Friday, 31 March 2023

The History of Hepmonaland, Part 1 (-10,000 to -422 CY)


“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson


Hepmonaland
Little light filters down through the high canopy. What does bathes the tangled undergrowth in perpetual twilight. One might say shadow reigns. Shadow and suffocating gloom. Indeed, it is fetid, a suspended sweltering descending heavily through the tangle of branch and leaf that twist and hover above, layer over layer, as far as the eye cannot see. Chittering and howls, cackles and clacks and distant roars raise hackles, deceptively distant, yet as close as behind the arthritic roots that scamper underfoot. It is no wonder why, for long centuries, the shores of Hepmonaland deterred even the most curious from penetrating its defensive wall of shore. Tales of lost expeditions and withering disease frightened off all but the most adventurous, and the most avaricious, from venturing into that Dark Continent.
For several months, possibly even years, there have been reports of banditry in the jungles to the south. Merchants carrying precious loads of rare goods from the jungle lands have been way laid, their goods taken and their men captured or killed. Even then, those who survived these raids had to face headhunters, brain fever, giant leeches, cannibals, and leopards. Few men ever returned.
The stories they told were fantastic and addled, surely brought about by disease and the horrors with which they had to deal. Singing snakes, twisted and deformed ape-men. men who were not men, and writhing, horrid flowers filled their tales – surely such things were not to be believed. […]
Trees grow 100 to 200 feet high and are draped with lianas, orchids, ferns, and moss. More ferns and fungus grow heavily on the Jungle floor. Streams cascade down the slopes to fill swampy areas in the valleys. Snakes, birds, spiders, and insects populate the area. [I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City – 2]

To paint Hepmonaland with that singular brush would be in error. There is more to Hepmonaland than jungle, more than mystery and fear. It is a body as varied as the Flanaess.
Hepmonaland is actually a minor continent, the smallest of the four on Oerth. [LGG – 4]
One imagines that few have braved its dark depths; in that you would be wrong. It is a cradle of civilisation, mayhap the first, home of the Olman and Tuov and their nations and empires. But the mighty nations of the Flanaess could never imagine such possibilities, gazing at the dense mists that veiled the tall, formidable jungle across the Tilva Strait, from whence those howls and crackles and chittering drift.
How long ago did civilisation bloom under that canopy? Long ago, long before the Olman’s and the Tuov’s.
Indeed, the first hint of civilisation is not even human. They say that troglodytes ruled the jungles, and beastmen.

Dakon - Beastmen
c. -10,000 CY
Beastman tribes tend to keep to themselves, communicating only with other beastman tribes. They use and produce few artifacts, and hence have little interest in trade. They speak their own language, but a few individuals can converse haltingly in the common tongue. The bulk of their population seems to be in the Amedio Jungle, although there are reputed to be beastmen tribes in the jungles of Hepmonaland as well. [GA – 21]
How civilised were they? One wonders. The jungle decays everything but stone. And even stone is soon invaded by a persistent growth, the roots finding purchase, inveigling, penetrating, cracking and crumbling all but the most enduring of construction.

