History of Chitonia

## **First Migrants (~100,000 BCE)**

The earliest evidence of human life in Chitonia is dated to around 100,000 BCE, indicating the arrival of the first humans to the island in that time frame. Experts believe the first humans originated from the continent of Esteria, and that these first migrants lived along the southern coasts of the island in what is now the Duchy of Æthelbria. These first inhabitants were a hunter gatherer people for most of Chitonia's prehistory, with the evidence of sedentism being dated at around 8000 BCE. These first sedentary communities were located primarily along Chitonia's southern coasts and rivers, and subsisted off of the cultivation of cereal grains and the fishing of nearby waters. The earliest evidence of the extraction of metals and their use as tools dates around 4500 BCE, with the first of these tools being made of copper. There is also evidence from around this time of the use of precious metals as jewelry and as a show of wealth.

## **Early Idris Civilization (4000 BCE - 500 BCE)**

Soon after the discovery of metals, city states began to along the Idris River and within the river valley, establishing the first civilization in the isles, the Idris Civilization. These city states established themselves around important copper mines, with the mines tapping the most concentrated copper deposits making their controllers comparatively wealthy and powerful compared to their neighbors, and made these cities ancient hubs of commerce and production.

These early city states held similar cultures and religions to their neighbors. The Idris Civilization held also a mostly uniform language writing system (experts date the discovery of writing at approximately 3600 BCE, with the earliest texts discovered being commercial records). The Idris Civilization worshipped a polytheistic pantheon of deities that held power over some aspect of nature or humanity, with the most powerful deities being the Gods of the Sea, the Harvest, and the Earth. The Idris people believed that a number of benevolent deities were in a constant state of conflict with a single, all powerful entity known as Bahlus, the religion's personification of death.

Up until the discovery of bronze in 2200 BCE war and conflict were nearly non existent in the Idris Civilization due to the relatively equal share of resources throughout the river valley. When the discovery of bronze revolutionized primitive tools and weapons, the Idris city states clamored for their share of the alloy. However, despite copper being bountiful throughout the valley, tin (the other metal used in the production of bronze) was less so, with only major deposit and three smaller exploitable deposits throughout the river valley. The scarcity of tin led to centuries of warfare over the deposits, as well as the expansion of the civilization out of the river valley. By 1000 BCE, the Idris Valley had come to be consumed by three empires: the Idrites (from where the civilization gets its name), the Brenians, and the Eldaris.

Over this time, the Idris people refined their religion and by the time of the domination of the river valley by the three empires, had come to worship only four deities: Masmoth, the God of the Sea and Weather; Idi, the Goddess of Nature and the Harvest; Martys, the God of Terra and Metals; and Solim, the God of the Sun and Light. What remained of their ancient religion was the belief that these four benevolent deities constantly struggled with Bahlus to keep humanity alive and prosperous.

By 500 BCE, the entirety of the Idris River Valley had been conquered by the Idrite Empire, destroying the Brenians and forcing the Eldaris to flee the valley and migrate east. The newfound stability and domination of resources allowed the Idrite Empire to expand outside the river valley and across the island into lands previously not settled by humans.

## **Idrites, Eldaris, and Dundorfians (500 BCE - 800 CE)**

For the 600 years following the Idrite Empire's conquest of the Idris River Valley, it slowly expanded to other parts of the island, establishing colonies and subduing minor communities in lands previously unsettled by the Idris people. The first lands were those immediately north of the Idris River Valley and in the Mount Rambor Highlands, with major Idrite settlments being established along the Augustine River. Later, in the 200s BCE, the Idrites began to colonize the south of the island and brought it nearly fully under the control of their Empire by the beginning of the Common Era.

The Idrites didn't spend this period solely expanding outward, but also advancing technologically, culturally, and economically. During this period, the Idrites made key technological advances such as the discovery of iron, major breakthroughs in irrigation and agriculture, and began to return to the seafaring roots of their ancestors with the construction of ships with the capability of reach as far as the Isle of Cairn or even as far as Suremia. Culturally, the Idrites continued to advance and modernize, specifically with regards to religion and the the continued decrease in the number of Gods worshipped, falling to the Masmoth, the Emperor of the Sea; Idi, the Queen Mother of Terra; and Solim, the God King of the Heavens. Economically, the Idrites continued to develop, establishing large urban production centers within their core territory and turning the outskirts of their empire into its fertile breadbasket. Of particular note was the development of the imperial capital of Idria into the largest metropolis in Idrite history, reaching its greatest extent in 698 CE.

