The crest of
Ryad Scyros
Era Art:
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| The Ukvil |
HISTORY and RECORDS
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History is timeless, and takes some time to develop into a working body of language. Ferrata's history is, in the beginning, rather ordinary to be honest. As a culture sets roots to the land they will later call home, tribulations and challenges are a daily routine. Only as weapons of war are developed and battle tactics devised can war be waged....and war, unfortunately, came too often to the early Ferratuus.
Covered for your information below are the basic historical fundamentals relevant to Ferratuus today. Dates suggested below follow this time line: the Age of Plague began in 0. Dates marked bp relate to times before the Plague, and thus reverse chronologically. (The yahr "0" would correspond to the yahr 1700 in other cultures).
MYTHOLOGY OF ORIGINS
Mythologies vary from trybe to trybe and reports on these travelers are, of course, deeply routed in local superstitions to this day. Several constants remain, however. The basic concept of origin stems around an alleged band of traveling combatants who landed on Vexillum after retreating from a far away star system. What oppressive force caused these refugees to flee differs from trybe to trybe, but a standard theme is clear obscurity of thought and action had come to engulf entire worlds, including the native home of the Ferratu, and escape was their only means of surviving eternal numbness.
(Note from SciTech: The contemporary Ferratu boast no claim of knowing how to ``travel between stars,'' and therefore doubt that such technology existed.
From these myths, though, came codes of honor and disciplines treasured to this day. The helpless never fell victim to their spears, and the body temples were sacred and not to be purposely violated by blade or pellet. They all wore the symbol of the Ukvil (engulfed dragon), and the dragon of battle and honor was adopted by all the trybes of Vexillum as their symbol as well.
THE "HOUSE" SYSTEM (1100 - 400bp)
The dawn of recorded history called the contemporary trybe a "House". House titles depended on the particular doctrine of the time, and records of the particular names used are scarce and unorganized.
The organization of land into a standardized system was one of the developments necessary to allow the rise of Ferrata's pre-Udias militarist society. While the Houses maintained themselves through organized guilds in agriculture and mining for hundreds of years, thus dominating the political environment, their families and hired guards fought to secure territorial boundaries and markets.
By 822bp, a new capital was needed to accomplish the burgeoning bureaucracy, along with roads, taxes, a standing army, communication, and an infrastructure. In order for the old Houses to accept this arrangement, they had to be bought out by installing them as high-level officials in the new government.
A free national capital, Solice, was established in 803bp, but the old hierarchy of the House system was not simply abandoned. Over generations, the "D'clan" system came to pass, a social class of inherited nobility that was intertwined with powerful positions in the central government. As individual Houses grew, so did the need for land and territory.....and blood.
FIARRIA CAMPAIGNS (390bp - 128bp)
By the approximate date of 300bp (1400 by their calendar), the houses had spread southward, passing through lands now occupied by Merite and into the kingdoms of contemporary Billa. Initial contacts were not, to say the least, successful. Clansmen, led by Lass Halan of the Clan D'Shevyr after months of promising but guarded trade and diplomatic exchanges, suddenly opened a blazing trail of carnage through modern Merite into Billa, as torches were put to many outlying villages. The Ferratu proved brutal in battle, but were honor bound to neither murder nor destroy the civilian populace. The land was their objective, not the people, who the Ferratuus of the time believed honestly would discover and come to adopt the ways of The Cradle.
Lands captured with blood over years by Lass Halan, however, were reportedly lost within weeks to the more powerful weapon of seduction. The Billan Jasper, a war lord of the time who claimed many victories, fostered such war respect with Ferratu troops over a time that when he requested an audience with Halan, under the purposes of declaring a truce, it was granted. The night Halan and Jasper met has been described by poets and soldiers alike, and vary with each author. What is known is that by a month's end, Ferratu d'Shevyr forces were en route home. Skirmishes were fought, but the campaign all but collapsed.
Halan's fate was never discovered: some reports indicated she was killed later by her own dishonored clansmen, while others say those same troops fabricated the story for the love of the fair lass...and others say she was claimed by Jasper, and was housed somewhere in Billa. What IS known is that for centuries, the two peoples remained distant and divided if only the sake of hatred and ignorance, and Jaspers death in 323bp rose speculations of murder conspiracia and general jubilation (the Clan D'Shevyr regained popularity and power soon after, even if they legally had nothing to do with it).
Expansion alist plans were denied by the more peaceful Houses of the northeast, who by 379bp had begun open trading with merchants from the peoples of contemporary Southern Plantations. News, however, of the actions of Clan D'Shevyr had spread across Fiarria by that time, and commerce eventually ebbed to only trusted couriers.
Other expeditions were less interesting. Clans exploring to the far south of Fiarria which is now Rio/Ordland found mainly barbarian hoards, and quickly called back teams for fear of life losses and no territorial bounty. The abundant resources of contemporary Ordland were not realized until only recently.
