[centre][h3]SIDARA - SEIHDHARA - SDARA[/h3]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/T5Mttbh.jpg?1[/img][/centre]

[hider=Highly Summarised Nation Sheet]

[i]Name of Nation [/i]
[indent]The Esher [i]Ríghacd[/i] (also: Eshera, Clan Esher)[/indent]
[i]Government [/i]
[indent]Unitary Tribal Elective Monarchy[/indent]
[i]Capital[/i] 
[indent]Glenmagar[/indent]
[i]Species[/i] 
[indent]Human[/indent]
[i]History[/i] 
[indent]Sidara and its people are old, boasting nine-thousand years of human habitation and just under five-thousand years of true civilisation. Forming into many warring clans by 2,000 BGAM, they would be conqueror and conquered both from 900 BGAM until 7 BGAM. In their long history they have warred with the Héiswaepzí, the Baevnizí, and with the [i]ap Morig[/i] who utterly destroyed the great Baevnizí Republic. When the [i]ap Morig[/i] were finally cast back into the sea whence they came the Sdarids returned to warring amongst each other, and from these wars the states of the present day emerged. The Esher Ríghacd, though small, has been one of the more successful Sdarid states in this new period, dubbed the Glorious Age of Man.[/indent]
[i]Territory[/i]
[indent]
[hider=Map]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/RqxckRv.png[/img]
[/hider]
[/indent]
[i]Economy[/i]
[indent]The people of Esher, like the Sdarids of old, are not a merchant people and have no mind for such things. Their economy is largely agrarian and there land is fertile enough to ensure food autarky. Control over the Seihdh-Soul Strait and the World-Water Strait also ensures a fairly stable flow of funds.[/indent]
[i]Technology[/i]
[indent]The Sdarids are not great innovators in the fields of technology or agriculture. They see no reason to reinvent the wheel - ideas and technologies have flowed their way over the ages and they are rather adept at grasping and adapting them to their needs when they arrive. If magic is to be considered a technology - and Sdarids as a rule do not consider it as such - then it is perhaps the one area in which Esherans excel and lead.[/indent]
[i]Culture[/i]
[indent]Above all else, Esherans value the traditional Sdarid ideals of freedom, valour, honour, and loyalty, and they regard the family, clan, and tribe very highly. Fiercely independent, they consider the acceptance of enslavement in any form as the highest dishonour.
Esherans, like other Sdarids, are polytheistic and animistic, worshipping many gods and believing that spirits rest in all things. Foremost in their pantheon is Seihdhara, goddess of war and love, and who is the personification of Sidara. Every clan and tribe also has its own god believed to be the personification of that clan or tribe. They worship outdoors in stone circles, sacred groves, or near sacred springs. Leading worship, and many other responsibilities, falls to the Wyndyn. They are split into two classes: Treiwyndyn and Arwyndyn. The Treiwyndyn carry out everyday responsibilities and interact with the people. The Arwyndyn are scholarly druids. There is no official clergy in a sacerdotal sense.
Filim, poets, play a very important role in society and are all members of the Bardic Order - the [i]Cumannfil[/i]. Being praised by a Fili is a great honour, but being satirised by one is a source of immense shame. The words of Filim are believed to have great power in and of themselves.
Wyndyn can exile individuals for various reasons, these become Trosychen, outlaws who do not benefit from being part of society and to whom the law does not apply.
The elderly generally occupy positions of influence due to the clan structure of society (the elderly have children and grandchildrem, who naturally owe them a degree of allegiance). Children are considered the children of the entire clan. To become adults, they must undergo a rite of passage where they travel throughout Sidara for six months.
Fosterage is common across Sidarid societies, and this is no different in Esher. Fosterage involves a family giving its children over to other families. This is generally done for educational reasons and to bring families closer together. Children can also be fostered by skilled persons who teach them their craft.
In Eshera, women are considered more or less equal with men and have historically played important roles in leadership - on the battlefield, and elsewhere. The liberties enjoyed by women in Eshera, even before the establishment of the present-day nation, have generally been greated than elsewhere in the Sdarid world. Sidarids are polygamous, with men and women marrying as many times as they please. Sex is not constricted to spouses, though children should not be born out of wedlock.
There are four major and four minor festivals celebrated universally. These are Beltane, Sambane, Embilc and Lignsid, and the minor festivals are the two solstices and equinoxes.
On death, people are either cremated or have their bodies buried. The dead are generally buried in burial cysts and have a mound of either stone or earth built above them.[/indent]
[i]Army[/i]
[indent]The Esheran army is exceptionally powerful and prepared, honed to excellence by the constant warring with its neighbours, whose armies are no less prepared and honed than that of Eshera. The on land military balance hangs by a string in the region and tension is very high.[/indent]
[i]Navy[/i]
[indent]The Sidarid navy is respectable and is able to protect its two strategic straits. The main naval power in the region is the Gweilaerth Confederation, though the latter's weakness on land ensures a tense understanding between the two powers In return for not raiding Esheran shores, Gweilaerth raiders are allowed to pass through the two straits at a discounted price, though any a share of any loot passing through the straits (usually 15%) must be handed over to the Esherans.[/indent]

[i]Traits[/i]
[indent]Soul-names and Prophecies - Soul-names are given at birth and are said to strengthen one's link with the gods. Prophecies are personalised oaths of sorts which one must upkeep. Doing so can given one strength. Breaking one's prophecy can greatly weaken a person, even leading to death.
Willing Warriors - Sidarids love war. They want to do glorious things and achieve victory. Unfortunately their excitability makes them more likely to disobey orders.
Nothing but Customary Law - Sidara has no legislature. It is run completely by customary law. This differs from clan to clan and even from village to village, which can be extremely troublesome for anyone moving around, and even more so for foreigners trying to conduct trade.
Scholarly Druids - Arwyndyn have records of Sidarid history, law, magick, lore, and much else stretching back thousands of years. They are incredible founts of wisdom and knowledge. Unfortunately, they are highly secretive and usually communicate in a language unknown to any but themselves.[/indent]
[i]Rolls[/i]
[indent]
Land Area: [16 - 10] = 6
Land Fertility: [16 + 4] = 20
Development: 12
Land Power: [15 + 5] = 20
Naval Power: 14
Economy: [5+1] = 6
Magical Reserves: [18+2] = 20
Magical Sophistication: [17 + 3] = 20
Population: 21,780,000
[/indent]
[i]Current Monarch[/i]
[indent][i]Bhaenrhig[/i] Ros
[i]Rhig[/i] Ruaidhri[/indent][/hider]

[hider=A General Chronology of the Sidaric Peoples][centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/bevVxHk.jpg?1[/img]

[i]Men! Wull ye follow me?[/i]

[sub]BGAM - Before the Glorious Age of Man
OGAM - Of the Glorious Age of Man[/sub][/centre]

