History of Aldaar

The history of Aldaar dates back to the emergence of the orcish species in the lower paleolithic era, with some theories suggesting that Orcs first evolved in the region. During the upper paleolithic era, humans migrated to the area, and would swiftly overtake orcs in population. The last group to emerge were the fennec vulpines at the tail end of the paleolithic. The harshness of the Anabat's environment meant that cooperation was a crucial part of survival. Across the desert, hundreds of tribes were formed, although all were very culturally similar due to the fairly insulated environment.

A fresco of foreign traders in the Aldaari city of Sayaduun, c. 1450 CE

Around 1000 BCE, various scientific developments allowed some communities to establish permanent settlements in more temperate areas, such as along the coast, in the southern mountains, and in the eastern steppes. It was also around this time that many smaller tribes began merging into the 7 tribes which have remained mainstays in Aldaar to this day - the Sashiinma, Kaluurid, Konayjad, Liivela, Tuulaya, Naiika, and Sujabwaal. For many centuries, the wider world considered the Anabat to be completely inhospitable, leading many around Gondwana to send their exiles into the desert to die, only for them to be rescued and integrated by the desert tribes. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries CE, global developments in naval technology meant that for the first time, the western ports of Aldaar were able to easily interact with merchants from foreign countries overseas such as Mirhaime, Nystatiszna, Auravas, and many more.

In the early 17th century CE, the Sujabwaal tribe began to build up a military and, fearing the destabilizing influence of refugees, closed their borders. When the other six tribes tried to stop them, Sujabwaal - under the helm of the corrupt and populist Aziz bin Majiid - easily defeated the bands of hunters and started marching on the other tribes. Legend has it that in 1610, to counter this existential threat to the Aldaari people, a Sashiinmat noble and hunter by the name of Suleiman bin Rahiim decided to go on a voyage through the desert to gain the wisdom needed to counter the violence of bin Majiid. Along the way, he spoke to the divine entity Ildarra and became a prophet of the Dawrani religion. Legends differ on the specific events, but using the knowledge he gained from his enlightenment Suleiman was able to end the reign of Aziz bin Majiid, push back the Sujabwaal tribe, and unite the seven tribes into one nation, the First Divine Republic of Aldaar, of which Suleiman was the first head of state holding the title of Mutadiit. During his reign, Suleiman also restructured the seven tribes into the seven republics that comprise Aldaar to this day.

The First Divine Republic would remain stable and prosperous until 1844, when issues arose regarding the succession after Mutadiit Jadariin Kalim'ildarra passed without designating a replacement. Each of the republics would secede without a mutadiit to hold them together, leading to the collapse of the First Divine Republic. However, despite this massive shift, Aldaar remained fairly prosperous, especially the coastal nations of Mukarras and Sayaduun. Despite their falling out, the seven republics lived together in harmony - but everything changed when Mirhaime attacked. In 1920, following the Great War, Mirhaime looked to the Anabat to replenish lost resources and wealth, and despite their weakened state were easily able to conquer every republic, with the exception of Fawdaa, formerly the Sujabwaal tribe, who were able to repel the overextended Fefsen military. Mirhaime established the Western Gondwanan Economic Company, a colonial company with little government oversight and a directive to make as much money as possible. The company established corporatocratic banana republics in each controlled republic, installing corrupt yes-men in every presidential position who would help them achieve their goals.

Eventually, the harsh policies under WEGEC - the worst of which being the Cultural Renewal Agreement Policies, which suppressed Dawrani religious practice, LGBTQ+ rights, and the ability of all native Aldaaris to own their own businesses (despite Mirhaime itself being liberal on many of those issues) began to cause widespread discontent with WEGEC. In addition, the establishment of the Aldaari Volunteer Guards, a highly corrupt police organization rife with intimidation and bribery, led to open resistance against the regimes in the 1980s and onwards. At this point, actors within the Fefsen government had created a shadow cabinet dedicated to keeping the political black box that was WEGEC running, keeping it secret from even the Lewydh, and news out of Aldaar was heavily monitored, so very few knew of the dire situation in the Anabat. However, in late 2022, a Mukarrasi named Yufraan Faruuk was able to retrace the steps of Suleiman and become the new Mutadiit of Aldaar, leading a revolution against WEGEC which would eventually see them ousted after the Battle of Mukarras in March of 2023.

