See also Andash Historic Events
Beneath the Sands
The truths of old and grand Andash are lost. Time and sand are fickle partners in the preservation of what once was. However spread across the world and the wilds are relics that are painfully alluring. A breadcrumb trail to greatness that is a lure to many.
What is known, to a reasonable amount of surety, is that Grand Andash was at its height near the year ~300 BE during the reign of Maestra Anna Aguinaldo. A powerful trading and arcane nation, the Andashi sailed galleys along the length and breadth of Esterra and even crossed the great trade sea to the West. The Grand Empire claimed all lands from Calandri in the south to the Basilisk Gate in the north where it splits the Oculta mountain range. Across this vast swathe of desert, grasslands and shrubland were spread great cities, sprawling manors and schools. Arcane magic, more so than any divine worship, appears to have been essential to Andashi culture, with arcane contraptions of bronze and copper being found broken among the ruins far and wide. What has been found in reference to religion is sporadic and strange. The Grand Andashi believed that their gods were among them, walking the sands. Although it remains unclear if they believed that they themselves were gods, or if these pagan spirits were separate from humanity.
Grand Andash’s own history is of great importance to the modern Andashi and is unfortunately sparse. Sages have been able to ascertain that the empire was made up of as low as three, but as high as six different cultural groups, each with their own leadership and loyalties, but all serving under a single ‘Maestra/o/ix’. Records have referred to coastal people known as ‘The Iprikhani’ who were conquered by the hill-dwelling ‘Zemhiran Monarchy’ who in turn were vassals to a distant ‘Bultriaste Tribes’. Whatever the case, at its height, Grand Andash was likely an internally diverse nation but appears to have been bound together in the pursuit of power (both Imperial and Arcane) which allowed differing histories and cultures to coexist beneath those ambitions. Although much of this is speculation.
For reasons unknown, Grand Andash faded swiftly from its height, leading up to the earlier parts of the second century BE. A tablet of blue lapis crystal was purchased at great expense from a trade in Corvarrias some years ago. On it was detailed a great battle fought between the Andashi Imperial army against ‘The Witch’ also called ‘It who wills, wishes and wants’ interchangeably. Best translations have recreated a document: part poetry, part military report. A sense of melancholy pervades the retelling with the following passage being telling;
“…for her forsent home was not agreeable. For we knew it would be not. The Witch no longer wills us, no longer wishes us, and no longer wants us. For our failings we have allowed this to be so and in our achievement we have allowed it to be so.”
But 100 BE the last of the great Andashi pleasure palaces and cities were returned to the wild. This lost period is notably absent in what has been discovered. But the most ambitious scholars believe that Andashi delvers have only discovered less than five percent of what is there to be found. Perhaps it will always remain lost.
Far and Wide
For more than three hundred years sand, wind and water have sought to erase Grand Andash from the world and memories of humanity. But the lands of their old empire were not abandoned. While it is sure that the Andashi fall killed thousands, if not millions, many of the Andashi people returned to simpler lives.Wandering the deserts following vast herds of Gazelles, fishing on the coast, or sheltering in the mountains to the far south and north. It was a return to the way that things were before the Grand Empire, save for the ruinous mausoleums of Imperium that lurked beneath the sands.
It is in this time that many subtle changes influenced the land and its people. Changing winds made much of the central areas of the land uninhabitable for daily life. Particularly in Aguinaldo, Sarimento and Villacres. As such the southern regions grew in population, particularly along the coast and the mountain foothills. While it is likely that many people still live beyond the sands in Oculta Mountain Range and in Zatiri Zan, they may as well be an ocean away.
But the Clans of Andash set down their roots where they could and wandered where they could not. Vast webs of social connection, of belief, and of reliance grew throughout this time. Some tribes grew notable for certain skills or crafts, which gave them prominence enough to request the fealty of other notable tribes. These multi-tribe ‘clans’ became the default rulers of wide areas, sometimes hundreds of leagues in size. This organisational structure of fealty to tribe and clan continues through to this day. It is also where Andash gains its sense of hospitality. Living in small bands in a dangerous environment means that fickle fate may require you to rely on a stranger or a rival for your survival. As such you can’t afford to be rude or closed off to others.
Outsiders came to Andash and made their mark. All along the coast sailors and pirates would set up tiny settlements, places to shelter from storms and repair their vessels. It is these sailors who would bring the belief of the Divine Spheres to Andash. The ever hospitable Andashi heard their words and found them to be good. The Andashi religions were as diverse as their people, but also shallow. Drawing on a few hundred years of history, most spiritual practices were simple and shamanistic, looking to the sun, moon, and nature for inspiration. A cohesive religion, with unifying rituals, ideals and concepts was far more durable. It was the Clans of Andash that would allow it to spread further. A unified culture in the Divine Spheres made for easier trade, diplomacy, and connection between tribes and clans. A method of showing loyalty that spread gradually over Andash until the current day, where non-believers are rarer than cool summer days.
