Empire of Antagan

Antagan is on the coast of lag na Hendū (sea of Henda) and is built on the banks of the River Bor. (whose name is from the Old Wasgar borero 'to flow'

The name Antagan is from the Tåns language anta  'bay' + -gan  'green'.

Founding of Antagan
The modern day of this world is 1300 years after ‘legendary’ founding of city by a heroe. The Heroes’ name was Regåċe /rɛgeɪtʃɛ/ (which is a Tynes spelling of Regaite, which means 'walker' in Old Wasgar, a language which was widespread in Western Henda in Regaite’s time. In Modern Wasgar his name is Eregaite.

The legend goes that Regaite was from a small village in the north that got raided and destroyed in a war with a rival tribe. And so Regaite and his people fled and travelled across Henda (the continent which Antagan is in, from a Wasgar root hendak meaning ’land’) and Regaite led his people across the land and defended them from many dangers. He settled the people and founded the city of Antagan and was it’s first king. But this is just the legend. The reality is much much older. Antagan began as a small settlement on the coasts of lag na Hendū which grew as the land was fertile and in good position for trading which caused it to grow even more. Though the legend of Regaite is slightly true. With a great warrior who came with refugees to an existing settlement and became of king of Antagan.

The Imperial calendar is based of this legendry foundation:

Years before the foundation are refered to as : Bon Regåċevō  'Before Regaite' or BR

Years after the foundation are refered to as Mahaŧsaagos Antaganša 'Antagan’s creation' or  MA

Antagan has had humans living in the area since 50,000 BR, though for most of that time being hunter gatherer tribes or herders which moved their flocks frequently to fresh grazing areas. Only settling when agriculture was developed by local tribes in 11,000 BR. Farming techniques remained quite simple until around 5,000 BR a great storm caused a small but very mineral rich river called the River Mogan (from the Old Wasgar ‘Mog’ meaning brown) to join with the River Bor (the storm..which some say was a battle of the gods, caused a landslide which blocked River Mogan’s flow, causing it to re-direct and flow into the River Bor. This caused the land in Antagan to become much more fertile, allowing for greater yield leading to more food. Which caused a population boom. With greater numbers and a surplus of food meant that people could have other jobs than farming, such as construction, smithing and other arts. Also this allowed a professional army to be created. And with Antagan having the most fertile soil in Henda meaning more food..more people...and so bigger armies. This lead to the expansion of the Antagan Kingdom.

Open School
In the Antagan Empire exists the open school which is free to all children (except slaves) and no one gets special treatment, so the prince, farmer's son and orphan would all be in the same class. It takes place outdoors (hence the open school) and teaches reading, writing, history, the sciences, mythology and even some basic fighting skills. The open school can be traced back into ancient times where each village would have it's own historian/story teller who would share his wisdom under the trees. The open school isnt compulsary but not going is very frowned upon. The Antagan open school is separate from the influence of the crown and unbiased in it's teachings.

Mining Slavery
To pay their soldiers the Empire needed silver, and to get silver they needed to mine, and to mine they needed miners. Instead of hiring them and costing even more money the Empire got their miners by enslaving people from invaded cities and smaller settlements all around Henda and and conquered regions oversees. As such the miners were mostly of non-Jašawn origin but after several generations the miners became ‘Antaganised' but remained the lowest part of society. This gave rise to anti-imperial sentiment which lead to the minders revolt of 1286MA in which miners took to the streets and rioted against slavery. Fighting quickly broke out between miners and the Antagan home army, though with just their picks the miners fell under the sharp swift swords. In the commotion some miners tried to escape the city to a free life, but many were hunted down by the Imperial cavalry.

With the revolt still fresh in the slave's minds they started to secretly collaborate with the Wasgar Confederation who smuggled in weapons, real weapons to the miners. So that during The Day When the Mist fell upon Antagan the miners attacked from the inside and helped the Wasgar army enter the city.

