungry peasants might follow anyone with a promise of food, it should be noted that Aurthyn ab Sidharr slew a number of rogue knights that wished to assassinate Dav. While I did not include it in the timeline, I do wonder what the position of the aristocracy was at this point in history. Were many like these rogue knights – landed and armed, unwilling to let their generational resources be consumed by the state for a seemingly mad quest born out of despair?

What of the noble friends? Dav, half-starved and half-mad was probably stolen away by Aelwyn and the Order the moment he returned. The vital urgency to both capture his revelation on paper and to get him cleaned up and out in front of a desperate people. Aelwyn, by this point, was slowly coming back into the fold of Gweran and Aurthyn as the Order sect he belonged to backed Dav when he was lost to the world. What would have Aurthyn and Gweran felt as their king returned? Surely, the massive changes that took place in this year would have rocked this group of friends to the core. The Reeves are disbanded in favor of the Order. Aelwyn oversees renovation of the Cathedral and starts to establish SOP for the Inquisition. Aurthyn has an army to build and train. Gweran, far-sighted and experienced, would have probably been right at Dav’s side the moment that the idea of cleansing and uniting the known world became audible.

(To be continued when I am not dead on my feet. Plan to go year by year, characterize major engagements and potential areas for story development or sources of in-game material.)

I've actually been thinking about your timeline and reading it a lot, Wolfie - and it all makes for a great novel in my head, even apart from the MUD. I had a lot of questions about your consolidation timeline, but you answered the majority of them.

However, there is still one, one that has been asked over and over again and brushed off by various groups - and it's not entirely directed at you but it will help to establish Dav's influences as a child, and the setting of this world he grew up in: what other religions were pre-Consolidation, besides the Holy Church? I assume Cyclists, Hillfolk shamanism, and the PoF were still around. Was the Holy Church a dominant religion before the Consolidation?

And for that matter, what in the hell do the Daravi believe in? People often say that the information is kept by the contemporary church, or lost in burnings, but I believe that taking some time to answer those questions will do a whole lot of good for the theme and setting as a whole - especially getting back pre-Consolidation so we know the mindset of the majority of the Kingdom.

Talking thematically about other religions, to me, doesn't harm current theme - as long as Davism is brought to the forefront as the obviously better alternative.

Also, who is this sorceress you mention as tempting Dav? Did he have an affair? Also, you mentioned a love triangle on OOC during one of our chats. Do tell! I keep writing this book in my head, Game of Thrones style, jumping between the narratives of Thandok, Aquiel, Dav, and the Four Muskateers (when one or more are doing their own thing, and they aren't all together).

Leech wrote:what other religions were pre-Consolidation, besides the Holy Church? I assume Cyclists, Hillfolk shamanism, and the PoF were still around. Was the Holy Church a dominant religion before the Consolidation?

I agree, it really would be interesting to learn about this. I've always wanted to write an ecclesiastical history of Lithmore, but I always have way too many projects on my plate, and none of the talent of Wolfie for getting this stuff on paper.

My idea has always been that PoF and the Mother Church were united or at least in close concert at some point before a schism forced the two apart. I never really bothered speculating on what that schism might have been.. the early movements of the Consolidation and rise of the Order could be an example, though I thought the break might of happened earlier.

Before the schism, I saw Mother Church and Path of Fire's union being the major religion of the Lithmorran region, having arisen as a refined form of the polytheistic cults of the ancient past. In addition, I assume there may have either been a distinct magical faith or a magical variant on the Church-PoF Union holding sway at this time. After the schism, I imagined that the PoF did not fall out of prominence, but that the Church remained dominant, at least in Lithmore.

Cyclism really is the only true heresy of the game (as in, it isn't a distinct religion, but instead the introduction of unorthodox belief to the structure of the already existing religion). Whether Cyclism exists at this point would be a matter of whether or not the heresy sprouted up before, after, or during the Consolidation. I've always thought the anti-magical leanings of Cyclism suggest some Order influence on its thought. However, it would hold to reason that the reincarnation threads may have had their origins in pre-Consolidation faith. Perhaps reincarnation was a popular folk belief in some regions that began spreading in the Consolidation, shaped into Cyclism proper by the Order's antimagism.

All this said, I am mostly speculating, and this is really Wolfie's project. Just thought I'd throw a few thoughts out.

