The Crucible of Proxima

"1:1 - In the beginning, there was nothingness.  From that nothingness burst forth a sound, and thence came the universe.  That sound was 'Yiaom'.  It started quietly, then swelled into a booming bellow.  And Yiaom blew across the emptiness like a mighty wind, stretching the sky like sand over rock.  Then Yiaom returned to the silence from whence it came.

1:2 - In the silence came the first conscious thought.  It spoke 'I am'.  No sooner did it speak 'I am' did it realize it was alone.  It created the beasts of the earth, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea.

1:3 - But these creatures were wild, and required masters.  Thus the being created both man and woman.  The creatures were then named.  Bird was named 'bird', fish was named 'fish', qilin was named 'qilin'.  Finally, man and woman were named 'honimen'.

1:4 - Our people asked 'What is your name, O Creator?'

'I simply am,' it said, 'but you may name me Elloh.'

1:5 - 'Who among us is greater?' we asked.  'Is man or woman directly in the image of Elloh?'

1:6 - There were those who did not sing, however, and the blasphemers were driven from the lands protected by Elloh and their servants.

1:7 - The norvolk found lesser gods, and held them above blessed Elloh.  They fled north, lost in the tundra.

1:8 - The khazstanian men believed themselves superior to women.  They fled south, and Elloh cursed them with short statures to match their inadequacy.

1:9 - The morghuls, most wretched of all, were unsatisfied with the meats of the animals.  They fled east, and feasted on their fellow man." - Yiaom, chapter 1, verses 1 through 9.

Belief in Elloh remains the adhesive agent that connects the disparate Honimen Kingdoms.  As is described in the honimen holy book, The Apoc Yarah, Elloh is the chief god of their collective religion.  Indeed, according to many honimen, Elloh is the only god, whereas those worshipped by other peoples are simply monsters, if they exist at all.  Despite this shared belief, however, the honimen continue to struggle for dominance over one another.  The reasons for this vary from political power to the true interpretation of the Apoc Yarah.

The honimen may not be as physically impressive as any single norvolk or morghul, nor as technologically savvy as the khazstanians, but their true strength lies in coordination.  It is said that one morghul will easily defeat a lone honimen, but two honimen may outmaneuver three morghuls.  Theoretically, the combined strength of all the Honimen Kingdoms under a single banner could conquer the entire world.  Unfortunately, the arbitrary borders between the kingdoms, seperated by politics and religion, prevent them from attaining such a goal.

Now they stand, the last vestige of humanity, on the former continent of Africa.  It is fitting, perhaps, that the land which gave birth to homo sapiens now stands as the last sanctuary for humanity as they face adversity from the snowy giants of Norvolgard, the cannibal raiders of Morghulia, the dwarfish craftsmen of Khazstan, and, of course, each other.  While the world continually changes, morphing the land as well as the people upon it, the honimen fight to retain their ancestry and way of life.

All of these four races fall within the genus, Homo.  While 'race' is not an official taxonomic rank, it is commonly used as a shorthand for 'subspecies' by the people themselves.  All are capable of interbreeding, apart from norvolk with khazstanians, rendering the two truly separate species.  Though a honimen or morghul may reproduce with either, the giants and the dwarves have branched too far from one another.  It is unknown whether this break is due to their sheer size differential, or if the Honimen Kingdom of Tiveria, bordered between them, blocked their intermingling.

Tiveria lies wedged at the center of former Africa and Eurasia.  Its people are proudly militaristic, boasting victories over invading morghuls from the east.  They struggle to grow as a kingdom, however, as they are virtually surrounded at every angle, save for the west.  Tiveria, for all its military prowess, is essentially at the mercy of their western neighbor, the Kingdom of Baebyl.  Though they remain autonomous, their survival through harsh seasons depends on the Baebylan King's mood, making Tiveria their vassals.  In turn, Baebyl also relies heavily on the battle-hardened experience of Tiverian soldiers when invaded by a separate power.

North of Tiveria lies Vanalund, a lush, forested region where red-haired norvolk craft masterworks of steel to trade, and do battle with.  To the east, in western Morghulia, lies Turrkhan, a small region of the steppes, whose people hunt Tiverian honimen like game.  On the southern border lies Jaziralmut, or Land of Giants in the Khazstanian tongue.  The area surrounding Vanalund, Turrkhan, Jaziralmut, Baebyl, and Tiveria acts as a sort of chaotic crossroads of the four races.  Honimen invade the norvolk, the norvolk trade with the morghuls, the morghuls hunt the honimen, the honimen take khazstanian slaves, and so on.  Hence, this region has come to be known as the Crucible of Proxima.