Bjornoya
15-11-2005, 02:26
History of Bjornoya:
The earliest artifacts of Pomarian ancestry date back to 300 B.C. The region now known as Bjornoya was first inhabited by a group of nomads called the Pomars. For nearly 700 years the Pomars lived within a hunter-gatherer society, never settling or creating large agricultural cities. The various Pomarian tribes lived in harmony, living isolated from one another and from the rest of the world.
This created a problem for the Aryans, who had made their way to the Bjornoyan territory sometime during the 2nd century. The Aryans were masters of combat, but in Bjornoya found no concentrated regions of the Pomarian inhabitants to attack. Archeological evidence suggests Pomarian tribes defended themselves with primitive weapons. The lack of any major recorded battles during this time suggests the Pomarians never engaged the Aryans in large-scale combat. The Aryan invaders gave up trying to conquer the region, and settled the first known Bjornoyan town, now known as Esthar. Along with the introduction of tactical combat, the Aryan settlers brought with them the wheel, the horse, and their religion.
For the next 300 years, these two groups resided in the same territory without conflict. With the exception of a few trading posts, the Pomars and Aryans never interacted. However during the 5th century the Pomars could not sustain their growing population within the limits of a hunter-gatherer society. During this time the town of Baum was founded by Pomarians in Nenetsia. Many Pomars immigrated to the Aryan town of Esthar as well.
The Aryans were at first unwelcoming to the Pomarians. However, the Pomars proved their worth by introducing the Aryans to seafaring. The Pomars had been constructing longboats for centuries. For the Pomarians, the longboats served as a means to acquire fish. For the Aryans, the longboats served as a means to conquer.
The Aryan population in Esthar had been dormant for over 400 years, and they grew restless. Some sought adventure, others sought combat. Longboats, navigated by Pomarians and manned by Aryans took sail. Many met a watery fate within the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean, but others were more successful. Archeological sites in Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland all suggest a Bjornoyan presence. More astonishingly, recent sites suggest Bjornoyan longboats made landfall in Bioko, South Africa, Sri-Lanka, Singapore, Wallis, and Futuna.
Back on the Bjornoyan mainland, the populace was coming under attack by a new threat. Gothic armies made their way from the west to Esthar, and a bloody fight ensued in 812 A.D. The Goths and Bjornoyans fought valiantly, but in the end the Pomarian knowledge of the terrain coupled with the ferocity of the Aryan spirit drove the Gothicinvaders back. During the battle, the Aryans successfully implemented sophisticated cavalry tactics, combining their horsemanship with their marksmanship, a crossbow-man on horseback. The Goths would return later for trading purposes.
After the Battle of Esthar, the Aryans were overzealous. Eager to expand, the Bjornoyans looked westward. On horseback and in longboats, the Bjornoyans set out like the Vikings and Huns. The Bjornoyans ransacked the upper coast of Finland, Sweden, and Norway and made their way through Eastern Europe and Western Siberia in a period lasting from 814 to 867. The Bjornoyans were eventually driven from the region by fierce Cottish and Pushkan warriors. Epic poems written in the ancient Aryan language survive to this day, describing the battles between the Bjornoyans, Pushkans, and Cots.
Bjornoya relaxed and flourished for the next 400 years, surviving various foreign invasions and the introduction of new diseases. However, in 1236 the Mongol Horde made their way to the frozen Bjornoyan north. The first city to fall was Baum, located in the far eastern Nenetsia. Reports of the ruthlessness of these new invaders reached Esthar. The local legislature in Esthar called an emergency meeting, summoning the leaders of the surrounding cities. The cities of Reise, Thyma, Gelt, Vutelty, and Esthar each sent their local magistrates. The Council of Esthar agreed the only way to defeat this new threat was to unify the armies of these 5 city-states.
The Council could not decide who would lead this army. Turning to the most ancient Bjornoyan texts, the Aryan scribes discovered the first system ever implemented in resolving such matters, the Lottery. On that day, the Bjornoyans entrusted Ascenda, the Bjornoyic goddess of fate, with deciding the leader of this army. The entire population over the age of 13 was entered into this lottery. After a series of drawings, lasting three days the Council declared Samanya Zadora, a 14 year old Aryan girl, the leader of the Bjornoyan Army. No-one dared question the ancient texts, or the sages who professed it.