Were those beastmen the first to pile one stone upon the other? I doubt it. They may have only squatted in what came before.
c. -8000 CY
Who then did? Legends say the Torhoon, the Tall Walkers.
Their earliest mention is by Andy Miller in Ex Keraptis Cum Amore, in Dungeon #77 (December 1999):
The Torhoon
[A]n ancient race called the Torhoon (whose empire, based on alchemy and magic, was centered in Hepmonaland over 8,000 years ago), the mad lich [Orlysse] crafted his dungeon on their writings and style. He strove to make the dungeon seem authentically ancient, going so far as to use the ancient Torhoon language in his riddles and fill the place with Torhoon artifacts of his own.
[Dungeon #77 – 33]
Only a comprehend languages spell or similar magic allows the PCs to decipher the ancient, dead language of the Torhoon. [Dungeon #77 – 34]
Who were these Torhoon? According to Andy Miller, they were human:
A [7’] tall man suddenly appears in front to you. He is human, although his body is hairless and his features are slightly elongated. He wears a loose, black toga and watches you with large, unblinking eyes. [Dungeon #77 – 48]
One such was the despotic sorcerer Kellex Zyrrinyth, who lived more than 8,000 years ago. [Dungeon #77 – 47]
Little else is mentioned. There are references to Torhoon writings and pyramids and Torhoon wights and mummies and mists, of Torhoon magic and alchemy, although none of it differs much from contemporary versions, except that Orlysse could not duplicate all of the spells known to the ancient Torhoon sorcerers. [Dungeon #77 – 53]
Andy Miller is somewhat vague as to who and what they were. It’s all well and good to make references to the past, but those references ought to have some concrete anchor in canon, to my mind. One wonders – I do, anyway – whether Mr. Miller and Mr. Sean Reynolds were working hand in hand when Sean made these comments in his The Scarlet Brotherhood accessory, of the same year:
Southern Hepmonaland
Onave, the youngest son of King Onatal […] found […] strange writings in the earth [in the hills of Imianme.]
[SB – 51]
[A]n oddly-constructed ruin near the [Okeo] hills is said to have been built by an ancient race of people that predate the Tuov, possibly the ones the people of Banyo call “The Tall Walkers.” [SB – 58]
Reports surface from time to time of unusual ships on Byanbos shores piloted by beings the locals call “The Tall Walkers.” [SB – 48]
Are the Tall Walkers and the Torhoon one and the same? Maybe. They could very well be.
The Tall Walkers could, in contemporary times, presumably be the Suel, seeing that there are no other mentions of the Torhoon ever again, but they are most likely not. The Suel are referred to as the white-skinned northerners [SB – 50] and the ”white demons” [SB – 48] by the Tuov.
So, who then were they?
I shall table a theory, seeing that no other writer of Greyhawk lore chose to address this: The humans of the southeast are all descended from one stock, the Torhoon. Where did they come from? That is lost to time. Speculate as you will, by I like to think that they were servants of a long-ago departed or deceased proto-reptilian species that tinkered with genetics. Nothing is known now of either, but the very sight of their artifacts still cause terror in the minds of humans and demihumans, alike. The Suel, in their strange aspect and cruelty, terrify the Tuov, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that the Tuov are applying their ancient “boogieman” to these newcomers.

-6233 CY
What became of the Torhoon? Your guess is as good as mine; but, as is usually the case, Torhoon civilisation collapsed, whether by war, internal strife, by the maleficence of their most powerful and misguided. Left to their own devices, those who survived invariably rose again, if by a new name.
The Kersi
A group of beautiful dark skinned humans called Kersi from over the southern sea from a large island continent they called AnaKeri arrived on the southern portion of the Flanaess in large wooden platformed outriggers.
(-717 SD) [OJ1 – 5]
Could the Kersi be the Olman?
The Olman of Hepmonaland have rich red-brown or dark-brown skin, straight hair and dark brown eyes. They have high sheekbones and high-bridged noses, although those of more common stock have less definition in these characteristics. [SB – 36]
Why not? It’s not like the Olman appeared out of thin air. Unless they did, that is, which is unlikely, but stranger things have happened. The Rhennee did, after all; so it’s not without precedence. But I imagine that the Olman did not, that the Olman had always been there, whether called Almek or Olman or Kersi.

-6067 CY
Time passes and the Kersi will not be contained under their canopy. Plentiful azure seas lured them out from their coasts. An open sky, strings of islands, banks and shoals. Then to the Tilva, the Tilvenot, the Duxchans, the Olmans. And upon those southern seas they were sure to meet others as eager to explore as they.
The Se-Ul began systematized trading with the tribes to the north and east. The Baklun in the northern plains, and the Flan who dwelt just west of the mountains were among these. Sea trade routes to AnaKeri are developed.  The Thirteen Cities of the Suel develop into separate city-states, but all are ruled by a single council of lords under the watchful eye of the grey elves, watchfulness that men begin to dislike intensely. (-551 SD) [OJ1 – 5]