I prefer to look at the Holy Church as a syncretic religion that took most of its doctrine from the pre-existing water-aligned Church, and combined it with elements drawn from the Path of Fire. I've always figured that there would have been quite a diversity of religious beliefs pre-Consolidation, with the religions existing today just being the handful that survived. To other people share that view?

I'm not a big fan of the idea that magic was non-existent prior to Lithmore, or that the Consolidation had some sort of global consequences. If it had, the Daravi would have been FAR more pissed.

Pre-existing water-aligned church? The Holy Church -was- that church, and from within it came the Holy Order - as far as I knew.

Elemental worship and awareness is the world before the Holy Order. I think the rise of the LotS was with Dav, so I think the Mother Church before the Holy Order (which, yes, was a radical sub-religion of the Mother Church) may have been based in the worship of multiple elements, and possibly, multiple elemental gods.

Kinaed wrote:Elemental worship and awareness is the world before the Holy Order. I think the rise of the LotS was with Dav, so I think the Mother Church before the Holy Order (which, yes, was a radical sub-religion of the Mother Church) may have been based in the worship of multiple elements, and possibly, multiple elemental gods.

I kind of have always liked at least a dual god system:
-The Lord of the Springs: water deity, focused on stability, health, order, justice.
-The Lady of Fire: Fire deity, Wisdom, Knowledge, Light, Passion

Perhaps towards the arrival of the Order, theologians began seeing the Lord of the Springs and Lady of Fire as really two sides of the same deity. When the Order takes over, they scrap the Lady of Fire, preferring the image of the Lord of the Springs (as well as the fact Dav spoke the the LoTS, not the Lady of Fire). However, they maintained some of the theology of the Lady of Fire including the practices of burning incense and candles to represent purity and light by means of fire.

Just a thought.. It would be interesting to hide bits of old Davism on the grid, esp. in the sewers. Some interesting iconography could come out of it.

Q & A: Interim Posts

In regard to pre-Con religions, I was always of the mind that they were all post-Con manifestations resulting from the influx of various populations into the Lithmorran pool. Spirits of the Light, for example, strikes me as an animistic (and animalistic) cult that filters polytheism through monotheism which probably arose from Hillmen and Charali immigrants coming into the kingdom. The Cult of Transcendent Ecstasy was always hedonism filtered through monotheism in my mind, brought in from Vavard, which existed on its own for a lot longer than any other duchy.

As Az pointed out yesterday, it is likely that all of these religions existed in one form or the other prior to the Consolidation and merely re-appeared in an altered state, possibly including Cyclism. Cyclism, though a product of Davism and contains anti-magic sentiments, may also contain the remains of magic/elemental/mystical elements as integrated into the PoF/Mother Church in the form of the cyclical understanding of the universe. Getting off of the Wheel requires several successful passes as a Mundane, which in my mind is a revelation in conjunction with the background idea of the cycle of Magic. Buried within the anti-magic sentiments may be the requisites for the end of the world. It is conjecture, of course, but imagine if the magic number of four refers to generations without magic, a seemingly inevitable consequence of continued purges and persecutions. What if the release that the Cyclists believe in is not getting off the Wheel, but kicking off another Cycle beyond physical existence and igniting another Rise of Magekind?

Spoilers ahead. For those that have read the Eld available in game, they would be aware that the Chalice ritual of Davism (a communal sharing of purity) is descended from the concept of a moonwell necessary for capturing magical energy and consuming it directly. The elemental nature of Davism, including the symbolism of the Eastern Star, is obviously taken from pre-Con thinking. The Eastern Star is linked to the Path of Fire on-grid via shared symbolism, hinting that it predates the Mother Church and/or existed simultaneously. Pure Path of Fire people would be rare, to me, as it is our version of Zoroastrianism: very old and with elements passed on to ‘modern’ religions, yet still practiced.

