Melrath History

History

The nation of Melrath was founded during Arc 318 by a woman named Ashara Veldaris. Ashara was a respected woman who was known throughout her youth in Ne’haer as a talented archer and hunter. When the budding city of her youth was assaulted again and again by natural disasters, Ashara brought forth the proposition of finding a new home for her people in the north. Her family and friends were faithful to the Immortals and assured the young woman that they would be protected from such harm again.

Ashara never put much stock in the will of the gods to protect mortalkind. She trusted her own abilities and the abilities of her peers to save them, not some benevolent Immortal watching over from on high.

Over time, and after the fledgling city was assaulted again and again by disasters and Immortal caused violence, Ashara managed to convince a little over a thousand residents to follow her north into the wilderness in search of a new home.

Over the following two seasons Ashara and her followers traveled toward the northern shore of the western continent. They faced numerous unsavory encounters with the Lotharro, along with the customary perils of the road. However, Ashara and her people were resilient and eventually found themselves in a small corner of the west, protected by steep mountains, an ancient forest and even a swift river. It was there that the fleeing people encountered a settlement of humans living within a vast forest. They called their home Fensalir. These people followed no Immortals but instead gave their prayers to the spirits of the land, water, and air. Their strange wild ways were alien to Ashara and her people but they still accepted their aid with grace and poise. Those that had survived the trek from Ne’haer were happy to settle within these lands alongside their hosts. The sprawling Myrkvior Forest that surrounded Fensalir was rich was game and natural resources and so the strangers from the south made themselves at home.

Many arcs passed and Ashara’s people began to wish for their own city. While they had adapted quite well to life amongst the residents of Fensalir they wanted a place to call their own where they could foster their own traditions. Gathering together a caravan of hundreds of her countrymen, Ashara Veldaris set out northward again. They traveled alongside a swift running river known to the locals as the Vynmur River. They had been told that it would eventually lead them to the sea. As they had once been a people who dwelt on the southern seas, they sought out a new coast to call home.

It was nearly halfway into Vhalar of Arc 318 that Ashara Veldaris founded a settlement at the northern tip of the massive peninsula, right where the Vynmur River merged with the ocean. This new city was named Raelia and it would be the seat of their new government.

A fast and lasting alliance was formed between Raelia and Fensalir and soon people were traveling frequently between the two cities. The two populations soon merged over time and in time the people anointed themselves with a new name. They called themselves the Melrathi, “One People” and the lands surrounding the two cities would henceforth be known as Melrath.

Over a century passed, and after endless confrontations between their population and Lotharro raiders to the south, the Melrathi people began to close their borders. The Ragnari was formed, a military organization that would contend with any threats facing Melrath, especially those that originated outside of their borders.. The first generation of Melrathi remembered the floods and tidal waves that drowned their villages and slew their kinsmen in Ne’haer, so they were more than happy to barricade themselves behind, rivers, forests, and mountains. Soon all of those within Melrath clung to the belief that isolation was far better than risking the wrath of the divine or the savagery of foreigners.

Outsiders are dangerous, and only fools trust in Immortals

The capital city of Raelia that had been founded arcs before now boasted impressive walls and an imposing citadel at it’s gates that would be capable to turning away nearly any invader. The waters beyond Melrath were edged in barrier islands which funneled cruel, twisting currents along the shore making navigation of the coast dangerous for newcomers.

The Four Towers, Laerad, Nifhelm, Thrudhiem, and Lyngvi were later built, one to each barrier island, thus providing even more protection to the budding country and it’s isolationist culture.

The traditions and culture of the people of Fensalir had bled into the fabric of Melrath and barely anyone within the young nation followed the Immortals any longer. Spirits were revered and the Melrathi became highly self reliant upon themselves and their own abilities.