The South Seas
-5531 CY
Were the Suloise more advanced than the Kersi? Possibly. The Suel had been tutored by the Grey Elves. One might imagine, however, that the Kersi had a history, a Torhoon history, and that they had skills of their own. But that is speculation. What is known is that the Suel saw the world they ventured out into as a place to be conquered.
After a series of strong "First Protectors" and the development of the interior lands, First Protector Alianor-b-Hurn turns his eyes outward, and desires more control of the trade goods. He first attacks the settlements of the Kersi to the south, and proclaims their lands forfeit to the Seul peoples. He then begins planning "The great invasion" of AnaKeri. (-15 SD) [OJ11 – 56]

-5528 CY
A Maelstrom of Wind and Wild Seas
Hubris reigned in the lands of the Suloise, as they sought to conquer all the peoples of the world. But the Kersi and AnaKeri remembered their Torhoon past.
Alianor sends a large naval force to invade AnaKeri.  The outriggers of the AnaKeri are no matches for the mighty warships of the Suel.  As the massive armada approaches the clerics of the AnaKeri call upon the elemental princes for protection.  The princes encircle the island continent with a maelstrom of wind and wild seas and much of the invading fleet is destroyed.  Those that do land are met with upheavals in the land itself and, at last, by beings of elemental fire.  A few of the invaders return to tell the tale.  The wall of wind and water remains behind circling the continent of AnaKeri to this very day. (-12 SD) [OJ11 – 56]

c. -2400 CY
Troglodytes
Had the reptiles disappeared from the Oerth? Far from it. Troglodytes had inherited the jungles before the beastmen and the Torhoon. However, they were greatly diminished with the cooling of Oerik. Millenia had passed since the continent was the hot, humid, steamy tangle of growth it once was. Ice had flowed from the northern reaches, not once, not twice, but thrice; and the reptiles had retreated to more hospitable climes, finding a more habitable home under the canopies of Hepmonaland and the Amedio. There they thrived, as they had where tundra grasses and temperate woodlands now flourished. It comes then, to no surprise, that even as humans cut their first stones, and sharpened their first sticks, and kindled their first fires, that troglodytes were erecting ziggurats amid sprawling cities, and staking empires.
The Olman and the Amedian are not the first intelligent races to rule the Amedio jungle. Fragmentary records from the Olman city of Tamoachan and other sites indicate that the earliest civilization of this region belonged to a race of reptiles almost identical to modern-day troglodytes. These beings lived more than three thousand years ago and were evil and quarrelsome. Worshipping various demon princes, they claimed trophies such as skulls and skins from their enemies—normally rival tribes that worshipped demon princes—and developed advanced means of mummification; preserved bodies of animals and the ancient troglodytes appear in certain sites, and writings imply that their sorcerer-kings had themselves mummified in hopes of continuing beyond death. [SB – 62]

c. –2400s
Quetzalcoatl
Gods need worshippers. It is a simple fact. They diminish and die without them. So, it comes as no surprise that those who’ve misplaced theirs must find others. And it comes as no surprise that these gods should look exactly like these new worshippers. Or so they would have us believe. According to Olman legend, this is about the time that the Olman gods discovered Oerth and the Olman peoples. So, one wonders: where did these Olman gods come from? Without? Or within?
The Olman gods are not native to Oerth, having been worshipped first by beings on another prime material plane. At some point around 3000 years ago, these gods discovered Oerth and the Olman people, and revealed themselves as supernatural beings to the primitive Olman. [SB – 42]

Mictlantecuhtli
Camazotz, god of bats
Huhueteotl, god of Fire and Motion of Time
Mictlantecuhtli, god of Death
Quetzalcoatl, god of the Air, Birds, and Snakes
Tezctlipoca, god of the Sun, Moon, Night, Scheming and Betrayals
Tlaloc, god of Rain
[SB – 42,43]

