Marcas Brian MacStiofáin Ó Mhaitiú Ó Domhnaill

25 October 2015

A Brief History of Lem Pars and a cultural profile of the Lemne people

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In the world of Toriel, far to the north lies a small continent shrouded in the bitter cold. This land called

Malomanan (meaning 'the land of deer') has long been a source of wonder to the larger, warmer, more peopled

lands in the warmer south across the ocean. The continent itself is split into several territories, each by stretch

may be called a country if you must impose such a foreign concept here. Just off the east coast of Malomanan

sits a large island commonly known as Lem Pars. Among these territories dwell several cultures each with its own

defining attribute and language, yet all these people and their languages all were one some time ago. Back then

they called themselves the Sumnë or 'travellers' for they lived a nomadic life following the deer migrations and

living of hunting deer but also on other animals and plants. The language they spoke was Old Sumrë or

'traveller speech' But after the wolf spirit Olñam Yaron came upon Malomanan it feasted upon so much deer that

there was hardly any left for the people to hunt. Driven to desperation some bands of nomads decided to leave

the nomad life and settle into villages and attempt to find other ways to find food. The very first band to do so

fled the mainland and onto Lem Pars in hopes that the isolated nature of the island preserved some deer to

hunt. The deer population wasn't as big as they had hoped so instead they settled along the south coast and

formed small fishing villages. They did find however that the island was very rich in nelav, an edible breed of

grass that grows tall and thick. The versatility of this plant is ridiculous, it can be made into bread, boiled in

water to make tea, dried and woven into rope, baskets and bags, or dried over a fire until its black and crispy

then crunched to form a fine black powder to flavour food. The incomers to the island quickly learned how to

farm nelav with a basic form of agriculture and pushed their settlements inland and north, meanwhile

supplementing their diet by hunting, fishing and gathering plants. Over time the language of the island settlers

changed to become Lemre and they called themselves the Lemne (from the Old Sumrë word Lamen 'to dwell' itself

from an older root meaning 'to be still, to sit' a name to distinguish them from the still nomadic people on the

mainland)

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "2

Origin of the Island

To tell the history of the Lemne people we must begin with the history of the island itself and how it

came upon his world. So how did the island come to be? that answer differs depending on who you ask, if you

ask an educated man from the large cobbled mainland city of Ỳrjému he will tell you of how all of Malomanan

was once one great landmass before the sea levels rose which caused low lying areas around the coast to be

consumed by salty water, and that a great chunk of land to the east survived this flooding by the fact that it had

many mountains and high plateaus. This chunk of land now became an island. But if you travel to the Island

and wonder through one of the many quaint villages you may find an old man sitting upon a old rock gazing

before the day enacting itself before him. Approach him and ask him how the island was created, watch how a

slight grin quickens on face, how his eyes twinkle with an ancient and proud lore, sit down for he is about to tell a

story. The words the old man will speak are words spoken many times before by this proud people, of how long

before man dwelt in this earthly world there was a proud but incredibly ferocious spirit named Rącąrör (from Old

Sumrë recet 'funny' + -ñur 'masculine diminutive suffix') who himself lived in the high and lofty spirit world Seamä.

Rącąrör had the form of a fox with the purest of white fur, though his size was much greater than that of any

earthly fox. Rącąrör would parade through his own domain of land in which he would maintain balance by

caring for the needs of the creatures dwelling within it, such as making sure there was enough plants to grow for

the herbivores to eat, and that there was enough herbivores for the carnivores to eat, and that the corpses of the

carnivores enriched the soil for the plants to grow. Rącąrör was not outside this web of balance as he hunted

great beasts for his own sustenance. Every night when the sun set Rącąrör would sit upon the great hill and call

out with an terrifying and awe inspiring shriek that could turn the brustest of wolves into a whimpering puppy.

On hearing this shriek the day dwelling creatures would lay to rest and the night dwelling creatures would report

to their own intentions and wickedness.

As well as keeping balance he would also defend the lands against incomers with an immense

viscousness. Once the scent of intrusion filled his nose Rącąrör wouldn't rest until the intruder was dead or

dying. One evening when Rącąrör sat upon the hill he filled his lungs to prepare for his call, but he was

interrupted by desperate pleas. He gazed down to the land below him and in the horizon he saw a black smoke

emerging from the forest below, this very sight of destruction sent the fox spirit into a maddening rage. He

battered his paws against the ground and sped towards the fire. There he found Sitap, the spirit of hunting. Sitap

had the head of a great cat, body of a man with legs and arms of a bear. Sitap had in his left hand a great torch

which he used to burn the forest to drive out animals for game and in his left hand he held a net to catch the

fleeing creatures. The sight of Rącąrör charging towards him caused the hunting spirit to flee with two rabbits, a

snake and a roe deer in his net. Rącąrör however couldn't chase after him for he had to deal with the forest fire.

With his great shriek he great gust of wind that blew out all the fires and the flames surrendered their expansion.

Yet the damage was done, the homes of many beasts was destroyed, and because Rącąrör's shriek was

interrupted the day dwelling creatures didn't rest at night and the night dwelling creatures never rose. Chaos and

unbalance swept the forest.

Eventually the burned trees grew back, eventually Rącąrör put the day creatures to sleep and awoke the

night creatures and balance was regained. But the scent of Sitap still filled Rącąrör's nose. So he entered a steady

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "3

pursuit of revenge after the hunting spirit. Yet he couldn't just approach Sitap for the spirit knew the fox's

appearance and was skilled with many weapons. So the cunning fox rolled in the dirt and muddied his fur to give

it a dark and brown colour and travelled to the rutting grounds of the white deer, for after their mating season

the males shed their antlers so at this time the rutting grounds were littered with abandoned antlers, Rącąrör

took two and attached them to his head. With the antlers and brown fur he took on the disguise of a deer and

approached Sitap.

