History of Htaevic Rouge

Ancient Htaevic Rouge

Alotsë dynasty (6,312-6,537 Y)

Development of writing

It was during the short Alotsë dynasty that Hotsan Gget developed the hlunliw writing system, originally to write down the oral poetry passed down through generations of monarchs. This soon spread through the royal class and became the predominant writing system throughout the empire.

Royal cannibalism

It's unclear when the tradition of eating ones ruler upon their death began, however it was already an integral part of succession during the Alotsë dynasty. The heir to a given fief, shire, et cetera was supposed to eat the dead ruler in order to inherit the right to rule. In the rare case that they refused, they would pass down the right to do so to the person next in line of succession, and so on. Only noblemen were allowed to eat the brain, which was considered to be where good karma was stored. In fact, noblemen often requested that commoners engaging in ritual cannibalism send the brain to the castle, where the nobleman could consume it and gain karma, thereby gaining a sort of "mandate" to rule over his fief. Nobody was allowed to eat the intestines, which was considered to be where bad karma was stores.

Traditionally, people were only allowed to eat one to three parts of the body depending on how close they were to the deceased. Fingers were eaten to increase ones dexterity, while the foot and liver were eaten in order to gain the 'wisdom' of the deceased. Choice cuts such as the thighs, biceps, calves, etc. were in general just considered to bring good health.

Settlements

In this era, the most important cities were:

• Baestamiw (present day Xol), located at the southern edge of the great rift, and the easternmost major city of the Alotsë.
• Cilawlyawre, located on the Yot river not too far from the Alotsë's border with the Hsuqlihts. This was the capital of the Alotsë dynasty and where they first experimented with building traditional Wzeliwhacan shrines.
• Renzhilyarë, a city located inland near a large aquifer and the largest gold mine in the world at the time.

Riwnë dynasty (6537-6670 Y)

The Riwnë ('faithful') dynasty was the shortest of all dynasties, lasting just 133 years. It ended due to extreme inbreeding within the family of ruling monarchs, resulting in ruler Tsahotë Riwnë having just 2 biological great grandparents, who themselves were first cousins. He died aged 14, royal legends stating 'a flood of evil spirits infested his lungs'. Modern historians suspect it was pulmonary oedema. The following dynasties developed a taboo on sibling, parent-child, and uncle-niece/aunt-nephew relationships. Cousin marriages did not develop a taboo.

Burë dynasty (6,670-6,804)

The Burë dynasty saw the expansion of wzeliwhacan shrines across Htaevic territory, and the growth of political power in the priest class. Priest Kazhiw Lmget of the Lmtsahacan shrine said that, during one of his prayer sessions (likely using traditional psychedelics) the Messenger of Sin Lmtsa came to him and told him that the so-called 'Elder Beings of Haki' have recently acquired a divine power that they wish to bestow upon a chosen monarch on Pavala. He relayed this message to Emperor Stanzhi Burë who asked Kazhiw Lmget to head the Order of the Elder Beings, a society of priests and scholars dedicated towards finding out more about these divine beings and figuring out how to grant the Burë line their secret powers.

First Htaevic Empire (6,804-7,005 Y)

Gradually, this order became more and more powerful until eventually they ruled the Htaevic empire in all but name; while they would grant the current Burë ruler the 'divine right' to rule over all of the Htaevic realm, the order would use its large bureaucracy to get its way in any disagreement with the imperial household. As the Htaevic's religious identity continued to strengthen they would eventually go to war against their northern neighbors, the Hsuqlihts, who followed the heretical Herlucc religion. This would eventually lead to the downfall of the First Htaevic Empire as the Hsuqlihts were more powerful and able to launch counter-invasions.

It was during the First Htaevic Empire that ironworking became widespread in the region. The First Htaevic Empire also drove out the native Raiwlawbiwmtë inhabitants of the Shattered Islands, known primarily for separating into clans based on their purple and green hair. The purple-haired inhabitants decided to migrate northwards into the Meó basin, while the green-haired inhabitants migrated southwards into Unuvun and displaced the native Konod people.

City layout

As the first Htaevic Empire spread throughout the Shattered Islands, they established hundreds of new port cities, following a common city plan. There was a harbor, from which run a harbor road a kilometer or more inland until it reached the castle. As the Shattered Islands was a very flat and water-rich region, castles usually included one or two ring moats. The castles themselves were mostly built from mud or clay brick, supplemented with wood as needed.

Villas for the nobility were constructed in between the castle and the port, and were often surrounded by the inner wall. Outside this wall was where the majority of the city's population lived. Wealthier cities oftentimes had a public wall constructed around the entire city. The Htaevics were a polytheistic people, and originally had a suite of generic gods for concepts like the rain, sun, wind, etc. They worshipped these gods by building a long stone row supported by stone columns, like Stonehenge but in a line instead of a circle. This stone row would be oriented perpendicular to Haki, so that all of the stones were visible from the planet. They would paint murals dedicated to individual gods on each of these massive stones in bright colors, and plant specific flowers and plants around each stone.