Who are the Olman People, anyway? They are an old people, indeed, as old as the Suel, as old as the Flan. Are they an off-shoot of the Flan? Have they the same ancestral root?
Some consider the Olman to be distantly related to the Flan, but there is of yet little evidence to corroborate this. [SB – 36]
Who can say? The origins of man and elves, as are the origins of Oerth and Oerik, a mystery.
Most agree on this: The gods created Oerik. The gods created Man. The gods created etc. Maybe. Then again, maybe not.
The Olman might have shared a common ancestor with the Flan, but they are not Flan.
The Olman originated on Hepmonaland, raising a number of city-states from the jungles of that land. Through centuries of warfare, they built an empire that spanned northern Hepmonaland and reached across the Densac Gulf to include the Amedio Jungle. [LGG – 6]
They do look somewhat like the Flan.
Pure Flan have bronze skin, varying from a light copper hue to a dark, deep brown. Flan eyes are usually dark brown, black, brown, or amber. Hair is wavy or curly and typically black or brown (or any shade between). The Flan have broad, strong faces and sturdy builds. [LGG – 5]
A little. But not entirely.
The Olman have skin of a rich red-brown or dark brown color. Their hair is always straight and black, and their eyes are dark, from medium brown to nearly black. Olman have high cheekbones and high-bridged noses, a trait less strong in those of common birth. Some nobles still flatten the foreheads of their young, for a high, sloping shape is considered beautiful. [LGG – 6]

Were these Olman civilised? Did they erect ziggurats to their gods? Or did they still cling to those few clearings in their jungle, or upon reed rafts in vast swamps and estuaries, eking out existence where beastmen and troglodytes did not still reign?
Savages from the Amedio Jungle or Hepmonaland would have skills in long distance signaling, running, possibly paddled small craft, sound imitation, and trap building. Their required initial weapons would also include the blowgun or short bow, club, and dart or javelin in the Amedio. With respect to Hepmonaland, the atlatl and javelin, club, and short sword are typical weapons. [Dragon #63 – 11]

Tied to the land, they sought to tame it.
Jungle Druid
WG: Amedio Jungle, Hepmonaland [Dragon #209 – 14]

And in time master it.
Skull-Staff of Hepmonaland (C, M): This is a 7‘ long pole that is topped with a skull with a wild mane of white hair and sharp, demonic features. The shaman who uses the staff claims that it is the skull of an ancient demon, though many suspect that it belonged to an evil wizard who died in the hands of head-hunters in Hepmonaland. [GA – 74]

Cloak of the Couatl
This item is a short cloak made of couatl feathers. [It allows] the wearer to fly [, and] become invisible at will [.] This item is normally only found in Hepmonaland and the Amedio. [SB – 86]

-2269 CY
The Suloise claimed dominion over dragonkind, and command of all humanity was within their grasp.
The years of Conquest and Prosperity begin. No major foe opposes the might of the empire of the Seuloise, although they do not push Eastward, because of some fear of the Elven hosts. Magic is rigorously pursued. Old Grey Elven texts are discovered and studied. The might and haughtiness of the Elves is copied in manner in the courts; their wisdom is not. Slavery becomes common and widespread in the Seuloise lands; this continues for many centuries. The Flanae in the southeast (just west of the Hellfurnaces), the Oerid to the east, the Kersi (the long distant descendants of those who first sailed from AnaKeri) to the south, and the Baklun to the north, and several unnamed small tribes to the west all fall under the grip of the Seuloise fist. The entire of the western half of Oerik, is controlled by the Seul. But the drow and darker forces, and a fear of other elves, halt the eastern expansion. (3247 SD) [OJ1 – 57,58]

-2266 CY
Did the Flan find birth in the West? Or the East? Did they spill out upon the Flanaess, or had they venture west until they found and scaled the mountains there, only to discover the cruelty of the Suel? Wherever and whatever their long-lost origins, the Flan escaped Suloise dominion. Those who did poured over the Hellfurnaces, where history tells us that they met the elves, and the dwarves.
The Flanae, under the protection of Beory, Pelor and Rao flee their lands in mass, making a perilous crossing of the Hellfurnaces. They move North into the lands of Eastern Oerik, later called the Flanaess, as the first human inhabitants of the area. Initially, they are well received by the demi-humans. (3250 SD) [OJ1 – 13,58]

