Rischnoy

## The Rischnoy

The Territories of the Rischnoy are highlighted in yellow.

The Rischnoy are a light skinned, tall, muscular people. The Rischnoy depend on their control of the Yolga river for every aspect of their lives, their canoes create a highway for transport and commerce. Fish is also a staple food for all Rischnoy, rich or poor. The Rischnoy have a distrust for foreigners, only joining the coalition for diplomatic reasons as they share no direct border with the DSPR and stand to lose little for the gesture. In fact, the Rischnoy intend to weaken all parties involved however they can, it is yet to be seen if this particular gamble will pay off.

### Food

*"No Rischnoy meal is complete without fresh fish"* -Richnoy proverb

The Rischnoy are known to drink copious amounts of a clear liquor made from potatoes. Potatoes that are not used for liquor are also eaten. The Rischnoy are widely known for their extravagant festivals that can last for weeks at a time.

### Recreation

Drinking, feasting and debauchery are commonplace. The church dominates the daily lives of the Rischnoy. With three daily worship periods, a mandatory and generous tithe to the clergy and many self-flagellating customs, there is little wonder why the Rischnoy have so many festivals.

### History

In 677 BT a man professing to be the a central figure in a small but devoted new religion valuing penance and asceticism began amassing followers with a river-people long-annexed by the Kingdom of Gabbro. With unrest already present in much of their territory Gabbron officials swiftly located and executed this man via public whipping, this would provide the fledgling religion with a martyr and a symbol.

Between a rock (Gabbro) and a hard place (Warlike Skärgåd, pantheistic and xenophobic United Wurster Tribes) these river dwelling agriculturalists began efforts to locate a new homeland where they could practise their new religion in peace. Their first attempt was moving to the Kingdom of Bergland in eastern Reichlichia, though the highly materialistic and insular Bergmenschen proved a poor fit for a tolerant society to prosper in and most immigrants were relegated to the isolated and dangerous lands west of the protective Wirbelsäule mountain range. Though the polity they started still exists today in the Principality of Grenzeland, these people, now referring to their ethnic group as Rischnoy (people of the river) still yearned for a land to call their own. In the year 378 BT The Kingdom of Gabbro captured a piece of land on the eastern proximal coast of Gazar. Largely purged of the native population, Rischnoy settlers eagerly settled the new land, though they soon found it wanting.

In the year 327 BT, a crew of Rischnoy fishermen were blown from the shores of Gabbro in a storm. Arriving on the shores of the then undiscovered Continent these men were amazed by what they saw, a land so similar to their home in Gabbro that it was only the presence of the indigenous wildlife (bison) that convinced them they were not already home. Utilising their advanced navigational techniques developed from centuries of river travel these men returned home with news of the promised land. Shortly thereafter a deluge of disenfranchised and oppressed Rischnoy left their homes in search of this new eden. This new land was not as uninhabited as it first seemed however and it was not long before the first clashes between the Rischnoy settlers and the native Göçebe began, though relations in the beginning were largely amicable.

The first main hiccup in Rischnoy-Göçebe relations came in 264 BT when the then-Incarnate Archbishop Fasily Kravchenko was killed in a raid on his synod. If the intent had been to injure the Rischnoy to such an extreme that they would uproot from their new home then the Khaganate had been sorely mistaken. The Rischnoy were no strangers to martyrdom and this only strengthened their resolve to pacify their new home. They soon named the settlement around the raided synod St. Kravchenko, rebuilding it to epic proportions over the centuries.

With help from their Berglander cousins the Rischnoy would spend the next hundred years clearing their new homeland of its native people in what the Göçebe call the Büyük Kanama (Great Bleeding), the Rischnoy refer to it as the Holy Cultivation, to the Berglanders it is known simply as the Gochebe wars.

Opting to discontinue expansion past the river systems they came to rely on, Rischnoy expansion ended by around 150 BT. The Rischnoy enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth both in population and wealth that only came to an end with the onset of the Tumult. Though many died in those early years the Rischnoy weathered the catastrophe better than any other, already endeavouring to be self-sufficient from the outside world pre-Tumult. They viewed the seemingly permanent separation of the Continent from the rest of the world as a confirmation of their beliefs.

Tensions rose as food scarcity began to grow in severity. With Bergland possessing largely infertile land a casus belli over a border treaty was cooked up in order to annex a freshwater lake and its surrounding pasture. Fairing poorly in the fighting, The Kingdom of Rischnoy was forced to sue for peace and accept the territory change. After this the Rischnoy have never been the same, becoming insular and developing a strong defence-based military. These days Rischnoy largely keep to themselves, enduring the ever worsening winters with righteous determination.

### Combat

The Rischnoy employ a military policy of quality over quantity, investing heavily in highly trained and heavily armoured lifelong professional fighting men. In battle the Rischnoy form many small groups of mounted pikemen who ride in ahead and dismount, fighting back to back, seeking to out manoeuvre, puncture holes, gain local superiority and eliminate important targets while the bulk of the army sweeps up the rest. The Rischnoy have been known to leave encircled patches of their troops far behind enemy lines for extended periods of time, allowing the enemy to push unresisted into their territory so as to overextend their supply lines and expose their rear to the encircled, trusting these troops to hold to the last against overwhelming numbers.

### Governance

The Kingdom of Rischnoy is a patriarchal autocracy with the ruling family possessing a god-given right to rule. Though Rischnoy kings are often cruel and heedless, their divine position of power is seldom challenged. The Rischnoy worship either the Son who preached the words of the Father and Mother in their ancestral home and was whipped to death, the Mother who created the world and all its creatures or the Father who inseminated the Mother and created the heavens. Synods will usually be devoted to one of these figures, though the Great Synod of St.Kravchenko is a monument to all three. They believe these three archetypal figures are continuously reborn throughout history, though not necessarily back to back. The Continent has not been the place of birth of any confirmed triumvirate, yet.

### Contemporary Issues

After a dry spring and a scorching summer the Rischnoy are experiencing a worsening famine. Rivers are already being overfished by starving families streaming from their urban homes and it looks to be a cold, harsh winter ahead.

Related topics

* Settlements
* Buildings
* People
* Homelands