Feshan Shina

So it was that Ayman the Self-Crowned fell from glory in quite a literal sense. He did not fall to a blade, but rather down a sheer cliff, and not the cries of his companions but to the jeers and cheers of his vanquishers.
It seems to have been an excessively theatrical end for him, as if it were the work of a dramatist all too eager to shock and dismay their audience. But alas, history is at times an untalented writer, and to Ayman's misfortune, it reverted yet again to one of its oldest, most uninspired tropes.

- Excerpt from A New History of
the Crusade and the Reconquest
by Saffiya an-Winari

Since time immemorial, a multitude of historic figures have all laid claim to Feshan Shina, desirous of this place's symbolic or strategic power. An equal multitude of historic figures have met particularly grisly deaths here, having been cast down its sheer, jagged cliffs by rivals who coveted the power that they'd earned. This cycle of struggle over this prominent peak in the eastern Haifatneh Basin's Feshan Alay (Feshan Mountains) persisted all the way through the Crusade and the Reconquest, when a force of Frulthudii soldiers fleeing from the fallen Reborn Theocracy established a short-lived, renegade successor state there.

Strategic Geography

Although the peak's prominence is not quite 2,000 meters, Feshan Shina's slopes begin to rise mere meters away from the shore, making it an unignorable and majestic coastal landmark. The air is also remarkably dry there, as the peak is positioned near where the eastern Haifatneh Basin transitions into a steppe zone, making it an excellent lookout point for monitoring both maritime traffic and the movements of overland forces.

Early History

The name of Feshan Shina (known to the crusading Frulthudii as Wessan Heights) is easy enough to pronounce in Haifatmizti that much of the local Haifah population is unaware that the placename in fact hails from Vihsaln-din, an ancient language of the pastoral nomads of the Gold Steppe. (Philologists have reconstructed the original place-name as Vihsaln Shineh, "The Lord's Peak" or "The Lord's Seat.")
Little is known of the Vihsaln nomads' activities here, save for the (likely embellished) oral histories of their descendants and a few stray objects that were found in the nooks and crannies of Feshan Alay by the peak's subsequent occupants. It is not known whether the peak featured permanent settlements during the Vihsaln period, but oral histories and art objects alike indicate it was a ritual site of great cultural significance, quite possibly where Vihsaln chieftains were crowned or led other ceremonies. It is also possible that divination was practiced here, whether separately from or in tandem with these ceremonies. That one standing near Feshan Shina's peak can readily see the movements of nomads and their flocks across the plains below must have added to its desirability as a seat of authority.
The use of Feshan Shina as a site for chiefly ceremonies appears to have subsided with the establishment of lasting Haifah predecessor settlements in the surroundings of Feshan Alay, but during times of acute conflict, Feshan Shina's strategic importance has not been neglected. It was also during the extended period of pre-Haifatnehti occupation that successive rulers began building fortifications here, perhaps more as a symbol of authority than out of practical need. (Launching a direct assault on the peak would have exceeded the ambitions of most local powers.) The place proved secure enough—and its rocky surroundings sufficiently inhospitable to agriculture—that the grand mountain fell into historical obscurity; indeed, there are no known records of its occupants or political status throughout the first three centuries of 3000 HE.