[list][*]~8,500 BGAM[indent]First human habitation.
[hider=Detail]First human habitation is evident from this period when early humans migrated into the area during the last ice age - it is possible that they were escaping threats from the east.[/hider][/indent]
[*]~4,000-3,500 BCE[indent]Dwellings, farming, animal domestication, fishing, waterfaring vessels, ritual burial, polytheistic religion, tribalism, [url=http://www.specialx.net/specialxdotnet/burntbones_images/Stonehenge1.jpg]stone circles[/url] all present.
[hider=Detail]Stone houses and farming first appear. Denizens of the region kept cattle, farmed barley & wheat, gathered shellfish, and engaged in pole & line fishing from boats. Grooved pottery appeared in the period, and chambered cairn tombs appear to have been developed. The earliest pottery depictions of a female goddess with a head of saffron date back from this time. Even from this early period, people appear to have been very connected, suggesting that clans were present or were at a developed point in their formation. A unique hallmark of early Sidarid culture that has endured are monuments in the form of standing stones, ranging from monuments of one large stone to monuments of hundreds of stones placed in complex shapes and piled on each other to create rudimentary arches. The early function of [url=http://www.specialx.net/specialxdotnet/burntbones_images/Stonehenge1.jpg]stone circles[/url] may have been to commemorate the end of clan feuds or wars and to honour the war goddess. In the present day they function as shrines to the Bear Mother Seihdhara and to other gods or spirits, as peaceful sanctuaries where arbitration between feuding parties can take place, and as gathering places during festivals, celebrations, and in preparation for war. The [i]Wyndyn[/i] as a distinct druido-magickal priestly class emerge in this period, and their discovery and utilisation magic occurs over an absurdly short period of time. The Sdarids believe magic was granted to them via divine means.[/hider][/indent]
[*]~2,000 BGAM-1000 BGAM[indent]The bronze age arrives in Sidara around 2000 BGAM, and hillforts begin appearing from around 1,500 BGAM. Clan hillfort settlements become an established part of Sidarid culture and society by 1,000 BGAM.
Contact with the eastern Héiswaep traders helped spur Sidarid cultural development. For the longest time Sidarids had been content with their insular existence, from time to time raiding one another or erupting into small clan feuds, but contact with these strange trading people - who would be dubbed 'the Headless Men' -  brought about a lust for the strange and wondrous goods bartered - and eventually not just bartered, but bought. The great Héiswaep trader, Eilaegi, and his father, Shruehaem, introduced the concept of currency to the Sidarids. The two Héiswaep merchants hired Sidarid clans to protect their great caravans as they journeyed westward through Sidarid lands and, across the Seihdh-Soul-Sea, on to the lands of the Gwereinmáchlíd - the 'Sunset-Folk'. The warriors in these Sdarid clans served as light infantry and as cavalry, protecting the traders from bandits and hostile tribes along the trading route. The gold coins the clans received in return made a deep impression on their greater tribes, who then sought out Héiswaep minting expertise. The Héiswaepzí gladly provided this technology since it made trade between the two peoples much easier, and soon the Sidarids were striking coins of their own, usually adorned with horses and sheaves of wheat. 
Sdarid tribes made their coins of gold and less often of silver, and very rarely of copper. Bronze or iron coins, common in some of the Héiswaep city-states, were not struck by the Sidarids. Coin-making became a refined art amongst the Sdarids - they very soon eclipsed their Héiswaep teachers and specialised craftsmen were making the dies for the coins. The methodologies developed in this period have remained largely unchanged to the present day.
First, blanks are made from gold or silver, which are melted and poured into special clay moulds. The die is a two-part affair: the blank is fitted into the heavy lower half, and the upper half then fitted over it. A worker then strikes the die with a heavy iron hammer, smashing the design into the gold or silver of the coin. Sdarid minters are very good at this, and doublestrikes or “smeared” coins, found often in the coinage of the Héiswaepzí and Gwereinmáchlídzí, are unknown among Sdarids. 
Because the Sidarids had no central government, the coinage was easily debased (mixed with inferior metals). Coins were commonly “shaved”: an unscrupulous trader would keep a small container out of sight and use a sharp blade to remove a sliver of gold from the edge of each coin he or she handles, dropping these ill-gotten gains into the container. Sdarid coins rapidly lost their original value, and traders often weighed them or even bit them. Gold mixed with a base metal is typically harder than pure or near-pure metal and so pure gold is very soft and will yield teeth marks if bitten. This remains an issue event to the present day. Powerful tribes usually minted their own coins with the image of their chief or king on them. Some tribes even used the extremely precious sacred-metal, halor, for coinage. However this met with stiff resistance from [i]Wyndyn[/i], who frowned upon the sacred-metal - believed to be the congealed blood of Seihdhara, fallen from the heavens where she does battle - being used for such base purposes.

By 1500 BGAM even silk from Csíbhrògh (later it would be discovered that silk, in fact, came all the way from Cúneacsbhrògh) had found its way into the hands of Sidarid [i]Lairds[/i].
The quantity traded remained small, and this meant that the acquisition of these exotic goods marked out certain [i]Lairds[/i] as a cut above the others. Such status symbols aided them in gaining greater power, and so the clans began to coalesce around ever-more-powerful leaders - leaders chosen from the then-supreme warrior class, for the [i]Wyndyn[/i] would not fully expand their powers for some centuries. With this greater power and organisation came the ability to wage war on an ever greater scale, though it would not come to be directed against non-Sidarids until the Iron Age.[/indent]
[*]~900-400 BGAM[indent]The onset of the Iron Age. Age of forts and defended farmsteads, as well as quarrelsome tribal confederations, petty tribal kingdoms, and the quick rise and fall of tribal warlords.
[hider=Detail]The onset of the Iron Age in Sidara occurs around 900 BGAM, initiating an age of forts and defended farmsteads, as well as quarrelsome clan confederations, petty tribal kingdoms, and the quick rise and fall of clan warlords. Huge numbers of small duns, hillforts, oppida, and ring forts were built on any suitable crag or hillock during this period, moreso than in the past where single hillforts were the norm for a clan. Brochs are also first constructed in this period. Many souterrain underground galleries (functioning as food stores or hiding places during times of strife) and passageways were constructed to ease movement and communications when the surface was compromised or too dangerous. Island settlements linked with land by a causeway, the so-called crannogs, also became common and served a primarily defensive purpose.
This period saw the swift expansion of Sidarid lands westward, across the Seihdh-Soul-Sea, and eastward into Higape, the lands of the Héiswaepzí - who thought to profit eternally from Sidarid desire for exotic goods from Csíbhrògh, Cúneacsbhrògh, and other far eastern realms. It also saw the rise of the Baevni Empire to the west, which wreaked havoc on Western Sidara (Wesdara).[/hider][/indent]
[*]740 BGAM[indent]A Héiswaep league of western merchant republics elected a Great Merchant to lead the defence of their lands against Sidarid encroachment. 

[centre][img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ObtvWZF2M70/Tp9KVhrZWSI/AAAAAAAACBk/Cc_J6IeCqj8/s1600/blemmias.jpg[/img]

[i]The Héiswaepzí, a Race of Headless Men[/i][/centre]

The newly formed league was both large and wealthy and would have almost certainly put a stop to Sidarid ambitions were it not for bad luck and the hurriedness of the Great Merchant, a man by the name of Gulgalu, who led his force against the Sidarids and faced them in open combat before all the forces of the League were at his disposal. Led by one [i]Laird[/i] Aenghas, the Sidarids were enthused by the opportunity to face their prey openly. Unprepared and poorly led, the Héiswaep force was defeated and scattered, and the Great Merchant Gulgalu was slain. His face was cut from his chest and paraded before the victorious Sidarid army.[/indent]
[*]739 BGAM[indent]Sidarid tribes invaded Higape again led by a [i]Laird[/i] named Rhigh. The Héiswaepzí fended off the Sdarids, but could not stop them from moving on into Higape. A force led by the prominent city-state of Buoriga moved to stop them at the pass of Ulaemip, the only useful route southward towards the rich Héiswaep cities. Barbarians the Sdarids may have been, but centuries of trade meant that they knew their neighbour well by now. They bypassed the Buorigzí by using a mountain path commonly used by merchants wishing to avoid the bandits who sometimes lay in wait at the pass of Ulaemip. When the Buorig fleet tried to evacuate the army, the Sdarids launched an attack and a fierce battle broke out at the water’s edge. The Héiswaepzí managed to drive off the Sdarids after heavy losses on both sides. Leaving their dead behind, the invaders headed on toward their real goal, the sacred Tuohimil Oracle.
For centuries, Héiswaepzí had donated treasures to the Oracle and its god, Fo. The Sdarids now pillaged these riches but were surprised in the course of their looting and desecration by a relieving Héiswaep army. According to Héiswaep writers, the actions of the Sdarids enraged Fo, who smote the thieving raiders with earthquakes and thunderbolts, slaying thousands of them.
Whatever the case, the Sdarids were harassed by guerrilla strikes from small bands of Héiswaepzí. A nighttime raid also created great confusion, and Sdarid contingents mistakenly fought one another in the darkness. The next day’s fighting against the Héiswaepzí went badly, and [i]Laird[/i] Rhigh suffered a serious wound. Shamed by this immense defeat, he followed the Sdarid custom of enlarging the wound to make it more conspicuous, killing himself in the process. The remainder of the Sdarids put their own wounded to death and straggled north, losing still more warriors to Héiswaep attacks along the way. A pitiful remnant returned to their homelands, still loaded with immense treasures.
One wing of the Sdarid host would go on to found a small pirate kingdom on the shore of the World-Water, which endured for several generations - they raided the Héiswaep cities on the World-Water's coast and gained a fearsome reputation for their habit of sacrificing prisoners. So cruel did the Héiswaepzí consider them that people would commit suicide at the very approach of Sdarid raiders. This greatly amused the Sdarids, who enjoyed marching toward Héiswaep cities just to watch the citizens fling themselves from the walls. 
Another group of the Sdarid host would cross the World-Water to serve as mercenaries on distant islands, eventually founding the long-lived kingdom of Sadeiríya. Still others returned to Higape for decades to come, this time invited as paid swords for hire. But they would never again threaten to conquer Higape.

