Post by (The) Herald on Aug 11, 2012 13:19:08 GMT -5
~ AN ABRIDGED HISTORY
If you would like to contribute to the history-keeping of Isle Himaryn, please contact cloud. We Himaryn Staff aim to structure our history (and culture, and all else) based on tidbits and facts made up by our members, their characters, threads, and stories. :3
The First Age: Pre-History and the Old Kingdom
The First Intermediate Period: The Second Age (Dark Ages)
The Third Age: The Golden Era
The Fourth Age: The Lord Premier’s Era
The Fifth Age
The First Age: Pre-History and the Old Kingdom
The legendary First Age is said to include the mythical events such as the Fall of the Isle, the children of Icarus, the construction of the ancient Capitol Nairsov, and the parting of the seir from the land of Himaryn. The emperors and empresses of this age all bore the surname Icarus, as they were the descendents of Icarus’s first son. Historians estimate this period lasted at least 30,000 Chantings. No one knows why the First Age ended, but many historians suspect the fall of the Old Kingdom is associated with increased desertification of the Alescora, and the influx of invaders from the East who sacked Capitol Nairsov.
The First Intermediate Period: The Second Age (Dark Ages)
The Second Age was Himaryn’s Lost Ages. With Nairsov sacked and burned to the ground, the empire collapsed and fell to pieces. Ridden by plague, senseless violence and hatred, much of Himaryn is said to have returned to a hunter-gatherer state. The technologies of farming, construction, literature, and organized hunting were lost. Trade halted to a standstill with the loss of currency. Historians estimate this period lasted at least 100,000 Chantings.
The Third Age: The Golden Era
A Classical enlightenment occurs with the consolidation of power by a warlord-scholar known as Senra the Great. He had great interests in the gods, ancient history, and rediscovered the lore buried in the rubble of Nairsov. Enlightened, he reconstructed Capitol Nairsov and made it the capitol of what he called the New Kingdom of Himaryn. Using ancient techniques and technologies, his armies swept his rivals and the borders of his empire stretched a massive territory even greater than the current boundaries today. Many barbarian kingdoms paid tribute to Nairsov, and Himaryn became the cultural and trade capital of the known world. This period lasted for 8747 Chantings according to historical record.
The decline of the Third Age is associated with the gradual diffuse withering of the Senra line (later known as the Senhri), causing many diseases to be prevalent in the Imperial family. The pressures of rapidly expanding desertification and barbarian nomads made it especially difficult to maintain Nairsov as a capitol. Most of Nairsov’s valuable holdings remained in the West, and with the lack of a major regional urban center, the illegal boom-town of Kosov was established in 3.6920 (it did not receive a legal charter) and received more trade traffic than the Capitol Nairsov. The Imperial Family however refused to shift administrative centers, seeing Nairsov as the cultural and religious capitol of Himaryn. They believed it necessary to shut down city Kosov to reassert Nairsov’s dominance as a regional trade capital.
The illegal city of Kosov was them ruled by a mayor known as the Lord Premier (who at the time only regulated Kosov affairs) and Capitol Nairsov along with the rest of Himaryn was directly ruled by the Imperial family. Emperor Halazar Senhri began the conflict (called, “The Great War of Two Cities”) by issuing a decree ordering city Kosov to be torn down brick by brick. Kosov naturally refused, and the Lord Premier Rio Luca Daidala declared secession. Much of Western Himaryn sided with Kosov (proclaiming the beginning of the Fourth Age), and Nairsov enlisted the help of allied eastern Barbarian Kingdoms to lay siege to the city of Kosov. The great general Kariden of Kosov was the star of the War, and he employed a strategy to harass Nairsov’s siege armies from the outside and impede enemy reinforcements and supplies, while the Lord Premier Daidala held Kosov’s heavily fortified Enclave for 170 grueling Chantings. The turn of the war occurred in 3.8746 when the Kosov diplomat Helios convinced Nairsov’s barbarian allies to turn sides and sack the undefended Nairsov (instead of hopelessly laying Kosov to endless siege) and strip the imperial capital of its treasure. This event left Nairsov burned to the ground and in ruins, effectively ending the war. The imperial family was forced to move to Kosov and endorse the new government, and since them they have been simply figureheads to power.
The decline of the Third Age is associated with the gradual diffuse withering of the Senra line (later known as the Senhri), causing many diseases to be prevalent in the Imperial family. The pressures of rapidly expanding desertification and barbarian nomads made it especially difficult to maintain Nairsov as a capitol. Most of Nairsov’s valuable holdings remained in the West, and with the lack of a major regional urban center, the illegal boom-town of Kosov was established in 3.6920 (it did not receive a legal charter) and received more trade traffic than the Capitol Nairsov. The Imperial Family however refused to shift administrative centers, seeing Nairsov as the cultural and religious capitol of Himaryn. They believed it necessary to shut down city Kosov to reassert Nairsov’s dominance as a regional trade capital.
