I.
The Great Hunger
The Great White Mountains[1] run the length of the Marcaladan[2] continent, forming a towering wall of stones that effectively cuts Marcalada in half. Along the western coast, another mountain chain, the Great Grey Mountains, rises to separate the hinterland from the sea. As they move further north, the Great White and the Great Grey chain grows closer and closer together, forming a complex network of mountains, valleys, ridges, plateaus and rivers known by the Anglicized form of its Gwulchean[3] name, Iquasami[4]. Agriculture was first widely adopted in Iquasami around 100 BC, and a set of practices and cultural beliefs known to history as the Nlakapamux Complex flourished over the following centuries as populations rose and widespread mining and trapping led to increasing political union and material wealth. However, the Roman Warm Period around AD 200 led to most of the region reverting to hunting, fishing and gathering during a time of frost, flood and famine. The early statelets which had formed during this period collapsed and had no real replacement, with individual and groups of clans warring over control of fishing sites, hunting grounds and countless other things. This reinforced the population decline caused by the natural disasters and the end of farming, and by the time temperatures stabilized again around AD 850 Iquasami was generally depopulated and the Nlakapamux Complex was nothing but a fabled past remembered by its scarce descendants.
Enter the Gwulcheans. The Gwulch[5] had been one of the first regions to adopt agriculture, but constant internal warfare, conflict with nearby Wakashan, Emalskan[6] and Kumshiman[7] peoples and no small amount of ill fortune prevented them from expanding outwards in a similar manner to other early agriculturalist societies. By the 9th century, the Gwulch was coming under increasing assault as Wakashan raiding intensified and Kumshiman groups in the Great Grey Mountains were driven to lower altitudes to escape freezing temperatures. As temperatures began to stabilize and weather began to become better and better, many Gwulchean groups migrated northward up the Stolo[8] River and into Iquasami’s many valleys and plateaus, establishing farming and herding communities that allowed them to prosper in terrain sheltered from many raids. Over time, the existing chiefdoms began to grow in power and absorb outlying settlements, using mountain terracing and slash-and-burn farming to expand the amount of arable land available to them and their followers. The population of the region rose dramatically and the Iquasamian Gwulcheans began to develop their own cultural practices and beliefs as these agricultural practices and the Medieval Warm Period fueled a golden age. By 1350, they had expanded as far east as Ktunaha Lake and as far north as the headwaters of the Stolo, establishing farming communities wherever possible and herding groups where it was not.
However, no golden age lasts forever. By 1400, global cooling caused longer winters and heavier snows, which in turn reduced the amount of arable land and available food. Although nowhere near as bad as the food shortages which had led to the collapse of the Nlakapamux, this still sparked a period of increased violence and warfare. With only so much land to go around, smaller cities and clans sought protection under their larger neighbors to ensure they could keep what they had, while those without were driven to increasingly desperate measures to keep starvation away. Eight major states formed, swallowing up the smaller cities and statelets around them and forcing the herding groups on their periphery to pay tribute or be destroyed. The most powerful of these states were Tkemlaps[9] and Nahunwinuh[10], who from about 1417 onward were locked in a state of perpetual low-intensity war punctuated by major sieges and campaigns. Over the decades, both states established large armies and warrior classes, which were reckoned by the Chelanian traveler Kwiltalahun in 1429 to be “the best and most numerous warriors in the country north of the Nachiwana.” Nahunwinuh held sway over Okanagan Lake and most of its hinterland, while Tkemlaps controlled most of the region west of the lake, including many of the herding tribes on the Intermontane Plateau to the north. Thus it was Tkemlaps, or rather its vassals, that were the first to encounter the Dena.
