Ahrems

The **Ahrems** were an ancient Ahremian people who inhabited the land between the Shia and Dacere Rivers from around 500 NSY to 100 SY when their long standing kingdom fell. The Ahrems were contemporary with the Sectini and the people of Herth, and are included as some of the earliest known inhabitants of Ahremia. The word *"*Ahrem" ( *A'rem* ) is a combination of native words and Zedian exonyms, but is the origin of the modern *Ahremia* despite only a portion of Ahremia's modern population having descended from the ancient Ahrems.

## Etymology and Language

The Ahrem people had their own language and script, called simply the Ahrem language. This language later combined with Mercian (the language spoken during the Kingdom of Mercia) and a script called Lower Graftan to form Old Ahremian.

Ahremian writing was mainly written on birch bark with primitive brushes, giving it a more flowy look than the Zedian scripts (L. Graftan) that were carved - giving a more rigid look. The child of the Mercian and Ahrem scripts tended to lean more towards an Ahrem look, being written horizontally and dropping many Sectini letters that did not write well horizontally (an example of Sectinian writing can be found here).

The most studied word in all of the Ahrem language is just that, the word "Ahrem". It is believed that the word Ahrem (spelled more like A'rem in ancient times) was actually a word that described the land that the Ahrems lived on, not the people themselves. Later when Zedians from Itiom visited the Ahrem Kingdom, they recorded it as "Ahrema".

## Ahrem Kingdom

Flag of Datrin, attributed to the Ahrem Kingdom.

### Capital

* Baitelond (? - c. 150 NSY)
* Feorrey (c. 150 NSY - c. 120 NSY)
* Datrin (c. 120 NSY - c. 0 SY)
* Nazka (c. 0 SY - 100 SY)

### Rulers

Nurcharinala (mythical, first)Brunahm a Hale (last)

The Ahrem Kingdom was the largest state that ever came out of the ancient Ahrem lands. At its extent it covered the land from the south of the Shia River, through Pteria and The Moor all the way to the Dacere River - or the modern location of the city of Martlet. The kingdom essentially stood along amongst mostly unorganized tribes and petty city-states in the land of Ahremia. Its only comparable contemporary was Herth, yet it is unlikely that the states had any notable political or economic connection to each other.

According to oral tradition the Ahrem kingdom was founded by the chief of a sect of Ahrems named *Nucharinala* (literally favorite (*nua*) of Charin (*charinala*)). The story goes he united his people and conquered all the cities of Pteria, eventually traveling south to subdue the inhabitants of the southerly coast of Ahremia. The rest of Ahrem history up until the arrival of the Sectini (~ 0 SY) is all according to old legends.

The first capital of the Ahrem Kingdom, Baitelond, both the legendary birthplace of Nurcharinala and the capital as recorded by the Zedians, remained the principal city of the kingdom until it was sacked by the Pteres in around 150 NSY. Although the kingdom's capital was gone, the kingdom relocated its capital to the town of Feorrey. According to legend the Pteres and the Ahrems were at war for about thirty years. After thirty years of war Pteria was devastated and the *Calya Pter* (Pterian Confederation) was at its weakest point.

The vengeful Ahrem king, Semer of Feorrey, led a heroic march on the great fortified town of Detwennen (Datrin). The siege of the town was a lengthy one. The leader of the Pteres and his officials preyed day and night for the gods to save them, yet little did they know they had accidently destroyed a chapel to Charin in Baitelond, sealing their fate from the beginning. Eventually the city was taken and the nobility of Detwennen killed off. Instead of destroying the city it was instead made the new capital. A set of impressive stone walls were erected around the central fortress of the town. No more than a decade later the town of Naiez'ka was made southern capital and was given its own set of walls.

These walls survive somewhat to the present day, especially those in Datrin. Along with the walls the Ahrems built the Kings Canal, a canal that drained the Nazkan channel, the first of the many canals that exist in Nazka today.

Between 0 SY and 100 SY the Sectini, a people from central Ahremia, entered the picture. Massive migration of these nomads from central Ahremia led to upheaval within many of the weaker states of the region, particularly in the land that would later become Mercia. Despite being a strong kingdom, the Ahrem Kingdom suffered a similar set of grievances from the Sectini. Many Sectini began to take power within the kingdom, causing the traditional nobility and the royal family to lose power. By 50 SY a sizeable amount of Sectini lived within the borders of the Ahrem Kingdom, which had now shrunk to only the Pterian region.

In 66 SY the Buthenian king Daruk of Bagrad famously invaded Ahremia and clashed with Ahrem forces at Lanturr (Dilare) and Itiom. The Ahrem king at the time, Cynefir, defeated the Buthens and followed them as far as the Zedian city of Argis, destroying it. Though the story chronicles Cynefir and the Ahrems as extremely organized and skillful in battle, Cynefir has a relatively mundane remembrance as a historical figure. He was the father of Brunahm a Hale, the last legitimate king of the Ahrems.

Around 90 SY this major power shift occurred, as chronicled by Figlen - a writer who lived around a hundred years later:

> "...it was during the reign of Brunahm a Hale, king of the Ahrems, that (a) Sectine man - whose name is, with deep regret, lost to time - placed himself on the throne. This dynasty, the dynasty of those Sectines, lasted until the ninth year of the third Sectine king, when the (brother in-law) of that king, an Ahrem man, seized power. With his power he wiped the Sectines and they fled to (Mercia). It was with this that the new kingdom was made, the Kingdom of the Estergaald." - Figlen, c. 200 SY
>
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For the rest of the history of Estergaald, the successor of the Ahrem Kingdom, a holiday in the early spring of each year celebrated this event. Although the names of the Sectini kings are lost, the name of the man who eventually took back the throne isn't - his name was Oelric or Oelric the Bearded.

By 200 SY the people living in Estergaald no longer called themselves "Ahrems" and the kingdom had become fully separated in the minds of most from its earlier version.