I'm not sure about the cardinal point (source?), but Anshar is more-or-less south-east of the Blessed Lands, Illiir is more-or-less north of the Blessed Lands (though the History Chapter suggests that Saluwe' is more directly north between Elonbe' and the First City), and Yarris/Pisenium is pretty much due west and it DOESN'T have a known portal.

Here is the quote spoken by the Love of Illiir from A Host Divided Against Itself


Also the Anshar Temple has one as well because you enter from it. Because of it's location I thought it was one of the 12 Citadels, even though it is not called a Citadel in the module.

Battlefield tactics among the Known Lands

If there is one thing constant in any world and with any race, it is war. However, while all races—from the Ssethrics to the Elorii to the Humans to the Singarthan Trolls—use this most ancient and direct way of settling disputes, the way they prosecute war varies differently across all the various nations of the Known Lands. In our world, different nations have developed widely different tactics to suit the needs of their own people, based on terrain, resources available, and cultural stigmas. For example, the Greeks held phalanx and cavalry tactics in high esteem with one group acting as a check against another, but rarely used missile weapons like bows because they were viewed as cowardly. On the other hand, the English loved their archers, which they used to devastating effect on their foes for centuries in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. As this is true in our world, so it is true on Arcanis.

The most commonly talked about military unit type in Arcanis is the Coryani Legion. This unit type is based on the Roman unit of the same name and consists of primarily (but not exclusively) heavy foot infantry with large shields and (generally) short swords. These infantry march together in shield walls, turtling up before incoming missile combat, and steadily advancing like a tide of death upon their foes. In the Roman world, the Legion would have assigned to its infantry (which was a uniform unit of infantry) auxiliary forces of Equestian light cavalry, archers (usually mercenaries as the Romans also detested archery), slingers, and other support troops to support the core of the foot soldiers. Coryani legions differ from this in that the Legions often have these specialist units built into the Legion itself, with scouts and equestrians forming their own subunit within the 1,000 to 5,000 soldiers. Auxiliary units in Coryan also seem to form a similar, though not as regimented, role as they do in the Roman world. These troops would likely consist of regional militia-type units, Patrician private armies, or foreign mercenaries attached to the Legion as needed to bulk out their forces rather than to fulfill tactical niches.

While generally less uniform than a Roman Legion, the Coryani Legion still has more-or-less the same tactical strengths and weaknesses of its real historical counterpart. The Roman Legions were renowned for their ability to basically roll over any foe which they came across. The Coryani Legions are a disciplined, professional military force in a world where feudal levies (Milandir) and slave armies (Myrantians) are not uncommon. The Coryani Legions are a uniform military force, with each soldier (more or less) identically outfitted which means they are a UNIT, and not a band of armed hooligans. Lastly, the Coryani Legions are far more numerous than any of their opposition (outside of Khitan), which means that no matter how much you wear against their legions, there are more troops where those came from. On the flip side, the Coryani Legions (less so than Roman Legions) suffer from their general immobility. While trained for hard marches, they can only move as fast as their feet allow. This means that they can be outmanoeuvred by mounted troops, and are vulnerable to widespread missile combat use.

The next of the primary fighting cultures is that of Milandir. This nation—as appropriate to its medieval feel—does not make use of professional soldiers like Coryan does, instead focusing on the nobility and a fraternity of elite warriors in the forms of the Knights of Milandir, who are in turn supported by their private retainers (armsmen, men-at-arms, etc). This means that Milandir has a relatively small armed force compared to Coryan, though these numbers are deceiving. Unlike Coryan, Milandir does make use of Feudal levies to bulk out their forces in times of war, with these recruited peasants (who do it for oath of honour rather than necessarily fear) acting as archers, pikemen, and general military filler to support the primarily mounted Knights and their forces. This style of army formation is advantageous because it is relatively inexpensive to maintain. After all, the lord only has to worry about a small group of a couple hundred ‘real warriors’, outfitting your levies (cantons in Milandir) with fairly cheap weapons and armour. Additionally, the typical ‘cheap’ weapons given to Milandesian cantons include polearms like pikes and halberds, which are actually extremely useful weapons against cavalry forces, which means they form a balance to the mounted knights which make up the balance. Unfortunately, unlike Coryan, Milandesian soldiers are (for the most part) unprofessional and less disciplined than Legionnaires, which means they are more likely to break under pressure.

When compared to each other, the Coryani and Milandesian forces are almost a comparison of opposites. Milandir prefers shock tactics, with their mounted units acting as the hammer against the anvil of their cantons, while Coryan prefers infantry formations which simply roll over their targets while having substantially less cavalry. When it comes to field engagements between these two powers, my read of tactics would suggest that a Coryani shield wall would not stand up to repeated heavy cavalry charges from the Milandesian forces (especially since pikes are not standard Coryani kit). It should be noted that one of the major reasons I have seen for why the Romans began losing territory at the end of their empire was that their forces and legions were not up to the task of defending against mounted steppe raiders (such as the Huns), for this very reason. That said, if the Legions manage to get their enemies into range and hold them there, the legion blocks would make mincemeat of the less disciplined, lightly armoured, pike-wielding cantons.

