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Ancient Goths: Difference between revisions
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===Origins=== | ===Origins=== | ||
Northern and western Levantia were rendered uninhabitable by the last great Ice Age, with much of the region covered in an ice cap hundreds or thousands of metres thick and the rest reduced to a barren, cold desert; whatever human groups (or other hominids) had previously lived in the region were forced south, only to return after the ice had melted. In the aftermath, a dramatically different geography took shape; the land gradually rebounded from its compression under the ice, cutting off what had previously been a long, narrow bay into an isolated sea-lake - the [[Vandarch]]. The narrow | Northern and western Levantia were rendered uninhabitable by the last great Ice Age, with much of the region covered in an ice cap hundreds or thousands of metres thick and the rest reduced to a barren, cold desert; whatever human groups (or other hominids) had previously lived in the region were forced south, only to return after the ice had melted. In the aftermath, a dramatically different geography took shape; the land gradually rebounded from its compression under the ice, cutting off what had previously been a long, narrow bay into an isolated sea-lake - the [[Vandarch]]. The narrow Ereglasian Isthmus formed a new land bridge between the two regions, which would in time become a migration route of major importance. The ice's retreat was gradually followed by many migrating [[Paleo-Levantine peoples]], entirely culturally and linguistically unrelated from both each other and the proto-Occidentals who form the ancestors of most modern Levantine cultures.<ref>Most of these Paleo-Levantine peoples have been wiped out or assimilated in the centuries since, with very little trace of their survival; the Nünsyak and the various Orenstian peoples such as the [[Khunyer people|Khunyer]] are the most prominent survivors.</ref> | ||
These peoples were gradually supplanted across much of northern Levantia by the branch of the proto-Occidentals who would go on to become the Ancient Gaels. The Ancient Goths, migrating from their presumed ''Urheimat'' in what is now southern Carna in response to pressure from their south and east, were mostly restricted to the [[Odoneru]]-[[Kilikas Sea|Kilikas]] littoral. Constrained by the punishing mountainous terrain that has divided [[Ultmar]] into Ocean-facing and Vandarch-facing regions down to the present day, and by the stiff resistance of various Paleo-Levantine groups along the southern Vandarch watershed, the Ancient Goths were only gradually able to make their way northwards. Archaeological evidence suggests that Ancient Goths - or people adopting the cultural forms of the Ancient Goths - became the ruling elite in western [[Yonderre]] and eastern [[Eldmora-Regulus]] by no later than 1000 BC. | These peoples were gradually supplanted across much of northern Levantia by the branch of the proto-Occidentals who would go on to become the Ancient Gaels. The Ancient Goths, migrating from their presumed ''Urheimat'' in what is now southern Carna in response to pressure from their south and east, were mostly restricted to the [[Odoneru]]-[[Kilikas Sea|Kilikas]] littoral. Constrained by the punishing mountainous terrain that has divided [[Ultmar]] into Ocean-facing and Vandarch-facing regions down to the present day, and by the stiff resistance of various Paleo-Levantine groups along the southern Vandarch watershed, the Ancient Goths were only gradually able to make their way northwards. Archaeological evidence suggests that Ancient Goths - or people adopting the cultural forms of the Ancient Goths - became the ruling elite in western [[Yonderre]] and eastern [[Eldmora-Regulus]] by no later than 1000 BC. | ||
===Conquests=== | ===Conquests=== | ||
In the course of their settlement along the western shore of the Odoneru, the southern Ancient Goths appear to have become a seafaring people, although whether their shipbuilding technology was their own invention or adopted from prior autochthonous peoples remains a matter of debate to this day. At this early stage these ships were small vessels containing a few crew which were only fit for coastal fishing and river navigation, far removed from the ocean-capable reaver ships which spread such terror among Gael and Latin alike from the seventh century AD onwards. The southern Goths' turn to the sea nevertheless opened up new opportunities, making it possible for them to explore the far northwestern coastline of Ultmar without having to surmount the rough terrain of the interior and also allowing participation in the small-scale and primitive trade in luxuries across the eastern Odoneru. The seaborne settlement of the | In the course of their