So what does the Path of Fire bring to the Mother Church and vice versa? Though the PoF origin story needs to be re-written in my mind, the core concepts are there: suffering and balance. I have my reservations that the first Lady of Suffering was Charali and lived in a house. The helpfile, to me, has always seemed like a Tubori telling the story to his kids – the more exotic, the better. If a Charali were explaining PoF, they would probably say that the meteor of obtanium was found by a Tubori woman, etc. The concepts of suffering and balance point to the harshness of the early world. To have one person, woman or otherwise, take on all the responsibility for suffering in the world is, to me, actually an allegory for Kingship, and my mark the beginnings of nobility and a ruling class among a burgeoning agrarian society. The Throne that the Lady chains herself to may actually be the throne of Lords, the burden of ruling and guiding the fates of numerous people so, ultimately, they may be happier.

And is that not what the PoF is about? The sacrifice of a single person so that order might be established? The Lady of Suffering, to me, preserves the Charalin idea (and ultimately my first crack at Remiel) of a suffering goddess queen that births the physical universe. Even if the Lord of the Springs does not qualify as a creator deity, or even an active one, Dav would garner the respect of the Path of Fire and the Charali.

What did the Mother Church believe? Aside from their similar agrarian roots and the hint of the Chalice ritual, there is really not much to go on. We know that the Church was community-focused, brought water to the masses and practiced pacifism. Usually, the application of succor is driven by a dire need. Can we project the Holy Church (the Church of the Wellspring?) back beyond the resurgence of magic marked by the beginning of the Sun Cycle? It is certainly possible, that the lower levels of magic at this time made something like the Chalice ritual necessary for the wielding of magic. By calling the power of the moons into a vessel and consuming it, it is possible that some spells could have been performed in its wake, a necessary medium instead of direct balancing/releasing during high magic periods

What bothers me is that both the Holy Church and the PoF are passive. The Lady of Suffering sits on the throne and receives the hurt of the world (drinks the Bittercup) so her subjects can be content. The Holy Church practices indiscriminate aid and avoids conflict. What harsh reality existed in the early world to cultivate faiths like this? The period of warlords, which Allard Man-at-Arms (my fictional father of the first king of Lithmore) occupies, comes to mind. While trade would have been a ready prospect between these agrarian city states, war seems just as likely. The meteor that falls to Urth and kills the Lady’s entire family may be an allegory for war, a war that the Holy Church sought to provide succor from.

Aside from the PoF and the Holy Church, we have the Cult and the Druids to contend with. As said before, the Spirits of the Light were likely an animist leftover which was later quashed by other religions and then re-emerged with the influx of Hillmen and Charali beliefs back into various regions. The Cult, though heavily characterized by Vavardian hedonism, is likely tied in with any faith that believed in creation. The physical realm is exceedingly important to them as a celebration of whatever deity composed it. They are strange in my mind, outside of an exceptionally successful economy, because they are the ideological opposites of other early faiths that dealt with the spiritual/physical conundrum. Death cults, another flesh-obsessed group from early Christianity, saw the flesh as a fetid trap and killed themselves so that their souls might be free of its corrupting prison. The Cultists, as we’ve seen, sort of go the other way around.

Just because these are the only faiths listed in the helpfiles does not mean that they were the only faiths in the pre-Con world. It is highly likely that every region had several innate mystical traditions along the lines of what we’ve speculated exist among our ‘primitive’ peoples. The polytheistic animism of the Hillmen and the Charali where everything has a spirit and day-to-day religious practice is about the ritual combat against ill-spirits is probably similar to what Lithmore started with.
And speaking of Hillmen.

5: The Trouble with Hillmen (110 SC)

I do not know a lot about HIllmen, I will confess. To me, they are shipless Viking dwarves trapped in unfavorable geography by lowland people with better technology and mercantile sense. Their beliefs, like the Charali, are focused on the appeasement of natural spirits, including their warrior ancestors. The shape of their homes, the geometric patterns on their weapons, are all dedicated to their extended clan family and the spiritual creatures which provide luck, life and prosperity.

The Hillmen enter the Consolidation timeline in 110SC when Dav begins to build his army out of the shattered husk of Lithmore’s army and local law enforcement. The Reeves, having been disbanded by the Order the year previously, are absorbed into the army. Aurthyn, tasked with the Knights (whom I perceive as the command structure of the army), must gather and train a sizeable enough force for Dav’s first target: Vandago. The close proximity and fairly wide shared border, plus the tensions between the Tubori and Vandagans makes it a good target. Vandago, up to this point, has traded arms with Lithmore and supplied the likes of Pinalo and Garth with what they needed to bring their kingdom closer to unification.

