Valerius was the first king to extend the lands of Aurum beyond the Anathion and claims to have civilized the ancient Belissarian tribes. Though he was not kindly regarded in his vale and became overthrown at the end of his days.
It is somewhat speculated at times that the Veneshae people may originally have been a rival tribe of the Belissarians before their later integration into imperial hegemony. For they bear a likened tradition of hunting and fishing, and exist endemically along the other side of the Anathion. While no records of the Veneshae's history predates their slavery and integration into the Aurum empire, investigation of oral traditions speak of the "Asharae" people across the river. Which of course means "the enemy" people.
These Asharae were described by the Veneshae as manhunters skilled with bows, as fits the description of the later defined Belissarians. When Valerius brought his forces across the Anathion he fought seventeen recorded battles with these Asharae over the course of the conquest, each of which occurred within the collective span of five years.
The greatest resistance was put forth by the residents of the great Forest of Valerius, later dubbed the High Forest of Bethel after the Belissarians earned their freedom from the empire in this region. Naturally, it was only after King Valerius' conquests that it came to be called the Forest of Valerius, and scarce prior records suggest that it may have been called the Erieae Lect, or Eru Allet– roughly translated as Forest of the River Fartherlings or Forest of the Stagwalkers respectively.
Sources primarily come from the Veneshae and so are difficult to properly parse, as they retained a more negative perception of their neighbors across the Anathion. But whatever the original name was, it is now surely seen as the High Forest of Bethel and remains home to the modern Belissarians.
Most of their land exists within the High Forest that King Valerius later conquered. For he saw the conquest of that land as a mark of his achievements against the Belissarian peoples, and thus saw fit to reward himself with a legacy named in the maps. Thus why on the maps of the Westmans, it is recorded as the Forest of Valerius, while maps from the Heartlands call it the High Forest of Bethel.
It was after Solomon Titanus, first of his name, saw fit to grant again independence to the Heartlands, the Belissarians renamed it after their newly formed nation. Though politically their relationship with the empire remains one of contentious liberties, Belissarians and Westmans enjoy great prosperity in their trade with each other.
Gems and jewelry are often sold from Helios and pass through Bethel on its way to An'tia. The Belissarians themselves also draw resin from the trees of the Bethel Forest, primarily a forest of oak, pine, and maple. The resin when drawn is used as adhesives or if drawn from dead pines in the ground becomes amber stone which has brought great wealth to the Belissarian tribes.
They're hunters and fishers mainly, living by the Anathion's stream. As the oldest tradition of the Belissarian peoples, hunting is a trade which each of their kind is taught from youth. Thus one could naturally derive how venison and fishing became a staple of their diets, or their lean archer builds that favor stealth and the power to draw on the muscles of the whole body.
Belissarians make their homes from forest wood and cobblestone, though in Thern– the capital of Bethel, the Belissarian villa is a subject of quaint fancy, even to the high society of Helios. They are quite fond of the limestone walls and floors that are supported by oak or maple pillars and beams, all of which are novel compared to the dark and imposing baroqueness of the Westmans. The limestone sourced from Dire and often accompanied by colored cloths– which came in such brilliant shades that only An'tia dyers could work, was a fascination found usually only on the island of Shorish off the coasts of Inbal, separated by the Sara Channel.
It is impossible to guess when the practice of archery moved from old habit into hallowed tradition among the Belissarians, but it is now known to be a most splendid cultural phenomenon marked by a storied history of technological development and many conflicts that is now patriotic to the Belissarians.
To compete and win in a competition of archery is for most Belissarian boys a mark of manhood, and indeed the boys of Bethel will be forced to shoot with men as old as twice or thrice their age to spur them into fierce competition against any odds. Among the favored sports is knockback archery, in which one will draw as many arrows as possible in a single minute and see who fires truer and faster in that period. Often a highly senior acher is required to administer this competition, for one most learned is needed to ensure a fair judgement for the quality of their shots and the trueness of their forms when the arrows begin to fly one and another between the moments of a second.
Other boys of Bethel enjoy the practice of mounted archery. Though a lack of horses are bred in Bethel, they came to learn the power of mounted archery during the recurve innovation of their famous Belissarian Bow. It begins that during the conquest of Bethel at the hands of the Heathcliff dynasty there came a struggle for the grounded archers of Bethel to face off against the cavalry of Helios. Thus, came the innovation of Belissarian recurve bows to mount their archers on horses, usually those claimed as spoils in the conflict, and shoot down the enemy with a highly mobile force.
This would also lead to the most celebrated and anticipated practice of archery which even lords afar the realms would venture to enjoy: Chariot Jousting. There would be two archers, each in the pit of a horse-drawn chariot. Then, as they charged each other with great speed, each would have a target plastered onto the front of their own chariot. Whoever would be first to strike true, from greatest distance and at closest mark, would be dubbed the winner of the joust.
But this was a challenging event by even the most seasoned archer. For the chariot was uneven and rattled with the gallop and tug of the horses. So too was the speed significant. It was to the point that the chariots would meet and pass each other before a pebble tossed to calm waters could skip four times.
Then there was the mental burden too. One never knew when the foe across the arena would dare to launch their shot. A few breaths could make the difference between winner and loser. For distance was measured as well as accuracy and scored twice as much in Belissarian Chariot Jousting. But accuracy mattered too though. Each ring on the bullseye granted ten points, and also reduced the opponents score ten points as well. One had to calculate in the blink of an eye at where to loose or hold the shot. Rather more rigorous was the cognitive load of Chariot Jousting than the physical task itself.