Though there were undoubtedly Sdarid excursions - such as that of [i]Laird[/i] Rhig - that aimed after loot and glory, Sdarid tribes tended more often to migrate due to population pressures. Those same pressures that saw them expand eastward towards Higape saw them also expand westwards towards Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh (lit. Land of the Sunset-Folk). For traders not only brought luxury goods from east and west; they also alerted Sdarids to the existence of rich lands they could plunder and potentially settle...[/indent]
[*]550 BGAM[indent][indent]'These are not civilised people who will become your ally when you have taken their city, but wild beasts whose blood we must shed or see them spill our own.' - An Anonymous Baevni Military Leader[/indent]

The Gwereinmáchlídzí were organised into a number of kingdoms and republics, all which had early contact with the Sdarids both through trade and due to the Gwereinmáchlíd expansion. Of these republics, the Baevnizí, centred on the city of Baevin, soon formed a lasting alliance with the more easterly city-state of Baxiria to counter the Sdarid threat. Sdarid settlers arrived in the Torg River Valley of Eastern Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh around 550 BGAM and soon invaded the lands of the Kulgum, a Gwereinmáchlíd people neighbouring the Baevnizí.[/indent] 
[*]548 BGAM[indent]Baevni ambassadors tried to arrange peace between the Sdarids and the Kulgum city of Diharc but carelessly took the side of their neighbours against the Sdarids when fighting broke out anyway. The Sdarids emerged victorious from the battle and demanded compensation from Baevin for this breach of the peace.
Baevin acknowledged the wrongdoing but elected two of the disgraced ambassadors as the new year’s consuls. Taking this for the insult the Baevnizí surely intended, the Sdarids - led by [i]Laird[/i] Rhigh (a common leader’s nickname during the period, meaning “king”) - marched on Baevin. At least three tribes took part, Rhigh's own Waégnú tribe and their allies, the Hóeryéfni and Panoagh tribes. Rhigh and his men smashed a Baevni army at the Oragi Moors and pressed on to the city itself.
Although later Baevni historians recorded great acts of heroism by the ancestors of every prominent family, the Baevnizí could not stop the Sdarids. The invaders burned and pillaged the so-called Sunlit City with great enthusiasm. Only a small Baevni garrison held out on one of the city's fourteen hills, fending off repeated assaults. Unable to force the Sdarids to leave, the Baevnizí negotiated a peace. For one-thousand pounds of gold, the Sdarids would head back east and leave Baevin. When Baevni negotiators protested that the scales were unbalanced, Rhigh famously tossed his sword on the scales to add to the weight and declared: “Janask Jatedi,” in broken Culiv - the language of the Baevni. “Woe to the vanquished.”

[centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/Yh125Lq.jpg?1[/img]

[i]Janask Jatedi[/i][/centre]

Rhigh’s victory did not end Sdarid attacks on Baevni lands, and the Baevnizí made sure their own people never forgot the insult. [i]Janask Jatedi[/i] became a Baevni watchword and the basis for Baevni policy towards defeated peoples. Every new generation of the Baevni upper classes grew up thirsting for vengeance against those who had sacked their invincible city. A century later, Gijer Dul would still cite the Sdarid sack of Baevin as justification for his atrocities against Wesdarid civilians...[/indent]
[*]548-460 BGAM[indent]Gulubi, a powerful Héiswaep city peering over the World-Water on the western continental coast, just north of Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh, saw Baevin as a potential rival and funded repeated Sdarid incursions for a half-century after Rhigh's victory. In 497 BGAM, the Baevni consul Fohir Tor defeated a Sdarid [i]Laird[/i] in single combat and took his golden torc, greatly demoralising the Sdarids and ending that particular threat to Baevin. In 490 BGAM the tribune Harok answered a challenge and strode forward for the ritual exchange of insults before battle. While he and his opponent berated one another (with neither probably understanding a word), a raven perched on Harok's helmet. The Sdarids took this as an evil omen and swiftly quit the field.
Almost as though they followed a calendar, about once per generation the Sdarids launched a mass invasion of Baevni lands. Driven by new tribes crossing the Seihdh-Soul-Sea, themselves moved by population increases to the east, the wars continued with neither side able to gain an advantage. Sdarid gains from these movements were balanced by Baevin's increasing dominance over the Culiv-speaking peoples of Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh.
However Sdarid leaders suffered a key weakness throughout their history in this period: their near-total lack of geographic sense blinded them to larger political realities. They continually passed up chances to attack while Baevin engaged in life-or-death struggles with other Gwereinmáchlídzí, such as the Kulgumzí, Lohinzí, Shumgzí, Ehopzí, in addition to the non-Gwereinmáchlíd Horidjzí from the north who had by now conquered Gulubi and were advancing on Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh. Then, when Baevin had no such distractions, the Sdarids would attack alone. Had they taken advantage of any of these opportunities, which occurred over the course of about one-hundred years, there is little doubt that Baevin would have perished.

When Ungar-Harukin, the glorious Horidj general, led his elephants south against Baevin in 469 BGAM, many Sdarids he crossed on his route - in what is today western Haiho land - joined his forces, but the tribes made no concerted effort to intervene in the war. Instead, they waited until Ungar-Harukin had been defeated and then attacked the Baevnizí. This time, the tribes of western Haiho met their final defeat and came under direct Baevni rule. But conflict between Sdarid and Baevni was far from over - this was only the beginning of an epic and, for the Sdarids, tragic saga.[/indent]
[*]460-403 BGAM[indent][indent]'To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: Mark where their carnage and their conquests cease! They make a solitude, and call it — peace!' — Cel-Duibur, A [i]Laird[/i] of Clan Esher of the Culldinoan Tribe[/indent]

The most influential individual in Sdarid history in this period (or perhaps in any other period before) had no Sdarid blood himself. Gijer Dul completely overturned the Wesdarid world in a series of military campaigns designed primarily to enrich himself and increase his political power at home. The destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives, massive property, and nearly a whole civilisation, just happened to be the collateral damage from Dul's ambitions.[/indent]
[*]457 BGAM[indent]Population movements from Easdara (eastern Sidara) started the chain of events that led to the Baevni conquest. The Auldeahui, a Sdarid tribe allied to Baevin, had long-standing feuds with the neighbouring Afurihn to the southwest of their lands and the Coaduagh to the northeast. The powerful Xunikghza tribe, belonging to a nomadic non-Sdarid people called the Kurgamish, had also been moving southward for some decades already, and had formed an alliance with the Sdarid [i]Rhighacd[/i] of Noegaera. The Coaduagh, also friends of Noegaera, used this connection to invite the Xunikghza to cross the River Chjelbui running through Wesdara and help them in their war with the Auldeahui. As the Xunikghza king Curxknga had made himself a friend to Baevin through his alliance with Noegaera, the Baevnizí ignored Auldeahui calls for intervention.
Things changed when the Huidinogh tribe began to move eastward from their lands in what is now northern-eastern Wesdara. Overpopulation, and the fear of advancing Kurgamishzí, led them to seek new lands to the west. Their [i]Laird[/i], Uorsein-Gator, asked permission to enter Baevni-ruled Wesdara. Gijer Dul, just named proconsul, brought his army up and engaged them, inflicting defeat on them. Unswayed in their determination to find new homes, the Huidinogh sought out a different route.

