Gwozhaltasyr

Gwozhaltasyr is a Sumric island country located off the east coast of the Malomanan continent. The island is nested very tightly between two large peninsulas that stretch out to the north and south of Gwozhaltasyr. At the south coast is Asortom Lake, a large sea lake which stretches from the Artaalawe Ocean and westwards inland where it eventually meets the Tonuhte River. The Tonuhte River flows eastwards where it becomes the Tonuhte Estuary, and ultimately flowing into the Artaalawe Ocean. This unusual meeting of freshwater and sea lake cuts off Gwozhaltasyr from the mainland continent.

=Origin= The island itself is relitavely young, having been an island for nearly 4,000 years. Prior to the 16th century the island was part of a larger landmass connected to the mainland continent. The area was a large plateau whose southern slopes formed the north face of large valley which was called taġəżaini [ˈta.ʝəʐaini] ("deep valley") by Proto-Sumric speakers (From which comes the MOPS name Taghazhaini Valley). The south face of the Taghazhaini Valley was a large mountain range. The Tonuhte River (known in Proto-Sumric as tǫnuxtę "dashing river") flowed on a similar course as it does in the modern period albeit on a much longer course to reacha coastline that no longer exists. The large plateau that dominated much of this area was known to the Proto-Sumric speakers as əmegwożaltəsyr ("where the plateau ignites"). The plateau was a popular area for nomads to spend the spring and autumn in as its large open grasslands were home to a rich number of prey, making it a suitable place for the hunter-gatherers to stay before heading north to spend the summer, or south to spend the winter. In the 16th century the local climate experienced a rise in temperature which in turn cause more ice to melt, raising the sea levels although not by a drastic amount. However this did coincide was a large earthquake that struck the Henda continent far to the south which sent a large tsunami towards Malomaman. The tsunami was epic in size, such so that it wreaked havoc on the south and south-east coasts of Malomanan. The tsunami is recorded in Golden Age Mythology where it appears as the serpent Uqama. The tsunami was so huge that it caused the Taghazhaini Valley to flood with sea water, forming the Asortom Lake. The low lying areas surrounding the plateau were flooded also and a massive chunk of low lying land to the east was completely submerged. The plateau was high enough to remain dry but it now found itself being level with the new sea level, forming a new island. This extreme transformation happened relatively rapidly, such so that any life on the plateau had no time to escape to the mainland (even if they did have time, no species would have had enough awareness to comprehend that they were about to be seperated from the mainland). At this time there was roughly one thousand Proto-Sumric speakers on the plateau and they became the original islanders.

Origin Myths
There are several legends that serve to explain the existence of the island. In Golden Age mythology it is said that the giant serpent Uqama travelled from the south and wreaked havoc upon Malomanan, causing a great deal of floods, including the one that flooded the Taghazhaini Valley. In native Hajec folklore it is said that the whole island is formed from the drop of a fox spirit named Rokotnjur (from Hajec rokot "lively, cheery, nimble, quick, fast, to laugh" - cognate to Old Sumrë reket "funny" - and -njur "masculine diminutive suffix") which goes as follows:

"Long before man dwelt in Mak (see Maky) there was a proud but incredibly ferocious spirit named Rokotnjur who lived in the high and lofty spirit world Saagaį (see Saaghaama). Rokotnjur had the form of a fox with the purest of white fur, though his size was much greater than that of any earthly fox. Rokotnjur would parade through his own domain in which he would maintain balance by caring for the needs of the creatures dwelling within it, such as making sure there was enough plants to grow for the herbivores to eat, and that there was enough herbivores for the carnivores to eat, and that the corpses of the carnivores enriched the soil for the plants to grow. Rokotnjur was not outside this web of balance as he hunted great beasts for his own sustenance. Every night when the sun set Rokotnjur would sit upon the great hill and call out with an terrifying and awe inspiring shriek that could turn the brutest of wolves into whimpering puppies. On hearing this shriek the day dwelling creatures would lay to rest and the night dwelling creatures would wake to report to their own intentions and wickedness. As well as keeping balance he would also defend the lands against incomers with an immense viscousness. Once the scent of intrusion filled his nose Rokotnjur wouldn't rest until the intruder was dead or dying. One evening when Rokotnjur sat upon the hill he filled his lungs to prepare for his call but he was interrupted by desperate pleas. He gazed down to the land below him and in the horizon he saw a black smoke emerging from the forest below. This very sight of destruction sent the fox spirit into a maddening rage. He battered his paws against the ground and sped towards the fire. There he found Sąktjohrah, the god of hunting. Sąktjohrah had the head of a great cat and the body of a man with legs and arms of a bear. Sąktjohrah had in his left hand a great torch which he used to burn the forest to drive out animals for game and in his right hand he held a net to catch the fleeing creatures. The sight of Rokotnjur charging towards him caused the hunting god to flee with two rabbits, a snake and a roe deer in his net. Rokotnjur however couldn't chase after him for he had to deal with the forest fire. With his great shriek he blew a great gust of wind that blew out all the fires and the flames surrendered their expansion. Yet the damage was done. The homes of many beasts were destroyed, and because Rokotnjur's shriek was interrupted the day dwelling creatures didn't rest at night and the night dwelling creatures never rose. Chaos and unbalance swept the forest.

Eventually the burned trees grew back, eventually Rokotnjur put the day creatures to sleep and awoke the night creatures and balance was regained. But the scent of Sąktjohrah still filled Rokotnjur's nose. He entered a steady pursuit of revenge after the hunting spirit. Yet he couldn't just approach Sąktjohrah for the god knew the fox's appearance and was skilled with many weapons. So the cunning fox rolled in the dirt and muddied his fur to give it a dark and brown colour and travelled to the rutting grounds of the white deer, for after their mating season the males shed their antlers so at this time the rutting grounds were littered with abandoned antlers. Rokotnjur took two and attached them to his head. With the antlers and brown fur he took on the disguise of a deer and approached Sąktjohrah.