The Dena were a collection of nomadic herding groups who had lived in the forests and mountains north of the Intermontane Plateau for centuries by the 1430s. For most of this period they had been mere hunter-gatherers, about as numerous as the Inuit who lived further north, but this had changed abruptly in the 7th century with the introduction of dual domesticates, the Marcaladan goat[11] and the Marcaladan sheep[12]. Though the sheep, which were by far the most commonly herded animal in Marcalada, were unable to survive harsh northern winters, the goats thrived in it, and within a few scant generations the Dena had transitioned into numerous herding groups, shepherding vast herds of goats through the dense forests. These movements left broad swathes of open country, and these soon attracted groups of reindeer drawn by their high visibility and the presence of many mosses which the goats did not eat. The Dena picked up on this and began spreading these mosses along their travels to draw more reindeer for easier hunting, and after a time some enterprising herder reasoned that reindeer could be treated more or less the same as the goats could. By the mid-11th century, reindeer were semi-domesticated, and with a new animal to herd the Dena were able to expand into lands further north and further east where goats had been unable to live. This domestication sparked a massive population boom, and soon many groups began to forage further afield in search of richer pastures, many large groups eventually moving southward onto the northern fringes of the Marcaladan steppe[13]. All across their region--which stretched roughly from the Middle Yukon Valley in the west to Helleland Bay[14] in the east, and from the tundra in the north all the way to the edge of the Wimesourtee[15] Basin in the south--the Dena prospered and flourished, amassing a massive population for the region, founding a number of small trading settlements and clashing frequently outside groups (as well as other groups of Dena). It is during this period, around 1100, that the oldest known military dogsleds have been found, a cornerstone of later military skills.
This Dena golden age came to an end just as the one in Iquasami did. The onset of colder winters and heavier snow was a serious blow to the nomads, and as many of their pasturelands became too cold to be used they were driven further and further south. Under normal circumstances they would have advanced further onto the steppe, but the cooling which forced them southwards also led to the return of the droughts which had plagued the northern steppe throughout the Medieval Warm Period, which in turn drove the southernmost Dena further north. This combination led to many Dena groups being packed together in lands unable to support them, and subsequently a great deal of inter-tribal warfare broke out. Many groups sought refuge in the eastern and western edges of the Dena world, the taiga around Helleland Bay and the relatively stable Intermontane Plateau, respectively, which triggered yet more fighting between groups as those in the afflicted areas sought to migrate into unafflicted areas at the expense of their current residents. In the Intermontane Plateau this series of events led to a southward migration of many Dena groups across the Plateau, with the confluence of the Grey and White Mountains funneling them towards Iquasami.
The first impact this had on Iquasami was in the form of the Gwulchean nomads of the Plateau itself, who were driven ahead of the Dena migration. With their pastures gone but their herds and clans still left to them, these nomads became involved in the inter-Iquasamian conflict as mercenaries or simply tried to fight their way through the valleys to reach new pastures, further inflaming the ongoing conflict. Some were able to successfully reach new pastures, in one case even swimming their herds over the Upper Nachiwana[16] to reach the mountains around the Ktunaha Lakes. Most of them, however, were sucked into ongoing fighting and caused a glut of mercenaries, which in turn caused a glut of campaigning and violence.
The first groups of Dena reached the settled Iquasamian frontier in 1437, engaging in wary trade before departing. The following year, however, a different clan attacked a number of outlying villages and carried off their inhabitants as slaves, marking the beginning of direct conflict between the two groups and setting a pattern. Over the following years, the Dena began raiding the frontier in great numbers, seeking to drive the Gwulcheans off their land to expand their pastures or to enslave them as a source of labor (and on occasion, food). The shayab of Tkemlaps, Chinisha, was busy laying siege to Shekhwepme[17], a vassal of Nahunwinuh, to respond to these early raids, and so the Dena began to return more and more often, becoming more and more aggressive and ranging further and further across the frontier.
