Kerak

Early Years

Kerak grew up as the oldest son of Chief Otin of the Seal Tribe, making the responsibility of becoming the next Chief loom over his childhood. Always expected to show his best side and learn about leadership at a young age he had to grow up quickly. However, despite needing to spend hours in council to observe and learn his father made sure that he still got time to spend time with the other children of the tribe.

It has always been important to keep good relations with other people for Kerak. It is unknown if this personality trait is because he grew up as a future Chief or something he'd have naturally.

The Taming of the Wall in AE 1643 brought humans into the Inmali lands of the north. Kerak didn't see any until several years later, around AE 1660, and realized these slightly taller strangers had a drastically different culture than the Inmali. They seemed set on building settlements in places the Inmali saw as only usable as grazing areas for Beardoxen, where making permanent settlements would be absurd. Yet, the general Inmali assumption was that the newcomers would soon leave as they weren't accustomed to the harsh climate of the northern parts of Shireon.

Leading the Tribe

As years passed by it became apparent that the humans had come to stay. In AE 1748 Chief Otin was killed in a hunting accident. Kerak was now the Chief of the Seal Tribe. It was now his responsibility that the Tribe thrived, something that had lately become slightly problematic as the humans had made a settlement in one of their more important Beardox grazing areas. Not wanting to risk open war before the fighting skills of these newcomers had been assessed properly the Seal Tribe tried to herd their Beardoxen away from the settlement. However, Beardoxen are stubborn creatures of habit, and the Tribe had to put up camp close to this new human settlement.

The humans felt threatened by the large camp of natives being so close to their settlement and sent representatives to try to talk the situation out. Kerak was pleased of this initiative from the newcomers - at least until he realized the language barrier and cultural difference together would make it close to impossible to come to any type of deal. He had picked up a bit of Kuprian as the humans seemed to be staying in these lands but realized quickly that the humans hadn't bothered with learning the local Inmali language. The first attempt at diplomacy had failed, creating more tension between the two people.

Years passed, and every year the Beardoxen migrated past the growing human city called Niskala the conflict grew. As much as Kerak wanted to keep this conflict civil and without any actual fighting he realized that using weapons might become inevitable. And true enough, despite working against it and only encountering each other for a small part of the year, the first small open conflicts started around AE 1820.

It quickly became apparent that the humans had been in more international fights over land before while the Inmali had mostly used their weapons for hunting. It was impossible to attack the city in one great skirmish as the Inmali would get slaughtered. The solution was small pesterings of humans who were outside the city unprotected when the Inmali were around. Kerak hoped this would eventually tell the humans that they weren't welcome and that they should leave.

The Colonization Wars

It did not go as Kerak had hoped. In AE 1872 the humans started to systematically attack all Inmali tribes or individuals getting close to the city. Now the area was completely unusable by the Inmali. Even Kerak couldn't ignore this threat to the Inmali way of life. They had to do something.

After consulting his tribe members Kerak decided they needed to recruit more tribes to fight against this threat. Messengers were sent out to warn the other tribes about this threat and to summon them to help to beat the humans. However, the tribes were scattered all over the vast lands of the north. It would take months to get the tribes together - if the other tribes felt it was a threat in the first place.

It took almost a year before there were enough other tribes that had heeded the summons, followed by weeks of heated discussions about who would lead the attack. The Inmali tribes are highly individualistic organizations, not easily accepting someone from outside their specific tribe ordering them around. After discussing back and forth for days Kerak got tired of the seemingly unmoving state of the topic. He called on the ancient clause of merging the tribes together momentarily, creating a united tribe until the problem was solved. There were protests as Kerak would be the leader of such a tribe, but Kerak explained that he was sure that the humans would spread out all over the tundra if they were allowed to continue in this way. The other tribe chiefs seemed to understand the high risk of that happening, at least after some hefty arguments, and they finally agreed.

And thus, the Inmalia Tribe was reborn, as it always was in times of need.

The Battle for Niskala

Now the time had come to take back the Inmali lands from the colonizers. The humans had better weapon technology, but the Inmali were much more numerous. They had the element of surprise as well - the humans seemed oblivious to the coming retaliation.

There were losses on both sides, but the humans soon realized the numbers of attackers were just too many. They surrendered their city to the natives. The Inmali had won, and their ancestral lands were safe.

The Nation of Inmalenor

The members of the human city administration of Niskala were captured and interrogated. It became clear that the Inmali had to claim the land a bit more officially than they had up until now to prevent this from happening again. The leaders of the present Tribes got together in what is considered the first Tribemoot of the Inmali nation to try to find a way to solve this.

Discussions were long and heated. None of the Tribes wanted to be ruled by anyone above them. Then an idea was sparked. What if they made a nation with an official ruler to claim the land, while the Tribes were free to govern themselves in the way they felt was best? They could choose a leader that ruled the country on paper, who would have a say in how the new human settlements in the area were ruled and make sure they didn't hinder the old ways of the Inmali.

Now the big question was who would become the first ruler of this new nation.

Species

Inmali

Life

1590 AE 2005 AE 415 years old

Gender

Male

Known Languages

Inmali Standard
Kuprian

Rule

The Seal Tribe:
AE 1748 - 1873 (125 years)
Inmalenor:
AE 1873 - 2005 (132 years)

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The First Laws of Inmalenor

Made in the year AE 1873 at the first Tribemoot
of the new Nation of Inmalenor

1. Inmalenor belongs to the Inmali People, and covers the Northern Taiga north of The Frozen Mountains, from the eastern shores to the Enari border to the west.
2. Inmalenor will be ruled by a High Chief seated in the City of Niskala, chosen by the Inmali Tribes. The High Chief will make sure the Inmali interests are considered in the human settlements in the Nation as well as in international affairs.
• The High Chief will keep the position until stepping down or being deemed unsuited to rule by the Tribemoot.
• The High Chief will not rule the Tribes. The Tribes will be ruled by their own Chief as it has been in all times.
3. The Tribemoot will from now on be held at the Moot just outside the City of Niskala. The High Chief will attend it as a representative of the Inmali interests internationally and the human settlements.