ForestBoard

It has been approximately 1000 years since the first foreign settlers and colonizers began moving to the untamed wilderness that is now known as Verdant Haven. In honor of this occasion, the National Chamber, with approval of the Court of Chancery, has authorized the Executive Branch to assemble and present the following report regarding the development of borders and placenames within our modern nation. It is well known that the twelve bailiwicks previously were duchies under the decadent and repugnant rule of the fallen Principate, but it is hoped that the following information, properly disseminated through the Department of Education to the Reeves-General for inclusion in curricula nationwide, will inspire further knowledge amongst the population, and interest in the deep history of our people, our nation, and the land we share.

1000 years before present:

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The first city-states recognizable as parts of modern Verdant Haven first developed around 1000 years ago, along the coasts of the modern nation. The first three known to have been founded are Harventia (today called Haventia), Macota, and the coastal city of Salvation. Harventia and Macota were founded by expeditions of the Harven and Macota families respectively, who sent military expeditions from overseas to establish footholds in the unexplored wilds of the Forestian coast, and followed them after a time with colonists, equipment, and the basics of agricultural subsistence. To the north, a fleet of Diverrese refugees seeking to escape from war in their homeland found themselves bereft of mast and sail in an enormous storm off the coast, and were left to drift, hopeless on the waters, until through some miracle the tides brought them in sight of the Forest coast. They landed on one of the perilously few approachable beaches in this part of the country, about 100km south of Friar's Point, and there founded a new home they called "Salvation" for the succor it gave them. Though contact with them is not yet believed to have been made at this time, it is known that the indigenous Gaw people already occupied significant portions of the northwestern mountain highlands well before any of these cities were founded, and their communities are believed to have been centered somewhere south of the mountain that now bears their name.

800 years before present:

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Those first three city-states each expanded rapidly in the unclaimed wilds, establishing themselves as ducal governments, as was the style at the time. Shifts in orthography and language led to the Harven family name settling as "Haven," with the name of their capital becoming Haventia to match. They declared the Duchy of Verdantia (Verdanza), in honor of the seemingly endless green of the interior, and staked claim to a vast swath of land stretching from the Jade River in the east all the way to the Pebble River in the west. They also sent exploration parties all the way to the east coast, where they established the small outpost of Seawatch to keep an eye for threats from the oceans beyond. The Macota family were not so modest, and simply named their entire duchy after themselves. Having made contact with the Gaw people, they began a profitable trade, establishing one of the first trade routes in the area along a road they built from the city of Macota all the way to Gaw territory. They established city halfway along the route to provide supplies and defenses for their convoys, under the command of a cadet branch of the family – the Viridi. This city was called Viri. Having been exposed to this new form of governance and city-building, the Gaw decided to profit from this trade by emulating certain aspects of what they saw, establishing a de facto capital city called Monteverde (the name in use at the time for nearby Green Mountain), and claiming certain borders in the fashion of a duchy, which came to be called Gawland. The Diverrese meanwhile had found the frequent storms on the eastern coast to be exceedingly challenging, and having now spread as far as The Father and the Jade River, they constructed a new capital just below the impassible rapids, called Rapidham, from which they began to conduct long-distance riverine trade with the city of Haventia to their south. They named their duchy Diverre (Diverr) after their destroyed homeland. Meanwhile, small unaffiliated merchant houses from afar had noticed the growing trade opportunities of this new land, and began setting up their own operations amongst the broad dales between Verdantia and Macota.

700 years before present:

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The seaward marches around Seawatch were soon incorporated as the Duchy of the Seamarch (Seamarch), and the once-small outpost, now a thriving city, became known as Watchtower. Viri, similarly, expanded under the Viridi family (Viri), growing into a full duchy of its own, even larger than its parent Macota. Pressed on both sides by established military and economic powers, the traders of the dales signed a treaty creating the Alliance of the Dale Cities, with nebulous goals of defending each other from any incursions, and upholding the independence of each signatory. To the north of Verdantia, the influential Green family (no relation to the mountain) had established a major economic foothold by exploiting both the timber and mineral resources of that remote area, and trading with both Verdantia and Diverre. The Haven family recognized this, and granted them exclusive tradings rights north of a line drawn from the highest navigable point on the Pebble River east to the Jade River just below Diverre. The Alliance of the Dale Cities did not acknowledge the authority of the Verdantia to dictate economic control of the interior in this manner, and incidents of freebooting, poaching, and bushwhacking were common in the contested areas along the borders. The alliance found itself on the losing end of this equation in the long run however, as the loose association of the merchants led to many squabbles about who should pay for defenses of which areas, with each house seeking advantage even against its friends.