The illegal city of Kosov was them ruled by a mayor known as the Lord Premier (who at the time only regulated Kosov affairs) and Capitol Nairsov along with the rest of Himaryn was directly ruled by the Imperial family. Emperor Halazar Senhri began the conflict (called, “The Great War of Two Cities”) by issuing a decree ordering city Kosov to be torn down brick by brick. Kosov naturally refused, and the Lord Premier Rio Luca Daidala declared secession. Much of Western Himaryn sided with Kosov (proclaiming the beginning of the Fourth Age), and Nairsov enlisted the help of allied eastern Barbarian Kingdoms to lay siege to the city of Kosov. The great general Kariden of Kosov was the star of the War, and he employed a strategy to harass Nairsov’s siege armies from the outside and impede enemy reinforcements and supplies, while the Lord Premier Daidala held Kosov’s heavily fortified Enclave for 170 grueling Chantings. The turn of the war occurred in 3.8746 when the Kosov diplomat Helios convinced Nairsov’s barbarian allies to turn sides and sack the undefended Nairsov (instead of hopelessly laying Kosov to endless siege) and strip the imperial capital of its treasure. This event left Nairsov burned to the ground and in ruins, effectively ending the war. The imperial family was forced to move to Kosov and endorse the new government, and since them they have been simply figureheads to power.
The Fourth Age: The Lord Premier’s Era
The political re-arrangement of the Lord Premier as the de-facto ruler of Himaryn coincided with Himaryn’s establishment of its modern system of holding Chantings to evaluate Lord Premiers every three moons. The establishment of Kosov as the new capitol also inspired economic renewal in Himaryn, and the empire again began to flourish. Birthrates boomed, as did the emphasis on the technology and study of efficient agriculture and hunting. Himaryn in the Fourth Age also chose an isolationist political outlook, and refused to deal with lesser barbarian countries as its predecessors in Nairsov had. International trade routes to the north, east, and west diminished, but the prosperity of the Hashira and Sehali districts balanced the losses, and Imperial Kosov remained powerful.
A series of famines in circa 4.0320 encouraged Himaryn to change its political stance with the Barbarian nomads of the north. Because the booming population rates caused demand for food resources to skyrocket, Himaryn invaded the barbarian lands to extend their ground on the Sehali where the haerla herds were known to migrate north-south seasonally. This began the Great Barbarian War that continues to this day, based on the struggles over the haerla herds of the Sehali.
The Fourth Age is also characterized by the massive influx of foreigners into the territories of Himaryn. These migrations began in the third age, but the classes of Vikare, Salom, and Cruori truly began to become apparent in the Fourth Age. The Salom Clan did not truly rise as a significant opponent in political power until towards the end of the Fourth Age, when merchants began forming guilds and the population of Salommites began overtaking that of the Vikare.
The Senhri imperial bloodline finally wasted away in 4.6698, leaving no living direct blood-descendent of the Senhri Clan bearing the imperial surname “Senhri.” The crown thus shifted to the nearest living relative, Elezaar Hiraja Aothello, beginning the reign of the House of Aothello.
A series of famines in circa 4.0320 encouraged Himaryn to change its political stance with the Barbarian nomads of the north. Because the booming population rates caused demand for food resources to skyrocket, Himaryn invaded the barbarian lands to extend their ground on the Sehali where the haerla herds were known to migrate north-south seasonally. This began the Great Barbarian War that continues to this day, based on the struggles over the haerla herds of the Sehali.
The Fourth Age is also characterized by the massive influx of foreigners into the territories of Himaryn. These migrations began in the third age, but the classes of Vikare, Salom, and Cruori truly began to become apparent in the Fourth Age. The Salom Clan did not truly rise as a significant opponent in political power until towards the end of the Fourth Age, when merchants began forming guilds and the population of Salommites began overtaking that of the Vikare.
The Senhri imperial bloodline finally wasted away in 4.6698, leaving no living direct blood-descendent of the Senhri Clan bearing the imperial surname “Senhri.” The crown thus shifted to the nearest living relative, Elezaar Hiraja Aothello, beginning the reign of the House of Aothello.
The Fifth Age
The Fifth Age has so far been characterized by gradual decline of Imperial Himaryn on Kosov. The economy has finally begun to stagnate, and inter-clan quarrelling has rendered the political system ineffectual. Altarspire was added as a district in 5.0192, and Kosov’s city grid was re-planned and re-built in 5.0621. The fifth age has so-far been more peaceful than the previous eras of Himaryn history with few barbarian attacks occurring, but widespread corruption and economic failing is a serious issue of modern Himaryn.