Tsiriwn

Over generations, much of the nobility of the Htaevic Empire became victims of a prion disease known as tsiriwn. This is because the nobility ate a lot of brain, which was where the prion disease would concentrate. The Order of the Elder Beings outlawed the consumption of diseased individuals, and instead began burning them, beginning a tradition of human cremation. However the disease still continued to spread through the nobility, incapacitating the ruling class of the empire and contributing to its downfall against the Hsuqlihts.

Collapse to Hsuqlihta

The First Htaevic Empire would gradually expand its holdings up the Yot River and into the Shattered Islands until its collapse during the Hsuqlihtan invasions.

Hsuqlihtan rule (7,005-7,224 Y)

The Hsuqlihts greatly influenced the development of Htaevic culture, spreading the octal number system, the Herlucc religion and their rudimentary democratic politics.

Spread of Herlucc

After conquering the Htaevic Empire, Hsuqlihta sought to spread their native Herlucc religion throughout the prosperous region. They decided upon a policy of synthesizing Herlucc with the native Htaevic polytheistic religion.

End of cannibalism

The new ruling Hsuqliht class strongly disapproved of cannibalism, however it was an integral part of Htaevic culture. Unrest grew in the various Htaevic tributaries, as the ruling Hsuqlihts would refuse to eat the human brains that they sent as tribute. The Hsuqlihts side stepped this controversy by hiring dedicated "brain eaters" to sit on the aristocratic court and eat all the brains sent as tribute. This satisfied most of the Htaevics. The Hsuqlihts became alarmed as, over the decades, these brain eaters became the only people in the aristocracy to die from tsiriwn.

As Herlucc spread throughout the former Htaevic Empire, a karmic crisis ensued over the practice of cannibalism. It had been common practice noble Htaevics to eat the brains of their deceased subjects in order to accumulate good karma, however under the principles of Htaevic Herlucc, accumulating too much good karma was viewed as a bad thing. Some began eating the intestines (traditional home of the "bad karma") alongside the brain in order to balance good and bad karma, however this failed to become widespread. Eating intestines was still considered highly taboo, and the nobility had a difficult time convincing the common folk to supply them an adequate amount of intestines (intestinal cremation was traditionally the first thing done upon somebody's death). Additionally, it became common knowledge that the only people in the Hsuqliht aristocratic courts who died from tsiriwn were the ones who ate brains, so many began theorizing that tsiriwn was caused by cannibalism.

So both the Htaevic nobility and the Hsuqlihtan aristocracy agreed to end the practice of cannibalism, instead mandating that all bodies be burnt so that both the good karma from the brain and the bad karma from the intestines can be released back into Kanea. The bones and ashes were kept as a unique source of "neutral kanea" for various projects.

Haki Republic (7,224-7,520 Y)

After the split of the Hsuqliht Empire in 7,224 Y, Emperor Lucclucc of the Southern Hsuqliht Empire declared himself the prophet of Luccluccism, stating that he had recieved divine right from the Elder Beings of Haki to conquer the entirety of Pavala in their name. He waged massive wars of conquest against the Meó, inhabitants of the Shattered Islands, the Northern Hsuqliht Empire and even parts of Nokhta, establishing the Haki Republic.

During the Haki Republic, the language of Classical Htaevic flourished and eventually became a lingua franca across much of Delezia. The Htaevic script solidified into Classical Hlunliw.

Middle ages

The Haki Republic lasted for several centuries until the death of Consul Dan in 7,520 Y, after which it descended into civil war in a period known as the Shattering, from which the Shattered Islands receive their name. The time period after the Shattering is commonly known as the 1024 Year Spring – a time of relative peace from approximately 7,625 Y to 8,650 Y during which the many former states of the Haki Republic flourished culturally and politically. It ended with the spread of Blinding Plague into the region, killing over 40% of Htaevic Rouge's population. The self-proclaimed prophet Dropo gained a cult following and, after invoking divine right, reconquered much of Htaevic Rouge to form the Second Htaevic Empire, of which he declare himself king (beneath the Elder Beings of Haki). The Second Htaevic Empire would last for an astonishing four hundred years until it fell to an expansionist Nokhta in 9,089 Y.

The emperor of the Second Htaevic Empire would flee to Unuvun, where he was welcomed and continued to rule as "emperor" of the Htaevic realm if only in name.

After a string of failed revolts in the 92nd century, as well as a series of famines and minor plagues, the monk Biplatza Sagpawej developed the basic tenets of the Hakiism religion, which blamed the Elder Beings of Haki for all the suffering Htaevic Rouge's peoples had endured in the past centuries. The religion spread quickly throughout the poor serf class in Htaevic Rouge and Nokhta, and was subsequently banned in Unuvun and Meó. It was this religious fervor that would become the driving force behind the mass exodus of millions to Ivinis, where they would be "beyond the Elder Beings' cursed gaze".