Arcél -8000

From Almeopedia

Arcél Terrain

Arcél -4000

This map serves to introduce the intelligent species of Arcél. We know essentially nothing about how any of them arrived on Arcél; we don’t know the continent of origin of any Almean species. (Some sources, such as the Cuzeian Count of Years, suggest that the present period of global civilization is not the first.)

The ilii have three land enclaves at this time, but their chief habitat is the continental shelf— roughly, the entire shadowed area around the shoreline, plus much of the floor of the northern Inner Sea.

The elcari are adapted to the mountains, and by the date of the map they were herding sheep and goats and raising piebirds, as well as growing mountain-adapted species of millet and potatoes.

The múrtani are known to have arrived by -15000; this must have been from Ereláe where the múrtani are known to have split off from the elcari, but the elcari don’t know how they got to Arcél and the múrtani aren’t saying. Over the millennia they fought multiple wars with the elcari; the borders here are those following a war about a millennium before which went fairly badly for the elcari.

As in other areas of Almea, the icëlani live in the forests. I’ve indicated three areas where they have historically been predominant; but especially in prehistoric times, they could be found almost anywhere in Arcél, which was largely covered with forest. They do not compete well with humans; it’s probably significant that they held on best in the coastal transition zones between the equatorial and temperate zones; in the eastern area they also had the protection of the ilii.

Almean humans (uesti) are less adapted than we are for dry climates, and thus in their primeval state avoided the mountains and deserts. It’s too early to name language families or ethnic groups, but racial groups can be picked out, corresponding to the ecological zones of Arcél: the copper-colored Kibruise in the equatorial zone, the bluish-brown Adurise in the temperate zone. The eastern coast was settled by dark-brown Melanke peoples from Kereminth— judging from the linguistic relationships, not much earlier than this time.

There are no ktuvoks in Arcél, though there is one location on the continent with the sort of wetlands they like— the delta of the Lɛn river in Belesao. This will prove to be important later.

It has recently been realized that a previously undescribed sentient species lives on Arcél; as they live in one of the rift valleys I call them rifters. (The Uyseʔ term is lyat ‘stub-nose’). See the referenced article for a description.

Characteristic figure

For each map I'll profile one or more characteristic figures, both to offer a more human look at the period in history, and to highlight peoples or activities that receive insufficient attention in a sociopolitical overview.

• Jaesar, the ingenious elcar

Historical Atlas of Arcél

Terrain • -8000 • -4000 • -2500 • -750 • 300 • 600 • 782 • 950 • 1112 • 1300 • 1510 • 1690 • 1850 1997 • 2200 • 2370 • 2550 • 2700 • 2900 • 3050 • 3200 • 3314 • 3400 • 3480 • Languages • Cities