Doma

An map of the continent dating to c. 3E, 4 016, placing it around the time of the rise of the Great Man.

### Inhabitants

Waygar'i

At the time of the events of The Great Man, Doma was divided into fourteen kingdoms:

1. Karas Strem
2. Gertrei
3. Vanish
4. Ainish El
5. Seskstra
6. Finskel
7. Terwell
8. Mid Ael
9. Roocha
10. Ish Ael
11. Moor
12. Abblett
13. Tou Mael
14. Syvvarn

The continent itself is situated in the southern hemisphere and was, at the time of the events of *The Great Man*, flanked east and west by two unknown regions, the Unknown region in the east, beyond the territory of the Barony of Vis, of the Kingdom of Syvvarn, on the unnamed land across the Mael Strait from the continent.  The Western Unknown was attached to Doma by way of a wide land bridge. None had ever stepped foot into that region and returned alive, and so folk stopped trying.

The westernmost edge of the continent was then, and remains to this day, the least populated on all of Doma.

Doma had faced obliteration once before, many thousands of years before the events of the rise of the Great Man, and was saved by a last-minute alliance with the warriors of the keshal'i and sammonish'i, brought about by the Traveller, also known as Stran of the Deep, a waygar'i warrior who belonged to no clan (the waygar'i, at that time, when glaciers ruled the southern half of the continent, lived in small, nomadic groups or clans, not unlike the southern men of the archipelago do to this day). The long memories of the men of the south call this event The Battle for the Dawn. The nomenclature was later adopted by the Church of the Sun, who claimed they were saved at the last by the sun, who had won a terrible battle with a demon of night.

Each kingdom on Doma was independent though they were all, by ancient law mostly forgotten, vassals of the High King of Doma, who traditionally was also the ruler of Karas Strem  (it should here be noted that to the south of the continent lies the Southern Archipelago, the inhabitants of which were and remain independent of the rule of the High King of Doma).

## Prehistory - Second Epoch

Doma was once inhabited, we know from the archaeological record, by both waygar'i and keshal'i peoples. At the earliest habitation, when the southern half of the continent was covered in thick glacial ice sheets, the waygary'i lived primarily in the west and south, being particularly suited to the cold. The north and east were primarily keshal'i centres. It appears that the two groups had little to do with one another. Why this might be the case has been the cause of much speculation. Some scholars argue that the keshal'i naturally tend towards isolationism, though it might be noted that the waygar'i have not had a long history of inclusiveness ourselves, and that strong bonds of trade and friendship existed between the keshal'i of Doma and the sammonish'i of the land to Doma's east

Sometime in the late second epoch, or early third epoch, the keshal'i disappeared from Doma. Fír suthr tradition claims that a great battle was fought on the Ardean Killing Fields, in which all three peoples, the waygar'i, the keshal'i and the sammonish'i were united under a single banner; that of Stran of the Deep, a waygar'i man of mysterious parentage. Following that battle, now known as the Battle for the Dawn, the ruler of the keshal'i, heartbroken, took his people and vanished from Doma. It is unclear where they went, and scholars argued for some time that they were, in fact, slaughtered to the last man during the aforementioned fight.

## The Third Epoch

Following the Great Battle (known to the fír suthr as The Battle for the Dawn), and the vanishing of the keshal'i, with the sammonish'i returned to their homeland, Doma fell under the domain of the waygar'i. They expanded to cover the whole continent. A few thousand years, and many civil and religious wars later, Doma coalesced into the form we are familiar with to this day.

The fourteen kingdoms were formed during the strife that preceded the Great Purge; a violent and bloody inquisition by the Church of the Sun, which had risen to prominence through the strife and became the sole religion on the continent following those tumultuous times.  The Great Purge ended the conflict on Doma, and solidified the borders which had remained more or less stable from then on until the attacks from the western unknown.

Despite being vassals of the High King of Doma, long years of peace and fiercely guarded independence made the rulers of those kingdoms reticent to yield to their obligations and join the fighters at the Ardean Pass for the defence of the continent, arguing it was likely little more than a border dispute with some new power across the land bridge.  It was not until Prince Regent Andrew, de facto ruler of Karas Strem, moved his court to Ardea in 3E 4018 that the other kingdoms began to take the threat seriously.

## Fourth Epoch - Present Day

Following the events of *The Great Man*, the land bridge was destroyed, revealing the edge of the map. Other changes were made. The Kingdom of Syvvarn, for instance, relinquished its foothold on the eastern island, yielding what was the Barony of Vis to the sammonish'i warriors who had come to the aid of the defenders at great personal cost.  The entirety of that land became sammonish'i territory, and was forbidden to the peoples of Doma, save for the port city of Fershen, which remained as neutral ground for trade and negotiation.  Syvvarn, and indeed all the kingdoms of Doma, imposed no such restrictions on the sammonish'i, who remained free to visit whenever they wished and were always welcomed as dear friends.