-1932 CY
Before long, they found waters that spanned the whole of the Oerth. Or perhaps they had always been there. It was upon the shores of these waters, they would soon discover that there were more peoples upon this Oerth than they had hitherto believed to be true.
The first reports of strange cities to the south worshipping strange gods are reported by the Flanae. These people (according to Flan sources) call themselves Almeks (Olmec in the Common tongue). (3584 SD/215 FT) [OJ1 – 13]
These Almek were not the Kersi, they discovered. Nor were they native to the Flaneass. They had sailed from a far-off land, a hot, jungled land, one they gestured to lay many days journey to the east. Although great effort was made, neither could make themselves understood, except in the most rudimentary way, as neither spoke the tongue of the other.
Where were these shores? One imagines they were close to where the Flan had presumably first settled in the Flanaess: Keoland.

The Azure Sea
c –1900s
These Almek were indeed from a far-off land. They were not alone there, either.
As in most places on Oerth, the first human occupants [of Hepmonoland] are lost to the mists of time. By two and a half thousand years ago, the tribes of Touv wandered the [savannah] and lower jungles of Hepmonaland, farming small plots and chasing herds of wild cattle. In the deeper jungles to the north, similarly uncivilized tribes of Olman warred with each other and built shrines to their gods, occasionally discovering or destroying a ruin their legends said had been built by a bat-like humanoid race that had left or been exterminated several hundred years before. [SB – 36]

The Tuov
The Touv people have dark brown or black skin, blue or brown eyes, with black eyes being rare; and straight or wavy hair. They have rounded facial features and are typically shorter than most people of the Flanaess, with the tallest Touv reaching about 5’10” in height. While most Touv males do not have facial hair, certain subgroups can grow beards from their chins. Women’s figures are often rounded and lush.
[SB – 36]
The Touv people as a whole avoid traveling the sea. [SB – 37]

They too had their gods, gods that painted or mirrored their perception of their world.
Berna, demigoddess of Passion and Forgiveness
Breeka, goddess of Living Things
Damaran, demigod of Vermin and Cowardice
Katay, god of Decay, Inevitability, order and Time
Kundo, god of Building, Noise, Music, and Defense
Meyanok, god of Serpents, Poison, Discord, Darkness, and Famine
Nola, goddess of the Sun
Uvot, god of prosperity
Vara, demigoddess of Nightmanes and Fear
Vogon, god of Weather and Storms
Xanag, god of Metals and Beauty
[SB – 40,41]

Meyanok
c –1900 to –1500 CY
But where the Suel and the Flan had discovered the secret of bronze, and the fashioning of weapons with it, the Olman of Hepmonaland had not. But they marvelled at the slim, shining stone that the Flan had carried; and they sought to divine the secret of it themselves. Its discovery changed them. Their weapons were no longer blunt wood and stone. They were sharp, and their keen edge allowed those tribes that wielded them to conquer the others.
Over the next 400 years, the Olman learned to work stone and bronze and built great cities in the heart of the jungle—clearing land around them for farming—and raising great temples to honor their deities. Four Olman city-states formed from the original tribes, and all delighted in warring on each other, claiming prisoners as live sacrifices. The northernmost nation, Xuxulieto, was broken by a combined effort of two of its neighbors, and the resources were divided up among the survivors; its capital was abandoned and soon overrun by humanoids. [SB – 36]

Dwellers of the Forbidden City (I1) is set within Hepmonaland at hex Y-109. [FtAA – 72]

-1408 CY
Long had the Tuov wandered the savannah, tending their herds before they too settled, raising cities of their own, crowning their first king in Kundanol. Thus was the kingdom of Kunda born.
The start date for the Touv calendar is the crowning of the first Touv King in Kundanol; this date is year 1 to the Touv, […] or approximately 1408 years before 1 CY. Before the uniting of the Touv tribes, several families or priesthoods employed unique calendars, but these alternatives have fallen from usage and been forgotten in the intervening millennia. (4108 SD/ 743 FT) [SB – 38]

