Riombara/First Age

First Age

Founding of the Rines Republic

Soon after Beluaterra was discovered, many nobles took ship to explore the new lands. Arriving, they saw that only a few cities along the east coast were advanced enough to have risen above barbarism, all other lands were still rogue. Those original cities were (from north to south): Lin Helon, Agyr, Mhed, Fronepu, Fwuvoghor, Enweilios, Rines, Athol Margos, Grekh, Irombro and Eno.

Soon after the first settlers had spent some time on the new continent, realms were created in those cities: Lin Helonon, Ar Agyr, Melhed, Fronen, Voghor, Enweil, Rines Republic, Athol Collective, Grekh and Eno Chia. Of those, only Fronen, Enweil and Riombara now remain in their ancestral lands.

The Rines Republic was founded under Panther II around April/May 03.

After some peacefull expansion soon the first conflicts arose, especially in the south were 6 cities lying next to each other vied for dominance. We took Cjelegy and Avengmil - then the first war on this continent was sparked on the small island that was divided between Rines and Athol Margos.

War against the Athol collective

Rines being the richer city by far, the chances of the Athol Collective to survive were low. After an initial round of negotiations, where an offer to merge the two realms as equals was refused, war ensured. Soon Athol was under siege and its palisade stormed. Since our income was still low, we never mananged to field an army big enough to actually _take_ Athol. To keep Athol from comming back, we had to maintain a significant garrison in this city for several months(!).

Then we took Ajitmon and Melegra and a treaty with Voghor was signed, establishing our joint border between Fwuvoghor and Melegra.

Around this time, Panther II left and Balin was elected as President. If we had but known what that would mean...how power did corrupt him and of the darkest betrayal ever.

Grekh's Grand Treck West

Grekh (then controlling Ardmore, Glongin, Bym and Mio Dupaki) had been under pressure from Eno Chia (then already controlling the city of Jidington) for quite a while. In addition they saw that between Enweil, Eno Chia and Irombro there was no place for them to grow fast enough to survive. Therefore they decided to gather enough men and money and head northwest to establish their realm once more in the wilderness. Before they departed into the unknown, they offered Irombro their old lands - mostly to defy the heavyhanded politics of Eno Chia. Then they left and were not heard from again for a long while before founding their realm anew around the city of Keffa.

During this time these nobles fought for Riombara: Balin, Raimona, Tan o'Kammar, Beast Rune, Llaerin Stark, Ryan B, Rip Cohn Thorn, Virath, Andy, Uanu, Cpt. Kronic, Durugar, Mufasa

Riombaras Founding

While Grekh prepared for their great treck, Enweil and Voghor both expanded ever faster towards the northeast, Eno Chia worked their way towards Grekh to ensure that Irombro and Rines would be shut off from expansion. Due to this, negotiations between the Rines Republic and Irombro started, aiming to merge our realms. After initial difficulties - no side wanted to be swallowed up - an agreement was reached. We would merge our lands and move our new capital to the city of Grekh. Grekhs regions were taken over with the consent of Grekh's nobles. Then Irombros nobles did join the Rines Republic and the new joint realm under the name of Riombara was officially established.

Rapid Expansion

May 03

We took the city of Grekh after their colony had been established in Keffa. Thus we incurred the anger of Eno Chia, who claimed that 'Grekh's nobles had no right to hand us the city as a gift' and 'Grekh is - of course - a part of Eno Chia'. As part of our treaty with Irombro we then moved the joint capital to Grekh - the city would see endless bloodshed during the next year. Now all Irombaran Regions were peacefully handed over: Rii, Rueffilo, the city of Irombro, Glongin, Mio Dupaki and Bym. But - very strange - Avengmil defected to the (practically non existent) Athol Collective.

Riombara now stretched from Melegra in the north to Irombro in the south, to Bym in the west excluding Athol and - crippling for us - Avengmil, cutting our realm in half. 3 cities, 9 regions.

During these times Tan o'Kammar became general

Food - what's that?

About this time, all peasants suddendly got the silly idea that they wanted to eat food. Right then, right now. Not surprisingly, the large city of Rines did start to starve at once. This did lead to the foundation of the Trading Ministry, headed by Durugar who heroically led several trecks of the newfangled caravans through the enemy gauntlet of Avengmil towards Rines to feed this hungry city. Without his and his fellow traders work, Riombara would have been badly beaten during the following months.

The Neverending War against Eno Chia

June 03

Right then Eno Chia declared war against us. Enweil joined on Luz' side, though they vowed to wage war only in former Grekhian regions. A vow they did keep. Voghor at least did stay neutral - but we would have to fight alone against a combined realm income three times greater than ours. We took defensive positions in the mountains of Bym and behind the hastily erected walls of Irombro. Several battles ensured, we were able to consistently inflict losses twice as high as we suffered while being heavily outnumbered. But slowly we were pushed back.

The End of the Athol Collective

Since Athol Margos had been starving for quite a while, its citizens were fed up and finally did join Riombara. When Avengmil went rogue soon after, the end had finally come to our enemy. Without leadership, driven only through hatred, Athols deaththroes had lasted for months....who would have thought that this city would become our proud capital in the distant future?

The treck of Panther II

Seeing the bloodbath that the south had become, Panther II and several other Riombaran nobles did decide to head east to found a new realm untouched hatred. We were loath to loose them, but they were equiped with gold and men and soon left for the far east. There they did found the realm of Marca de Pantera centered around the desert stronghold of Tahgalez. This realm would be an important factor in the resurrection of Riombara later... About 20 nobles did stay in Riombara, while these left towards the west: Panther II, Raimona, Mufasa, Rip Cohn Thorn, Jarom Stark.

Bloody battles around Grekh

After more than 6 weeks of fighting Eno Chia had only taken Bym and Mio Dupaki. Their southern front had made no progress at all...they were not proud of that achievement - they had thought to have us on our knees and at their mercy after that time). But then a combined army of Eno and Enweil did besiege Grekh for the first time, though our defenses did hold. Again and again they came, somtimes gaining the walls, but soon being driven out again. Then Enweil finally had enough of Eno's bungling - they withdrew from the war. Soon afterwards Enweil did establish a colony in the east.

The Founding of Luz de Bia

August 03 (?)

Disgusted with the slow movement and general incompetence of Eno Chia's king, their general Doc's Biatch did seceed Jidington from Eno Chia, more or less with Eno's blessing. Thus was created the realm of Luz de Bia. Since Doc's Biatch was the main force behind Eno's war against Riombara, the division of our enemies was not the good sign we had hoped it would be. Since Luz' founding, Eno's attacks would become fewer and less vicious - but that was more than made up by Luz which became our primary enemy with the aim to destroy our realm once and for ever. Doc's Biatch continually accused us of unsensibly resisting the paradise of eternal peace she wanted to erect...under her iron rule. To her we were warmongers pure and simple, since we tried to fight off her endless attacks... It should prove impossible to come to any diplomatic arrangement with Luz under her leadership, though we continually tried. So for 4 more months, this senseless war should drag on. During those months, interestingly, our relation to Luz' nobles became ever better. Respect did grow on both sides, but our hatred for Doc's Biatch only became greater....

After 5 months of fighting against forces a lot stronger then ours, we had lost only 3 regions.