Sąktjohrah sat in his own domain on a day when the wind was still and carried no scent, due to this the hunting god could find no food and was hungry for it. In his boredom he mindlessly plucked at his bow string until he cried out to himself "My hunger need not know any woe, for my net has two rabbits, and snake and a meaty roe!" As he rose up in excitement for his meal a voice pierced the air. "Those rabbits are scant, that snake is thin and stringy, the taste of the roe's meat is spoiled by its fear, such a pathetic hunter you are" Sąktjohrah's eyes searched for the mysterious speaker and found a curious looking deer of brown fur. "Who are you to mock me? I took this meat from the domain of Rokotnjur himself where no hunter dare tread, perhaps I should have you for my dinner, strange deer?" "Perhaps you should put your arrogance aside you witless fool. The domain of Rokotnjur has beasts so massive that the meat of one alone can feed a hunter for a lifetime, yet all you took is some scant vermin, if you want to hunt like a true hunter in Rokotnjur's domain then follow me. My deer brethren have forsaken me and banished me from my home. I seek revenge and I can lead you secretly in Rokotnjur's domain where you can hunt my herd who banished me so cruelly. Do you accept?" Sąktjohrah jumped at the chance to hunt a whole herd especially one protected by the fox. The odd looking deer told Sitap to bring three arrows and to sit upon the great hill that night and wait for him there. "Doesn't Rokotnjur climb that hill every evening?" "trust me" said the deer "this evening he will not come."

After talking to Sąktjohrah, Rokotnjur disappeared from Sąktjohrah's sight yet he remained hidden behind a boulder. When night brought its darkness Sąktjohrah left his home and set out to travel to the great hill. With the hunter spirit gone Rokotnjur snuck in his home and freed the two rabbits, snake and roe deer from the net and guided them home to the forest. Once they were safe Rokotnjur climbed the great hill and greeted Sąktjohrah in his antlered disguise. "I see you are bold to sit upon this hill Sąktjohrah, follow me now to find my herd." With caution Sąktjohrah whispered "where is Rokotnjur? I feel unsteady in his land." The foxed grinned under his disguise and said "not here".

Rokotnjur led the hunter to a flat and level place, shrouded in darkness by the night. "Take your first arrow and fire it straight before you, there lies my brother who deserted me." Sąktjohrah done as told and his arrow whistled into the dark cover of night. "I don't think I hit anything. Are you sure the herd is there?" "Oh I am sure. My brother is a brute and doesn't whelp in pain. Fire another arrow" "I have only two arrows left strange deer. Once I have fired another I will only have one left to defend myself against Rokotnjur should he appear." With a grin upon his face the disguised fox said "oh yes I see that...now take your second arrow and fire it to your left. There lies my father who shunned me."

Sąktjohrah done as told and his arrow whistled in the darkness. "I don't think I hit anything, are you sure the herd is there?" "Oh I am sure, my father is old and has lost his voice. He can make no whelp even when he wants to. Fire another arrow" "I have only one arrow left strange deer. Once I have fired another I will have none left to defend myself against Rokotnjur should he appear." With an even greater grin the disguised fox said "oh yes I see that...now take your third arrow and fire to your right. There lies my mother who abandoned me."

Sąktjohrah done as told and drew his final arrow but before he fired he asked the strange deer where the fox Rokotnjur was, the answer from the deer deeply disturbed Sąktjohrah. "Oh I am right behind you!" With that the fox shook his head and his antlers fell of. He shook his fur to rid it of the dirt to reveal a shining white coat under it. He bared his immense fangs and lunged at the hunter. Though as arrogant and witless as he was, Sąktjohrah was the hunting god for a reason. In the time the fox leapt for him Sąktjohrah aimed his arrow at Rokotnjue and fired, striking him between his second and third ribs on his left side. Rokotnjur let out a scarring roar and fell to the ground ingloriously. The fatal wound dug deep into his side and let out a single drop of blood. That one drop of blood seeped through the ground of Saagį and down into Imiḥoks (see Amaqoks), there it seeped through the ice and into Kivonerį (see Kabhoneryn). There the drop of blood seeped through the soil and into Mak. The blood drop fell through the sky and with a great splash it landed in the sea and solidified, forming the Gvozaatisir."

From this legend the Hajec, and later on the Lammi, claim to have the blood of the noosisto. The noosito is a large fox which resembles the mythical Rokotnjur and it is found all over the island. A common endonym for the Lammi is Nuusituni ("the noosisto people") and a poetic name for the island is KLutnnurosu ("from Rokotnjur"). The national flag even bears the image of the white fox.

=Name and Etmology=

The officially recognised name of the nation, Gwozhaltasyr, is in fact derived from a MOPS name. The MOPS name is a modern loan of the Proto-Sumric name for the island, *əmegwożaltəsyr ("where the plateau ignites") which is from *əmegwoż- ("plateau") + *altə- ("to ignite") + *syr- ("there"). The name is a reference to a much earlier event where a large meteoroid landed in the area. The impact was the inspiration for the event in Golden Age Mythology where the hero Altasi returned to earth in the form of a fireball (The name Altasi is indeed cognate to the "alta" in Gwozhaltasyr. Altasi is from Proto-Sumric *altəṡi- ("he who was ingnited") which was derived from the root *altə-). From the Proto-Sumric name came the Hajec name Gvozaatisir [ˈgvo.zaːtisir] and the Old Sumrë name Bigaweralčur [bigawèráʊt͡ʃur]. When the Lammi arrived and when the Lammi language split from Old Sumrë, Bigaweralčur became BigawèwLjur [bigawèwɭjur]. When the Antagan Empire invaded the island and oppressed the native Lammi language they imposed their own name for the island which was Baigan [pajã] ("northmost") in the Tagns language. When nationalist movements were succesful in regaining native rule and reviving the extinct Lammi and Hajec languages, there was a pressing issue on what to name the nation. The name Baigan was detested by all natives so that was quickly removed as a choice. Several suggestions were put forward which include the following:


 * Paja - A very unpopular loaning of Baigan into [|Revived Lammi] which was quickly rejected.
 * BigawèwLjur - The name for the island in Lammi.
 * Gvozaatisir - The name for the island in Hajec.
 * Gwozhaltasyr - The MOPS name which was artificially derived from the reconstructed Proto-Sumric name.
 * Gvozatasi - A lammi name derived via Tagns Gvozhaltasir which was loaned from the MOPS name listed above.
 * Bigaweraüje - From the Old Sumrë name Bigaweralče adapted to Lemmi phonology.
 * Nonnasǎwara - Meaning "free nation" in Lammi. This was unpopular with the Hajec revivalists who felt it placed the Lammi language above theirs.

