Vei

Vei was an ancient Samorite city located north of the Chenakasy river near the modern day town of Beira. Archeological excavations of the *Fugelt* quarter of Vei show that the city is one of the oldest cities in the world, with the city originating as a string of semi permanent villages relying on the local game and salubrious vegetation. The settlement that would become Vei did become permanently settled around the same time which the *Kib* (Wheat) plant would start to become farmed.

## Pre-Vei settlements

Before a prosperous settlement would appear just directly north of the Chenakasy river, a string of seasonal settlements would be created by the pre-Samorite tribes of the Chenakasy valley. As the river floods the surrounding plains seasonally, the settlements would often be flooded and, in extreme cases, even entirely swept up by the flooding river. It's not known why the early tribes chose to settle on the floodplain instead of further inland, but many experts, such as the Sarabeian historian Kant Domunge propose the idea that the tribes chose to settle on the floodplains due to it being close to the rich vegetation, more specifically the wild *Kib*, which made it easier to attend to and due to the fact that the rather hasty construction of the settlements show that most early settlements from this era were often non-permanent to begin with:

"It may just be a case of a lack of sentimental attachment to one settlement, with many of the groups moving between different semi permanent settlements in different seasons. As the wheat used to make the beer and bread that sustained the tribesmen was always found in the floodplains paired with the fact that most tribes never lived in one settlement for more than half of the year, an argument could be made that these early settlements were built in an otherwise confusing and inane location just out of convenience and a tradition of migrating between settlements".

## Yute period

Vei would continue to prosper, although its era of hegemony as the most powerful Samorite city would come to a close as other Samorite cities grew in their prosperity and influence. It was around the late Vei period in which the first inscriptions, called Taraform, would surface. One of the earliest Taraform tablets ever found is of a list successive *Gei-Sûm* (Lord of Samor), and the list describes the names of different kings, as well as the length of their reign and which city they presided over. The list reveals that a successive line of 26 kings with a combined reign time of 1213 years who held the position as the Lord of Samor were kings of Vei. Although the authenticity of this tablet is highly doubtful, it does demonstrate what kind of importance the city had to the people of Samor to the point were it was believed that the city got its status from the kingship in heaven itself, as described the the list:

*'The lordship of Samor, which had previously resided in Gersum, went to Vei'*

Although the existence of most of the kings in the list are questionable (ranging from semi-mythical to out right fictitious), the reign of the last 7 Vei kings in the second lordship, reigning a total of 260 years, are verifiable.

The transformation between the Vei period and the Yute period of Samorite history is often marked by the transition of the lordship between the city of Vei and the city of Dion (Although note that the transformation between these 2 periods have much more to do with the wider urbanisation and societal change in Samor, with the end of the Vei lordship coinciding with it). The lordship of the city changed hands after a military conflict between the two cities, in which the people of Vei were defeated by the Dionians, in which was then proceeded to loot the city, including the *Fugelt,* ending Vei's era of lordship as the king of Dion, *Reiôm-Barti* (Sheperd of the floodplains) proclaimed himself Lord of Samor.

Despite the brutal sacking of the city, it's clear that the city actually grew in size following the sack of the city, as various documents from this era documenting Veiian trade display the signs of a prospering city.