The Great Lands: Historical Atlas (2200 BP)
As the centuries passed, the Renounced Gods expanded their dominion across the northern Great Lands. It was an odd sort of war; there were no generals, no organized armies, no pitched battles for the fate of kingdoms. An armed force of more than a hundred or so warriors was rare. Still, with raid and massacre, one outbreak of pestilence or famine after another, the Renounced Ones slowly pushed their enemies back across the land. A wide band of territory appeared – the Desolation – where no humans lived, and where the land itself had become bleak and barren.
Five more of the ancient Smith-folk holdfasts fell during this time, but now the survivors had become aware of their peril. The remaining enclaves fortified themselves heavily, and the Smith-folk organized armies in their own defense. A few holdfasts even made explicit alliances with the Common-folk around them, providing high-quality weapons and tools in exchange for cooperation in mutual defense.
In the north, the Zari and Mahra peoples were forced to give ground before the Desolation. On the other hand, the Zari peoples continued to expand up the far western coast, protected by the formidable heights of the Blue Mountains. Meanwhile, the eastern Mahra tribes acquired bronze-working technology and continued to expand into new countries in the east. Some of the eastern Mahra also pressed down on the southern coasts, taking over old Zari and Nandu lands, imposing their own culture and languages.
The existing centers of civilization continued in this period. For example, the Dahari city-states took in no new territory, but they continued to grow in sophistication and prosperity. Their population was enriched by a new wave of Kurani-speaking migrants out of the margins of the southern desert. During this era, the Dahari expanded literacy among their urban population, developing the world’s first true literature.
The Kavrian Matriarchy spread across the islands of the Sailor’s Sea, extending its trade networks into distant lands. Under its Third Dynasty, the Matriarchy became more unified and centralized, all of its local priestess-queens recognizing the supremacy of a single High Queen ruling from the nation’s first true city.
The Mereti Kingdom remained relatively backward, still at a Chalcolithic level and lacking in urban centers. It also began to suffer pressure from migrating Kurani tribes in the northwest. Even so, under successive dynasties of god-kings it managed to defend itself and even expand its territory.
These old centers of civilization were joined by a new league of city-states in the Tamiri lands of the northern continent. These cities sat directly on the main trade routes for tin, jade, and lapis-lazuli, and as demand for these goods expanded they became quite wealthy.
About 2,200 years before Krava’s time, the world was astonished by a new development: the return of the Elder Folk (Homo antecessor) after nearly a hundred thousand years of absence from the world. Even the ancient Smith-folk barely remembered these distant cousins when they first arrived.
The Elder Folk had changed dramatically in their long sojourn in other worlds. They remained physically petite and slender, but they had become far wiser and more intelligent, and they had tools and powers superior to any of the people who had remained behind. They soon showed themselves to have a specific mission: to aid the peoples of the Great Lands against the threat of the Renounced Gods.
One branch of the Elder Folk landed on the western coasts of the northern continent, establishing enclaves among the relatively backward Zari tribes of the region. They worked to organize Zari farmers and hunters, preparing them to defend against any attempt by the Renounced Gods to cross the Blue Mountains.
A second branch entered the Sailor’s Sea, establishing enclaves among the major civilizations of the area. One Elder-folk city was built among the Kavrian matriarchs, another among the Dahari city-states, and a third among the Nesali petty-kingdoms. These enclaves, too, worked to prepare resistance against the northern threat. Here, the Elder-folk also had a second objective: to delve into the history of the gods of the Common-folk, and uncover the origins of the Renounced Ones.
At first, the impact of the returned Elder-folk was small, and they could do little to stem the tide of ruin from the far north. Still, over time the Elders would do much to promote civilization, and place the relationship between the Common-folk and their gods on a healthier and more sustainable basis.