The Internecine Period and the Sequestration of Feshan Shina

Feshan Shina was among the last conquests of the Reborn Theocracy in the Haifatneh Basin; it was only after the Theocracy became well established in the northern Basin, founded the Citadel of Authenwerge, and waged their purge of Hwar-al-Hashad that they set their sights on conquests further afield. It was largely out of interest in continuing the empire-building work of Wiradinus the Campaigner that Rae-Matath Hrauwar ordered (or assented to) a campaign to establish a Vanguard at Feshan Alay.
As the hold-outs among the free Haifatnehti predecessors were weak and scattered by the 3450s, the Theocracy's annexation of Feshan Shina in 3461 HE was largely a matter of recovering supplies and troop numbers to clear out nearby pockets of local resistance and lay siege to the reclusive stronghold until it ran low on supplies. This siege enabled the Vanguard leading this campaign to establish Wessanwerge with minimal labor and resources invested in the site's reconstruction.
To the Theocracy's chagrin, however, the rapid change in leadership in Feshan Shina evidently attracted the attention of mounted raiders from the Gold Steppe. Whether these repeat assailants perceived a unique opening to retake their ancestors' land or merely saw it as a site ripe for pillaging is unclear, as there are no known records of successful diplomatic interactions between Wessanwerge and the local nomads. Thus, maintaining this garrison so far away from the Citadel of Andaen proved to be a thorn in the side of the Theocracy. Worse still, the Wessanwerge Vanguard began fending off these attacks before personnel from the Theocracy could establish adequate travel infrastructure by which to send reinforcements. Although Wessanwerge was initially envisioned as the next great Cradle of the One Light, a beacon and base for future conquests throughout the Continent, the lofty project soon fell into a state of neglect, defended by a dwindling number of exhausted soldiers and militia. When the emergent Rebel Coalition gathered strength east of the Haifatneh Sea, they swept through Feshan Alay but ignored Wessanwerge, assuming it to be abandoned.*
^{* This curious episode has prompted historians of the Crusade and Reconquest to wonder whether the Beacon of the One Light ostensibly erected at Wessanwerge burned out due to inattendance or a shortage of personnel—an outcome unthinkable most anywhere else in the Theocracy's lands—or else was deliberately smothered so as to preserve the site from a Coalition assault.}
It was not until the latter days of the Crusade and the Reconquest that the site caught the attention of Haifatnehti forces again. As the Theocracy's lands receded, there remained an open question of who among the Haifatnehti coalition would oversee which stretches of territory. It was in this context that the sickly second son of a less-than-prominent Haifah chieftain, known fittingly as Ayman the Second Son, discovered the oversight and decided to claim the land for himself. Andaen ceased its attempts to maintain direct control over Feshan Alay by the autumn of 3477 HE, and the nomadic tribes to the east were in the habit of steering clear of the Haifatneh region during the bloody Reconquest. Therefore, after a brief military expedition, Ayman ascended the peak with minimal opposition—save for the limits of his own stamina—and declared Feshan Alay to be his rightful territory during a ceremony that lacked an officiate to lay his hastily-fashioned crown upon his head.
The reign of Ayman the Self-Crowned might be considered impressively long given his self-established polity's lackluster military power and virtually nonexistent diplomatic ties. When the Theocracy-ruled Citadel of Andaen fell in the summer of 3501 HE, those members of the Order who'd survived the fighting and weren't deemed necessary targets for execution were presented with limited options: They could renounce their faith and attempt to integrate into the lower rungs of the society that would be built upon the ruins of theirs, or they could undergo self-imposed exile. The failings of the Theocracy during its end days resulted in a great many defections from its religion, yet there were still a number of Order members who rallied the faithful among the peasantry; by the end of that year, these pilgrim bands had all departed for the remote reaches of the Continent.
As it happened, Feshan Alay, at that time, was widely assumed to be a backwater that no great power sought control of. And indeed, the pilgrims led by Adrian Flame-Keeper met no great power there.
Adrian Flame-Keeper's choice to send Ayman tumbling down Feshan Shina's slopes, shredding and pulverizing his remains against the rocks, seems an uncouth means of execution for a disciple of an Order which paid much attention to cleanliness and ritual properness. Some storytellers from the Gold Steppe and the Southfold like to attribute Adrian's act of sadism to the supposed curse of Feshan Shina, namely, that every ruler who ascends to power at its height is eventually destined to fall to their disgrace there. Haifah historians are more inclined to assume the dissident Bairhanii exiles were merely hardened by their circumstances. The most salient explanation might be that offered by Saffiya an-Winari, who, after all, is the most prominent historian of the Crusade and the Reconquest at the time of this writing. Her wry comments about Ayman's sorry fate aside, she speculates—though certainly not without evidence—that an ascending leader simply finds it deeply satisfying to watch their opponent's downfall symbolized so viscerally.
In the decade that followed, the rising powers in the Haifatneh Basin were chiefly concerned with their local security and couldn't be bothered with crushing a renegade hold-out of the fallen Order. Whenever a rare scouting party did survey the place, they would return with reports of paranormal happenings there or disturbing evidence of the place's worsening dilapidation or the grisly aftermath of violence there. By 3510 HE, it became too difficult for interested parties to persuade scouts or explorers to investigate the fate of the garrison there. As for what truly became of the post-Order garrison, the accounts of locals are harrowing and wildly inconsistent, but most agree upon an episode in which an unidentified figure was witnessed stepping off the cliffs adjacent to the peak in late 3509 HE. Now, locals avoid the place for fear that it is both haunted and cursed, while farther-removed parties prefer to tell themselves that the garrison must've succumbed to mutiny, disease, or some other natural calamity.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
between 3503 and 3510 HE

Founding Date

Unknown

Alternative Name(s)

Wessanwerge (3459 - 3501), Vihsaln Shineh (Ancient Era)

Type

Outpost / Base

Related Ethnicities

• Ancient Vihsaln People, The
• Frulthudii People, The
• Viesal Tribes, The

Location under

Feshan Alay