Ultimately the MOPS name Gwozhaltasyr was chosen as the official name it was a neutral name which placed no bias to both the Lammi and Hajec languages. As MOPS nouns don't have any inherent pronunciation, the exact pronunciation of the name varies across the island. Lammi speakers pronounce it [Gwoʒhàlːáser] while Hajec speakers pronounce it [ˈGvoz.taltasir]. Outside of offical use other names are used to refer to the country. Lammi speakers primarily use BigawèwLjur while Hajec speakers use Gvozaatisir.

=Populations=

Colonisation by the Jasini
In 4200AN the first contact with non-sumric people was made somewhere in what is now Mocaczea. The contact was made with the Jasini, an ethnic group of the subspecies Homo spragere hendensis from the southern Henda continent. The Jasini are the elite ethnicity of the Antagan Empire. The Antagan Empire sent a fleet after a Jasini fisherman got swept out into the open ocean during a storm. The fisherman claimed to have seen an unknown land far to the north and his claim sparked a lot of interest when found his way home. These claims reached the ears of Emperor Jaklo II who sent out an expedition to see if the northern landmass was real. Among the fleet was a scholar named Baigbala who was there to record the expedition and learn about the new landmass. Baigbala's journal below details this first encounter.

Baigbala's Journal
The Jasini expedition was considered a massive failure. What was left of the main fleet fled back to Henda. They told of the horrors they met and gave Baigbala's journal to the Emperor himself. After reading the dead man's book Jaklo II decreed that no more fleets shall be sent to Malomanan and marked it a no go zone. The smaller fleet that landed on the island met a different story however. The moment they split from the main fleet was recorded by Baigbala "Our numbers have dropped as some of our fleet decided to explore around the coast, again for creating maps". They weren't attacked by any great beasts but they were attacked by hunger. The smaller fleet was supposed to join the larger fleet to restock on food but since the large fleet was mostly destroyed that food was lost. So when the food supply on the small fleet dwindled the Jasini broke up into small bands of soldiers and approached several Lammi villages. The landing of the fleet was first witnessed by a Lammi fisherman named Ikkjon. Ikkjon watched as smaller boats came from the ship and landed ashore. The people that the boat brought forth looked very odd to the fisherman. To Ikkjon the Jasini looked short and grey and their shiny armour looked very foreign. When Ikkjon saw their swords and more ships in the distance he snuck away to his village. The first few groups of soldiers met the Lammi with peace and traded their weapons for food. One group of soldiers however weren't so kind and they thought that it was easier to just raid a village than to simply ask for food. After that one band attacked a village the Lammi refused to interact with the Jasini except with violence, made easier by the fact some villages now had Jasini swords and spears. The Lammi decided to drive off the swarthy boat people or kill those that refused to leave. The survivors fled to their boats and barely survived the journey home. When they arrived to their large warm city, Antagan was still mourning the loss of the first fleet so when the survivors of the second fleet showed up and spoke of being attacked by natives the proud emperor was furious. The Antagan Empire is extremely prideful and any semblence of resistence against them is met with extreme agression. The emperor viewed the Lammi's retaliation as an insult, so in an act of revenge Emperor Jaklo II sent an offensive fleet to conquer the island and incorporate it into the Antagan Empire. The mainland continent was not to be touched as it was seen as a cursed place to the Jasini due to the supernatural attack of their camp there. The offensive fleet landed on Gwozhaltasyr in 4201AN and were succesful in defeating the Lammi and Jǫteihb due to their advanced weaponry and numbers. Gwozhaltasyr was now the northmost reach of the Antagan Empire, hence it name in the Tagns language Baigan ("northmost").

Rebellions
During Jasini colonisation there were several rebellions which attempted to establish native rule. The first of these rebellions was, appropiately named, The First Rebellion. The First Rebellion was led by a Lammi man named Wěkelem Túuksiamwésa (b.4106AN). Wěkelem was 14 when the empire invaded. The Empire initially attacked from the southern side of the island while Wěkelem lived on the northern shores. So by the time the Antagan forces had reached Wěkelem's region they had already gained control over most of the island. After the intial conquest the empire enforced native children to learn the Tagns language by immersion so that the language gap could be filled. Wěkelem was among the children who were forcibly placed into camps where the Tagns language was forced on them. Mistreatment and abuse occured in these camps which gave the children a very negative and often scarred view of the empire. Wěkelem in particular held a fierce hatred at the foreigners as he himself experienced beatings and there were rumours of sexual abuse. Just over a decade later in 4131AN when Wěkelem had grown into a large and strong man at 25 years old, Wěkelem was fishing alone at a lake (WHAT LAKE) amnong the hills (WHAT HILLS) whose bases kissed the salty shore. He had managed to catch five fish so far which he laid out on a sheet made of a thick woven grass. While he set out his rod to catch a sixth, a group of Antagan soldiers marched past and saw the fish and demanded to Wěkelem that he give the fish to them as the island, and everything in it, was now theirs. Wěkelem spent all day by the lake catching his food and he wasn't about to give it to these invading foreigners. One soldier walked forward to snatch the fish but before he could do so Wěkelem butted the end of his rod so hard against the soldier's head that it killed him. When the rest of the soldiers charged him he took the dead man's sword and killed two other soldiers. Upon seeing this the other two fled. When he returned to his village he found that people were already talking of the incident and how they heard that he was now wanted by the appointed Jasini general. On hearing this news he set out into the cold wilderness of Hwozhaltasyr to run away from the Imperial forces who were now hunting him down. For weeks he avoided capture but one day he entered a small village (WHAT VILLAGE) to look for some new clothes and cooked meat, for he dared not light a fire in case the smoke be seen. Unfortunately he was caught by a garrison that was stationed in the village. He put up a fight before being overwhelmed by the numerous soldiers. The commotion caught the attention of the whole village which caused a riot. People took the weapons of dead soldiers and slew more themselves. Although a large number of villagers died fighting against the professional Antagan soldiers, they managed to defeat enough soldiers to cause the rest to flee. Wěkelem thanked the villagers dearly for saving him but warned them that the Imperial forces will return to discipline the village. So they contacted the nearby villages who weren't too happy about the occupation themselves and they grouped together and with Wěkelem leading the way they organised a defensive attack for when the soldiers would return. The women and children of the first village were evacuated and set up small camps in a forest where they would be hidden. The village lay in a valley with high rising hill slopes to either side. Wěkelem placed men on either side on each hill slope to attack the imperial forces from above when they came.

