Once the northernmost edge of the isolated Stetin people, Ereithaler graduated from the status of a marcher state to a powerful regional power, largely by expanding through a series of wars against the weaker Frelesti states still further to their north and rapid expansion following the decline of Brunn.
Ereithaler as a prominent state is divided in two major eras; firstly the Ereithaler kingdom era, starting with the emergence from the shadows of the other Stetin during the great Aitahist crusade by Brunn against Seehlt, and second the Commonarchy, starting with the collapse of the Court Rule Period and lasting till the end of written history. (910 SR)
The first era's prominence was a result of the dynastic monarchs playing their cards carefully until they joined the winning side at the end of the Aitahist crusade and benefited from the subsequent peace. The following centuries were mostly peaceful due to internal politicking after a destabilization of the Ereithaler monarchy.
The second era's promince majorly followed the coup d'etat and death of Lobard the Wise, his writings and formalizations of traditions influencing new directions and politics of a new, pseudorepublican state.
Formally Ereithal (or :υ:.ŋʃω in Lobardian writing), Ereithaler is currently a formidable regional power and the only state to have adopted the Lobardian Commonarchy as a governmental system. The nation additionally has an unheard amount of religious tolerance, the Commonarchy establishing de jure cultural and religious equality under the law, and Aelonist and Maninist faiths becoming more and more alike.
Decline of the Ereithaler Kingdom[]
Following the 640 SR coronation of Ambard II’s successor, Klemtel, Ereithaler fell into a few decades of peace. After his brother’s death, he arranged a political union between his adolescent son, Erhart, and his orphaned and impoverished niece Javelyn. The union fell into pieces shortly after Klemtel’s assassination, to this day ordained by an unknown assailant. Erhart inherited the throne, but was cast into an age of turmoil and due to his inexperience, he relied heavily on his court. As such, his reign was shrouded in influences between his courtsmen and laws largely decentralised the kingship into being centered around the aristocracy rather than the monarch. As such, the two hundred years following the death of Klemtel are historically named the Court Rule Period due to the largely decentralised nature of the remaining monarchy.
Instability and Technology[]
The most important technological development in the Court Rule Period was the arkvil (ʃυɠc.ω), an advanced water wheel system. The machine was imported from Gallat and soon developed local production facilities, especially mills, woodworkers and bakeries. Due to the political instability of the first years, not a lot was possible to be done against Frelesti raiders and it took a toll on general prosperity. The construction of the arkvils were ordained by Ereithaler (and prominent Parthecan) plutocrats, due to the Court Rule’s laws' general support to the wealthy rather than those born into rule. Often the plutocrats bought themselves nobility and allowed the peasantry to use the arkvils in return for an increased tax. As the arkvils were well-protected by military forces and walls in holdings called felvil (ɽ:ωc.ω), this allowed peasants to gather locally and hold communions, developing new food cultures, safekeep their belongings in arkvil storages, etc. The concentration of wealth within the arkvils made the general livelihood of raiding the countryside somewhat unprofitable except when targeting the felvils themselves, that were, in turn, protected by their lords or plutocrats.
This new culture of communion allowed for local gathering under political protection. The sixth day in the week became known as teltaler (ɳ:ωɳʃω:υ) and became a traditional gathering where peasants could drink or exchange ideas. Usually, local Maninist and Aelonist priests would meet here debating the nature of the world; while fierce in words, all were protected by the rule of law and plutocratic guardsmen. Forcing peasants not to partake in communion would lead them to paying additional taxes to other felvil-owning nobles. As such, for a while, while nationally decentralized, the local societies were actually thriving in acquainting themselves with new ideas.
Rise of the Ereithaler Commonarchy[]
Svareiter and the Rise of Lobard[]
After a period of local communion and somewhat free flow of the felvil holdings, the structures of the society began breaking down through a number of holes in the system. Peasants were not well-educated, nor did they have any particular wealth, so their mobility – both geographical and social – were very low. Regional nobles learned to organize together and generally abuse the development. The ruling class executed laws that made teltaler a legally bound attendation, raised the fee for felvils, ordained rights that would profit their own ethnicity, beliefs and practices, and so on. Each regional fellowship of felvils became known as Svareiter (ȷcʃυ:.ɳ:υ), Black Holds. From those institutions, slowly growing in power, interests between different nobles and plutocrats eventually shone through the cracks of the Court Rule Period. The central government was now led by a formal monarchy with very little power. With neither the peasantry nor the state to hinder Svareiter from their greed, a few minor but bloody conflicts escalated between nobles.
