The Imperial Hendriki

[M Helsdon]

Looking through the Guide to Glorantha, this map, c. 1100 ST Catastrophes this map, after the fall of the Middle Sea Empire and the Empire of the Wyrm's Friends, and before the Dragonkill, is particularly striking: the realm of the Hendriki was, for a century, huge, covering much of what is now Sartar, and almost all of Esrolia!

 

During the ensuing political and economic anarchy after the collapse of the empires, in 1035 King Andrin of the Hendrikings sent his brothers with an army to seize large parts of Esrolia, most of his forces, I suspect, striking south from Elmalvo down along the valleys of the Runnel and the Lyksos, others crossing Choralinthor Bay by boat or flying across the waters. Through cleverness, marriage and, sometimes outright conquest they took the coastal cities of Rhigos and Amonel (my supposition - the city appears on some maps near to where Storos is now). Nochet to the north retained a precarious independence. Andrin was acclaimed by his warriors and given the epithet of the Conqueror.

 

King Finelvanth, I believe, conquered much of Esrolia and won Nochet through marriage. Then it went sour when the Queen of Nochet divorced him and everything fell apart. By the end most of the Hendriki had lost their holdings in Esrolia, save some around Rhigos, and, I believe, the people of Porthomeka had exchanged Hendriki warlords for Caladran warlords.

 

Now what I find interesting, and this is only my supposition, is that although the Only Old One ruled the Shadowlands, his authority to stop his tribute payers fighting seems non-existent - maybe the trolls came by night and ate the fallen of the battlefields. There's also how this impacts modern relationships, though it was several centuries ago.

 

There are also two Orlanthi political entities within the Shadowlands distinct from the Hendriki: the Firetop tribe, and Velebar (about which I know nothing....) I imagine that when the Golden Horde arrived, the Velebar and Firetop people either fled south, or fought and were slain, were enslaved, or died in the famine caused by the enormous northern army, or later when the dragons depopulated the Pass of humans.

 

It also casts the Hendriki in an interesting light.

 

We often see the Hendriki and their later offshoot the Sartari as victims of Lunar imperialism, but from 1035-1166, they were the invaders.

Edited May 13 by M Helsdon

[metcalph]

Probably Yusando (History of the Heortling Peoples p88) was King of Velebar.  The Uzendi who then join are actually on the Heortling Lands Map p12 in what is now Tarsh.

Edited May 13 by metcalph

[Joerg]

 

22 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

During the ensuing political and economic anarchy after the collapse of the empires, in 1035

I have no idea how long the Kotor Wars between Slontos and allies of the EWF continued - the EWF only collapsed 7 years later, in 1042, removing all draconic support from the Kotor natives. The Archduchy of Slontos had become all but independent of Seshnela with the Closing, and had lost its capability of naval strikes against the Kingdom of Night. Without the backing of a functional Seshnela and the independence of Ralios brought about by Halwal, they lacked imperial backing to achieve more than a conquest of the buffer states (if that much) before the Devastation of the Vent.

The EWF had problems in the north, but outside of the lands of the Old Day Traditionalists and the Sairdite lowlands the core lands of the uplands should have remained under their control, although contested.

The enforced mass utuma of 1042 was followed up by a collapse of the draconic Proximate Holy Realm that upheld the special grains and draconized herd beasts described by the 10th century Malkioni visitors (in Middle Sea Empire), affecting not just the fields but also all the stocked grains, leaving only a disgusting slime. Starvation would have hit inside a week, possibly faster than the hurried revanchist joint campaign by Carmanians, Dara Happans and Sairdites. At least IMG that means that there was a huge wave of fugitives flooding into Hendriki-held lands east and north of the Shadow Plateau and into Esrolia, more people than the lands could feed without problems without forewarning.

The next strike was the Devastation of the Vent, which would have hit early adjusted conquests possibly more than the still unadjusted dominions of the Grandmothers. While coastal eastern Kethaela suffered quite a bit from the waves pushed against them, too, the core Hendriki holdings survived largely unharmed, with little evidence for a wave through the ground.