But over time the allure of the ruins of the past grew too great. The Andashi began to delve into what came before, to solve the mysteries of their past. To reclaim them and themselves.
Reclaimer
People have always lived or camped in the ruins of the Grand Andashi cities. When a solid stone wall exists, you won’t care what it once was if it saves you from a coastal storm or a brushfire. For much of time, these ruined places were meeting points or navigational marks, often known by common names such as ‘Stonedocks’ (Corvarrias) and ‘Spires’ (Obregon). Travellers would meet there to share stories and trade. The two elements that drove settlement are quite simple and easy to understand.
The first is water, old Andashi settlements have high quality wells that rarely foul and are often reclaimable. Moreso than shelter or meeting, a good source of water made many of these ruins immensely appealing. Over time, even more complex uses of water could be seen in the Old Andashi designs, such as the aqueducts and irrigation of Civisello.
The latter is the supply of wealth these cities retained. From old coins and jewellery, to lost manuscripts through to powerful weapons. Seeking out and restoring these items became a lucrative business and soon enough traders' bags overflowed with reclaimed artefacts of a forgotten empire.
Over time, these reclaiming efforts, combined with increasing populations lead to small settlements inhabiting the bones of forgotten cities. This produced all the complexity that urban life does, with law, order and bureaucracy flooding the streets as swiftly as newcomers and gold.
It was the reclamation of Obregon that bound these wanderers into one people. While many shared a religion and vast webs of fealty through Clan and Tribe, it was the massive undertaking to clear the City of Spires that involved thousands. This undertaking of infrastructure had an importance that was clear to all and resulted in noticeable advancements. Each new cleared plaza was swiftly taken up by merchants or massive clan tents. Each new well was cause for celebration and each new staircase to the summit of the city's central stone was heralded as if it were a new vein of gold. When the doors to the School of Gifts were magically charmed and broken by the great Delver ‘Slick Kirad’ the city had gained a crowning jewel. A place to learn of the past and to understand the future. A city council was formed, and there once again, was an Andash. Perhaps not grand, but important nonetheless.
It is from this great communal undertaking that Andash draws its tradition of tithing. There was no way that it could have been completed without unified purpose and sacrifice. The one fifth measurement was originally the amount of time given up by a worker in the city on their resting days. With the city reclaimed, every day was given to be a ‘resting day’, but the fifth remained, as a simple measure of taxation, but also to support the new nation. Over time, the rising scale of time given and power gained was introduced, to ensure that the most powerful remember their loyalty to the people. One hand is buried. A hundred hands dig. A thousand hands reclaim.
Founder
Since the reclamation of Obregon in 199AE, a fervor of study has swept Andash. As more and more of their lost culture is rediscovered, industry and style shift and change. Images of old Andashi clothes and records of old names created a swirling maelstrom of new understandings that quickly outpaced the more sedate life outside the great city and its new environs. Very quickly the system of twin names for people and places took root, to ensure that even those outside the cities remained informed and easy to communicate with.
It was this success that drew the attention and eventually fealty of the Cattle Clans and sailors of Mukarrem. The series of marriages and trades between notable urban clans and these clans during this period made Andash a notable power in the region as others began to fall.
But not every Andashi was bound in this fealty, there were thousands of distant wanderers that traveled in all directions of the compass. They were not true Andashi, in that they did not owe fealty to the clans of Andash or the cities. But they were of similar culture and beliefs and often had distant relatives within Andash. It was these distant cousins that were first lost to coming dangers.
The Twinblade Confederacy, a union of those pirates along the coast, distant foreigners from the East and the powerful reclaimed city of Corvarrias unified in pursuit of wealth, power and independence. They preyed upon the smaller distant tribes and clans, as well as trade along the western coast. Quickly they held thousands under their greed.
But the Zekartaal from the north were far more violent. The Wartribes took to the sands as readily as the forests. Their ethos of the strength of nature and weakness of civilisation took root with many of the distant nomadic tribes and those who did not join were destroyed.
It was these dangers that pushed Andash to The Concord. A chance to succeed and change the future. Will Andash become an imitation of its past? Will it rise to new heights? Will it learn from its past or be doomed to repeat it?
Regardless of the answer to these riddles, Andash will meet its future as a whole within The Concord, stronger than ever before.