HÍAR

When the Antagan forces did arrive they found a seemingly deserted village, from the wide open mouth of the valley where were entering from it seemed as if the whole village fled before them. But they wouldn't give up so easily. They pressed further on and began to search the village. When they did Anącos gave a silent signal for his men in the hills to release giant stone boulders covered in tar which was set on fire to roll down the hills and among the soldiers below. Followed by a rain of spears and arrows the Lemne made a big dent in the imperial numbers. After the attack from above stopped Anącos led a group of men around the base of the hills where they hid and ran into the village in a charge. The remaining imperial soldiers were now trapped in the valley with Anącos charging from the only way out, and with the other Lemne now charging down the hills. A quick close combat skirmish ensued and Anącos came out victorious. Though the village was ruined by the burning boulders and fighting. The bodies of the imperial soldiers were placed on pikes at the entrance of the valley of the ruined village and imperial flags were flown but with the phrase tere möcebją mö mâląmäm written on them in blood. The phrase was also written on boulders, across the buildings in the ruined village, over any surface which could be written on. The phrase translates as 'do not temper us', these words would become the motto of the Lemne nationalists from time on. Anącos continued fighting against the Antagan occupation of Mäląlą Lemnen and managed to spark an entire rebellion. But in answer the Antagan Empire sent more soldiers to the island and eventually ended the rebellion in the Battle of Ąrnlem, known as onta jera (day of sorrow) in Lemre. The Antagan Empire sent a ridiculously huge force to the island as the rebellions were giving the empire a bad mark in its military record. The massive army wiped out the rebel army, so much blood was shed on the soil that the plants that grew there afterwards had red leaves, as such the field where the battle took place is known as ąloräl conlon (red field). Anącos' corpse was found amongst the dead of the fallen rebel army in ąloräl conlon. His head was cut from his body and displayed in the centre of the Lemne town Ąrnlem as a warning to others who dare rebel. But the nationalist sentiment was every bit as alive, as can be seen when Corocoga lead rebellions against the empire 800 years later. Once the natives were quelled in that bloody and brutal manner Jašawn colonists arrived to set up their own villages in an attempt to establish a permanent Jašawn population. Admittedly stories of a frozen land far across the ocean didn't attract many settlers but the few that came did so to take advantage of the nelav grass. Being such a versatile plant the incomers sought to grow it for themselves and sell the product to merchants who then sold it across the Henda continent. The colonists weren't used to working in such cold conditions so with some military help they took some Lemne as slaves to work the fields. While the native slaves toiled the fields the colonists took the food they needed and sold the rest to merchants. So much food was exported instead of being distributed on Lem Pars that it caused a famine among the natives. At one point in time the famine got so bad that drove some Lemne to resort to cannibalism for survival. Not in the sense that they ate the corpses of those who died, rather some desperate cannibals actively hunted other humans like game. The presence of cannibals was not widespread but not rare. Often they would target jašawn colonist to hunt and eat, usually hunting in packs and would attack groups of travellers or on rare occasions break into homes. They became cannibals rather than hunt deer as the hunting grounds were heavily regularised by jašawn colonists, the reason being that if the Jašawn have control over all of the food sources be it harvests or wild game then the Lemne would be forced to rely on the colonists. The cannibals usually formed groups made up of young to middle aged men, as these people were fathers who had hungry children to feed or brothers trying to keep their siblings from death's door. These groups exclusively targeted Jašawn colonists due to the animosity between the colonists and Jašawn, plus the fact that the Jašawn hoarded all of the food so they had no lack of succulent meat on their invasive bones. The typical method of hunting was to ambush travellers along lonely paths. But people got wise to this and took extra caution to this when leaving their homes which made hunting them much harder. In answer the desperately driven cannibals started to attack the Jašawn in their own homes, mostly farmers were the targets of these attacks as they had food reserves hidden away in their homes. If a farmer did have food then the cannibals would rob him of it rather than kill and eat him, as the cannibals did not want for human meat they just wanted to survive, so an alternative source of food was always chosen when possible. When the cannibals started to attack people in their homes the Imperial military started to hunt the flesh eaters and exterminate them. Anyone who was suspected of eating human flesh was to be executed on the spot, no matter how dubious the claim. People took advantage of this new law to get rid of any enemies, so if your neighbour was being too loud for your liking...if someone laid eyes on your wife and you wanted them gone...all you had to do was tell a whisper of a tale of how they nibbled on some poor souls liver and that person would have their head chopped of by an swift imperial sword. no questions asked. The corpses of the accused were thrown off high cliffs to the rocky grounds below, the bodies were left in the open so that beasts of the land, sea and air may feast on them as the accused did onto others. The nonąstemlön nejnen or 'cleansing of the cannibals' killed so many people that heaps of bodies piled under the cliffs, such heaps where known as sömem nejnen or 'fall of the cannibals'. Long after the cleansing had stopped and the bodies had either been buried, decayed or eaten by animals the rocky cliffs rid themselves of the smell of death though the name sömem nejnen endured. So if you are walking along the coast of Lem Pars where the sun shines behind the clouds, where the birds squawk in the clean air above and where the beauty of the harsh landscape stabs wonder into your heart and you come across a place with sömem in the name...then you are in a place where centuries ago the innocent and guilty were dumped to rot. The now unassuming places with sömem in the name are a reminder of the island's dark history.