Other nations or groups in the Known Lands of Onara are a little bit harder to analyze due to lack of information. For example, we know that the Altharen Shining Patrol makes heavy use of less-heavily armoured troops and extensive use of rifles. Using our world as an example, this would suggest that they would focus on large field armies with multiple ranks of rifle-armed infantry firing in volleys at their targets. However, what we have seen of the Shining Patrol is that they actually tend to focus on smaller-unit tactics, with no more than a couple hundred being around except in major bases such as Semar. This could actually make sense given the terrain of the Altheran Plateau and the Kraldjurr Morass, which consists of mountainous regions and jungle which makes large field armies very difficult—if not impossible—to manage. Instead, the Shining Patrolmen would probably act more like Irregular troops, employed in raids and guerrilla type missions against smaller targets rather than thousands and troops marching in an open field. Additionally, the Altherans still make use of their Skyships (what few are left) as gunboats, which fit well with the hit-and-fade irregular tactics that have come up I adventures.

Speaking of the Altharens, we also know a reasonable amount (but nothing definitive) about preferred Ssethric battle tactics. For example, we know that the Black Talon make use of their own Heavy Infantry in the form of the Milliarius warriors, heavily armoured troops wielding bearded axes, similar to Coryani Legionnaires but relying more on heavy weapons and armour rather than a shield wall for protection. We also know that the Ssethregoran Empire—historically, at least—makes extensive use of slave legions and heavy war beasts (ranging from horse-analogs to creatures similar to war elephants to flying creatures) as force multipliers. Their tactics, however, do seem quite crude as they seem more interested in attrition warfare than advanced tactics. I should note, however, that this is based on a very small canon sample size of data.

Moving away from the Ssethregorans, the Elorii have not shown that I can read any specific battlefield tactics beyond “we have a whole lot of guys!” The few references to all of them refer to their armies as “Hosts”, and they all seem to consist of warriors with swords and light to heavy armour rather than specific formations like a Coryani Legions. We do know that the main footsoldier in Elorii formations are the Marokenes, though, and that Kelekenes are also common as battle mages and as almost ‘special ops’ forces, such as the team of Kelekenes who stuck at the Grand Library in New Althare’ during the war.

Another ‘nation’ with known battlefield tactics are the Yhing Hir, although you could argue it is less battlefield tactics than raiding tactics. The Yhing Hir are a very close (though far more fractured) versions of the Mongol horsemen from the time of Genghis Khan, relying on light cavalry forces armed with sabres, lances, and most importantly horsebows when engaged in combat. This gives the Yhing Hir almost incomparable mobility on the battlefield, and the ability to literally run circles around their enemies to pepper them with arrows before charging in with blade and lance to finish their foes off. Even other horse-heavy groups like the Milandesians (likely adapting their own cavalry as a check against the Yhing Hir more than against the Coryani Legions) have trouble keeping up to these mobile attackers on their coursers and chargers. What saves most people in Onara from an invasion similar to Genghis Khan’s invasion of Eurasia, however, is that the Yhing Hir tribes are individually too weak to really damage their neighbours in the Hinterlands, Milandir, or Canceri beyond raiding the countryside. That said, we did get a good idea of what the horse-tribes could do in the form of the Auxunite Empire of some two-millennia ago. . .

On the subject of horses, it brings me to the last major area and their preferred battlefield tactics, specifically those of the Western Lands. There is not much to go on for the tactics of the Kio, the Undir, and the various human groups in the region such as the Harns, as well as the val’Baucisz. Likely the Undir do not have specific battlefield tactics as they live in tribal societies with no strong leadership among themselves, but the same is not true of the Harns and the Kio. There are two major ‘units’ of note that seem to make up the biggest forces in the region, and those are the Kio Red Dragoons and the Harn/val’Baucisz Black Hussars. We really do not have significant amounts of information about either of them, but based on the names of the units, both forces are primarily horse-mounted groups, with the Kio possibly being more focused on mobile infantry than cavalry (Dragoons being horse-mounted riflemen who mostly use the horses to get to battle than fight on them), while the Black Hussars being a more traditional light cavalry forces. Both of these groups make sense for the forces in the Western Lands where the limited population-to-apparent-wealth of the region means that smaller armies of better equipped troops are possible. After all, we know that there aren’t THAT many Kio in the world presently (no more than a million I would think) as opposed to the tens, if not hundreds of millions of humans in the Known Lands. Since the Kio form the ‘elite’ of their society, each Kio family can probably support at least a small group of armed retainers and their mounts similar to the Milandesians. However, judging by the apparent focus towards mounted infantry, it is possible they don’t have the population of levies to call upon, or that these levies (likely Undir and Humans) are considered more auxillary forces than they are in Milandir. Of the Harns and the Black Hussars, even less is known beyond that they use horses.

Anyway, I think I’ll leave this here. While I’d love to go into the tactics of other groups, I feel we have even less information about them than we do all of the above. However, when we learn more about them be sure I’ll dive deeper into their tactics.

As always Cody, an enjoyable read. This is a topic I've spent some time thinking about as well. Figured I would submit a few of my own comments/thoughts

Magic
In my opinion, this is the one big elephant in the room which you overlooked. While Arcanis is not necessarily a high fantasy/high magic campaign (no fireballs from 400ft+40ft/level), the role of magic in warfare would be an absolute paradigm shift. We have excellent evidence in the sourcebooks that magic is used offensively in warfare, both by established armies such as those in Coryan and Milandir, as well as more tribal cultures.

While an obvious use of offensive magic would be harming the enemy (i.e. elemental bolt), I suspect that it would be more effective when used to assist the ground troops. The dread phalanx, for instance, loses its efficacy when the soldiers are out of formation. An explosion in the middle of the formation might not kill too many soldiers (what percentage of the Coryani legions are minions?), but if you can cause them to fall out of formation, then you have gained a significant tactical advantage.