For the next two week, Samanya studied battle-tactics, leadership, and logistics with the elders. By the time she was proclaimed worthy to lead, the Bjornoyan Army along with its leader was fortified in the town of Reise. The Mongols arrived at Reise within a month of ransacking Baum. The city was buried within a deep forest. A lone, wide stretch of flat dirt, then covered with snow was the only reasonable approach to the city on horseback. As the Mongols charged across the plain, they saw the Bjornoyans were employing catapults. This was nothing new. However, when they realized what was being catapulted, they grew tense.
Samanya grew up on a small farm in Vutelty. It was there she aquired an abnormal fascination with the animals not being domesticated, particularly the Common adder. She had been keeping many of these snakes as pets, until she was called by the Council of Esthar. After studying the various tactics known and created by the Bjornoyans, she did not much care. She knew that the Mongols rode horses, and she knew horse hated snakes. Putting two and two together, Samanya armed the seven catapults with the Adders she had been collecting, along with others gathered by the army. As the Mongols charge across the field during the Battle of Reise, the catapults rained hundreds of adder snakes down on their position. As the beasts panicked, they threw their riders off, who were picked off like prey by the Bjornoyans, waiting in ambush within the forests flanking the open field.
The Mongols were soundly defeated, and the Bjornoyan citizens celebrated. The Council of Esthar determined by means of the Lottery if the leader of the battle defeated the enemy on a full-moon, and if during the battle the leader never spoke the word, “nothing,” she would be proclaimed the matriarch of a unified Bjornoya. Amazingly, Samanya defeated the Mongols on a full-moon, and never said the word “nothing” during the battle. Bjornoya was officially unified as a nation under the leadership of Matriarch Samanya Zadora on July 7, 1236.
The Bjornoyan Patri-Matriarchy flourished for nearly a century. In 1323, a group of foreigners never seen or heard of by the Bjornoyans made landfall. The group called themselves “Byzantines,” and brought with them various things to Bjornoya. Most importantly were Christianity and the plague.
The two spread at about the same rate. The old Bjornoyan pagan religions could not predict or stop the plague, but Christianity at least offered a reason for the plague. “You are all born sinners, and this is what you deserve!” proclaimed the Christian priests. This asceticism became very popular amongst the Bjornoyans. Approximately 65% of the population perished to the disease over a period of 30 years. During the plague, the Byzantines founded two cities that were eventually assimilated into the Bjornoyan nation, Necropolis and Geopolis.
Bjornoya fell into a cultural, economical, spiritual, and scientific slump for a century. Little is known or was recorded amongst the various city-states from 1323-1412. Bjornoyans either lived as powerful landlords or powerless serfs during this time. In 1425, the Bjornoyans recovered some of the stability that was so admired during the first years of the Patriarchy. Bjornoyan Patriarch Fillip Angosta looked to the stars, and to the sea. Thinking that Bjornoyan ships might find their way to heaven, he sent four Carracks under the leadership of Captain Theodore Burnside. 3 years and 7 months later, two of the ships returned to Esthar, the first to ever circumnavigate the globe.
Many texts were recovered from 1535 when the Christian church became split into the Orthodox Church and followers of a man named Martin Luther, whose writing were being spread by the newly introduced printing-press.
At about this same time, a shadowy and entirely unknown until recently group known as the Freemasons began to gather. They began as a well-educated group of elderly men, who carefully criticized the existing social assumptions, language, arts, and religion. This group, although not well known, held an enormous amount of power. During the religious split, the freemasons used their various connections with the hierarchies of both sides to successfully over-throw the Bjornoyan Patriarchy. A brief civil-war ensued, and out of the chaos, the Bjornoyan Republic was founded, based on the ideas that all men were created equal, and all deserved to be free so they might be happy in life.
The Bjornoyan Freemasons were the first to introduce the philosophies of empiricism and utilitarianism. During this time, Bjornoya gave birth to some of the world's most brilliant scientists. Breakthroughs in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and philosophy abounded. What is now known as “Newtonian” physics was established in the Bjornoyan cities of Geopolis and Reise. A crude theory of capitalism was first established in the Bjornoyan city of Necropolis.
For the next 500 years, Bjornoya was an imperialistic power, setting up trading posts and colonies throughout the world. In Africa, Southeast Asia, and the New World, Bjornoya created thriving colonies. The progresses made by the arts and sciences now helped the Bjornoyan economy flourish. An age of colonialism was followed by mercantilism, industrialization, and finished by full-grown capitalism.
Throughout the 20th century, the Bjornoyan economy flourished with amazing strength. The citizens were happy and industrious, the cities grew, the children played, the adults worked, everyone was reasonably happy, except for two people.