The Coaduagh, eager to create more problems for the Auldeahui, gave the Huidinogh and their allies, the Baoruio, free passage through their lands and into the Auldeahui territory. The Auldeahui called on Baevin to save them.
Gijer Dul answered promptly, falling on the Huidinogh as they besieged the Auldeahui capital. He smashed the tribe, selling tens of thousands into slavery. He allowed the Baoruio to return to their homelands. With the Auldeahui saved from one threat, he next turned to Curxknga and ordered him to leave Wesdara. The Kurgamish king refused, and Dul marched quickly to fight him as well.
The Baevnizí fought the Xunikghza with unusual fury, charging them so fast that the legions did not even throw their javelins before crashing into the Kurgamish shield-wall. The Kurgamish broke under the attack, and Baevni cavalry (many of them Sdarid auxiliaries) rode down the survivors. Curxknga escaped, but the Baevnizí slaughtered both of his wives and most of his children.
Gijer Dul had what he had come for: a major military victory over an ancient foe of Baevin. He had even fought and won a second major battle over a different enemy, an unexpected bonus. His battlefield skills became the talk of Baevin, exactly what he needed to further his political ambitions.
Dul returned to Western Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh for the winter, disposing of his profits and engaging in long-distance politicking; he could not re-enter Baevni Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh itself without giving up his proconsulship. Using his new-found wealth, he recruited two new legions among the Baevni settlers and assimilated Sdarids of Toga-wearing Wesdara, as the Baevnizí called the parts of Wesdara they had conquered. He neither requested nor received approval from the Senate to raise these troops, a major breach of Baevni law and custom.[/indent]
[*]456 BGAM[indent]At some point during this winter, Dul seems to have realised that he could gain even greater profit from a war of conquest in Wesdara. So when the winter ended, he claimed that the Golturae tribe had massed their tribes for an attack on his army, quartered in the lands of the Coaduagh. The Golturae certainly had made ready for war, minting special gold coins to finance the effort and calling in mercenaries from as far away as Northern Easdara. One Golturae clan, the Rhaemigh, tried to defect to the Baevni side. The [i]Rhigh[/i] Guilbuo of the Golturae, belonging to the Suosaenu clan, led a huge Golturae army against their capital.
Gijer Dul sped north, accompanied by his senior staff and, most importantly for his own fortunes, a whole retinue of slave dealers. He rejoined his army and led them on one of his famous forced marches to relieve the Rhaemigh. The Baevnizí caught Guilbuo's army in the midst of crossing a river and inflicted a massive defeat on them. The coalition swiftly began to break up, with individual clans withdrawing to defend their homelands from the Baevni onslaught. The Baevnizí chased down the fleeing clans, killing ten of thousands of their warriors. Shocked by the rapid defeats, the older men and boys left at home to garrison the oppida (a Sdarid form of fortified town) surrendered at the approach of the Baevnizí, often without a fight.
One Golturae clan, the Magaeruic, vowed to never surrender. Considered the most warlike of the Golturae, the Magaeruic had a reputation for hating Baevni traders, considering them liars and cheats. Taking this vow as the insult to Baevin the Magaeruic surely intended, Gijer Dul quickly marched against their capital.
But the Magaeruic had studied Baevni ways. They knew that Baevni armies always halted before nightfall to build fortified camps, and would choose ground for defense. The Magaeruic plotted the Baevni march route, predicted where Dul would halt, and, when his men scattered to cut down trees and dig ditches, the Magaeruic were waiting. They swept out of the trees in a silent charge, having put aside their war trumpets and boasting. It was a remarkable display of discipline, and it almost changed history. The Magaeruic got in among the Baevnizí before they could form up to use their devastating close-order tactics and managed to turn the battle into a series of swirling group and individual duels – the sort of fighting at which the Sdarids excelled.

Only the personal leadership of Gijer Dul and Heikus Albintus, the X Legion’s veteran commander, kept the three legions present from being slaughtered. While they held off the Magaeruic and tried to reform their ranks, the other three legions of the army arrived in formation and drove into the Sdarids. The Magaeruic fought furiously, even heaping up their dead to make ramparts, but they finally broke and fled, leaving behind thousands of dead. This time, though, the dead also included a huge number of Baevnizí.
The campaign ended with the defeat of the Agatugh, who had marched to join the Magaeruic but recoiled from the dangerous ambush plan. Instead, they pretended to surrender their capital and then attacked the Baevnizí. Dul had his men ready, and the Agatugh were crushed. Fifty-three thousand of them marched off to Baevin in iron chains.

Many Easdarid warriors had crossed the Seihdh-Soul-Sea to participate in the war against Dul and the Baevnizí. Most of these fought as mercenaries, paid by the Golturae to help bolster their own forces. Some [i]Lairds[/i] of the tribes related to the Golturae also dispatched warriors of their own volition, as the arguments of the Golturae leaders had convinced them that there was more at stake in this war than simply honour or land. The Baevnizí were shocked by the ferocity of these men, and surprised at the much greater proportion of fighting women among them than were found amongst the Wesdarids. Few were taken prisoner as the Easdarids tended to kill themselves first, but the handful who were captured were savagely put to death.

These Easdarids were generally larger than their Wesdarid counterparts and had darker hair and skin, betraying the fact that they were likely mostly of the Culldinoan Tribe of northern Easdara. Those of the Culldinoan Tribe were the most likely among the Sdarids to paint their bodies for combat (usually blue, using azurite clay). Female warriors at times clad themselves in black robes to increase their fearsome appearance; they were also sometimes found as guards sworn to protect religious sites (chiefly, sacred oak groves).[/indent]
[*]455 BGAM[indent]Gijer Dul spent the winter once again in Western Gwereinmáchlídbhrógh defending his political position. Many in Baevin now feared the power represented by his new-found wealth and private army. When spring came in 455 BGAM, he ordered his legions to start building a fleet of warships on the Seihdh-Soul-Sea's coast. At about the same time, the tribes of Uiwghreim rose in revolt against Baevin.
During the previous year, the tribes living in what is now south-eastern Haiho accepted Baevni rule without resistance after the fearsome defeats suffered by the Golturae, but during the winter, they had time to reconsider and found they hated the Baevnizí once they got to know them. Led by the Veucioghr, the Sdarid world’s greatest sailors, they now called together their warriors and prepared to attack the Baevnizí.
The Veucioghr used their fleets to retreat away from oppida threatened by Dul's land forces. The Baevni fleet moved to stop them, and in a great naval battle destroyed Veucioghr sea-power. Using long grappling hooks to shred the rigging of the Sdarid vessels, the Baevnizí immobilised them so they could either board them or set them on fire. With their fleet eliminated, the Veucioghr surrendered. Dul put all of their leaders to death and sold the entire tribe into slavery.
For his last campaign of the year, Dul marched against the Maorheghn, who lived on the coast of the Haiho Sea in what is now north-eastern Haiho. The Maorheghn, who had not sought this war, did not want to risk the same fate as their Golturae neighbors. They burned their own oppida and withdrew into the deep forests, daring the Baevnizí to follow. Dul tried, but his plan to simply cut down the entire forest proved impractical and he sent his troops into winter quarters with the Maorheghn still free of Baevni rule.[/indent]
[*]454 BGAM[indent]For several years, Dul had been planning to invade the Culldinoan, across the Seihdh-Soul-Sea in northern Easdara. It would be a great feat of arms to cross the sea, something no Baevni had ever done. Culldinoania - as the land was called by the Baevnizí - had tin, and many Baevni traders wanted to control both these mines and the huge market for Baevni wine that then region had become. Finally, Dul despite his ambitions remained a Baevni at heart, and Baevin never tolerated a threat. The appearance of Culldinoan warriors fighting alongside the Golturae proved that this land needed to be subjugated.
Before the fleet could sail, however, two Kurgamish tribes, the Huksunkxa and the Twoxtiq, crossed into northern Wesdara. Dul marched to expel them, and the Kurgamish leaders proposed a three-day truce. During the truce, a skirmish broke out between Kurgamish cavalry and Sdarid horsemen serving Dul's army. When the Kurgamish chieftains came to meet with Dul, he used the fight as an excuse to imprison them and then quickly marched his army to launch a surprise attack on the leaderless Kurgamish.
Believing the Baevnizí would honour the truce, the Kurgamish had no guards posted, and their warriors scrambled to arm themselves even as the Baevnizí began killing their people. Dul ordered that no one be spared: 430,000 Kurgamish men, women, and children were put to the sword. In Baevin, the Senate coldly refused to grant Dul the honours of victory, accusing him of staining the army’s reputation. Something spectacular had to be done to regain the public’s favour.
A Kurgamish tribe on the other side of the River Chjelbui refused to hand over the survivors who had escaped the massacre. Taking this as pretext for invasion, Dul had his men build a bridge over the Chjelbui, a great feat of engineering. His army then spent eighteen days burning farms and murdering Kurgamish non-combatants before withdrawing back over the river and dismantling the bridge. Another feat would have to be accomplished, and soon.
While most of his army went after the Maorheghn again, Dul took two legions and invaded Culldinoania. Having spotted the approaching ships waiting for a favourable tide, the Culldinoan donned their blue war-paint and met the Baevnizí right on the beach. Many waded into the surf or drove their chariots into the water to attack the Baevnizí. The outnumbered Culldinoan could not hold for long, though, and eventually Dul's men forced their way ashore and set up a beachhead. Despite this temporary success, Dul found that he was unable to consolidate his position and was forced to withdraw before winter returned.[/indent]
[*]453 BGAM[indent][indent]'Culldinoania - avoid that unusual and extravagant word as the sailor does the rock.'— Gijer Dul[/indent]

