Continuing from the last post, here is the Skandaharian language tree as it developed after the GRoF. The Skandaharians are the equivalent of the Proto-Germans. The Great Rain of Fire decimated the population of the Skandaharians due to their proximity to ancient Blackmoor. Most of the tribes had become subject to the superior civilization of Blackmoor and were destroyed along with it. The few who survived were more primitive hill tribes who occupied the southern hills of modern Heldann. Three major tribes, the Goths, the Antalians, and the Vanitar, formed out of the surviving Skandaharians and expanded into the northern territories as the long winter caused by the GRoF began to subside.
The Low Goths
As the various Skandaharian tribes scattered among the frozen territories of the north, the Goths remained behind and settled the lowlands of the modern Heldann region. Over time some of the Goth tribes migrated to the fertile mountain valleys of the north, but a portion always remained in Heldann. The different Gothic groups began to separate and evolve over time and those in the lowlands became known as the Low Goths(equivalent to the Ingvaeonic Germans.) while those in the high mountain valleys became known as the High Goths. The Low Goths had some contact with the Dunharians on the Isle of Dawn and the remnants of the Thonian tribes to the south and their culture began to be influenced by both groups over time. They came to call their land Gotland and themselves Gotlanders.
Over the course of the centuries empires rose in the south, first the Nithians, and then the Thang. Each of these in succession made attempts at incorporating Gotland into their domains but ultimately proved unsuccessful; the wild hills of Gotland proved to be too harsh for the armies of the south. Truth be told, the greatest threat to Gotland was the Mengul goblinoids from the mountains to the west; the goblinoids repeatedly conducted raids on the lowlands, pillaging and destroying homes and fields. A cycle of destruction and rebuilding became the norm among the Gotlanders.
This all changed in BC 160 when a massive horde of Goblinoids came pouring out of the mountains. Many Gotlanders were killed, but many others fled, some north and some south. Those who went north fled to the elves of the Rhien Forest who offered humanitarian aid. With the combined efforts of the elves and the Gotlanders the Goblinoid horde was defeated in a great battle in the Skaufskogr hills. The Goblinoids took possession of all the lands between the Gotland and Skaufskogr hills, while the Gotlanders spread into the lands north of the Skaufskogr hills and Rhien Forest. These Low Goths assimilated the few Antalian tribes living in this southern coastal region and called their new land Nordurland. This remnant of the Gotlanders have become known as the Nordur(the equivalent of the Old Saxons) after the name of the land the land they come from.
The majority of the Gotlanders who fled from the invading goblins turned to the rich lands of the south. The great Gotlander horde defeated the armies of the Gwynish Kingdom led by King Atruaghin, who was slain in battle. The native Gwynish who were not enslaved or killed by the Gotlanders fled into the mountains of Rockhome. The Gotlander horde dispersed as it settled this new land, some settled the eastern isles and some settled the coastal fjords and plains. The isles became known as Ostland and their inhabitants the Ostish(equivalent to the Old Frisians), while the mainland became known as Vestland and the inhabitants the Vestish(equivalent to the Old English). Shortly after the fall of the Thang Empire, missionaries came to the land of Vestland, and the King converted to the the faith of the one true Church. Through his influence many Vestlanders came to see the light and The Church grew in power and influence throughout the kingdom.
This period of peace was not to last however. Lured by the wealth of the unprotected monasteries of the Church of Vestland, raiders from the northern regions of Norwold began plundering the rich land of Vestland. After a century and a half of constant raiding many of the raiders stopped simply raiding and began to settle in the lands of Vestland and Ostland. This was followed by the invasion of a great heathen army led by King Cnute the Bold who conquered the Kingdom of Ostland. After Cnute's death, his sons invaded Vestland. As a consequence of these invasions the Vestish and Ostish have been for the most part assimilated or oppressed by their northern overlords, and many have returned to the old ways and worship the old gods in imitation of their overlords, though a few maintain faith in the one true Church despite the persecution they receive for their beliefs.
A single Vestland kingdom has been able to withstand the armies of the north time and again, this is the Kingdom of Ghyr(equivalent to Wessex). Ghyr maintains the true faith and the kings of Ghyr hold out hope of reuniting Vestland under a faithful Vestish King. Just 30 years ago the King of Ghyr entered into an alliance with the King of Ylaruam to the south, and with his aid was able to defeat many of the northern jarls and expand the domain of Ghyr.
The High Goths
While some of the Gothic tribes descended into the lowlands, many ascended into the nearby hills and mountains of the Mengul, Final, and Wyrmsteeth ranges, mostly settling in the high mountain valleys between the ranges. The goths in these upper valleys became known as the High Goths in contrast to their Low Gothic cousins to the east, and the dialect they spoke became known as High Gothic(equivalent to Irminonic German). The High Goths lived a mostly pastoral and tribal way of life adhering closely to the traditions of their ancestors. Over the centuries they have expanded into the harsh wilderness of the north while keeping a single identity as a people with a common heritage. Each valley tucked away in the mountains may have some quirks in language and tradition that make it unique, yet the valleys are never isolated from each other; there is a network of communication and traditions that connect the tribes of the various valleys across great distances and the centuries of history. On occasion a single tribe has risen to prominence crowning its chief as "king" in a sign of unity among the tribes when defending against some foreign power, but these "kingdoms" have only lasted as long as the life of the king, and then the tribes have returned to governing themselves.
The centuries have wrought changes upon the language and culture of the tribes, but of all the gothic peoples they still adhere closest to the ways of their ancestors. The modern gothic language is still called High Gothic (equivalent to Old High German) despite these changes, reflecting a direct continuum of ancestry, while the tongue of the ancestors is referred to as Traditional High Gothic. In recent history many of the tribes have once again been united, not under the rulership of a king, or under the oppression of a foreign conqueror but as equal partners in the Federation of Denagoth.
