Godtime Prax

[Joerg]

Godtime Prax was different from modern Prax, even different from the Sacred Place around the Paps, the most lush place in all of Prax (except for Orani's Mistake=. There was no need for oases in Golden Age Prax, but there were sacred pools or headwaters of the Praxian waters there, with Tada-shi-built temple cities and gardening happening around these, benefitting from the additional fertility caused by the waters.

The lands in between had a sparse distribution of Redwood copses and possibly lone Redwoods sheltering a wide variety of edible plants below their canopy,growing densely but not so dense to make the plains impassable from all the vegetation. When the son of Storm Bull brought their two-and four-legged offspring into the region, food was there for the picking, with migration possible fueled by the desire to taste a different area's different offerings rather than fear of overgrazing. Other children of Eiritha roamed the garden without two-legged partners, such as the zebras.

After the Death of the Evil Emperor, the idyllic life continued, but where previously the victims of carnivores returned "the next morning" when the proper dances were sung or mooed, now the spirits of the slain could only return through re-birth as iinfants. New carnivores arrived, like the Basmoli lions, but at least this new threat was ably dealt with by Tada who afterwards wore the skin of the lion god as an accoutrement.

At some point, Nontraya and his horde of the Dead entered the land, but Tada buried Eiritha under her hills, and the thwarted Underworld horde went elsewhere on their search for the Earth Mother.

The Flood claimed all the lands south of the great escarpment, and then a huge wave covered much of western Prax, IMO rising on top of the escarpment roughly at where the Waertagi would later establish their dry-docks that we know yet later as Sog's Ruins. The southern part of Tada's Kingdom was lost, and the area between the western edge of the Sacred Ground and the western edge of the Dead Place would have been covered by the bulge of the Arkoa Sea, which also covered central Dagori Inkarth (not yet a troll land), the Rockwood Mountains east of Greatway, parts of Balazar south of the Elf Sea and the entire area of the Arcos Valley. both the central and norther thirds of Genert's Garden remained without water cover, but the southern third where Sshorga had entered eons ago were flooded, too.

While the floods were still invading, the western branch was led by Solkathi, an ongoing tsunami reachig all the way to the arey claimed by the Neliiomi sea (from that earlier expansion contemporary to Sshorga's arrival), but was boiled away as Zzabur re-awakened the quenched fires of Ladaral or Lodrilela, north of Jrustela, and poiled away the forward momentum of this eastern sea. Meanwhile, Orlanth and his many sons had prevented the waters from covering Kethaela, Kerofinela and Saird, parting their approach into the eastern branch (the Aroka Sea) and a westen branch (unimportat for the history of Prax). What was important is that the thwarted seas gathered all their remaining momentum (minus that lost by Solkathi) to give birth to Worcha, the Raging sea, whose three massive assaults caused the escarpment that runs along the southern coast of eastern Genertela between Heortland and the Fever Trees.

Modern Heortland (just beyond the Storm Mountains) is where the Storm Gods of Kerofinela and surroundings fought off and slew Worcha. The standing waves arching over the Rockwood Mountains persisted a little longer, but were wittled away by the Storm gods. In the North, Valind froze their substance in his ever expanding glacier, in the south, Orlanth and his kin blew the water cover over many a drowned land dry. Thryk may have started out as an eastern Rockwoods hero overcoming the Aroka Sea by freezing its substance together with Inora.

The waters covering the southern parts of Genert's Garden and Tada's kingdom receded, but the land had been robbed of much of its fertility, and the beaten seas left salt on their retreats.

It isn't quite clear whether and how much Zola Fel and Seolinthur contributed to the Flood, or whether they remained true to their vows to Genert and Tada and remained in their valleys if not in their beds. In Western Prax, I assume that the remnants of the Oslira sea found refuge in the wester Oases (Cam's Well, Day's Rest, and most prominently Moonbroth) and hid inside the body of Eiritha. North of the Rockwood Mountains, the Elf sea was formed out of the remains of the Aroka Sea. The Oslir Sea retreated northward, but was eaten up by the Glacier much like the White Sea.

IMG Valind's Glacier never reached much further south than Vanch and Sylila, but his son Thryk gathered the children of Inora and led lesser glaciers supported by ice storm giants and Hollri into the foothills of the Rockwoods, the Indigo Mountains, the Quivin Mountains, and the Storm Mountains, beaten back by their kin among the Storm Brothers and the sons of Storm Bull. (Another yet mostly untold epic of the Gods War.) But much of that happened on the eve of the invasion of the Unholy Trio, which shattered Valind's Glacier and stole much of the momentum of Thryk's followers after their leader had succumbed to Orlanth.

Following the Flood, the Vingkotling tribes were founded, including many of the northern (Sairdite) and central (Kethaelan) Durevings. The Tada-shi who had survived the Flood reclaimed the lands above the Escarpment, and so did the Animal Nomad tribes, establishing many of their "ancestral grazings" in the area retrieved from the Aroka Sea, becomeing "Praxians" only now after having roamed all of Genert's Garden before.

(Quite .possibly other animal nomad tribes remained east of the Zola Fel, but even their memory has been forgotten, although there may be a few inexplicable artistic representation in the deeper caves of the Paps. Thus it is possible that there was a Godtime Zebra tribe of animal nomads, but if that was the case, there wasn't enough memory of them to figure greatly in Joraz Kyrem's Zebra Founder quest.)