Dul could not allow the defeat to stand, and sold his withdrawal to the Baevni public as merely the planned result of a reconnaissance in force. He spent the winter once again tending to his political position and writing a guide to Culiv grammar, recommending a forceful and direct style. His troops spent the winter building more ships, and, when spring came, Dul found six-hundred vessels ready for his use. In addition, hundreds of traders, slave dealers, adventurers and political lackeys attached themselves to his headquarters. And, to spite his political enemy Durmikio Onbrasokus, Dul brought along an elephant as well. Onbrasokus’ grandfather rode an elephant when he conquered south-western Wesdara for Baevin, and Dul planned to do the same when he added Culldinoania to Baevin's empire.
Before he could leave, Dul learned of a planned uprising by the Tuiopu, Wesdara's leading cavalry power. He marched quickly to cow their [i]Laird[/i], Eigomar, who handed over two-hundred hostages in a pledge of good behaviour. With that settled, the invasion of Culldinoania could begin in earnest.
This time, five legions made the trip, along with two-thousand Sdarid cavalry. Dul got ashore without opposition and quickly moved inland to confront the nearest tribe. But once again a storm damaged his fleet. While Dul had spent the winter in preparation, so had the tribes of Culldinoania. Several of those in the south had placed their warriors under the command of Cel-Duibur, [i]Laird[/i] of Clan Esher and widely considered Culldinoania's best general.
Cel-Duibur ordered his men to employ guerrilla tactics against the Baevnizí. They withdrew before major forces and tried to filter behind the Baevni advance guards to fall on supply trains and isolated units of soldiers. While Dul sought a decisive battle, the wily Sdarid drew him ever further away from his ships and the route back to Wesdara. Dul fought his way across the River Dhoium with the help of his elephant, and accepted the surrender of the Tuihroam, an important tribe. But Cel-Duibur now disbanded most of his army, keeping four-thousand chariot-riders and sending many of the rest slipping back past the Baevnizí for a surprise attack on their beachhead. Dul and a small personal guard rushed back to the camp, but by the time they arrived the one legion there had smashed the uncoordinated Sdarid attack.
With his plan now foiled, Cel-Duibur decided to give up. Gijer Dul took a few hostages and went back to Wesdara before winter storms made the passage impossible. While he declared the mission a great success, the Baevni public was less than impressed. Already, his political hopes seemed to be fading.
Wesdara had suffered poor harvests in 453 BGAM, and so Dul spread out his eight legions in separate camps for the winter. The Sdarids saw their opportunity and rose in a series of coordinated attacks in the fall of the year with the Magaeruic in the lead. The Eiburion, a Golturae tribe, led by their [i]Rhigh[/i] Umberuiss, wiped out one legion and killed half of another. When Dul rushed to relieve one of his legions, he found the Magaeruic building siege works copied from Baevni practice, hacking away at trees and earth with their swords since warriors would never touch a shovel. While he saved that camp, the Sdarids were learning and learning fast.[/indent]
[*]452 BGAM[indent]This time, Gijer Dul spent the winter among his troops, trying to repair their fading morale and madly recruiting replacements. He raised two new legions, plus a third to replace the lost unit. In addition, he convinced his political ally, Xorna Mrognis (Xorna the Magnificent) to lend him troops from Xorna's army in the lands north of Wesdara. But as the winter progressed, the news got worse: Xorna's wife, Cuia, died in childbirth. He seems to have genuinely loved her, but theirs had been a political marriage – Dul was her father. Soon, that alliance would start to fray.
The Sdarids remained busy as well, bringing more adherents to their cause. Once again, they launched a winter campaign, striking the Baevnizí at their most vulnerable. Sdarids, considering war a sport, preferred to fight during summertime, but they managed to put aside these practices, and fought in the dreary rains and snow. Baevnizí huddled around their fires learned to fear the dark nights. When spring came, Dul responded, and, in a series of campaigns, managed to subdue the Magaeruic and their allies. Albintus scored a smashing victory over the Tuiopu, and broke their power.
As the campaign in the north dragged on, however, Sdarids from other regions began to see Baevni vulnerabilities. The powerful, well-organized tribes of Central Wesdara had been bypassed by Dul's earlier campaigns – probably because of Baevni commercial interests there, and because they seemed most apt to assimilate to Baevni ways quickly and easily. They might have stayed quiet, but news from Baevin showed the Republic to be at its end, and this gave new courage to Baevin's Sdarid enemies.[/indent]