Sitap sat in his own domain on a day when the wind was still and carried no scent, due to this the hunting

spirit could find no food and was hungry for it. In his boredom he mindlessly plucked at his bow string until he

cried out to himself

"My hunger need not know any woe, for my net has two rabbits, and snake and a meaty roe!" As he rose

up in excitement for his meal a voice pierced the air,

"Those rabbits are scant, that snake is thin and stringy, the taste of the roe's meat is spoiled by its fear,

such a pathetic hunter you are"

Sitap's eyes searched for the mysterious speaker and found a curious looking deer of brown fur

"Who are you to mock me? I took this meat from the domain of Rącąrör himself where no hunter dare

tread, perhaps I should have you for my dinner, strange deer?"

"perhaps you should put your arrogance aside you witless fool. The domain of Rącąrör has beasts so

massive that the meat of one alone can feed a hunter for a lifetime, yet all you took is some scant vermin, if you

want to hunt like a true hunter in Rącąrör's domain then follow me. My deer brethren have forsaken me and

banished me from my home, I seek revenge and I can lead you secretly in Rącąrör's domain where you can hunt

my herd who banished me so cruelly, do you accept?"

Sitap jumped at the chance to hunt a whole herd especially one protected by the fox. The odd looking

deer told Sitap to bring three arrows and to sit upon the great hill that night and wait for him there

"Doesn't Rącąrör climb that hill every evening?"

"trust me" said the deer "this evening he will not come"

After talking to Sitap, Rącąrör disappeared from Sitap's sight yet remained hidden behind a boulder.

When night brought it's darkness Sitap left his home and set out to travel to the great hill. With the hunter spirit

gone Rącąrör snuck in his home and freed the two rabbits, snake and roe deer from the net and guided them

home to the forest. Once they were safe Rącąrör climbed the great hill and greeted Sitap in his antlered disguise.

"I see you are bold to sit upon this hill Sitap, follow me now to find my herd"

with caution Sitap whispered "where is Rącąrör? I feel unsteady in his land"

The foxed grinned under his disguise and said "not here"

Rącąrör led the hunter to a flat and level place, shrouded in darkness by the night.

"Take your first arrow and fire it straight before you, there lies my brother who deserted me"

Sitap done as told and his arrow whistled into the dark cover of night

"I don't think I hit anything, are you sure the herd is there?"

"oh I am sure, my brother is a brute and doesn't whelp in pain, fire another arrow"

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"I have only two arrows left strange deer, once I have fired another I will only have one left to defend

myself against Rącąrör should he appear"

with a grin upon his face the disguised fox said "oh yes I see that..now take your second arrow and fire it

to your left, their lies my father who shunned me"

Sitap done as told and his arrow whistled in the darkness

"I don't think I hit anything, are you sure the herd is there?"

"oh I am sure, my father is old and has lost his voice, he can make no whelp even when he wants to, fire

another arrow"

"I have only one arrow left strange deer, once I have fired another I will have none left to defend myself

against Rącąrör should he appear"

with an even greater grin the disguised fox said "oh yes I see that..now take your third arrow and fire to

your right, their lies my mother who abandoned me"

Sitap done as told and drew his final arrow, but before he fired he asked the strange deer where the fox

Rącąrör was, the answer from the deer deeply disturbed Sitap

"oh he is..I AM..right behind you!"

with that the fox shook his head and his antlers fell of, he shook his fur to rid it of the dirt to reveal a

shining white coat under it, he bared his immense fangs and lunged at the hunter. Though as arrogant and

witless as he was, Sitap was the hunting spirit for a reason, in the time the fox leapt for him Sitap aimed his

arrow at Rącąrör and fired, striking him between his second and third ribs on his left side.

Rącąrör let out a scarring roar and fell to the ground ingloriously. The fatal wound dug deep into his side

and let out a single drop of blood. That one drop of blood seeped through the ground of the spirit world Seamä

and down into the frozen world below named Hoceremä, there it seeped through the ice and into the world below

named Cönorún made up of endless dirt and earth and tunnels throughout. There the drop of blood seeped

through the soil and into the world below named Mecö, the earthly world. The blood drop fell through the sky

and with a great splash landed in the sea and solidified, forming the very island itself.

From this the Lemne proudly claim to have the blood of the êvąne, a large fox that resembles the mythical

Rącąrör and is found in abundance on the island. Indeed many Lemne call themselves Êvąnenöre or 'little foxes'

and the poetic name for the Island is Rącąröresa or 'like Rącąrör'. The revolutionary flag even bears the image of

the white fox. The people believe that the fierceness, the stubbornness and determination of the fox spirit seeped

into them from the blood formed island, the blood that endured that fall between four worlds. a fact proven by

the Lemne fight against their oppression.

-Footnote: The êvąne species of fox has a muddy brown coloured except in the winter when it will shed its

brown fur and grow a new shiny white coat to blend in with he white snow. The time when th fox sheds its fur is

known as bąrąlöm rącąröra or 'Rącąröra's revealing' in reference to the story where Rącąröra shook the disguise of

brown mud off his fur to reveal his white coat. When the êvąne gains a brown coat again in the spring this time

is known as öjąnlöm rącąröra or 'Rącąröra's deception' in reference to when the fox muddied his coat to disguise

himself.-

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "5

Imperial Oppression

The Lemne lived quite happily in their settlements on the island which they called Mäląlą Lemnen but their

content life was distrupted in the year 200BR. It was in that dreadful year that massive wooden ships drifted

towards the island like imposing hills of inpending doom. This sight was witnessed by a lone fisherman named

Cenole who had his rod cast in the sea. Cenole watched as smaller boats came from the ship and landed ashore.

