Continent

Continent map, based on Canora satellite images

Continent is the main dry land mass on the Ahldorae planet. It's rich and tumultuous history, dominated by War, has seen several great empires and cultures emerge over the course of ten centuries.

Continent has no name, which is exactly the point of contention, sparking one of the longest military conflicts in the known Universe, lasting 4-7 centuries, depending on the historical interpretation. 17 countries occupy the Continent, each fighting for its own version of the name of the land mass. Most countries name themselves by the name they want the Continent to be called, which creates a peculiar similarity between country names, due to adamant fighting over variations.

The 17 countries are: Leykarya, Leykaron, Leikarda, Leykhane, Narindon, Narindal, Narimon, Kwalin, Zombon, Mantaron, Mantareia, Yammoe, Singlewave, Quesde Republic, Rowlow, Loodori, Ybuwyn.

These 5 countries have played a prominent role in the history of the Continent, but no longer exist: Loodon Empire, Land, Singlewave Collective, Astauand, Austaland.

See: History of the Continent

Modern political map

First human settlements are believed to have appeared on the western part of the Continent, and for many centuries had not ventured east due to the Great Desert. First expeditions have been recorded in the 4th century of the first revolution. After the 5th century both east and west parts of the Continent have become populated by decentralized tribes, but the ties between the two sides seemed to have been intermittent.

While the east continued to be quite decentralized, several quite centralized countries have emerged on the western side of the Continent by the end of the first revolution, most notably Wunnah, the Kingdom of Tameen and Dantria.

The Western Dantrian Civilization began to emerge as the dominating power on the Continent by the middle of the second revolution.

After a series of successful conquests, Dantria has expanded its territory to the south and entered into a prolonged conflict with the Kingdom of Tameen. Eventually, Dantria has prevailed, but Tameen retained a large part of its autonomy. Over the course of the next century Tameen outplayed Dantria politically and economically, and became the de facto power in the region. By the 12th cSR it officially became Western Dantria, and Dantria became Central Dantria.

A federation of several countries became known as the Dantrian Complex, consisting of Western Dantria, Central Dantria, Wunnah and Land. Its trading, political and military center was the city of Tavoe, which later became part of what was known as the Diamond, a group of four major dantrian cities: Tavoe, Kalchinge, Walneer and Gungon.

Starting 18th cSR, Western Dantria established strong ties with Yammoe, which was the most developed region in the east, and later with Loodon. Wanting to spread its influence to the east, Dantria instituted its council in Loodon in exchange for trade deals, since Yammoe seemed to favor independence and less likely to agree to seat a council. Nevertheless, both countries had good relationships both with each other and the west, and Dantria enjoyed a strong representation in both countries.

The council of Western Dantria in Loodon slowly adapted and localized to the realities of the east, and received a significant amount of autonomy. It began to formally report to Loodon's court and became the Council of Eastern Dantria. For a while Loodon and Yammoe were informally known as the Eastern Dantrian Civilization.

Later, tensions arose between Loodon and Yammoe in regards to the Council, and eventually a diplomatic decision had been reached, upon which the Council of Eastern Dantria was relocated to the Gantolia region. Gantolia was fairly decentralized at the time and was considered to be a safe third party.

Eventually, Yammoe ended up being unhappy with this state of affairs as well, as Gantolia began establishing ties with Western Dantria. By mid 1st century TR the Eastern Dantrian Civilization was effectively abolished, and the Council of Eastern Dantria became the Council of Gantolia.

The Western Dantrian Civilization came to an unexpected end in the beginning of the third revolution, when in 114 a superhero warrior Lydian wiped out most of the population and cities of Wunnah, Western and Central Dantria, destroying centuries worth of science, history, literature and art. The world's population was reduced by an estimated 10-20%, and scientific progress is believed to have been set back by centuries.

War erupted during the first ever Peace Congress in 511 TR. At the time there were three powerful countries: Loodon Empire, Astauand and Leykarya, with the rest of the Continent consisting of smaller provinces and lands, largely disconnected and decentralized. A procurator by the name of Ghilligin Dhorn was representing many of the smaller lands under the banner of Disconnected Provinces.

Initially, the Congress between country leaders was supposed to be about fundamental issues such as trade agreements and borders, with the goal of lessening local conflicts and small-scale wars. But the meeting quickly erupted into a shouting match regarding what to call the continent itself. The reason for the contention was due to the landmass being called “Leykarya” within Leykarya, which was not a fact known to the group. When discovered, it was immediately challenged by the Loodon emperor, who found this to be “beyond arrogance”. The twin kings of Astauand were equally furious and Ghilligin Dhorn made a speech in which he called for fairness and justice.