[*]451 BGAM[indent]With Cuia dead, Dul's political alliance with Xorna crumbled. The great Baevni general now had to devote all of his energy to holding his proconsulship since his long list of enemies would quickly destroy him should he lose immunity from prosecution. Baevin's immediate future lay in the relationship between its two greatest leaders, not in its institutions. Sdarid leaders, chiefly the Culldinoan, Cor-Haedeil of the Uraegier, realised this. Haedeil had been one of Dul's hostages during the Culldinoania campaign and now explained to his Wesdarid counterparts just how much the Baevnizí depended on their leader. Agreeing, the Sdarids began their campaign with an attack on the Baevni grain depot at Hurfna, wiping out the garrison and executing many Baevni traders for cheating Sdarids.
Responding to Haedeil and impressed by the daring assault on Hurfna, 20-year-old chieftain Vercin-Gator of the Orfeinugh led his troop of cavalry out of Baevni service and began to gather tens of thousands of warriors. He then sent a force deep into the western Baevni Wesdara to harass the Baevnizí.
Gijer Dul sped back and made a daring ride through Sdarid-controlled territory to reach his army in Eastern Wesdara. Showing his usual speed and energy, he marched west to face Vercin-Gator, who ordered the tribes in his path to burn their oppida and fields to deny the Baevnizí food and shelter. In an unusual development for the Sdarids, however, the Baelgund had become attached to their capital, Hoerv. Most agreed it was the most beautiful of all the Wesdarid oppida, and the Baelgund believed its huge walls made it impregnable. Vercin-Gator agreed to its defense, and brought up his army nearby to harass the Baevnizí as they laid siege to the fortress.
Dul's troops built a pair of huge ramps, each sporting a tall siege tower. Between them, a terrace of tree trunks held up the whole structure. When the ramps approached the wall, a daring Sdarid raiding party managed to slip out of Hoerv one night and set the Baevni siegeworks on fire. The defenders poured out to finish the job, and the Baevnizí counterattacked. After fierce fighting, they pushed the Sdarids back into the town. The next day, helped by a driving rainstorm, they pushed the surviving tower up to the wall and breached the defenses. When resistance finally collapsed, Dul ordered everyone in Hoerv put to the sword.
Next, the Baevnizí marched on the Orfeinugh capital, Kierkaroafa. Vercin-Gator's army harassed them the entire way. When the Baevnizí reached the oppidum, they found a powerfully-built mountaintop fortress. However, the Orfeinugh had allowed their allies to build walled camps adjacent to their walls, and the Baevnizí easily managed to penetrate these hastily-built lines. When they assaulted the walls, though, a counterattack cut off the raiders and destroyed them. A few days later, Dul withdrew to the east.
Kierkaroafa was the only defeat the Baevnizí suffered under Dul's direct command, and it had wide-ranging effects. The unbeatable Baevni had been beaten. Tribes that had wavered in their allegiance now rushed to support Vercin-Gator. Even the Auldeahui chieftains, those long-time allies of Baevin, threw their swords at the feet of the young Orfeinugh [i]rhigh[/i]. Dul united all ten of his legions and recruited  Kurgamish mercenaries to bolster his forces.
Vercin-Gator now held the initiative – rare for the Sdarids in their struggles with Dul – and attacked western Baevni Wesdara again. Dul, as the Sdarids well knew, had no choice but to head west to defend Baevni territory. The Wesdarids launched a surprise attack on Dul's army with their cavalry, but Vercin-Gator held back his foot soldiers, probably due to his youth and inexperience. What could have been a stunning victory instead led to the loss of thousands of Sdarid horsemen.
Vercin-Gator withdrew to the nearby oppida of Peilugin, and Dul followed. This time, the Baevnizí constructed elaborate siegeworks to ring the Sdarid town with ditches, barricades, and walls. The Sdarid [i]rhigh[/i] sent out clouds of riders to raise all the tribes of Wesdara to come to his aid, and they responded. All of Dul's old enemies marched on Peilugin, including some he had claimed to have exterminated: the Magaeruic, Veucioghr, Huidinogh, Maorheghn and more. In all, forty-three tribes sent warriors. Even the Uraegier of Southern Culldinoania sent four-thousand warriors, and the Wesdarids chose the Uraegier [i]laird[/i] Haedeil to lead the relief force.
While the Wesdarids assembled, Dul's men frantically built a second line of fortifications facing outward. Three times Sdarid attacks failed to breach the Baevni lines, and, after the last one, Baevni and Kurgamish cavalry rode down thousands of Wesdarids. Haedeil could not hold the relief force together, and tribe after tribe defected and went back home. Running out of food, Vercin-Gator decided to surrender. Dul allowed the Orfeinugh and Auldeahui to return home and made the rest slaves, giving one prisoner to each Baevni soldier as a reward.
Vercin-Gator was made to surrender in an elaborate ceremony and was then sent back to Baevin in chains where he was ritually strangled in Dul's honor six years later.
After the epic defeat at Peilugin, Haedeil and his diehard Uraegier went west to continue resistance, joining with the Baehlir to attack the Rofnigh, the pro-Baevni tribe in eastern Wesdara. Dul marched east to relieve the Rofnigh once again. He found the Baehlir camped behind a thick swamp, and had his men build portable bridges to cross the wet ground and attack the Sdarids. The Baehlir [i]laird[/i], Caerus, had his men gather huge quantities of brush and sticks and pile them into a massive wall in front of the Baevnizí. When the Baevnizí approached it, they set it on fire and ran in the opposite direction.
Caerus set up a new ambush for the Baevnizí, but a Kurgamish mercenary betrayed his plans to Dul, who sprang an ambush of his own on the Baehlir. Caerus refused to surrender, hacking down every Baevni who approached with wide swings of his sword. Surrounded by Baevnizí, he still would not give up, and so they stood back and riddled him with arrows.
Next, Dul headed north to deal with Umberuiss of the Eiburion, who still decorated his house with the heads of the Baevni legates Schubnu and Qitud from his destruction of their legions two years earlier. But Umberuiss took to the woods and conducted a guerrilla campaign, killing isolated Baevni soldiers but refusing to meet them in open battle. Dul chose not to continue the effort in bad weather and sent his troops into winter quarters. After a winter spent defending his political position via letter and messenger, Dul returned to the field and mopped up the Quihuitan, who had a fortress that seemed invulnerable and had laid in huge supplies of food. However, the Baevnizí figured out how to divert the streams that fed the springs on which they depended for water. The Quihuitan surrendered, and Dul ordered his troops to cut off the hands of all who had borne arms against the Baevnizí.[/indent]
[*]403 BGAM[indent]The [i]ap Morig[/i] invade first Baevin and then Sidara, alongside their lumbering, [i]Alluidh[/i]-riding green minions - the [i]ap Gynurk[/i].
[hider=Detail]In their eternal hunger for expansion, the [i]ap Morig[/i] erupted from across the western sea and utterly destroy Baevin, before extending their hands towards Sidara. The initial invasion by these eldritch beings and their lumbering, [i]Alluidh[/i]-riding green minions - the [i]ap Gynurk[/i] - was really nothing more than a raid, but eventually hordes of the [i]ap Gynurk[/i] landed, led by their eldritch overlords, and the Sidarid clans - disunited and ever embroiled in internal wars and feuds - could do nothing before their dread horror.[/hider][/indent]
[*]393-7 BGAM[indent]The period of Sidarid subjugation to the [i]ap Morig[/i]. By 10 BGAM the power of the [i]ap Morig[/i] had largely waned, and their last strongholds fell to Sidarid clans in 7 BGAM. Now the [i]ap Morig[/i] occupy a position directly opposed to the gods in the Sidarid weltanschauung, and are the manifestations of all things evil. It is said that their descendants dwell even to this day beyond the western sea, plotting and scheming and planning the release of their forefathers and the reconquet of Seihdhara.
[hider=Detail]The period of Sidarid subjugation to the [i]ap Morig[/i]. Various parts of the region fell into the power of the [i]ap Morig[/i] over the centuries, but never all of Seihdhara at any one point. Their rule was always hindered by constant clan risings and rejection of foreign subjugation, as well as invasions by clan confederations that retained or had re-established their independence.
One of the early confrontations between the Sidarids and ap-Morig came after the ap-Morig devastated and conquered the south Wesdarid Geihuim tribe.

With the utter devastation of Baevin clear for all to see, and the intention of the [i]ap Morig[/i] to invade Sidara clear, the remaining major tribes quietly made their deals with the [i]ap Morig[/i] - the Eugein and Uraegier becoming client kingdoms. One [i]rhigh[/i] Coalighn would not rest, though, and continued to organise resistance in what is today north-eastern Haiho. The Sheoline of eastern Haiho became fanatical supporters, and an [i]ap Morig[/i] grand magicker set out after him with a terrifying horde.
Coalighn finally was cornered by the grand magicker in 349 BGAM, turning to give them battle to protect the huge column of refugees, mostly women and children, which his army had acquired. [i]ap Morig[/i] dread-horror overcame the Sheoline’s fury, and the Sdarid army broke up. The [i]ap Morig[/i] fell on the camp followers, slaughtering many and seizing thousands as slaves, including Coalighn’s wife and daughter.
This disaster seems to have taken the will out of the great Sdarid [i]laird[/i], who instead of falling back with the Sheoline went east across the Seihdh-Soul-Sea in response to an offer of aid from the Builagnh. Their scheming warrior-[i]bhaenrhigh[/i], Mhundacara, promptly threw him into chains and gave him to the [i]ap Morig[/i]. Her husband, Fineic, considered this a dishonorable act and open warfare broke out between the royal couple. Mhundacara also began sleeping with her husband’s shield-bearer to deepen the insult.
Fineic defeated his wife’s faction, and the [i]ap Morig[/i] rushed across the Seihdh-Soul-Sea to reinstate their vassal. Meanwhile Coalighn went in chains to the ruins of Baevin, where the [i]ap Morig[/i] had established their temporary capital. There Coalighn was pardoned by the mysterious overlord of the [i]ap Morig[/i] and sent into exile, where he was reunited with his family.