The people that the boat brought forth looked very odd to the fisherman, they were short but stout with swarthy

skin. Their speech was malformed and foreign, they trembled in the cold air..these people came from a land

kissed by the sun for they seemed to suffer in cold stiff wind. Cenole took note of their shiny metal clothing but

moreso their swords and spears. The fisherman spotted more small boats coming to the shore so he fled to his

village before more men arrived.

These strange short, shiny, swarthy boat people were part of an exploration sent by the Antagan Empire

which is based in the eastern half of the Henda continent far to south. The swarthy people from Antagan call

themselves the Jašawn and this fleet of boats was to explore the northern continant Malomanan whose existence

was previouvsky unknown to them. It was when a Jašawn sailor got lost at sea and found himself within range of

Malomanan that the existence of the northern land was discovered. The Emperor Jachto II of Antagan decided

to send a fleet northwards to explore the sailors claim. After 6 months at sea the Imperial fleet caught sight of

Malomanan and split into two fleets. The larger fleet landed on the mainland while the smaller one landed on

the island. The camp that landed on the mainland was utterly annialated by a herd of giant bison as

documented by the scholar Madyg Tasra who was present during the bison attack, though he died shortly

afterwards after an eagle flew to the ship he was fleeing on and tore out his stomach. Madyg left behind a

journal which documented his time on the mainland. When the tiny fraction of survivors arrived back in

Antagan City they told of the horrors they met and gave Madyg's journal to the Emperor himself. After reading

the dead man's book Jachto II decreed that no more fleets shall be sent to Malomanan and marked it a no go

zone. Here is a quote from Madyg's journal on the camp's destruction

"We were all struck dumb when we heard a deep thudding noise followed by the ground shaking...I gazed into the blinding

snow falling around our camp and in it I could make out a vague dark shadow...which was getting closer and closer and bigger and

bigger. As it got closer it gave a deep below and suddenly revealed itself to be a herd of extremely large hairy bison-like beasts each the

size of an elephant. The herd smashed through tents as if they were running through dry leaves, myself and the soldiers hurried out

of the way as a giant hoof crumpled our campfire. The giant hairy beasts brought rampage through the entire camp, shaking the

ground under them and crushed anyone in their path. I witnessed a man slumber out of a tent to investigate the noise only to have his

back snapped in half by a beast's foot. The creatures had massive horns on their heads which they swayed side to side to further their

destruction. We were like bugs on the path of a busy street yet these beast weren't merely passing through, I saw them target tents,

chase down people to crush them, these things killed with intent. I barely survived myself as I managed to get on a small boat along

with others to retreat back to our fleet on the shore. I was lucky to survive, many died in the stampede. Right now I stand on the deck

looking back at this land, the giant beasts have gone yet the piercing wailing still calls out to us, even when I cover my ears the

shrieking sound tears at my ears. This land may have an incredible beauty but it holds a power over it, or rather against us"

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "6

The smaller fleet that landed on the island met a different story however. The moment they split from the

main fleet was recorded by Magyd "Our numbers have dropped as some of our fleet decided to explore around the coast, again

for creating maps" They weren't attacked by any great beasts but were attacked by hunger. The smaller fleet was

supposed to join the larger fleet to restock on food but since the large fleet was mostly destroyed that food was

lost. So when the food supply on the small fleet dwindled the Jašawn broke up into small bands of soldiers and

approached several Lemne villages. The first few groups of soldiers met the Lemne with peace and traded their

weapons for food. One group of soldiers however weren't so kind and thought it was easier to just raid a village

than to simply ask for food. After that one band fools attacked one village the Lemne refused to interact with the

Jašawn except with violence, made easier by the fact some villages now had Jašawn swords and spears. The

Lemne decided to drive of the swarthy boat people or kill those that refused to leave. The survivors fled to their

boats and barely survived the journey home. When they arrived to their large warm city, Antagan was still

mourning the loss of the first fleet, so when the survivors of the second fleet showed up and spoke of being

attacked by natives the proud Emperor was furious. For being attacked by a herd of wild beasts? a freak of

nature, but being attacked by native barbarians? That must be avenged! Such is the arrogant attitude of the

Jašawn. In their eyes they had engaded in warfare with a foreign people which means they had to go back with a

larger fleet and conquer the island, lest the Empire of Antagan suffer a failure in its ever so glorious military

record. Soon Jachto II sent an offensive fleet north to incorporate the island into the Empire of Antagan. The

aggressive and huge fleet landed on the island in 201BR and crushed the Lemne into submission with their

advanced weaponry and numbers. The island was now in Jašawn hands and now they had to put their mark on

the land, they started by ignoring the native name for the island, Mäląlą lemnen, in favour of their own name

which is Lem Pars..or 'Lem Island'

The native Lemne didn't go without fighting the Jašawn. Even after they lost, their tough unforgiving

spirit endured when a Lemne hero led his people to fight for their freedom or their ruin rather than live under

the oppresive invaders, unfortunately the latter came true. But the actions of this hero would resonate for

centuries and inspire the Lemne to fight once more. That hero's name was Anącos.

