1) MYTH, LEGEND AND HISTORY
To know Easthaven, you should know its history. Your starting-point,
therefore, is here. This is a tale given by Easthaven storytellers
to welcome new arrivals at Fairharbour.

Deep and dark is the story of Easthaven.

Firstly; our land was not always so called. Analem, in the old tongue, was its first given name; given from the earliest days, when humanity first appeared on Aldara. Many still choose to use it.

Those ancient settlers were navigators then as we are now; and Analem, with its cool, temperate southern shores, its limitless coastal nooks, channels and crevices to the east and west, and the eerie chill of its northern reaches, offered delight and challenge in equal measure to our ancestors of four thousand years past.

And from this time comes the story of what we did - that which might have riven asunder the world of Aldara at its very birth. The myth of our disobedience, of our brazen challenge to the Gods and the Mages, may or may not be true, but upon it our reputation and our history are forged. Of it we are by turns proud and ashamed - because by turns it shows us how high humanity can reach, and how low it can stoop.

Let me tell you more; this is the story.

We moved on. Our seafaring, our skills and our resources enabled us to trade widely and prosper rapidly. And from our travels we returned with new, exciting theories and ways of understanding the world.

The Mages gave moral rule and order to the world created by the Gods. Certain things were encouraged, others permitted, a few - a very few - forbidden. We knew this, of course, but what we brought into our land encouraged us to experiment. The fusion of ideas, the heady mixture of magic and science that we were discovering and exploring, led us to understand that the very process of creation was open to us, and the stuff of the world was ours to play with. We realised that it was possible to circumvent that which the Mages had prescribed.

The world was young, and so were we. Like children confronted with something enticing but forbidden, we played in secret. Perhaps we were even led on by the Rogue, the betrayer, the outcast Mage; one obscure tale describes his journey through our land at that time. We may have consciously set out to disobey, we may simply have overreached in our playing; no-one knows.

Likewise, no-one knows who finally brought all things together, or precisely when it happened - though there are still those amongst us who claim they know how. What we do know is this; for an instant of time and at one spot in the depths of Analem, the constrants that govern the workings of the world were broken.

Energy burst forth in a single shaft of light that pierced the clouds. Some ventured forward, the bravest daring to reach within it and finding themselves unharmed. Moreso, those with cuts, bruises or scars withdrew from the beam to find them healed. Those who were elderly found themselves refreshed - not magically rejuvenated, but healthier and heartier in their old age.

Our courage grew. The power seemed benevolent to life yet ruthless to inert things. Stone, wood and metal became as malleable as clay within its cold, fearsome glow, and hardened again to their natural state when removed from it. It was creative energy, and it responded to the creativity of living, thinking beings. We had unearthed a wonder, a marvel.

We could do as we wished. Again, we reached out and prospered. We built a complex of mirrors and prisms to reach across the whole land. They deflected small shafts of light from the main beam and were directed wherever we would. There was no decay in the strength of the beam, nor in that of its subsidiaries.

This was the force of life itself. This was power. Power to shape the world around us, the potential for dominion far beyond our boundaries. For a hundred and fifty years, we planned and dreamed of ruling the world.

Then, for we who were but children, the worst possible thing happened. Our plaything was taken from us.

Our mistake was to think that what we had would never leave us. We believed that power which was limitless would also be timeless; that, though it had a beginning, it would have no end. Again, there is much that is uncertain. Did the Gods intervene, or the Mages? Did the world heal itself from the wound we had made? We do not know.

In century and a half, the beam had become our lifeline as well as our toy; and as swiftly as it had once appeared, it was gone.

The collapse of our nation was as rapid and spectacular as its rise. Without the discipline of long and careful thought, without the opportunity to learn over time from small, gradual mistakes as other societies do, we could not cope. We had gone from wooden barns and huts to mountain-sized edifices of crafted rock in the blink of an eye, and within a few generations we had forgotten even what we first knew. Our pride had that effect on us.

We descended into chaos and savagery. No-one helped us, and for that we do not blame them; we had, after all, sought to subsume the world, and the world knew it. We became but feral creatures roaming the magnificent shells which we had fashioned and had lorded over in splendour. The mighty were fallen; we had challenged Creation itself. We were now reaping the consequences. We could barely feed or clothe ourselves. Our numbers dwindled and the land descended into darkness.

Myth, legend, or history, honoured visitors - which do you say?

The truth lies in what you will see in this land. Do not mistake me; good has come from that time. Ironwood City and its Fortress, the Snow Palace, the Coastal Wall and the Straits Statues have remained intact from that day, defying two hundred generations of wind, rain, conflict, and the extremes of neglect and over-use. The mirror-system still serves as a bringer of good and bad tidings, though we now use gentler daylight instead of the wild light of creation.

And there is the Quiet. In the heart of this land is a place no larger than a ploughed field. Nothing grows in it or lives on it, because nothing can; science and magic have no effect within its boundaries; and to venture into it is to know that you have momentarily removed yourself from the created world, and must return to it within the instant if you value your life and your soul. The mirror-system describes a huge, rough circle, and the Quiet is close to its centre. If there is compelling evidence of the truth of our story, it is to be found there.