Fertility in Prax and the Garden deteriorated throughout the Storm Age. The weakening of the sun by Orlanth slaying the Emperor was the first factor. The Redwoods persisted, and some of the fauna below did, too, but the Tada-shi had to work harder on their gardening, and the two- and four-legged herds of the animal nomads now had to migrate to gather or browse/graze their food comfortably. Being nomads, that did not mean any hardship to them.

As Thryk and his followers brought forth their lesser glaciers, temperatures dropped further, and fewer plants coped with that.

Also around this time, the migration of Gash and Gore ended in Dagori Inkarth. If Tada previously had any claims over that highland region, it was now wrestled from him.

The Tada-shi and the animal nomads coped with the changes, as did the Aldryami in Genert's Garden, some taking the route of the Vronkali (green elves) fighting the changes using Death, the others retreating into the long sleep, becoming the more pacifist Mreli (brown elves). who took on the experience of the Underworld. And not just the man rune plants, but their trees as well.

The Redwood Forest of Dagori Inkarth and Prax chose the Mreli way, fighting the changes of the Surface World rather than retreating below, following Lightfore. They received the Torch from Lightfore for their assistance against Gash and Gore, keeping the trolls in check.

 

The Unity Battle prevented Wakbot's Chaos Horde to invade Prax from the west on their first approach south, after the Battle of Stormfall, with the Dagori Inkarth trolls conrtibuting greatly, and possibly Tada and the Praxian animal nomads contributing a little, too. But that success led to the disaster of the Battle of Earthfall, which resulted in the death of Genert and most of his allies, except for the mortals he sent away covered by the Copper Sands. One such group may have been the Men-and-a-Half. These refugees - mostly non-combatants - swelled the ranks of the Tada-shi when sustenance became harder, despite the efforts of Eiritha buried beneath her hills, Tada roaming the lands, and the spirits of the Paps doing likewise.

And while the core of the Glacier had been shattered, the cold did not go away. The freezing Tada-shi summoned Oakfed for warmth, and the Wildfire provided, as long as he found fuel. The greatest part of the Redwood Forest got burnt up by this, only north of the Torch did the aldryami finally manage to bind Oakfed, possibly into the fire of the Torch.

Only the hardiest of the plants made it through the ashes with the aid of Tada and Eiritha.

Then Chaos invaded again, and Tada was slain by Ragnaglar, and even though Storm Bull avenged him, Tada's fertility was lost, too, and only a little bit provided by Eiritha remained for both Tada-shi and the animal nomads.

The animal nomads (and possibly the Oasis Folk Tada-shi too) had to kill others for their food. The less gruesome consequence of this was the adoption of Foundchild the Hunter by the nomads, the less palatable consequence was the inception of the Cannibal Cult. (At least IMG for this sequence of events, there may other stories with different timelines.)

The Tada-shi erected a huge tumulus as the cairn of their slain hero and ancestor, and IMG then joined him in indeterminate slumber in the Sleeping City at the foot of that monument, except for those few required to keep the Altars of Prax (now the oases) active despite all the devastation.

The arrival of Wakboth and his fight with the Storm Bull followed then, creating the Eternal Battle (moving around Prax and the Wastes), the Block and its depression later known as the Devils's Marsh (not yet a wetland), and the Dead Place.

Next Waha was born (not at, but near the Paps) and rescued the Protectresses, dug the Good Canal, and held the lottery or contest for Waha's Covenant of the Eaters of the Eaten.

And a couple of generations later, the Dawn came, and yet another generation later the Lightbringer missionaries shared their ways of worship and magic with the animal nomads and presumably the Oasis Folk and the Priestesshood at the Paps.

The first centuries saw the extinction of three of the smallest animal nomad tribes - plains elk, long-noses, nose-horns. It also saw Sable Rider and Bison Rider mercenaries go native in the Oslir Valley (modern Sylila and Kostaddi), fighting further away in the Janube Valley, and bringing back plunder and riches from the west, without any need or urge to brave the desolated wastes of the former Garden of Genert.

After the Gbaji Wars had been decided, the inhabitants of Dragon Pass took exception at the Praxians still carrying home plunder from the west and north (both of which were now controlled by the Theyalans), and as a measure against such raids they established the Pure Horse Folk, refugees from tribal conflicts in the Redlands, on their border, pushing the Praxian beast riders out of most of their ancestral grazings and into the unexplored Wastes. This resulted in the discovery of the Waha Trails, and the peoples of Boshan in Kralorela and Thoskal and Matkondo in Teshnos to learn to fear and loathe the beast riders.

The history of Robcradle, the construction, partial destruction, reconstruction, greater partial destruction and finally troll conquest of Old Pavis is well known, along the Battle of Alavan Argay in 1250 which created the situation in Prax faced by Derik Pol Joni about 200 years later, resulting in yet another horse-riding invader tribe occupying the western part of Prax. Dorasar founding New Pavis and the Lunars conquering that finally led to the Prax we all know from the RQ2 era campaign books and the RQ3 Renaissance books building on those.

But the Prax shaped by Jaldon is very different from Godtime Prax, and somewhat different from Waha's Prax until the arrival of the Pure Horse Folk.

[Darius West]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Godtime Prax was different from modern Prax, even different from the Sacred Place around the Paps, the most lush place in all of Prax (except for Orani's Mistake.

Yeah, Prax is a hellscape compared to what it was Before Time.  There are so many echoes and remnants of the Gods War lying about.  It is a magical post-holocaust environment and I love its internal consistency and lore.  You've offered a very detailed description of the history of Prax (even something of a synopsis of its monomyth) Joerg, thanks for that, it's great.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Darius West