After Coalighn went into exile, the the [i]ap Morig[/i] did nothing, and the Sdarids remained quiet for the next decade. In 335 BGAM, a new grand magicker took charge in the east. An ambitious creature, it aimed to further the conquests of the [i]ap Morig[/i] by subjugating the rest of Wesdara and crossing the Seihdh-Soul-Sea. Gathering great hordes in what is today eastern Haiho, near the offshore island of Bui-Ghuilo. The site of the largest [i]Wyndyn[/i] groves in Wesdara at the time, the new grand magicjer considered Bui-Ghuilo a hub for rebellious movements. From there, the [i]Wyndyn[/i] encouraged resistance to the [i]ap Morig[/i], and there they also trained their “wild women” female warriors.
The grand magicker mounted an amphibious assault across the narrow channel separating Bui-Ghuilo from southern Haiho, and slaughtered the [i]Wyndyn[/i] in their groves. The Wild Women fought ferociously, dying to fulfill their oaths to defend the sacred site. Exiles from [i]ap Morig[/i]-conquered areas had gathered there, and these men and women died fighting or were massacred. At least some Oergeinu and Dacuilean tribal warriors from nearby areas fought there as well, but could not stop the [i]ap Morig[/i] from hacking down the ancient, sacred oak trees.
While the grand magicker engaged the [i]Wyndyn[/i], it received word of a massive rebellion clear across Wesdara, in what today is the southern-most peninsula of Wesdara. 

Cliodhna, a Clan Mwryfin warrioress of th Eugein tribe whose husband, Paelug, had decided to submit to the [i]ap Morig[/i] rather than fight them, had led her people in a series of attacks on [i]ap Morig[/i] colonies, burning several and slaughtering the eldritch settlers. For while Paellug's decision bought Clan Mwryfin and teh Eugein some respite from the incessant [i]ap Morig[/i] attacks, it proved exceptionally unpopular with his people. Paelug died under mysterious circumstances, leaving leadership of the tribe to his daughters, and naming the mysterious overlord of the [i]ap Morig[/i] co-chief with them. The idea of [i]sharing[/i] power - with women! - was clearly viewed as an affront by the [i]ap Morig[/i], and so they struck out to educate the 'savages' on their place in the hierarchy. Cliodhna, to whom the daughters had an obligation of obedience, was now the effective Chieftess, and so was publicly flogged by the [i]ap Morig[/i] and her daughters raped. Severeal of Cliodhna's relatives were also sold into slavery.
Her honour injured and her people thirsting for freedom and revenge, the Chieftess assembled her forces and waged relentless war against the [i]ap Morig[/i], inflicting humiliating defeats upon them and razing to the ground a number of the major cities they had established in Wesdara. 
The timing, and the documented presence of Wild Women among several of the warrior hosts including as a personal guard to Cliodhna, hints that the [i]Wyndyn[/i] prompted the uprising in an attempt to divert the grand magicker from his assault on their sanctuary. Cliodhna certainly waited some time between her disgrace and calling for armed resistance. If this was the intent, it failed, for the grand magicker had just accomplished his goals when word arrived of the uprising. It marched quickly back to face the Eugein.
Cliodhna had assembled a large army, and the grand magicker fell back before her forces and summoned further minions to subdue the upstarts. Cliodhna led thousands of charioteers, who somehow managed to hide their vehicles from the [i]ap Morig[/i] invaders.
She eventually met her match at the Battle of Foul Finn's Field, when the grand magicker had all its forces gathered and was able to face the Chieftess. It turned to face the Sdarids and Cliodhna obliged with a mass charge. Her troops did no better with the tactic than the Wesdarids had a hundred years earlier against the Baevnizí, and tens of thousands of Sdarid warriors perished. Many members of Clan Mwryfin perished and the clan was eventually exterminated in its entirety. Cliodhna's exact fate is undetermined, though it is said the [i]Arwynden[/i] know but have refrained from making it public knowledge. It has passed into Sidarid folklore that, having survived Foul Finn's Field with her daughters, the Queen escaped across the veil into the spirit realm and will return with the warriors of Clan Mwryfin when the eschatological final battle against the [i]ap Morig[/i] draws nigh.