Anącos Polosev Monoce was a Lemne who was born in 176 MA. The Antagan Empire first conquered Lem

Pars, the Lemne homeland or Mäląlą Lemnen as Anącos knew it in his native Lemre tongue in 200MA. He

witnessed the initial occupation of the island by the imperial forces. The Empire initially attacked from the

southern side of the island while Anącos lives on the northern shores, so by the time the Antagan forces had

reached Anącos' region they had already gained control over most of the island. One day Anącos was fishing

alone by a lake among the hills whose bases kissed the salty shore. He had managed to catch five fish so far

which he laid out on a sheet made of a thick woven grass. While he set out his rod to catch a sixth a group of

Antagan soldiers marched past and saw the fish and demanded to Anącos that he give the fish to them as the

island, and everything in it, was now theirs. Anącos spent all day by the lake catching his food and he wasn't

about to give it to these invading foreigners. One soldier walked forward to snatch the fish but before he could do

so Anącos butted the end of his rod so hard against the soldier's head that it killed him. When the rest of the

soldiers charged him he took the dead man's sword and killed two other soldiers, upon seeing this the other two

fled. When he returned to his village he found that people were already talking of the incident and how they

heard that he was now wanted by the appointed Jašawn general. On hearing this news he set out into the cold

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "7

wilderness of Mäląlą Lemnen to run away from the Imperial forces who were now hunting him down. For weeks

he avoided capture but one day he entered a small village to look for some new clothes and cooked meat, for he

dared not light a fire in case the smoke be seen. Unfortunately he was caught by a garrison that was stationed in

the village. He put up a fight before being overwhelmed by the numerous soldiers. The commotion caught the

attention of the whole village which caused a riot. People took the weapons of dead soldiers and slew more

themselves. Although a large number of villagers died fighting against the professional Antagan soldiers, they

managed to defeat enough soldiers to cause the rest to flee. Anącos thanked the villagers dearly for saving him

but warned them that the Imperial forces will return to 'discipline' the village, so they contacted the nearby

villages who weren't too happy about the occupation themselves and grouped together and organised a defensive

attack for when the soldiers would return with Anącos leading the way. The women and children of the first

village were evacuated and set up small camps in a forest where they would be hidden. The village lay in a valley

with high rising hill slopes to either side. Anącos placed men on either side on each hill slope to attack the

imperial forces from above when they came.

When the Antagan forces did arrive they found a seemingly deserted village, from the wide open mouth

of the valley where were entering from it seemed as if the whole village fled before them. But they wouldn't give

up so easily. They pressed further on and began to search the village. When they did Anącos gave a silent signal

for his men in the hills to release giant stone boulders covered in tar which was set on fire to roll down the hills

and among the soldiers below. Followed by a rain of spears and arrows the Lemne made a big dent in the

imperial numbers. After the attack from above stopped Anącos led a group of men around the base of the hills

where they hid and ran into the village in a charge. The remaining imperial soldiers were now trapped in the

valley with Anącos charging from the only way out, and with the other Lemne now charging down the hills. A

quick close combat skirmish ensued and Anącos came out victorious. Though the village was ruined by the

burning boulders and fighting. The bodies of the imperial soldiers were placed on pikes at the entrance of the

valley of the ruined village and imperial flags were flown but with the phrase tere möcebją mö mâląmäm written on

them in blood. The phrase was also written on boulders, across the

buildings in the ruined village, over any surface which could be

written on. The phrase translates as 'do not temper us', these words

would become the motto of the Lemne nationalists from time on.

Anącos continued fighting against the Antagan occupation of

Mäląlą Lemnen and managed to spark an entire rebellion. But in

answer the Antagan Empire sent more soldiers to the island and

eventually ended the rebellion in the Battle of Ąrnlem, known as onta

jera (day of sorrow) in Lemre. The Antagan Empire sent a

ridiculously huge force to the island as the rebellions were giving the empire a bad mark in its military record.

The massive army wiped out the rebel army, so much blood was shed on the soil that the plants that grew there

afterwards had red leaves, as such the field where the battle took place is known as ąloräl conlon (red field). Anącos'

corpse was found amongst the dead of the fallen rebel army in ąloräl conlon. His head was cut from his body

and displayed in the centre of the Lemne town Ąrnlem as a warning to others who dare rebel. But the

nationalist sentiment was every bit as alive, as can be seen when Corocoga lead rebellions against the empire 800

years later.

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "8

Once the natives were quelled in that bloody and brutal manner Jašawn colonists arrived to set up their

own villages in an attemp to establish a permanent Jašawn population. Admitedly stories of a frozen land far

across the ocean didn't attract many settlers but the few that came did so to take advantage of the nelav grass.

Being such a versatile plant the incomers sought to grow it for themselves and sell the product to merchants who

then sold it across the Henda continent. The colonists weren't used to working in such cold conditions so with

some military help they took some Lemne as slaves to work the fields. While the native slaves toiled the fields the

colonists took the food they needed and sold the rest to merchants. So much food was exported instead of being

distributed on Lem Pars that it caused a famine among the natives. At one point in time the famine got so bad

that drove some Lemne to resort to cannibalism for survival. Not in the sense that they ate the corpses of those

who died, rather some desperate cannibals actively hunted other humans like game. The presence of cannibals

was not widespread but not rare. Often they would target jašawn colonist to hunt and eat, usually hunting in

packs and would attack groups of travellers or on rare occasions break into homes. They became cannibals

rather than hunt deer as the hunting grounds were heavily regularised by jašawn colonists, the reason being that

if the Jašawn have control over all of the food sources be it harvests or wild game then the Lemne would be

forced to rely on the colonists. Th cannibals usually formed groups made up of young to middle aged men, as

these people were fathers who had hungry children to feed or brothers trying to keep their siblings from death's

door. These groups exclusively targeted Jašawn colonists due to the animosity between the colonists and Jašawn,

plus the fact that the Jašawn hoarded all of the food so they had no lack of succulent meat on their invasive

bones. The typical method of hunting was to ambush travellers along lonely paths. But people got wise to this

and took extra caution to this when leaving their homes which made hunting them much harder. In answer the

desperately driven cannibals started to attack the Jašawn in their own homes, mostly farmers were the targets of

these attacks as they had food reserves hid away in their homes. If a farmer did have food then the cannibals

would rob him of it rather than kill and eat him, as the cannibals did not want for human meat they just wanted

to survive, so an alternative source of food was always chosen when possible. When the cannibals started to

attack people in their homes the Imperial military started to hunt the flesh eaters and exterminate them. Anyone

who was suspected of eating human flesh was to be executed on the spot, no matter how dubious the claim.