23 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

King Andrin of the Hendrikings sent his brothers with an army to seize large parts of Esrolia, most of his forces, I suspect, striking south from Elmalvo down along the valleys of the Runnel and the Lyksos, others crossing Choralinthor Bay by boat or flying across the waters. Through cleverness, marriage and, sometimes outright conquest they took the coastal cities of Rhigos and Amonel (my supposition - the city appears on some maps near to where Storos is now). Nochet to the north retained a precarious independence. Andrin was acclaimed by his warriors and given the epithet of the Conqueror.

The early adjustment wars seem to have been most successful in the southern parts of Esrolia, which makes me doubt the strong strike down from Elmalvo, or at least any fast success along that axis. Esrolian resistance might have been in place there?

The successful annectation of the southeastern EWF by the Hendriki makes me wonder what had become of the Aramites who were the traditional defenders of urban Orlanthland. They had carried the main EWF contribution in the Machine Wars, where their leader Varankol the Mangler may have become the first tusked Aramite fighting a war. That role as a warrior caste may have caused them to bear the brunt of the 1042 invasion, though, with the possible loss of any draconic-thinking leaders in the mass utuma.

 

Fortifications in Esrolia were mostly annihilated or at least strongly damaged in the Devastation of the Vent, possibly encouraging the campaign against Nochet.

 

The Only Old One was a ritual protector of the Shadowlands, taking the Shadow Tribute through the Shadowlords, but that protection was against old foes of the Unity Council - Chaos, possibly Praxians and Manirians, and Shargashi demons and their allies in Peloria (subsequently inherited by the horse warlords and then the urban Dara Happans). Other than that, he doesn't seem to have meddled with the internal struggles of his "subjects" as long as the tributes would be paid. This might have been favoring the attackers in internal strife, reducing their ability to provide the tribute.

The Tax Slaughter had hit his enforcers badly, and no Shadow Tribute was collected north Dragonspine Ridges (and presumably little north of the Shadow Plateau when the EWF or the Kingdom of Orlanthland before were in power). Hendrikiland and Dark Esrolia on the other hand seem to have retained their tribute payments and Shadowlord protection e.g. against the Chaos from the Footprint. He doesn't seem to have aided the efforts against the Clanking City significantly, but his trolls captured the God Learner bridgehead at Lylket on the Creek-Stream River (and Mazeel River) estuary early in the Machine Wars.

He also led a huge force of trolls and spearkin to the aid of the dragonewts in 1120, much like the Hendriki king heroically led his immediate household in defense of his human subjects and allies in the Quivini lands, the Bush Range and the Far Place against the Golden Horde. If there were Wenelians involved in the Dragonkill War, they would have entered through partially Adjusted lands.

 

I get the impression that much of the time, the Adjusted lords of Esrolia paid little more than lip service to the distant Hendriki king, unless that king took a personal interest in the Esrolian affairs or their needed his assistance. Possibly a bit like the Norman lords of Ireland during the Hundred Years War.

[M Helsdon]

20 hours ago, metcalph said:

Probably Yusando (History of the Heortling Peoples p88) was King of Velebar.  The Uzendi who then join are actually on the Heortling Lands Map p12 in what is now Tarsh.

Yes, I saw this when reading through History, but sadly there's no cultural information about Velebar.

[M Helsdon]

52 minutes ago, Joerg said:

I get the impression that much of the time, the Adjusted lords of Esrolia paid little more than lip service to the distant Hendriki king, unless that king took a personal interest in the Esrolian affairs or their needed his assistance. Possibly a bit like the Norman lords of Ireland during the Hundred Years War.

Other than the material in the Guide and History the nature of the Adjusted Lands is unclear.

[AlexS]

On 5/13/2024 at 3:40 PM, M Helsdon said:

the realm of the Hendriki was, for a century, huge, covering much of what is now Sartar, and almost all of Esrolia!

I know that on the map this huge area is described as the ‘Hendriki Kingdom’, but I wonder to what extent it was actually a unified Kingdom, much less an ‘Imperial’ polity. After all, most of what we know about the Hendriki is that they are generally pretty devoted to the principle that ‘no one can make you do anything’.