For the rest of Bjornoya's History, see "Creating the Übermensch" (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=446513)
The earliest artifacts of Pomarian ancestry date back to 300 B.C. The region now known as Bjornoya was first inhabited by a group of nomads called the Pomars. For nearly 700 years the Pomars lived within a hunter-gatherer society, never settling or creating large agricultural cities. The various Pomarian tribes lived in harmony, living isolated from one another and from the rest of the world.
This created a problem for the Aryans, who had made their way to the Bjornoyan territory sometime during the 2nd century. The Aryans were masters of combat, but in Bjornoya found no concentrated regions of the Pomarian inhabitants to attack. Archeological evidence suggests Pomarian tribes defended themselves with primitive weapons. The lack of any major recorded battles during this time suggests the Pomarians never engaged the Aryans in large-scale combat. The Aryan invaders gave up trying to conquer the region, and settled the first known Bjornoyan town, now known as Esthar. Along with the introduction of tactical combat, the Aryan settlers brought with them the wheel, the horse, and their religion.
For the next 300 years, these two groups resided in the same territory without conflict. With the exception of a few trading posts, the Pomars and Aryans never interacted. However during the 5th century the Pomars could not sustain their growing population within the limits of a hunter-gatherer society. During this time the town of Baum was founded by Pomarians in Nenetsia. Many Pomars immigrated to the Aryan town of Esthar as well.
The Aryans were at first unwelcoming to the Pomarians. However, the Pomars proved their worth by introducing the Aryans to seafaring. The Pomars had been constructing longboats for centuries. For the Pomarians, the longboats served as a means to acquire fish. For the Aryans, the longboats served as a means to conquer.
The Aryan population in Esthar had been dormant for over 400 years, and they grew restless. Some sought adventure, others sought combat. Longboats, navigated by Pomarians and manned by Aryans took sail. Many met a watery fate within the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean, but others were more successful. Archeological sites in Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland all suggest a Bjornoyan presence. More astonishingly, recent sites suggest Bjornoyan longboats made landfall in Bioko, South Africa, Sri-Lanka, Singapore, Wallis, and Futuna.
Back on the Bjornoyan mainland, the populace was coming under attack by a new threat. Gothic armies made their way from the west to Esthar, and a bloody fight ensued in 812 A.D. The Goths and Bjornoyans fought valiantly, but in the end the Pomarian knowledge of the terrain coupled with the ferocity of the Aryan spirit drove the Gothicinvaders back. During the battle, the Aryans successfully implemented sophisticated cavalry tactics, combining their horsemanship with their marksmanship, a crossbow-man on horseback. The Goths would return later for trading purposes.
After the Battle of Esthar, the Aryans were overzealous. Eager to expand, the Bjornoyans looked westward. On horseback and in longboats, the Bjornoyans set out like the Vikings and Huns. The Bjornoyans ransacked the upper coast of Finland, Sweden, and Norway and made their way through Eastern Europe and Western Siberia in a period lasting from 814 to 867. The Bjornoyans were eventually driven from the region by fierce Cottish and Pushkan warriors. Epic poems written in the ancient Aryan language survive to this day, describing the battles between the Bjornoyans, Pushkans, and Cots.
Bjornoya relaxed and flourished for the next 400 years, surviving various foreign invasions and the introduction of new diseases. However, in 1236 the Mongol Horde made their way to the frozen Bjornoyan north. The first city to fall was Baum, located in the far eastern Nenetsia. Reports of the ruthlessness of these new invaders reached Esthar. The local legislature in Esthar called an emergency meeting, summoning the leaders of the surrounding cities. The cities of Reise, Thyma, Gelt, Vutelty, and Esthar each sent their local magistrates. The Council of Esthar agreed the only way to defeat this new threat was to unify the armies of these 5 city-states.
The Council could not decide who would lead this army. Turning to the most ancient Bjornoyan texts, the Aryan scribes discovered the first system ever implemented in resolving such matters, the Lottery. On that day, the Bjornoyans entrusted Ascenda, the Bjornoyic goddess of fate, with deciding the leader of this army. The entire population over the age of 13 was entered into this lottery. After a series of drawings, lasting three days the Council declared Samanya Zadora, a 14 year old Aryan girl, the leader of the Bjornoyan Army. No-one dared question the ancient texts, or the sages who professed it.