Notable Slave Miners
 * Shfinô, a Pwrina
 * Rôfofi, a Pwrina

Invasion of Lem Pars
Among many of the Empire's exploits, the furthest flung one is on Lem Pars. Lem Pars is an island of the eastern coast of Malomanan and is home to the Lemne people who are related to the Sumric tribes on mainland Malomanan. When the Empire first arrived in 200MA on the shores of Lem Pars the Lemne spoke a Sumric language called Lemre, in which they called the island Mäląlą Lemnen which translates to 'island of the dwellers' as the Lemne were distinguished from the rest of the Sumric tribes of that time by the fact that they were non-nomadic. The Empire failed to conquer Malomanan itself due to the nomadic people having no centralised society for to even conquer, and because several Jašawn soldiers unknowingly commited a Sumric taboo which resulted in the spirits of that land decimating the Imperial army. The Lemne however did have settled villages which could be raided by the Imperial forces which resulted in the invasion of the island. Though there was a rebellion led by Anącos, it was eventually defeated by the Empire. The Empire's incentive to conquer such a far flung and desolate land was nothing more than for status and glory, to have it for the sake of having it. Though the island is rich in nilaf grass, a waist high grass that makes a high quality bread and a very fine tea called ċonelavū in Tynes (ċo 'tea + nelav 'from the word for grass in Lemre''). ''which was farmed by Jašawn colonists and shipped to trading ports throughout Henda.

The Empire is quite intolerant of foreign cultures and languages of its subjects and has a one nation, one language policy which is strictly enforced to varying degrees across the Empire. Mäląlą Lemnen got the worst treatment as even its name was changed into Tynes as Lem Pars (Lem island) albeit preserving the root 'lem'. Any native Lemne caught speaking the language was marked as open game, which meant anyone could murder him, raid his home or do anything against him and not be punished. This was a frequent occorance in the early days of colonisation as the living conditions for the natives worsened, driving many into desperation, waiting with a listening ear for someone to slip a word of Lemre so that they can take his possessions as spoil to feed their families. This treatment caused the Lemre language to decline rapidly. As the language was in its dying breath a new law was passed that anyone caught speaking the language was to have their tongue cut out and branded on the cheek with the words enka prå meaning 'bad speech' in Tynes. Not long after this the Lemre language was dead and forgotten to the natives, beyond even the memories of the eldest natives. Though the language lingered on in notes of Antagan scholars, for throughout the Antagan Empire there is open schools which teach free education and act independently of the Empire, meaning that they can do as they wish even if the Empire is actively against it, just as long as the school's activities don't directly interfeer with Imperial busines. The open school has a band of advanced scholars who travel and collect knowledge of foreign cultures. They often accompany Imperial forces when they set foot on fresh land, the purpose being to record the culture and language of the lands before the Empire destroys them. It is thanks to these scholars recording the Lemre language before its complete death that revival of the language was made possible many, many, generations later. Imperial involvement in Lem Pars loosened its grip when the Wasgar Confederacy, among other forces, started to put pressure on the ever expanding Empire. This extra pressure forced the Empire to source any spare troops in Lem Pars for the war in Henda. This gave the island life to the long simmering revolutionary sentiment and revival of Lemne culture, and also revival of the Lemre language. This situation made Lemre quite unique among other Sumric languages as by this time, many centuries after the original oppression, the Sumric tribes on the mainland had settled into villages and the language Old Sumrë had diverged into 8 other languages. The great amount of time meant that these languages had changed in many ways from Old Sumrë, some being unrecognisable to its ancestor. But Lemre was preserved as it was many centuries ago in the notes of scholars, and as it wasn't spoken the whole time no changes in grammar or sound had affected it, it was essentialy frozen in time, making the revived language closest to Old Sumrë in terms of vocabulary and morphology (except from the many Tynes loanwords).

Antagan mythology and legends
The Jašawn people are quite unreligious when compared to the other peoples of Toriel. There is no organised religion and the beliefs that do exist don't play as big a role in life except for a few beliefs which are remnents of a more ancient and forgotten truth.

Galadorsīg not a god in itself but a messenger to the high spirits and gods. (in Antagan belief there are gods and many spirits who are god-like) Galadorsīg which means ‘grey-fox’ is just that, a fox which a coat of grey. He is a spirit of pathways, gates and transition and he judges souls after they die to determine their path. Galadorsīg is associated with judgment and honesty. To swear your honesty upon Galadorsīg is to swear the judgement of your soul. Used in phrases to back up your honesty .e.g hev kāl bāb Galadorsīg, cazsāl kāl krorsī šol  ‘I swear upon Galadorsīg I didn’t kill him’. The judge court (made of 4 people) wear grey cloaks fastened with a fox head-shaped brooch, grey after the fur of Galadorsīg. The legend of Galadorsīg is actually based of a cultural memory of the Fegisó. Enkus roughly translating as 'defiled'. The Enkus are the spirits of murdered women that were raped or sexually abused. They will seduce unknowing men and during the act they will turn into terrifying forms, still of a woman but of with cold damp rotten feel. Human eyes can’t look directly at them, at best they can only look around the creature. the Enkus are very quiet making nearly no sound, the victims not hearing a thing except their own screams. They will usually kill by stabbing with it’s long sharp nails or by simply scaring the victim to death.