People took advantage of this new law to get rid of any enemies, so if your neighbour was being too loud for

your liking..if someone laid eyes on your wife and you wanted them gone..all you had to do was tell a whisper a

tale of how they nibbled on some poor souls liver and that person would have their head chopped of by an swift

imperial sword. no questions asked. The corpses of the accused were thrown off high cliffs to the rocky grounds

below, the bodies were left in the open so that beasts of the land, sea and air may feast on them as the accused

did onto others. The nonąstemlön nejnen or 'cleansing of the cannibals' killed so many people that heaps of bodies

piled under the cliffs, such heaps where known as sömem nejnen or 'fall of the cannibals'. Long the cleansing had

stopped and the bodies had either been buried, decayed or eaten by animals the rocky cliffs rid themselves of the

smell of death though the name sömem nejnen endured. So if you are walking along the coast of Lem Pars where

the sun shines behind the clouds, where the birds squawk in the clean air above and where the beauty of the

harsh landscape stabs wonder into your heart and you come across a place with sömem in the name..then you are

in a place where centuries ago the innocent and guilty were dumped to rot. The now unassuming places with

sömem in the name are a reminder of the island's dark history.

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "9

The mass cleansing of the accused such an outrage among the natives as many of those being killed were

innocent. This only worsened the already terrible relations between the Lemne and Jašawn. Natives led small

revolts on local scales but those were..'calmed' by the Antagan soldiers. With the increased military defending

Jašawn colonists it made them much harder to hunt, so how did the cannibals react? They started to eat the

soldiers.

Bloodlust of Sedoreso

One native in particular took advantage of the situation like the cunning fox. His name was Sedoreso.

Born in 207BR he grew up under the rule of the Jašawn. As a child his grandfather told him of the golden time

when the Lemne were free and unhindered. The stories of a past freedom and the current colonisation of the

island gave Sedoreso a deep hatred of the Antagan Empire like every other Lemne. To keep his head on his

soldiers he kept these feelings hidden from the oppressor. When he was a child he and his family were rounded

up by Imperial soldiers in the black of night and were brought to a small nelav field where they were told that

they had to work as slaves or be slaughtered. Sedoreso clung on to his mother in his childish fright and asked if

they would ever go back home, but he made a terrible mistake by asking this question in the Lemre language

which had been outlawed and was punished by being branded on the cheeks with the phrase enka prå (meaning

'bad speech' in the Tåns language). The soldiers who escorted them to the field had to red hot iron so one brute

took out a knife and held the child down and started to carve the words into the child's face while his family was

restrained. The wailing pleas of the family brought the attention of the field owner who came to see what the

noise was about. The owner scorned the soldiers and ordered them to leave the boy alone as he didn't want to

'damage his property' although the soldier had managed to carve the letter E on Sedoreso's cheek before being

told off. For the next several years Sedoreso worked on those fields without much issue, at least he and his family

were fed by the owners who needed to keep them alive to work. He may have been a bound slave but he didn't

starve. The child grew into a young man by the time the cleansing of the cannibals began. Around the same

time Sedoreso's father had a dispute with the field owner on how the Jašawn slaver hoarded his food for himself

and to sell abroad while people on the island starved. To deal with this the slaver accused the father of being a

cannibal which resulted in his execution soon after. Sedoreso was absolutely devastated by his father's death

which turned his hatred of the Jašawn into an immense, maddening, uncontrollable bloodlust. Soon after he

managed to escape the field but as an escaped slave he was now marked to be killed on the spot, but he didn't

care, all he wanted to do was kill as many of the savage invaders as he could. But in the outside world he had no

slaver to feed him and soon found out why the cannibals did what they did when he felt the endless hunger tear

into his stomach. This drove Sedoreso to join a band of cannibals to sate his hunger. Unlike the other men in his

group he didn't kill solely for food, he killed with a raging madness that could only be calmed with the deaths of

the enemy. Once people started to avoid travelling alone the groups started to attack the farmer in their homes.

It was then that Sedoreso led his band of cannibals to the same field he was taken to as child slave, he knew

every nook and cranny of it which allowed him to sneak everyone in during the black of night without alerting

the farmers. The cannibals tied up all of the Jašawn present in the house and freed the slaves, the farmer had a

hoard of food so the group decided to rob him instead of eating him, they hated to eat human flesh after-all..all

except Sedoreso, he gazed upon the farmer who sentence his father to death with eyes that held no remnants of

the little boy he was before..madness consumed Sedoreso..and Sedoreso consumed the farmer. He remarked

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "10

how it was the sweetest meal he had ever had. Sedoreso no longer hunted for survival alone..he desired the taste

of Jašawn blood on his lips. Whenever he raided a colonists farm he would distribute the hoarded food amongst

his native people, for them he still had compassion.

So when the soldiers tightened down on security he decided instead to eat the soldiers! He and his band

of cannibals ambushed a small garrison patrolling a hunting field, they took their armour and disguised

themselves as Imperial soldiers. They disposed of the bodies in their own palatable way. Now he could set up the

trap. Dressed in imperial armour Sedoreso ran within sight of troops and screamed and waved his warms, once

he had their attention he would point in a direction and run that same way. The troops would assume that he

was an imperial soldier in trouble and follow after him. They would follow they deceiver as he led them into an

ambush. Sedoreso quickly became a name for colonists to fear.

