The Expanse

The Expanse, the second largest region of Magnamia, is separated from the middle region grasslands by the Armored Mountains. The Long Wash flows along these mountains into the Salan Bay and marshes and wetlands that surround it. The Dry River flows from this area in the Expanse and is the regions only river. South of the Salan Bay is the '''Lawikas Woods. '''The Expanse was once home to the continent’s most fertile lands but during the Great Destruction changed and is now made up of Mithilia’s largest desert known as The Magnaran Desert but has some regions of grasslands still along the coasts and a mountain range in the northern part of the desert known as the Enercai Mountains. And despite being in the driest part of Magnamia, the continent’s largest lake; Lake Cypruine lies at the southwestern foot of the Enercais. Further east is Lake Kal which is much smaller but vital to the populations near it.

Most of the Expanse is now desert with exceptions of the lands north and northwest of the Enercai Mountains, the eastern half of the Jabal Peninsula, most of the Ytek Peninsula, and lands south of the Dry River as they touch the Salan Wetlands. Other areas with water sources in the region are South of the Enercai, Nava’s Eye (Navagos’ Eye) and northeast, Ty Lake (Ty= 2 in Yantuan as it is the second “eye”). From the Tigany Sea, north of the Expanse the Lyzai River flows south with its banks also creating areas of grassland in the region up to its very stopping point at the edge of the desert where the river simply grows smaller and smaller the further south it goes until it diminishes to dry land.

History

 * Tribal Period and the First Settlements

The Expanse, the largest region of Magnamia, is separated from the middle region grasslands by the Armored Mountains (named for being seen as the “Torso Armor” of the continental body and for it being the main source of metals for the mid region and Eastern Expanse nations). The Long Wash flows along these mountains into the Salan Bay and marshes and wetlands that surround it. '''The Dry River '''flows from this area in the Expanse and is the regions only river. The Expanse was once home to the continent’s most fertile lands but during the Great Destruction changed and is now made up of Mithilia’s largest desert but has some regions of grasslands still along the coasts and a mountain range in the northern part of the desert known as the '''Enercai Mountains. South of these is Nava’s Eye '''(Navagos’ Eye), a large lake in the arid desert that is one of the regions only water sources.

Most of the Expanse is now desert with exceptions of the lands north and northwest of the Enercai Mountains, the eastern half of the '''Jabal Peninsula, most of the Ytek Peninsula, '''and lands south of the Dry River as they touch the Salan Wetlands. Though not as fertile as they may have once been, they do provide hydrated land suitable for some agriculture but is cautiously used so that the grasslands sparse sources of water are not depleted.

As previously stated, the Expanse region was once a large grassland with multiple forests and rivers that ran through the whole region and it is even believed to be the cradle of all civilization as most Magnamian civilizations trace their lineage to tribes who inhabited the Expanse early in the world’s history. Before the Age of Unification, not many specifics are known about human history but there is proof that most of Magnamia’s tribes originated here and is also home to some of the first permanent settlements; even before those of the Age of Unification. What was once believed to be a time of purely nomadic tribes, is now being described as the time of first permanent settlements and in fact human history may go back even further than we believed as most of the Magnamian continent wasn’t discovered by these sedentary tribes until later in their history as there had been no need for them to leave the fertile lands of the Expanse.

The Expanse had been home to thousands of different species of plants and animals that provided an abundance of food sources for the nomadic and sedentary groups in the area while the multiple rivers and lakes made fresh water easily accessible in almost all parts of the region. The only part of the Expanse that has been a desert since this time is the Enercai Mountains where the Darkmen originated from and may have been living there since this period which would give evidence to their dark skin color, given to them by the abundant exposure of sunlight.

The Darkmen were undoubtedly part of the first groups in Magnamian history but it should be clarified that they were not always one clan. In fact, the Darkmen may have been dozens of groups that spanned all over the northern parts of the Expanse as the area was avoided by the other Expanse tribes before the Age of Unification. The Darkmen whose name seems offensive in a way was given to them early on by the Yantuans (which is mentioned later) since they never identified themselves to the southern tribes and kept to themselves. What little contact they had with the others was often violent though there are some tales of correspondence and trade.

