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HERE FOLLOWS THE SECOND EXTRACT FROM THE ARAQUENTA FORMEN EREINION:
The History of the Rise of Thandor (Volume II, unpublished)
by Engwe Parmandur, Lord Secretary of the Council, Keeper of the Greater and Lesser Seals, Knight of the most honourable order of the Eagle, Associate Fellow of the Schools of Kingsbridge and Emynos, Colonel of the Palace Guard, Gentleman of the Royal Wardrobe, Tabard to the College of Heralds, Wearer of the Silver Whistle, Ticket-Holder-in-Ordinary to the Royal Library, Member of the most Exclusive Clubs of Ruminas, etc., etc.
The present influx of refugees, which alarms the timorous amongst us while inflaming the bigotry of those who cherish an ideal of racial purity, ought rather to elicit the kindness of responsible citizens. A candid but rational enquiry into the origins of these barbarian people may be considered an essential part of the history of the Northern Realm, furnishing matter for a timely, or indeed an overdue chapter of the present work. Few are the subjects in which truth and error, fact and hearsay, tribal lore and childish fairytale appear so variously mingled. A more accurate delineation may help to lessen that prejudicial dislike of the poor displaced persons, such as has lately been witnessed both within and beyond the confines of the City-walls, and may also provide a useful context for the subject upon which the City is now being so fervently canvassed by the Priests of our Temple: the conversion of the far South.
The word barbarian comprehends a wide range of peoples. What quality unites the ice-dwellers of old Forograst, or the elusive tribes of the Falagwaith, with the men of Doroech, staunch allies of Turmal and joint-sharers in her many glorious victories? The answer is readily found. The use of letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilised people from a horde of barbarians, incapable of knowledge or reflection. Let us attempt, in an improved society, to calculate the immense distance between the man of learning and the peasant. The former, by reading and reflection, multiplies his own experience, and lives in distant ages and remote countries; while the latter, rooted to a single spot, and confined to a few years of experience, surpasses but very little his namesake the Swine in the exercise of his mental faculties. The same and even a greater difference will be found between nations than between individuals; and we may safely pronounce that without some species of writing no people has ever preserved the faithful annals of their history, nor made any considerable progress in the abstract sciences, nor ever possessed, in any tolerable degree of perfection, the useful and agreeable arts of life. When this test is applied to the subordinate races that dwell around the borders of the Northern Realm, only the punchkins and the elder dwarf-clans of Tingrod and Gabilgathol are discovered within the pale of civility. Among the barbarian ranks we place the following: I. The Nibyth. II. The men of Orogor. III. The Foriarim. IV. The mute dwarves. V. The fucking Falagwaith.
I. The origins of the Nibyth, that is the name for the confederacy of tribes inhabiting the land of Doroech, have been ably treated by previous writers. We shall content ourself with observing that they flourished during the Age of Wizards and assisted Kedral I in his wars; and that during the present Age their numbers increased until, lacking room, they became amenable to the designs of King Kelohtar. [Policy of Kelohtar, K.R. 210-260] Desiring to populate the restored realm of Thandor, he wooed the Nibyth and the folk of Turmal, whose numbers also had increased, with promises of abundant acreage, wide estates and seigneurial dignity. The men of the Nibyth gladly accepted the invitation, and the traffic that now flowed northward along the great Road was swelled with many thousands of tall flaxen-haired warriors, with their wives and children, their horses and light booths.
While the colonies prospered and the hillmen of Orogor were driven back, the migrants of the Nibyth became divided. Some were content to exchange to exchange the sword for the ploughshare, and these settled among the Turmalians within the limits of old Athenor. Its two chief towns, refounded as Emynos and Ruminas, grew in numbers and wealth; the land between them was divided into many homesteads and the two races were blended into one. The other Nibyth, perhaps the greater party, desiring a larger freedom like that of their ancestral plains, advanced northward and eastward. Beyond the River Malog they found a rich grassland, which according to legend had been formerly inhabited by elves! Despite the regrettable absence of these elegant beings, the eastward-faring Nibyth delighted in their new situation, bestowing upon it the favourable name of Newknife. For the next fifty years they were followed by waves of new settlers, until Leod, the then king of Doroech, prohibited further emigration. [K.R.305]
For the Nibyth who moved northward, see III. below.