You will see these things, gentle guests, and you will marvel. Whatever our speculation, the truth is that our ancestors built them and we do not know how. But we have slowly, slowly restored our land. We are able to prosper again and to pursue peace at least partly because these wonders are here. We know humility and a way of cooperating with the world. We value the present because we understand our past, and we can aim for a better future.

We discovered, we prospered, we fell, we have recovered. Such is the story of Analem in a single sentence. You will find that which I have told you here to be least of what you will experience in Easthaven. I wish you well in discovery, in travel, in rest and in return. Your stay here comes with our blessing.

TOP

2) A TIMELINE FOR EASTHAVEN
(all dates prior to 2600 are estimated)

TOP

3) THE LAND, ITS WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE Aldara is Earth-sized, and there are maps on the RDNA Aldara forum which are helpful in showing this - go here to see them. The map at post #13 of that thread provides a direct comparison of the two geographies. For Easthaven, the geography has close parallels with Earth. If Greenland could be moved a thousand miles south and 180 degrees west, it would be a close approximation to Easthaven - in climate and in rough size and shape. This gives a huge variety in geography with a lot of potential. Comparatively, you could start, say, in southern England or northern France and go through Scottish highlands and Scandinavian fjords before ending up in wild Siberian wastes. Rough "human geography" map of Easthaven showing main features Easthaven is the eastern, and slightly smaller, of the two main Mist Haven Islands. Because of its size and shape (longer than it is broad), it has a wide variety of climate. The southern peninsula and south-western regions are temperate, with warm summers, cool winters and defined autumns and springs. This pattern begins to change in the Ironwood region, and gets worse further north; the climate becomes much colder and the human population thins out. The human-habitable area of Easthaven more or less ends at the northern point of the mirror-system and the Snow Palace. That area is already ice-locked for nine months of the year, and further north the land is permanently so. Fish is the principal crop of the south, with many edible species available in great numbers around the peninsula and the south-west. The Southern Strait is one of the world's principal sea-farming areas. Wheat and grain harvesting takes place in the southern regions; it is possible further north, but becomes difficult. Forestry is the north's main industry and export. The forest around Ironwood gives that city its name. It is a huge area of massive trees, 1000 feet high and 200 broad when fully-grown, dead-straight, with branches only starting 100 feet from the top. The wood is, as its name suggests, extremely hard and durable. It is therefore ideal for construction and building work, but the trees are very carefully conserved. Only one may be cut down and processed at any one time; but as this provides half a million cubic feet of usable wood, it is not too much of a hardship. Wildlife is plentiful in the south and south-west. Many animals - dogs, horses, sheep, cattle - have been domesticated and are part of the region's farming and agriculture. There are many species of migratory and resident birds, and a full complement of insects, small mammals and reptiles, and freshwater fish. Wolves and snowfoxes occasionally venture south during harsh winters. Again, though, the north is different. As with the human population, the wildlife population thins out at higher latitudes. There are fewer mammals, but they tend to be larger - deer and elk form large herds, and wolves prey on them. Snowfoxes prey on the smaller mammals that live in the region. In the far north, there is only one main predator - the bearwolf. It lives where no other mammal can. It fills the same niche as polar bears do on Earth, but is slightly smaller, faster and more mobile. On Earth, bears and dogs are thought to have a common ancestor, and on Aldara, the bearwolf is that animal. It hunts the northern waters and ice-floes in extended family groups, and is extremely aggressive, highly intelligent, and fiercely protective of its young. Lastly, there are rumours of ice-giants at the very tip of Easthaven, inhabiting the polar ice-fields. There are no reliable reports of this, but these creatures have been a part of Analem and Easthaven myth and legend throughout history. What type of being they are or their detailed appearance is unknown; all that exists is the suspicion that they are there. The People of Easthaven On Earth, Haveners would look very similar to Scandinavians or Icelanders. As in all worlds, the region's climate has worked its influence on its inhabitants. Haveners therefore tend to have light-coloured skin and fair hair. There is, however, quite a lot of variation. Immigrants from other human populations have been mixing with native Haveners for several centuries; the Gathering Monarchs (see Timeline) actively encouraged this as a way of restoring Easthaven to something like its former status. A wide mix of racial characteristics can therefore be seen in Easthaven, and Fairharbour in particular has the deserved reputation of being one of the most cosmopolitan human cities on Aldara. The Cities Easthaven is a very large country, and the population is still quite thinly-spread. There are large clusters of people, though, in the three principal cities - Fairharbour, Ironwood and Snow Palace. Fairharbour has been the capital of Easthaven since the Union; it was deliberately chosen away from the old Eastern and Western capitals. It has a lot of advantages; it is coastal, temperate, and accessible. The darkness of Easthaven has an attraction for curious and adventurous visitors, but Fairharbour is everyone's starting-place, offering comfort, friendliness and warmth to guests. Ironwood is the heart of modern Easthaven in many senses. Links between it and Fairharbour are long-standing and well-established, and transport