From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Fri 19 Aug 1994 - 15:56:33 EEST
Harald Smith in X-RQ-ID: 5760
> - Joerg asks about interest in the Dara Happan emperors.
> I'm interested in such, either here or privately. Are you talking pre-
> Khordavu, post-Khordavu, or both?
Both, of course. The Dara Happan Book of Emperors (DHBE) has several hints which escaped me at first reading, even though some are obvious. I have the nagging doubt that there are more things I overlooked, so I'll just ask questions about it on the Daily (unless the people without a copy protest loud - although they'll miss the circumstantial evidence sure to drop off).
> While we're talking about rivers and Dara Happa, has anyone done
> anything with the other great Pelorian river, the Arcos? I realized
> recently that there is a basic similarity of names in this region which
> suggests a some strength inherent in this area.
> Z arkos the Plentonius name for the area.
> Arcos the great river from the Elf Sea.
> Dzhar st typically read as Jarst, the northern realm.
> Dzhar sting typically read as Garsting, the southern realm, though
> I give it a soft instead of hard sounding here.
The DHBE adds the regional names of Ezarcos for the lands east of the Arcos and Ozarcos for a realm to its west, covering the eastern parts of Jarst and Garsting. Ozarcos appears only in the time between 200 and 300, and is one target of the elf expansion of that time.
Around 900 to 950, there appear to be several larger empires in Peloria: The EWF in the south, conquering the lands along the Oslir River (Dara Happa, disappearing from 878 to 910 when the Sun Dragon was "Emperor", the Carmanian Empire to the west, a short-lived Korer Empire aroun the Oslir Mouth, the Horse Riders in the Arcos Valley and east of it, with an agricultural "slave" populace along the river (not unlike the 1st Age rule over Dara Happa) called Vethil, and (interesting for this discussion) an encircled area covering Rinliddi, Jarst, Garsting, the Hungry Plateau and Jord Mts. The latter seems to have had some sort of unity.
I am not certain that Greg already has very developed ideas for this area - most of his recent work covered Pelanda, better known to 3rd Age Gloranthans as Carmania or west Peloria. Rinliddi at least has enjoyed a certain focus of his attention 2.5 centuries later, and Deezola's realm has a number of features unknown in the rest of Peloria. This makes me wonder whether there was a language "Old Rinliddic" which has similarities to Jarstic and other Arcos region languages. In the History of the 5th Wane we are told that Palbar (in Oraya) was built upon the ruins of an older, "unknown" city, and that its ancient spirits effectively kept those of (the born Praxian, according to DHBE) Sheng Seleris, who never had problems beating even chaos-allied Lunar spirits except Yara Aranis.
Jarst and Garsting are shown free of horse nomad domination for most of the centuries before. This might be due to the terrain they have (my guess would be a karst landscape, chalky ground with lots of caves and difficult terrain, not unlike former Jugoslavia), but implies a somwhat stable gouvernment, or at least army. However, both countries had little or no direct access to the Arcos River, which was firmly controlled by the Horse Nomads.
> (and of course there is also BalaZar)
He was an invader from Vanch or so, so my bets are off.
> I might surmise that the original name could be Zarkost. Perhaps a Dara
> Happan invasion transformed the name into Dara Zharkost and that
> degenerated into D'zhar'st or Jarst.
The only connections to one of the better known lands of Peloria I could find in the maps are the above mentioned with Rinliddi, and a later one with Vanch and Imther at the time of the Dragonkill War. See Tales 6 (the Broken Earth, by Steve Gilham) and Greg's reply in the letters of Tales 7 or 8.
However, I have the feeling that Darjeeb, a city on the Arcos, could stand on the ruins of Zayteneras' city of the Decapolis, Senthoros.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
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