But first, I'd like to summarize a bit the possible history of Traladara because I think it could be very useful to know what kind of places, creatures and adventures could be found in the land.. I'll also try to merge my history of many years ago with the one by agathokles
But starting from the beginning I was thinking about the long lost civilizations that lived in the Traladaran area before the traladarans...
taymorans: reading the work of the 2300BC team, I see that the area was part of northern Taymora, but AFAIK there isn't a detailed map of the area.. I already mentioned the "people of the Night" that the traldars met...
azcan: before the taymorans maybe azcan/oltec culture reached the area?
neathar people: like the ones living in Thyatis before the thyatians?
high tech/magic azcan at the height of Blackmoor: already assumed that writing about Koskatep
Cultures before 4000BC: I'd say dragons, giants, fairies, brutemen, araneas, reptilian races... all these people could have left some long lost ruin, magic or artifact in the area of nowadays Karameikos...
History of Traladara
by Francesco DefferrariHi, I wrote this history many years ago and now it need some updating and I also wish to integrate it with agathokles' history. Yet I'll still maintain my main draft, with Traladara as an more or less unified, elective monarchy for most of this history.. this didn't expressly contradict GAZ1, AFAIK, but do contradict KKOA (that I didn't own at the time) because the box states that after Halav "The Traladarans remained a non-nation of independent villages that fought and traded together as the mood struck; they united to repel a foreign invader but had no central government, no King Halav to bring them together under a single banner".
I didn't and I don't like this approach because I find it utterly unrealistic.. if Traladara has been a divided nation for 2000 years any foreign power/empire, particularly neighbour Thyatis or even Alphatia, would have conquered it long ago. Divided people, even if able to unite in time of danger, are historically unsuccessfull in repelling invaders over long times. I rather mirrored its history with RW Poland, that had a working, elective monarchy for centuries but was conquered by foreign nations when the institution faltered due to internal conflicts.
The first part of my history was about the arrival of the ptahaldar... I started from this article by James Mishler. The newcomers encountered the Tals, humans descendant of Taymora and the Vyalia elves already living in the region.. the relations with the two people were mostly peaceful, and the traldars began to integrate with the Tals, forming the 14 original clans, yet they were also drawn in a centuries old conflict between nosferatu followers of Nyx and vampires followers of Thanatos..
The arrival of the Traldars and a series of battles from 1500 to 1490 BC undermined the growing power of vampires, yet in 1486 BC, after a civil war between the newly formed Meliv and Radu clans, vampires struck back, and to defeat them nosferatu followers of Nyx seized control of the clans.
This "Time of the Eternal Lords" was short living because the last nosferatu king, Tarku Radu, was corrupted by Thanatos and finally destroyed by a rebellion army aided by elves, hutaakans and nithians. In 1430 BC Tarku unleashed a dying curse that brought three years of winter on Traladara, casting the land into a dark age of cold, plagues and famine...
That was a pivotal event in history because after Tarku traladarans began to perceive every undead as evil, without distinctions between vampires and nosferatus.. from 1423 to 1411 BC there were a series of persecutions against undeads that involved also all the peaceful followers of Nyx... eventually the situation of the traldars was so desperate that in 1401BC the hutaakans intervened to help the traldars..
Elsewhere in the KW, modern dwarves are born, Nithia began its rise, children of the horse dominate Atruaghin lands, the Sind culture is born, Doulakki city states are founded in Thyatis and Darokin, Ethengars are free from humanoid rule but often involved in war of succession, bronze age culture in the northern reaches, humanoids invade the savage coast..
The arrival of the Traldars
(And language, ethnicity and the name of Threshold)
1502 BC The ptahaldar, from the Nithian city of Kheptahr migrate south and arrive in modern Traladara. They left their overpopulated city to find new lands. They immortal patron is Kagyar, who they call Dar. They are leaded by a cleric of Dar called Mindar Ipatoth. The ptahaldar, encounter in the new land elves and humans named Tal. They call these two people the earth people and the people of the night.
1501 BC The Ipatoth clan is the first to merge with the people of the night: the Ipatoth settle in the village of Vatresh, home of a Tal clan named Vay. Mindar marry Iea Vay, daughter of the chief of Vay clan.
The new formed clan begin to call itself Ivatov. (They are the ancestors of the Ivanov noble family of Vatresh-threshold).
The above were the first two events in my original history of Traladara.. a premise about languages and ethnicity is needed.. I think is established in the fan community that taymorans should be M-minoians and doulakkis and traldars M-achaeans.. I assume that the achaeans-greek component we find in HW traldars, milenians and thyatians came from doulakkis and other taymora descended people.. while hattian (german) and traldar (slavic) language and ethnicity came from neathar-antalian people.. I know that the italian mystaran community has another hyphotesis involving Vandars, "slavic" invaders that transformed the original "achaean" traldars into the "slavic" traladarans we know. I'll use the Vandars too, but neverthless I think the traldars were already "slavic" while the tals were the achaeans... the HW traldars are "more" achaeans just because they come from one single city (Coresco) that was heavily influenced by tal culture.
Yet, I gave nithian (egyptian) names to the original traldars, but they just picked them living in nithian lands, and quickly lost this habit after one or two generations in the new land...
Vatresh, Lugsid, La Soglia, Limen? I chose Vatreh as the original, tal name of Threshold.. it's obviously an anagram of the english name, but in italian it sounds completely different (La Soglia) and would be different in latin too (Limen?), if thyatian could be similar to italian or latin. Simone Neri here supposes, and he's probably correct, that the original name of Threshold could be Lugsid, yet this name seems more celtic than slavic to me.
I'll use Vatresh as the original tal name, with the meaning of threshold, probably deriving from a fey folks or giants word.. Lugsid could be an alternative, traldar name, linked to an eponymous chief or maybe to a sun cult?
Anyway, back to history: the marriage of Mindar Ipatoth to Iea Vay was the first peaceful contact between traldars and tals.. Vatresh was relatively a peaceful town, with good relations with local followers of Nyx and neighbours hutaakans, giants and centaurs, but had also nearby powerful vampire enemies...