The Legacy of the Reinmaren I: GENESIS

[GoodGuyMatt 7062]

THE LEGACY OF THE REINMAREN

CHAPTER I: GENESIS

Penned on the

2nd of Jula and Piov, 375 E.S

 

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Spoiler

 

 

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PREFACE

The Duchy of Reinmar is one of the preeminent fiefs of the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska, and its ducal House of Barclay is equally prestigious. However, much of the history of the Reinmaren people overall have been transferred orally, retold from father to son across the ages. With the blessing of the Duke of Reinmar, we publish a history of this scion, that we may better educate our people’s descendants. Let no sons or daughters of the Reinmaren forget the humble beginnings of our lineage.
 

Wer Rastet, Der Rostet.
 

 

While this work aims to delve deeper into the roots of House Barclay, this work is not specific to House Barclay solely. Instead, this work seeks to examine the origins of all Reinmaren people, and shed light into their humble history. It would be wrong to look at the history of the Reinmaren through the eyes of one of its tribes within the coalition, and thus this work shall examine not the history of House Barclay only, but the history of the Reinmaren people, some of which still are within Haense today, such as those of Mondblume blood, and those of the Mackensen kin. 

 

The name ‘Reinmaren’ historically has been used to describe a coalition of semi-nomadic tribes of Waldenians, who sustained themselves through the way of raiding. While at their genesis, the Reinmaren were not distinguishable from their Waldenian kin at the time of their schism from their factions, the geographical and cultural split with their predecessors would follow later on.

 

According to some sources derived from the southern lands of the Raev, the religion that the Reinmaren tribespeople followed was characterised by spiritualism and ancestor worship, codified by usual aspects of honour, war and discipline that can be compared to the Waldenian practices of their contemporary society. 

 

The descendants of the Reinmaren tribe, still co-existing as a coalition of families, mostly reside within Hanseti-Ruska and still carry on their cultural practices and behaviour, derived from their Reinmaren and Waldenian forefathers, while synthesising those practices within the Hansetian and Raevir cultures, and the context of their time.

 

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GENESIS

 

 

The genesis of the Reinmaren subcultural identity had its seeds sown within the Waldenian tribes. In the society shaped around them, various tribes engaged in pillaging at the time due to the hostile geography they had found themselves in. The Reinmaren were virtually indistinguishable from their fellow Waldenians at this time, and had participated in the cultural practices within the same tribal identity.

 

According to the "Theoderik Inscriptions", which are stone monuments erected South of old Waldenia, the split with the main body of the Waldenians seems to have begun when a minor but populous family within the Waldenian hierarchy, the family of Chieftain Theoderik, started a feud with a larger family of the Chieftain Gelimar. The Gelimaren were placed higher on the regimental structure of their culture, but Theodorik’s folk, in a rare and paramount moment for the Waldenians, refused to obey their elder clan. The initial feud between the two clans had sparked when both clans were guarding the flank of the larger horde of a warlord named Jorik, and had disagreed upon looting rights while raiding the lands of the Raev he had assaulted, but the dispute would go on to become a larger dispute than either side could reconcile. 

 

The following is one translation of the text inscribed on the monument, highlighting the source of a feud. It seems to have stemmed from the rights of pillage:

 

"Theoderic the bold, chief of the Rein, ruled over the shores of the South. Now he sits armed on his horse, his shield strapped, eyeing forlorn the bounty of this year’s reyd from the kharenmanner.(the Raev)”

From the reyd, Ricimer, born of four brothers, rides empty-handed only with a bloody zvaerd."

 

"He tells tales of chief Gelimar’s earnings, and talks of his generosity. For the naked people, he gave clothing. For the poor people, he scattered riches. For the scanty people, he made numerous. Yet you scatter none before us, and I am left with crimson withers."

 

"It is the next dawn that the chief Gelimar is delivered a crimson spear from Theoderic, for he says that the men of Gelimar bore no arms against the kharenmanner. While they enjoy the bounty, Adelfrid, He who stood valiantly in the rear of the host receives none."
 

It is recorded that the Gelimaric clans would unite to fight the clan of Theodoric after this grave insult, a declaration of a feud. The two tribes of the Waldenians would fight for many moons, and the realm would suffer. The waters of Waldenland would be stained red as the high-ranking Waldenians stood dormant to the bloodshed. Theorodic’s own son, Alaric himself would be claimed by a Gelimaric axe, and Gelimar would fall before the chief’s spear.

 

While the two smaller tribes fought their bloody war, the larger Waldenian tribes at the time were beset with a larger danger brewing North, as the religion of Canonism grew exponentially, with the distraction of the larger tribes turning these warring small factions into an unnoticed speck within the political realities that surrounded them. Evidence from heirlooms of the surviving families, and general digging on the area seems to show that every major tribe in the borderlands of Canonist factions have experienced some level of effort on their conversion.
 

 

 

With battles of the Gelimaric and the Theoderican factions remaining unnoticed, no local authority could prevent the bloodshed from escalating. Villages were burned, slaves were taken and raiding was commonplace. Both of the Chiefs realised that the battle was draining their tribe of their already needed strength to survive, and resolved to bury the hatchet in a meeting.
 

"With the blood-price paid in high from both our kin and kith, we wish the Gods to see through our joint salvation. from this day onward, I pledge to protect my newfound brother Gelimar by any means possible, as one ought to protect one's brother, insofar as he does the same for me.”

- Words of Chief Theoderic, spoken on the subject of peace.

 

After a peace deal had been struck, the attention of the Waldenian Chieftains Gelimar and Theoderic turned to the conversion efforts done by the Canonists upon their neighboring tribes. Depleted from men after their battle, they resolved to unite their tribes through marriage with Gelimar’s daughter, and Theoderic’s son. The resulting child would be trained to become the Chief of the overall tribe.