AGE of UKVIL (123 - 007 bp)
The widespread use of the common Ukvil symbol led to the first in a string of three civil wars ("chaosis" in Ferratu) as clans fought amongst themselves for rights to the Ukvil. The first in 123 BP/PU, led to the near destruction of the Clan Cahthy. Cahthy clansmen were forced from their lands to the boundary of the sea, and those that refused to leave were imprisoned, made to work in hard labor camps, or slaughtered by the thousands. The conflict lasted three yahrs, until other clans intervened with military assistance for the Cahthy, who had been all but wiped out and would later only survive as sea-borne cutthroats and black marketeers. They eventually isolated themselves on Scios Island and were not heard of again until 103 AP.
This led indirectly to Chaosis Secton, the second conflict of record, several yahrs later. Hostilities broke out between clans across the country in 88 BP/PU. While open skirmishes were less numerous, inner-province terrorism claimed more than a million lives. Martial law was the rule of the land, as was the empowerment of As-zaabs (provincial military governors). Their word was law, and it was later discovered a good part of the provincial violence came from the As-zaabs themselves against their own people. While the conflicts and acts of violence finally subsided around 62 BP/PU, the prejudices of a generation raised under the veil of death had taken its toll. No one house trusted another...at least, not entirely.
By the time of Chaosis Trident, the third conflict, in 44 BP/PU, the governing family house occupied by the ancestors of the contemporary Montgurai Trybe had risen in to an unparalleled military power, a power still wielded to this day. The house had created and established its own seal in hopes of avoiding any further fighting over the Ukvil. The activation of ``The Turning Wheel'' seal did exactly the opposite, as a devastating sneak attack by four of the largest houses left The Turning Wheel in flames. A last minute allegiance with Clan d'Gar (the Horn d' Udias Garande's ancestors) and members of the Clan d'Fources clan saved them, but twisted the country into 17 years of further civil war. A historical analysis indicate more than 30 million Ferratuus lost their lives on the battlefield. Civilian losses could not be counted due to their large, and often unreported, numbers.
The provinces were left in near ruins for the next 20 yahrs, ruled during the time as near-military states under "The Hundred Clans". Minor skirmishes were reported in isolated areas as each clan would occasionally try to push out its territorial boundaries. And as internal matters began to cool, events on distant shores were shaping to change their futures forever.
AGE OF UDIAS (0 ap - 247 ap)
By the time the plague had already decimated civilizations on the Old Continent, word had spread to Fiarria via master sailors that death was close to Ferrata's shores. Rumors of a crippling sickness spreading across the world reached the Hundred Clans, and in their first act of solidarity, the entire populace moved as one into the massive underground caverns and catacombs called the Udias. Some hysteria surrounded the two-month-long exodus, as some of the more primitive populace feared the danger represented whatever forces had caused the travelers of legend to flee across the galaxy had found them once again. After two centuries of warfare and death, few had the stomach for another fight.
(Note from SciTech:It was eventually, and embarrassingly, discovered later that the Plague never had threatened the people of Fiarria or Nova Vexillum. The people of Scios would later prove as living testimony that the deadly tides of the Plague had not indeed traveled overseas to Fiarria. GovOps maintains, however, that the precautions of our ancestors was only the only wise choice. Also, the successes and harmony of today's culture would not have come about with the Age of Udias.)
Those first years inside the Udias were hard ones for the Ferratu, as caves used for small scale industry and military defense purposes and even entertainment (the once popular game "Sought and Found" was played there, although the rules have long since been forgotten) soon played host to an entire populace. Fights over living space were common, and the local economy all but crumbled.
What emerged during the Age of Udias, though, could not have been predicted at the time. Old economic dependancies on conventional farming and steel making were replaced with excavation and mining operations. Caverns with water pockets leading to the open ocean depths were discovered, allowing the Ferratu to develop undersea farming projects, which eventually turned into the major food source for the populace. Children playing in unexplored restricted areas of the Udias found the glowing mineral rock now called minos, which was ultimately used to generate power. Minos manipulation was honed to a fine art, and its uses, especially when combined with other raw materials, seemed endless. New economies began to develop, old ties were severed, and new hope spread with each generation.
The 100 Clans dissolved within the first ten years, as old feuds fueled by distant borders were made moot. Young male and female children of all kinds mixed for the first time without their grand parents' constant prejudices, and a teenage boy quickly forgot the harsh words of his father-solider when confronted with the beauty of a young female "enemy". Blood lines began to mix, and the population was growing faster than engineers could manufacture living areas or tunnel out new areas in the Udias.
By (B)12 AP, eight large and distinctly different caverns housed millions of Ferratuus, and segregation once again became a concern again. Whole populations had started developing their own inner-economies and dependancies, and a decade of open free trading began to crumble. It was decided that representatives from each "trybe" meet to discuss the future of the people.