But the Idrites did not remain alone on the island. To the east of the Idris River Valley roughly where what is today the city of Eldria Straits, the vanquished Eldari people established the city of Moninejok. Here the Eldaris built their own metropolis over the course of centuries and had their own advancements in technology and culture, making breakthroughs in major areas just as the Idrites, and even surpassed them in shipbuilding and navigation, turning the city of Moninejok into the largest harbor on the island and building for themselves a navy larger than the Idrites.

In the late 500s CE, the first Dundorfian (1) colonists arrived in Chitonia along the southern coast where the early Esterians first came to the island. Here they brought with them new technologies foreign to the Idrites, such as advanced shipping and masonry, as well as refined political and military theory, and their own religion. The Dundorfians established a number settlements along the southern coast and for the most part secluded themselves from their Idrite neighbors and only interacted with the empire through minor skirmishes and trading.

Relations between the Idrites and Eldaris remained cold throughout the existence of the eastern Eldari state, and the two were in a constant state of minor armed conflict and standoffishness, though never engaged in a major war before the late seventh century. In 657, the newly crowned Idrite Emperor Caratacus IV (who would later be known as 'the Great') looked to defeat the Eldaris in order to claim dominance at sea and wrest control of the harbors at Moninejok. In that year, the young Caratacus marched east with an army of 40,000 towards Moninejok, however was intercepted at the frontier where the Idrites destroyed the Eldari army, but took such losses thsat they were forced to return home and recuperate. In response the the attempted invasion, the Eldaris quickly gathered their own army of nearly 30,000 and marched to the Idris River Valley and captured the city of Hedris. Simultaneously, a Eldari raiders crossed the frontier and began to pillage the vital Idrite farmland in the Rambor Highlands, and the Eldari navy raided coastal cities and villages. By 659, Caratacus's army had replenished its strength and repulsed the Eldaris from the River Valley, and marched on Moninejok, detaching a small force to deal with the raiders in the Highlands. In 660, Caratacus reached Moninejok and put the Eldari capital in a months long siege that came to an end in 661 when the Eldari High Chief Arinestivus surrendered the city and a large portion of the Eldari navy to Idrite control. In return Arinestivus and the Eldari people would be permitted to peacefully leave their lands to head north, and eventually the Eldari took to the sea to find a new homeland, where they found what is today Glairland and the late seventh century and the Isle of Cairn in the early eighth century.

For the rest of his rule, Caratacus saw the vast expansion of major Idrite cities such as Idria and Moninejok. However, the terror inflicted by the Idrite-Eldari War never fully left the farmlands and smaller cities, which declined as a result of raiding and occupation, and more and mor people left these areas for the Idrite metropoli. Caratacus's reign marks the peak of the Idrite Empire and the end of its golden age, and it would undergo sharp decline for it's last few hundred years as a result of famines caused by migrations to the cities, and increasing conflict with the Dundorfian settlements in the south.

(1) Dundorfian in this context refers to the ethnic Dundorfian people who naturally migrated to Chitonia, not the Dundorfian state.

## **Chitikari Conquests (800 - 1127)**

In the time between the first arrival of the Dundorfian colonists in Chitonia in the sixth century and the uniting of the colonies under the rule of King Chitikar I, the Dundorfians played a minor role in the island and isolated themselves from the natives. They ran their own self sufficient economies, fought their own minor conflicts, and practiced their own religion of Shapatism. For all intents and purposes, the Dundorfians became and island on the island.

However, a change in policy came with the ascension of Chitikar I to the Lordship of the city state of Ottoshausen in 797, and his calling of Noble Diet in 800, where his fellow Dundorfian Lords proclaimed him King of Nornsel, the Dundorfian name for the island of Chitonia, after being showered with promises of expansion and riches.

### **First Chitikari Conquest**

A year after his crowning, Chitikar mustered an army of 6000 Dundorfians and marched north to lay siege to the Idrite fortress tasked with overseeing the Dundorfians, and captured it after a short two weeks. Immediately, Chitikar continued his march north until he reached the regional Idrite capital at Vela, near modern day Berryhurst, captured the city after another short siege, and established there the Dundorfian city of Veldorf, the seat of his campaign.

By the time Chitikar had asserted his control over the southern tip of the island and raised an Idrite auxiliary force of 8000 natives, word of the incursion reached the Idrite Emperor Barbo three times the size of Chitikar's, and marched south to retake his lost land. Barbo had managed to catch Chitikar while his forces were split, and laid siege to Veldorf while the Chitikari army was at half its manpower. However, Chitikar managed to hold the city until the rest of his army arrived to lift the siege, catching the Idrites off guard and decimating their force., though the Emperor managed to escape. Wishing to press his advance, Chitikar pursued the Emperor and the remnants of his army north to the city of Brenia at opening of the Idris River Valley. Rather than fight, Barbo chose to negotiate with Chitikar, and convinced the King the southern peninsula in exchange for an oath the he would never pursue further conquests against the Idrites, which Chitikar accepted.

