agriculture and commerce. In antiquity, the central portions of this
plain were periodically inundated by the vast floods of the Nedrane
River. It was the labor of two early dynasties to dike the Nedrane
from Tol Honeth to Tol Horb. providing not only the necessary
flood-control but also that broad waterway that makes Tol Honeth,
despite the fact that it lies a hundred leagues inland, one of the major
Ports of the world.
In the north, along the Arendish border, lies the forest of Vordue
where extensive logging operations provide sufficient hardwood
lumber for the fine furnishings of which Tolnedrans are so fond.
Softer woods, for construction, are taken from the mountains to the
east, but the wood of the Dryads to the south remains inviolate for
reasons which will become clear later. While there were extensive
mines in the south central mountains around Tol Rane, the deposits
of gold, silver, copper, iron and tin have been exploited to the point
where the depth of the mines makes the extraction of these useful
and ornamental metals both difficult and dangerous.
Tolnedra’s two seaports of Tol Horb at the mouth of the Nedrane
and Tol Vordue at the mouth of the Arend conduct between them a
major portion of the world’s commerce. Tol Borune on the south
plain is the center of an enormous agricultural empire. Tol Honeth,
the Imperial capital, has been justly called ‘the hub of the world’.
THE PEOPLE
Tolnedrans are shorter and somewhat darker in complexion than the
blond, rangy Alorns of the north. Racially, they are akin to the
Arends, the Nyissans and the now-defunct Marags. Thus we observe
three broad racial groupings in the twelve kingdoms – Alorns,
Angaraks and the southern peoples. The racial background of the
Ulgos is, of course, a mystery
* The use of the word ‘race’ is somewhat archaic. The Alorns are clearly Scandinavian; the
Tolnedrans, Marags, Arends, and Nyissans are Mediterranean. The Angaraks, with their
,angular eyes’ were intended to suggest the Mongols of Genghis Khan or the Huns of
Attila.
Our people, through long habituation and perhaps by native
inclination, are the most politically-minded and acquisitive of any
people in the twelve kingdoms. Commerce is the very soul and
blood of Tolnedra. Because, from time immemorial, we have engaged
in trade and bargaining, Tolnedrans instinctively turn to policy in
preference to war as a means of gaining our national objectives. As
Nedra, in his wisdom, said, ‘Where is the profit in making war on a
customer?’ and again, ‘An enemy may be pillaged once, but a
customer is an endless resource.’
Perhaps because of this, Tolnedrans deal a bit sharper than other
peoples, and a Tolnedran Emperor must be eternally watchful lest
he be misled by the (and let us be honest) greed of his advisors and
the merchant barons who habitually besiege the Imperial Throne
with petitions designed almost inevitably to line their own purses.
Lest this be construed as an unbridled condemnation of our
people, let us hasten to point out the innumerable advantages which
have accrued to our empire as a result of our single-minded pursuit
of profit. Tolnedran society was never fractioned by the existence of
clans such as we observe in the Alorn Kingdoms. Adherence to clan
is a symptom of a morbid fear of strangers, and Tolnedrans have ever
welcomed contact with strangers as an opportunity to open new
avenues for commerce. Similarly, we have never been burdened with
the institution of serfdom which has blighted the development of
Arendia. As a wise Tolnedran noble once said, ‘Far better to pay a
man for a job and wish him well than to feed him eternally in
idleness.’ Nor are we obsessed with the kind of religious fanaticism
which so dominates the lives of the Nyissans, the Angaraks and the
Ulgos. Our Nedra is a tolerant God who is content with a few
formalities on ceremonial occasions. The sole exception to this
generalization is the monastic community which lies in the western reaches of
the area that was once Maragor. These gentle souls devote their lives
in poverty and humility to the expiation of our national crime, the
destruction of the Marags. While many of our people find the
mendicant members of this fraternity an aggravation, it must be pointed
out that their continual propitiation of the wronged and sorrowful
spirit of the God Mara in all probability averts his vengeance.
One other anomaly exists in southern Tolnedra. This anomaly is,
of course, the Dryads. Like the Ulgos, the Dryads predate the
western migration of civilized men into the west. Their numbers have
always been very small, and they are seldom seen out of the wood of
the Dryads which lies along our southern border. A secretive people,
they have managed to remain aloof from the main stream of
Tolnedran society. Their sole contribution to our culture perhaps
was the marriage of a Dryad princess to a noble of the House of
Borune. In exchange for this woman the Dryads extracted a promise
from the Borunes that their woods would remain eternally inviolate.
This promise was formalized by the Imperial Decree of Ran Borune
I, the son of the Dryad woman and the Borune noble and the
founder of the FIRST BORUNE DYNASTY. While uncounted
generations of timber barons have cursed the decree while eyeing the
enormous oaks of the Dryad forest with unconcealed greed, it must
be conceded that Tolnedra has benefited tremendously from the
unlikely merging of this strange people and one of our noblest
houses. The Borune Dynasties have been among the most stable and
enlightened in our history)’ and Borune Emperors seem possessed of
uncommon good sense. The common people have a saying, ‘Blessed
be the name of Nedra that he has given us the Borunes,’ which
perhaps sums it up best.
* The emperor who commissioned this study was a member of the Borune family, so the
scholar who wrote this was evidently trying to ingratiate himself.
One curious characteristic of the House of Borune has been
observed down the centuries. While the male children of the house
show little physical difference from ordinary Tolnedrans, the female
children always differ markedly from the other women of our race.
They are all quite tiny, and their hair is inevitably a deep, flaming
red – a color which poets have rather extravagantly compared to
that of the leaves of the oak tree in autumn. Their complexions are
also significantly fairer than the olive skin of other Tolnedran
women, and in certain light appear to have almost a faint greenish
hue. Borune princesses, delicate and vibrant, may be justly
considered the true jewels of the Empire.
PRE-DYNASTIC HISTORY
As did the other peoples of the west, the Tolnedrans migrated from
the east during the early centuries of the first millennium. They
established themselves on the central plain and began construction
of their first city’ Tol Honeth, on the large island in the Nedrane
River. The present glory of Tol Honeth belies the crude log and mud
fortress which first stood on the site. Written records of the
preDynastic era are tantalizingly brief, and few have survived down to
the present. The documents of the FIRST HONETHite DYNASTY,
however, provide us with some insight into what life must have
been like in prehistoric Tolnedra by virtue of those subjects which
were of major concern to our first Emperors. Fire, flood,, pestilence
and civil war appear to have been endemic in those dark early years.
It is perhaps not an exaggeration to state that the Tolnedran
Empire was born out of fire – or at least that it rose from the ashes. All
wooden structures are susceptible to fire, and the city of Tol Honeth
was no exception. Whatever the cause, in the first years of the ninth.
century a great conflagration broke out, and the island city was
consumed from one end to the other. A minor city official, surveying
the damage, concluded that stone does not burn and began the
reconstruction of the city in that material while the embers were still
smoldering. While a gang of wood-cutters may construct a log
palisade in short order, work in stone is a much harder and more
time-consuming enterprise. The vast construction crews who labored
for decades to raise the walls of Tol Honeth provided the core as it
were of the Imperial Legions. The standard ten-man gang used to
transport large single stones became the elemental squad. The ten
gangs of ten – the hundred – who moved the larger stones became
the company, and the ten hundreds – the thousand – who dragged
the vast foundation stones of the walls and wharves of Tol Honeth
became the legions. The co-operative effort and the discipline involved
in the construction of the city welded these work-gangs into the
strong units which responded quite naturally to the commands of the
overseer of the entire construction effort – the above-mentioned
official. It was this official who became the legendary Ran Honeth I,