Great Gap

The Great Gap was a mysterious event that occurred between 345 - 403CE. No human on Tairghol has any recollection of events during the Great Gap, thought none of the indigenous People seemed to be affected.

The Gap led to enormous geopolitical changes - dozens of human states were founded during the Great Gap, and many existing countries changed beyond recognition. In particular, Harvota went into the Gap as a city-state near Tianguo and, by 403CE, was a sprawling feudal kingdom and a puppet state of the Plainspeople, changing the political landscape of all of central Tairghol.

Scholars generally accepts that the Gap was a time of enormous upheaval - what had been bustling cities before were now more subdued and generally smaller, while more cities existed. It is possible, and is hypothesised, that an event threatened humanity during the gap, an event so dangerous that humanity's only option was to spread out in hopes some may survive. Indeed, city ruins and large fields of human bones were found in some places after the Gap, namely near the realms of the native populace.

## Popular Theory

The Popular Theory is a theory devised by the scholars of the University of Arpia to explain the history of the Great Gap. It is named after the People - the hinge upon which the Popular Theory swings.

Shortly before the Gap, the humans of Tairghol were becoming overconfident. The Kings of Kharos had begun a tradition of slaughtering the Plainspeople to prove their legitimacy, while in the north the Reman Republic had been doing the same to the Fen Boroughs. In the south of the continent, as well, the great Kaiganese nations had been laying waste to the home of the Snow Folk. They had been tormenting the People, and the Theory states that the People were tiring of taking this beating. They were evolving to better defend themselves, and the beginning of the Gap marked the point in time when the People decided that enough was enough.

The People pushed back. The Plainspeople, known after the Gap as violent and warlike, made a stand against the successor to King Hyacinthus Ancellas. They made it clear that they were not to be trifled with, a notion that was forgotten following the Gap. King Ucalegaon Vasilikas paid dearly for forgetting this lesson, with his forces being routed at the Battle of Enokia.

Further north, the Fen Boroughs pushed back as well. Somehow they managed to defeat the Reman legions and rolled up the eastern flank of the Republic, savagely razing every settlement east of the Flentia River. Many human cities made stands against the onslaught, with many being destroyed as a result. The survivors formed the northern Dhum Teic and the city-state of Caer Moranh. These cities are reputedly the most battle-scarred in Tairghol - they were crushed between the Fen Boroughs and the Eastforest both during the Gap and afterwards.

In the far south, the states of the southern fjords were wiped out, this time by the Fjordmen. Only the warrior countries of the north Felsiget Peninsula were spared through their resistance and easy sea link to the lands of the Bay of Teuthria. On the coast itself, since the Gap tradition has held that no lands east of the Berevka River and Lake Hlochiv should be settled.

To the west of this warzone, the Snow Folk pushed the Kaiganese hard enough to permanently fracture them. A single, unified state was replaced by a patchwork of bickering petty kingdoms, and it has remained that way ever since.

There is no consensus on exactly how the Rape of Ancturum occurred during the Gap. There are no divisions of the People nearby bar the Mountainfolk, but they are too far away and have never been the most aggressive of the People.