the Westerlands - a history of it's current inhabitants
The Westerlanders are mixed peoples descended from the conquering barbarians from the north, and the remnants of the nomadic Western Veci peoples whom they conquered and assimilated, whose modern-day descendants are known as the Voivonne. The Westerlander states are largely various provinces or city-states of various cultures that emerged from this population, some more closely related to the barbarians of old, and others more closely related to the scattered Voivonne bands - yet still strong and proud. Most are the result of blended cultures and bloodlines in geographically varied areas. Some Westerlanders are also descended from the Theissiesc', who also lived within the Westermourne in some areas alongside the Western Veci, before being conquered by the Northmen. The barbarians conquered the entirety of the Westermourne, and large sections of the Eastermourne, though their conquest of the Westermourne ended when they reached the Cragsworn range. They quite literally ran into an unbreakable wall, and the Theissiesc people who have lived there for eons past are more than capable defenders of their ancestral lands. In the Eastermourne, their conquest was less focused, and the Easternmost Veci folk, or the Dei'Veci, managed to halt the invasions after a very long and brutal conquest of defense and repulsion. The Westermourne ends at the Central Pineglens in the east running from the Salt Sea in the West and extends from the Godless Mountains in the North all the way to the Cragsworn Range to the South. All of the peoples descended from the barbarians to the North, the Voivonne bands, and the Plains Theissiesc of old are referred to as the "Westerlander's", or more recently, the "Westerlander States".
The Westerlander States have recently confederated into one mighty nation, ruled by a "King of the Westerlands", though they were not always united. Various confederacies of Westerlanders have risen and fallen over the ages, but never before have they been united in entirety. They have most often united with the common goal of defending against or invading some foe or another, most often against the Theissiesc in the Cragsworn or the Scaeltiar across the northern Salt Sea, or in defence against marauding Kjarstark clans, Varaignian incursions, crusades from the south, and others. Very often alliances and treaties arise between them against one another, as the many various cultures of the Westermourne have as much reason to fight each other as to ally with each other. This ranges from bitter ancestral feuds to religious differences and disagreements about theology. The nomadic Voivonne bands throw another diplomatic dynamic into the mix as well.
The Westerlanders are said to be descended from a mighty people from the north, a clandom that once united against the horrors of the land of frozen mist in which they lived. They eventually left the North in search of more hospitable lands. The peoples who now live in that land are descendants of the clans who did not unite and abandon the old gods. As these people migrated southward, their gods left them. They tied themselves to that land and did not suffer themselves to move with those who left. It was then that a new celestial encountered them. His name was the Moranmon. Legend tells that he had come from a world that had been destroyed by war, and he left the shattered remains and traveled through space and time to find this one. He found it ripe for his influence, and fertility was his domain. It was in his nature to conquer and to father races that would rapidly spread and propagate. He found the race of Mankind to be more than adequate for his energies, and unlike most other races, that of mankind was cut off from the sustaining energies of their original creator. They were like leeches, attaching themselves to all manner of sources of living energy, including the acceptance of new Celestials, whom they named "gods", to gain this energy from. Without this energy, they began to wither and die over the span of generations, eventually disappearing entirely as a culture if they were not reconnected to some sustaining energy. This was happening to these people from the north, they abandoned their gods and so unwittingly abandoned the source of their life's energies, which could only be sustained for a limited number of generations before they became husks.
And so it was that the Moranmon presented himself to them in a terrifying and magnificent form similar to their own, and offered them a choice. They could either accept him as their patron and father, embodying his ideals and following in his footsteps wherever he went, being granted both his power and his life-sustaining energies. In return, their lives would be filled by his energies, and their souls would become intertwined with his. A petty "price" to pay, considering that they would simply be returned to their most natural state, connected to life by the energies of a celestial, and likewise being granted power from that state of connection. The tribes agreed readily and were instantly awashed in his power. Not all survived, their essence ripped apart as the energies of the Moranmon contested with the dying energies of the Old Gods within them, which were still stronger in some than in others. The Moranmon ultimately prevailed, one way or another. Those few who died were given glory by the Moranmon, highest praise, and their souls were absorbed into him as a final gift to those people. All those who survived that day, as almost all did, found themselves greatly invigorated and bewitched with an overwhelming sense of joy and jubilant glory. They basked in this glory, the Glory of the Moranmon, and awaited his command. They found in him not to be a harsh and demanding God, not one prone to absolute will and unwavering command, as they had expected due to their experience with the Old Gods. Instead, they found him to be gracious, a "god" who treated his followers as equals in soul, if not in power.
