Rise of the Totanbeni (ca. 1000 - 500 A.C.)

It is at this time of military exhaustion at the end of the God Wars that the Totanbeni (dead-worshipers) emerged from the Dead Swamps — the region that later became the Duxy of Despar. The Dead Swamps were so dangerous and worthless as to be beneath the notice of all the other tribes, and the Totanbeni had largely avoided conflicts with their neighbors by building their civilization here.

Some scholars do not believe the Totanbeni civilization began in the Dead Swamps, noting that the burial mounds at the center of Totanbeni culture would have sunk into the soft ground of the region. These scholars claim the Totanbeni came from regions to the south and east of the Dead Swamps or even that they were explorers and colonists from the other side of the Huinsian Bay who arrived at a particularly advantageous time. Other scholars point out that Marrishland's geography has hardly remained the same throughout its history. While the Dead Swamps might have had some impassable areas, at the time, there might well have been several square miles of dry land within them. Still other scholars note that the Totanbeni might have expended much of their magical energy in terra forming the Dead Swamps so as to create hills within them upon which they built their towns and burial mounds. Once the Totanbeni left the area, of course, the rivers of Marrishland would have sucked these artificial hills back into the soggy lowlands.

Regardless of their origin, however, as the plagues brought on by the God Wars forced even the most warlike tribes to curb their attacks, the Totanbeni saw a unique opportunity and took full advantage of the situation to expand their territory. It is clear that they soon proved remarkably adept at this, rapidly sweeping away resistance to their expansion.

Totanbeni communities are best known for the burial mounds they built at the center of every community. These burial mounds are so endemic to these towns and villages that some scholars argue that the Totanbeni buried several of their dead in them even before laying the foundations of those buildings intended to house the living. The journals of those medes who first came into contact with the Totanbeni often mention the mound-builders' concern for their dead. Based on later events, it is clear that Totanbeni magic was somehow linked to these burial mounds.

For half a millennium, the Totanbeni slaughtered anyone not related to them by blood or marriage with a single-mindedness only a wint nation could possibly maintain. A woman of childbearing age could escape this fate, if a Totanbeni warrior chose to take her as his wife. Given the social pressure and magical practicality of increasing the population of the tribe, polygamy was common among all the tribes, and the Totanbeni were no exception. The Totanbeni captured and quickly indoctrinated any child under the age of eleven. Very rarely, a man could marry into the tribe, but these first needed to prove their loyalty and usefulness to the Totanbeni.

In the mythology, they are associated with Totan, the god of death and darkness — who is a clear parallel to Domin - though the Totanbeni themselves never worshiped any gods, their religion being based solely on the veneration of their ancestors. In the oral histories, Totan made war upon all the other gods, killing many early in its conquest and reducing many more to a state of desperate alliance against an indefatigable opponent. Before the conquest ended, the Totanbeni had obliterated the Eslafeni and built a city on the peninsula the fishing tribe once occupied — Novichnevich (bones of the sea, bones of the earth). Those that survived the purge did so by fleeing to isolated or inaccessible areas.

(Contributed by Weard Leif Gesyk)

Copyright 2005-2007 Eric Zawadzki and Matthew Schick. All Rights Reserved.
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