But how do you raise a force quickly and efficiently? Mercenaries. Hire pre-existing irregular troops using something they value. My timeline indicates that the Hillmen fought for Dav for two reasons: gold and plunder rights. Why would these things matter to a Hillman? Were the Hillmen unified enough to accept these terms as a nation? To answer the first question, I would point to the geography of the Tarn and Arath mountains. Rocks are generally not the best for growing crops. It is highly likely that there is precious little arable land available to the Hillmen wherever they are settled. The help file is fairly vague and states that they are endemic – scattered wherever civilization is not. These two places are named, however, which is why I would focus my attention on them. In any case, the control of this arable land would help to create the divisions alluded to in their genetic make-up. They are not a unified group, with united social prejudices that would drive a particular set of traits to become pronounced over time. They are mutts. A hodge-podge of racial features that seems to indicate numerous periods of upheaval that may well include annual skirmishes over these small areas (probably around mountain streams and lakes) for the procurement of foodstuffs.

I would imagine that every year, clans in a particular region would wage conflict to determine hunting ground rights. Over time, it is possible that this would evolve it a more ritual construction, such as single combat, a tournament or even something as esoteric as a Mummer’s Dance. The winner, in the early stages of this cultural event, would gain the majority share of the hunting spoils for the year, but I think that honor would dictate that some of the spoils be shared with the neighboring tribes as a sign of solidarity. To supplement the uncertainty of local hunting and farming, I imagine that monetary or material wealth would serve as a stabilizing factor. Trade would provide materials not found in the mountains and help to alleviate inter-clan pressures.

Imagine being a subject of Dav, having just seen your city burn down and your relatives die in sectarian violence, going on a journey into the hills to speak to the barbarians. You have a few chests of gold in a caravan guarded by Knights. You’ve taken a mix of horses and donkeys to carry men and loot alike. I imagine that these men and women would have to had been traders. Some of the Merchants that didn’t flee down to the Kirulean. They are, perhaps, similar to the Hillmen in that they are considered marginal – they trade with barbarians and are cast into the same mold. Now, their marginalized existence becomes grounds for employment. They would approach the Hillmen as they always had, on equally beneficial terms. Gold to sign the contract, then plunder to sustain employment.

My first instinct was for the arrival of these emissaries to disturb the regular schedule of the Hillmen, but perhaps, as reasoned above, they were men and women familiar to at least some of the tribes. The Hillmen would have kept an oral history of any conflicts with the Harmon lineage and, hopefully, marked them down as great warriors. Shamanistic in nature, they would have had to been convinced of some particular semantics, differentiating shamans from witches. This is a strange little tidbit. Often as a Charali, my characters firmly believed that shamans conducted business with good and evil spirits, all to the benefit of the tribe and the balance of the natural order. The Dark Horse (for the Charalin shamans in my head often dressed up as Horse, the First Man) kept camp away from the rest of the tribe as to not endanger their lives as they intercepted malicious spirits or cast appropriate hexes upon their enemy. Perhaps, in the language of shamans, the Skilled would have been characterized as demons or manifestations of –only- evil. A threat to the balance, the wise people of the Hillmen would have understood their role in the conflict to come.

Others in these tribes may have seen the Consolidation as an extension of their annual warring season: a chance to prove themselves to their family members by gaining wealth for the clan unit. In my timeline, I stated that the irregular infantry of the Hillmen were used as shocktroops, likely on the frontlines of actual battle formations absorb loses, tire the enemy and allow the heavier Lithmorran infantry to catch up and finish what was started. However, when on the March, it was likely that the HIllmen were only marshalled by Lithmorran sergeants and were more or less free to liberate supplies from the countryside. Though, the extent of this is up for speculation. It would be difficult to believe that the Hillmen were allowed to pillage Lithmorran towns so near to the major disasters of 109. It is more likely that they hit border towns in Vandago which were then glossed over in the coming alliance with Jaren.