Having gained control over the southern most lands of Chitonia and with it the native population, Chitikar set out to convert the natives to Dundorfian culture and to Shapatism, and to develop the cities and economies of the locals. However, the Idrites were not granted self rule and Dundorfian nobles were appointed to positions of power over the natives and were tasked with overseeing the conversion of the native population, which met resistance, particularly in religion. However, after decades and centuries of conversion, interbreeding, and cultural exchange, the local Idrite population and their Dundorfian overlords alike would go on to evolve away from their original cultures and ethnicities, and form a new named after King Chitikar: the Chitonians.

### **Second Chitikari Conquest**

In the year 954, the King of Nornsel and direct descendant of King Chitikar I, Herrig, sought to renew his ancestor's conquest of the Idrites, though now he wished to completely subjugate the Empire, which had been declining further and further. In that year, Herrig set out with the main army of Nornel to the city of Brenia where Chitikar I formalizing his conquests, pillaging the countryside along his path, while a second smaller army marched along the west coast to assault Idris River Valley from the west. Herrig's conquest would be a short one however, as after seizing the Idris River delta and beginning the siege of Brenia, he was killed by a stray arrow, leaving the throne to his infant son, and after the capture of Brenia mere days after the death of Herrig, the infant King's regent accepted terms of peace from the Idrite Emperor in which he would cede the Idris River Delta to the Kingdom.

Despite the ease at which other aspects of culture became fused between the Idrites and Dundorfians, religion remained a noticeable divider even after the emergence of the Chitonian ethnicity. The Dundorfians (later the nobility) maintained their devotion to Shapatism, and made only minor changes to their faith that resulted in the creation of Chitoniasm. The Idrites (later the peasants and lower classes) remained devout to their well established religion, though they conceded the most in their recognition of there being only a single benevolent deity that struggled with Bahlus, and that was the God King of the Sea, Terra, and the Heavens, Masmoth. However, these two religions remained at relative peace with one another, and coexisted throughout Chitonian history.

### **Third Chitikari Conquest**

By the year 1124, the people of the Kingdom of Nornsel had thoroughly become Chitonian, and due to migration had begun to spread across the island and into the Idrite Empire, where they had become a sizeable minority. Slowly, through minor territorial incursions and purchases of land, the Kingdom had managed to gain control over all the land south of the Idris River Valley and around Macedon Bay, including the major city of Moninejok, which the Chitonians had renamed to Eldria Straits. The Idrite Empire by this time had reached the lowest point of its descent of power, and had suffered a massive economic decline and shift back to rural rather than urban life, leaving many cities desolate.

It was in this state of Chitonian greatness and Idrite decay that the King Chitikar IV embarked on the final conquest of the Idrite Empire. Following the plan of King Herrig to invade the Idris River Valley from the northwest and southeast, Chitikar IV made short work of his opposition, and his two armies met at Idria in 1126, and placed the Idrite capital in a siege that would last months. Despite the decay of the rest of the Empire, the capital remained economically and militarily strong, and Emperor Caratacus XII cut no corners in the defense of his capital. However, in late 1126, the defenders of Idria surrendered and their the city in exchange for the safety for the city and its inhabitants.

With both Idria and Emperor Caratacus captured, Chitikar IV was finally able to fulfill his ancestors' dreams of bringing the island under the rule of the Chitikari Kings, and he forced the Idrite Emperor to cede all his lands to the Kingdom of Nornsel, name Chitikar Emperor of the Idrites, and marry his daughter to the King. The next year, upon returning to Veldorf, Chitikar IV announced total control over the island, and proclaimed himself King of the Chitonians in addition to Emperor of the Idrites and King of Nornsel.

## **Feudal Chitonia (1127 - 1543)**

The fall of the Idrite Empire and the nominal annexation of the entire island of Chitonia by the Kingdom of Nornsel marks the beginning of the feudal era of Chitonian history, a relatively uneventful era known for the institutionalization of a rigid class system, moderate scientific advances, and small scale conflicts between nobles.