Without an Alakoringite Orlanth Rex tradition, it is not clear how a single King of the Hendriki would have held unified sway over such a large and disparate set of holdings in anything other than a symbolic-homage sense. The Sword and Helm of Vingkot might have sustained a claim to ‘Imperial’ power that could have supported a permanent unified military (as opposed to a temporarily unified war-host), but am I right in thinking that King Andrin did not possess them as they were missing for the whole period between the Sword and Helm War and Broyan’s heroquest to obtain them?

16 hours ago, Joerg said:

much of the time, the Adjusted lords of Esrolia paid little more than lip service to the distant Hendriki king, unless that king took a personal interest in the Esrolian affairs or their needed his assistance. Possibly a bit like the Norman lords of Ireland during the Hundred Years War.

Or possibly like the Norman lords of Southern Italy in the 11th century before the foundation of the Kingdom of Sicily? In other words, a collection of warlords ruling local power bases within a shifting pattern of alliances and feuds with each other as well as with different indigenous / non-Hendriki elites. 

No wonder the Grandmothers found a ready local audience for their propaganda associating the Hendriki overlordship of the Adjusted Lands with the Bad Old Days of the Kodigvari…

[M Helsdon]

50 minutes ago, AlexS said:

I know that on the map this huge area is described as the ‘Hendriki Kingdom’, but I wonder to what extent it was actually a unified Kingdom, much less an ‘Imperial’ polity. After all, most of what we know about the Hendriki is that they are generally pretty devoted to the principle that ‘no one can make you do anything’.

Imperial was an intentional eye catcher.

51 minutes ago, AlexS said:

Or possibly like the Norman lords of Southern Italy in the 11th century before the foundation of the Kingdom of Sicily? In other words, a collection of warlords ruling local power bases within a shifting pattern of alliances and feuds with each other as well as with different indigenous / non-Hendriki elites. 

Sadly, I don't know. I suspect it was a sort of 'franchise' kingdom outside the core Hendriki area.

[Joerg]

54 minutes ago, AlexS said:

I know that on the map this huge area is described as the ‘Hendriki Kingdom’, but I wonder to what extent it was actually a unified Kingdom, much less an ‘Imperial’ polity. After all, most of what we know about the Hendriki is that they are generally pretty devoted to the principle that ‘no one can make you do anything’.

Without an Alakoringite Orlanth Rex tradition, it is not clear how a single King of the Hendriki would have held unified sway over such a large and disparate set of holdings in anything other than a symbolic-homage sense. The Sword and Helm of Vingkot might have sustained a claim to ‘Imperial’ power that could have supported a permanent unified military (as opposed to a temporarily unified war-host), but am I right in thinking that King Andrin did not possess them as they were missing for the whole period between the Sword and Helm War and Broyan’s heroquest to obtain them?

Somehow, despite the EWF lying across the path, the Rex cult made it into Hendrikiland already in the 10th century, allowing the Hendriki to use Rex type kings rather than the Vingkotling Sword and Helm kingship (although Finelvanth might have had those regalia in his conflict, possibly a gift by his wife for mythical precedence).

But yes, I expect the local head men to have behaved much like Norman or Crusader warlords, just about anywhere, or earlier Viking ship kings, or Anglo-Saxon ones, or Scoti ones. At least initially. Later on, there seems to have developed a modus vivendi at least in Southern Esrolia that co-opted local Houses in alliance. In Porthomeka, that paved the way for the Warm Earth readjustment.

Edited May 15 by Joerg

[metcalph]

Given the description of Vingkot in CoR: Lightbringers ("His cult is otherwise nearly identical with the Orlanth Rex subcult and provides the same
special Rune magic." p33), it's my opinion that the early Hendriki had their own version of Orlanth Rex throughout much of their history.  This gets changed beginning with Androrfin and Andrin the Mover to Orlanth Rex (contact with the Alakoringites is specificaly mentioned in their reigns according to History of the Heortling Peoples).  As a result of this the Hendriki attempt to re-establish the Kingdom of the Heortlings which fails (History of the Heortling Peoples p88).

So Velebar and Firetop are really vassals to a distant King.  Looking at the map, it seems to me that the Hendriki could call upon them to send gifts or troops for their war against the Esrolians but because of the distances involved, they will have any number of excuses handy as to why the troops didn't show up ("lost in the marsh", "ambushed by trolls", "camped to close to an active dragonewt road" etc).