Dailvic (Culture)



The people of the western world largely belong to the culture group referred to as Dailvic. Dailvic is one of the oldest cultures remaining in Aragoth with only Sunarian, Dwarven and Orcish being older. The culture is divided between two distinct categories, Old Dailvic and New. New Dailvic can be further divided into national variations such as Shoc Dailvic, Stornish Dailvic, etc.

History
The name Dailvic is derived from the Dailvic tribe that lived in the area of land around modern Armoria, around the start of the period of time known as Old Dawn. The Tribe would eventually grow in size, conquering its neighbors until it controlled most of western Arathos by the year 78 O.D., During this time the tribes would grow into a kingdom known as Dailvicia, led by Nirik Sornom. Nirik would launch a military campaign into the Nightlands (Modern Sanam) in 80 O.D. and crown himself king of the region, he then renamed it Sanam. Prior to the Dailvic invasion of Sanam the local inhabitants had slowly been adopting the Dailvic culture and by the time Nirik had invaded much of the people had openly began to follow the Dailvic ways. Despite openly accepting the culture the religion of Old Dail was not accepted for many years by the locals and the Moon Faith or Dark Faith would remain the dominant religion.

With the Kingdom of Sanam incorporated into Nirik's realm the name of the realm changed from Dailvicia to the Dailvic Kingdoms. The Kingdoms of would be made up of Armoria, Storn, Sanam and Veer. They would initially all be led by Nirik and after his death, his son Nirik II would take the thrown, however he would lose his kingdoms in 108 O.D. when his bastard brother Daivlin declared open rebellion and aligned himself with the Shoc Grand Duchess of Shochelm, Serina Shuktras and Duke of Veer, Patros Borsa. The three would spend two years at war with Nirik II and eventually succeed in dividing the Kingdoms. Borsa would seize the Kingdom of Veer from the loyalist forces and crown himself it’s King and continue to follow the Dailvic way, only as an independent monarch. Daivlin would lead a small force of mercenaries and rebels in Sanam and place himself as King of Sanam, founding the SIiminik dynasty of rulers in Sanam. Grand Duchess Shuktras would marry her daughter Dithred to Daivlin's second son Fairm, Serina would lose her first child and son to disease in 115 O.D. making Dithred her heir, this arrangement would lead to Dithred and Fairms sons becoming the next in line to the thrown after Dithred. Fairms sons and grandsons would become the Kings of Shochelm after Dithreds reign ended and they would bring Dailvic culture to the small realm of Shochelm and drive the Shoc culture into extinction by the year 240 O.D. In Sanam Daivlin would drive the Moon worshipers into exile in the cold Moon Mountains of northern Sanam, here they would establish the Moon Tribes and worship their gods in seclusion.

Nirik II would remain in control of his two remaining kingdoms for the remainder of his life, his son Nirik III would do the same, but with no children born to Nirik III the realm would fall into chaos upon his death in 168 O.D.. King Tiems Sliminik of Sanam, son of Daivlin would invade southern Storn and attempt to seize the Dailvic Kingdoms as his own, Grand Duchess Dithred of Shochelm would also attack the realm, largely by ordering raids along the coasts of Armoria. Apart from those two however many Dukes of both Storn and Armoria would began warring amongst each other and the invaders to seize control of the dying kingdoms. In the Storn a old Duke by the name of Kairn Bakhain would marry his eldest daughter to King Patros of Veer's son and call the Veerish Kingdom into the conflict. This would prove a tremendous asset and Kairn would quickly gain control of all of Storn, driving King Tiems back into the Shutter and crushing the Sanam army. At the same time as this the Dwarven lords of Khardum would begin raiding the eastern forests of Armoria and at one point attempted to sack the city of Loghill. During this sacking the Baron of Loghill Biorn Dundrum would crush the Dwarven army and capture a massive amount of armour, weaponry and wealth from the Dwarven baggage trains. This treasure was used by the Baron of Loghill to hire a vast mercenary army to conquer a large swath of land in eastern Armoria. Biorns land would soon stretch in size as Armorian Dukes swore fealty to him in fear of being crushed by the massive horde he now commanded. Within 5 months of the battle of Loghill Biorn would control all of Armoria and crown himself King of the Dailvics. The crowning of Biorn would capture the attention of Kairn and the Stornish armies would march northwards to depose the self entitled King of the Dailvics. Biron would lead his horde south into the Crosslands where it met the Stornishmen, this would be the first time the Crosslands saw open warfare in nearly one hundred years and it would not be the last. Neither army ever fought in a full scale battle between each other, rather small skirmishes occurred between either side through the Crosslands. After three years of warfare between King Biorn of the Dailvics and Duke Kairn of Storn a treaty was signed in 177 O.D. declaring peace between either ruler after nearly ten years of war. With the peace signed Biorn gave up the title of King of the Dailvics, threats from Sanam and Shochelm attacking in retaliation for the title were a major cause, Biorn claimed the title of King of Armoria and founded the Dundrum dynasty who would rule Armoria up into the modern day. Kairn Bakhain would claim the title of King of Storn and begin planning an invasion of the Shutter, but would die only three days of his coronation and his son Prince Kevlin Bakhainof Storn would take the thrown. Preferring the title of Prince to King, Kevlin would style himself as Prince of Storn and the kingdom would quickly change from a kingdom to a principality.

