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Overview
- The World - The
History - Miscellaneous
The history of Tirialle, at least that which is still
known, extends back well over five hundred thousand years. It is a
long, involved story of empires, wars, peacetimes and treaties that would
take a library the size of a city to catalog. (Incidentally, in the
eastern reaches of the Silver Stag mountains, a large
city known as Chronicle is dedicated solely to seeking out, recording, and
preserving history as told by all parties, but that's another story.) It
is agreed, though, that the most significant event in the last thousand
years was the coming of the Bright Dreamer and the drafting of the
Dreamfounding.
Before she arrived, Tirialle had settled into an uneasy state, where no
major regions were openly warring on one another. One of the first
things she did upon arriving was send her many scouts
to explore not only the land, but the political geography. It took
them five years to finish their task, and of the one hundred scouts sent
out, only sixty-nine made it back alive. From them, the Bright Dreamer
learned that there were in excess of six hundred nations large
enough to be considered major political players, and countless smaller
ones that sometimes consisted of little more than one township (or even a
fragment of a township, in the case of the eccentric West Realm hamlet of
Anarchy, where every household was an independent
city-state.) The web of loyalties and rivalries was utterly
impossible to understand, and the entire continent seemed always on the
brink of a major conflict. One thing her scouts reported did bring
hope, though - the vast majority of beings in Tirialle were looking for
some form of treaty or peace agreement they all could live by, rather than
the limited and often poorly-crafted terms they hammered out between
specific nations. The Bright Dreamer then traveled to the very
middle of Tirialle, sending every messenger she could spare across the
countryside to inform the residents of her intentions to forge that very
document.
There are volumes worth of stories of that journey, and the journey of
each messenger she sent out. Three minor skirmishes were started by
the news, and ten of the Bright Dreamer's assistants were killed
outright. Many were openly skeptical that a newly-arrived outsider
could succeed where countless dreamers had failed before. In the
end, Tirialle's governments decided that even a chance at lasting peace was better than
the tense state of affairs at the time. One by one, each nation and
race sent ambassadors to the designated meeting spot: the capital of an
obscure Midrealm monarchy, Skyhaven City.
At the very start of the session, the Bright Dreamer herself stood over
the crowd and told them what she intended to accomplish. Most were
skeptical. Many openly laughed. Jeers that she was another
foolish dreamer led her to coin the term Dreamfounding for the agreement,
which was to be a loose but binding understanding between all sentient
creatures of Tirialle. To remove all fears that she was attempting
to take the entire continent under her "dark reign of terror"
(to quote one particularly paranoid South Realm kingdom's representitive),
she removed herself from the proceedings after her opening speech, stating
that all she wanted for herself was permission to establish the now-famous
interrealm adoption program. She then left Tirialle's ambassadors to
work out the Dreamfounding's details for themselves, with only the basic guidelines she
laid down.
It was not an easy task. Many tried to turn the situation to
political advantage for themselves. Eventually, the Bright Dreamer (who was still keeping an eye on things, if not physically present) had to
bar the doors of the senate chamber until they could agree on one thing. It took five days
of near-nonstop argument and occasional brawls, but at last the first Code
of the Dreamfounding was established: Freedom Shall Come First.
It was that start which lead to the relatively rapid completion (only a
year) of the entire Dreamfounding documents, though it took a while to get
all parties to agree to sign. In addition to general rules of trade,
justice and international conduct in peace and conflict (war is actually
allowed for in the Dreamfounding, as it was recognized that it would take
centuries or more to come to truly peaceable relations with all other
sentient beings), other provisions were made to help
ensure smooth relations. The delegates agreed to five international trade languages, written
and spoken. Universal calendars were drawn up, with
the understanding that they would supplement, not override, existing
methods of tracking time. It was a document of unprecedented power,
for the very fact that it did not attempt to grant special power to those signing
it. It was simply, as one diplomat put it,"an agreement that
all beings of Tirialle will abide by to their mutual
benefit."
Now, it must be said that there were (and still are) dissenting voices
about the Dreamfounding, mostly by those who are skeptical of other's
motives because their own motives are far from pure. Some few open
challenges have been made in the five centuries since the Dreamfounding
was established, but all have been put down by the cooperative effort of
Tiriallean nations. It has been, on the whole, a monumental success,
and a testament to what nations can do when they decide they are sick and
tired of fighting.
All backgrounds and images, unless specifically noted
otherwise, are © TBW
ONLY adoptable creatures and designated awards or certificate
images may be taken
If you feel you absolutely must have a background or special image, please
ask first!
E-mail: tbweber (at) comcast.net or tbweber (at) brightdreamer.com -
change (at) to @, put "Skyhaven" in the Subject line
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