The uses of illusion in warfare are obvious, from concealing traps to fooling your enemies into thinking you have more/fewer troops than you actually do.

Unless we are talking about the Ymandragorans, it is highly unlikely that any military force would be capable of using defensive magics on any significant number of troops. Realistically, the more valuable defensive use of magic would be in counterspelling. This reminds me of a conversation in a book series (Sword of Truth) in which an elderly caster informs a younger caster that magic in warfare is a series of calculated moves and counter moves, in which magical attacks are constantly being countered by the other side. In this way, the magic can often not even be noticed by the regular troops, only appearing when the defending side makes a mistake.

An important feature of magic in this system, which I already alluded to, is the severely limited ranges. It is fairly rare to encounter magics which can function at ranges beyond 60', which is extremely close and personal when it comes to war. Generally speaking, the further away you are capable of killing your enemy, the greater your tactical advantage. I have no doubt that one of the first talents any Coryani Battle Mage would learn would be Adaptation: Extend Range.

A very interesting result of this limited range is that it precludes any large units of offensive casters raining death from the center of an army (which is commonly how archers are used). I suspect it far more likely that offensive casters would be embedded with the common troops, both to aid them in reaching the enemy as well as making it harder to pick them out of a crowd.

The ability to heal injuries right on the battle field with divine casters could clearly make or break a battle, not to mention the application of abilities such as Inspirational Presence (ta) or Steadying Word (ta) to bolster the troops' morale. In fact, the Leadership talent is, in and of itself, absolutely game changing when you consider that it will revive every vanquished (by stamina) ally within 60ft who can hear you. This could potentially bring dozens of soldiers back into the fight. If I had an army, I would absolutely have a couple of support casters in each squad...if you had the resources, it would be foolish not to.

With the obvious tactical applications of magic, it then seems equally logical that a there would be a strong incentive for military commanders to have either standing orders or specialized ranged units (archers or the like) who would attempt to kill casters.

While none of this invalidates the traditional military tactics already described in the prior post, it certainly does add new elements, and could certainly reward creative commanders.

Canceri

I don't want to beat this one to death as Cody was right, we do not have a lot of information on the military strategies of Canceri. Obviously, certain things can be inferred. The Nerothians are going to use as many undead as possible. The Sarishans, when forced to actually fight, are going to summon demons.

What I really want to focus on here is (probably not surprisingly to anyone), the Nierites. One issue that I have had is the relatively one-dimensional protrayal of Nierite military strategy. They are frequently referenced as being brilliant tacticians and skilled soldiers, but how exactly did they win battles?

The archetypal Nierite soldier is a guy in medium/heavy armour with a flamberge. Of course, this would not be every soldier in an army, but I am not personally aware of any references to a Nierite mounted unit, for example. We know that in real historical battles, the flamberge was used by only the largest soldiers, and it was their job to use the flamberge to destroy the pikes of the enemy force so that the regular soldier could get close enough to do their soldiering. It was not a weapon widely used against other soldiers, as they were slow and unwieldy.

I don't care how good the Nierite foot soldier was, you can not win wars with a single tactic. They would have had to employ siege units, ranged units (be they archers or arcane), mounted units, miners, etc.

I suppose it makes sense that the massive flamberge wielding guys would have been more memorable than the Nierite guys beside him with maces and longswords, but it seems strange to me that there have been so few references of a diverse military (none, to my knowledge).

Personally, the war/battle I would like more information on the most is when the Nierites pushed the VO from the Vrain. Considering the abilities of the VO, there was clearly a skilled force used there, supported by both psionic and divine casters...and a part of me can't help but wonder how the Nierites won. Did they really defeat the VO, or was the location simply not valuable enough to the Silence that they wanted to commit their resources to holding it? Unless it was a small, isolated nest in those caves, I am skeptical that the Nierites of that time were strong or numerous enough to fully defeat any significant force of the VO.

There are references out there that say that the Cancerese Nierites use battle tactics 'inspired' by the Coryani Legions, but honestly they seem to have more in common with the Ss'ressen Milliarius. Their main troops are large-weapon armed, heavily armoured infantry armed with minimal missile weapons. LIke the Romans, the Nierits abhor ranged combat, preferring to get up close and personal with their enemies, and as Akira said this is a poor choice for any army (as was seen when the Romans and Greeks came across enemies with heavy archery biases). The Nierites probably balance this out with the help of the Sarishan's and Nerothians of Canceri, which have no such hangups as far as we know, so the Nierites 'allow' them to 'dishonour' themselves in that role, much as the Romans used auxillia to fill niches they didn't want to.

As for additional Cancerese battle tactics, we know from the Order of the Pheonix Document that the Nerothians do make use of military socieities similar to the Milandesian Knightly Orders, which means that they can also fulfill (if nothing else) the cavalry function that is essential in a nation bordering Milandir AND the Yhing Hir. Sure, summoned Infernals can do much of the scouting (especially flying ones) and both undead and infernals are great shock troops, but they are unreliable and expensive to summon and a human element would be needed most of the time.

My general view of Cancerese military tactics would be the Nierites forming the core of any given armie--they hold the line against any attacking force--while supported by Sarishan and Nerothian specialist troops like archers and slingers. Meanwhile, both those other groups would use their magics to create waves of canon fodder to smash the enemy and drive them into the pikes/swords/javalins of the Nierites, and the Nerothian Knights would battle their Milandesian equivalent, raising the dead wherever they can to sow chaos 'behind the lines'.