Onatal consolidated his power, and decreed those beneath him to increase those lands he deemed should be his. For was not his the strongest of the Tuov tribes? Before long, the whole of the savannah should be his, unto and into the jungles in the north, unto the sea. And beyond. Where he faced those who took umbrage to his claim.
When Onatal, First king of the Kunda, defeated his brother Onak for rulership of the Touv people, he sent his brother northward to start a new city. Onak found a fertile plain inhabited by wild cattle at the foot of the river Ake, and claimed it in the names of himself and his brother. The city he built prospered despite occasional attacks by sahuagin, and tribute flowed regularly back to Kundanol [.] [SB – 50]

When the first king of the Kunda was crowned, Onave, the youngest son of King Onatal, was sent to the hills of Imianme to discover what creatures lived there. He and his family found curious beasts, strange writings in the earth, and great caves that were the source of many precious stones After sending his eldest son back to the king to tell of this place, Onave and his wife built the first houses of Kundaxi. [SB – 51]
There they are, those strange and ancient writings. Etched by an unknown “hand.” By the Torhoon? Perhaps. But might this writing find its origin in something even more ancient? Something more sinister?

Something serpentine?
-1400 to -1200 CY
The Kundali began to settle a larger and larger area, eventually coming into contact with the martial Olman states to the north. Replused by the Olman use of human sacrifice and their worship of a serpent god – the primary Touv evil god was Meyanok, a serpent-deity – the Kundali declared war upon the Olman. [SB – 36]
Might the Tuov’s oldest legends be replete with Tall Walkers, with snakes and serpents and elder reptiles so evil that they could not help but be repulsed at their first sight?

-1250 CY
Not all Tuov wished to live under the benevolent rule of the kings of Kunda. Few were allowed the luxury not to, but there were a few who proved the exception. (159 TC)
Iyapo was created as a private woodland retreat by Arakay, one of the rare Kunda wizards. When logging encroached on the retreat, the wizard moved on but left his fortifications behind, and the loggers moved in. Extensive logging eventually cleared the forest, but by that time it had become a well-developed city with many secondary businesses and farms, ranches and villages sprang up along the road to Kundaxa. Iyapo was declared an official city-state by the kingdom in -1250 CY. It still supports a disproportionate number of wizards. [SB – 50]
One wonders why Kunda wizards are so rare? It’s not that they are not able. Might memory of the Torhoon be at that root?

c. -1125 CY
The ancient kingdom of Ahlissa, ruled by the Flan and easily conquered by Aerdy, is known today only for its founding wizard-queen, Ehlissa the Enchantress, and a magical nightingale she made. [LGG – 13]
[T]he Flan […] inhabitants […] had controlled these islands and plied the surrounding waters for centuries. [LGG – 70]
Were the Olman aware of what transpired north of their canopied continent? Of Flan domination of the Flanaess? Ahlissa, after all, was but a stone throw away. And had not Ahlissa’s ships plied the waters for centuries. Had not the Olman? They had; indeed the “Almek” had long ago landed upon Flan shores as far flung as those that would one day be Keoland’s.

-1100 CY
Yuan-ti
The Almek had long ago landed on foreign shores? Did they stop there? Surely not; how else could they have known of far Amedio, had they not landed there? This was fortuitous, as there were those among the Olman who were preoccupied with secrets that once buried, ought to have remained forgotten.
Approximately -1100 CY, a century before the great Olman migration into the Amedio jungle, the high priests of the city-states of Alocotla and Xapatlapo made a pact with the god Tlaloc. After a ceremonial sacrifice and the consumption of a thousand infants, all who partook of the grizzly feast were reshaped into snakelike forms, with those who consumed the largest portions most changed.  These changes bred true, and the ophidian priests continued to rule the two cities, passing the mantle of leadership to their direct descendants. The monsters of Alocotla spread into the countryside, diluting their tainted blood with the remaining humans, eventually drawing all of them into the cold embrace of the serpent-men. The human aspects of the yuan-ti of this nation have Olman traits, while their snake parts are predominately dark green with red or black patterns. [SB – 47]

Like its sister city Alocotla, Xapatlapo was turned into a city of Yuan-ti after swearing a dark pact with Tlaloc. They, too, crawled and slithered into the most remote villages of Xapatlapo and corrupted the flesh of the people. [SB – 54]
Had the Olman not sailed into the unknown west they might had long ago been lost. Subsumed.

