And now for today's history lesson, if you'll turn to page 8 of Coaltrayne's
Brief Acccount of the History of Hoopelle...
Ancient History - - to 257 of the Present Age
From the unknown stretches of the past til about 10,000 years before the common era (bce), the Daine were the only inhabitants of Hoopelle, which in those most ancient days was clept Canash
-1-. Like as not it was the same Sharundaine that now inhabit Westmarche who first gave a name to this area, being Howun Polun, or Place of the Warrior
-2-, upon which Time has wrought his neverending change, yielding to us in younger days the name Hoopelle, or as it was anciently writ, Hwpel. In the Queranarran tongue, that the Daine do speak, how be place; wun be a kind of connecting word and polun be a warrior. They also gave names to several other places hereabouts. Very little is known of this period in Hoopelles history. One tale told about the Canash is the foundation of the Seven Sacred Springs. It is said that Enca and Nico, two leaders of these ancient Daine, did choose and consecrate seven springs to the eastward of the Canasawackta River in the region that the City would later be built. None can now say where those springs lie or in what manner they were dedicated, though the Daine do maintain that shrines were made there. If that be true, they are well and truly buried under the ruins of that ancient City.
The ancient Mannish kingdom of Hoopelle had its beginnings around 10,000 years before the present era. This kingdom, claiming descent from a very famous and powerful god, or mage that be clept Neebook (or Nibuk), at its height, stretched from Angera far into the western forests, thus occupying many Daine lands. For the most part, the Daine lived peacefully with their Mannish neighbours, though a few were forcibly removed from their homes, or else compelled to dwell in the great city of Hoopelle that was once their own land. Of late, however, wars with the Anian and Anadyran Empires, sister countries in the lands away north, and with the Warlords from the south greatly affected the kingdom, reducing its might. By 1600 years bpe, the kingdom had lost all its western lands and most of its northern and eastern lands. It would never recover from these losses, and thereafter sank into a long period of decay. Hoopelle would almost certainly have been destroyed had the Daine not defeated the Warlords, for these Warlords were a power to be reckoned with in those times. For some while, Daine of various thedes from the distant western lands had been immigrating, and began to take up much of the newly opened territory.
The migrant Aryans, ancestors of the Avantimen, the Rûmeliards and the Galts began to arrive from the Farthest West during the first century of the present era, and ceased their immigrations by the third century. During that time, they lived in the Wilds, the empty wilderness south of Hoopelle, while the old kingdom of Hoopelle, in the first half of the third century, was ruled by the Fourth Dynasty of Divine Neebook.
In the early days, so powerful were the Neebookian rulers, that no power ever attacked Hoopelle. This state of affairs was maintained for more than 7000 years. In fact it was not until the 257th year of the present age that Hoopelle was finally sacked.
The first king of the First Dynasty of Divine Neebook founded
Hanohehano Onohelana Nibuk, Kingdom of Divine Neebook, around 10,500 bpe along the east bank of what is now the Cansawack River. This First Dynasty oversaw Hoopelles rapid rise to power and its first great flowering. At its summit, it witnessed ancient Hoopelles greatest achievements. Arts and culture flourished under these early Neebookian monarchs, as evidenced now only by crumbling ruins and dusty scrolls telling of those times. There were 430 monarchs of the First Dynasty, all descended directly from the founder. It shall here be noted the curious naming practice of this ancient kingdom with respect to its kings: all kings and queens, from the very first to the very last were given the appellation
Andeyzar. It is not exactly known if this was a proper name or some title of respect. In any event, it makes remembering the names of well over 600 monarchs quite the simple task! It was during the First Dynasty that Hoopelle was built, upon the ruins of a great city of Daine, and became an architectural marvel. Every building was cased in fancifully carven marbles from divers places or well crafted bricks or colorful stone. Arches, colonnades and garden arcades lined the broad avenues; parks and public places were everywhere in evidence.
A civil war of uncertain genesis, instigated by a secondary branch of the family, in 4063 bpe succeeded in enthroning the Second Dynasty, casting the chief members of the ruling family out of power. The Second Dynasty of Divine Neebook comprised 137 monarchs. The Second Dynasty was marked by a sort of Silver Age for ancient Hoopelle, as the summit reached during the First Dynasty was surmounted and the slow decline was begun. Increasingly frequent wars with the powerful Warlords toward the south cast a rather somber shadow over the life of Hoopelle. The arts became stale, education became rigid and dogmatic, and the whole rate of cultural development slowed and by 2200 bpe the whole of society was a stagnant marsh of mediocrity.