This is a good point, the only issue being that the factions within Canceri are far from harmonious. For large, existential threats (i.e. invasion by Milandir) the church would certainly push for the Nierites, Nerothians and Sarishans to play nice with each other, but there are many skirmishes in which the Nierites at least would be without support from the other groups. I don't think there is much evidence of the Nerothians or Sarishans engaging in military operations by themselves.

The example that immediately comes to mind is Leonydis val'Virdan, and the eventual creation of Erduk. While he was said to have been granted power from Nier himself (true or not), the fact is that the Nierites did conquer huge swaths of Onara before eventually being overthrown.

The Sword of the Heavens and his Army are not necessarily the same as the Nierites of Canceri, and moreso we don't know the actual combat makeup of the First Imperium forces, their tactics, etc.

For example: What if the First Imperium, after having beaten the Ossarions, Elorii, Ssethregorans, and Myrantians down basically decided to cut back on their military? After all, they had all these val'Virdan slave soldiers kicking around to be their strong arm, so why should those decadent free people of the Imperium put themselves at risk in foreign wars? Sure, there had to be SOME 'free' legions out there, for tradition or to control those same Slave Soldiers, but those val'Virdans had been slaves for centuries and why would they ever revolt since they obviously knew their place? Then comes Leonydis, and even if his troops are fairly small in number, they are elite and their opposition is fat and lazy and he is able to cut through them like a hot knife through butter! Additionally, if the Imperium truly didn't have any credible foreign threats, the val'Virdans would be fighting troops which shared their same make-up, which means that there is less risk of different tactics. To expand, if both sides used phalanxes and not archers, you don't have to worry about archers.

So, I’ve been listening to a lot of history podcasts lately owing to my lack of actual ‘sit down and do stuff’ time of late, and it got me thinking: How did the world we have present in Arcanis and its cultural practices evolve? How are these different from the real life equivalents of them of which Henry (likely) based some of these practices on? These are the questions which vex me as I write this article in 5 minute segments over the last two days, and I thought I’d bring up a few thoughts I had on these.

First of all, we all know that the current Arcanis setting takes place in the “World of Shattered Empires,” and the general understanding about this is that that Empire refers to the Coryani Empire. As we continue in this universe, I’ve come to the conclusion that—while not necessarily incorrect—that this may not be what the true meaning of this sentence. While the Coryani Empire has shattered somewhat into Altheria, Canceri, Milandir, etc. it still exists. To me, this suggests that the term Fallen Empires would be more appropriate. Where the term “Shattered Empires” is more appropriate, however, is reference to the ‘big three’ of the Empire of Yahssremore, the Eloran Empire, and the First Imperium of Man. For simplicity’s sake, I’m only going to talk about the First Imperium and the successor states of that when I discuss how some of these cultural practices have evolved. After all, I do not feel entirely qualified (nor have enough data) to ponder the thinking of immortal creatures with vampire teeth or human-sized velociraptors.

When the First Imperium of Man fell, we know that ruled an area that encompassed all the areas we basically know about on the map. From the Sea of Yarris in the east to the Dalish Islands in the west (likely), from the lands that are now Khitan (and possibly the former Auxunite lands of the Fiendish Expanse) to the north to at least Dar Zhan Vor in the south (possibly as far as the Western Lands and beyond). When this empire fell, humanity suffered a dark age that lasted for a full 1770 years (at least, as far as the Coryani are concerned). During this time a number of successor states hacked off chunks of this former landmass, with it seems that the Valinor known as the Sleeping Emperor hacking off the largest chunk for itself and its followers in the north-west of the continent. For almost 3000 years to follow, the empires form and fall, all while the languages of man split from Altharen and the cultures of humanity move away from one another.

One of these cultures is that which took hold in Milandesia sometime in the 1300 years or so between the fall of the Imperium and the rise of the Milandesian League (a league of city states which occupy most of modern Milandir and Almeric). During this time the Milandesians developed their culture which to our eyes looks like a more idealized version of the medieval European feudalism which took hold in our world in the thousand or so years following the fall of Rome. As that Empire (at least its western half) also could be said to have shattered, this seems like an interesting point to begin comparing.

I’ve discussed the Milandesian Pact of Oaths before in a previous article, so I won’t go too much into it. Effectively, it is a complex network of oaths made between a lord and their vassals for protection, taxation, and service where both have responsibilities to the other. This is not altogether different than our own world and what sprang up following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In the case of Rome, when it split into its Western and Eastern halves, for a number of reasons the Western Empire started to lose its ability to defend itself. In order to help protect its territory—mostly from German ‘barbarian’ tribes—the Roman leaders made deals with foreign groups of mostly German tribes for protection. Basically, the Romans would sign a contract where a German tribe (like the Vandals, the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, etc) would take over the administration and protection of a section of the Western Empire and rule in the name of the Roman Emperor. Alas, while many of these Germans did idolize many aspects of Roman culture, they were not Roman themselves and this dividing of the Empire effectively killed it by vivisection as the various German groups started looking out for their own interests rather than remain vassals to the Romans. While this form of vassalage didn’t work out for the Romans, it did set the stage for other ‘contracts’ to be set among the Germans for the protection and governorship of areas, leading to landed nobles who rule their own lands in the name of a higher king, all the way down to the serfs who served them.