In Sanam very little would change up until the modern day, however wars would occur between it and Storn over control of the Shutter. Armoria and Storn would frequently war amongst each other over control of the Crosslands, but generally peace talks would occur and the Crosslands would remain uncontrolled by either party. Shochelm would pass on to the Dailvic sons of Dithred after her death and the Grand Duchy would quickly become another Dailvic realm, Dithreds first son and heir Farbor would found the Dailvic dynasty of Karjl by marrying Duke Har Karjl's only child Fianna, the Shoc dynasty of Karjl would collapse soon after with the death of Har and his lands passing onto Fianna and her Dailvic sons. The Kingdom of Veer would thrive in Patros Borsas reign as king, however his son Piater Borsa would lose the kingdom to the mighty Bailion Empire in 200 O.D., ten years after inheriting it from Patros, this would mark the end of the Borsa dynasty.

The Dailvic Kingdoms would never again form as one united realm and instead divided into independent kingdoms, because of this, these new kingdoms would form their own variations of Dailvic, this new forms would be known together as New Dailvic, Old Dailvic ways would only be followed in the Moon Tribes and the Shutter where life was very simple and Veer where the people would heavily resist the imperial Bailion culture (Old Bailion) being enforced upon them. In 348 N.D. the Bailion Empire would fall and Veer would regain its independence after nearly seven hundred years of being oppressed. In the modern age of 398 N.D. Many of the Old Dailvic Dynasties have died out, Sanam is no longer ruled by the Sliminik's, the descendants of Daivlin would rule up until 478 O.D. when a series of horrible famines would result in major peasant revolt that would cause the death or exile of almost every member of the dynasty. In their place the Dailvic Soryce dynasty led by Crinim Soryce took the thrown. In Storn the Bakhain dynasty survived into the current age of 121 N.D., however a noble uprising led to the Prince and his family being deposed and eventually executed and the rise of the Drenvian Dynasty led by Wendrim Drenvian. In Armoria the Dundrum Dynasty survived only until 421 O.D. when a horrible accident led to the old kings only child dying in a training exercise, leaving the thrown open on his death a civil war began between the Leidmeres of the Westwoods and the Redwergs of Dreydin, after six months of war and the battle of Tydol ended the war, the Redwergs became the royal dynasty and the Leidmeres faded into obscurity as newer dynasties surpassed them in power. The Redwerg dynasty lasted until 256 N.D. when Biorn Baron of Dreydin led a rebellion against the tyranny of Rion the Red of Armoria. Backed by both nobles and peasants Biorn dethroned Rion and publicly beheaded him as punishment for his tyranny. Biorn became the next king and founded the dynasty of Armar, he would also marry the Princess Tricia of Sanam forging an alliance between Armoria and Sanam, this alliance would be short lived however and Tricia would die within a a year from pox and never gave Biorn a child. Biron would remarry an Armorian noble’s daughter and his dynasty would live on. Veer would regain its independence at the fall of the Bailion in 348 N.D. and a prominent Veerish noble named Valrick Borkresh, who claimed to be a descendant of the Borsa dynasty took the thrown, His son Valrick II currently rules Veer. Shochelm would not lose its initial dynasty and the ancient line of Karjl still exists as the Grand Dukes of Shochelm, currently led by Grand Duke Hoarmire Karjl.

Old Dailvic
Old Dailvic is the system of culture that dates back to the birth of Dailvic in general. The culture was first present in the tribe of Dailvic in north western Armoria, who frequently warred with roaving Dwarven raiders. Over time the culture spread across western Arathos and Sanam to become one of the largest of cultures. Old Dailvic would eventualy fade away as newer forms of Dailvic took over, it however is still in practice today is some of the most remote areas of the Dailvic realm and Veer where nearly seven hundred years of oppression have left the people with little time to develop their culture into New Dailvic.

New Dailvic
New Dailvic is the culture that grew from the Old Dailvic, this was caused by the division of the Dailvic Kingdoms into independent realms. New Dailvic unlike Old Dailvic is further divided into national categories were certain factors have led to the culture evolving over time.

Shoc Dailvic
The Dailvic culture spread to the Grand Duchy of Shochelm in 220 O.D. when the Dailvic son of Dithred, Farbor, inherited the thrown from her. Farbor would begin a transition period that would last througe both his and his sons life and it would see Shochelm emerge as a Dailvic realm in the north. Farbor would start by banning the worship of the old Shuc gods, this would cause major public outrage and to this day Farbor is viewed with disdain, despite the culture accepting Old and then New Dail as its widespread religion. The law banning the native Shuc faith was the first of many laws that would result in much of the Shuc culture being banned, the people resisted the changes heavily as mroe and mroe of their traditions became foricbly forgotten. The alternative of resisting however would be impossible, Farbor had the support of the Kings of Sanam and any revolt could be easily put down by a Sanamaen army being placed in Shochelm as a garrison. by 220 O.D. the Shuc culture had been entirely wiped out and Dailvic beliefs and traditions where rapidly becomnig the dominant culture as more and more Dailvic immigrints migrated to Shochelm from as far away as Storn.