The mass cleansing of the accused such an outrage among the natives as many of those being killed were innocent. This only worsened the already terrible relations between the Lemne and Jašawn. Natives led small revolts on local scales but those were 'calmed' by the Antagan soldiers. With the increased military defending Jašawn colonists it made them much harder to hunt, so how did the cannibals react? They started to eat the soldiers.

One native in particular took advantage of the situation like the cunning fox. His name was Sedoreso. Born in 207MA in Ąrnlem, he grew up under the rule of the Jašawn. As a child his grandfather told him of the golden time when the Lemne were free and unhindered. The stories of a past freedom and the current colonisation of the island gave Sedoreso a deep hatred of the Antagan Empire like every other Lemne. To keep his head on his soldiers he kept these feelings hidden from the oppressor. When he was a child he and his family were rounded up by Imperial soldiers in the black of night and were brought to a small nelav field where they were told that they had to work as slaves or be slaughtered. Sedoreso clung on to his mother in his childish fright and asked if they would ever go back home, but he made a terrible mistake by asking this question in the Lemre language which had been outlawed and was punished by being branded on the cheeks with the phrase enka prå (meaning 'bad speech' in the Tåns language). The soldiers who escorted them to the field had no red hot iron so one brute took out a knife and held the child down and started to carve the words into the child's face while his family was restrained. The wailing pleas of the family brought the attention of the field owner who came to see what the noise was about. The owner scorned the soldiers and ordered them to leave the boy alone as he didn't want to 'damage his property' although the soldier had managed to carve the letter E on Sedoreso's cheek before being told off. For the next several years Sedoreso worked on those fields without much issue, at least he and his family were fed by the owners who needed to keep them alive to work. He may have been a bound slave but he didn't starve. The child grew into a young man by the time the cleansing of the cannibals began. Around the same time Sedoreso's father had a dispute with the field owner on how the Jašawn slaver hoarded his food for himself and to sell abroad while people on the island starved. To deal with this the slaver accused the father of being a cannibal which resulted in his execution soon after. Sedoreso was absolutely devastated by his father's death which turned his hatred of the Jašawn into an immense, maddening, uncontrollable bloodlust. Soon after he managed to escape the field but as an escaped slave he was now marked to be killed on the spot, but he didn't care, all he wanted to do was kill as many of the savage invaders as he could. But in the outside world he had no slaver to feed him and soon found out why the cannibals did what they did when he felt the endless hunger tear into his stomach. This drove Sedoreso to join a band of cannibals to sate his hunger. Unlike the other men in his group he didn't kill solely for food, he killed with a raging madness that could only be calmed with the deaths of the enemy. Once people started to avoid travelling alone the groups started to attack the farmer in their homes. It was then that Sedoreso led his band of cannibals to the same field he was taken to as child slave, he knew every nook and cranny of it which allowed him to sneak everyone in during the black of night without alerting the farmers. The cannibals tied up all of the Jašawn present in the house and freed the slaves, the farmer had a hoard of food so the group decided to rob him instead of eating him, they hated to eat human flesh after all...all except Sedoreso, he gazed upon the farmer who sentence his father to death with eyes that held no remnants of the little boy he was before..madness consumed Sedoreso..and Sedoreso consumed the farmer. He remarked how it was the sweetest meal he had ever had. Sedoreso no longer hunted for survival alone..he desired the taste of Jašawn blood on his lips. Whenever he raided a colonists farm he would distribute the hoarded food amongst his native people, for them he still had compassion. So when the soldiers tightened down on security he decided instead to eat the soldiers! He and his band of cannibals ambushed a small garrison patrolling a hunting field, they took their armour and disguised themselves as Imperial soldiers. They disposed of the bodies in their own palatable way. Now he could set up the trap. Dressed in imperial armour Sedoreso ran within sight of troops and screamed and waved his warms, once he had their attention he would point in a direction and run that same way. The troops would assume that he was an imperial soldier in trouble and follow after him. They would follow they deceiver as he led them into an ambush. Sedoreso quickly became a name for colonists to fear.