Milandesia has many similarities to the above, and many glaring omissions and differences. First and most obvious, in the world of Arcanis most Milandesians are represented by Germanic peoples with a notable inclusion of some Uralic in the form of the people of Eastmarch which is a direct connection between that world and our own. We also know that in Milandir their Pact of Oaths formed to ward off warlords and threats to their lands from an increasingly dangerous world (the fall of the Roman army and the stability it created in our world, and the lack of a unified Imperium in Arcanis). However, there are many differences between the Milandesians of Arcanis and the Germans of our world. Historically, dating back to the 100 BC period or so, the Germans have been known as a warlike people. This is not meant to be a knock against them, but the Germans until even the last century have been characterized by various clans of their people fighting with their neighbours, sometimes as allies of other powers and sometimes not. The Germans—even as late as the modern times—have also been known to be a particularly brutal people when they need to be, with a pronounced flair for coming down harder than they need to on a problem to provide example to those so others won’t do it again. This doesn’t mean they cannot be a philosophical people, but their cultural brutality coloured everything about how Europe navigated their Dark Ages, including being a major influence on the militarization of Christianity leading up to the Crusades.

The Milandesians, on the other hand, are almost disgustingly saccharine in how they deal with their neighbours. While they can be utter demons to their enemies and have a notable martial tradition, there are almost no examples I can think of in Arcanis canon linking them to the Germans of our world in terms of fundamental psychology. They are a defensive people rather than an offensive, with even their invasions being brought about in response to some provocation from their neighbours. While there may have once been fighting between their nobles (similar to what is happening in Almeric in the current storyline), the various ruling families of Milandir are oddly united unlike the Germans in our world (such as the Franks), with very little battle between, say, the Sylvanian ‘clan’ against the Trailian ‘clan’ of Milandesians. Also, while the Germans formed an almost mercenary ‘ruling class’ over former Roman people (eventually merging into our current European peoples of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France), we have no evidence to suggest that a foreign power came in to rule parts of Milandir as mercenary vassal-lords, but instead that the mutual sets of alliances and feudal responsibilities seemed to materialize out of a rather homogeneous population.

By the same token, we also see a similar trend in the formation of the Coryani Empire some 1770 years after the fall of the First Imperium. As is obvious to I think everyone, Coryan is modelled heavily on the Roman Empire of our world, but as I have said in a previous article, its origin and modus operandi seem to be very different from the Empire, and for much the same reason the Milandesians differ from the Germans of our world. In our world, Rome started as a city state with a king, who eventually overthrew their kings and created an elabourate oligarchy to fill their place. They made war with their neighbours, creating a network of alliances and tributaries in Italy until they found themselves in a (series of) war(s) with another city-state named Carthage. The three generations of conflict with this other power shot Rome into the ‘world stage,’ as they eventually grew in power to become the dominant power in the entire Mediterranean world. As they became more powerful, they made tributaries (and eventually provinces) of all their neighbouring kingdoms in the region in pursuit of more power and wealth, eventually leading them away from their Republican heritage to what is known as the Roman Empire. During this time, Rome’s formation of the empire was characterized by the increased greed of its people for the wealth brought to them from their campaigns and conquests, which many attribute to the erosion of their unity, leading to civil wars which paved the way for Ocativan/Augustus to be proclaimed Emperor.

This genesis (while criminally circumscript) is vastly different to what lead to the formation of the Coryani Empire. Like Rome, the Coryani Empire began it’s life as a small city state in an almost pastoral area of the world. Originally the First Imperium town of Midea Tridueae, following the fall of the Imperium it became home to the last members of the val’Assante’ family who were, next to the Emman, the most hated of the val’Virdans of the Theocracy of the Cleansing Flame. Over almost 2000 years before the foundation of their Empire, they were but one of a number of city states eking out an existence among the ruins of their more fabulous forebearers. There are references of conflicts between these city states, but unlike Rome there is no textual evidence to support that the Coryani created any elabourate network of alliances to suggest they were a ‘power on the rise’, which was the case of Rome before the Punic Wars. However, like Rome, it was a conflict which catapulted them to stardom on the world stage, but instead of Phoenicians on the other side, it was demons.

When the Time of Terror begun, it appears that Coryan was the only city state in their region to actually withstand the onslaught of the Infernals, thanks to the timely arrival of the person history refers to as the First Emperor of Coryan. With their city saved and secured, they begun to cleanse the world around them of the Infernal invaders, in doing so bringing in their neighbours as allies through liberation. While it has been said that Rome became an empire in its own defence (suggesting that the wars it fought were out of necessity rather than blunt conquest), this phrase is perfect for how Coryan came to power. During this time they brought the lands of Illonia, Balantica, and Milandesia into their sphere of influence as allies and friends, the Altherans were brought in through negotiation, and the Cancerese were brought in through somewhat grudging liberation (note: I am not clear how the southern provinces, as well as Cafela, were brought in, though likely through similar means). While Rome warred with its neighbours, making tributaries first of these people before absorbing them into their Empire, there are only two cases that I can think of where Coryan displayed naked force to bring people into their empire. The first was the ‘Deliverance of Abessios’-- which Coryani historians put blame on the Myrantians for starting much as the Romans blame Carthage for the Punic Wars—while the second is the expansion into the Western Lands and the conquest of lands such as Eppion. The Empire also expanded into the Hinterlands and the Western Marches against the wishes of the people who lived there, but there is not much information to detail these conflicts.