The Denagoths
Not long after the Goths entered the mountains to the west of modern Heldann, many continued west until they reached a forested highland valley guarded on all sides by high mountains. There they found a group of Demi-Humans calling themselves the Deng. The Goths simply called them Brutemen and warred with them for many centuries, eventually driving them out of the valley and into the mountains. As the Goths became the dominant people in the valley they cleared much of the forests to make way for farmland until elves from the south were encountered and with their help toppled the last Kingdom of the Deng. Two centuries of peace followed between the elves and humans. However, this peace could not last and due to population strain the Goths, now calling themselves Denagoths(equivalent to the Istvaeonic Germans) from the name of the original inhabitants of the valley, began to expand into the southern forest, clearing trees to make way for their farms. What followed was two centuries of expansion into the southern forest of the elves until a dark magic mastered by the elves decimated the population of the Denagoths. What followed were many centuries of cycles of peace and violence between the Denagoth people and the elves of the of the forest.
When the Thang Empire marched its legions north, many Denagoth tribes united with the elves in establishing peaceful relations with the newcomers, while others remained wary and sometimes openly hostile. The empire made use of Denagoth mercenaries frequently in their northern campaigns. During the decline of the empire, a new goddess appeared to the Denagoth tribes around the Blackridge Mountains. A Denagoth chief who had served as a former mercenary general among the Thang legions gathered the Denagoth tribes together under his banner and attacked the elves on either side of the Blackridge mountains, who still maintained a loyalty to the Thang empire. The Denagoth chief was crowned the first king of the Kingdom of Denagoth which ruled all of the valley of Denagoth and the old elven kingdom of Forenath. This precipitated a series of wars with the elves to the south, and in the process of these wars Hobgoblin mercenaries were at first simply used as shock troops against the elves, but later became an essential part of the military of the Kingdom of Denagoth. The kingdom eventually fell to infighting among rival heirs, some of whom had converted to the new faith of the one true Church, until the Denagoth were driven out of Forenath and back into the valley by the elves. The Hobgoblins who had formerly assimilated into the armies of Denagoth retreated into the mountains, and formed the Den Horde by subjugating all the other goblinoids in the mountains; the Den Horde periodically raided the Humans of the valleys below.
Amongst the chaos left by the crumbing Denagoth kingdoms rose a great chief, Nebunar(a parallel of Charlemagne), among the southern Denagoth who made peace with the elves and established the Kingdom of Essuria. Nebunar expanded his kingdom to reign over all the Denagoth people in the valley. The peace he established was short lived however, as upon his death the kingdom was split between his two sons Arus, who remained the King of Essuria in the east, and Gereth, who established the Second Kingdom of Denagoth in the west. It was at this point that the Denagoth became divided as a people. The Essurians(equivalent to Old West Low Franconian) in the east, and the Avien plainsmen(equivalent to Old East Low Franconian) in the west.
Over the course of a century the royal family of the Second Kingdom of Denagoth fell into degeneracy and the king murdered the entire royal court before committing suicide. Following this Essuria rose to its golden age, reestablishing dominion over the entire valley and even expanding beyond it to the north. At its height Essuria ruled over the valley of Denagoth, the Llancevale and Clearwater valleys and also over the people of the Hill and Dale region. This golden age came to an end however when the King of Essuria, Gallathon, granted the provinces more autonomy in both rule and religion; the cult of Idris once again gained followers among the Denagoth people. This led directly to the catastrophe which ended the rule of the Essurian kings abruptly. The last Essurian king, Landryn Teriak, came to power after a sudden illness slew his brother Vespen. Landryn Teriak established the cult of Idris as the official religion of the kingdom and began performing dark rites. The northern provinces, still following the faith of the one true Church, united under the leadership of one Henadin and made an alliance with the elves of the south and together they marched towards Drax Tallen, the capital of Essuria, where a great battle took place and Landryn was presumed dead.
This great campaign cost the lives of many elves and humans, leaving the valley of Denagoth virtually uninhabited. This opened the way for the Den Horde to pour into the valley from the Blackridge Mountains to the west and the Mengul mountains to the south. Over the next hundred years the Hobgoblins of the Den horde drove the humans to the far north of the valley and killed every last elf. The forests quickly regrew and overtook most of the previous farmland of the valley. There remained only a handful of human Essurian settlements in the south and a single city in the north on the edge of the swamp of the beast to which the Avien people fled. All that remained of the Kingdom of Essuria was the former province in the Clearwater Valley.
About a decade after the last elf was seen in the valley of Denagoth, a pair of adventurers, Ryan and Johnny, were captured by a tribe of Denag Hobgoblins and almost sacrificed to their dark mistress, Idris, yet were miraculously able to win their freedom and the loyalty of the tribe. Over the course of the next few months Ryan and Johnny united the Denag tribes and established trade relations with the few Avien and Essurian humans of the valley. Through an unprecedented era of cooperation of diplomacy, the Denag Hobgoblins of the Denagoth valley, the Blackridge mountains, and the Avien and Essurian humans of the Denagoth valley, and the High Gothic tribes of the mountain valleys to the east united in the mighty Federation of Denagoth. Ryan the Hermit established a shrine in the Denagoth forest and began spreading the word of the one true God to the Denag Hobgoblins. The Federation has been challenged by The Guild of Alphatia from across the sea to the east, and the Holy Empire from the south. The Federation also narrowly avoided war with the united elven and human kingdom of Wendar to the South. A tenuous peace has been established between the two powers after a joint expedition went to the ancient ruins of Soreth to investigate a dark power that had been growing for many years, and there the Dark Lord, Landryn Teriak, was destroyed forever.
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