Despite the many defeats inflicted against the Sdarids, the [i]ap Morig[/i] never penetrated far into Easdara and by 10 BGAM the power of the [i]ap Morig[/i] had largely waned, and their last strongholds fell to Sidarid clans in 7 BGAM. The memory of this great invasion by foreign forces, and the horror of the [i]ap Morig[/i], has left an indelible mark on Sidarid culture and ways - for the [i]ap Morig[/i] occupy a position directly opposed to the gods in the Sidarid weltanschauung, and are the manifestations of all things evil.[/hider][/indent]
[*]4-20 OGAM[indent]The departure of the [i]ap-Morig[/i] means that the Sidarids return to doing what they do best - warring with and killing each other. Clan Esher, an important clan in Easdara, emerges as a major player during this period under the leadership of [i]Laird[/i] Ruahthain.[/indent]
[*]40 OGAM[indent]The Haiho Clan's lands are united for the first time and the Haiho Righacd is established to the north of Clan Esher, across the Seihdh-Soul Strait.[/indent]
[*]46 OGAM[indent]Tensions over the passage of shipping and trade through the Seihdh-Soul Strait leads to conflict between Clan Esher and the Haiho Righacd. Clan Esher loses its [i]Laird[/i] of the time, a warrioress by the name of Mhyruih and suffers tremendously, but the appearance of a [i]Wyndyn[/i]-Prophet turns the tides. With the strait now secured, a [i]Duthchas[/i] (great council of the clans) declares the Esher Laird rightful [i]Rhig[/i] (King). The Esher [i]Righachd[/i] is established.[/indent]
[*]47 OGAM[indent]Episode of the Malcontents.
The newly-ascended [i]Rhig[/i] Fhuiric is forced to deal with malcontents who had not cast their votes for him at the [i]Duthchas[/i]. The [i]Duthchas[/i] becomes the official advisory body representating the clans. In time, the [i]Duthchas[/i] become a directly elected parliament. An ancient ritual, called the [i]Hyscadal[/i] (‘the Bull’s Vision’), is reinstated after to solidify the [i]Rhig's[/i] position and bolster his legitimacy.
[hider=Detail][i]Bhaenrhig[/i] Fhuiric is forced to deal with some malcontents who had not cast their votes for him at the [i]Duthchas[/i]. It is agreed that a [i]Duthchas[/i] should always be in session to act as an advisory body to the [i]Rhigh/Bhaenrhig[/i] and as a permanent representative of the interests of the realm's clans. In time, the [i]Duthchas[/i] would grow into a directly elected body (though still referred to as the [i]Duthchas[/i]). This would come to be known in Esheran history as the Episode of the Malcontents. An ancient, likely mythological, ritual, called the [i]Hyscadal[/i] (‘the Bull’s Vision’), is reinstated after the Episode so as to solidify the [i]Rhig's[/i] position and bolster his legitimacy beyond further challenge.[/hider][/indent]
[*]58-90 OGAM[indent]Under the leadership of the legendary [i]Rhiglaird[/i] Seihdhos, the south Easdarid Clan Aujvint manages to unite and commence a thirty-year war of Sidarid unification which, by the death of Seihdhos, sees its territories encompass all of southern Easdara from the sea to the Esher Righacd. This enormous empire was dubbed, with Seihdhos' dying words, Great Seihdhar.[/indent]
[*]109 OGAM[indent]The Rape at Byc.
The Auldeahui of Wesdara rose against Great Seihdhar together with the Tretuioligh. Their leaders, Suorig and Bion, tried to convince local clans and soldiers to join them. They brought over very few of these men, and relied mostly on a collection of escaped prisoners, tribal warriors, and bankrupted farmers.
Though the Auldeahui managed to equip their men with weapons and armour, they could not overcome the gap in training and experience. The Auldeahui managed to take the provincial capital, Goelgai but were trapped there. A school there taught the sons of leading Sdarid households the Baevni and Héiswaep classics, rhetoric, and the other fine points that the [i]Rhiglaird[/i] wished to inculcate in the Sdaird ruling classes. Almost all of them joined the doomed rebellion. After holding out for several weeks, Suorig and his men set the city on fire, and then killed themselves in a mass suicide.
The [i]Rhiglaird[/i] saw traditional Sdarid education as the root of this rebellion, and banned [i]Wyndyn[/i] and bardic schools, overlooking that the most fanatic rebels came from the ranks of students enrolled in the official institutes the state had set up. The [i]Rhiglaird[/i] did not abolish the Sdarid religion - such would have been a step too far - only the schools, and both [i]Wyndyn[/i] and bards continued their lessons in caves, deep forests, and other out-of-the-way locales. The [i]Rhiglaird[/i] believed that the [i]Wyndyn[/i] helped spread rebellion. Past [i]Rhiglairds[/i] had begun the trend to repress the [i]Wyndyn[/i] by forbidding them from gaining citizenship. The new one, facing increasing resistance to centralisation from the [i]Wyndyn[/i], followed through to the logical conclusion of past policy by banning [i]Wyndyn[/i] altogether. [i]Wyndyn[/i], he felt, sparked rebellion by challenging his political authority and using their information networks to spread anti-state propaganda. Thus a campaign to sideline and remove [i]Wyndyn[/i], either via execution or by having them renounce their druidic ways, was launched. This first period of persecution culminates in the massacre of a group of [i]Wyndyn[/i] near the great town of a’Cheimbyc. Following this, many [i]Wyndyn[/i] go into hiding while others flee to other Sidarid lands.[/indent]
[*]136-138 OGAM[indent]The [i]Treiwynd[/i] Rising against the [i]Rhiglaird[/i]. Practised human sacrifice. Led to a civil war which resulted in Clan Braeg and its various sub-clans and allies breaking away from Great Seihdhos.
[hider=Detail]The [i]Treiwynd[/i] Rising against the rule of the [i]Rhiglaird[/i]. A zealous group of [i]Treiwyndyn[/i] gathered together a group of clans, foremost amongst them Clan Braeg, under the banner of the 'true and ancient faith' of the Sidaric people. This involved the 'rejuvenation' of human sacrifice, including wicker man burning, hanging, beheading, drowning, and immolation. The [i]Rhiglaird[/i] attempted to crush the Rising, but this resulted in civil war. Clan Braeg, with the support of the zealous [i]Treiwyndyn[/i] and its various sub-clans and allies, was able to fight off the [i]Rhiglaird[/i] and establish independence. Despite this setback, Great Seihdhos would cross into northern Sidara not long after and continue its drive to unite the Sdarid race and rid them of the [i]Wyndyn[/i] blight.[/hider][/indent]
[*]161 OGAM[indent]The Great Decree of 161 issued fixing every clan's clan-lands into permanent, untransferrable property of the clan. All land not delineated as clan-land becomes crown land.
[hider=Detail]The Great Decree of 161 is issued after nearly a decade of careful delineation and consultation with every clan in the realm. The Great Decree fixes every clan's clan-lands, and makes these clan-lands the permanent, untransferrable property of the clan as a whole. Individuals from a clan may own and make use of the land, and it may even pass into the hands of those not of the clan, but the land remains clan-land and can at any point be reclaimed and redistributed as the clan sees fit. All land not delineated as clan-land automatically became crown land with the passage of the Decree. Crown land is effectively public property and can be used freely, but the [i]Rhig[/i] can ultimately reclaim and redistribute it at will, or designate it be used only for particular purposes (e.g. grazing land, farming land). The Decree is revolutionary and effectively marks the crown's ultimate authority over the clans.[/hider][/indent]
[*]214-29 OGAM[indent]Griffri the Bear of Clan ap-Filigin campaigns against the invaders.
[hider=Detail]Griffri the Bear leads Clan ap-Filigin in one of the first successful campaigns by north Sidarids against Great Seihdhos. His nearly two decades spent fighting the empire would later be canonised in the epic poem known as [i]ih'Griffeada[/i]. Griffri became a source of inspiration for the Clan Gweilaerth chieftain Saenuo, who proclaimed himself Griffri reborn. He would go on to establish the Gweilaerth Confederation, with Clan ap-Filigin playing an important role in his successes.[/hider][/indent]
[*]230 OGAM[indent]Establishment of the Gweilaerth Confederation.[/indent]
[*]357 OGAM[indent]The Rising of Clan ap-Gwynnud against Great Seihdhos. The Esher Righacd, under the heroic Warrior-[i]Rhig[/i], Der-Ilei Bridu, having for some time suffered due to Great Seihdhos' control over the World-Water Strait, took this as an opportunity to strike. Using the ap-Gwynnud cause as its excuse, it landed troops and secured the strait. Fearful that the Esher Righacd's involvement will result in a general collapse of Great Seihdhos - to the benefit of the Esherans - both the Haiho Righacd and Gweilaerth Confederation declared war on Great Seihdhos. The resulting conflict saw the empire's lands reduced somewhat. Ultimately, the uncertainty of its foes, and their distrust for one another ensured it managed to hold onto more of its territories than it otherwise would have.[/indent]
[*]454 OGAM[indent]The bardic order, the [i]Cumannfil[/i], is formed.[/indent]
[*]527-34 OGAM[indent]Mad Galam's Rebellion.
[hider=Detail]Mad Galam, son of chief Haeini of Clan MgGrregah, leads a concentrated insurgency in the mountainous regions of the MgGrregah clan-lands. With the mountains to hide in, Mad Galam and his men sow discord in the Haiho Righacd.
The reason for his uprising has become the subject of jests and legends, but one particularly popular story relates that an Clan Haiho herder stole one of Galam's goats and slaughtered it for food. Enraged by this thievery, Mad Galam then declared his eternal war on the lot of them. Today the phrase "go a' Galam" refers to an, often violent, over-reaction to something or someone - 'Finor tripped up Balar, then Balar gaed a' Galam oan his head'. 'He bolted intae a dyke 'n' hurt his foot, sae he gaed a' galam oan it wi' a hammer'.[/hider][/indent]
[*]534 OGAM[indent]Mad Galam slain at Galam's Stand.
[hider=Detail]Mad Galam is finally slain at what is today called Galam's Stand. The highland warrior had descended from the safety of his mountains to meet with his beloved Ailen in a secret cottage in Aeld Aega's forests off the Blaejays river. Unbeknownst to him a treacherous lumberjack whom Galam had at one point or another humiliated had reported his frequent excursions to the authorities.
The highland clansman was ambushed there but was able to fight his ambushers off for a time and escape with Ailen. However, the two were eventually cornered atop a hill and there, claymore in hand and loosing the mountain-bear's song, Galam made his final stand.[/hider][/indent]
[*]564 OGAM[indent]The [i]Cumannfil[/i], Sidara's bardic order, welcomes visual artists of all stripes into its ranks and permits their presence at the annual [i]Tionilfil[/i], the great Sidarid gathering of poets and musicians that has taken place since time immemorial.[/indent]
[*]600 OGAM[indent]Present[/indent][/list][/hider]


[hider=Produce]
Domestic Animals: Sheep, Goats, Cattle (e.g. Highland Cattle, Galloway and Belted Galloway, Luing Cattle, Shetland Cattle), Horses, Pigs, Dogs (Sidaird Wolfhound, Border Collie etc.), Chickens

Game: Pheasant, Partridge, Hares, Rabbits, Deer, Grouse, Ptarmigan, Duck, Geese, Pigeons, Boar

Flora Commodities: Flax, Hemp, Hay

Other Crops: Barley, Potato, Wheat, Oats, Rye, Legumes, Strawberries, Loganberries, Raspberries, Kale, Turnips, Cabbage, Oilseed Rape, Carrots, Turnips, peas, sprouts, rhubarb, beans, cabbage, leeks, broccoli, mushrooms, blueberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants

Goods: Textiles, Animal Hides, Linen, Wool, Knitwear, Tweed, Timber, Iron, Sidaric Uisge, Leather, Toothbrushes, Lovespoons, Sidarid smallpearls, Jute, Muslin, Tallow, Flour, Fertiliser
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