Tokundian people

The Tokundian people are fused together forever by their shared ancestry. Their violent past continues to haunt them to this day. Their children are brought up with their grandparents recitations of the Tokundian national epics, the Ríša's of the Štefan, the survival of the Tokindian race through Princ Konstantin's march through the wilderness, Vasiljs creation of a new Eden, and the legends of Cišer Lazar the Majatran slayer all form the Tokundian national cult that fuels endemic racism against all non-Tokundians.

Ancient to Feudal History (400bce-600)
The ancient Deltarians were once a group of nomadic alpine tribes, who travelled most of Terra before settling in the modern-day Republic of Deltaria, in Majatra. Their original homelands were thought to be a series of mountains within the borders of modern-day Dundorf, but even that is just conjecture.

It is known they weaved their way from Artania through most of Terra, retaining a fierce protectionist attitude towards their own culture, but appropriating the technological advancements of other civilisations for themselves, before settling in the desert climes of Majatra. Despite encountering so many foreign peoples and cultures, and slowly travelling south over thousands of years, they remained much unchanged physically or culturally from the beginning of their recorded history, due to fierce religiously instilled xenophobia. Although a strong theme to their primative religion was 'The Great Journey', several tribes broke off to settle unpopulated lands during the travels, most notably the Zargunia tribe who wreaked havoc apon the neighbouring Hobratz tribe for two-hundred years during The Land Wars, long before the two fledgling nations merged into one.

The Landing (600-900)
When the Deltarian people arrived in Majatra, their religious fervor was waning. Many clerics and shamans argued that they had reached the ends of the earth, and the Great Journey was over. For whatever reason, all remaining Deltarian tribes chose to settle, with only several hundred individuals continuing the Great Journey by themselves. The natives at the time were nomadic and of a stone-age culture, and after several minor skirmishes learned to keep well away from the superior weaponry of the Deltarian tribes. As Deltarian expansion continued, however, enemy tribes found themselves being forced further and further into the territories of their own Majatran enemies. Skirmishes broke out, some between Deltarian and natives, some between different tribes of natives as their desperation to find refuge from the new and terrifying culture drove them against each other. Widespread rumours reached almost the ends of Majatra about terrifying demonic warriors with sunburned skin and painted faces, weilding clubs that fired spikes through the air, axes of shiny rock that was impossibly hard and sharp, and who released savage monster dogs into battle before them, with jaws so large they could crush the head of a man, and skulls so thick a fully swung battle-club could not shatter them.



By this stage there were six major Deltarian tribes left, the Darali, Ushalande, Doron Akigo, Alazinder, Dissuwa and the dominant Tokundi. Their massive expansion changed the lives and cultures of the natives forever, and turned sworn enemies into cautious allies, and the Majatran natives were beginning to band together to launch effective raids and attacks on Deltarian settlements. The reprisal was horrific in magnitude. Thousands of Deltarian soldiers marched from their lands in every direction except the ocean, slaughtering everything in their path. All forms of native life and settlement were extinguished for over one hundred kilometres in every direction from the edges of the Deltarians expansion. It was at this time the Deltarian tribes fell into a prolonged civil war, permanently halting outward expansion. For centuries later, even as the native civilisations began to flourish, they were always loathe to venture towards Deltarian lands, from fears and superstitions carried to them from oral history, speaking of a long-forgotten demonic enemy.

The Feudal Wars and Tokundi Dominance (900-1200)
The six tribes had by then evolved into fiefs, with a Thane controlling each region. Hundreds of years of constant warfare and treachery turned the people fearful and cynical, and always ready to drop their farming implements to pick up axes and crossbows, but loathe to beat them into a ploughblade once the immediate fighting was over. Fiefs changed alliances quickly, and Thanes even quicker. Brothers would poison brothers, sons would poison fathers. Amongst the Darali, Alizander and Dissuwa tribes, the title of Thane was transferrable to the killer of the old Thane, and so bodyguards would become assassins to become kings, only to be slain by their former comrades several days later.



During this period the Tokundi tribe came to dominate their fellow Thanes. Their army had been strengthend with the creation of the Huscarle's, permanant bodyguards for nobles of Tokundi. Under the ledership of Thane Štefan IV, they skillfully used the art of diplomacy to undermine the other tribes, forging alliance with renegades and pacts with the weaker tribes they were successfully able to destroy their opponents in a series of battles. Victory was followed by great slaughters of other tribes folk, settlements were raised to the ground, women were raped and enslaved, men were brutally executed, the Tokundi soldiers would often take fathers and sons, or brothers, and make them fight one another to the death, before turning the fearsome Tokundi Hounds onto the 'victor'. Thane Štefan used his victory to create a Tokundian Ríša, an Empire, proclaiming himself Cisár Štefan I, Král' of the Delta's, thus launching Deltaria into a new era of Ríšsky rule

Downfall of the Ríša and Civil War (1200-1800)


The Tokundian Ríša continued amost unopposed for the next two hundred years. Under the rules of the Cisár's Deltarian art and culture flourished, the administration of the empire was stabalized, sound finance was introduced and the Cisár's decrees led to the creation of a judicial infrastructure, bringing about the end of trial by ordeal and reducing the arbitary powers of the Thanes. Cisár Štefan I was followed by eight other Cisár's, all bearing the name Štefan. With the Huscarle's unchallenged, the other tribes pacified and the natives retreating further into the jungles of Majatra, the Ríša seemed secure and was able to push Deltaria through a century of relative peace and prosperity.

However brutality towards the other Deltarian tribes, forcing them into a status little better than that of the native tribes that circled the empire, continued unabated. Gradually as the Cisár's rule became increasingly centralised Cisár Štefan VIII began to interfere with the minor nobles independence. His son's, Cisár Štefan IX, rule became untenable upon his succession to the throne. The power of the Tokundian huscarle's was overwhelmed as regional nobles aligned themselves with the oppressed tribes. At the Battle of Sagfred, the Huscarle's were beaten, Cisár Štefan IX, his wife, and his three sons were cut down after the battle, their bodies mutilated. Several prominiant Tokundian Thanes attempted to restore the power of the Cisár, but with the Ríšsky line extinguished, their efforts proved futile. Royal garrisons were reduced one by one, vengeance carried out upon any Tokundians unlucky enough to be captured. Tortured and horrifically mutilated bodies hung from the walls of most towns, wild animals fought for the scraps of rotting Tokundian flesh, pregnant relatives of the last Cisár had their babies ripped out in the great public square of the former Ríšsky capital as the former followers and servants of Cisár Štefan IX were hacked to death. The attacks upon Tokundian tribesmen continued unabated for a decade. A few thousand Tokundian survivors fled south forming a Kingdom in what is now the Republic of Cobura, however they left behind them several hundred thousand corpses. With the collapse of the Ríša the remaining five tribes once again formed their old Thanes, destroying the changes to governance brought about by the infamous Cisár's.