Prehistory

It's widely accepted that the very first sapient species to settle the Anabat desert were Orcs, with the first definitive evidence coming from about 200,000 BCE. However, some believe that fossils found near the Anabat which date back over 400,000 years prove that Orcs have inhabited Aldaar for almost their entire evolutionary history. Knowledge of migration patterns, the desertification process, and the lack of many archeological investigations within Aldaar have caused two main competing theories to emerge. The first theory states that Orcs migrated to the Anabat due to a mixture of social exile and natural movement patterns, given that the desert boasts a large variety of flora and fauna that could have supported small hunter-gatherer societies that were constantly on the move and looking to avoid overusing land during a minor population boom. However, a less substantiated theory more supported by the general public aims to prove that the Anabat was the original location of Orcish evolution, and that instead of Orcs migrating inwards to Aldaar despite desertification, Orcs migrated outwards from Aldaar because of desertification. Interestingly, this view is supported by large numbers of the Aldaari Orcish population, who claim it as a source of pride.

Cave drawings found near the Aldaari city of Hasa. Orcs were typically depicted as larger, with extremely notable tusks, leading many to believe this depicts the arrival of Human hunters.

The first evidence of Human settlement in Aldaar comes from about 60,000 BCE, in the form of cave paintings found in the southern mountain ranges. Utilizing bows while much of the previous populace was still using much less resource-intensive slings, new Human bands were able to hunt much more efficiently leading to a greater food surplus. This, combined with the fact that Humans required far less calories to survive than Orcs did, would make Humans the dominant species in Aldaar about 10,000 years after they first arrived. Despite this demographic shift, Orcs and Humans were extremely cooperative and frequently worked together, with there being evidence to support the idea that they even formed tribes together. Contrary to many societies, division of labor tended to be split along species, with the more resilient orcs gathering and fishing and the quicker, smaller humans being the hunters; there is no evidence to suggest that gender or sex played any specific societal role in the majority of Aldaari tribes.

Aldaari Vulpines (also called Fennec Vulpines) were first living in the desert in about 34,000 BCE, at which point they entered the larger societal structure and began to largely take the hunting roles from Humans, due to Fennec Vulpines' natural camouflage, smaller stature, enhanced senses, and increased heat tolerance. It is currently unknown exactly how Fennec Vulpines evolved, but as with many archeological and anthropological debates around Aldaar, there are two main competing schools of thought. The first is that groups of Vulpines split off from Yasterian Vulpines and followed waves of humans migrating to Gondwana. From there, Vulpines traced through the exact same evolutionary adaptations as non-sapient fennec foxes, making them distinct from both Northern and Southern Vulpines. This theory is regularly criticized for the sheer distance between Gondwana and Yasteria, however, proponents suggest that Vulpines followed Humans migrating through Novaris. The other theory is that Aldaari Vulpines evolved completely separately from Yasterian Vulpines and share traits mostly due to the fact that they both developed from foxes. Critics of the theory point out the extremely short evolutionary timeline, which is countered by claims that Fennec Vulpines evolved prior to the first evidence of them, and the extreme coincidence of two separate sapient species developing that similarly to one another, which is generally countered by the fact that the sheer number of sapient species on Urth already seems to be a scientific anomaly, so by raw percentages it isn't actually that unrealistic compared to what's already been proven.

One of the most important developments during the prehistoric period of Aldaari history was the advent of trading societies, with some entire tribes dedicated solely to trade. These tribes would take raw materials such as fabric, clay, and beads, and would craft them into goods such as rugs, jewelry, pottery, clothing, and even high-end weaponry. These finished products would then be traded for basic resources, such as food, as well as more raw materials. Trade was largely within Aldaari tribes, but some southern tribes would also trade with those across the southern mountain range, who tended to have more centralized groups. Eventually, the weight of goods combined with the harsh reality of desert travel would lead to the development of one of Urth's first currencies, as Aldaari tribes rapidly adopted the use of shells as placeholders for physical goods around 20,000 BCE. This also led to a strong culture of Aldaari craftsmanship which has carried on into the 21st century.

