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Marrishland has a long and violent history. Several civilizations have risen and fallen, here, and the book tells about events during one of the most turbulant periods - a period whose events determine whether a civilization survives or dies.
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An outline of Mar history is available here.
The subcontinent of Marrishland has had human inhabitants for 12,000 years, and the events of these many millennia have done so much to shape modern Marrishland that it seems a shame to gloss over any age. The history of the subcontinent begins with the Arrival of the Mar Wints.
During this ancient time, wints settled the northern half of Marrishland, split into distinct tribes, and warred with each other.
This pre-history merely sets the stage, however, for the eventual confrontation between the Totanbeni and the Kalkorae. During this period, the Totanbeni pirates forged an empire that spanned much of the subcontinent. When mede explorers from beyond the ocean arrived, the quickly came into conflict with the Totanbeni. The struggle betwen the two civilizations hinged on the friendship of those wint tribes who were not friendly to the Totanbeni, but the final cost of the war was very high.
The Mar did not emerge as a separate cultural identity until several centuries after the Kalkorae arrived from the West. Early Mar did not possess magic, but they prayed constantly for the gift that had made the wints and medes powerful.
The work of Bera Branehilde laid the foundation of Mar scholarship. With Weard Darflaem's Discovery of Mar Magic, the Mar were no longer a lesser race dominated by the Kalkorae and the wints.
The rise of wizards as the rulers of Marrishland was not without consequences, and many Mar resisted their new overlords in a long and bloody Civil War.
The Marrishland Massacre, the first recorded large-scale invasion by the Drakes, destroyed the wints, the medes, and most of the Mar on the subcontinent. Those few Mar who survived the first attack of the Mass were a lot more cautious as to when they waged war.
The magocrats founded duxies to defend Mar territory from the Drakes. The Rise of the Duxies created a hierarchy of magocrats responsible for defending their personal fiefs as well as the duxy at large.
While the Mardux supposedly commanded the duxes, in practice, the duxies were largely self-sufficient and self-governing. The duxes soon grew more powerful than the Mardux. Trade routes made the Duxy of Pidel especially powerful, and the jealousy of the other duxes ultimately led to the Duxy Wars.
In the midst of this chaos, the Gien Empire arrived from the East to subjugate the Mar, and despite the valliant attemps to repel these invaders Marrishland fell under Gien rule. This occupation had some important benefits, but most Mar rejoiced in the fall of the Gien Empire to the Drakes.
This rejoicing did not last long, for the destruction left a great power vacuum and a civilization whose cities had been flattened by Drake attackers. Post-Imperial Marrishland was a difficult time of rebuilding for the Mar.
Marrishland emerged from the chaos a stronger nation for its trials. During the era of the Mastery of Magic, a class of scholar wizards emerged from the Nightfire Tradition, allowing the Mar to master magic almost to the same degree as had the Kalkorae, Totanbeni, and Giens.
This mastery of magic led to the increased capacity of the Mar to expand their territory. This era of the Mastery of Marrishland saw more incursions by the Mass than any other, eventually forcing the Mar to cease their aggressive assimilation of territory.
(Contributed by Weard Gilda Kronas)
Posted by Eric on 2/9/2006: As you will see if you click on the outline, I got a little carried away with writing the history, and it proved my undoing. There is a whole lot of history left to go, and I'm still messing around with the Mar Civil War.
Don't get me wrong, history is among my favorite subjects because it is a bit like a story in itself, if told properly. It's cause and effect in action. Sometimes it's anticlimactic, but sometimes it surprises you, too. Seemingly small factors can change the course of events. The trick of history is to remember that most events do not hinge on the actions of a single person. It sometimes looks like that, but even the most charismatic leader is useless without the right resources at his disposal, and even the most motivated rabble-rouser can't cause a rebellion among people who are satisfied with the current order of things.
However, the reverse is often true. Somehow, if a nation is ready for change, the deep-seated hatred of its people for the current order of things will inevitably produce someone who can lead the rebellion. It doesn't require a prophecy, a shepherd with a destiny, or a sword in a stone. In the eyes of history, people are the product of their environment. Yes, you sometimes wind up with surprising people who do incredible things in a single lifetime, but they don't do it because some great destiny says they will. They do it because they have a personal interest in the outcome of the events they set into motion.
This is a kind of hero I don't see much in epic fantasy. I'd like to see that change. Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. were no less heroes of destiny than Bel'Garion or the Dragon Reborn. Right time. Right place. Right personality. Helluva lot of devotion to their cause.