The Moranmon had been wandering the land for some time, waiting for his opportunity to make his energy manifest within the world. He had encountered the Veci, a people who had managed to kill their God and take his energies by force, finding ways of sustaining his energies by tapping into the created world and harnessing their God's essence to it and tapped into it themselves. Most celestials were revolted at this seemingly gross perversion, but the Moranmon saw it as a mighty victory, a cleansing of weakness. Even so, they inhabited a land rife with world's energies that were very well suited to the Moranmon and his people and thus had to be removed from it, as they had not accepted the Moranmon's gift when he offered it. So it was that the Moranmon pointed to this southern land and bade his new people conquer it - if they wished for a bountiful and fertile land to live in. They heartily agreed and set southward. The land they passed through was a land of stone, dirt, and snow, not nearly as cold and lifeless as the land they came from, but inhabited only by a hunter-gatherer people descended from the Keltar . They were not a powerful people, and those who did not bind themselves to the Moranmon were pushed out of their lands towards the sea or ultimately conquered. The ancestors of these people who once inhabited this large tundra are now known as the Wulfegaar. The people of the Moranmon took for themselves this large tundra, and many remained in this land. The Moranmon's word was not absolute, and they could continue to give him glory from this land if they chose to, and they would have his blessing to do so. However, the larger majority chose to pursue the Southern Promise. They crossed the Great River that divided the North from the rest of the world in that area and met the Western Veci.
Great wars were fought as the followers of the Moranmon clashed with the God-killers. They found them to be fierce opponents, and they were given a worthy war of conquest. But the conquering and warlike power of the Moranmon rushed through his people's veins, and it proved to be too much for the Western Veci. They were defeated, though they had resisted valiantly. The Moranmon gave them a simple choice, continue to live in this land alongside his own people, and aid them in their endeavors and tie themselves to his nation if not to his energies, retaining their pride and dignity, or be conquered entirely in humiliation if they continued to resist when it was clear they had lost and be assimilated by force or scattered to the winds. They chose the first option, as did many of those Theissiesc who had lived among the Western Veci lands. Their promised land had been delivered unto the followers of the Moranmon, and many chose to remain here, but still, more yet had the blazing glory of conquest still burning within their hearts. These continued eastward, through the forestlands of the Elves and into the Eastermourne, an even greener pasture with even fiercer opponents. Those who remained in the west found themselves in a land of plenty, plenty of resources, plenty of space, plenty of the luxuries of life, and plenty of enemies on their borders. The people from the mountains to their North, mountains they had not crossed when passing into the west, were fierce fighters and had also rejected the Moranmon's gift, though they had also abandoned all god's. These people sustained themselves through arcane means, ever striving for new heights that man was not made for. This was an insult to the Moranmon, and they became sworn enemies of his people. Furthermore, their northern brethren found in them rich prey to raid. These were the Scaeltiar, who were descendants of the first Northmen to leave the land of mists. Though they remained in the North, they found wealthy prey to raid further south in the form of the Westerlanders. Where before the land was inhabited by nomadic tribes who fought too hard for too little gain from raiding, the Westerlanders built towns and ports which often proved to be more than ripe targets for Scaeltiar raiders. Besides this, the Varaignians would often invade the Westermourne, searching for valuable metals of all kinds as well as food and other goods.