When news of natives feeding upon imperial solders reached the ears of Emperor Jacho II he decided to enforce a new law which states that colonists on Lem Pars must distribute food among the native people and that the hunting grounds must be re-opened for use albeit each hunter would have to gain a permit to do so. Only after food was distributed among the natives could any extra produce be sold to merchants. Although the slavery continued. In doing this the Emperor ended the famine for the people could now eat, removing their need to hunt humans. The band of cannibals dispersed as they were relieved from the life they hated to enact, except for Sedoreso, the want for Jašawn blood still lingered on his tongue. But without his band of cannibals he fled inland where he lived alone in the windy hills and continued to prey upon lone travellers, by this time he was utterly insane and could not distinguish Lemne from colonist and killed anyone in sight. He was eventually hunted down by other Lemne and thrown off a cliff onto a sömem nejnen. Language The Empire is quite intolerant of foreign cultures and languages of its subjects and has a one nation, one language policy which is strictly enforced to varying degrees across the Empire, any language that wasn't Tåns (the language of the Jašawn) was to be exterminated. Mäląlą Lemnen got the worst treatment as even its name was changed into Tåns as Lem Pars albeit preserving the root 'lem'. Any native Lemne caught speaking the language was marked as open game, which meant anyone could murder him, raid his home or do anything against him and not be punished by the overreaching laws of Antagan. This was a frequent occurrence in the early days of colonisation as the living conditions for the natives worsened, driving many into desperation, waiting with a listening ear for someone to slip a word of Lemre so that they can take his possessions as spoil to feed their families. This treatment caused the Lemre language to decline rapidly. As the language was in its dying breath a new law was passed that anyone caught speaking the language was to have their tongue cut out and branded on the cheek with the words enka prå meaning 'bad speech' in Tåns. Not long after this the Lemre language was dead and forgotten to the natives, beyond even the memories of the eldest natives. Though the language lingered on in notes of Antagan scholars, for throughout the Antagan Empire there is open schools which teach free education and act independently of the Empire, meaning that they can do as they wish even if the Empire is actively against it, just as long as the school's activities don't directly interfere with Imperial business. The open school has a band of advanced scholars who travel and collect knowledge of foreign cultures. They often accompany Imperial forces when they set foot on fresh land, the purpose being to record the culture and language of the lands before the Empire destroys them. It is thanks to these scholars recording the Lemre language before its complete death that revival of the language was made possible many, many, generations later. Imperial involvement in Lem Pars loosened its grip when the Wasgar Confederacy, among other forces, started to put pressure on the ever expanding Empire. This extra pressure forced the Empire to source any spare troops in Lem Pars for the war in Henda. This gave the island life to the long simmering revolutionary sentiment and revival of Lemne culture, and also revival of the Lemre language. This situation made Lemre quite unique among other Sumric languages as by this time, many centuries after the original oppression, the Sumric tribes on the mainland had settled into villages and the language Old Sumrë had diverged into 11 other languages. The great amount of time meant that these languages had changed in many ways from Old Sumrë, some being unrecognisable to its ancestor. But Lemre was preserved as it was many centuries ago in the notes of scholars, and as it wasn't spoken the whole time no changes in grammar or sound had affected it, it was essentially frozen in time, making the revived language closest to Old Sumrë in terms of vocabulary and morphology (except from the many Tåns loanwords).

Delor is the Lemne man who was at the forefront of reviving the native Lemre language. From a young age Delor took an interest in languages which he picked up while attending the open school. He was always interested to know what the Lemre language of his ancestors was like, as by his time the language had been dead for many many centuries. The closest glimpse he had was the surviving Sumric languages but even those were vastly different and unintelligible to each other as they had been evolving in their own separate ways. In his late teens Delor travelled to Mainland Malomanan where he studied Moicha at Cùlèrnoume Ỳrjémua (University of Ỳrjému) and travelled north to learn the little known Nümmezse languages. In his time in Mémoicha (a mainland territory on the east coast) he heard of the rivalry with the Foranía from Müforia, mostly he heard about how the Foranía spoke a weird slant dialect of Moicha. Curious to this claim he met the Foranía linguist Ğüglëfer and learned that the Foranía spoke a separate yet related language to Moicha. He returned to Lem Pars now with a firm knowledge of languages but with a thirst to discover Lemre, how did it work? How similar was it to the other Sumric languages? What did it even sound like? These questions buzzed in Delor's head. The answer wasn't an easy one to get for details of the language are to be found in ancient records written by Antagan scholars when the language was alive and well (which was a very long time ago), these records lay far across the ocean on the Henda continent in the imperial city Antagan, stored away in vast libraries belonging to the open school, so not the most accessible...or affordable. However Delor couldn't have picked a better time to access these records for he saw the beginning of a new Lemne revolution, albeit at that time it was no more than public speeches and people flying flags with the infamous Lemne phrase tere möcebją mö mâląmäm meaning 'do not temper us'. It was also a time when people were trying to claim back their own culture, and what better way to do that than to speak the Lemne language once again! Delor convinced people to donate money and supplies for a trip to Antagan to access the only records of Lemre and to bring the information back and ultimately to restore the language to its former glory. With thanks to the current sentiment regarding Lemne culture he found no shortage of donors and was soon on a ship to Antagan. When he arrived he met with the open school of Antagan to gain permission to access the records. His only condition to enter was that he had to make copies of the originals instead of taking them. Delor was happy enough with the arrangement and after a few months of slaving over old records and copying them he returned to Lem Pars with the long awaited language. He began to teach it to children at the open schools but his work caught so much attention that adults attended his lessons to hear the language. To encourage its usage Delor created posters that he put up around the island, each poster had delora lenonre (Delor's Guidance) about usage of the language which are as follows:

1. hąn larnolomer lemrä nonrä so loal, ter desa renją sän nonra. 2 hąn lona renär lemrä tero, amär desa louesa renlądoacąn apabena rebena jo renladoacąnmö ąmär onesan no. 3 ter onalousjąmö apä nä secäl renlon lemrebena. 4 hąn ąstemer namä ter renją dess namo lemrebena.

Translation: 1. If you know the Lemre word for something, use that word only

2. If someone speaks to you in Lemre, it is only courteous to reply in Lemre. Replying in another language or not at all is an offence against the person

3. Do not chastise another for speaking Lemre

4. If you bear a child, grace its ears with only Lemre

This campaign was incredibly successful. So much so that the language went from being forgotten to the last word to being widely understood, and by the next generation even gained native speakers, the generation after that had some monolingual Lemre speakers.

Vive la Revolution!

After the events of Anącos' rebellion and the clearance of the cannibals the Lemne fight for freedom queitened down and for the next few centuries and being part of the Empire of Antgan became the status quo. During this time the Jašawn colonists had been living in Lem Pars for generations and called the island their home, some intermarrige and interbreeding occurred between the natives and Jašawn, mostly in the few cities and large towns but elsewhere mingling was minimal to non-existent. The Lemne girned and endured, though conditions did improve over the centuries which lessened the chances of other rebellions. Things remained like this for a long time until the Empire entered a large war with several powerful neighbours on the Henda continent for which Antagan to source any spare troops in Lem Pars to fight in the war in Henda. when the Antagan Empire focused it attention away from Lem Pars to conflicts elsewhere. This let the nationalist anti-imperial sentiment spark among the Lemne and marked the beginning of a cultural revolution. To begin with the reclamation consisted of public speeches, growth of native art and openly flying the Lemic flag which bears the image of Rącąrör bearing his claws in a defensive attack with the infamous motto tere möcebją mö mâląmäm. So began the Lemic Enlightenment

Corogoca waving the flag the text in the picture reads:

Mäląlą Lemnen, ma lou lemma cor lomen conên nenbene nelavbene cor sö vömä ąmsąle möbąnsale cor mourer rösär sourson omäb cor leme sömele nojên ansorole nonsöansarole ląncaca ląrnolen

"Dweller's Isle, my good home, Where the deer graze on green grass, Where the wind blows along great mountains, Where dwellers feet roam in white snow, and hopeful children endure."