-1100 to -1000 CY
Subsumption was not their only threat. The Kundali had every desire to rid the world of a people that would court ancient elder evils. Little did the Kundali know that most Olman city-states were of the same mind.
[T]he war [with the Kundali] did not stop the Olman states from fighting each other [.] [SB – 36]

The capture and conversion of two of the Olman city-states into yuan-ti communities wounded the Olman morale, and eventually a large number of Olmani migrated to the north end of Hepmonaland and onto the Tilvanot peninsula and Olman Islands, with most settling in the Amedio jungle. [SB – 36]

c. -1050 CY
The Yuan-ti
But the Olman city-states were losing their wars on all fronts.
Ichamamna was originally an Olman city dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl. The decadence and snake-worship of this city first attracted the attention of the Touv people, and Ichamamna was the first city to fall to the might of the warriors of the Kingdom of Kunda. The Touv took over the city and reconsecrated it in the name of their own gods, then attacked their northern neighbor, Xapatlapo, with aid from the Touv warriors of Tolanok. When the yuan-ti proved intractable, the Touv continued westward around the serpent city to drive the remaining Olman out. [SB – 49]
It was only a matter of time before they were in full retreat.
Jolan was […] the second territory conquered after Ichamamna. Early skirmishes against Tolanok convinced most of the Olman there to abandon their homes, and the settlers of Jolan quickly turned to working their land instead of fighting for it. [SB – 50]

c. -1000 CY
Just as the Flan were migrating into the Pomarj, so too were the Olman beginning their mass migration from Hepmonaland unto the Olman Islands, and into the Amedio jungle, and beyond, into the southern seas.
They had little choice. The Tuov struck back at the warlike Olman, loath to accept their northern neighbour’s raids and subsequent slaughters any longer. And as the Tuov pressed the Olman ever further back into their jungles, they were horrified to discover the dark depravities the Olman had sunk to.
An Abandoned Civilisation
Internal strife and wars with another human race, the dark Touv, caused them to abandon their old cities. Many Olman migrated to the Amedio, where they maintained their civilization for several more centuries.
[LGG – 6]
The Kundali had little trouble sacking the remaining Olman cities, usually driving the survivors into the wilderness. [SB – 36]
Although most Olman fled Hepmonaland when invading Tuov proved too strong, those of Alocotla stayed and fought, managing to retain control of much of their territories. They fought occasional wars against the neighboring city-states, spied on their Xapatlapoan cousins, and seemed mostly content to rule their own lands. [SB – 47]

Cuhuetla was one of the last Olman holdouts in Hepmonaland. When its defending warriors were overwhelmed by Touv forces, the city surrendered and was immediately occupied by Touv forces. Generally a benign man, the King of Kunda’s edicts to the occupied nation mainly banned worship of Olman gods and violent acts. [SB – 49]
The last Olmani to traverse the seas were the men and women who fled to the Amedio a thousand years ago. [SB – 37]
Not all Olman abandoned Hepmonaland, though. Some remained. Presumably those who could not escape.

-720 CY
Newly Conquered Lands
Or those who refused to go willingly. Indeed, those Olman who remained fought the Touv with the ferocity of the jaguar, and the stealth and speed of the viper, until the Tuov feared the twilight under the jungle canopy. But the Tuov would not be pressed back out of their hard gained territory. They raised crenelated walls and palisades, redouts and fortresses as the pushed ever forward, eager to be rid of the Olman once and for all. Until they could push no more. (689 TC)
As the Tuov swept north to drive out the Olman, they built fortifications to defend their newly conquered lands. The northernmost fort was Anatal, built in -720 CY at the base of the Fyalo hills, at the edge of the jungle close to the sea.  [SB – 47]
The Xapatlapoans resisted the Tuov attempts to drive them out during the Olman exodus [.] [SB – 54]