The question at this point, before moving on to the next year or happenings in Lithmore of a non-Hillman nature, is whether the Hillmen fought in every engagement and what their losses would have been like. It is hard to believe that any of the Hillmen would have fought for the entire thirty year period. Instead, it is likely that they would have fought until they achieved or looted a prize worthy of their families. Further warriors from the Hills would have trekked across the kingdom to join up year after year, seeking fortune and glory. The death toll, if memory serves, would have been high. It is likely that Dav never held the Hillmen in reserve when engaging an enemy. Like the Romans before him, the least experienced, least armed and armored would have been up front to ‘soften’ the enemy while the more experienced troops waited to finish the job. As the Hillmen are master artisans in their chosen crafts, it is unlikely that they stripped naked and ran in with axes in every fight, but it is possible that their personal armaments were fewer and far between in comparison to their commercial productions for Lithmore and other cities. More on the Hillmen later, especially coming into the major engagements.

6: We need a montage (111SC – Lithmorran Army training montage)

The spring of 111SC marks the mass march of Hillmen warriors into the lands west of Lithmore and the establishment of a base camp for marshalling all of Dav’s available forces. In Vandago, Jaren is compelled yet again to ask for aid from the Tubori, but they fail to respond. In Vavard, Nimrock is still under construction and Yarsith, a hamlet near the Kirulean, becomes a hot bed of spy activity.

Aurthyn ab SIdharr, now Earl Marshall for the Dav’s forces, has a lot on his plate. He has begun to integrate numerous knightly brotherhoods into a command structure. They are from every county and duchy in Lithmore, some of their fathers and grandfathers fought for and with each other. Their banners are as varied as their faces and stories. While Aurthyn’s personal martial prowess is without question, some are concerned about his experience in commanding a massive, mixed force. In preparation, he studies the past campaigns of Pinalo and Garth, likely calling on whatever commanders remained from Pinalo’s death.

The fields to the west of Lithmore began to change in 109. As soon as the Army of the Consolidation was announced, woodsmen and teams of horses fought back the forest to make room for the largest mustering ground known. Two years later, the majority of the forces have been gathered in a sea of tents and cookfires. Experienced members of Pinalo’s campaign have educated the rest of the commanders in organization. Units of men are formed from the former Reeves of the city.

Given the massive undertaking and about two years of training, I have to wonder at the logistics. Where did all of the food come from? Where did these men and women go to the bathroom? Who was left to tend the fields of the kingdom? Did –everyone- go to war? Probably not. With the hillmen filling out the ranks, a lot of the farmers and laborers of the kingdom could have been given a pass just so they could get the city rebuilt and everyone fed.

(As before, more to come. Thanks for staying tuned!)

6: 111SC (continued – and now for something completely foreign)

How did the army camp effect the landscape? I would suggest that a monument be placed to the west of Lithmore to mark the location of the army. Though after two hundred years, it is likely that the fields have grown back along with the trees, it is likely that –someone- would have marked the location as the beginning of the greatest event in history. Note to self: send in request for marker and possible Pilgrim’s trail improvements.

At this point, I would ask if Dav planned to conquer the entire known world from the outset. His resources were limited at first, which… given the logistic complexity of simply housing and feeding his army, begs the question… what would have happen if there was a straight fight with Jaren? As Az pointed out earlier, it is likely that Dav just wanted to kill mages. How would you achieve that in a society which was seemingly infiltrated on every possible level? The Skilled had been in the courts, they had come from the hamlets and possibly been the foundation for scholarly institutions. At first glance, it appears as if a small, discreet force of talented magehunters could have taken the task on without necessarily requiring the massive resources of an army. But for a task as big as eradicating all of magekind, maybe it seemed as if controlling the government and installing people that you trusted as clean seemed like the solution. Eradicate everything and rebuild to ensure that the positions of power were, if not pure of intention, at least loyal to you.

While the Lithmorran forces gathered over the course of several years, the other nations were also preparing. Vavardi had chosen to rely on their impossible wealth to build equally insurmountable physical fortifications in the form of Nimrock. Tubor uses Vandago as a shield, biding their time by ignoring Jaren and forcing him to build up his internal forces. What was Farin up to at this point? In all of the helpfiles and even in my timeline, they seem to wait until Dav is at their borders to re-enter the history. However, this silence is beneficial as it enables a storyteller to go into Farin before any other major events occur. Blank canvas is difficult to fill in without a direction to go in, so let us start with what we know.

