History of Rhetia
By Historian Ralina of the Eastern Buarvige Monastery
Year 999
The earliest histories say that our lands and those of Lilaca were once a single island, known as Kena. The people who live here now came from an icy land, following the seer Marlinesa. Kena Island was considered a paradise, but subsequently split into two when the Lilacan people decided to eat creatures not from the air. This was some hundreds of years before the Martol volcano eruption and death of the girl Isvartoi, perhaps before. Ameliak and Torvin of the Central Buarvige Monastery attempted to calculate the year people came to Kena Island. They calculated the split as being an unimaginable four thousand years before the eruption. However, three historians from this monastery, working with Lilacan historians during Isleli’s reign, came up with a similar number. The Lilacans re-start their calendar with every new dynasty that rules them. This is why they are only at Year 214, which is among their longest dynasties. A system of sole male primogeniture leads to much more imbalance as opposed to ours, which names many heirs and can add additional heirs descended from Queen Marlinesa I as necessary. Our election system is superior as well compared to a single heir chosen by birthright alone, without an eye for personal qualities.
Older histories pre-dating the eruption state that the island Kena was filled with food. The natural cave systems still found today on the eastern shores of Lilia Island were more prominent. There were still dangers, primarily the man-eating Skvaen. After the split between Lilaca and Reh’te’ (Ree-hah-tee-ah), the seas rose and Opoveso Mountain began its slow eruption. The last Skvaea on the island Buarvige was killed some three hundred years before the Martol eruption. It is not known when the last one was killed on the island Isvartoi, apart from the last sighting being before the Martol eruption. The same is said for the island Martol. Once the island Lilia was separated, most Rhetians did not travel to it. It was largely used as herding grounds by the Herders, which at the time were not a distinct group of people, but rather a profession.
Over the years, the sea rose and separated the four islands of Reh’te’. Streams between what is now the islands Buarvige and Lilia rose to rivers. It is said that much of the land that is now sea was very flat, and did flood each Aeli, so it was not the “torn asunder” mentioned in earlier texts, which are likely more legend than fact. The Buarvige Tongue was not flooded to present-day levels until the year 700 or so, and could be walked across in summer up until the year 400. An early map pre-dating the eruption by what is said to be fifty years shows Isvartoi and Buarvige as one island, known as Buarvige. The island Lilia is called by its old name, the island Skvaea. Its new name, for the aurora borealis, comes from the year 500 or thereabouts, nearly a hundred years after the last Skvaea was killed. The island Martol was of course called the island of grass, Le’te’ (Lee-ah-tee-ah).
The year 0 is defined by the date of the Martol eruption. A descendant of the seer Marlinesa predicted that the eruption might happen. Her name was Isvartoi. She led thousands of people to safety, including the Le’te’ people. Isvartoi lya Yahvsii, as she was known from having grown up in southeastern Isvartoi, had a sister. When Isvartoi perished while she was warning the people of the island of Le’te’, her family was distraught. Their fellow citizens treated Isvartoi as a saint and asked for Marlinesa the sister to rule. Isvartoi became a hallowed name and is one of two names that cannot be used.
Prior to the year 0, Reh’te’ was a messy conglomeration of chiefdoms led by a mixture of men and women with various electoral and inheritance schemes. Some bear the same names today, while others do not. Frequent wars would erupt between the chiefdoms. Several of the chiefdoms united under Queen Marlinesa I. Besides the Yahvsii Chiefdom, these encompassed the Sraonir Chiefdom on the Buarvige Tongue (which is where most of the people who fled the island Martol went), and the three chiefdoms aligned by marriage in Buarvige: Nonsaii, Anokdon, and Cenat.
There are other books that name the queens in succession. Some are detailed to the point of naming their reigns, their lineage, and their heirs and descendants. The Book of Queens is the most famous of these. It is kept not in a monastery, but in The Caves in an area where only those who have achieved certain status can go. The religious leader copies down what is written, but the original can only be written in by the current Queen. This history only includes the most memorable Queens.