Early in 2008 bpe, an illegitimate scion of the House came to power, taking advantage of an infant Emperor and a weak regency. These actions on the part of power hungry factions vying for control of the listless empire sent Hoopelle into a fall that nearly destroyed it. This Third Dynasty of Divine Neebook comprised 22 remarkably nondescript monarchs, few of which ruled longer than two years. As civil war and strife continued, the state of decay continued, increased even, clearly visible in the broken and disused roads, unkempt and crumbling cities, increasingly hostile wars and an alarmingly pessimistic popular movement. This movement, led by a rather charismatic woman by the name of Hannanomorukuni (which means “Dweller in the Land of the Dead”: han, land; enano, the dead ancestors; imoru, a dweller; kuni, I am) swept the whole kingdom during the reign of Nibuk Andeyzar xxii of the Third Dynasty of Divine Neebook (1602 - 1568 bpe), the twenty second and last monarch of the Third Dynasty. Her philosophy was one of absolute apathy and disconnection, and stressed the desire to be set free from existence. Whole cities in the north willingly died at the hands of the Anadyran and Anian armies. In the south they were as easily slain by the Warlords.
Thus, the several wars with foreign powers nearly destroyed Hoopelle by this time. In the west and south, intervention primarily by the Daine checked and eventually destroyed the Warlords power; while dissention and civil war in Anadyr caused fighting to break out there, leaving Hoopelle to sink further into its abysmal pit of self wallowing without any further outside assistance.
Fully five eighths of the populace was dead by the year 1568 bpe, when the rightful line of Neebook restored itself. Neebook Andeyzar i of the Fourth Dynasty of Divine Neebook immediately set about restoring the peoples self confidence and passions. Within ten years the apathy and pity of the last five hundred were forgotten, and for quite a while, a new spirit was awakened in Hoopelle. The next three Monarchs set about repairing what was physically wrong with the empire. They immediately set about restoring the City, rebuilding the waterways and retaming the old agricultural lands. The following 1700 years were spent in an aggressive plan to recapture the lost knowledge of the ancients and to rebuild the realm. Continuing wars with Ania and Anadyr to the north and Hannox Ptarica, a little known kingdom to the eastward of Hoopelle, prevented Hoopelle from regaining any lost land. To the west, increasing immigration of Daine prevented easy reclaiming of that land. The ancient Hoopolitan ruins in the Farther West are still clearly visible, especially a well preserved city just east of the Great Mountains that hight Alna
-3- and is inhabited by Daine in the Farther West and there be also a system of roads yet used by Daine travellers and others who have need of travelling in the wild lands of the Near West. In addition to the roads, there be many ancient way stations or caravansaries built by the ancient Hoopellish kingdom for use of their caravans and military supply vans. Anymore, these same caravansaries are operated by Daine and cater to travellers, traders and caravans that ply the long road to the Great West lands.
The year 257 of the current age marked the great turning point in Hoopelles affairs. It was in this year that wandering tribes of Avantimen, Varnomen and Oswallumen sacked the ancient city. Fifteen hundred years of little more than the occasional border warfare in the north and east left the City itself quite defenseless. The city of Hoopelle had quite outgrown its clearly ceremonial marble walls; and its City Guard were armed only with lamps upon long poles. In fact, at this time, it was believed by many Hoplites that their God or else the spirit of their founder would protect the City from invasion, and destroy any enemy with the gall to attack Hoopelle itself. They were quite wrong as it turned out, and were easily driven from the city by the Varnomannish king Offas surprise invasion from the south. The whole kingdom was divided amongst the petty warlords or
hiarizogar of the three great kindreds, for they had embarked upon the invasion and had no little interest in settling the new land. Independent kingdoms were carved from the northern reaches while much of the east was snaught by small chiefdoms and by Hannox Ptarica itself.