For all others, the region provided enough that that there was no need to travel beyond the Eastern Mountains and put their livelihoods at risk. So far there is evidence of at least four permanent settlements in the entire region; one being the Yantuan capital, Kai.

Though Kai still stands today, it is most likely not the original permanent settlement and may have been built on top of the old settlement as there is no record of the city originating from that long ago and instead having its founding date sometime in the Age of Unification. As for the other settlements, none survived through the Age but their peoples may have merged with other groups or possibly died out all together in what may have been a smaller scale Period of Destruction that occurred in only the Expanse which may have even began to reforming of the regions ecosystem.

The names of the groups/tribes that inhabited these settlements is unknown as they splintered into other groups or died off but there is much proof of cohabitation between two to three of them as artifacts found in one settlement are also found in other. Only in the ruins of Kai, have no artifacts been founds that resemble or match any of those in the other settlements. This may be because of the distance from the others as Kai is the furthest from them all but it may have also been a sign of feuds between the others. The closest settlement to Kai is along the northwest coast of the '''Ytek Peninsula. '''The others are spread across the middle regions of the continent in areas that were undoubtedly rivers or lakes at that time. The eastern-most settlement is at the now southern point of the Lyzai River where it is believed to have been next to a lake or that perhaps the river was much larger then as it lies in a large basin. The basin even extends as far south as the Dry River and may have connected to it at that time. Many other rivers are also believed to have ran throughout the expanse with its many valleys and basins that now lay barren.

The most astounding possibility that holds much weight is that all of these ancient settlements, from Kai to that of the Lyzai settlement is that they all may have shared the same or a very similar language. As the origin of names and words in the Yantuan language are being discovered, more and more are being found to have come from various parts of the Expanse before the actual formation of Yantua and that the words and names are phonetically similar. The counter to this though is that if this was the cradle of mankind and they all shared a similar language; why did it not influence any of the languages of the rest of the Magnamian cultures in any way? But even if this was untrue and the groups did not share a common tongue, it is possible that they may have been linked by something even stronger; religion.

Despite the Kai ruins bearing no artifacts from the other settlements, it just so happens to be the exact same distance from what is believed to be a great temple ruin as the Lyzai settlement, down to the almost exact unit. Whether this was an act of divine powers or sheer coincidence, it is undoubtedly a monumental discovery when examining these settlements and their possible links to each other. Not only may the sedentary settlements been connected to one another through this temple but perhaps the entire region as there seems to be no proof of any other religions or deity worship from that time. At the temple which is partially underground now as desert sandstorms submerge the structure. Artifacts from all settlements are present at the temple showing perhaps a form of tribute that each group gave to their god or gods. This is the only site discovered so far tied to any kind of religious practice in the region from that time and shows no apparent attribution to any of the gods of Yantua or any nearby gods or goddesses so it may have been an entirely different religion as there doesn’t seem to be any influence from it on the major religions of Magnamia.

There is also no definitive evidence of violence between the settlements and/or the other groups in the Expanse but weapons and what is believed to be bone armor have been found throughout the region and there are signs the Lyzai and Ty settlement were raided and possibly faced their end at the hands of attackers. The Kai, Socay, and Ytek settlements though had no evidence of this same fate though and are believed to have just faded out or migrated.

[There were seven major settlements total with various other smaller ones throughout the expanse but only the major ones incorporated stone structures. Socay, Lyzai, Ty, and two other settlements in the middle of The Magnaran Desert all did participate in trade with one another. Contact between them was not very common but trade parties seemed to make trips every year or so but most trade was conducted between the small nomadic groups that traded their goods for the sedentary settlement’s goods while also trading other settlements goods, thereby creating a chain between them all. The Kai settlement was not included in this because of their hostility towards the nomadic groups and even other settlements. The Ytek settlement was abundant in resources and simply had no need for trade and were also wary of the Kai group and stayed on their peninsula; not even attempting worship at the great temple.

