The establishment of Ghotharand and Veska

Founding

How the warring Ghothar and Veskan peoples dominated the eastern lands of Aestis

The Ghothars and Veskans originated from the northern continent of Ty’Zan and the oral traditions of their people both spoke of poor harvests and rival warlike kingdoms forcing their common ancestors, the Aaruhke close to extinction. The lands that the Aaruhke controlled by the year of the first great expedition southwards to Aestis was simply a strip of barren coastline. The Aaruhke were far from a united people, however and as desperation overcame them, so did internal disputes between the princes of the tribe. The prize of verdant soil across the ocean was enticing enough for the princes of the northern and southern Aaruhke to feud and plot against one another. It was only the Skald Svan-Hyrikson who, with song and wise counsel, held the tribe together for long enough for the great journey to take place. The Aaruhke built great longships and in waves set sail for the new land, stopping at the island of Skor Barradh mid way, where all out war between the differing factions broke out. An advanced party of Southern Aaruhke had sailed to the lands that now comprise Veska and quickly realised the horror lurking their in the guise of the monstrous giant Gorins. They returned to Skor Barradh and cruelly informed their northern cousins that the land was bountiful and safe, dooming successive waves of Northern Aarukhe to their deaths. It was Svan Hyrikson who knew of the deception, and who demanded that the Southern Aarukhe atone for their sins. The Princes of the Southern tribes murdered the father of the Aarukhe on the beaches of Skor Baradh, but it was his handmaiden and surrogate daughter Ghoti who arose to replace him and lead the Southerners (after punishing the murderers) to a salvation of sorts in what became Ghotharand. The Northerners had little choice but to land on the coasts that they had been designated at Skor Baradh, knowing that other available lands had now been seized by their duplicitious Southern cousins. As we shall see, however, it was the Veskans who would have the last laugh and would be able to smile at the folly of the Ghothars. Both still venerate Svan-Hyrikson as the father of their people, but the Veskans are always quick to remind the Ghothars that they murdered him. Ghoti ruled the Ghothars for another 20 years, before annointing a successor, who would become the first Queen of the new Ghothar nation that had managed to survive on the barren shores of northern Aestis. Queen Aristaa led the Ghothar people through war and deception to conquer the Elsari, but in the moment of their triumph she seized the cursed Elsari capital Jokstan and her armies were lost in the darkness of the city’s ruins, never to be seen again. It was from that point onwards that the courage and determination of the Ghothars failed and instead of Ghothar dreams of a glorious colonisation of northern Aestis, they realised they were not so much the masters of a cursed, arid land but the prisoners of it.