Difference between revisions of "Feudal Era"

Revision as of 23:44, 23 August 2016

The Feudal Era is a period of history some two thousand years long that begins with the awakening of the Orcish civilization, the emergence of the Dwarves and the Humans, the discovery of the Gnomes and Woodland Elves, the birth of the Halflings, as well as the numerous conflicts between these races. This era is fraught with minor conflicts and is generally marked with periods of brief stability followed by political, military, and geographical upheavals that throw the balance of the entire realm into chaos. Considered in retrospect by one learned in the history of the Dominion, there is a stark contrast between the fragmented, war-ridden governance of IldRenn and the almost-idyllic stability brought about by the monolithic Dominion.

Despite the optimistic words that begin early accounts of the Feudal Era in early Eridal literature, the Feudal Era culminates in a way much more befitting of the general atmosphere that pervades much of its length. A continental war that precedes the arrival of the Dominion in Western soil is the act that closes the Feudal Era and opens the doors to the first period of history that is shared between Sekhar's East and West.

The Mist-time

Mist is the great obscurer of things in Thanardal tradition. However, it does not function as a malevolent force in the world, acting only to shield the mysteries of the ancestral spirits from the prying eyes of mortals, and serving as a veil between the two worlds. For this reason, the time that precedes the Feudal Era is called ImaDagtham by IstThanarel, and although the term is loaded with religious and mystical symbolism, it entered the vernacular at some point in the middle of the Feudal Era. During one of the few periods of peace during the Feudal Era, Viardal priests and scholars attempted to purge Human and Dwarven records of the term, believing it to be blasphemous against the one true god Viari, although these attempts failed as the term had already been in use for many centuries beforehand.

What few records remain of these 'before-times' are more often than not fragmentary mentions that even modern scholarship cannot say pertain to ImaDagtham for certain. These records are compiled in ImaVornar, the collective body of oral traditions from all the races of Man compiled by IstErisdal ascetics. Though there exist a small number that proceed in description for many lines, and a few pages in one case, these descriptions are often nebulous and given through the language of poetry that further obscures the truth behind their meaning. One commonality between most of these accounts is talk of a long night, or a very cold period of time during which the forests gave up very little in the way of food, and the land was covered in ice, even far to the north, where winter rarely shows its face.

One important aspect missing from the remaining accounts of ImaDagtham is a telling of the creation of the Races of Man. Though often overlooked in modern scholarship, which favours discussions on the merits of the Thanardal myth as opposed to the Viardal version of events, the uncertainty surrounding the birth of the Races of Man provided a convenient hole for the more xenophobic of leaders to fill, and an unorthodox but nevertheless popular theory is that many of the early conflicts between and within the Races of Man were exacerbated by the fact that many tribal leaders labeled their tribes as the 'chosen' people of whatever deities they worshiped.