The Great Temple had been built by all of the groups even before the flourishing of their own settlements when they were still primarily nomadic. Starting as a simple shrine where it was believed that the god Nytesh-ka placed the first human being, it was added onto year after year by the nomadic groups that returned to aid in its construction. Once the groups had established their settlements in correlation to the temple, they used their new found knowledge of architecture to create the temple. Though not massive in size itself, the complexity of the temples tombs were advanced for the time as it was required that all those worthy of Nytesh-ka’s blessings had to be buried there. This included all those that had partook in its construction and a mass grave surrounds the temple.

It was when the other nomadic groups of the expanse began to pay homage and contribute to the temple that the Kai group began to turn hostile. They felt that those who were not there from the beginning were not worthy despite the other groups being accepting of them. The Ytek agreed with the Kai’s but instead refused to worship there if unworthy people were going to. Kai instead demanded that the temple only be visited by the groups at specific times of the year which led to the first seasonal calendar in human history. For a time it was followed until the other groups began to visit the temple more frequently except when it was the Kai’s time.

It was after this that a period of drought struck the region and caused many of the nomadic groups to travel further inland towards the Torso. These were not the first to travel east beyond the mountains though as more and more began to venture that direction as they looked to discover the lands beyond. Many groups had looked to establish their own settlements after seeing the success of those that settled in the Expanse while some foresaw a time of hardship coming which came with the first draught and violence that followed.

After many years, more hostile groups began to form around the expanse and one year a group attacked and slaughtered a whole group of Kai worshippers returning to Kai from the temple. There were no survivors so there was no knowledge of who had attacked them but the Kai people were furious. It was at this time the Kai began to actively seek out the nomad groups attacking any it came into contact with. One of the first was the people of the Enercai Mountains who would later be known as the Darkmen. It was at this point that the Darkmen began its hatred for all other people in the expanse after receiving no help from any of the other groups that were located nearby. The Kai group also attacked and destroyed the Ty settlement in its journey for vengeance as its warriors blood lust grew. Eventually the group though faded as it attacked group after group until its demise and its people scattered to the wind.

The Lyzai settlement had been attacked by another group as the tribal period began to wind down and war tribes became the prevalent power through Magnamia. Since many groups in the Expanse had already been unified early on, this made war tribes target the outliers and specifically the Darkmen tribes of the north which would eventually unite them into one amalgamation.]

Through most of this time of the first unifying groups in the Expanse, as mentioned before, the Darkmen themselves were separated into various tribes who were often at odds with each other over the limited recourse in the northern region. The Darkmen though were bound to this region for an unknown reason at that time and refused to migrate elsewhere as the other tribes did during this period. It is believed that they were drawn their by supernatural powers most often identified as the Dweller; their god of both good and evil. Though it is not known if the different tribes shared the one belief like the southern Expanse groups, there is no evidence of the Darkmen worshipping any other deity and trace their religion back to their earliest ancestors whom they believed were created by the Dweller himself. into Age of Unification  '''
 * '''End of Tribal and

Ytek moved to the Kai settlement establishing the current city of Kai and becoming the Yantuans. They were joined by the remnants of some of the other settlements as they all faded and were forced to unify to survive. It’s from this point that most of what has been written about Yantuan history begins to develop. The expanse remained fertile for quite a while the Tribal period came to a close and the Age of Unification began. Most nomadic tribes joined sedentary ones or were wiped out by the war tribes that roamed most of the continent and region. Compared to the Torso region, the Expanse was actually more peaceful having already had a history of cooperation and sedentary development. Despite starting from scratch almost, the inhabiting groups still had some links to one another and were able to develop some of the first actual trade networks between towns. The Expanse would also be the first region to see the decline of war tribes as they found difficulties with their way of life in the region. War tribes were also driven east early on as well by the Darkmen of the Enercai region who became fierce warriors at this time after facing near extinction before. They became extremely territorial and incurred very rarely on any of the nearby settlements, what few there were. Inadvertently though, they protected the nearby settlements by driving the war tribes away.

