History of the Visneskayan people
by Giulio CarolettiAround 900 BC, a group of Nithian explorers sailed from the capital city of the Empire northwards. Their goal was to circumnavigate the continent of Brun to discover what its effective extension was, and to do geographical and biological researches. They were equipped with powerful magics, were a great number (because they planned to settle down somewhere). They were also self-confident: to help them along in their quest was the wrong belief that Brun hadn't to be more than twice the size of Alphatia.
Their expedition was led by Neskhet, a free-spirited Nithian warrior who had travelled all over the Sea of Dawn, and even south to Davania.
His group had to face a lot of problems, and after two years of suffering and tremendous hazards in the arctic oceans, the Nithian explorers divided in two groups: one tried to return back through the sea, but only a few of them managed to return back to the fertile plains of Nithia. But Neskhet and some of his followers remained, because they preferred to face the unknown instead of returning through the same dangers they had faced- also because they hoped that they had ended the worst part of their trip.
They went in land in Hyborea, and after a long march southward, Neskhet arrived to the lands of the Samaari, peacefully living in Azidhaka.
There, he didn't stop for long. After recovering, he and most of the Nithians decided to move west, to search for a new region, less cold than the ones they had reached. His speech and manners, his leader attitude convinced several Saamari. Many left with him, and he settled in the regions which are now part of the northern Zuyevo. There, they founded a new kingdom that took his name, although slightly changed in the pronunciation of the ice folk: Neskayt.
Four hundred years later, a migration occurred from far to the south-east. An entire Traldar city had decided to flee from a land that had lost nearly every trace of the Nithian origins, and were splitting in barbarian tribes and minor cities. People of the city of Senda (now completely buried in the western forests) left under the guide of King Leukos, searching for the ancient homelands which they knew were somewhere in the north. The destruction of Nithia resulted in wrong memories who led them north, over Darokin, always hoping to reach their forefathers. A long odyssey went on, while the Traldar band had taken the name of Visi (nomads), and begun to wander west in Brun. In the end they were directed by Rathanos, who hoped to re-create an important nucleus of his own followers on surface Mystara, after the destruction of Nithia, and reached the kingdom of Neskayt, by now called Neskay. The Visi were told by Rathanos that these were the descendants of their mother kingdom, but the Neskay didn't believe their offers of peace, frightened that they could be envoys of the Samaari (with whom they didn't have any contact since three centuries) that wanted to reconquer them. This was also a bad moment for the Neskayans, who were facing especially harsh winters (due to a period of great activity by the Ice Demon of Hyborea). After a minor war, the two cultures decided to make peace, becoming the new Kingdom of Visneskaya, formed by the northern province of Vis (an unsettled land "gracefully" conceded by the King of Neskay) and the southern of Neskaya. However, the cultural differences remained strong between the two groups. Each province were administered by a viczar, and had each a "senate" of sorts, and the unity was assured by the sole presence of a single king, who acted mainly as a war leader against the many humanoid bands who infested especially the viczirate of Vis.
The balance between the two groups was unsure. Several times the Visi left the kingdom for independence, and several times they re-joined fearing the humanoid raids, that often they were not able to repel.
Sometimes the Visi were conquered by the humanoids. Once they remained for nearly two centuries under an orc war leader known as Telkan, who led them in war against the former friends (227-235 AC), until he was slain by a revolt that brought once and for all the Visi under Neskayan administration.
Then, the Talmavs arrived. Their nomad cavalry tried to submit Visneskaya but was beaten by King Ferenç III; their king killed, nowhere to go, the Talmavs asked for permit of remaining in Visneskaya. Ferenç agreed. And the ethnic problems grew worse.
The Talmav cavalrymen where soon integrated in the Visneskayan Army, and soon they became a new way for the dominating population to pull under the Visi. Finally, in 496 AC, the Visi revolted with the help of Zuyevo, who provided the new rebellion with equipment, tactical lessons and even officers. A group of Visneskayans, led by a distant relative of the dead King Bela IV, Lord Ivan Brasv, fled west and founded the kingdom of Brasov. The Visi, who still talked a Traldar-descended language, instead of the Samaari (but Traldar and Nithian influenced) language of the Neskayans (the "official" Visneskayan) would soon understand that they had nothing to gain from their victory. The frightened Talmavs and the losing Neskayans called for the intervention of Zuyevo (502 AC), and Zuyevo's leaders didn't use much time to realise that, even if a weak neighbour was better than a strong one, a new province was better than a weak neighbour. After a fifteen years long war, Visneskaya was under Zuyevan control, and the Visi, the Neskayans and the Talmav integrated swiftly, because the most rebellious and independent ones either were killed by the new conquerors, or soon decided to leave westwards to follow the footsteps of Lord Brasv, to found their own new kingdoms, that eventually became the Klagorst lands.
This war was a major event of Mystaran history, as it gave birth to the Empire of Zuyevo as we know it today, and to all the kingdoms of the Klagorst area.