The feudal class system of Chitonia spawned from the system brought with the Dundorfians when they first arrived on the island. At the top of this system was the King and royal family. For the entire history of the Kingdom of Nornsel, the King came from the same royal family, House Hansbach, who were seen as divinely chosen, whether by the unnamed God of Chitoniasm or Masmoth of the Neo-Idrians. Below the King came the minor nobles, such as Dukes, Earls, and Barons, who ruled over plots of passed down by their ancestors or awarded to them by a higher lord. Next came scholars, scientists, merchants, knights, and military officers, noteable individuals who played an important role in Chitonian society. Next were soldiers and sailors, peasants who had been trained to take up the defense of the lands of their lords and were thus seen as more important. Lastly were the peasants and menial workers who carried out the day to day labor required to maintain the economy.

In science, the feudal era saw a number of advances in a number of fields, including physics and astronomy. Two of the most studied areas not only in the feudal era but all of Chitonian history was in shipbuilding and navigation. The feudal era saw a number of innovations in its early days which allowed for regular travel and trade with cities on the northern coast of Esteria. In the early 16th century, another great discovery was made that would change the course of Chitonian history: gunpowder. The discovery of this highly combustible substance revolutionized the way warfare was conducted in Chitonia, allowing for the invention of muskets to be used by line infantry and cannons to be used both on ground battlefields and on ships.

With no major powers competing for domination over the island, Chitonia remained a land without much large scale warfare, and war on the island during the feudal era became relatively small scale conflicts between lower nobles. Though the conflict between nobles did allow for a rift to be formed between the lords of Chitonia. Lords in the north of the island slowly grew away from those in the south, who had become wealthy in the most developed lands of the Kingdom. These northern lords would eventually isolate themselves from the southerners in most matters, eventually leading to a rift in culture, with the northerners evolving into modern day Chitonians and the southerners sticking more to their past culture and becoming the Æthelbrian ethnic group.

One of the major developments of the feudal era was the rise of the Kingdom of Gléireann on the island east of Chitonia. Here, the decendants of the Eldari people regrouped and advanced while the Idrites collapsed, eventually evolving into the Glairish people. This Kingdom remained on cordial terms with the Chitonians during the feudal period, and traded regularly with the Chitonians lords. Throughout this period, Glairish clans opposed to their monarchs would migrate back to Chitonia to swear loyalty to the Hansbach King in exchange for land in what is today the Duchy of Colmshire, which is how this area of the mainland grew such a large Glairish minority.

## **The Establishment of the Kingdom (1543 - 1666)**

Many historians mark 1543 as the end of the feudal era in Chitonia due to the ascension to the throne of Nornsel of King Baldric, and his vast centralization of power away from the nobles and to the King, including limitations on levy sizes and the restriction of the power to levy taxes to only the King. While this centralization was meant to limit the powers of all nobles, Baldric made exceptions to his most loyal subjects in the south, in effect making his laws disproportionately effect northern lords. This triggered a decades long civil war, resulting in the destruction of many Chitonian cities such as Idria and Veldorf, and an especially large amount of damage to the south. In the end, the northern lords were successful in their overthrow of King Baldric and the seven hundred year reign of the House of Hansbach. The end of the civil war saw the establishment of the Kingdom of Chitonia in 1571, and with it the establishment of a Noble Parliament meant to act as a check to the power of the King, the first permanent legislative body in Chitonian history. The first King of this new system was Clark I of House Wesley, who ruled from the city of Churchill on the coast of Macedon Bay.

In 1599, King George I, the son of Clark I, moved to secure new land for the Kingdom of Chitonia, and found this new land to the east on the island of Gléireann. By the time George had decided to invade the island, the Glairish Kingdom had been plunged into a civil war between the sitting King Sean and a pretender to the throne who had descended from one of the clans to leave Gléireann for Chitonia, Colm MacDouglas. George took the side of MacDouglas in the war, and set out with the Royal Navy and an army of 10,000 men to lay siege to the Glairish capital of Kyrane, capturing the city in days due to the use of gunpowder weapons by the Chitonians against the unadvanced Glairish army, and capturing King Sean. With the Chitonian victory at Kyrane, George dismantled the Kingdom of Gléireann and established the Grand Duchy of Glairland, a vassal to the Chitonian King, and installed Colm MacDouglas as Grand Duke.

Yet another important event in the establishment of the modern Chitonian Kingdom occured in 1653, when King Henry II decreed the reformation of the Noble Parliament. The legislature, rebranded as the Royal Parliament, separated the body into two chambers: the upper Council of Nobles headed by the Royal Steward that retained the powers of the previous Noble Parliament, and the lower Assembly of Commons headed by a Prime Minister that gave non-noble men of status a rubber stamp authority over the actions of the Council of Nobles. Henry's purpose for this reformation was seemingly to curtail the powers of the nobles who had largely opposed his policies of militarism and foreign expansion, but also had the unintended side effect of laying the groundwork for a number of liberal philosophers to create an ideology and achieve legal power.