settlement along the western shore of the Odoneru, the southern Ancient Goths appear to have become a seafaring people, although whether their shipbuilding technology was their own invention or adopted from prior autochthonous peoples remains a matter of debate to this day. At this early stage these ships were small vessels containing a few crew which were only fit for coastal fishing and river navigation, far removed from the ocean-capable reaver ships which spread such terror among Gael and Latin alike from the seventh century AD onwards. The southern Goths' turn to the sea nevertheless opened up new opportunities, making it possible for them to explore the far northwestern coastline of Ultmar without having to surmount the rough terrain of the interior and also allowing participation in the small-scale and primitive trade in luxuries across the eastern Odoneru. The seaborne settlement of the Ereglasian Isthmus, which seems to have taken place from no later than 500 BC, set the stage for the much later Gothic settlement of [[Vithinja]], and the emergence of a Northern Gothic culture<ref>Linguists persist in classing the Ruthi language of Vithinja as a ''Southern'' Gothic language due to its distant origins along the Odoneru coast, a stance which is technically correct but highly confusing for laymen.</ref> very different from the "mainstreams" in Gothica. | ||
Along the southern Vandarch, the Goths continued to make gains. Gothic hegemony across almost all of modern Eldmora-Regulus and Yonderre was secure by approximately 600 BC, although the region would remain politically fragmented long into the future; historians increasingly believe it was this southern wave of Gothic settlement which led to the Gothic conquest of eastern Hendalarsk, in a process entirely distinct from the movement into southern and western Hendalarsk. Gothic groups there had only decisively forced the [[Scherna Pass]], the key to southwestern Hendalarsk down to the present day, by 750 BC, and only gradually spread up the [[Stederau]] and the [[Zalgis]], presumably due to determined resistance from the Nünsyak and other Paleo-Levantine groups. The Stederau watershed nevertheless seems to have become Gothicised much more quickly than the Zalgis, according to the shift in grave goods to stereotypically Gothic markers in time, although this was most likely at least in part due to acculturation among peoples less organised than the Nünsyak rather than solely conquest, let alone displacement. In any case, it seems clear that the Stederau and the low plains of [country to Hendalarsk's northwest] had become part of Gothica well before most of western and northern Hendalarsk. Burn layers and weapons deposits along the lower Zalgis suggest that Gothic raiding in the region had become endemic by around 300 BC, in line with a broader decline in the influence of the Old Nünsyak civilisation, but Gothic settlement at the river's mouth around modern-day [[Zalgisbeck]] has not been securely dated to any earlier than 50 AD ±50 years, a full ''millennium'' after the first Gothic push into modern-day Yonderre. | Along the southern Vandarch, the Goths continued to make gains. Gothic hegemony across almost all of modern Eldmora-Regulus and Yonderre was secure by approximately 600 BC, although the region would remain politically fragmented long into the future; historians increasingly believe it was this southern wave of Gothic settlement which led to the Gothic conquest of eastern Hendalarsk, in a process entirely distinct from the movement into southern and western Hendalarsk. Gothic groups there had only decisively forced the [[Scherna Pass]], the key to southwestern Hendalarsk down to the present day, by 750 BC, and only gradually spread up the [[Stederau]] and the [[Zalgis]], presumably due to determined resistance from the Nünsyak and other Paleo-Levantine groups. The Stederau watershed nevertheless seems to have become Gothicised much more quickly than the Zalgis, according to the shift in grave goods to stereotypically Gothic markers in time, although this was most likely at least in part due to acculturation among peoples less organised than the Nünsyak rather than solely conquest, let alone displacement. In any case, it seems clear that the Stederau and the low plains of [country to Hendalarsk's northwest] had become part of Gothica well before most of western and northern Hendalarsk. Burn layers and weapons deposits along the lower Zalgis suggest that Gothic raiding in the region had become endemic by around 300 BC, in line with a broader decline in the influence of the Old Nünsyak civilisation, but Gothic settlement at the river's mouth around modern-day [[Zalgisbeck]] has not been securely dated to any earlier than 50 AD ±50 years, a full ''millennium'' after the first Gothic push into modern-day Yonderre. | ||