The Hoplite survivors that remained were driven to the west into Harrun province, that be now a kingdom, or else into the east by the Rûmeliards, where they remained for a while in the recently abandonned city of Pottenne. For, Pottene, Pyclias and Pylicundas were once Teoran cities, as the craft of many ancient buildings avers. Yet according to the histories of the Teor of Pylar, the inhabitants of these southern cities inexplicably left late in the second of the present era, embarking upon great ships docked at Pottenne and set sail for lands in the Ocean that none of the Wise can now tell of
-4-. Sometime later, perhaps by the mid fourth century, the fugitive Hoplites themselves abandonned Pottenne, some moving to the south, others sailing out into the wide Ocean
-5-. It is thought that in the far south of Pottenne, the “Fifth Dynasty of Divine Neebook” established itself. Until the very late nineteenth century, the fate of these “Pottennese Neebookians” was merely a matter for scholarly speculation. Those that had sailed the sea declined further into utter barbarity eventually to become the country known as Hanos Patinos, or Patine Empire, which be a ruthless bunch of savage pirates who primarily harass the Daramombassa and other countries in those southern seas.
The year 1898 of the present age brought modern Auntimoanye into contact with Hehano Nibuk, the Kingdom of Neebook, to the southwards even beyond Mentolatum. Antimoanian traders exploring the southern tracts of land known as Morocono discovered a moderately populated though thriving civilisation. The Antimoanians were welcomed in the name of Neebook Andeyzar lxxxiiii of the Fifth Dynasty of Divine Neebook. A scholar travelling with the traders recognised the speech and was able to communicate with the locals. The Neebookians were pleasantly astonished by an outsider who knew the ceremonial language. Learning and art never regained any of their former place in the Neebookians lives, for indeed many were the declines and deficits apparent in their culture; yet an overwhelming spirituality has remained one of their defining characteristics. Their religion never was understood clearly, and whatever it has mutated into is undoubtedly much murkier than ever the older religions were.
Thus, there were 430 monarchs in the First Dynasty; 137 in the Second Dynasty; 22 in the Third Dynasty; 73 in the Fourth Dynasty; and 84 known in the Fifth Dynasty of Hehano Nibuk, up until the 1898
th year of the age. All told, there were 746 Monarchs, each of whom had the name or title of
Andeyzar. The whole history of Neebookian Hoopelle, including the Fifth Dynasty even though it is not centered at Hoopelle, extends some 12,411 years. So little is known on account of the fact that the ancient writing is incomprehensible and the histories are inaccessible, now residing in the mathom of the Greatqueen of Westmarche. While it might be thought that those who fled the destruction of their land might retain some memory of the ancient written history, but alas this is not true. They have utterly forgotten how their ancestors wrote.
Little is to be said of Harunn, which be known to the Wise as Hanohehano Onohelana Nibuko, the ancient name that means Kingdom of Divine Neebook. After the fall of Old Hoopelle in 257 of the present age, some survivors of the Court removed to the ancient city of Codeis to the northwest of Hoopelle and established the First Codexian Dynasty, which scholars clep the Fifth Dynasty. This line ruled until 1299 of the present age, and there were 96 monarchs. Harunn was annexed by Hoopelle in 1303 as a western buffer between Hoopelle and Wreynoulde; and a lesser lineage was installed upon the throne of Harunn. This Second Codexian Dynasty, also called the Sixth Dynasty, ruled at Hoopelles pleasure until the great Invasion of 1672, and there were 63 monarchs.
A descendant of the house of the Fouth Dynasty was installed as a puppet king over Hoopelle on the part of the Auntimoanian pirates in 1360. This “Nibuk Andeyzar lxxiiii of the Fourth Dynasty” ruled only until 1363. This reign was an abberation and is not counted amongst the canonical kings of the Fourth Dynasty.
After the Invasion and subsequent wars had abated, a verified descendant of the Fourth Dynasty was installed upon the throne of independent Harunn, claiming the inception of a new dynasty. Until the present, this Third Codexian Dynasty, or the Seventh Dynasty, has been ruled by 74 monarchs.
Notes:
1. If you remember Canash from the Multiverse Inn, she was indeed named after the ancient realm of Daine
2. This is an immortalised scribal error, that has been perpetrated for many years. Houe-an-polun really does mean "Place of Cold Water Springs". Even though Coaltrayne went on to describe the seven springs, he never seems to have known what the name actually signifies.
3. Alna, while an entirely ancient city indeed, was not actually built by the Nibukians, for it indeed even predates the habitation of the Daine in those regions.
4. They Teyor of Onutumun did in fact depart, leaving the country empty. But the notion of them taking to ships and sailing away into the wine dark is rather romantic notion adopted by certain Auroxenfordian scholars of a century and a half ago.
5. Unlike the tales of great Teyor mariners, the history of certain thedes of Nibukians setting course for the burning waters of the southern oceans is indeed quite true, and their descendants like scattered among the islands of those waters to the present day.