Raeluna History

History of Barakeel

The environment on Barakeel forced its proto-peoples into quasi-nomadic groups, and the history of those early tribes is mostly lost to time. What survives to the present day is a notion that their fights and feuds often upset the delicate balance of environmental resources needed to thrive on Barakeel and led to multiple collapses and near extinction of many groups over the long centuries.             

There are creation myths and legends as varied as the number tribes in those early days, but all have some element of the Ancient Race involved. In the dryer parts of Barakeel, and especially in the Citadel, many of the Ancient Race corpses were quite well preserved and their influence on the imaginations of all Baraki people can’t be overstated. 

Eventually, the people evolved into two primary sorts of tribes, the mountain herders and the desert nomads. The mountain herders took to building into the mountains in imitation of the Citadel's extensions under ground. They began to practice the construction of more capable cisterns and reservoirs to hold water, and pioneered dams to block mountain creeks into long lakes. Long range irrigation became feasible, and as farming practices developed below, the nomads turned many of the oases into permanent villages producing fruits and small livestock. They still moved the bulk of themselves around so as not to overtax any one area. For despite the tribalism and conflict (which has never disappeared entirely), the people of the Island came to understand and respect that their environment was fragile and their resources limited. There is a kind of waste-not-want-not attitude universal to Barakis, which extends to eating the whole animal/plant, collecting all waste for fertilizer, and eating their own dead. 

The Citadel itself has always been a numinous place for the tribes, and there they would meet to resolve conflicts, trade, and revere the Ancients who came before. Explorations and pilgrimages into the heights and depths of the ancient ruin became common rights of passage for young people and entire tribes. The passages open to the air at the bottom of the Island allowed sight of giant trailing vines hanging from the underside of Barakeel, some of them width of entire villages and descending nearly, and occasionally dragging on, the ground below. Sometimes Dread Things could be seen on the vines, and when they were present the tribes learned to keep themselves scarce on the lower reaches of the Citadel - for the twisted creatures that pulled themselves up from the surface were deadly and strange beyond telling. 

The more magically inclined individuals in the tribes would meet at the Citadel with their tribes, and eventually set themselves up a permanent residence there, the better to explore and study the glyphs and artifacts of the ancients. They became a tribe unto themselves, and the others would pay respects by bringing them food and other resources they required. This group expanded and became more powerful over time, resolving disputes among the tribes and even dictating nomadic routes and demanding what resources were to be brought to them. 

Eventually a nomadic tribal leader named Albardi grew resentful and convinced several others to Do Something About It. They marched on the Citadel, pursued the offending tribe of magicians inside...and to a man were never heard from again. The Tribe of the Citadel sent messengers to every mountain redoubt and oases speaking the folly of Albardi, but also offering a New Pact. They would demand only food necessary to sustain themselves, everything else would be trade or barter like the rest of Baraki commerce, and they would severely punish any tribe who sought the extinction of another tribe. Fighting was allowed, it seemed, as long as it was between warriors at a set time and place.   

As the Tribe of the Citadel, whom the tribes began to call the Arcanists, acted as peace-keepers and providers of the practical arcane, Barakeel settled into a long period of societal and technological advancement. Eventually the many tribes coalesced into four Overtribes - Abas in the one mountain range, Darhan in the other, the Akalin nomads to the north of the citadel, and the Akadat to the south. The people further innovated in farming and building, often duplicating Ancient Race buildings in miniature. Their cultures developed their own flavors, and the Arcanists studied everything under the sun, in particular setting up observatories on the outer slopes of the Abas and Darhan ranges.                            

About 5 years before the Arcanists of Barakeel opened the Gates for the first time, they revealed to the tribes that there were other Islands and other humans, and that the Arcanists would be contacting and congregating with them soon. They prepared Barakis for this change. They arranged for the Overtribes to choose a single leader among them who could speak for the Island, and created a slim top level administration. This leader is called the Abasdarhan. They also created a small standing military under the Abasdarhan and equipped them with metal helms, breastplates, and spearheads - the first metal armor and weapons in Baraki history, based on Ancient Race designs in miniature, and rumored to be enchanted.