The eight that came forward forged what is now the core of modern Ferratu culture, and are now referred to as the Horns d'Udias. *1: a coordinator, Felip Garande; a soldier, Corde Montgurai (the Brave); a scientist, Ulimpi'ades; a holy man, L'Shayd Gambyt; a merchant, Regvek Mantolov; an entertainer, Mohlinar (the Merry); a judge, Skot Se'Finch; a teacher, Lars Hoamur; and later an explorer, Scyros. (See Horns)
While holding no official office or power, they were the most respected of the Ferratu, and their unified word was near law. They preached and practiced that only a unified people would stand time's tests, and much of that era's success, and the breakthroughs that benefitted generations to come, were due to their work. The people that once comprised the 100 Clans now became the Eight Trybes of the Udias. Each set to work, refining their people's skills to better serve their neighbors and fellow Ferratuus. Montgurai's best soldiers formed the first vestiges of the Vojak unit, and backed up the laws enforced by Se'Finch's prases, while Garande, Ulimpi'ades, Mantolov, and Hoamur established an infrastructure. L'Shayd and Mohlinar kept the people entertained, thinking and, most importantly, praying. Each major cavern came to be named after the Horns d'Udias that occupied it (i.e. the House of Se'Finch, House of Mantolov).
The Ferratu people stayed within the Udias for nearly four generations, forgetting after a time what it was even like living above ground. The thought of a world without a rock ceiling as shelter scared a great many clans, and during that time there was little talk of exploring the top ground. However, lacking the centuries of warfare Ferratuus were accustomed to, population scales tipped heavily, and living spaces again began to fill. There were two choices: fight underground, or leave the Udias.
Being human, fighting began breaking out in isolated areas in 101 AP, and talks began on returning to topsoil Fiarria. L'Shayd's self sacrifice 50 yahrs earlier - she impaled herself upon Montgurai's Honor Blade to stop a massing civil war, then disappeared into caverns that led to topsoil - and subsequent urging for followers to join her "in the light" provided the spiritual motivation. Montgurai, on his deathbed, had pledged his House to the return exodus, so civilian worries of encountering roving barbarian clans sick with the Plague dwindled. Monks and scientists, poets and mathematicians, politicians and workers - all agreed that the time to go home to topsoil had come.
AGE OF UDIZ (103 - 298 AP)
The first Ferratu emerged from the caverns of the Udias into sunlight, and quickly repelled himself back into the cover of the caves. He reportedly spoke of a fireball as large as the House of Garande about to plummet to vex, and warned others to flee. Skeptics, for all their faults, refused to leave, and ultimately led the first parties to the surface (it was later discovered that the "fireball" the young man saw was the Sun, a distant memory to only the eldest of citizens and a legend to the rest).
For months, Ferratuus hesitantly, but steadily, flowed out of the Udias, like newborns erupting into life from a mother's womb. Warnings from physicians, combined with the now formidable underground industrial might of the House of Mantolov, had Ferratuus equipped to handle the shock of sunlight, and monks and botanists, once confined to working in uninspiring rock caverns, spread into the countryside in wonder and journey.
That same year, teams from Scios Island, remembering the prophecy of their Horn, greeted startled under dwellers with complete genealogical records, histories and maps. Family lines once thought lost forever were completed, and a people once lost in the belly of an underground mother saw their lives once again connected to something larger - a history.
Tiers (branches of a central government) began forming as industry moved from their rocky shelters into open air. Dust, pure oxygen, and weather conditions hampered operations for years, until some old words from Garande came to bear: "With the rock, the sand, the vex, we must work. Advantage and success comes with what you make from what's at hand." Hot, humid days sparked revolutionary ideas on solar power (as dust storms did for wind generators), and the thick once foreboding forests quickly sparked the awe and eventual prospect for recreation, art, and solitary prayer.
The trybes migrated outwards as well. No longer constricted by the uncompromising rock of the Udias and the prospect of war seemingly behind them, the Ferratu populace swelled to nearly 70 million by 289. Initial plans by a few die hard Udias'us to remain diligently below ground to take advantage of all the free new living space quickly fell away, as the fear of topsoil dwellings faded.
Ironically, the trybes migrated in the general direction their Houses laid underground. The L'say moved southward, hoping to trace the footstep of L'Shayd Gambyt, while the Monts moved west and established Jericho City nearly precisely above Abyss and their former central training camp. Internal industry, and trust, emerged. Technologies bred by economics spurred military advances. Trybes became inter-reliant, and formally fell under the banner of the Nine Trybes. The Directorate, the unofficial name once used to describe the House of Garande, was chosen as the central form of government of base.
Something, though, remained.
NOVA VEXILLUM (103 - today)
Memories of what caused the mass drive underground still abounded in the minds of scientists and clerics. By 298, advanced technology had already intercepted and partially deciphered air transmissions from peoples far from national shores. Efforts commenced in 292 to avoid all contact with these nations, and a national blackout policy was out into effect. War vessels that once roamed and exercised in open waters were pulled into port for nearly a year at a time. At the March Caucus of 297, it was unanimously decided that all radio blackouts cease, warships leave port for open waters, and contact be made.
In 298, contact with sea-going scout vessels from Christiana was made. The rest is history yet unwritten.