Early History

A stone tablet with ancient Uuba writing chiseled into it found near the city of Murad.

Around the 2nd millenium BCE, Aldaari tribes would begin inscribing written characters into clay and soft stone tablets as a method of storing information, providing historians with samples of Aldaar's ancient language, Uuba. Uuba had been a spoken language for tens of thousands of years and is believed to date back to even before Humans arrived in the Anabat, due to similarities with other languages spoken by orcs in Rodoka and Ni-Rao. The development of writing appears to have had an extremely transformative impact on Aldaari culture, with an explosion of archeological and anthropological evidence from this point onwards due to the large number of surviving texts. The Aldaari peoples adopted a shared culture of storytelling using written histories and epics. Literacy rates appear to have been extremely high due to the advent of paper-making practices in oasis cities like Nafaq, which tribes would then trade as a finished product. There were even entire professions centered around the productions of writing tools, using cotton to make paper and making ink out of coffee and gum asahri. The advent of writing also fostered the development of shared cultural and spiritual beliefs throughout the desert, created a sort of legal code, bolstered trade, and inspired scientific advancement.

Culture in Ancient Aldaar

The development of a shared Aldaari identity, combined with the harsh realities of desert life, led to the creation and proliferation of the Three Tenets, or Allamtii al-Anabat, "The Way of the Desert." The Three Tenets were a system of guidelines for the Aldaari people and to this day operate as a moral code for desert life, forming a sort of survivors' etiquette. They would provide the basis for many cultural and historical developments and have heavily influenced the lives of almost all Aldaari people. The Three Tenets are as follows:

1. Always treat other people with mercy and compassion in their hours of need.
2. Keep forgiveness in your heart for all people, and reject all forms of hate.
3. Remember that everything changes, and everything is connected; every action has a reaction, every consequence a cause.

Of these, the third tenet is likely the most well known and closely correlated with modern Aldaari culture. The idea that everything changes is viewed as crucial to understanding life and the world around you, and as a result Aldaari groups have always been quick adapters of new technological, social, economic, and political ideas. All three tenets appear to have been designed with practicality in mind - sandstorms, intense heat, food scarcity, and many other environmental pressures meant that life in the wastes wasn't easy, and the tenets appear to have tried to reduce interpersonal tensions and build community, knowing that the people were stronger together and that nobody in the desert needed any additional challenges to face.

Technological Advancements

Black and white photo of a Sayaduuni fisherman catching farmed fish

Aldaari history after the invention of writing has been described as a "post-neolithic golden era," and local advances in technology were no exception. Perhaps the most critical advancements were those that related to food production, as for many millennia food had been extremely scarce on the desert, requiring most tribes to utilize a migratory hunter-gatherer structure. However, the spread of ideas that came with the rise of writing allowed many developments in this field, notably the rise in aquaculture. The Aldaaris were some of the first people to do this, farming fish by constructing complex series of dams and channels and using woven traps to capture bred fish for consumption and trade. These developments encouraged the rise of Aldaar's first settled tribes, many of whom embraced a sedentary life on the northwest coast of the continent founding Aldaar's first permanent settlements, some of which remain to this day. Around the 5th century BCE, records indicate many more tools were developed that further benefited the culture of fishing that had sprung up, including fishing rods, cotton nets, and small fishing boats, which further contributed to the building of a food surplus that allowed the expansion of commerce in the Anabat.

