The Vÿkstraak
The Northern Earldoms of Iradar clung fervently to their Vÿkstra roots after their subjugation by the Aridisian Empire. For many years, they refused to learn the tongue of the empire, and spoke rather their ancient Vÿkstra dialect carried with them from over the Northern Seas many generations before. Over the years, as more and more Aridisians moved into the ancient northern coastal cities, they found it impossible to cling to a language that was no longer spoken by traders and merchants who travelled the north.
Over the years, the Old Tongue was gradually replaced by the Aridisian tongue. But it was not altogether lost. Place names such as Horwald and Merwold are derived directly from Vÿkstra names Harwaald and Mervork. Even the principle city of the North coast retained at least the direct translation of its name. Ar-Hiskogt became Greywater Deep, a quite literal translation.
Still, as the decades turned to centuries, only the forest priests from the secluded towns far from the coasts or major travel ways still spoke aloud the old tongue with any fluency. So it was that in 2512, a poet known now only by the name Vÿks-Vroksrad, or "Northman Priest", composed a great work in the ancient tongue known as the Vÿkstraak, or Vÿkstras’ Lament. It was not written down for many years, as the ancient tongue used only runes and numbers, but was sung and chanted by travelling minstrels who became quite popular at the time. When it was written, the aristocracy of the north considered the Vÿkstra tongue to be uncouth, and vulgar. The Vÿkstraak, therefore, was rarely spoken south of the Halten River, where the influence of the Aridisian people grew dominant.
In the north, however, it took fire, and kindled in the people of the northern forests a desire to return to their roots. The fierce independence of the Northmen began to burn again, first as a small flicker, then as a fire, finally as a blazing inferno. Taverns and halls of the North were alive with Northman Songs, mostly translated to Aridisian, but many in a deriviative of the old tongue taken from tradesmen from the Ancient lands across the North Sea who still remembered the great language and societies of the North-Aridisian coast.
The descendants of the Northmen had never been assimilated into the culture of the Aridisians entirely. They remained largely segregated except in the more cosmopolitan coastal cities. But in the secluded forest towns south of the coast, they remained apart, most still exhibiting the golden hair of their people as opposed to the dark hair of the Aridisian conquerors.
But it was in the Northern Coastal cities, particularly Greywater Deep where the true revivals began. The poor cried out for justice, for the right to rule themselves. There were riots against the nobles of the Coasts. The Duke of Horwald, Martine Morhame, decided to ban the use of the old tongue, believing it to be the cause of the uprisings. He openly arrested anyone singing the Northern songs in taverns, or any travelling priest who even claimed to know the Vÿkstraak. This merely fanned the flames.
In 2420, the kingdom of Iradar was involved with a border dispute with the neighboring kingdom of Cranz, and Martine Morhame left Horwald with the knights of his house to fight for the king. When he returned from the wars some 9 years later, he found that his son, Goffren, had been lax with the locals and their customs. The Vÿkstraak was sung in every tavern in every town in the north on a nightly basis. The army had been rebuilt in his absence to deal with local ruffians and raiders in the northern port-towns almost entirely of locals.
Many historians believe that Morhame had gone mad with the stress of war to the east. Others claim that he blamed the common people of his Dukedom for all of his losses and faults. Regardless of the truth, he began a campaign to root out any vestige of the Northman influence in his domain. He had his son killed as a traitor, and began executing priests at random, believing them to be the ringleaders in the Northman resurgence.
At last, the people of Horwald rebelled. Led by a man name Harold Gendry, who took the ancient name of his family, Harald Jendryk, the Northern Forests became a bloody place of fighting and death for the first time since the early Vÿkstras had arrived. Aid from the king to his vassal, Morhame, was slow to arrive, and less than needed. The recent wars in the east had sapped the land of fighting men, and king had no more stomach for war at all.
By 2432, it was clear that Morhame was defeated. Gendry’s army had ringed Morhame at the keep at Highbridge and laid siege to it for over a year. Morhame held out hope that a Royal Army would come to his rescue before all was lost, but it was not to be.
In 2433, an emaciated city of High Bridge surrendered itself to the forces of Harold Gendry, and delivered the corpse of Martine Morhame, whom they had hung in the keep’s courtyard, to Harold himself.
During the celebration at Greywater Deep, an emissary from the king arrived at the wooden stockade of Harold with a message from the royal court for Harold. He asked Harold what his plans were now that he controlled Horwald. Harold had no answer for him. Declaring Horwald independent might seem heroic, but it would likely bring down the wrath of the king and other Dukes as well.
The emissary made Gendry an offer straight from the king’s lips: "Bow to me, and I will make you Duke of Horwald, and you may order the Dukedom however you wish. If you do this, I will give you great riches, and you will become one of the most powerful men in the Kingdom. Refuse me, and you will be at war with a kingdom twenty times your strength."
Harold weighed the options for one night, and sent a letter of allegiance to the King. When King Hances Rendor arrived in the north to take his pledge of fealty the next spring, Gendry offered it willingly. And so was born the northern line of Horwald. From rebellion and strife, was born the oldest, yet most independent line of Dukes in the kingdom. All because of a song.
The Vÿkstraak is a long tale, and tells the story of the victories of the northern Thains beginning with the great force of fighting men that Harimaar I landed in Harstag with his glorious fleet of longships and his army of Northern Fighters. It is embellished, and the tale it tells have grown more impressive with each telling. In 2650, the Gendry Duke, Harten Gendry, commissioned scribes to translate the song into Aridisian, still the spoken tongue of the peoples of Horwald. This monumentous undertaking was not completed during his lifetime. It was found that there were countless versions of the tale circulating about Horwald. As each new story was found, a chapter was added to the Vÿkstraak. It soon became a huge work encompassing many volumes. An entire room in the Library of Greywater Deep is dedicated to the tomes of the Vÿkstraak, all written in Vÿkstra, using Aridisian letters, and each book with an exact copy written in Aridisian.
No new volumes have been added to the Vÿkstraak for many generations, but there are many priests, called Vÿsrin who strive to put them all to memory. The great library has become a monastery of sorts, in which hundreds of priests live and sleep, studying the tomes of the histories of their people.