The Darkmen were still divided into various tribes through much of the Age of Unification but began to cease hostilities towards each other as raiding war tribes had become their common enemy. It was here they began to borrow and adapt fighting techniques and strategies and began to develop fierce warriors that became feared by many. Some tribes banded together but mostly only those that resided in the Enercai’s where the following of the Dweller was strongest. Many Darkmen shamans practiced their following deep in the seclusion of the mountains away from other humans as well as from their own tribes and would return to their tribes every so often to reveal new practices that were given to them by the Dweller in their seclusion. It was around this time that the Darkmen blood trials began.

It was due to the Darkmen that the city of Kai flourished as it did and was so successful in making the longest trade network of the time from the northern point of the Expanse along the coast southward and then east into the interior of the Expanse. However, this was not the peak of Yantuan development and in fact growth was slow despite their prosperity. The people of Kai, early on wondered what lie beyond the sea that made up their western coast. Instead of developing and growing their city and culture, they looked to the future in anticipation of leaving the land, which many saw them foolish for. It was their new faith in the sea god, Navagos that propelled these dreams and their faith in a land even better than the Expanse. They were not the first to build boats but were the first that had the intention of using them to travel a long distance across the sea. It was during this time that some of the first ships left the Magnamian continent. Most if not all of these are known to have never reached their destination of a land beyond but it is believed that one may have made landfall and settled on the Mithran islands but there is no solid evidence of this.

It was around this time that the northern people of Hartham discovered the first large land mass beyond Magnamia and word spread quickly to the Yantuans. The news of foreign lands led to excitement at the potential of more undiscovered lands across the Great Sea. This sparked the beginning of Yantuans attempts at sea travel beyond the coasts of Magnamia as well as the construction of the Pillar of Light that would later become known as the Pillar of Discovery. The Pillar took years to erect as it stood over 100 lengths tall as it was used to signal their own and maybe even foreign ships in the future. Even though this never came to be, the construction of the Pillar of Light was a great feat for the Yantuans.

Yantuans develop first code of laws that are adapted from religious laws that are upheld by government that is composed of city elders who elect leaders to oversee specific areas of government/social/economics. Addresses fairness in trade, social issues, justice and penal system, slavery, etc. A local leader by the name of Vyrathus is chosen as the first lord of social and civil issues and quickly becomes a favorite among the leaders as his policies are quite effective and fair. Vyrathus also instructed the construction of two more pillars, one on each side of the Pillar of Light to create the Pillars of Discovery as Vyrathus was a firm believer of life beyond Magnamia. He believed that that the gods themselves lived across the sea and it was Yantua’s destiny to join them one day.

The Waniqlan, though not exactly situated in the Expanse itself are lumped in with the history of the Expanse due to their aversion to factions and groups in the Torso and their influence on the Yantuans which would eventually be the dominant power of the Expanse. The Waniqua people had also migrated from the Expanse originally and may have been the remnants of one of the early few sedentary groups in the area that were forced eastward but instead of going into the Torso traveled along the coast to find the Salan wetlands where they settled. Driven from their homeland they never wanted to face that sort of threat again and believed that they would be safe deep in the wetlands along away from everyone. Adapting to the wetlands was difficult but the group adapted quickly and soon had discovered a number of new agricultural techniques and tools that benefitted their new lifestyle that would spread across Magnamia over time.

The Waniqlan became well known by the rest of the Expanse toward the end of the Age of Unification as the Yantuan trade network spread east. Their foreign crops unseen in any other part of Magnamia and the Cyner stones and Jewels of the Marsh they acquired from the creatures in the wetlands were very popular in the Expanse. It wasn’t long though before the Waniqua people created a more efficient way of transporting their goods west. They had already been using small personal flotation devices in their agricultural practices but adapted them into larger crafts that could transport goods back and forth along the coast all the way to Kai and from then on the two groups became close friends and allies.