600 years before present:

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The Alliance of the Dale Cities proved short-lived, and in less than a century the most powerful house had exerted itself over the others from their city of Pebblestone Dale, forming its own duchy and compelling subservience from rivals. Though this left more losers than winners, it did serve to solidify resistance to foreign incursion, and established the modern borders of the area now known as the Bailiwick of The Dale. The Green's Wood area became the new duchy of Greenswood (Grenwood) and they extended even further economic ventures to the west into the outer territory called the Woods Riding. In a bid for parity, Macota sent ventures north and created a territory of their own, the Arbore Riding. The border between the two was very much in question for a time, though most acknowledged the natural barrier of the Peacewell River and The Mother as being the best landmarks for this purpose. In the far west, repeated incursions by the Eax people, following the Western River down from the north and then pushing inland, had compelled settlers and farmers to band together for defense. They built the fortress of Tleaste to guard the crossing point most often used by the Eax forces, and the local nobles were recognized by the other duchies for the service being provided through their elevation to equal rank, as Dukes of Westguard (Wesgard). All of this expansion however was beginning to severely hamper the Gaw way of life, and they began military incursions against Viridi to claim back territory they felt was being stolen.

500 years before present:

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With major advances in roads and communications, as well as the slow accumulation of vast fortunes, the long-time powerbrokers in Haventia and Macota exerted their influence to form suzerainties over their offshoots. Verdantia lay full claim to its one-time colony of The Seamarch, and declared the Grand Duchy of the Verdant Seas. Always independent, Greenswood did not submit to the Havens, instead citing the now centuries-old decree granting them exclusive rights in the north to claim exemption. Forever copying their eastern neighbors, and obsessed with maintaining "equal rank," the Macota family then re-absorbed their cadet branch's claims and declared the Grand Duchy of Macota-Viridi. This proved relatively stable for a time, and with questions over the borders of the northern ridings being settled along common-sense lines, a period of calm and prosperity seemed imminent.

400 years before present:

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That period of calm did not last. With no more room to expand into wilderness, the duchies turned on each other with immense speed. Quietly seething at the insult Greenswood had given by choosing to trade more with Diverre instead of with Verdantia, Verdant Seas hammered north into Diverre and seized large chunks of land. So much land was gained that Verdant Seas combined it with the northern parts of Seamarch to form a third duchy, Easttree (Easttree), control over which it granted to the senior-most officers and generals of their successful campaign. Hauling home the spoils of war, the Havens established the Haventian Art Depository (today the Federal Art Depository - Fad) to display the treasures. The ruling Brandt family of Diverre, reeling from the blow, quickly pulled in the Greens of Greenswood (and their offshoots) and formed a political entity of their own to resist, the Grand Duchy of Brandt. In the west, the hardened march veterans of Westguard struck north and burned the Gaw capital, seizing the territory and driving them back to the most remote of their traditional homes. Claiming to have done this to help their "friends" in Viridi, the Westguardians then struck hard into Viridi themselves, seizing even more land, and causing the ducal government to flee from Viri to their coastal city of Midway, ironically a city so-named because it was the halfway point on the once-lucrative trade road between Macota and the capital of their attacker, Tleaste. The land seized in this attack was combined with lands seized from the Gaw to become the duchy of Arborea (Arbore), with the Gaw driven far back into a frontier mountain territory called only "The Highlands" - today known as High Pine. Though never declared as such by the rulers, most historians today consider this area, known as "The Marcher Highlands," to be the fourth constituent Grand Duchy of historic Verdant Haven. This massive conquest by Westguard was likely successful for one major reason – the primary armies of Macota-Viridi were themselves occupied hundreds of miles away on the opposite side of the grand duchy, where they were busy conquering The Dales and forcibly integrating the trade cities into their own holdings.

350 years before present:

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Amongst the chaos of so many simultaneous wars, the ruling branch of the Haven family was overthrown and assassinated by a group of courtiers and soldiers loyal to the royal duke Tattven, an extremely gifted, if underhanded, military commander. Spending tremendous resources to bring in foreign mercenaries to bolster the armies of the Verdant Seas, Tattven overran first Brandt, and then Macota-Viridi, forcing them to acknowledge the overlordship of Verdantia (pronunciation having by now drifted to Verdanza). Such was the enmity between the Tattvens and the Macota after centuries of emulation and competition, that Tattven forced the duchy of Macota to change it name, so the high dignity of a duchy would no longer be linked to their family. The nobles selected Longmouth as the duchy's new name, to reference the ancient and esteemed academic institution in which they took so much pride, the famous Longmouth Lowland University (Llu). The armies of the Highland Marches held out longest, due to a combination of experience and distance, but eventually even they were forced to acquiesce. Arbore Riding and Woods Riding were combined into the duchy of Ridwood (Ridwood), and under the new principate the major borders and names of modern Verdant Haven finally fell into place.