Until the birth of Corocoga that is..Corocoga's father was among the first of those to support the revived Lemre language as a language of the island, as such Corocoga grew up speaking it as a first language. The nationalist sentiment rung truly in Corocoga. When he was 17 years old volunteered to join the crew of ship which sailed to the Malomaman mainland where the Modern Sumric cultures exist untouched by the foreigner's rule. They landed in a Moicha city named Ỳrjému where they managed to speak with the leader of the city and asked him for an alliance between the Moicha and Lemne against the Antagan Empire, banking on their shared Sumric heritage. But the leader replied with a wave of his hand, saying that the Moicha have a good trade deal with the Empire and don't wish to sour it, and also that they are busy enough with the Foranía raiding along their border. Corocoga returned home disappointed, though upon hearing of how the Foranía could trouble the much bigger Moicha by use of hit and run attacks Corocoga thought that he could try something similar in Lem Pars. When he returned he gathered a few able bodies to train and practice fighting with each other with hopes of attacking some Antagan outposts and colonist settlements, though he didn't quite have enough to lead any sort of raid. For the time being at least. Years later Corocoga had managed to gather together a sizeable force which he led into raids and skirmishes. But it was his disturbance of imperial activity on the island that caused the Empire to send a small army in retaliation which raided and took prisoners to work as slaves in their silver mines in Antagan. Two such Prisoners were Pwrima miners Shfinô and Rôfafi from the Pwrddw territory in the far west, who years later took part in the Minors Revolt of 1286. Shfinô for personal reasons fought against the Empire and collaborated with the Wasgar Confederation. It thanks to Shfinô that the Empire suffered a heavy blow from the Wasgar Confederation which would increase the chances of Lem Pars gaining freedom in the future, and it is thanks to Corocoga's raiding that the Empire sent the army to enslave some Lemne where Shfinô got caught up in the mess (the Pwrina are neutral and have fought no wars with Antagan) which led to his own enslavement and in turn his own disdain for the Empire.

All the while Corocoga's power grew as his rebellion kicked off. This revolution wasn't just a buntch of angry villagers rebelling or hungry cannibals, Corocoga had formed his own army of soldiers. The outcome of the revolution is yet to be decided for it is yet ongoing. This fact hasn't stopped Corocoga becoming a legend however, his very name shakes fear into Jašawn soldiers. The natives rally to his cause and proclaim him to be Anącos born again. His legendary status even saved the life of his wife and infant child.

His wife Menora often followed her husband on his excursions around the island. Though when she had a newborn she stayed with her mother in a very small settlement called Lorąląs, the very same one she herself grew up in. Around this time her husband Corocoga was away on an excursion to root out some imperial soldiers and he took with him his men in arms. So the village was left with just women and children. What the rebel leader didn't realise that the location of his wife's settlement was discovered by some Imperial soldiers who sent a band of soldiers to take by surprise his wife and hold her ransom. Luckily Menora's cottage was on a hill rise so she spotted the soldiers marching to her settlement long before they got there. Hurriedly she thought of what to do, she couldn't run away with a newborn at her breast as she would surely he hunted down, and she couldn't leave the rest of the woman either. Cunningly she took her husband's spare set of armour and wore it. The native Lemne armour typically has a mouthpiece which covers the chin and mouth and curves under the eyes, it wasn't for protection but rather to stop the wearer from speaking, as it is the spirits of war who speak the words that decide the victor, not the warrior. But for Menora it meant it would cover her face and improve her disguise, for when the soldiers arrived she stood outside her cottage on the hill rise clad in full Lemne rebel armour that bore Corocoga's mark. To the witless soldiers it looked as if Corocoga himself was standing before them, the Corocoga whose actions spurned many stories of a noble savage native hungry for Antagan blood. The soldiers who were prepared to steal away one woman hostage never prepared to battle with a native warlord, so they tucked tail and ran away. That was how Menora disguised herself as Corocoga and avoided her capture and protected the small village. THE ORIGINAL ISLANDERS

In their anger of being colonised by the foreign race the Lemne rationalise their sentiment by proclaiming that they were on the island long, long before the Jašawn set foot there and that they were there first. However this statement is not entirely true, of course the Lemne lived on the island before the Jašawn..but they were not the first people to live there..strictly speaking.

The various Sumric peoples each have their own cultures and languages distinct from each other though they do recognise that they all descend from the same group of people. If you try to distinguish the Sumric peoples genetically you will find that they are all the one race with little genetic differences amongst the various populations. So here we must define the word 'people' to refer to a cultural group. With this definition of 'people' we can say that the Lemne as a cultural group were not the first to inhabit the island, they they do in part descend from the first inhabitants of Lem Pars genetically speaking.

The first inhabitants of the Island were there before it was even an island. The people were Sumric nomads like everyone else and just so happened to be on the island when the rising sea levels submerged the low lying lands around Lem Pars which cut it off from the mainland creating an island. The water rose very quick as at the same time a tsunami came across the ocean from the south east and flooded the low lying areas within the space of a few days. The now higher sea level stopped the water from draining away. Any unfortunate soul who happened to be on the island at the time was now stuck there for good much to their woe. Some deer were trapped on the island too but there wasn't enough to survive on by hunting so the islanders domesticated the deer population and led the herds to grazing areas. The first islanders were now shepherds. With domestic deer the people could now milk the does, eat the meat of a portion of the herd and have a greater control over the deer population as opposed to following wild deer herds. The shepherds lived a nomadic life as they had to herd the deer onto fresh pastures after several weeks of staying in one area.