between the two cities is easy and direct. All the specialised industry and commerce which Easthaven has as its own is here; the ironwood industry itself, the drawing in of commerce and skills from the peripheral mirror-system towns, and the immense township of Ironwood Fort - an entire city within a city itself, and the largest single concentration of people in the whole of Easthaven. Snow Palace is a little smaller than Ironwood Fort, but not by much. Thousands of people live within it, and there is space for as many again. As long as its trade routes are kept open (not always easy in the depths of winter), the Palace is a starkly beautiful place to live. The Wildlight people who built it did so with an understanding of insulation and conservation of heat and light which puzzles people even now. But occasionally the routes are snowbound, the system breaks down... and life at Snow Palace becomes survival. TOP 4) MAGIC, SCIENCE, TEKNOS The Dark Land, the Land Without Magic... As it climbed, struggled and fought its way out of a thousand-year Dark Age, the one thing all of Anelem held on to was the need for caution. There was never to be a return to the reckless ways of the Wildlight times; they had reached too far and lost too much for that ever to be risked again. So they developed that most natural of disciplines; Science. Science is often frowned upon on Aldara as a thoroughly unsophisticated way of getting things done - a brute-force approach to solving life's puzzles and problems - but, while the magic was absent, there was little alternative. During the Restoration and Reunion, then, the scientific way of understanding the world held sway. Analem was desperate to regain a measure of credibilty and respect across the nations, and it found it in science and industry. It was seen as a quirk and an oddity by the rest of the world, but by being unusual, it was also distinctive. Analem could, for a while, provide something different; and it had the resources still in existence from the very earliest times which they could learn from. During this period, if you wanted, say, a pair of glasses, a telescope, a microscope... you went to the new industrial towns dotted around the perimeter of the Mirror System. A new mainmast for your ship? Order it from Ironwood - simply the best. So science did some good. But magic was on the move, creeping back into hearts and souls and lives across both Kingdoms. As caution was the watchword after the Dark Age, so unity became the word which sparked the full flow of magic and life and health back into the broken body of Analem. Magic would come and science would go, everybody said. All expected it; most probably hoped for it. But it didn't happen. The two grew alongside each other, and added a third dimension. Restoration and Reunion also saw the rise of art in Analem, where so much before had been utilitarian at best and crude at worst. And there rose up a group of people during the Gathering who seemed to have a gift of synthesising the three into a heady mixture that was all of Science, Magic, and Art, and yet was none of them. Watch your pride, warned the conservatives. Yes, but this might be how we were - this is what we could be, responded the radicals. So, from seven to four hundred years ago, this groups, their disciples, their followers and successors, forged once again in Easthaven something different. The wildness of magic, the freedom of art, and the discipline of science - these are the three things which give Teknos its unique qualities. Haverners are not the greatest artists, nor the most esteemed scientists, nor the most powerful magicians in the world - but the fusion which they have brought to each of the three is perhaps the real promise of the future for Easthaven. There is this about Haveners; they seem to enjoy the idea of being dangerous... (Anon.) TOP 5) LANGUAGE There are three languages with which an inhabitant of Easthaven will be familiar - their own native language, the common Aldaran trade language, and the ancient Analem Tongue. The Ancient Tongue has, remarkably, survived almost unchanged in four thousand years, despite the fragmentation of the country for a long period of its history. As with a lot of Analem's history, its roots lie in the Wildlight Culture. The stories from that time show a people with a remarkable unity of purpose and thought, bound together in their language. There's even some speculation that the Light - if it existed - may have enhanced this; not in making the people telepathic, but somehow drawing them closer together in thinking and action. The single word "Analem" therefore generalised to describe the place, its people, and their language - I come from Analem, I am Analem, I speak Analem. There must have been a group of people (a scholarly/religious order or society, perhaps?) who maintained the language through the Dark Age and beyond. There is no record of them, but they did their job well. We know that, somehow, the Ancient Tongue survived intact from the Wildlight collapse to the establishment of the Two Kingdoms, when it was again adopted as the national language - a period of over 1100 years. But much has changed now, of course; the place is Easthaven, the people are Haveners (pronounced more like "Havveners"), and the language is Havenish. Restoration, Reunion and Gathering brought this about. As Analem moved out of its self-imposed exile into the wider world, outside influences made a real difference - in the area of language as in many others. The Ancient Tongue was and is still studied and taught; it has held, and always will hold, a place of honour in Easthaven society. But the language of the common people was allowed to change and develop. It still has recognisable Ancient roots, but in conversation, you wouldn't be able to work out one from knowing the other. Writing is different, however. The written alphabet remains as it always was. This makes translation difficult, because pronunciation, syntax and meaning have shifted so much. But the basic idea of letters based on a grid pattern is so simple that it has lasted through time and change. The Analem/Havenish alphabet TOP