To her credit, the Leykaryan leader was an accomplished diplomat and was able to quickly mitigate the situation. The talks continued, but then came to an abrupt and decisive end when during a session on the next day it turned out that people of Astauand also call the main landmass by the name of their country. The Leykaryan leader demanded an expulsion of both kings from the talks, and Ghilligin Dhorn performed an ode in which he demanded fairness and justice.

The Peace Congress was completely ruined when it was revealed that the Loodon Empire calls the continent “Loodonland”. At this point one of the kings of Astauand left the room, the Leykaryan leader labeled everyone “fools” and Ghilligin Dhorn attempted to do an interpretive dance to demand fairness and justice, but was stabbed in the stomach by the remaining king of Astauand, Karnt.

War was first announced by the Astauand king who stayed in the room and murdered Ghilligin Dhorn. Although the debate is still ongoing, the generally accepted view is that this was the most important turn of events in the history of The Continent: Ghilligin Dhorn was so annoying that both the Loodon emperor and Nasta of Leykarya cheered on as he was killed, and thus it was possible to strike peace then and there.

But, instead, the murderer, having pulled out the knife from the still warm corpse, turned to everyone with a smile and declared war on all parties present.

The Loodon emperor had immediately left, but was then killed on his way out of the Neutral Palace by the other Astauand king. Nasta sat with an astonished look on her face, when she suddenly began convulsing and fell to the floor. She died within minutes. It was later revealed that she was poisoned by the Loodon Emperor who felt that her wisdom and maturity as leader challenged his seniority at the negotiation table.

The Volatile Period is characterized by active military conflict between most countries on the Continent and lasts roughly between 6th to the end of the 9th centuries.

Dissolution is a political and cultural term which describes the conflict quieting down, with most conflicts becoming effectively frozen.

Peace Congress II was proposed as the official end of War and it was considered with various degrees of commitment for decades, to the point that it became a subject of satire and jokes virtually everywhere on the Continent.

See: Superhero warriors

Ahldorae's population exhibits a poorly studied phenomenon, thought to be a blend of DNA mutations and environmental factors, that result in the occasional births of individuals with super powers. Super powers range from incredible strength and being able to wield various forms of energy, to the more exotic ones, such as having a phantom live a full blown life while its counterpart sleeps.

The Continent has a rich linguistic history, with over a 100 different languages documented and with around 12 in use, but is notable for a unique and relatively early development and adoption of what is known as a Root Tongue.

See: Root Tongue

Root Tongue is an artificial language, originating from the Western Dantrian Civilization. In the 18th CSR Western Dantria moved its Institute of Linguistics to Loodon's city of Couleds, for the purposes of disseminating the language and culture of Dantria.

In spite of a cautious attitude from the strongest state in the region, Yammoe, and Dantria believing it to be a long shot, Root Tongue saw a somewhat unexpected popularity and a surge in adoption. This was due to several factors, one of them being that the major religion of Xaewoon adopted Root Tongue for its texts for the purposes of simplifying its canon and for missionary work, which quickly spread the Tongue in Tarnaria. Another factor was trade, where Root Tongue quickly became the de facto standard for paperwork.

By the end of 19th CSR Root Tongue was firmly established in the east as the official written language. In the beginning of the third revolution and certainly by the time of Lydian conquests Root Tongue became universally widespread as a spoken language as well, including in Gantolia and Yammoe.

Today Root Tongue is continued to be developed in Couleds, which is now part of Leykaron.

See: Mandae

Mandae is another major language, one that has been in use as an international language in the east in the second revolution. The difference between Mandae and the Root Tongue is that Mandae was primarily used as the language of kings and diplomats. It was also customary to write books in Mandae. A lot of pre-dantrian literature is written in Mandae.

Today Mandae is what is known in linguistics as a dead language, meaning it has no native speakers. It is, however, continued to be widely used, specifically for legal purposes. Most laws and contracts in the world use some form of Mandae.

There are three major religions on the Continent: Rahkahnja, Davinia and the Cult of the Gods of Mercy. The three religions have coexisted relatively peacefully and few conflicts were based on disagreements between the three. However, significant disagreements have spawned within each of the religions, which is especially true for Rahkahnja and Davinia, and have driven significant conflict throughout history, resulting in the Chalice Wars and a Tarnarian conflict known as Bitter Lemon which has lasted for over a century during the Second Revolution.