 

Though the Canonists eventually came forth, and akin to a hammer hitting upon a piece of glass, the Waldenian tribes would be shattered through diplomatic or military victories against their pagan way of life. This isolated the tribe of the newly proclaimed tribe. With their homelands in danger and borders receding, over the years, the new Chief, a fully grown man now, would make the decision to retreat from their heartlands.

 

Upon fleeing the Canonist incursions, the tribe transformed and changed their way of life. They turned into avid riders, using horses to improve their standard of living within their semi-nomadic culture. They would roam the lands of other tribes, and foreign lands with their horses and move on with the migrating game to hunt and sustain themselves. This turned the tribesmen into avid riders, who could fight and shoot on horseback. The tribesmen continued their raiding traditions upon their neighbours and the locals would call them the ‘Reinmaren’, which is a mashup of the words ‘Rein’ and ‘Men’.

 

 

Depiction of the equestrian Reinmaren raiders.

 

Unknowingly, the Reinmaren had prepared themselves to stand up to the challenges of a feudal world that they would soon come to experience. Their skill in breeding horses and fighting on them placed them on par with the Knight-Retainers that the monarchs at the period employed extensively, making the skillset of the Reinmaren in high demand.

 

Until then a loosely confederated band of marauders, raiding and pillaging with no real direction or motive beyond profit and habit, the various Reinmaren tribes now found themselves evolving into mercenary companies, with the various petty kings and lordlings of the sundered North eager to direct their raids against their rivals. This life of blood and coin suited the Reinmaren well, and for generations these hereditary mercs were the bane and the blessing of many a lord of the North. But the destruction left in their wake was nothing compared to the annihilation of the Northern realms that would force them to abandon this way of life.

Around the turn of the 13th century in the modern calendar, although surely a different date in the ancient Reinmaren one, the Undead horde descended upon the North of Aegis, and empires were cut down in their relentless march like wheat before a scythe. The few unsettled Hansetian tribes who remained in the far North, where the ground was too cold to farm and life held on like the flicker of candle, were the first to be snuffed out. Their frantic flight south was the first warning to the settled Hansetians and Raevir of what was to come, but the warning arrived too late, and their realms too were shattered. And of course, the Reinmaren they often employed were also forced to ride south, with death at their backs.

 

Old Reinmaren handiwork depicting the importance and utilization of horses in warfare.

 

Terminating their flight in what seemed to be the most northerly territories still free from Undead grasp, the dispossessed Reinmaren immediately took to clearing room for themselves in these new lands. Unbeknownst to them, they had just entered the newly established Realm of Hanseti, and the Teutonic Order reacted warily towards the savages who were infringing upon their territory to set up camp. The Order sent a retinue of Sariants to pacify the Reinmaren tribes and bring them into the fold of Hanseti. The tired and broken Reinmaren were no match for the organised and disciplined Teutons and they submitted without a fight. They swore oaths to Gaius Marius and the realm in a ceremony on the banks of Lake Kippen.

 

Although the mercenary companies of old had been formally disbanded upon their assimilation into Hanseti, these divisions remained as the Reinmaren continued to identify themselves with the bands their forefathers had belonged to. In addition, with the journey to Asulon and the end of the Undead threat, there was once more coin to be had in fighting the wars of princes and lords, and wherever there was profit to be made, a band of Reinmaren sellswords was soon to follow. The existing warband divisions and the new ones created by the Asulonian companies, who often fought against each other, led to the foundation of the different clans and cultures of the Reinmaren that still exist today.

 

This period of settlement and increased peace was where one of the last Reinmaren chieftains, Enver Hosha made his mark. Focusing his tribal policies on the work of the Reinmaren individual and their contribution to the tribe as a whole, chief Hosha and his sons began the implementation and strengthening of a new mentality upon their tribes. The mentality of the prominence of hard work and competence. Every tribesman was either encouraged or forced to have some occupation by which they contributed to the clan as a whole. It did not matter what the occupation was, as long as it was productive and the individual showed the utmost respect and devotion to it. Hosha called these tribesmen Shqiptars, a term loosely translated to mean "hard worker", or "craftsman".
 

"It is not the status of the work that makes the Shqiptar. It is the Shqiptar that brings status to his work.”
- saying of Chief Hosha, words by which he taught the new Reinmaren generations
 

Through the bigenerational ruling of Chief Enver Hosha and his son, Haxhi Hysen, their tribal family, as well as the Reinmaren clan which they led, had become a group of hard working tribesmen, each devoted to their work, be it tending to the fields, or leading the tribe. Men and women were not judged or respected based on the nature of the work, but instead based on the devotion and competence they showed at their respective occupation.

 

Following the era of leadership of Chief Hosha and his son, the remaining Reinmaren tribes began being inducted into feudalism andi mplementing themselves into the Hansetian society, straying from their old life of aimless brutality and barbarism. Yet, they remained true to their ideals, culture, ideologies and rites, a good majority of these passed on generation through generation as unchanged traditions, whilst others were adapted to fit the ways and beliefs of the modern day.

 

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IM NAMEN GOTTES,

 

His Excellency Erich Barclay, Lord Treasurer of Hanseti-Ruska, Duke of Reinmar, Duke of Reinmar, Count of Kretzen, Baron of Sigradz and Freising, Lord of Wilheburg and Freisburg

 

Ser Osvald Barclay KML KC

 

[Capt_Chief26 1205]

“wer rastet der rostet” Spoke Reinhardt, as he recited to the Stoic words of House Barclay

Edited May 27, 2021 by Capt_Chief26