Worse still, in the southern mountain ranges, the Cragsworn Range, there dwelt a people who still clung blindly to their exiled God's energies. This God they clung to was the creator of Mankind himself, Keltaren, but the Moranmon would not learn of this in that age, only in a later age. They had spit upon the Moranmon in contempt when he offered them his power. They stubbornly clung to the energies of their God, and though they were granted great power from these energies, they were not bound to them. As their God was not present, the binding between Keltaren and his people did not exist. His seal was not there, and the Moranmon saw them as outcasts without proper direction. They did not have a place in the world to which they belonged. He sought to save them from this fate, but they mocked him in their arrogance, and cast him out of their lands, bidding him never return, naming him "Sceireullen", which means "corrupting one" in their language. This spurn would not be forgotten, and now he had his people at their doorstep. The Moranmon sought to make them suffer for the suffering they inflicted upon him, not realizing that suffering was within their very nature. He called for an assault on their Mountian strongholds, not realizing that it was in these people's very cursed nature to be constantly assaulted from without and that it was their sacred charge to resist to the death all "evil". They considered the Moranmon to be evil, as he sought to "corrupt" mankind with his energies. And so the age-old feud between the Westerlands and the Cragsworn Theissiesc began. They dashed themselves upon the mountains to no avail, the Theissiesc would not be conquered. They were unconquerable, anathema to the Moranmon, lord of conquest. Even so, they had not the strength to force the Westerlanders out of their promised land, and so the eternal pendulum of power began swinging between the Moranmon and Keltaren, and their fates became intertwined.
And so it is that the people of the Westermourne, now named Westerlanders by themselves, or the "Thei'sceireulleddne" by the Theissiesc (meaning the Corrupted People's) came into being within that vast land. There have arisen many cultures within them who even fight amongst themselves, but it is in their nature to only be strengthened by such conflict, and there does exist a bond within them that drives them all towards one purpose. They are a people of joy, glory, and the light. They brought the blinding light and glory of a celestial to a large portion of the world that was godless and pagan. They defied the Old Gods, ones who emanate from the Dark, furthering the Age of Light. They are yet touched by a small portion of madness that runs in most of them, said to be the result of their essences being torn at by the conflicting energies of the Moranmon and the Old Ones. Conflict brings this madness out in them, the chaotic energies of the Moranmon that once battled within their very souls with the energies of the Old God's being energized and thrust forth into the physical visage. They are untameable, chaotic heralds of the One Creating Light, saints of the Moranmon, archangel of the piercing properties of that light, and balancing rivals of the Archangel Keltaren of the light, colourless, herald of the Order and serenity that eventually follows where the light leads, staunch defender of the Light and unwavering justiciar. And so the prophecy countless millennia older than the race of man stands to be completed, that the rivalry of archangels, of chief celestials that emanate from the creating light, will be the downfall of the yet eternal balance, and that the dark will be laid low, cast to the shadows once more, in this revolution and cycle of the universe. What this means has yet to be deciphered by any member of Mankind.
A battle between some mounted Płot’nośćeisç raiders and a Fleit'cseski militia levy. Most often, Płot’nośćeisç warriors prefer to fight on foot and Fleit'cseski warriors on horseback. However, the Płot’nośćeisçi often ride horses when they raid the Fleit'csesk in order to make speedy getaways and outrun pursuing Fleit'csesk, and the western Fleit'csesk arm their town militias most often with long pikes in order to best counter Płot’nośćeisç raiders.
The tribes and kingdoms of the Westerlands are greatly varied in culture, but all have the same roots and similar "cultural flavour". Despite their unity in their God and their ancestry, they fight amongst eachother to the same degree or more than the clans of the Flint Hills. This constant fighting means that, like the Theissiesc, the Westerlanders are never caught unprepared to defend themselves. Though they may further prepare themselves for war, they, as a society, keep themselves ready to do battle at all times and keeps their population well trained and familiar enough with war. War is the natural state of the Westerlands.
Also like the Theissiesc, their armies are drawn directly from their populations. Depending on region, every able-bodied man and woman of an age between 16 and 80 can be called upon to fight, and they will likely answer that call with enthusiasm. It is the same whether they are defending their lands from invaders or marching to invade their enemies, the Westerlands are seeped in the energies of the Moranmon, God of Fertility and Bloody Warfare.
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