For the next two week, Samanya studied battle-tactics, leadership, and logistics with the elders. By the time she was proclaimed worthy to lead, the Bjornoyan Army along with its leader was fortified in the town of Reise. The Mongols arrived at Reise within a month of ransacking Baum. The city was buried within a deep forest. A lone, wide stretch of flat dirt, then covered with snow was the only reasonable approach to the city on horseback. As the Mongols charged across the plain, they saw the Bjornoyans were employing catapults. This was nothing new. However, when they realized what was being catapulted, they grew tense.
Samanya grew up on a small farm in Vutelty. It was there she aquired an abnormal fascination with the animals not being domesticated, particularly the Common adder. She had been keeping many of these snakes as pets, until she was called by the Council of Esthar. After studying the various tactics known and created by the Bjornoyans, she did not much care. She knew that the Mongols rode horses, and she knew horse hated snakes. Putting two and two together, Samanya armed the seven catapults with the Adders she had been collecting, along with others gathered by the army. As the Mongols charge across the field during the Battle of Reise, the catapults rained hundreds of adder snakes down on their position. As the beasts panicked, they threw their riders off, who were picked off like prey by the Bjornoyans, waiting in ambush within the forests flanking the open field.
The Mongols were soundly defeated, and the Bjornoyan citizens celebrated. The Council of Esthar determined by means of the Lottery if the leader of the battle defeated the enemy on a full-moon, and if during the battle the leader never spoke the word, “nothing,” she would be proclaimed the matriarch of a unified Bjornoya. Amazingly, Samanya defeated the Mongols on a full-moon, and never said the word “nothing” during the battle. Bjornoya was officially unified as a nation under the leadership of Matriarch Samanya Zadora on July 7, 1236.
The Bjornoyan Patri-Matriarchy flourished for nearly a century. In 1323, a group of foreigners never seen or heard of by the Bjornoyans made landfall. The group called themselves “Byzantines,” and brought with them various things to Bjornoya. Most importantly were Christianity and the plague.
The two spread at about the same rate. The old Bjornoyan pagan religions could not predict or stop the plague, but Christianity at least offered a reason for the plague. “You are all born sinners, and this is what you deserve!” proclaimed the Christian priests. This asceticism became very popular amongst the Bjornoyans. Approximately 65% of the population perished to the disease over a period of 30 years. During the plague, the Byzantines founded two cities that were eventually assimilated into the Bjornoyan nation, Necropolis and Geopolis.
Bjornoya fell into a cultural, economical, spiritual, and scientific slump for a century. Little is known or was recorded amongst the various city-states from 1323-1412. Bjornoyans either lived as powerful landlords or powerless serfs during this time. In 1425, the Bjornoyans recovered some of the stability that was so admired during the first years of the Patriarchy. Bjornoyan Patriarch Fillip Angosta looked to the stars, and to the sea. Thinking that Bjornoyan ships might find their way to heaven, he sent four Carracks under the leadership of Captain Theodore Burnside. 3 years and 7 months later, two of the ships returned to Esthar, the first to ever circumnavigate the globe.
Many texts were recovered from 1535 when the Christian church became split into the Orthodox Church and followers of a man named Martin Luther, whose writing were being spread by the newly introduced printing-press.
At about this same time, a shadowy and entirely unknown until recently group known as the Freemasons began to gather. They began as a well-educated group of elderly men, who carefully criticized the existing social assumptions, language, arts, and religion. This group, although not well known, held an enormous amount of power. During the religious split, the freemasons used their various connections with the hierarchies of both sides to successfully over-throw the Bjornoyan Patriarchy. A brief civil-war ensued, and out of the chaos, the Bjornoyan Republic was founded, based on the ideas that all men were created equal, and all deserved to be free so they might be happy in life.
The Bjornoyan Freemasons were the first to introduce the philosophies of empiricism and utilitarianism. During this time, Bjornoya gave birth to some of the world's most brilliant scientists. Breakthroughs in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and philosophy abounded. What is now known as “Newtonian” physics was established in the Bjornoyan cities of Geopolis and Reise. A crude theory of capitalism was first established in the Bjornoyan city of Necropolis.
For the next 500 years, Bjornoya was an imperialistic power, setting up trading posts and colonies throughout the world. In Africa, Southeast Asia, and the New World, Bjornoya created thriving colonies. The progresses made by the arts and sciences now helped the Bjornoyan economy flourish. An age of colonialism was followed by mercantilism, industrialization, and finished by full-grown capitalism.
Throughout the 20th century, the Bjornoyan economy flourished with amazing strength. The citizens were happy and industrious, the cities grew, the children played, the adults worked, everyone was reasonably happy, except for two people.
For the rest of Bjornoya's History, see "Creating the Übermensch" (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=446513)