Elsewhere in the Expanse, mainly in the river valleys, settlements began farming on much larger scales than ever before. The Expanse saw the first use of agricultural tools and irrigation construction as settlements grew in size and trade increased amongst the towns and cities. But as trade expanded eastward into the Torso to the settlements that were facing the brunt of war tribe aggression, causing demand to increase, more land and water were being used which depleted the land of its nutrients. Slowly the large fertile lands were being destroyed unknowingly, setting up the cataclysmic event known as the Western Fire.
 * The Western Fire

The Period of Destruction affected the Expanse more than any other region in Magnamia. The whole continent suffered but it was the Expanse that saw the most destruction to its culture and people. When the draught first began, the people of the Expanse believed it to be another response from the gods but blamed the people to the East over the Armored Mountains as the Expanse had saw its last war tribes fade away or disappear from their land. They expected another surge of fish and sea life to arise as it had many years ago but with each passing year things got worse and worse. The crop growers of the river lands did not help by continuing their practices even as the drought worsened believing it to pass in time. But before it did, the rivers ran dry and there was no longer a way to irrigate the fields. It was only a matter of time before famine struck and people began to wither and die.

The city of Kai at first fared well as they were dependent on food from the sea rather than from the land and even passed on their food imports to other settlements after they saw the famine begin. But as the years passed, conditions worsened and it became apparent that this was no ordinary drought or even like the one before. Slowly towns and villages across the expanse began to wither away and force people to look elsewhere to live. The cultural and trade connection between the towns of the expanse helped many relocate at first but as more and more flocked to bigger towns or ones with bigger storehouses, tensions began to rise. It wasn’t long before towns began to shut out people looking for refuge. And with each passing year, month, and day, more and more people perished.

Even years into the period as society began to break down and towns turned those in need away, the people had avoided conflict as there was the consensual knowledge that all were suffering and that resorting to violence and barbarism would save no one in the end. This understanding and peace between the scattered settlements was kept by the leaders of Kai dispatching messengers across the Expanse with pleas of peace and cooperation in hopes of appeasing the gods. The leaders themselves sometimes even ventured to other settlements to speak to people personally and show them that all were suffering and all must stand united. And though the fertile lands had been dry already for years, there were small pockets of successful farming scattered throughout the region and as the population dipped lower and lower, the food supply began to stabilize again.

This was until the mass migrations of people from Eastern Magnamia; mainly the Torso, began to cross over to the Expanse in hope of finding fertile lands. The Torso had been facing the same famine as the Expanse but those who dwelled east of the mountains believed that the western settlements were hoarding their own food after they had stopped trading with the East. This led to the desperate people surging west in hope of finding what little food they could or fighting for it if necessary. Not all groups were so violent but word of savage attacks and razing of villages spread across the Expanse and soon the region fell into chaos once more. Most were locked out of the settlements and those that did not continue their exodus west, fought. Groups of hundreds and even sometimes thousands banded together invading the weakened settlements across the Expanse and though many failed to infiltrate the towns and cities, it did lead to wandering groups banding together and resorting to the old nomadic and tribal ways.

The mass exodus of people not only led to violence across the region but saw to the final destruction of the once fertile lands of the Expanse as the ground was scoured and scavenged by any and all who removed the last bits of agriculture from the land. The now dry barren land now beaten by the dry hot southern winds turned almost the entire interior region of the Expanse into a barren desert where no crops would be able to grow ever again.

A sizable portion of the people who left the Torso made it as far as the city of Kai and the coast. While many settlements turned these people away, Lysyrus, the great grandson of Vyrathus and now acting lord of social and civil issues in Kai brought them in. At first, many were against this decision as they distrusted the people from the East and were unwilling to share their scarce resources with foreigners but it was Lysyrus leadership that saved these people and his own from destruction through excellent allocation of resources. It was also due to the Yantuan army stepping in to fight off violent groups throughout the Expanse to protect the other settlements. In only a few years, the marauding masses had been quelled and either killed off or dispatched to the fringes of the region where they resided for the rest of the Period.

