The Thornichi are the ethnic group that currently rules the region of Thorin.

History

Formation Through Chains

About 5,600 years before the official founding of Thorin, a large empire had risen to power hundreds of miles north and west of the region. The empire was known as Anteneron. As it slowly grew in size and power, it began making slaves out of the citizens of the countries around it.

The Anteneronichi (literally, slaves of Anteneron) were horribly oppressed, with every aspect of their lives monitored and controlled by their masters. To better curtail the risk of an uprising, the Antenerons split the slaves up among their city-states in such a way so that too many of any ethnic group would not be in one place at one time.

Flight of the Thornichi

In approximately 4730 BF, Emperor Ashi Nertshoka converted his religion. The new religion, which he declared would from now on be the official religion of Anteron, declared slavery an abomination, and those who allowed themselves to be subjected to it the lowest of the low, beneath dirt. He ordered the extermination of all slaves in his empire. This bloody case of ethnic cleansing led to the deaths of millions.

However, one city-state, on the edge of the empire, refused to do such a thing. They would change their religion if the emperor demanded it, but they would not commit genocide. So, as the Emperor's soldiers marched towards the city to exterminate the slaves, or the Thornichi, the city-state allowed the slaves to run free, to try to escape while the militia tried to give them time to get away.

The Thornichi made it to the cover of the nearby mountain range, and continued their flight. For over a hundred years they wandered, traveling under the cover of one mountain range or another to keep themselves safe. Eventually, they entered a particular mountain range where the environment was less harsh, where the ground was fertile enough to grow crops. The Thornichi entered the region that became known as Thorin in about 4,600 BF, and settled there, in what became known in history as the Thornichi Mountain Range.

The Heekazi/Zircoromborgian Schism

For about 700 years, the Thornichi lived in peace in their mountain communities. They enjoyed safety from enemies, plentiful harvests, and peaceful relations with the Lugonomeks, the native people of Thorin, to whom they traded ores and minerals they mined for goods that could not be grown, made, or hunted in the mountains.

However, there was great division among the Thornichi themselves. The root of the division was between an ethnicity of people, the Zircoromborgians, and a group of tribes, the Heekazi. The Zircoromborgians were a cultural grouping from a region known as Zirconia before the conquests of Anteneron. The Heekazi were a grouping of like-thinking tribes that come about after the Thornichi had been released from bondage. The two groups could rarely ever agreed on issues. Tensions began to rise between them. Eventually, the two groups simply decided they could no longer live together. The groups left the mountains. The Zirconians went to the east; the Heekazi and other tribes who wished to leave the mountains went west. This eventually would lead to the creations of the subregions of Zirconia, which consisted of the lands to the east of the mountains, and Haekaz, which consisted of the mountains and the lands west of the mountains. For the time being, however, those who stayed in the mountains were neutral.

The Lugonomek and Thornichi Wars

It was through this atmosphere that the relations between the Thornichi and the Lugonomeks degraded. In order to expand to the east and west, the Thornichi had to take the land which belonged to the Lugonomeks. The Thornichi were able to defeat the Lugonomeks, despite their knowledge of the land, for several reasons. For one, the Thornichi had a greater access to metals, which were amazingly plentiful in the mountains. Not only did this give them greater amounts of the material to work with, but it gave them a better understanding of metallurgy. Thornichi soldiers had iron, while bronze was still abundant in the Lugonomekan army. Also, while the Lugonomeks regarded themselves as one empire, in truth they were merely a loose confederation, and they could not coordinate themselves to fight off their new enemy. While the Thornichi were severely turbulent and had many internal conflicts, they still worked together due to generations of interdependence. Third, in the case of the Thingan tribes, there was religious fanaticism, as the leaders of the tribes claimed that the Lugonomek gods Galeth, Yun, and Unlei were the gods Kalet, Jun, and Unleh, who, in Thingan mythology, had killed their guardian god, Thok, leading to their capture as slaves.

In 3827 BF, the Lugonomekan capital, Stadpræst, fell to the Zircoromborgian warlord, Stefan I of Romborg. It is generally agreed that from here, the Thornichi had assured victory. Dejected, most Lugonomeks tribes surrendered, although there were still a few battles occasionally. Finally, in 3821 BF, the last remnant of the Lugonomekan army, the Army of North Unleimeks, was forced to surrender in the Battle of Archan.

Haekaz and Zirconia

Now that the Thornichi had control of the region, the region was split into two subregions. The Zircoromborgians, proud and independent, consisted of the entirety of the Eastern Thorin, Zirconia, named for the region they had previously owned before their servitude. The area to the west of the mountains, was called Haekaz, after the Heekazi that had been central in its creation. Eventually, the mountains began to be considered part of Haekaz, as the more open and cooperative Haekaz was more likely to trade and allow the mountain tribes into their affairs than the independent Zirconians, and thus eventually entered Haekazi society.

Tensions constantly ran high between the two regions. The two sides were constantly prepping for war. This lead to one of the key cultural developments of Haekaz: the development of the Du-Hickazn language. The Zirconians had a common language, and thus had an advantage in organizing and utilizing troops. Meanwhile, the common Haekazi understood his tribe's language and that was it. Interpreters were used to talk between tribes. In order to alleviate the Zirconian advantage, the Aeonne government ordered the military to create a common language that could be taught to the troops. This led to the development of Hickazn, and all soldiers learned to speak it fluently. When their conscriptions ended, they took the language with them. At first, the language was used mostly by merchants and people on the borders, so they could trade with their neighbors. However, it slowly spread out, becoming common among the citizens. As time passed, the language evolved out of a military language into a genuine language, completely capable of expressing all ideas a language can. This adaptation of the language became known as Du-Hickazn, meaning "Common Hickazn". By the time of the founding of Thorin, all citizens of Haekaz knew it as a secondary language, and some peoples, like the Thingans, used it as their primary language.

The Founding of Thorin

If what would become year 0 on the Thorinian calendar, the Mareedth tribe officially declared itself a nation in the legal manner of the world. As it did so, the ruler of the new nation, Meredith, declared that Haekaz and Zirconia were one region, the region of Thorin, forged together with unbreakable ties despite any differences they shared. It is thus that the region of Thorin came officially into existance, with Meredith considered its founder. The era of the Thornichi tribes was over, and the era of the countries of Thorin had begun.