Like the Milandesians, the Coryani seem far more pacifistic than their Roman equivalents in our world, which massively colours their world views. While all these groups have martial traditions, the Germans and the Romans both favoured the offense in their wars with their neighbours, while both the Milandesians and Coryani seem to be almost defensive through much of their history. While the Germans and the Romans forced themselves (to one extent or another) on their culture before eventually merging their own cultures with those of their conquests, the Milandesians and Coryani created confederations with their neighbours and (seemingly) actively sought out compromise with their component bits as co-equals.

Looking at history from the Assyrians to the Chinese Dynasties to Rome to British Empire, I can think of almost no cultures in which the formation of their own nations is done with such peacefulness. The few I could rationalize had one thing in common by my view: they all originate from a known cultural source within written and sometimes living memory. The best example of this is the United States of America, which was formed of 13 English colonies with almost identical cultures and identities despite being spread over such a large area. Even the culturally similar Canadians had troubles forming their nation, due in a large part to the differences between the English and French components of what became that country. This, of course, leads me back to the First Imperium.

While people in our world are known to have originated from a common people, our singular origins are lost even to our modern archaeology. Back in the days before widespread writing and histories, this common origin would have been even less well known or believed by the peoples of our world. While all Indo-Europeans in the distant past, the Celts, Italics, Germanics, and Greeks didn’t view themselves as a common people. In all theses cases, these groups developed in near isolation for centuries (if not millennia) before they came back in contact with their sibling cultures, with all common history lost. To a Roman, the Germans were an alien culture. To the Europeans, the Mongols were an alien culture. To the Native Americans, the people of Eurasia and Africa were an alien culture. They shared none of the same gods, they appeared to be different physically, and their ways of life had developed in far different ways.

This wasn’t so for the people of Onara. While the common folk likely didn’t know details, they all grew up in the shadow of the grandness of First Imperium (or the Myrantian Empire, in the case of the Abessian Myrantians). The people—or at least enough of the people—knew that all mankind was once one people, which meant that when the Milandesians came across the Coryani they were more alike than not. Because of the commonalities in heritage, there was less of a fight for dominance between these groups, which meant that their integration was able to happen more easily. After all, they all shared the Pantheon of Man, they all shared languages which were recognizably based on Altharen (with some even still speaking that ancient unifying tongue of man in all cultures), and for the most part they all came from a common genetic stock. While some (like the Cancerese) may have diverged culturally due to the influence of alien powers (like Infernals), the integration of these peoples was done between those who may have had grudges, but all recognized as being scions of the Imperium! Hell, from my reason the only reason the Cancerese were viewed as being such pariah’s during the foundation of the Coryani Empire was because so many of their people actively sided with the Infernals during the Time of Terror, though the history of conflict between the Milandesian League and the Nerothians of Canceri in particular did also leave a fair amount of bad-blood to be sure.

In fact, the few instances of actual aggressive combat between these nations and other humans all seem to occur when the commonalities became less clear. For example, for most of its history the only part of Coryan which truly felt like a conquered people (as opposed to an oppressed people like the Cancerese) were the Myrantians, a group of people who claim heritage (if not genetic lineage) from the ancient Myrantian Empire which fought the First Imperium during those halcyon days. They grew up in a culture with fewer commonalities than the scions of the First Imperium, and when the Coryani Empire clashed with these ‘alien’ people (though they had to have been well known to the people of Onara) they were the ones who were conquered and subjugated. The same is true when the Coryani expanded into the Western Lands and came across the Undir and the Kio, where the cultures of those distinct people were subjugated in comparison to those of Milandir and Canceri. You even saw more prominent antagonism between those of the Known Lands of Onara and those scions of the First Imperium who had developed far away from the Known Lands, such as the Khitani Empire, which lead to two large-scale wars between those two powers. Even the Altherans—who apparently came from a far-away land by flying city before crashing in modern Altheria—had to negotiate their entrance into the Empire rather than risk being conquered like the Abessians were (their knowledge of Blast Powder giving them a valuable bargaining chip for peaceful entrance into the empire as a co-equal, like the Milandesians).

Another possible source of continuity is the existence of the Vals. Throughout the rise and fall of the First Imperium, the Vals were the perpetual noble-class. During the Shadowed Age that followed the fall, they continued to be the perpetual noble-class, with few (known) major empires not having Vals of one family or another among its most prominent leadership. These people were as much relics of the First Imperium (and the Gods) as the ruins which dotted their landscape (especially in the Blessed Lands), and I do not believe these Val families ever let their heritage or the existence of the other families out of their collective knowledge. This means that when the val’Assante’ came across a val’Tensen of what is now Almeric, they were not an alien tribe, but recognizably like them and both scions of the gods. They may vie for power between themselves, but they both recognize each other as kin.

Anyway, I think I’ll wrap up my musings here for now. There are many other avenues of the origin of cultural values that I can go into, but most of them rely far more heavily on the mystical and magical nature of the world than the Coryani and the Milandesians do (the Infernals of Canceri, the steampunk-ness of Altheria, etc), or simply are not known within canon to any great extent (like the Khitani). If we learn more about the Khitani, I can go into how their culture differs from their real world equivalent of China, but it looks like it will be many years before we get a definitive enough history of that land to even begin to see how it is formed.

As my first “Musings” article, I discussed the relation of various groups around Onara based on the language that was chosen by PCI as the ‘short-hand’ for their naming scheme. As that was a long time ago, not to mention that I actually have somewhat more historical context on the subject after some personal-interest studying, I thought I’d go over these again in a hopefully new light.