A quick history of the six holy sites found in Rhetia. The Caves were always holy—four of the six holy sites date back to time immemorial. A’si’la-by-the-rock was built as an educational center by Queen Marlinesa I, but the wellspring was always holy. Queen Marlinesa I’s eldest daughter went to a small school in that area as a showing of unity between the chiefdoms. The Yavhsii Barrow, similarly, was used before by the Yahvsii Chiefdom people. It became more spiritually prominent when the body of Isvartoi was buried there. A similar story can be said for the le’che’me’ahh rock: this is a rock high up on the mountain Cirsao. Boys of high status from local chiefdoms would ascend the mountain and stay overnight for a week by the rock in hopes of being named an heir or another important position. This became part of the rites one went through in order to be named a Senator in the new Reh’te’.
The new sites are the Caro or Caroyai, and Tinomar. The Caroyai is not located in the Yahvsii Chiefdom. It is on the Opoveso Mountain. It was a local sacred site to the people of the Pyiene Chiefdom until its first conquest in 126. Gifts are left there to appease the mountain’s rumbling and occasional mountain fire [lava]. It was formally called Karopyiene.
Tinomar dates back to the early days, and is named for or perhaps bears the name of the land the Rhetians and Lilacans came from. By the time the Din’akeo people arrived, approximately sixty years before the Martol eruption (some historians relate the two events, but I argue that the Martol eruption could only be caused by gods and not by the arrival of a hunting people), Tinomar and its associated monastery were long-abandoned. It was the pilgrimage of Queen Aralina I’s grandson around the year 410 that led to war with the Din’akeo people and the subsequent installation of the Keepers of the Gates of Tinomar, a natural rock formation. The monastery was rebuilt, albeit as a pilgrimage site. The famed stained glass windows in the most prominent building, the Keepers’ house, were gifted by Queen Leranna I herself.
Quatsiakta and Serisvar were the first chiefdoms added to Queen Marlinesa I’s territory. She called all her lands Reh’te’, land. The Aza and Miorro chiefdoms shortly followed. Wars during the next two hundred years following her death led to the permanent conquest of Pyiene and Renaii. The conquest of Renaii in 214 led to the permanent peopling of Skvaea Island. Sarnii Chiefdom was also conquered in the year 606, but lost by the time Queen Marlinesa III ascended.
One of Queen Marlinesa III’s first projects was the re-conquest of Sarnii. She was also interested in Skvaea Island, which by then was called Lilia Island. When her granddaughter Isleli came of age, she married her off to the chief of Sarnii. It is said that Isleli was upset about this, but, after her aunt (Queen Caliyette) died, Isleli convinced her husband to set war against her cousin Maeli. Queen Caliyette had named Princess Maeli her heir. Isleli crowned herself Queen in the year 865. To cement her claims, Isleli sent troops to Lilia Island against the Lzaiicov. Just the year prior, the Lzaiicov had launched an offensive on Tinomar. The Herders of Acov Territory had joined forces with the Keepers to push the Lzaiicov back. Four years into Isleli’s reign, Lilia Island entered Reh’te’n rule. The Din’akeo agreed to a treaty giving them the southwestern corner of the island.
Isleli’s long reign brought us Lilia Island, but created much misery. She imprisoned many other potential heirs—basically, anyone who might be a threat. Upon her death, the Sarnii Chiefdom declared her daughter Queen and called their Senator home. Sarnii Chiefdom has thus stayed separate. It is considered as foreign a land as Lilaca or the Din’akeo. Her rule was strong, but subsequent Queens have often been weak. Queen Aenae, who ruled from 937 to 982, is the one exception. Neither her mother (Queen Keislii) nor daughter (Queen Sianna II) were noteworthy. Upon Queen Sianna II’s death last year, her sole heir, her granddaughter Aralina Leranna, ascended to become Queen Aralina III. Queen Sianna II had two daughters, one of whom could not have children. Her other daughter had two daughters: Queen Aralina III and Princess Cassara. Unfortunately, Princess Cassara was cursed. By whom or how is unknown. Some say it is a blood curse, passed down from the parents. Fortunately, Queen Aralina III has had one healthy daughter thus far.
Also under Worldbuilding:
Religion
Richenda 