Farin was at war with Lithmore for a fairly long while. The extended conflict with Pinalo drained the resources of both countries and arguably made it possible for the Order to grow as quickly in power as it did. If we were to visit Farin in 111, what would we find? Though Pinalo was defeated and the army forced to retreat back into Lithmorran territory, it is likely that the Farinese sustained heavy casualties as well. Having to contend with a two front war during Pinalo’s incursion, it is possible that an ad hoc ceasefire fell into place during the retreat. Meager troops stepped in to fill in the gap left by the retreating Lithmorrans, but the haggard defensive troops of the Barons Warsalus likely had to turn south in order to preserve the Marches from the Daravi.

If we look at the possible state of Lithmore prior to Pinalo, we find that Garth was trying to unite what is now Lithmore into its present shape. It is likely that he achieved, at least in part, this goal, paving the way for Pinalo to complete it and endeavor to wage a foreign campaign. If Lithmore is not completely united by the time of Garth’s reign, what is the state of Farin or Daravi? It is difficult to tell, but we know that the Daravi have been making incursions into Warsalus territory for an extremely long time, bound as always by the seasons because of the icy passes that only open up once a year. According to ‘help warsalus’ the territory that became Farin was merely a series of fiefs ruled in varying capacities. The region was much smaller than present day, so the Duchal authority that Dav created around 132 with the official creation of Farin as a duchy would have enabled them to expand and consolidate all of the fiefs under one banner. Edessa, before it was destroyed, was quite near the border and much further away from Lithmore. Pinalo would have had to gone fairly far into their territory in order to run into forces coming out of this capitol.

Yet, if the Barons Warsalus were contending with the Daravi prior to the Consolidation, how were a band of petty kings successful in holding back a magic-using military when they spent their time beating each other up? A ready solution would be to say that the Daravi forces that the Barons were fighting were not what we see now. One explanation is that these early forces prior to 109 were mapmaking or scout teams with light military escort that were simply scouting beyond the passes. Another explanation is that Daravi was simply not economically powerful enough yet to dedicate large numbers of troops to conquest. Whatever the result, when the Consolidation forces show up in the 120s, the Daravi spies or scouts would have certainly reported the escalation of firepower to their commanding officers. The subsequent invasions and the destruction of Edessa in 269 would have been a strategic decision to push back the center of power from the Daravi border and further northwest.

So, the answer to the Farin question in 111SC is… trying to keep Edessa safe. The incursion by Pinalo, coupled with the regular attacks in Spring, would have bred some measure of unity among the Farinese to answer the foreign threat. By getting some space between themselves and the Lithmorrans, an ad hoc ceasefire would have fallen into place to the North, allowing them to focus upon rebuilding their forces and contending with the Daravi. The Daravi forces would not escalate their attacks until the 120s when their spies would have revealed the political machinations of Dav and the march back to the Farinese border.

The main event outside of Lithmore in 111 was the tension between Jaren and the Lord Paramount of Tubor. I have not found a name for the Paramount. I remember participating in a re-enactment as a Troubadour, commemorating the events and the famous lines involving Jaren going to Tubor with an army of his own. The political tension between the Tubori and the Vandagan is probably long-standing. If anyone has read the Pre-Con timeline, I mentioned that the Vandagans and the Tubori are probably related. The ‘help regional features’ indicates that they are similar in appearance, with the differences lying in their builds. The bulkier Vandagans likely emerged from the combination of Tubori and whomever was on the mainland when they settled.

Given Vandago’s potential origins as a mainland colony, I figured that the Paramount’s inevitable betrayal of Jaren was similar in some measure to Britain and America. Though the bay between Tubor and the mainland is not quite as vast as the Atlantic, the natural barrier of the magical weather bubble (which needs a better name, I’ll call it the Squall) would generate or distort weather patterns in ways that would slow traffic or at least need skilled captains to deal with the change in ocean temperatures. Aside from that, the relative isolation or at least insulation from the Tubori government (though there is no telling if Jaren himself was more ethnically Tubori or Vandagan) would have allowed or even necessitated the development of a unique culture. The architectural and engineering drive of the Vandagans probably emerged due to the change in geographic location. With more room, and sturdier foundations, the Vandagans would have chosen the direction of material advancement and craftsmanship in a different direction than their predecessors.