One particularly bloody pillaging of a small Frelesti village showcased the instability of the system. It awoke sincere sympathy and perhaps opportunism for a couple of important parties. The most important was Lobard, the ruling Maninist priest who had significant de jure powers within the Ereit government, limited as it powers might have been. Many oligarchs within the ruling body understood that the nation was dissolving if nothing was done. Lobard believed the national decadence had happened due to decline in structure and faith; both of these were disciplines that he thought could be molded and as such save the nation. Even if he was Maninist, he understood that some of the local strife was due to religious differences; he had friends between Frelesti and Aitahists and several powerful nobles were afraid to lose ground within the current polity. As such, it was not difficult for Lobard to ordain a coup d'etat. King Ambard V famously surrendered before killing a guard, only to be eventually betrayed and stabbed by his own desperate wife. This led to the Ereithaler idiom ‘to gift a knife’.
After the ordained coup, the nobles, plutocrats and priests of the nation gathered in the court hall, mediated by Lobard and his guards. The gathering was famously noisy – it was said to be heard from the countryside – and lasted for about two nights before the Commonarchy was established.
The Ideology and Formation of the Commonarchy[]
In 630 SR, during the Court Rule Period, one important court member was Sabard, the monarch’s Maninist consul. Sabard had spent his young adulthood exchanging letters with Valedas, a relatively unknown propagator of the Karapeshai Sephashim (as outlined here). Sabard was infact so influenced by these ideas that he spent the most of his life trying to convince the monarchy and the Maninists to fund a centralised high education. Most of his work was in vain, mostly due to conservative forces within Maninism distancing themselves to Ardavan practices in general. But threads of thought remained in Sabard’s letters that were preserved until Lobard reformulated them into an official doctrine in 803 SR.
Lobard grew up most of his youth studying the Karapeshai and was in awe at the Sephashim institution and its marvels. He also had access to Sabard’s old writings, letters and exchanges. Before being selected by the monarch to the court position, he spent plenty of his young years traveling minority communities in Ereithaler. When he was elected, it was for his guarantee that he would hold the minority-led Svareiter in their places; this would later prove to simply give the king less power, of course, as the monarchy was abandoned.
Lobard had written a number of works on the nature of state and education, partly inspired by the meritocratic nature of the Satar, its idea of faculties of knowledge, and its high regard of authority as well of history of differing elective processes. His major work was the The Statuary Ideal which partly summarized basic philosophical concepts of Maninist metaphysics but also described political power relations and how to keep them in check. The second principle was the fundament of the Commonarchy; indeed, the first elected Commonarch was himself. One defining difference between Lobard and the Satar was after all his warriorhood: As a Maninist, he was much more about the merit of the mind than the merit of the sword. Half of the work included thoughts of political scholarship or education to govern, which he proposed would be moved to an institution similar to the Sephashim, yet ironically centered around Peace rather than War as the highest Knowledge. This was the first step to constructing the House of Man.
Beside its political nature, the House of Man was a university-like building constructed in Ereit which Lobard spent the majority of his political career overseeing (beside safekeeping political stability in Ereithaler). Lobard had written the The Statuary Ideal' in one strict way of both calligraphy and spelling; this became the fundament to a central, Ereithaler language. Demanding that the House of Man should only be written in the new formalized format and as the polity was founded upon the very book he used the format for, this led to a new, formalized writing and spelling system. As it was instigated under Lobard, it came to be known as Lobardian writing, even if it was simply a formalization of previous Stetin records. Several works were first written down in this system, such as the legendary Kelharter (ɠ:ωɋʃυɳ:υ) and the historical Reithelunn (υ:.ŋ:ω،ƴ).
Culture and structure[]
Ereithaler Philosophy[]
Integral to The Statuary Ideal and the Ereithaler Commonarchy was the concept of The White Man, an enlightened individual in accordance to Maninist wisdom.
The ideal of the White Man influenced much of the Ereithaler philosophy but also æsthetics and music.
Music[]
The complex musical philosophies and theories of the Ereithaler are quite incomplete to modern musicology, but traces of it still remain.
There are the choral positions of Petin ethed - a high-pitched drone usually used for formal political presentations - and the teren del, a common position usually utilized during teltaler.
The Ereithaler are recognized for using the kokor and skelthed string instruments as well as a rich assembly of woodwinds during political overtures.