II. The men of Orogor, from whom is derived the popular conception of Northern Barbarians, were a fierce untameable race. With their blue-painted skins and shaggy cloak-pelts, their scything chariot-wheels and ferocious courage in battle, they opposed from the outset, and ever continued to resist the establishment of Thandor. Mount Orogor itself, the tallest peak of the northern range of the Black Mountains, stands two hundred and fifty miles north of Ruminas and about three hundred miles north of the Demesne; yet these distances gave little protection against the Orogorian raiders. Throughout the reign of Kedrahil I, even though that monarch was able to spare more time than his father for the exigencies of the young realm, these nomads remained a constant terror to the refounded cities and to the unwarlike punchkins. Attempting to make peace with the Orogorians, Kedrahil was ambushed in the valley of Moreithel, escaping wounded after a sharp affray. [Battle of Moreithel, K.R.195] They were at last vanquished by Keldur Alcarin in the Battle of the North Downs. [K.R.308] He pursued them with great slaughter to the gates of their town: once captured, this served him as a strong bulwark at the edge of his northern dominions. To those of the conquered who laid down their arms Keldur displayed a prudent magnanimity, admitting them without penalty to the ranks of his subjects. Nearer our own time, their knowledge of the great oil-fields of Beraid Moreithel has proved an invaluable help, while true Orogorian courage and fortitude have been displayed by the King’s explorers, drillers and engineers. Others of their nation, enrolled into the ranks of the Aulendili, have made important contributions to science. To those who now cry, ‘Away with the alien hordes of the Foro!’ we retort that this same blood, mixed with the no less vigorous streams of the Nibyth, has long been established in our common stock. Very few indeed, probably not one in a thousand, are they who can trace pure descent from Turmal.
Yet the truth must be acknowledged, that many Orogorians turned their backs on the clemency of Keldur. Their chief settlement having been conquered, they retreated eastward, westward and farther into the mountains. A degenerate multitude of half-starved savages, persisting in warfare against the King, against each other and against all other inhabitants of the region, they were natural allies and recruits for Fëaruk. It is idle to deny that the City’s hostility towards the incomers is based on old and solid foundations, for during the lamentable wars that followed the first incandescence of the Worm his followers perpetrated much waste and cruelty.
III. The ancient race of the Foriarim long enjoyed a peaceful seclusion from the tumults and conflicts of Midyard. Most northerly of all the tribes, clad in seal-skin and reindeer hide, housing themselves in blocks of ice, they lived far beyond the ken of old Athenor: not until the adventurous Nibyth turned the flank of the mountains beyond the ice-bound northern bay did the Foriarim stumble on to the greater scene of history. This encounter of barbarian races was marked by ease and friendliness. The colonists preserved the customs of their native land: song and burial, mead-cup and saga: these accorded well with the customs of the ice-dwellers, whose religion was characterized by efforts to ensure good hunting and the annual return of the sun. The minds of the Nibyth were fascinated by their quaint myths and savage practices, including the horrid ritual of the sun-dance: the humble Foriarim were delighted by the possessions of these magnificent strangers, by sharp-bladed knives (iron being to them a thing unknown), by leather garments worked with beads or embroidery, and by the proud steeds on which the men of Doroech traversed the sunless plains. Over the course of several generations, as these two races were united, their hybrid cult matured into a system of belief, coherent and not untouched with sublimity, which they upheld with great devotion. Accordingly, although they cheerfully recognised the sovereignty of Thandor, they would never accept the Olosturian doctrine.
The pious heart of Olostur might grieve at such obduracy, yet that enlightened monarch would stoop to no form of persecution. Kedral III, his successor, resolved that all the subjects of his realm should be represented at the consecration of the Erumar. All, therefore, were summoned, and all came: the punchkins, the dwarves, the men of Newknife and Orogor and the lesser tribes of the north: all save the Foriarim or Foravari, for as such they then began to be known. This pointed disobedience marred the occasion even before the theft of the sacred fruit. From that time onward the Priests chanted daily prayers for the conversion of the unwilling heathen, which unwholesome ritual may be regarded as the origin of the general belief among us, that the Foravari are a separate and quite inferior race. Yet after recent events, which we are taught to contemplate as the interventions of Lord Dru himself, it seems that Ruminas may look forward with pleasure to that long-delayed conversion!
IV. Of the Mute Dwarves little can be said. Their appellation seems to derive from the privacy with which they conduct their own speech, as much as from their well-known unwillingness to use the common language. The interesting question of their rank among their own kind, whether subjects or thralls of the dominant clans of Kibilgathol, is no less obscure than all the other circumstances of this enigmatical species. We hear that they practise a rude and limited agriculture, that they willingly fought for the Dragon in his wars but have never subsequently taken up arms, and that they appear to endure the toils and hardships of Lhygost with stern fortitude. They are said to be inept at the fine handicrafts and metallurgy for which Lhygost is famed, but to excel at works of building and engineering, which they carry out with dwarvish dedication.
V. As for the Falagwaith, the history of Olostur II who encountered this people on his bewildered searches for the elves, and became so enamoured of the daughter of one of their chieftains that he idiot brought her back and wedded her as Queen Culuriel, merits no pissy detailed recounting. Pausing only to speculate on whether the hair of her crotch partook of that same fiery hue, we will mention the tale that these red-haired, blue-eyed pricks tell of their origins: that the race of Amalech were the third and least important of the legendary peoples who strove against Sorgrim crap in the Long Age redhaired bastard bastard barstad
Soon fuckng dead good ridance dead dead
Serve you fucking right
4⅔" / 9" ?
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