When news of natives feeding upon imperial solders reached the ears of Emporer Jacho II he decided to

enforce a new law which states that colonists on Lem Pars must distribute food among the native people and that

the hunting grounds must be re-opened for use albeit each hunter would have to gain a permit to do so. Only

after food was distributed among the natives could any extra produce be sold to merchants. Although the slavery

continued. In doing this the Emperor ended the famine for the people could now eat, removing their need to

hunt humans. The band of cannibals dispersed as they were relieved from the life they hated to enact, except for

Sedoreso, the want for Jašawn blood still lingered on his tongue. But without his band of cannibals he fled inland

where he lived alone the windy hills and continued to prey upon lone travellers, by this time he was utterly

insane and could not distinguish Lemne from colonist and killed anyone in sight. He was eventually hunted

down by other Lemne and thrown off a cliff onto a sömem nejnen.

Language

The Empire is quite intolerant of foreign cultures and languages of its subjects and has a one nation, one

language policy which is strictly enforced to varying degrees across the Empire, any language that wasn't Tåns (the

language of the Jašawn) was to be exterminated. Mäląlą Lemnen got the worst treatment as even its name was

changed into Tåns as Lem Pars albeit preserving the root 'lem'. Any native Lemne caught speaking the language

was marked as open game, which meant anyone could murder him, raid his home or do anything against him

and not be punished by the overreaching laws of Antagan. This was a frequent occorance in the early days of

colonisation as the living conditions for the natives worsened, driving many into desperation, waiting with a

listening ear for someone to slip a word of Lemre so that they can take his possessions as spoil to feed their

families. This treatment caused the Lemre language to decline rapidly. As the language was in its dying breath a

new law was passed that anyone caught speaking the language was to have their tongue cut out and branded on

the cheek with the words enka prå meaning 'bad speech' in Tynes. Not long after this the Lemre language was

dead and forgotten to the natives, beyond even the memories of the eldest natives. Though the language

lingered on in notes of Antagan scholars, for throughout the Antagan Empire there is open schools which teach

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "11

free education and act independently of the Empire, meaning that they can do as they wish even if the Empire is

actively against it, just as long as the school's activities don't directly interfeer with Imperial busines. The open

school has a band of advanced scholars who travel and collect knowledge of foreign cultures. They often

accompany Imperial forces when they set foot on fresh land, the purpose being to record the culture and

language of the lands before the Empire destroys them. It is thanks to these scholars recording the Lemre

language before its complete death that revival of the language was made possible many, many, generations later.

Imperial involvement in Lem Pars loosened its grip when the Wasgar Confederacy, among other forces, started

to put pressure on the ever expanding Empire. This extra pressure forced the Empire to source any spare troops

in Lem Pars for the war in Henda. This gave the island life to the long simmering revolutionary sentiment and

revival of Lemne culture, and also revival of the Lemre language. This situation made Lemre quite unique

among other Sumric languages as by this time, many centuries after the original oppression, the Sumric tribes on

the mainland had settled into villages and the language Old Sumrë had diverged into 11 other languages. The

great amount of time meant that these languages had changed in many ways from Old Sumrë, some being

unrecognisable to its ancestor. But Lemre was preserved as it was many centuries ago in the notes of scholars,

and as it wasn't spoken the whole time no changes in grammar or sound had affected it, it was essentialy frozen

in time, making the revived language closest to Old Sumrë in terms of vocabulary and morphology (except from

the many Tåns loanwords).

Delor is the Lemne man who was at the forefront of reviving the native Lemre language. From a young

age Delor took an interest in languages which he picked up while attending the open school. He was always

interested to know what the Lemre language of his ancestors was like, as by his time the language had been dead

for many many centuries. The closest glimpse he had was the surviving Sumric languages but even those were

vastly different and unintelligible to each other as they had been evolving in their own separate ways. In his late

teens Delor travelled to Mainland Malomanan where he studied Moicha at Cùlèrnoume Ỳrjémua (Universtity of

Ỳrjému) and travelled north to learn the little known Nümmezse languages. In his time in Mémoicha (a

mainland territory on the east coast) he heard of the rivalry with the Foranía from Müforia, mostly he heard

about how the Foranía spoke a weird slant dialect of Moicha. Curious to this claim he met the Foranía linguist

Ğüglëfer and learned that the Foranía spoke a seperate yet related language to Moicha. He returned to Lem Pars

now with a firm knowledge of languages but with a thirst to discover Lemre, how did it work? How similar was it

to the other Sumric languages? What did it even sound like? These questions buzzed in Delor's head. The

answer wasn't an easy one to get for details of the language are to be found in ancient records written by

Antagan scholars when the language was alive and well (which was a very long time ago), these records lay far

across the ocean on the Henda continent in the imperial city Antagan, stored away in vast libraries belonging to

the open school, so not the most accessible...or affordable. However Delor couldn't have picked a better time to

access these records for he saw the beginning of a new Lemne revolution, albeit at that time it was no more than

public speeches and people flying flags with the infamous Lemne phrase tere möcebją mö mâląmäm meaning 'do not

temper us'. It was also a time when people were trying to claim back their own culture, and what better way to

do that than to speak the Lemne language once again! Delor convinced people to donate money and supplies for

a trip to Antagan to access the only records of Lemre and to bring the information back and ultimately to

restore the language to its former glory. With thanks to the current sentiment regarding Lemne culture he found

no shortage of donors and was soon on a ship to Antagan. When he arrived he met with the open school of

Antagan to gain permission to access the records. His only condition to enter was that he had to make copies of

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "12

the originals instead of taking them. Delor was happy enough with the arrangement and after a few months of

slaving over old records and copying them he returned to Lem Pars with the long awaited language. He began to

teach it to children at the open schools but his work caught so much attention that adults attended his lessons to

hear the language. To encourage its usage Delor created posters that he put up around the island, each poster

had delora lenonre (Delor's Guidance) about usage of the language which are as follows:

1. If you know the Lemre word for something, use that word only

2. If someone speaks to you in Lemre, it is only courteous to reply in Lemre. Replying in another language or not at all is an

offence against the person

3. Do not chastise another for speaking Lemre

4. If you bear a child, grace its ears with only Lemre

This campaign was incredibly successful. So much so that the language went from being forgotten to the

last word to being widely understood, and by the next generation even gained native speakers, the generation

after that had some monolingual Lemre speakers.

