History of the Kald Valley
During the Codominium, the Kald Valley was a center of trade among the elder peoples. Several Khuzan outposts (kygs) existed, most of them now major settlements of Kaldor. The Khzan bridge at Naniom is still in use today.
The jarin settled the upper Kald from 1,150 BT and this region saw the greatest flowering of their culture on Harn. The influence of the Sindarin and Khuzdul may account for this. The Jarin fought alongside the elder peoples during the Atani Wars against the invading Lythian barbarians. After the Battle of Sorrows (683 BT) the elves and dwarves withdrew from the region leaving few traces except abandoned mines and kygs.
The Jarin of Kaldor assimilated several waves of barbarians. By the first century TR, the bloodlines were so intermixed that, with the exception of the northern Jarin, most people considered themselves Harnic rather than Jarin or Lythian. Kaldor was a mosaic of fiercely independent petty states like the Kingdom of Olokand ruled by Locar the Strong.
Around 110 Lothrim began preparing for his greatest military campaign. In 111 and 112, he seized the tiny Jarin states on the west bank of the Kald and issued an ultimatum to the King of Olokand in 113. When it was rejected, Lothrim led his Chelni mercenaries and Gargun across the Hemurin. They stormed and took Olokand putting its royal house to the sword. A month later, Lothrim visited the same fate on Merila. His next ultimatum was met with an offer of negotiation and Lothrim conquered the rest of the region without war.
When Lothrim failed to return from Kiraz in 120, his empire collapsed and local warlords seized power. Shala of Eith, who may have been one of Lothrim's lieutenants, founded Tashal on the ruins of Kelapyn-Anuz in 121. Four kingdoms emerged from the chaos: Nurelia (125), Kephria (128), Pagostra (137), and Serelind (142).
Between 145 and 177 eastern Harn enjoyed unusually mild weather. Excellent crop yields and hunting encouraged rapid population growth. When the weather returned to normal, the Gargun had established themselves in the mountains, and human tribes were forced to range further afield for sustenance while Kaldoric peasants desperately tried to bring more virgin land under cultivation. With highland Gargun pressing the humans of the foothills, the quest for food became an avalanche with the four kingdoms at the bottom. The weather was poor for six decades. Tribes found that raiding Kaldoric settlements was easier than competing with the Gargun. Necessity drove dozens of barbarian tribes to combine into hordes capable of stripping whole districts of anything edible.
In 178 the Kath destroyed Hosat, the largest Kephrian settlement in the Kathela Hills. Heralding sixty years of starvation, tribal migration, and sporadic fighting that became known as the Migration Wars. Each of the four kingdoms struggled to survive the barbarian onslaught, culminating with them all merging into the Kingdom of Kaldor.
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