First of all, I should point out that there is one major assumption that I am basing a lot of this off of: that the Human languages spoken in the current time period of Arcanis are all derived from Altharin. For the most part, this assumption more-or-less holds true. Of all the ‘real life’ examples given in various Arcanis books that I have access to, the majority of the languages listed for names come from Indo-European languages (a group of languages in our world originating from conquers we believe came from the Ukraine some 3-4 thousand years ago). If this is true, it stands to reason that all of these various nations of peoples originated from a common tongue and naturally linguistically drifted due to the passage of the 2,700 years or so between the fall of the First Imperium of Man (with their native tongue of Altharin, the constructed language of Althares) and the current era. In fact, this could very well be how the majority of the people of Milandir, Almeric, Coryan, and the human inhabitants of the Western Lands (not Kio or Undir). However, when you look at the wider world and the exceptions to this rule, you start to see where this assumption begins to crack.

Of the human languages that are represented for naming (or as spoken dialogue in canon) that are not of Indo-European descent, there is at least one that we can almost pass off as an exception to the rule. In near every document I have read in Arcanis lore, the people of Abessios/Toranesta/Myrantia are culturally and linguistically based off ancient Egypt. This means that they appear to use primarily Ancient Egyptian, Coptic (the closest modern language to Ancient Egyptian), Arabic, and Berber words. All of these language belong to various branches of a language family known as Afro-Asiatic, which represents a large number of languages which seem to have sprung up around the area of modern day Egypt thousands upon thousands of years ago. They are best known as being the major language family of the Middle East, having moved into that region approximately 4,500 years ago, generally replacing the Sumerian language(s) that preceded them.

This means that Afro-Asiatic languages have a unique root compared to the other languages of these people, which actually makes sense within the story of Arcanis. The Myrantian people are the last (known) descendents of the ancient Myrantian Empire, one of the two major human empires (with the Ossarion Empire) who competed and fought with the Mandai Imperium of Man. It has been suggested (if not overtly said) that the Myrantian people are actually of the Savosh branch of mankind who very well may have actually existed on Arcanis before the God’s War. This means that they have a completely unique origin, and therefore their cultural and linguistic roots being different from the rest of Arcanis humans makes sense. Presumably the Ossarions also have a non-Indo-European language, possibly another Afro-Asiatic language such as Akkadian representing pre-existing ties to the Myrantians (if they are both native to Arcanis)? Perhaps they could be represented by Sumerian, representing another unique family altogether!

However, while these peoples have an easy rationale to explain where their tongue came from, others are not so clear. The six examples that I can find of this are the Yhing Hir being represented by Mongolian (a Mongolic language), Altheria (not Altharin the language, note) by Bantu names (a Niger-Congo language), Hainese by Japanese (a Japonic language), the people of Eastmarch in Milandir and Valentia in Coryan being represented by Finnish and Hungarian (both Uralic languages), and at least low-Khitani by Chinese (a Sino-Tibetan language). We may be able to exclude the Altherians from this list because it has been stated that they all speak (despite their names) Altharin, which suggests that their naming schemes could be a cultural hold-out to their pre-First Imperium roots, but even then that means they are pulling their given names from ancient tongues almost 5,000 years old. This would be equivalent to people in Egypt still referring to their children as Ramses or Tutmosis today. The same could also be said about the people of Eastmarch and Valentia, as it is commonly accepted that their spoken languages are the ‘common’ languages of their regions, Milandisian and Low Coryani, respectively.

The languages of Khitan and of the scions of Auxun are a somewhat stickier proposition. First of all, the three languages chosen as representatives for Low Khitani, Hainese, and Yhing Hir all represent different language families in our world, but the ARPG all lists them as being “High Khitani Languages” (well, not Hainese, but that tongue appears to have been missed in the book). This can probably be excused owing to the fact that all the people involved (to my knowledge) who write for Arcanis are all speakers of Indo-European languages, so outside of this view all the non-related tongues are grouped more by geographical region than by linguistic similarity. After all, the Nerothians of Canceri have the 'short hand' for their names being "Indian", even though there are a mixtures of Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Dravidian languages spoken in India (though most people speak an Indo-European language from the Iranian branch). However, even assuming that they all do originate from the same source within the universe, the Khitani languages still seem to represent a completely unique branch of languages compared to those spoken elsewhere, and there are many interesting reasons why this may be so.

We know from several sources that the Khitani people (notably the Ul’s) were already both culturally and linguistically different from those of the “Known Lands” dating back as far as the First Imperium. Leaving aside the racial component (Asian stock of humanity versus Caucasian stock), we know that the Ul’s of Khitan used a Surname-Given name system (similar to modern China), which is different than all the other branches of humanity. This means that they were already culturally unique from the remainder of the First Imperium. Part of this could date back to the Blood War, where those who would become the Ul’s either apparently did not participate in that conflict (possibly due to geographical isolation) or were actively victimized by it and had their populations heavily reduced (hence why you hear so few references to the val’Tai, val’Shi, etc in fiction). It was for this reason, and the loyalty these now-Ul’s showed Manetas, why the Dreaming of Larissa/Sleeping Emperor led his/her people to the ‘promised land’ of Khitan prior to the Theocracy of the Cleansing Flame.