-700s CY
In the course of time, the Olman were depleted, with only a remnant remaining of the nation that was. So few remained that many Tuov believed that they were no more.
After several years of encountering no hostile Olman, [Touv] prospectors discovered a strong vein of platinum. This caused a huge influx of prospectors and miners into [Anatal’s] environs, and in short order the place grew into a small city. While the platinum ran out more quickly than expected, several stable gem mines had been established and kept the city alive, supplemented by trading rare spices and plentiful food grown in the rich soil. [SB – 47]

-505 CY
Without a common enemy it was only a matter of time before Kundi would fall upon their own.
[T]he Prince of Vay Nama (“ugly border”) has always had an eye toward acquiring more land, and has attacked the southern border of Kevot on more than one occasion, which resulted in its prince being replaced and the city put under martial law by the King in -505 CY. [SB – 54]

-447 CY
Events in the west were soon to affect the east. Some Suel were disenchanted with the state of their State and sought refuge far from their beloved emperor and his war.
Zellifar-ad-Zol, son of the Emperor, mage/high priest of Beltar, breaks with his father and takes over 8,000 Suloise loyal to himself, and flees the kingdom, eastward. [OJ11 – 59]
Where would he lead these 8,000 refugees? Into the unknown? Perhaps. But doubtful. The Suel had long ago ventured out of their vast valley, to explore, to trade, to conquer and enslave. Surely theu had ports and post, waystations and settlements. Surely these Suel would have fled there. Wouldn’t they?

-441 CY to -423 CY
Zellifar’s refugees headed east.  Along the Keoland coast, the shores of the Woolly Bay, onward to Onnwal and Idee. Even unto the Tilevnot.
The Zolites scatter the Flannae before them, and move south to the Tilvanot Peninsula. [OJ11 – 59]

-422 CY
The Rain of Colourless Fire
Things were about to change in the Flanaess. That distant war waged by the Suloise and Bakluni were to have far-reaching effect. As no war had had before. And by consequence, things were soon to change in Hepmonaland, as well, because of it.
Invoked Devastation and Rain of Colourless Fire Strike
When the Invoked Devastation came upon the Baklunish, their own magi brought down the Rain of Colorless Fire in a last terrible curse, and this so affected the Suloise Empire as to cause it to become the Sea of Dust. [Folio – 5]
When the Rain of Colorless Fire ended the Age of Glory and brought down the Empire, the tribes [of the Suloise] decided to seek their fate to the east, in the lands of the Flan. [WoGG – 61]


“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein





One must always give credit where credit is due. This History is made possible primarily by the Imaginings of Gary Gygax and his Old Guard, Lenard Lakofka among them, and the new old guards, Carl Sargant, James Ward, Roger E. Moore. And Erik Mona, Gary Holian, Sean Reynolds, Frederick Weining. The list is interminable.
Special thanks to Jason Zavoda for his compiled index, “Greyhawkania,” an invaluable research tool.


The Art:
Jungle, from Tomb of Annihilation, 2017 
Dakon, by Alan Hunter, from Fiend Folio, 1981
Southern Hepmonaland map, by Sam Wood, from The Scarlet Brotherhood, 2000
The South Seas detail, by Darlene, from World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
Troglodyte, by David C. Sutherland III, from Monster Manual 1e, 1977, 1978
Quetzalcoatl, from Deities & Demigods, 1980
Mictlantecuhtli, by Jeff Dee, from Deities & Demigods, 1980
The Ancient Flannae, by David A. Roach, from The Adventure Begins, 1998
The Azure Sea detail, by Darlene, from World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
Serpent god, by David C. Sutherland, from Deities & Demigods, 1980
The Yuan-ti, by Erol Otus, from I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, 1981
The Rain of Colourless Fire, by Erol Otus, from World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980

Sources:
1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983
1064 From the Ashes Boxed Set, 1992
1068 Greyhawk Wars Boxed Set, 1991
2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st Ed., 1979
2023 Greyhawk Adventures, 1988
9025 World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
9046 I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden, 1980
11374 The Scarlet Brotherhood, 1999
11742 Gazetteer, 2000
11743 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, 2000
Dragon Magazine #63, 209
Dungeon Magazine #77
Oerth Journal #1, 11
Greychrondex, Wilson, Steven B.
Greyhawkania, Jason Zavoda
The map of Anna B. Meyer

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