Birth of Mar Culture (ca. 500 - 1000 I.D.)

Increased diplomatic contact between the Kalkorae and the Hundred Tribes did not just lead to political relationships and alliances. As the relationship between them grew more cordial, members of the two civilizations exchanged ideas, knowledge, philosophies, and wedding vows. This was especially common in the less dangerous coastal regions of the Kalkoraen Nation, and produced a culture that was the identifiable ancestor to that of the modern Mar.

Interracial relationships and mixed marriages likely were not uncommon among the mapmakers, though most Kalkorae quietly frowned on these deviants. It quickly became obvious that these half-bloods lacked the ability to wield either wint or mede magic, so they soon found themselves outsiders in the magic-dependant cultures of their parents and grandparents. While the Kalkorae treated them with a mixture of pity and disdain, very few wint tribes were willing to care for the magical equivalent of a freeloader. Even among the medes, half-bloods were disparagingly called mundanes — a word that meant "ward" — because they were so dependant on the Kalkorae for survival.

Wints and half-bloods could not make use of Kalkoraen devices, but anyone with the knowledge and skill could build them. The wints usually were not willing to leave their communities for long periods of time to build mede devices, but the half-bloods flocked to such work. It was, after all, the only way they could keep from being discarded as refuse by both civilizations.

By the time the Medien Empire's support of the colonists ended, enclaves of half-blooded craftspeople in most cities consisted of thousands of people. By then, it had become obvious that the Totanbeni had no intention of leaving the Kalkorae in peace. Even with the support of wint tribes, the Kalkoraen Nation was forced to declare martial law simply to survive. All citizens were required to serve the Kalkoraen military machine in whatever capacity they could. For most medes, this meant serving as soldiers in the border outposts. For the wint tribes, it meant sending token forces of magic-wielders while the rest of the tribe provided logistical support for the army. For the half-bloods, it meant building and maintaining the magical infrastructure needed by the harvesters.

As more mundanes settled in cities along the coast, they began to form their own cultural identity — borrowed heavily from both sides of their heritage, but with portions rooted in their experiences as an oppressed minority disdained by those in power. The Kalkorae had never quite accepted the name their wint allies had given them, so the mundanes adopted it as their own. By 750 I.D., wints and Kalkorae alike used the word "Mar" only to refer to the half-blooded mundanes.

Since the Mar lived in the cities far from the wars in the north and the environmental hazards in the east, they actually thrived, compared to the Kalkorae and the Hundred Tribes. During the last two centuries of the millennium (800 - 1,000 I.D.), the population of urban Mar exploded from a few tens of thousands to at least a hundred thousand. The population of wints during the same period remained almost static, however, and the population of medes dropped significantly as a result of the Hammerfall War. While the Mar still made up less than 1% of the total population of the subcontinent (with the wints at roughly 80% and the Kalkorae at roughly 20%), in Domus Palus and other cities, it is believed the Mar outnumbered the Kalkorae slightly (50% - 55%), and some scholars even suggest the Mar had a heavy majority in Domus Palus (70% - 75%). Later events, of course, would make these urban census figures far more significant.

(Contributed by Weard Leif Gesyk)

Copyright 2005-2007 Eric Zawadzki and Matthew Schick. All Rights Reserved.
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