This particular uniqueness and willingness to accept the leadership of a Valinor could actually have lead to a colouring of their views. For example, one of the reasons cited for the Ul’s lack of participation in the Blood War was because they were in an isolated corner of the Imperium and simply didn’t get the memo. Whether this is true or not (because we all know Henry likes putting in red herrings into the plots) is unclear, but this isolation could have been caused by a certain independence by that particular group of people from the central government, wishing to hold onto their original culture despite Illiir’s wish for a united “Children of the Gods” and Althares gift of Altharin to mankind. It could also be due to a longer-term influence by Valinor than the rest of the Imperium, with that Valinor introducing ‘alien’ languages and culture to ‘it’s/their people’. Another idea is that they acquired their language as kind of a pidgen language (like Low Coryani) due to influence with the cultures which exist in the far west of world beyond where our current maps show. This last one seems least likely, as we’ve met people from across the Sea of Lanterns who use names of Greco-Roman origins.

The ‘stubbornly holding onto their original language’ could also explain the other ‘unique’ tongues of the world, but to me almost seems too simplistic. As stated above, the Altherians obviously come from both a different genetic and linguistic stock as the Caucasian and Asian peoples of Khitan and Coryan. In fact, we know from their history that they aren’t even from this part of the world, having unintentionally migrated from somewhere else on a flying city before crash landing on the current Altherian Plateau. Also, like the Khitani, the Altherians are different from the other peoples of the world that we know about because they too (apparently) have the direct ear of the divine, apparently unique of all the peoples of the world who still communicate with their God. If they do have this direct connection to alien divine powers, perhaps this has influenced their unique culture and maybe helped them dredge up their ancient, pre-Imperium culture? Similarly, the people of the Eastmarch and the Axunite peoples (and likely the source-people of the current Tomal Khan from across the Sea of Lanterns?) could have maintained something of their original pre-God’s War tribal languages by reverting to a nomadic lifestyle away from the First Imperium? Even the Finnish people of Valentia could have a unique origin, which could be reflected by their unique status as Caucasian people of a Uralic language, officially ruled by Scions of Beltine with obvious Khitani heritage, while still maintaining their “Val” title (as opposed to becoming Ul’s).

The last area of this that bears discussion I believe is the subject of alphabets. Currently, there are three primary alphabets being used among the Scions of the Imperium: the Altharin Alphabet (used by Altherians and by the Erdukene), the Coryani Alphabet (used by most of the rest of the Known Lands), and the Khitani Alphabet (used by the Khitani and Yhing Hir). I will admit I am not entirely conversant on how the alphabets of the world originated, but a significant portion of the alphabets I can research appear to be based on the Greek alphabet, which itself was derived from the Phoenician alphabet, which was derived from Egyptian Hieroglyphics. There were other alphabets used in the Mediterranian world during the same 1,000 years that these alphabets developed such as the Linear A and B alphabets of Minoan Crete or the Cuniform system of Sumeria, which likely were combined with the Greek/Phoenician/etc alphabet to form the Latin, Armenian, Cyrillic, etc alphabets of our world. If this is how we now have three distinct alphabets now for ostensibly “Altharin” languages, what lead to their split? Could the Udor Runes or Myrantian alphabet influenced the Coryani script? Could the Ossarions or other groups in the west influence Khitani? I do not know without such alphabets being further derived. Additionally, we TECHNICALLY do not know if the Khitani use a proper alphabet (with each letter representing a sound) or a more Chinese-style character (representing a thought or a syllable). If it is the later, then that represents an additional major split from the ‘base’ Altharin stock.

I should also point out (if for completeness’s sake) that we do have examples of other linguistic drift in the form of the Ssethric Languages. The three examples of these tongues (which are completely alien to the human languages that we know of) are Ssethric (the Altharin of the Lizard world), Ss’ressen (a derived language, probably functionally equivalent to a “low tongue”), and Eloran (a derived language probably designed to better suit the vocal structures of a non-ssethric creature). All of these languages apparently use the Ssethric alphabet, but there are many references to the Elorii using a system of runes for their written language, which suggests that the Ssethric peoples also use such as system. Because of this inconsistency in the terminology, it leaves the question open if the Khitani and the Myrantians use a ‘proper’ alphabet or more runic, hieroglyphic, or character-like writing systems as well. Additionally, the Ssethric tongue appears to have been kept mostly stable (as far as we know) for much longer than the Altharin one has, and that language has shown noticeable drift to the point where modern Altharin speakers have to make Linguistics Rolls in order to understand ancient speakers (accents and changes in pronounciations vs. the static spelling of the written word). This is remarkable as no other language in human understanding has done this (look at how English has changed in the last thousand years), but this could be due to the massive lifespans of the Elorii and Ssanu races. After all, if you live functionally forever, you can actively remember how words are said and written, so the language doesn’t evolve as much. This does bring up questions about the Ss’ressen tongue, but there is simply not enough data to discuss how that language has evolved over the eons.

Addendum to my previous post: I just noticed in the PGTA that we DO know where the current Altherian people were prior to the 'journey' of Khafre': More-or-less modern Salantis and Annonica. In the PGTA it states that the Tenecian Empire was an Altherian Empire that rose and fell due to the coming of the 1st Gift of Althares. According to the Codex Arcanis, the Tenecians were found in the South of Coryan, and the excavation of their ruins is forbidden by the MCoC. The Codex, however, questions this slightly as it says that the Tenecians fell in -120 IC, which is the date of the 1st Gift, implying that it was this gift which led to their fall, not their RISE and fall. As such, the Tenecians may not be the modern Altharians, but one of their conquests as part of the 1st Gift?