The Unreached Duchy

Chapter 2

Every Skirophorion Day, the Royal Castle would be decorated with all of the symbols of Makara on every tower. The Makaran colors could be seen flying from every possible window in the castle as well. Not a single decorating detail was overlooked, even the Royal Stables were decorated with the symbols and colors. The animals in the Stables were even adorned with colorful saddles and riding blankets in Makaran colors, the horses had colored ribbons braided into their mains and tails also.

Skirophorion Day was seen by mainland merchants as a day to make lots of money and sell goods; the merchants in Makara usually sold or gave things away on Skirophorion Day as a way to show Makaran pride and to show that Makara did not need any merchants from the mainland to sell their wares for such a special holiday. Mostly the merchants who did well on Skirophorion Day were the merchants who brought wares made from materials only found on the mainland or in shades that were only available on the mainland. Otherwise the people from Makara got things from a merchant in Makara.

Skirophorion Day has its beginnings shrouded in mystery, no one really knows when people began arriving in Makara from the mainland or even where they started coming from. The only thing that is known for sure is people came because they wanted to live somewhere different from the mainland. The legend goes that the ancestral races, Fir Bolg and Basajaun, came first because the mainland realms shunned them. The Kabouters came after the ancestral races, arriving on ships with supplies and livestock; they went unnoticed when they first arrived, for almost two full moons actually.

Once the ancestral races discovered the Kabouters were here, they made arrangements amongst themselves to help the Kabouters after much debate about how to handle the “invasion” as some people called it. The Kabouters proved to be peace-loving as much as the Fir Bolg and Basajaun races were, so that ended any fears of an “invasion” and it was the start of a very profitable partnership between the three races. Not long after the ancestral races discovered the Kabouters had begun living on the island but the Merfolk started to arrive on the shores of Makara. They were also seeking sanctuary from the human living on the mainland; they decided that the Merfolk were unfit to live among them and help them, much like they had to the other races of human living on the mainland.

Again, a council was held about what to do in regards to the Merfolk that was arriving by numerous pods on each high tide. The Fir Bolg, Basajaun, and Kabouters decided that it was alright for the Merfolk to stay as long as they agreed to help make the island a more defendable realm, as well as, coming up with a name for the realm. Legend does not say how the name “Makara” came to be, but it is the name the four races settled upon without any disagreement. Makara means water being, most of the duchy believe it was picked since all of the races came to the island shores by way of the Black Sea; therefore, making them all water beings in some form.

The ancestral races had kept a calendar and marked the day when they arrived on the island. They had been on the island for a full year and decided to celebrate the one year that they were able to live without fear. Not long after the celebration in the main city of the new kingdom, Skirophorion, there was a dark cloud seen flying overhead. The cloud turned out to be a pod of Yilbegan heading towards the volcano. The dragon born giants were unaware of the other races that were living closer to the beach. Their arrival to the island made the need arise of setting actual boundaries for the races to help keep the harmony that was already among the races. The races convened another meeting among the Fir Bolg, Basajaun, Kabouters, Merfolk, and Yilbegan that lasted several days but at the end there was an accord struck that was written onto parchment made from land plants and written in ink from the sea.

In the written accord, the races agreed they were all citizens in the Makaran duchy with equal rights given to both men and women to do as they pleased within the limits of the law. The accord granted the Yilbegan mountain lands near the volcano, the Merfolk lands near the shores, the Kabouters were granted woodlands, the Fir Bolg were granted lands connected by the Kabouter woodlands and Merfolk shores, and the Basajaun were granted lands connecting the Fir Bolg lands to the Yilbegan mountains.

A few months after that accord was struck among the races, there were still more new inhabitants in Makara; the Jentil and the Antero Vipunen races. The Jentil is a race of megalith building giants whose only request was to be allowed to live in the part of Makara with the most rocks so they could build their beloved monuments for their new realm. The Antero Vipunen requested to live in caves in the kingdom as their only request, aside from being in a location away from the Yilbegan because the Antero Vipunen are unable to tolerate the immense heat the dragon born race produces naturally from their bodies.