The History of Tarraocea - Chapter
1 - The Age of Humans
The World
Tarraocea is the world of
OceanLords. It is basically an archipelago. Islands are
occupied by a race or kingdom.
The rest is oceans and seas, and beneath them lurk
various sea monsters.
The Great Catastrophe
This was not always the
case. Such situation came about after the world almost collapsed under great earthquakes
that tore it apart. Sea levels rose until they covered most of the
world, leaving only a large archipelago. Few races managed to survive and
it took quite a while until the world recovered. The few-recorded histories here
have
been destroyed.
Island War I
The only race that survived
was the Humans (at least it seemed to). The humans further split into different
tribes. A means of transport to navigate between islands was
needed. One human tribe called the Gokstads that lives on the northern parts of
Tarraocea managed to invent the first ships. Tribes were further divided since the nature
of islands further separated any union. Resources on each island started to diminish
and were becoming few. Trading became common, however when trading was stopped due
to disagreement between islands, the only course was war. So wars started between
each island, until the best took over the others. During these wars
ships started to improve from mere floating rafts to full transportable galleys. There
is few recorded histories of these wars, it came to be known as Island wars or Island war I. Suffice is to say here that the result
of this war gave birth to six human united tribes: - the Worchosts, Urkas, Gokstads,
Pirolians, Lodans, Sendaos. There were many other tribes who were exterminated or
simply forced to adopt the victor’s
customs.
The First Council of the Sea
The 6 warlords of each tribe
decided to form the Council of the Sea (which later came to be known the 1st
Council of the Sea), so as to secure the
peace in the future. It met twice a year
to discuss global trade agreements and misunderstanding between the major tribes.
The council consisted of 30 councillors called “Sealords”. Each warlord appointed
5 of each able Sealords. However the so called lords didn’t hold any absolute power
over the whole council. Each lord was held equal among the other lords. This led
to several inconclusive agreements and more than once the tribes were on the brink
of war.
In one instance the Gokstads
(one of the Northern tribes) refused to trade trade
sealion pelts with the other tribes,
saying that the demand for these pelts will lead to the Sealion’s extinction, which
is vital for the warmth of their people. At first the tribes agreed but when these
vital pelts left the Worchosts and the Urkas without any real warming mechanisms
in the frozen north, they started raiding Gokstad islands for the pelts disguising their ships using
Lodan sail masts. The council met in an emergency session. The Gokstads pointed
out that two of its islands Guthrum and Orgonion had been raided by the Lodans.
The Lodans obviously denied this and saw it as an act of perjury from all of the
tribes. In front of such accusations the Lodans had to pay reparations to the locals
of Guthrum and Orgonion, by supplying the locals with wood.
The Lodans slowed down the
process of payment due to the scarcity of wood. It was noted by the Gokstads that the Sealion
pelt warehouses of Guthrum and Orgonion were the most that got damaged. After an investigation
led by the Gokstads themselves,
it was found that the tribes of Worchosts and Urkas
were the real raiders. The Gokstads returned to the council and pardoned the Lodans
for the accusations made against
them. However it was too late, the Lodans decided to secede from the council and declared their act of council union void and
null. The current Lodan oceanlord Roden refused to let his “Sealords” attend, but
just sent a letter to the council. The Gokstads soon followed suit on the grounds that the council had become ineffective.
Theoretically it was never dissolved formally
but all the other tribes refused to attend any meetings. The council was virtually
dissolved.
Sealion war
The Worchosts and Urkas
in an alliance continued their raids on the Gokstads and immediately captured Guthrum
and Orgonion. The fortified city of Gokstamborg was
spared while the
Alliance
continued capturing one island by after another. Sandarf and Otroborg fell as well. Meanwhile, the Lodans seeing the Worchosts’s and Urkas’s
power growing considerably, declared war on the alliance of Worchosts and Urkas
on the basis that they had led to the downfall of
the council. The Sendaos and Pirolians (the other two tribes that are less influential)
gave aid to the Lodan cause. Meanwhile the Worchosts and Urkas had started the blockade
of the capital of the Gokstads – Gokstamborg.
The Lodans mobilised their
fleet and found no real resistance apart from the locals of the capital of the Urkas
– Tullaria. Tullaria fell after a siege of 3 days. The
city was pillaged and almost
raised to the ground, (only the ramparts were left). Soon after the alliance started to disintegrate, the Urkas wanted to re-capture their home while the Worchosts wanted to
continue the siege, suggesting that victory was now at hand. The Gokstads on hearing
that the Lodans were pillaging the Urkas Islands were filled with new courage; and they decided to put up a brave resistance.
The Gokstad longships were no match for the
galleys of Urkas and Worchosts, however during what has gone down in history as The Battle
of the Frozen Walls, the Urkas left the Worchosts to fend for themselves. The Worchosts lost a vital flank to the Gokstads and
were smashed at Gokstamborg. Their admiral Torlon was killed during the battle.
The war continued but the
Worchosts and the Urkas went on their separate ways. The Gokstads recaptured their lost
islands, while the Lodans directed their main fleet on the Worchosts. The Urkas main fleet was trapped by the Lodans from the
south and the Goktads from the North and was crushed. After about a month all of
the Urkas’s and Worchosts’s islands were captured by the Lodans. The Gokstads actually
didn’t gain anything but struggled to regain their lost possessions. The war with the two
had cost them dearly and it was some until they recovered.
The absolute of the Lodans
After the war, no tribe apart from the Pirolians and Sendaos, who found them in
a weak position in relation to the Lodans
jumped to the idea to recreate the council.