As one crisis ended though another took its place and a cataclysmic hurricane struck Kai and most of the Western coast of the Expanse which destroyed the city and killed thousands. All of Yantua was in disarray. The hurricane had claimed the lives of many of the Kai lords but Lysyrus survived and stepped into the position to rebuild the city and now fractured nation. Immediately Lysyrus enacted a number of reforms that saw to the unifying of Yantuans and migrants from the East in order to see cooperation and peace in the rebuilding of their nation. It was at this hour of need that Lysyrus reached out to all settlements of the Expanse to unite as one nation to overcome this time of desperation. Not all answered the call but a great many of the settlements did and together they began to rebuild and grow their nation into something greater than it was before. It was a massive turning point in Expanse history as Lysyrus also enacted the first military reforms to restructure the Yantuan military which would lead to it being one of the most feared fighting forces in the world.

Two of the Pillars of Discovery had been destroyed by the hurricane as well but the original survived and because of it, Lysyrus demanded that they be reconstructed. But this time he commanded that they be made into massive sculptures of the Gods of Yantua; Rushar and Navagos. The construction of the new pillars was not complete before the death of Lysyrus but it was decided by his son and others to not only create the sculptures of Rushar and Navagos but also construct sculptures in the image of Lysyrus and Vyrathus as they were deemed the Lords of Kai. It was from then on that the leader of Kai and Yantua would be known as the Kai Lord. The remainder of Period of Destruction was spent unifying the Expanse through trade, military, and civil practices while also finding the most suitable places to inhabit in this new desert environment.

During the Period of Destruction, the Darkmen were almost unscathed by the plights that affected the rest of the Expanse as their food came from the hunt and mountainous foliage and in some cases cannibalism; though this only occurred when people fleeing from the East wandered into Darkmen lands. Cannibalism amongst their own was not permitted. The divided tribes though began to unite as one as their cultural differences were few and their enemies were the same. Most of the tribes receded into the Enercai’s where the Darkmen villages had grown into sizable settlements. Still, they were nowhere near comparable to the size of the Yantuan and southern settlements but their numbers were growing as was their culture. Some tribes though did remain in desert flats, mostly around Lake Cypruine and in the area between it and Lake Kal as they were the only water sources in the whole region. For a time this was a serious issue to Kai and the Yantuans as it warded them away from the largest remaining grassland region in the Expanse that was north of the Darkmen’s territory.

The End of the Period of Destruction

As Yantua began to form into the great nation it would become, the marauding groups that had been pushed to the fringes of the region also began to form their own societies. Some stuck to nomadic practices as was the only plausible way to survive in the barren desert, others settled along the coasts and began to form city states of their own that would overtime become enemies to Yantua. Some formed relations with others on this basis of opposition and even groups such as the Mumaka and Switin of the grasslands north of the Enercai Mountains allied with the Darkmen and worked together to harass and fight the Yantuans.                 Yantua’s gaze though had been set upon its Eastern border as the second largest city of the Expanse; Syvitni, was at the edge of destruction at the hands of the mountain and nomad tribes that had claimed the East Expanse for themselves as a type of alliance. Lysyrus himself led the army all the way across the Expanse, dominating any group that would not join their new nation or accept peace. The new Yantuan army that had been formed out of most of the higher classes of Kai and Yantua were well equipped and well trained as Lysyrus promised political opportunity in return for funding of his new army and land to those of lower class. The rich paid for armor and weapons and led the soldiers of the lower class. It was common that the rich would actually purchase the armor and weapons for their own companies of men and would then train them which created competition between army companies. It was inspiration to be the best in all of Yantua and to solidify their place in Yantuan society and solidify Yantua’s place in Magnamia.