This line of thought makes me wonder exactly when the Seven enacted the Squall, however, as the seafaring, warm-sun culture of the Tubori would have been impossible if the helpfile for Tubori climate is correct. The islands would have been frigid, horrible places, similar in character to the Vandagan region prior to 8SC when the Tubori capitol was supposedly founded. If this scenario is correct, then it is possible that the Tubori were more like Vandago than I originally imagined and the Squall may have even caused the cultural split along class lines. When the Isles (artificially polished into the Jewel that Dav would conquer) became a luxurious paradise, it is likely that the ruling elite moved back there after the colonization of the mainland, creating a physical separation as much as a social one. With new wealth in the form of exotic crops (possibly pulled from the jungle lands of Farin or magically populated cause why not), the rich became richer and the Vandagans were left quite literally in the cold.

This is just one explanation of how Tubor became home of the ruling class and why Jaren despised them so much. As soon as the armies of Lithmore begin to assemble, it is likely that this tension would have been exaggerated because of economic reasons. The luxury goods of Tubor were in less demand by the Vandagans, the Lithmorrans and the Vavardi. The balance of power shifted toward the mainland as the mineral and land resources available to the Vandagans would gain in value because of the production of arms and food. This would force Tubori to utilize the only power they had left: their navy.

It is difficult to tell when the division of the Tubori and the Vandagans – as is understood in modernity – takes place. The land holdings on the mainland would have undoubtedly been under the control of the ruling elite that migrated back to Tubori. Potentially, there is room for a civil war prior to the Consolidation, in which stewards left behind to tend to the mainland holdings rebelled against the elite retreating to the Islands. Some of the elite could have reduced their involvement in the day-to-day operations to a straight tax and had the revenue shipped back to the islands. With some of the stewards rebelling and some of the stewards loyal to their rum drinking masters, the potential for skirmishes is fairly high. Not to mention, with all that wealth headed back to Tubor, the number of Vandagans getting on ships and going pirate would have been pretty high. The nobles would have responded by buying into the cartels and running them, perhaps using them to poach shipments from their political rivals or somehow persecute the lower classes. This unrest would coincide nicely with the rest of the unrest in Lithmore and Farin.

7: 112 SC – White Flag (The army marches and its first battle is a short one)

From the earlier looks at other neighboring cultures, it is easy to see some of Dav’s conquest rationale. The world is a messy place at this point in history. Even if he were driven solely by whatever glory was denied him during Pinalo’s campaign, whatever conquests were made – whatever lands were consolidated into the fold – would be a measure of success. Whatever conquests he would make would inevitably outstrip Pinalo or Garth’s consolidation of power within the modern kingdom. However, with the way that Tubori/Vandago, the Hillfolk and Farin were involved in internal conflict, it seems as if there could have been other lesser kings hanging on the beveled edge of change. Would the March of Dav in the Spring of this year included visits to these rogue counties? Or would have Pinalo ‘finished’ Lithmore before going into Farin? Were all of the political machinations from 109 to 112 – those necessary for the army to start moving – bloodless?

It is unlikely that he set out from the beginning to take over the world. Only upon the first engagement, would he know if this enterprise – perhaps prophesized by his vision at the Springs – was a fever dream or had real merit. While it is difficult to determine the exact battlefield that Jaren and Dav met on, it is likely that the nearby Forest of Jaren provides some memorial of the meeting. Though it is playing off of old information, I can recall early on in TI history when you could actually walk to Vandago City from Lithmore, passing by a branch off to Sartez. This path went through Wilhelm and went for quite a distance up to the gates of Vandago itself. The counties around Amhurst are suspect because they are beyond the limits of this forest, leading me to believe they were some of the last to be established, or perhaps represented unused buffer land between Vandago and Lithmore. While I do not have a scale map replete with rivers and other geographic boundaries to help determine where the engagement took place, we can either arbitrarily assign a location on the map or just say they met on the border.

As noted in the timeline, it is likely that the hillmen took what they could find in order to feed themselves. Irregular infantry like this would draw less material from the core supply chain at the expense of political face and likely local lives. Even if they didn’t raid their way along Dav’s flank, the Hillmen would have caused problems for Aurthyn on the northern march. Lithmorran sergeants likely had to try and marshal these barbarians. There would have been a clash of cultures and language. Fights were quite likely as was desertion.

(More to come as I finish a chunk)