The turning point occurred in late 1448. A Dena warrior-tunred-mystic, Ulkatchot, claimed to have had a vision that promised the Dena incredible success (literally a herd of reindeer so vast they drank the sea) if they were to unify as one under his leadership. Clans and bands flocked to him at the small trading town of Leidlidena[18] over the following year, and by the time the winter of 1448-1449 began Ulkatchot commanded a force of more than 3,000 warriors and their families. He led them southward along the Stolo before turning eastward and moving across the Plateau to reach the valley of Tqeqeltemeh[19] River, which his host descended into and began plundering, burning and pillaging the riverside settlements and sending a wave of refugees fleeing southward. The fortified town of Saskum[2] was swamped with these refugees, and after a siege of less than two weeks its garrison took to their canoes and fled downriver, leaving the settlement and the people thereof to its fate. The Dena brutally sacked it, then continued on down the course of the river, burning, raping and pillaging as they went and feeding every plant in the region to their herds, and came within sight of Tkemlaps before Ulkatchot was killed by an enslaved Gwulchean woman. With his death, the unity of his force collapsed and the Dena withdrew, moving northwest to pillage more land before crossing the frontier and vanishing into the wilds just before the harvest began.
Such a brutal and blatant display finally forced the Isquamians to respond. Chinisha, faced with the prospect of having his very capital and the second-largest Gwulchean settlement in the region destroyed, gathered up all the men he could in preparation for a reprisal campaign. Having correctly determined that the horde withdrew after Ulkatchot was killed, he calculated that his best option was to dry and destroy their center to throw them into chaos, then let them bleed each other until he could destroy whoever survived. With no shortage of experienced warriors and mercenaries, he was able to assemble 2,000 men by the spring of 1450 and began making preparations to move northward along the Stolo towards Leidlidena. Before he departed, he was joined by an unexpected ally: Nquala, the shayab of Nahunwinah. Refugees from the Tqeqeltemeh Valley had spread across Isquami, bringing tales of the savagery of the Dena with them, and Nquala saw a perfect opportunity to eliminate a potential threat to his own state and allow him to paint himself as champion of all the Gwulcheans and avenger of those that his rival had been unable to protect. If that meant helping Chinisha, then so be it. Nquala brought 1,500 men with him, and despite Chinisha’s distrust of him, the shayab of Tkemlaps decided that doubling his forces in a campaign against an unknown enemy was worth the risk. After several weeks’ more of preparation, the combined host set out for the Stolo in June.
Meanwhile, the inter-clan conflict that had threatened to tear apart Ulkatchot’s coalition was abruptly ended in March when one of his lieutenants, Nenkhatchot, defeated and killed four other prominent leaders in a series of duels, intimidating the rest of the former coalition into either joining him or fleeing. With loot and slaves from the raid spread liberally amongst the tribes of the region, many other clans and bands rallied to Nenkhatchot, and he began making preparations for another, larger raid to take Tkemlaps itself. As the first step in doing so, he relocated the clans loyal to him further south, to the small trading town of Detselk[20]. It was here that he first received word of the Gwulchean’s approach, and it was here that the battle would be fought….
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[1] Rocky Mountains
[2] North America, specifically the continent above the Sierra Occidental/Rio Grande--the exact border is a matter of opinion, but it generally refers to the temperate parts of OTL N. America
[3] Gwulchean refers to the Salish at large--note that due to larger populations on the Columbia Plateau, much of the eastward expansion has been funneled northward into the Intermonate Plateau instead
[4] I’m not sure if there is an OTL term for this region, but it refers to the region of lakes and valleys that stretches from around OTL Williams Lake down to the Columbia Plateau/Rockies
[5] Salish Sea, from OTL’s /x̌ʷə́lč/
[6] Chinookan. Emalska is the Russianized form of Wimal, i.e. the Columbia River
[7] Cayusan. They are much more successful ITTL thanks to being the first to domesticate the mountain goat/bighorn sheep, and so are spread throughout many mountainous regions in Western North America
[8] Fraser River
[9] Kamloops, BC
[10] Vernon, BC. Not an OTL Salish place name but instead borrowed from a nearby village on Lake Okanagan.
[11] Mountain Goat
[12] Bighorn sheep
[13] Great Plains
[14] Hudson Bay
[15] Missouri River Basin, roughly Northern Montana
[16] Complicated, but basically the Revelstoke Narrows
[17] Salmon Arm, BC
[18] Prince George, BC
[19] Upper Thompson River
[20] Williams Lake, BC
