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Drifters
LANDS OF THE HELLENES BY MOIRICHOS OF KORKYRA (577 CE)
SKYTHIA
RECORDS OF THE NORTHERN REGIONS BY KUANG FANG (443 CE)
THE DOUYI
Then, third among the barbarians who invaded the North, we have the Douyi. They were first recorded as dwelling to the west of the Yuezhi at the time of Emperor Wen, and being under the command of the Ibe. Upon the collapse of the Ibe they steadily drifted to the east, taking part in the destruction of the western Yuezhi, and also the civil war among the Northern Xiongnu. They sent tribute to the Emperor Wu, and took part in his vanquishing of the Southern Xiongnu, but after the end of the Han dynasty the north-western frontier was neglected, and grew sufficient in boldness to take part in the invasion of the Nine Barbarians. The Douyi claim to be the originators of the Elephant formation, and they are indeed masters of this form of warfare. Their soldiers are expected to be able to run two hundred and forty li in a single day, including in battle formation, and even their women are expected to be able to run one hundred and twenty li. They are a people apart from the others of the Nine Barbarians. They tell of their homeland, La, which was captured by a dynasty they call the Qima, who burned their cities to the ground and sent their ancestors far away to be of military service, a thousand years ago. This is not a thing that any other barbarian speaks about, nor are these tales any of the barbarians are familiar with except as stories that the Douyi tell. The way they speak of the Qima sounds instead like a spirit or divinity that once they worshipped and do so no longer in their present state.
Their ruler is called the Anaku, and he may only be selected from a very small number of familial lines, lines claimed to be kept pure since they were cast out of La. The other barbarians tell stories that, once upon a time, the Douyi were known as ‘the nude ones’ for their women would openly train their bodies in the nude. The Northern Xiongnu once attempted to take advantage of this to try to carry off the women of the Douyi, but their women were trained as warriors and fought off their attackers with great ferocity. The barbarians tell this tale to mock the Xiongnu and Douyi both. If this was ever a practice that the Douyi maintained, it is not one that they practice any longer. The Douyi are made of the Four Nations, the Yaku, the Koru, the Lani and the Betu. The Yaku once dominated the others, in the days of Emperor Wu it was understood that the Yaku were the royal clan, but things are since different. The current ruler among the Douyi is Dou Yong, who is of the Koru. They practice the ways of the Buddha, and prefer to speak the tongue of the Sak, though they also have another language that only their priests and monks can speak, a secret language they will not share with outsiders. They are impetuous and fearless, except in the matter of spirituality, where they are renowned as among the most pious among all barbarians. Some among them say that they were cast out of La for violating a sacred oath, and that ever since they have never broken a godly oath they have sworn, either individually or as a nation. They are part of the Western Yan, having been given the city of Ye to rule over and its surrounding region. They may speak like the Sak and fight like the barbarians but they have become amenable to Chinese dress and behaviour, and are counted as one of the more civilized among those who rule over the North. They are counted among those of the Nine Barbarians with whom the Emperor can maintain diplomatic relations.
