Over two centuries ago, refugees fled to the West to escape nomadic invasions, military oppression and religious persecution in the land of Peloria. The Lunar Empire was in its death-throes and failing to protect them; they chose to find their own path to peace and safety. Refugees streamed down the Janube valley, a trickle at first, but later a mighty tidal wave. They brought with them their Pelorian manners and beliefs, forged in the Lunar Way but tempered by their suffering. Their grievances with the dying Lunar Empire were threefold:
· The Empire was failing to protect its citizens against the Horse Nomad
Invasions. Its armies and leaders were unequal to the struggle, and
throughout Peloria townsmen and country folk were being slaughtered and
enslaved. Most of the refugees who fled to Arrolia were simply displaced
persons, their homes destroyed and livelihoods ruined by the Horse Nomads.
· In its desperate attempts to defend its capital, the Empire was becoming
an oppressive and militaristic state. Children were conscripted, snatched
from their parents to suffer and die in badly-trained, poorly-led militia
formations. Taxes shot sky-high, as Peloria was bled white so that Glamour
might survive unscathed. A substantial minority of the Arrolian Migrants
were pacifists and political dissidents who supported the outlying regions
against the centre, their own individual freedom against brutish imperial
oppression.
· Finally, a select core of the Arrolian Migrants were followers of various
popular religious movements which were relentlessly persecuted in the
declining Empire. Weakened in its structure, the once-liberating Lunar Way
turned tail and sought to impose conformity on all its citizens. So-called
"heretics," most notably the followers of the White Moon, were hounded from
public life and made into scapegoats for the collapse of Imperial fortunes.
Naturally, they sought a life free from religious oppression elsewhere.
In the land of Arrolia, they found the safety they sought. Three cities on the beautiful blue Janube became their new homes: Eastpoint, Southbank, and Riverjoin.
In Arrolia, the liberating doctrines of the original Lunar Way made many converts. Even as freedom died in Peloria, it was reborn in Fronela, as the Dying Moon of the old Lunar Empire gave way to the New Moon of the Arrolian Confederation. The Confederation has ever upheld the ways of its founders: it remains a loose association of sovereign city-states, whose armies are employed only for defensive purposes. Religious freedom is a fundamental tenet of the Arrolian Lunar Church.
:::: Email: <mailto:Nick_Brooke_at_btinternet.com>
Nick
:::: Website: <http://www.btinternet.com/~Nick_Brooke/>
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