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "13

Vive la Revolution!

After the events of Anącos' rebellion and the clearance of the cannibals the Lemne fight for freedom

queitened down and for the next few centuries and being part of the Empire of Antgan became the status quo.

During this time the Jašawn colonists had been living in Lem Pars for generations and called the island their

home, some intermarrige and interbreeding occured between the natives and Jašawn, mostly in the few cities

and large towns but elsewhere mingling was minimal to non-existent. The Lemne girned and endured, though

conditions did improve over the centuries which lessened the chances of other rebellions. Things remained like

this for a long time until the Empire entered a large war with several powerful neighbours on the Henda

continent for which Antagan to source any spare troops in Lem Pars to fight in the war in Henda. when the

Antagan Empire focused it attention away from Lem Pars to conflicts elsewhere. This let the nationalist anti-

imperial sentiment spark among the Lemne and marked the begining of a cultural revolution. To begin with the

reclamation consisted of public speeches, growth of native art and openly flying the Lemnic flag which bears the

image of Rącąrör bearing his claws in a defensive attack with the infamous motto tere möcebją mö mâląmäm. So

began the Lemic Enlightenment

Corogoca waving the flag

the text in the picture reads:

Mäląlą Lemnen, ma lou lemma

cor lomen conên nenbene nelavbene

cor sö vömä ąmsąle möbąnsale

cor mourer rösär sourson omäb

cor leme sömele nojên ansorole nonsöansarole

ląncaca ląrnolen

"Dweller's Isle, my good home,

Where the deer graze on green grass,

Where the wind blowns along great mountains, Where

dwellers feet roam in white snow,

and hopeful children endure."

Until the birth of Corocoga that is..Corocoga's father was among the first of those to support the revived

Lemre language as a language of the island, as such Corocoga grew up speaking it as a first language. The

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "14

nationalist sentiment rung truly in Corocoga. When he was 17 years old volunteered to join the crew of ship

which sailed to the Malomaman mainland where the Modern Sumric cultures exist untouched by the foreigner's

rule. They landed in a Moicha city named Ỳrjému where they managed to speak with the leader of the city and

asked him for an alliance between the Moicha and Lemne against the Antagan Empire, banking on their shared

Sumric heritage. But the leader replied with a wave of his hand, saying that the Moicha have a good trade deal

with the Empire and don't wish to sour it, and also that they are busy enough with the Foranía raiding along

their border. Corocoga returned home disappointed, though upon hearing of how the Foranía could trouble the

much bigger Moicha by use of hit and run attacks Corocoga thought that he could try something similar in Lem

Pars. When he returned he gathered a few able bodies to train and practice fighting with each other with hopes

of attacking some Antagan outposts and colonist settlements, though he didn't quite have enough to lead any

sort of raid. For the time being at least. Years later Corocoga had managed to gather together a sizable force

which he led into raids and skirmishes. But it was his disturbance of imperial activity on the island that caused

the Empire to send a small army in retaliation which raided and took prisoners to work as slaves in their silver

mines in Antagan. Two such Prisoners were Pwrima miners Shfinô and Rôfafi from the Pwrddw territory in the

far west, who years later took part in the Minors Revolt of 1286. Shfinô for personal reasons fought against the

Empire and collaborated with the Wasgar Confederation. It thanks to Shfinô that the Empire suffered a heavy

blow from the Wasgar Confederation which would increase the chances of Lem Pars gsining freedom in the

future, and it is thanks to Corocoga's raiding that the Empire sent the army to enslave some Lemne where Shfinô

got caught up in the mess (the Pwrina are neutral and have fought no wars with Antagan) which led to his own

enslavement and in turn his own disdain for the Empire.

All the while Corocoga's power grew as his rebellion kicked off. This revolution wasn't just a buntch of

angry villagers rebelling or hungry cannibals, Corocoga had formed his own army of soldiers. The outcome of

the revolution is yet to be decided for it is yet ongoing. This face hasn't stopped Corocoga becoming a legend

however, his very name shakes fear into Jašawn soldiers. The natives rally to his cause and proclaim him to be

Anącos born again. His legendary status even saved the life of his wife and infant child.

His wife Menora often followed her husband on his excursions around the island. Though when she had

a newborn she stayed with her mother in a very small settlement, the very same one she herself grew up in.

Around this time her husband Corocoga was away on an excursion to root out some imperial soldiers and he

took with him his men in arms. So the village was left with just women and children. What the rebel leader

didn't realise that the location of his wife's settlement was discovered by some Imperial soldiers who sent a band

of soldiers to take by surprise his wife and hold her ransom. Luckily Menora's cottage was on a hill rise so she

spotted the soldiers marching to her settlement long before they got there. Hurredly she thought of what to do,

she couldn't run away with a newborn at her breast as she would surely he hunted down, and she couldn't leave

the rest of the woman either. Cunningly she took her husband's spare set of armour and wore it. The native

Lemne armour typically has a mouthpiece which covers the chin and mouth and curves under the eyes, it wasn't

for protection but rather to stop the wearer from speaking, as it is the spirits of war who speak the words that

decide the victor, not the warrior. But for Menora it meant it would cover her face and improve her disguise, for

when the soldiers arrived she stood outside her cottage on the hill rise clad in full Lemne rebel armour that bore

Corocoga's mark. To the witless soldiers it looked as if Corocoga himself was standing before them, the

Corocoga whose actions spurned many stories of a noble savage native hungry for Antagan blood. The soldiers

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "15

who were prepared to steal away one woman hostage never prepared to battle with a native warlord, so they

tucked tail and ran away. That was how Menora disguised herself as Corocoga and avoided her capture and

protected the small village.