Μηδίζω! THE WORLD OF ACHAEMENID HELLAS
CHAPTER 5: SPOROS or CIHYA
IMPORTANT LIVES BY D. MAGMARIO mp SAMODA (965 CE)
Leukerix, son of Cunorix, was leader of the Arverni, reigning between 860-880 AC, and the most famous king of the Second Arverni confederacy. He is chiefly famous for leading an enormous campaign that defeated the Rasna Empire completely, leading to its collapse, and initiating the birth of Celtic involvement in the affairs of the Mediterranean. His conquest nearly beggared the Arverni, and their perceived weakness immediately lead to the Sequani-Arverni war that followed the capture of Veii in 869 AC. His legacy is properly regarded as mixed, yet nonetheless there is not a single inhabitant of Juropa that can afford to remain ignorant of his existence and his deeds. Leukerix is commonly claimed as Hellenic, a spurious claim relying on misinterpretation of various statements and the example of other, somewhat dubious, claims to Hellenic ancestry by others among the Arverni and nearby peoples.CHAPTER 5: SPOROS or CIHYA
IMPORTANT LIVES BY D. MAGMARIO mp SAMODA (965 CE)
A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE SENULOGIA OF MAQRI BY ANBAL HSH (1784 CE)
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The archipelago of Maqri has often been outside the historical record, cultivating unique cultures in the meantime. Much of its early history is preserved only in very ancient stories, written by peoples from far away lands who were not particularly intimate with the area. But, by the grace of the Lord of Maqri, we have discovered many surprising things in this past season of excavation, many of which promise to significantly alter our understanding of the earliest history of the archipelago. The oldest settlements provided much evidence of prior inhabitation of Maqri, and also the relationship between these original settlers and the Maziqe of ‘Friga proper. It was, however, in the earliest complex inhabitation that we had the most surprising discoveries; in addition to the expected inscriptions of Qanani, which were numerous across all urban foundations of this period of colonisation, we also found plentifold examples of Eleniqi inscriptions, and somesuch inscriptions were bilingual. They also raise questions as to the etymology of Maqri, for the Eleniqe inscriptions refer to the colony as Makaron Nesoi, meaning The Blessed Isles, and this would by all accounts by a plausible source for the present name of the island. This was indeed the source of some consternation to some of the Maqriy who became exposed to this information, for it was their firm belief that their descent was almost exclusively from the Qanane and the later Maziqe. However, my colleague Malqar Emen made a new and thorough survey of the oral histories of the archipelago, and on the island of Tirogat’ra he found that there are in fact tales of unusual descent among the population of the island, and we discovered yet more objects with Eleniqi inscriptions belonged to families of Tirogat’ra as heirlooms or precious relics. It can be safely said that the archipelago entirely lacked in violence during this period of colonisation, as absolutely no weaponry has been discovered of any kind, nor evidence of any kind of damage to buildings resulting from human activity until the coming of the Maziqe many centuries later. Thus we found, without in any way biasing our findings with expectation, yet another evidence of successful Eleniqe and Qanane congress during this time. We also found evidence of shipbuilding on the island during the later stages of this period, mostly evidenced on ceramics and votive images, and we took advantage of the presence of Ben Tamaya in our party to consult his people’s expertise on the matter of great ships constructed with simple techniques. It was his firm opinion that the ships so depicted were ocean-capable vessels, comparable to the old waka of his ancestors, and he wondered at where the ancient Maqriy might have travelled to. A fair question indeed, and one that we could not satisfactorily answer.
LANDS OF THE HELLENES BY MOIRICHOS OF KORKYRA (577 CE)
SKYTHIA
For some time tales had been coming to the Hellenes of strange barbarians in the north who spoke like Hellenes, and spoke of Hellas, but who fought on horseback and lived on the open steppe. No Hellene who ventured into Sarmatia ever encountered such a thing, though many a brave adventurer went north to find the legendary Lost Hellenes, and not all of them came back. But one day, long after this had been judged to be the work of tall tales and wicked storytellers, in the reign of Panhellen Perseus II Nikator, there came a strange visitor to the court. He was dressed in the manner of the Sarmatians at first glance, but some of his garb seemed to have a more civilized style to it. This was written off as high quality Asian work that had made its way somewhere into Sarmatia. The visitor spoke in the language of the Sarmatians, and claimed to be an ambassador from a king among the Sarmatians. He brought a brace of wonderful horses as a gift for the Panhellen, and he was granted entrance to the presence of the Panhellen. When he was brought before Panhellen Perseus, however, the stranger produced another gift; bolts of fine silk with the finest quality dyes. And that was not all. When inspected, it was found that the silk had Hellenic characters upon it. Then the stranger began to speak another language, which was immediately recognised by men from Euvoia as a kind of Ionian Hellenic, strange to many but once a common tongue in the lands of Hellas.
