Absolutum Dominium

[Preface]

The lands of Arai consist of a myriad of cultures, peoples, tribes, kingdoms, city-states, and religions. While this story falls under 'fantasy', you will find no other races (elves, etc.) nor will there be any magic, though perhaps some mystical elements may arise. For the sake of imagination, our setting is roughly equivalent to that of middle iron-age, somewhat near the beginning of the Hellenistic (Alexandrian) period in our own history. Impressive contemporary technology and architecture is present in the 'civilized' portions of our map, a vast amount of peoples are what the ancient Greeks would refer to as _barbaroi, _or barbarians. I will eventually compile references as we move forward, but as I only have a skeleton of an idea of where this is going presently, that will have to be in the near-future. To begin, I will have one character moving forward, but I shall open up more as I become satisfied with the plot frame, atmosphere, and direction of the project.

Among the more interesting civilizations, we have the Arderni city-state. The Arderni are something of an enigma, their people having migrated from the sea to found their city several centuries before. Both their origin and their religion is a mystery to their neighbors who at least share some semblance of similarity with each other. They are efficient architects and warriors, and were the first in the area to establish iron works that quickly gave them a major advantage over their foes. They are a cunning, brutal, and efficient people who quickly made enemies of several neighboring tribes with their practice of stealing virgin girls to become wives. While this practice was apparently accepted wherever the Arderni originated, it caused several short wars that were ended cruelly by the victorious Arderni. Their equivalency of noblemen all claim descent from an original colonist, all with some heroic deed under their belts: Arcus the Redeemer, Mara the Whipper, and Baros Back-breaker to name a few. Their society is slightly patriarchal in that the actual governing bodies are held by men, however, women own property and command armies just as the men do, as well as manage the cults of the female goddesses without male interference, whereas male gods frequently have female priests alongside.