Brief History of Kotini - Part 1

History can be divided into 8 ages, as far as historians within the Lagoon Ranges are concerned.

• The First Landing
• Age of Menedékhely (the Old City)

- Founding of Menedékhely
- Golden Age

• First Scattering
• Age of the Second City
• Second Scattering
• Age of the Third Settlement
• Third Scattering
• Age of Re-discovery

These ages only relate to the people within the Lagoon Ranges. You see, they think that Kotini is almost all made of mountains and if you travel far enough through the mountains to the west, you will end up where the Eastern Mountains begin. Not so.

Let's talk about the First Landing.

The ancestors of those who now inhabit Kotini were refugees from a great intergalactic war that no one remembers the cause of. Every inhabited galaxy was fighting one another for no particular reason that anyone was sure of. All people knew - the ordinary people that is, is that the war had not ceased for 30years and that they could not stop fighting or they would all die.

Three ships, the Aisley, Blynde Follow and Super Sonic; full of refugees (the record of numbers has long since been lost) were flying not far from Kotini, on the edge of the known universe, when they were caught in the cross-fire between two different armies. Kotini had originally been passed over as a suitable place for human habitation as it was too small and was almost all mountains and sea. The three ships had to make emergency landings upon Kotini. All crashed. All were irrepairable, stranding the refugees upon the small forgotten planet.

The three ships had planned to discover a habitable planet beyond the edge of the known universe and settle there, where the war would not touch them. Upon each ship were refugees prepared to become colonists of a new world.

The Aisley, was the largest ship, containing the most people - all of whom were scientists of various kinds and skilled workers. These are the ancestors of those trapped within the Lagoon Ranges, the descendants of whom went on to build the Old City, the Second City and the Third Settlement. They believed that the other two ships perished when they lost contact on breaking through Kotini's atmosphere. Of all the inhabitants of Kotini, I have discovered these people, to be the most organised and technologically advanced.

Strangely enough, the Lagoonists, as those beyond the mountains call them, do not believe in flying or space travel. Human flight, aeronautics, etc is considered a myth. According to the myths that have been passed down, if people were to take to air, the sky itself will rain down fire and destroy every living being upon the planet. I believe that history has somehow become distorted since the First Landing, either that or the first Lagoonists in a bid to protect their descendants, taught them they would never be able to get off the planet.

Blynde Follow, named after a religious figure in another galaxy, made its emergency landing on the shore of what became known as the Big Lake, as opposed to the Small Lake in the south of the continent. The people on board this old ship had been unskilled workers, labourers, farmers and a mismatch of what I believe were corrupt polititians or religious leaders. Over the years, they have established a hierachial system where the rich get richer, the priests even richer, and the poor struggle to survive. They live on the continent outside the Lagoon Ranges (and never venture into the mountains due to tales of wildmen and man-eating monsters with iron claws and razor sharp teeth - not to mention the disorienting fog that comes as suddenly as it goes). A strange truth about these folk is that they are almost all blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Those with darker pigments are the exotic beauties.

At present, the devil fish that managed to evade my annihilation deep in their mountain caves to the north, thrive in a temple as large as the ship Blynde Follow, and are worshipped by the Lakemen Mainlanders as well as the Southerners. The temple is located north-east from Lake City North and devotees must make the journey outside of the city to worship. You probably wouldn't be surprised to know that the devil fish demand human sacrifices and encourage people to become priests or priestesses - so that they can eat them and take on their form... not that the people know or are willing to realise this.

The Southerners are Lagoonists who managed to find a way through the Southern Mountains during the First and Second Scattering, after the devil fish attacked the Old City and the Second City respectively. These people have a phobia of the devil fish, but for some bizarre reason raise the devil fish fry for the temple. From what information I have been able to get out of them, the temple priests force them to raise the fry or else they and their families will disappear overnight. It's rather odd. Although they believe the devil fish are evil, they count it a blessing when the fish they were raising reach maturity and one of their children are offered as a sacrifice.

Some Southerners are awaiting the Lagooners to come and fetch them home when it was safe to return to the cities within the Lagoon Ranges. That was the promise to those of the First Scattering - one that has never been fulfilled. In actual fact, although they have been told it's safe to return, they don't believe it. I think it has something to do with barely surviving the journey through the mountains and the fact that they believe that the devil fish are in control within the Ranges - not realising that the devil fish are the ones in control outside of the Ranges. Compared to all the other people on the planet, Southerners are the most irrational and stubborn. The mixing of Lagoonist and Lakemen/Mainlander ways, has resulted in their own unique system of beliefs, ideals, mannerisms and a distinct style of speech.

The smallest of the three ships to make emergency landing on Kotini was Super Sonic. The refugees on board the ship were mostly deserting soldiers, shipwrights and a handful of engineers. Their descendants have now become the Islanders and Traders of Kotini. Unlike the offspring of the other two ships, the Islanders have not forgotten their origins and one day hope to return to the skies and go home. From what I've gathered, they're a folk frustrated with the lack of suitably high grade materials and knowledge required to make the space ship that will break out of Kotini's atmosphere. Now, if the Islanders got together with the Lagoonists (after the Lagoonists were convinced of the plausibility of flight), I'm pretty certain that the whole planet would begin to move into a space age.

That's pretty much the First Landing and some background on the descendants of the first settlers. By the way, most of this information has not yet made its way back to Lagoonists and the little that has managed to trickle through the almost unpassable mountains that surrond the Old City, Second City and Third Settlement, have mostly been dismissed as stories. Not all the stories flying around back home about me are good ones and many refuse to believe that I, a girl that looks to be in her late teens or early twenties, stopped the devil fish within the Lagoon Ranges for good. I'm glad that not everyone thinks that way.

That's all I have time for today. I'll see you another time!