This was marvelled at by the assembled men of court, and Panhellen Perseus asked the man his name and his heritage with great curiosity and interest. He named himself as Samagoras, son of Samagoras, and servant of Basileus Sanagos of West Khorasmia. He gave the story of West Khorasmia in full. When the Persians had given the lands of Kimmeria over to the Sindes, a part of the citizens of the poleis of the region had quit their cities to avoid the rule of the king of Persia, and were unable to make their way back to Hellas since all of that was also under the rule of Persia. So, with heavy hearts, they founded their own city of Neapolis, further north, and there entered into congress with the Sarmatians and the Honno. There they made precious objects for the nomad kings, and hired themselves out as skilled warriors, but this eventually led to disaster for Neapolis as they were targeted by some of the peoples they defeated, it being understood that they were limited in terms of the territory that they controlled. This led to a further migration south-eastwards, towards the border of Khorasmia. The King of Khorasmia conducted an alliance with the Kimmerians, and allowed them to found a new city, named Khora. This the Kimmerians fortified immensely, and had never fallen to an enemy. By this time they had begun to learn how to fight in a similar style to the other nomads of the region, whilst combining that with the traditional Hellenic style. However, despite all the time that had passed, and despite being cut off from Hellas completely, they had not forgotten a single part of their history nor their Hellenic identity. Now King Sanagos of West Khorasmia and his ally King Thraitonos of Khorasmia were under threat from the depredations of the Sarmatians, and had heard that the Hellenes were no longer under the rule of the Persians, and so now Sanagos asked his brother Hellenes for help in the fight. To this, Panhellen Perseus acquiesced immediately, and so began his first campaign into Skythia.
This was marvelled at by the assembled men of court, and Panhellen Perseus asked the man his name and his heritage with great curiosity and interest. He named himself as Samagoras, son of Samagoras, and servant of Basileus Sanagos of West Khorasmia. He gave the story of West Khorasmia in full. When the Persians had given the lands of Kimmeria over to the Sindes, a part of the citizens of the poleis of the region had quit their cities to avoid the rule of the king of Persia, and were unable to make their way back to Hellas since all of that was also under the rule of Persia. So, with heavy hearts, they founded their own city of Neapolis, further north, and there entered into congress with the Sarmatians and the Honno. There they made precious objects for the nomad kings, and hired themselves out as skilled warriors, but this eventually led to disaster for Neapolis as they were targeted by some of the peoples they defeated, it being understood that they were limited in terms of the territory that they controlled. This led to a further migration south-eastwards, towards the border of Khorasmia. The King of Khorasmia conducted an alliance with the Kimmerians, and allowed them to found a new city, named Khora. This the Kimmerians fortified immensely, and had never fallen to an enemy. By this time they had begun to learn how to fight in a similar style to the other nomads of the region, whilst combining that with the traditional Hellenic style. However, despite all the time that had passed, and despite being cut off from Hellas completely, they had not forgotten a single part of their history nor their Hellenic identity. Now King Sanagos of West Khorasmia and his ally King Thraitonos of Khorasmia were under threat from the depredations of the Sarmatians, and had heard that the Hellenes were no longer under the rule of the Persians, and so now Sanagos asked his brother Hellenes for help in the fight. To this, Panhellen Perseus acquiesced immediately, and so began his first campaign into Skythia.
RECORDS OF THE NORTHERN REGIONS BY KUANG FANG (443 CE)
THE DOUYI
Their ruler is called the Anaku, and he may only be selected from a very small number of familial lines, lines claimed to be kept pure since they were cast out of La. The other barbarians tell stories that, once upon a time, the Douyi were known as ‘the nude ones’ for their women would openly train their bodies in the nude. The Northern Xiongnu once attempted to take advantage of this to try to carry off the women of the Douyi, but their women were trained as warriors and fought off their attackers with great ferocity. The barbarians tell this tale to mock the Xiongnu and Douyi both. If this was ever a practice that the Douyi maintained, it is not one that they practice any longer. The Douyi are made of the Four Nations, the Yaku, the Koru, the Lani and the Betu. The Yaku once dominated the others, in the days of Emperor Wu it was understood that the Yaku were the royal clan, but things are since different. The current ruler among the Douyi is Dou Yong, who is of the Koru. They practice the ways of the Buddha, and prefer to speak the tongue of the Sak, though they also have another language that only their priests and monks can speak, a secret language they will not share with outsiders. They are impetuous and fearless, except in the matter of spirituality, where they are renowned as among the most pious among all barbarians. Some among them say that they were cast out of La for violating a sacred oath, and that ever since they have never broken a godly oath they have sworn, either individually or as a nation. They are part of the Western Yan, having been given the city of Ye to rule over and its surrounding region. They may speak like the Sak and fight like the barbarians but they have become amenable to Chinese dress and behaviour, and are counted as one of the more civilized among those who rule over the North. They are counted among those of the Nine Barbarians with whom the Emperor can maintain diplomatic relations.
- Daeres
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