The City Kings

As the High Kings dissolved and the tribes went their separate ways, the peoples of Sicinia Salis increasingly found themselves tied to the local cities. First chieftains and then warlords set themselves up as rulers of the cities they conquered and made them their capitals. Cities became their own realms, and their rulers became the city kings.

Soon several powers began to emerge. Sicinium, in the west, controlled the are of the lower Salis and was one of the two primary city-states. Its other rival was Martinique, the largest port in the area and a fortress city. Following in a close third was Chanaud, which thrived off the Strait trade as well as its close proximity to Acrian. However, smaller powers emerged in Bausin and Bourrais, who managed to remain out of the grasps of their larger neighbors. In this time any land that was undefended or Akaeian was considered open, and so thousands of knights, lords, and soldiers of fortune spread throughout easter Acheron and beyond, building castles and making that land their own.

The High Tide

Some of this development reached beyond the Salis and the Western Mountains into deep Akaeia, but most excursions into the area were short-lived, leaving behind only ruined castles and Sicinian dead. However, a few ambitious men went even further. In 1291, during the high tide of Sicinian expansion, the warlord and mercenary captain Anguiever pushed through the weak and crumbling Empire and seized its capital as his own. It was unthinkable, but for two generations a Sicinian, if not actually Emperor, sat on the throne of Emperor. Anguiever's grandson Assel and Atachid attempted to destroy the last gasp of the Empire, but ended up destroying the Royaume Akaeia and losing both their lives and the city.

Although the deaths of Assel and Atachid at the battle of Dauvantris signalled the end of Sicinian presence in the west, the east continued to expand and thrive. The modern towns of Alphonse and Mont Remy were begun as the fortresses of barons and warlords seeking to put the Salis river trade under their control as well as be the bastions of Sicinian civilization in the east.

Adaptation

It was during this period that the blending of Akaeian and Sicinii cultures occurred, forming the present Sicinia. Archaeologists refer to this time as "Le Mélangé" or "The Mixing" since the styles and designs of architecture, clothing, pottery, and higher ideas can find routes in both in Sicinii and Akaeian backgrounds.

The Sicinians began to adapt their style of fighting as well. As the Sicinii had progressed in their migrations they became increasingly equino-centric, and when Vraelasa and Kailen made the first conquests the army was exclusively cavalry. The Sicinii had introduced Acheron to concept of heavy cavalry called neghtiers, or knights. However, the narrow lands of the Coté d'Sur and the hardwood forests of the West Downs could neither produce nor maintain the numbers of horses required to field an all-cavalry army, and so the majority of Sicinian soldiers became infantry in the Akaeian style. The neightiers became the aristocracy, since it was only the rich who could afford to maintain horses. Nevertheless, cavalry played an important part in Sicinian warfare, with infantry frequently catching a ride on the large cavalry mounts, or destriers, or else riding mules behind as mounted infantry.

Internal Strife

The Sicinians practiced their skills as warriors by fighting between the city-kingdoms, which was frequent. Sicinium and Martinique often fought bitterly, but the access Sicinium had to good pasture and Akaeian horses meant that they always had an advantage on their rival, and Sicinium usually emerged victorious. This was one of the chief reasons for the results of the Wars of Unification and why Sicinium (now Saint Michele) became the capital of the new nation of Sicinia Salis.

To continue on to The Priest Kings