THE ORIGINAL ISLANDERS

In their anger of being colonised by the foreign race the Lemne rationalise their sentiment by proclaiming

that they were on the island long, long before the Jašawn set foot there and that they were there first. However

this statement is not entirely true, of course the Lemne lived on the island before the Jašawn..but they were not

the first people to live there..strictly speaking.

The various Sumric peoples each have their own cultures and languages distinct from each other though

they do recognise that they all descend from the same group of people. If you try to distinguish the Sumric

peoples genetically you will find that they are all the one race with little genetic differences amongst the various

populations. So here we must define the word 'people' to refer to a cultural group. With this definition of 'people'

we can say that the Lemne as a cultural group were not the first to inhabit the island, they they do in part

descend from the first inhabitants of Lem Pars genetically speaking.

The first inhabitants of the Island were there before it was even an island. The people were Sumric

nomads like everyone else and just so happened to be on the island when the rising sea levels submerged the low

lying lands around Lem Pars which cut it off from the mainland creating an island. The water rose very quick as

at the same time a tsunami came across the ocean from the south east and flooded the low lying areas within the

space of a few days. The now higher sea level stopped the water from draining away. Any unfortunate soul who

happened to be on the island at the time was now stuck there for good much to their woe. Some deer were

trapped on the island too but there wasn't enough to survive on by hunting so the islanders domesticated the

deer population and led the herds to grazing areas. The first islanders were now shepherds. With domestic deer

the people could now milk the does, eat the meat of a portion of the herd and have a greater control over the

deer population as opposed to following wild deer herds. The shepherds lived a nomadic life as they had to herd

the deer onto fresh pastures after several weeks of staying in one area.

The language these people spoke was an ancient one that was even older than Old Sumrë (which is itself

the ancestor of all the modern Sumric languages) as all of the Sumnë of this time spoke the parent language of

Old Sumrë known today by linguists only as Proto-Sumric. There is absolutely no record left of Proto-Sumric so

linguists look to Old Sumrë to determine what Proto-Sumric may have been like. So the very first individuals to

be trapped on the island spoke Proto-Sumric though over time the island language changed though only slightly

for the few records of the ancient island language, scant as they are, show that it was very similar to Proto-

Sumric in its grammar and phonology while Old Sumrë deviated quite a bit. The scant records of the island

language are to be found carved on raised slabs of rock throughout the island, the script the language is written

in is much like the Rësora script of the mainland, though it has more straight and jagged lines as it is hard to

carve round lines on rock.

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "16

Top: A carving on a stone slab in Lem Pars. see how

every line is straight compared the round and flowy

lines of Rësora. This is due to straight lines being

easier to carve into rock

Bottom: An example of the Rësora script from the mainland. related to

the script shown in the picture above

What these carvings actually said remained a mystery for a long time as no one knew the language. It was

only until recently after linguists reconstructed Proto-Sumric that the writing on the rocks beared some similarity

to Proto-Sumric. This then allowed some clever souls to reconstruct the original island language based on the

scant attestations for intellectual purposes and also to decider the carvings. The old standing stones shed their

mystery and shown themselves to have a dual purpose for the first islanders. One purpose was a practical one

written on one side of the slab that told the shepherds how long they should graze their deer in the surrounding

areas and to warn of any potential danger. The second purpose was a religious one. The opposite side of the

slab had a religious purpose with carvings telling of the people's devotion to the animal spirits and ancestors, this

devotion to the gods is somewhat unusual as Sumric people tend to be lax on actively worshipping their gods.

These slabs indicate that after being trapped on the island the first islanders felt that they had to rely more on

their gods. Modern linguists have named the old island language Hajec which comes from the Lemre hąjec

meaning 'whisked away'. From the carvings we can see that they called themselves the onxiibhöne /ɔnxiːβonɛ/

(The latinised spelling was created by modern linguists) which means 'trapped' (or to translate literally on 'still xii

'force' -bhöne 'by').

When the Lemne settlers first arrived on the island they interacted with the onxiibhöne by trading the fish

they caught in return for deer's milk, meat and fur. After some time of co-habitating the island the two peoples

began to interbreed and intermingle with Lemne culture dominating. Eventually the onxiibhöne fully and

peacefully assimilated into Lemne culture and language. The herds of deer were left to become feral and graze

MÄLĄLĄ LEMNEN "17

free unto their own wild will. As a cultural group the onxiibhöne had died out, though they bred with the Lemne

so the blood of the first islanders survives in the modern population.

Conclusion

The history of Lem Pars is one of adaptation, endurance, hardship and ferocity like the white fox who

sought vengance fom the hunter until the end of his use or the end of himself. What lies ahead for the

inhabitants of the island is uncertain be they Trapped Shepherds, Lemne fishermen or Jašawn colonists.

Whatever will happen they will face it with their bared fangs and unrelenting spirit. The Lemne are not to be

tempered with.

Culture Notes

naming system

Last names are not passed down in families in Lemni culture. Instead an individual takes the name one of

his ancestors, usually his grandfather though if he has a noble ancestor in particular he can choose his name,

and attach the suffix -ąjöm which was used only by men. If the individual is a woman then she uses the suffx -ną.

e.g

surname of male descendant of Anącos: Anącosąjöm

surname of female descendant of Anącos: Anącosną

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