Picture of date trees growing around an oasis in the northwest Anabat

Around the same time, tribes near the Nafaq Oasis began to develop irrigation systems and planting practices for the many types of flora native to the area, including cotton, apples, plums, peaches, pomegranates, dates, corn, squash, tomatoes, sorghum, herbs, tea, and coffee, among many others. Of theses, the most crucial were cotton, dates, corn, and tea, with each growing easily and being extremely versatile. In addition, agave began being harvested and processed to make teqiilyatlaan, or as it's more commonly known, tequila. The development of alcohol was important, as it kept water safe during long cross-desert journeys and overall made water much safer to drink. The Nafaq Oasis, and others like it, proved to be a perfect environment for growing many crops and herbs, and the massive expansion of inland agriculture allowed for an even greater expansion of the food surplus. It also allowed for the creation of new foods, which were both healthier and had higher caloric value. Overall, the agricultural revolution of the Anabat helped shift Aldaari society towards significantly more sedentary, as being able to grow foods even in the desert would allow for the development of a more traditional societal structure. That being said, many tribes chose to remain mobile throughout their history.

One of the areas of Aldaari society that was most significantly impacted by new ideas and technologies was trade and craftsmanship. During this period, more and more specialized professions began to emerge. Notably, herbalists developed their craft by unlocking the secrets of anabat peyote and tanshiit, along with other local herbs, which allowed for the creation of powerful herbal blends with any number of unique reactions. Indeed, healing salves made using tanshiit remained on par with modern medicine until acetaminophen began being widely distributed in the 1950s. Weavers laced together intricately made rugs, camel saddles, clothing, and pouches from cotton and dye, and also played an important role in making fishing gear and other woven goods. These, along with many other crafts such as carpentry, masonry, fletching, and others, would lead to the development of the Kaastas, which divided people (and sometimes whole tribes) based off of profession. The craftsmen, builders, farmers, and fishermen became the largest caste, the Jintay. Writers, musicians, scientists, and herbalists became part of the Amanshii. And hunters, organizers, and tribal leaders became the Kauda. While many caste systems function as a hierarchy, each caste knew that they were all equally important and necessary to thrive in the desert.

An ancient Aldaari astrolabe dating back to the 2nd century CE

Many miscellaneous technological advancements were made in Aldaar during this time period that served to improve quality of life. Astrolabes, which had been first obtained from foreign merchants, allowed traders to more easily cross the desert without getting lost. The development of recurve composite bows, leather bracers, thumb rings, and blunt arrowheads all allowed for more efficient hunting, and the use of obsidian for knives and other blades made many processes to refine goods simpler and quicker. The development of camel saddles and camel riding practices allowed for easy transportation of goods across vast swathes of desert, with the riders sitting behind the hump of the camel to allow for both riding and packing of heavy goods. In some cases, two-person saddles would be used, generally for the riders who led larger caravans. The invention and continued development of the loom allowed for fabrics to be made more easily and overall lead to an increase in the amount of cotton goods. More techniques emerged for the extraction of stones such as obsidian, turquoise, malachite, and opal, which for the most part were traded to early Sayqidi jewelers across the southern mountain range. In exchange traders learned about techniques for metalworking, although it didn't become a large part of Aldaari culture. Finally, many techniques emerged for herding, especially goats; many nomadic tribes would become at least partially pastoralist, relying on raised goats and camels for food, milk, and hide.

Religious Developments

The advents of writing, trade, and collective storytelling in the Anabat led to a system of shared religious and spiritual beliefs collectively known as Pre-Dawrani. Pre-Dawrani faiths relied mostly on oral history for many beliefs to be passed on, even though specific stories were frequently written down. Pre-Dawranis, much like modern Dawranis, believed in a spiritual plane that awaited people after death where people were able to influence the natural world based on the things they did in their life. Some tribes believed that there was an entire separate civilization in the afterlife, filled with spirits that had banded together to make concerted efforts to influence the human world. All sapient beings were believed to have souls strong enough to permeate the veil between realms and influence each other, as well as cats, fennecs, corvids, and some other animals. Most myths and legends served to illustrate the importance of the three tenets and explain natural phenomena, and the religion adapted well with scientific discoveries such as the independent Aldaari discovery of heliocentrism. While Pre-Dawrani beliefs included some minor degree of ancestor worship, the prevailing belief was that one should not be beholden to their family's past and should live their own life.