The language these people spoke was an ancient one that was even older than Old Sumrë (which is itself the ancestor of all the modern Sumric languages) as all of the Sumnë of this time spoke the parent language of Old Sumrë known today by linguists only as Proto-Sumric. There is absolutely no record left of Proto-Sumric so linguists look to Old Sumrë to determine what Proto-Sumric may have been like. So the very first individuals to be trapped on the island spoke Proto-Sumric though over time the island language changed though only slightly for the few records of the ancient island language, scant as they are, show that it was very similar to Proto-Sumric in its grammar and phonology while Old Sumrë deviated quite a bit. The scant records of the island language are to be found carved on raised slabs of rock throughout the island, the script the language is written in is much like the Rësora script of the mainland, though it has more straight and jagged lines as it is hard to carve round lines on rock.

Top: A carving on a stone slab in Lem Pars. see how every line is straight compared the round and flowy lines of Rësora. This is due to straight lines being easier to carve into rock

Bottom: An example of the Rësora script from the mainland. related to the script shown in the picture above

What these carvings actually said remained a mystery for a long time as no one knew the language. It was only until recently after linguists reconstructed Proto-Sumric that the writing on the rocks bore some similarity to Proto-Sumric. This then allowed some clever souls to reconstruct the original island language based on the scant attestations for intellectual purposes and also to decider the carvings. The old standing stones shed their mystery and shown themselves to have a dual purpose for the first islanders. One purpose was a practical one written on one side of the slab that told the shepherds how long they should graze their deer in the surrounding areas and to warn of any potential danger. The second purpose was a religious one. The opposite side of the slab had a religious purpose with carvings telling of the people's devotion to the animal spirits and ancestors, this devotion to the gods is somewhat unusual as Sumric people tend to be lax on actively worshipping their gods. These slabs indicate that after being trapped on the island the first islanders felt that they had to rely more on their gods. Modern linguists have named the old island language Hajec which comes from the Lemre hąjec meaning 'whisked away'. From the carvings we can see that they called themselves the onxiibhöne /ɔnxiːβonɛ/ (The latinised spelling was created by modern linguists) which means 'trapped' (or to translate literally on 'still xii 'force' -bhöne 'by').

When the Lemne settlers first arrived on the island they interacted with the onxiibhöne by trading the fish they caught in return for deer's milk, meat and fur. After some time of co-habitating the island the two peoples began to interbreed and intermingle with Lemne culture dominating. Eventually the onxiibhöne fully and peacefully assimilated into Lemne culture and language. The herds of deer were left to become feral and graze free unto their own wild will. As a cultural group the onxiibhöne had died out, though they bred with the Lemne so the blood of the first islanders survives in the modern population. One feature of Onxiibhöne culture was passed down and that was riding on the backs of deer. With no horses the Onxiibhöne would select a number of deer from the herd to ride upon their backs, this made it easier to manage larger herds which spread out over longer distances. These select deer were called æshätle in Hajec meaning 'carrier'. Any deer chosen to be an æshätle, usually muscular individuals strong enough to bear a person, was not to be eaten or milked and was even revered, even after death it was frowned upon to eat one as they were seen as family. When an æshätle died its body would be painted with words in Hajec for good luck on its journey beyond life, then a death song would be sung as is done for humans, then the body would be left as carrion as the permafrost ground is too difficult to dig to dig a grave. After generations of riding deer the Onxiibhöne started to breed the æshätle only with other æshätle in order to breed deer specifically for riding, this created a sub-breed of deer with distinguishing features such as stocky and enduring legs and large backs. This tradition survived with the Lemne even after the deer herds were left to be feral. The Lemre may capture a wild deer and tame it for to ride on its back, this is only done by few individuals in rural areas where there is greater distances between settlements, a distance easier covered on deerback. But mostly such deer are kept as pets nowadays rather than for purely practical purposes. The Lemre call these tame deer ąsätlä which is one of the few direct loanwords from Hajec, stemming from the word æshätle. The Lemne dye the hair of a tame ąsätlä to distinguish it from wild deer, so that a hunter knows not to kill it (it is common courtesy that ąsätlä are not to be hunted)

Interestingly the feral deer herds that were left to become wild formed their own clans based on which herds they were in and formed their own social structure quite unlike the deer on mainland Malomanan. The æshätle breed of deer formed the new upper 'pedigree' class, their revered status placed on them by humans carried on even after becoming feral. One leader or 'shepherd' is chosen from the æshätle class by having the males fight with their antlers and the winner becoming the leader. It is the leader who decides on the movement of the herd, while the rest of the æshätle keep the herd in shape. The rest of the deer form the lower class. Whenever a predator attacks the herd the adult males of the lower class form a circle around the herd and act aggressively to any predator who dare continue their attack. It has been known for rival deer clans to war with each other and great skirmishes (which may be called battles) may be witnessed every now and then. Whenever a deer is captured by the Lemne this is seen as a good thing by the deer, as to be a tame ąsätlä is to have the same status as the higher class deer (as the tame deer then carries a purpose similar to the original æshätle). This is the only way for a lower class deer to become higher class, as by this time the two classes are effectively two different breed of deer and they don't tend to interbreed. So if a lower class deer gets tamed and years later somehow finds itself back in the wild again (usually after the owner's death) it can join the higher class, it's dyed hair serves as proof of its former ąsätlä status. In a rare few cases a deer has risen to the higher class can become leader if it outcompetes there other deer. Not all deer on the island are like this however. Some smaller species of deer which were never herded in the first place still roam free in small groups of two or three or alone. These species are easier to hunt due to their lower number in groups.

Conclusion The history of Lem Pars is one of adaptation, endurance, hardship and ferocity like the white fox who sought vengeance from the hunter until the end of his cause or the end of himself. What lies ahead for the inhabitants of the island is uncertain be they Trapped Shepherds, Lemne fishermen or Jašawn colonists. Whatever will happen they will face it with their bared fangs and unrelenting spirit. The Lemne are not to be tempered with.