The Gokstads abandoned the idea and began a long process of expansion to their east.
The Lodans having access to greater manpower and resources saw that the Pirolians
and Sendaos are too small for them. The Lodans immediately mobilised
their fleets.
“Brotherly aid”
By this time the Lodans
had invented fire cannons, which were mounted on their galleys. Oceanlord
Roden took command of the main fleet and headed for Pirolia (now Danasgos). Oceanlord
Perlai couldn’t believe his eyes, when he saw an immense fleet blockading the capital.
Roden didn’t want to lose any time and immediately dispatch a letter to Perlai:-
“Oh warlord Perlai, great
friend of the Lodans, deliverer from the Urkas wrath,
how may I ever thank you
for your support you gave us in defeating the Urkas and the Worchosts? I want to
offer you the right for your tribe to coexist peacefully within the great Lodan
tribe. Your people need to start living peacefully. It is an offer
that you cannot refuse. To prove your genuineness that you are trustworthy
we would need you to disarm your
fleets”.
It was a thinly disguised message that demanded the dissolution of the tribe. Perlai had two options… either
sacrificing lots of people for a lost cause or submit to
the Lodans. The 2nd option was deemed to be the best for his people. So in order to avoid any bloodshed
Perlai sent a reply to Roden saying that his people are were
willing to submit to the
new order, in favour of peace and security. Meanwhile Perlai took a small galley
and his best men and fled the city to the west. He was never seen again. No one
knew what happened. The gates of Pirolia were just opened and the Lodans entered
in ceremonial order. There was no no rape, pillage or plunder.
The Pirolians were amazed when Roden read out Perlai’s message to the Pirolians. He said
that they need not fear because the Lodans and the Pirolians was one tribe.
At first they greeted him as friend but when he started imposing his ruling the
Pirolians started to rebel.
The Pirolians didn’t agree with this and those who revolted were killed immediately
on the spot. This was needed to subdue the population. In the absence of any leader
like Perlai there was no real opposition. The Ships, which
were anchored in the harbour, were captured by the lodans.
Known admirals were assassinated. To further minimize resistance the Lodans banished the Pirolians to the distant
parts of the islands. This came to be known as the “Pirolian diaspora”.
Most of the other admirals either fled or succumbed to the new order.
The Sendao migration to the south
Farolian (current oceanlord
of the Sendaos) using his spies spread over the Pirolian tribe was keeping
an eye on what was happening. From the day that his spies informed him of the looming
Lodan fleet, he immediately started arming his fleets – The storm was gathering. Farolian
knew that his people didn’t have the resources or the will to fight someone who had
conquered all the other islands. The Gokstads seemed not
to bother and had interests of their own. He gave the orders for the construction of an immense fleet that would
transport all the Sendaos to other unknown islands
to the south.
The Fleet was built within 4 days and finally all
the Sendaos migrated to the south. On the course of migration, the Sendao came in
contact with the Orcs (primarily the Stormrider Orcs). It seemed that not only the
Humans managed to survive after the Great catastrophe. The Sendao had to fight through
the Orcs. After fierce fighting, the Orcs saw how courageous the Sendao were and so offered them for settlement the remote and useless islands to the
north of them. The Sendao would just protect the
Orcs interest interest in the north. The
Islands to the north of the Stormrider clan are islands no-one would want to live in… not
even the Orcs. They are wasteland islands. The Sendaos on the basis that beggars
can’t be choosers, settled on the wasteland islands of the Redstorm, leaving their
home islands open for the Lodans.
The hand of Jolvun
The human tribes in those days used to worship various gods. One god was Jolvun, worshipped only by the Gokstads,
Lodans and the Worchosts. Jolvun is the God of
the Purifying Sea. Legend says that
Jolvun is the one who takes care of all the beasts in the sea and purifies the sea from any evil in it.
While the Lodans were establishing
themselves in the west and south, the Gokstads decided to reinforce their islands
bordering the Lodan ones. During one night Gokstad sailors on a Longship, patrolling
the Lodan waters experienced and saw something that had never been seen before.
It was an ethereal hand,
as big as the Longship itself. The hand pushed the Longship to the East
seas and after about 6 days, the crew found themselves on a uninhabited
island. The sailors
left immediately for Gokstamborg (after a few exploration of the island) to tell their tale. The interpreters of the sky lost no time in coming up with an idea.
Jolvun was giving them a sign, to navigate to the east. Everyone agreed with this
interpreted idea. And it was most welcomed since expansion to the west was almost impossible, as it would have brought about a clash with with the
power of Lodans.
The island on which the
sailors of that fated Longship landed was named “Jolvun”. The Gokstads (being the able
navigators that they are) continued on their navigation and colonization of the islands
to the east. Dragon carcasses were found on these
islands, which drew particular interest to the Gokstads. A human tribe called the
Hermun inhabited most of the islands to the east. Ruthless in war, they saw the Gokstads as being a superior tribe. Before
the great catastrophe the Hermundors were the best warriors on land. However when
the few survivors of that tribe weren’t capable of distinguishing between driftwood and a ship, let alone owning a fleet, they willingly accepted the Gokstads as their overlords.
The Hermundors remained quite powerful warriors even on ships and so were incorporated by the Gokstads into
their fleets.
The next 35 years
saw the build up of these islands of the east, and their transformation
into Gokstads colonies
and now the Gokstads themselves were in preparation for the defence of their islands. They were the last remaining free human tribe, which had
not succumbed to the Lodans. It was only a matter of time, since Tarraocea would
be again
on war, since war resolves undisputed matters.
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