The First Human Cultures
This text was specially prepared for this tome by Frederick Doughty, a Sage at The Imperial Library at Nareth, the Eastern Empire. The document looks specifically at the period immediately after The Great Disaster up to about year 400, when the first written human records exist.
Doughty is a member of Thomas Newgents research team, a specialist in demi-human races, and most of his career has been spent researching Gnomish (and some Dwarfish) culture. One of his other specialities is in ancient human civilisations, which he treats almost as a hobby. Frederick volunteered his services for this assignment.
The First 10 Years after The Great Disaster
As most stories relate, the world froze over when The Great Disaster faded. Snow and ice covered the lands we now know as Arthea, and our research shows that this must have lasted for at least two years, and probably much longer. We have no way of telling how long with any certainty, but we estimate it to be between five and seven years.
The society of mankind was utterly devastated, and took many years to re-emerge. Until this long winter had finished there was nothing mankind (or any of the other surface dwelling races) could do. The human race survived the harsh environment by living in caves, in woodland, and underground, and fed itself by hunting for food in the bleak, empty wilderness. Attempting to survive this way brought many conflicts with other races, particularly with orcs, goblins and ogre populations who lived in the hill or mountain regions of Arthea; there must have been heavy fighting over the scarce food supplies.
The snows had probably all gone within ten to fifteen years, but would have melted in the south first, which is where the first settlements of mankind appeared. Through this changing environment the skills necessary to survive as a farming race were quickly re-learned. It was fortunate that those who survived tended to be those with skills in the outdoors. Farmers, warriors and builders were plentiful, but there were far fewer people around with leadership, mining or woodworking skills. Even fewer would have had medical skills, which will have made life extremely hard.
It is believed that the first settlements of man would have been near to where the towns of Tamish and Carell are now in Cerlain, in the central southern Empire. The area would have been (comparatively) rich in natural resources at the time, particularly wood for building and wild cattle for food. Our studies have also shown that this area would probably have been the first to clear of the snow and ice, which reinforces this idea.
The Early Civilisations
Recent research has thrown up some new and interesting information about the first few settlements of mankind after The Great Disaster. We have deduced with some accuracy the location of the first settlements (see above) and know that within a hundred years these settlements had spread southwards to the coast and eastward at least as far as where the town of Morara lies today. Of course, one hundred years will not see a huge population explosion, but what we believe happened is that the struggling, nomadic people that had survived The Disaster had finally found somewhere where they could build permanent homes. More and more such people joined this; some settlements remained nomadic in nature, moving from place to place, but most quickly became fixed and established. In the town of Tamish, records still exist from this time. They show that, even though the big chill was over, the winters were still harsh and the summers short. Considering the wildness of the lands outside of this area, and judging by the fertility of the land at the time, nomadic tribes would probably have soon settled down. Farming would have been their only way to provide enough food for themselves, and many of these settlements have survived to this day to become flourishing towns and cities in the Empire.
There were many problems for mankind during this development. The largest of these was due to man having already spent thousands of years becoming civilised. Before The Disaster, when humanity had gone through a similar stage in evolution, it had begun as savage and had progressed into civilisation naturally and over time. After The Disaster, however, civilised people were placed in a situation where survival depended upon being savage; mankind was not equipped to deal with this. Taking this backwards step was hard, and caused untold problems for the people.
The difficulties for the free races, and humans in particular, were clear. There were few with the skills to set up farming communities, and they were subject to raiding by the dark creatures which seemed to be proliferating. It is known that orcs had recovered far quicker than mankind, and as their natural predators had not recovered, they were given an opportunity to become the dominant species. There is little wonder that mankind banded together as they did, and formed these communities, where mutual defence could be organised, and communal food supplies provided.
Because of the skills many had from before the disaster, the technology needed to produce good, stable houses was already known. The only thing people really lacked was the tools to build with. Wood use was widespread in all villages, but until useful tools could be manufactured, even this was difficult to work with. The re-discovery of iron gave the people something with which they could make tools, but mines were difficult to dig without good tools, and the supplies of iron ore seemed limited. Also blacksmithing was a dying art without a good supply of fuel, and the production of charcoal became widespread. Even so, the use of the metal was limited. It was not until 250 years after the disaster that the use of iron tools became extensive following the discovery of rich iron and copper sources in the mountains near Tamish. By this time, of course, humanity had spread far to the east and west, and Tamish became a city rich on the proceeds.
Before a good ore supply was found, the use of iron was restricted to cutting tools, particularly small ones. Blacksmiths tended to use stone hammers, and warriors wore leather armour and fought with bow and club.
The First Human Kingdoms
The discovery of large amounts of iron (and some coal) around the year 250 caused a revolution. Suddenly it was possible to produce good quality tools for the masses. This had a huge knock-on effect, allowing good transport to be built, and better use made of stone and wood. The discovery came too late to save many skills from before The Disaster. Blacksmithing was an art that had reached far beyond the making of simple knives and saws, but the skills were gone; blacksmiths had become experts in making small blades and tools, using small amounts of metal. Also the mason, weapon smith, and armourer had all but been forgotten too. Only the very rich had been able to afford metal weapons and armour, and stone houses were extremely rare.
The town of Tamish became rich very quickly; they were suddenly exporting huge amounts of ore and coal, and in payment received large quantities of silver, gold, and gemstones. It was another fifty years before any other substantial coal reserves were discovered, and these places became the centres of human civilisation. The strongest land of the time was the one which controlled Tamish and its money, and eventually when the Empire became established, Tamish soon became the centre of Imperial politics. Having a strong centre of power provided a stable platform upon which trade of all degrees could be carried out, and directly influence the emergence of proper trade links between the young kingdoms. By the year 350, Tamish was not only a mining town, but had become the central market town and trade capital of all the human lands in the south.
The power of Tamish was linked to its financial well-being. Several rulers must have seen it as a great prize, as it often came under assault; some would fail others would succeed, but with little credit or fame achieved. It was not until around the year 400 that the first human records can be traced. There was a war being fought in the Tamish region between human kingdoms, and the eventual winner of the war is mentioned in one archaic text, an account of the victors exploits. It is this document which is still held in Tamish, which is recognised as the oldest surviving post-Disaster record of human civilisation.
The document tells of how the winner took control of Tamish after a long siege, and thereby concluded the war. Much of the southern and western parts of the city were burned to the ground, and the incoming monarch issued a decree to level the remains and rebuild at approximately a third of its original size. The throne was moved from the city, but we do not know where it was moved to. This reduction of size hurt the city financially, and with the growth of ore mines elsewhere in the south was the beginning of the end for Tamish as a pre-Imperial power base; it had been the human capital city for over one hundred and fifty years.
Conclusions
Although this work tries to be as thorough as possible, there are always new discoveries being made about this period of history. As we know less about this time than any other since The Great Disaster, it seems to be a focus for new research and study. It can easily be seen how human culture has diversified so much since this time, and how widespread we, as a race, have become. There is a great deal of room yet, however, and plenty of wild land in Arthea which still has not been tamed.