One of these days I will get the map big enough to see. If I put it on now, it is too tiny.
The first mention of a people living on the Aethradae peninsula is in a letter from a certain Felix Fidelius, to his king. Felix sailed from a place far east of Dahlin to explore unknown coasts. He encountered a tiny civilized nation living on the western coast of the peninsula. The population of this new tribe could not have excelled five hundred. They welcomed Felix and his weary sailors into their city, built on the cliffs near Aethahil. Felix wrote to his king, "Their faces are olive brown and their hair is stiff and curly. When I asked them where they came from, they only giggled and pointed in all directions. They speak a trade language one of my sailors understands." Felix declined the offer of marriage to their king's daughter, and hurried on down the coast. Twenty years later, Felix's soldier brother-in-law, Appavius, came with an army to conquer these curly-haired people. Once again, the Altessi, for that was what their conquerors called them, on account of their hair, welcomed the explorers in. While Appavius distracted the Altessi leaders the Namat people, who lived just west of the Glagnafrita area, stormed the gates and conquered the city for Appavius. Appavius had promised them that if they turned against their Altessi cousins they would be allowed to rule underneath him. And so, the Altessi hated the Namat through eternity.
Appavius claimed the peninsula for his king, and forced the Altessi to assimilate. They refused, so Appavius destroyed their literature and executed anyone who spoke their language or even called themselves by their own national name. That is why we know them as Altessi, instead of what they called themselves. Eventually Appavius's successors enslaved the people and forced them to work in the silver mines near Aethahil. That went on for four hundred years, until a guy named Umbricius got himself banished to the province of the Altessi. Bossing the Altessi was considered a grave punishment for bad courtiers. After a fight with his first wife, Umbricius took an Altessi wife, and she bore him a son, Tiberius.
Tiberius grew up working in the vineyards near Timrioth-Gezin. He saw the plight of his mother's people and started a rebellion against his father's people, gaining followers and liberating many cities. He married a slave woman named Cientien, who claimed descent from the early Altessi kings. They had freed half of the nation before Tiberius was killed in battle. Cientien and her baby son fled all over the coast, trying to rally the people. Eventually Cientien was betrayed by those Namat guys and was burned at the stake in Cientien Plaza in Aethahil. Somebody rescued her son, and raised him in secret. Her son's name was Ellyanus Tiberius. He proclaimed himself the first king, drove out the enemy and unified Altesea. Some of his people did not like this new name for the nation, on account of it being derived from Altessi, which was highly derogatory. But, the name stuck. Ellyanus Tiberius conquered the northern parts of Altesea up to the Davinum River, and conquered the west as far as Dahlin. He massacred the Namat that still lived in Altesea, and drove the remnant into the desert. They cursed him to eternal enmity with their people. In the year 510 the Namat king prophesied that the first and last king of United Altesea would be Ellyanus. Everybody assumed he meant Ellyanus Tiberius, and disregarded the prophesy sometime after Ellyanus's grandson took the throne. Nevertheless, Altesean kings were paranoid of naming their sons Ellyanus, lest the kingdom be destroyed. In the year 1800 Christina Tiberi named her son Ellyanus, much to the dismay of the superstitious courtiers.