Such love for the bow do Belissarians have, for it is their oldest technology. While copper weapons began in the east from what is now Sahava, the Belissarian Bow began as a simple self-made bow often no better than a flexible straight stick with an animal's sinew stretched from one end to the other. Then came the longbow crafted from wyvern bone and resin. It served them well for years. Beyond any other bow of the time, they could shoot further and with greater power. They improved the arrows too to become more penetrative and fierce.
Belissarian Longbows served them most aptly during the resistance against Valerius, for as he led the armies of Aurum across the river, the demigods were hounded by arrows fired from beneath the tree canopies. Indeed, the crossing of the Anathion alone took King Valerius no less than a year itself. To muster a force across the wide stream required multiple ships, each had to be cut and crafted there and then, and after had to cross the waters infested with Lizardmen all while arrows rained from above.
Even for the mightiest demigods, who could each lift ten spry young men on their arms and could halt an ox's charge, and some of whom claimed they could carry mountains on their backs; to face these threats was a formidable challenge. Of the seventeen battles Valerius waged against the ancient Belissarians, eight were fought along the waters of the Anathion.
The greatest of these engagements was the battle of Issutis Crossing, where Valerius finally broke land upon the opposite banks of the Anathion. For eleven months the Belissarians had held the banks using tactical wilderness and superior range offered by their longbows. Yet the greatest adversary was Bandolor of the Bow, whose arrows felled fifty Aurian officers including twenty Centurions and two legates among several other petty officers.
Then at the twelfth month, Valerius gathered the dwarven slaves from the capital and brought them down to the Anathion to mine the Altus dales. Granite and gravel was pulled from the hills until they came to form the Altus Pass, where later years would be built the Road of Valerius in the days of King Pashum that fortified the pathways to the empire's eastern reaches.
All this moved gravel, mud, and stone would then form a great shallow in the river's current, and cut the water's pathway such that the Anathion Minor Tributary would flood the northern reaches of the High Forest of Bethel. It relocated the Lizardmen Tribes further north and cut an effective end to the geographical advantages of the ancient Belissarians.
And they, who witnessed these events and saw the ultimate outcome, would go on to call this forged pathway the Issutis Crossing– meaning the Crossing of Slaves. From there Valerius entered the forest proper and went on to have many bouts with the Belissarians until their eventual subjugation. Most of the battles were struggles for the Aurians, who despite their powers, lacked the arms reach to strike at the Belissarians in most cases.
The Belissarian Longbow served them well throughout the ancient wars with Aurum, for it allowed them to fire volleys night and day and remain at a distance too great to close suddenly. And if overpursued by the Aurian soldiers, one could quickly find their squadron surrounded and outnumbered gravely. The conquest of the High Forest of Bethel was undoubtably one of the most memorable, if not significant, battles of the first age. Sadly however, these conflicts would eventually fade with the glory of Aurum during the Red Night.
Yet although once the Belissarian bow might've laid claim to battlefield dominance, the peaceable third age had turned it more towards recreation and sport than to bloodshed. Its size was reduced in the second age to enable the recurve adjustments and make it suitable for horseback archery. A necessity in the second age when horses spawned following the War of Choice and the thinning of demonic blood into mere beastliness.
By the mid-third age, Belissarian bows were once more tall bows surpassing the height of a man, and heavier than iron. The recurve elements remain and are now further strained by pulleys that bring the force of one man's draw to the weightyness of forty draws instead, or so claims the Belissarian's master archers. Westmans argue this exaggerated though no one can speak with authority to the matter except for the master archers themselves, whose accounts are purely verbal and refuse to allow study of the bow's technical workings to prove it. In fact, the Belissarian Bow remains a state secret although it has not been used for war in centuries by the time of the reign of Emperor Jaeden Titanus V.
But while the Belissarians put up a fierce resistance against the ancient Aurians and later second age Westmans, the Direfolk were much less resiliant to Aurian intrusions. In the first age the city of An'tia was known as Helm, and was home to the Helms– a species of dwarven folk who had skin like honey and copper and strange fiery beards. They were worshippers of Amos– Lesser god of Weapons and Industry. In ancient times he was also called the God of Forging. These Helmish dwarves are often claimed to be the inventors of the Balistae, Onagers, and the early crossbow.
After their defeat and enslavement at the hands of the Aurians, they would go on to perfect their crafts for the empire, developing the lighter long-ranged Scorpion Ballista and the Chieroballista which was often mounted on walls or large war ships along a rotating mechanism. The razing of the original city of Helm is not widely recorded and the original Helmish dwarves are all extinct now, bled down to their last for their precious dwarven blood that Aurian aristocrats used in painterly works like the Wall of Persephorot, the ceilings of the Gilded Palace, and the idols of the Primordial Dragon of Red which late-era Aurum so worshipped and desired.
What is known is that the fall of Helm occurred during the end days of King Valerius' reign, when he transitioned from glorious king to resented monarch. Oral accounts state that Valerius unleashed the first case of fire magic ever stated by history.
Some argue that this may have been a sort of "test run," by the Deceiver to investigate the might of raw firepower unleashed. It is widely believed that Valerius after his deposition from the throne later accepted R̄ësha's words and became a Beshír. Regardless of what is true though, it remains that the original city of Helm was reduced to scorched ruins and became a foundation on which later human settlers built the city of An'tia.
During the second age the Direfolk indirectly contributed to challenges during the Heathcliff dynasty's invasion of Bethel. Their wheat fields produced all of the rations which saw transport to Bethel to feed their armies, and An'tia's location at the center of Metaphor's Road enabled far eastern trade to reach the Belissarians and fund them with weapons and technology. If not for these things, the Belissarians would never have been able to resist Helios' encroachment during the second age.
It is then for this reason that the late emperor Mathias 'the Bronze' Heathcliff of Helios sought to subjugate the Direfolk during the second age before moving on to the conquest of Ram and Arcticus northward. He made sure to cut off the supply of grain to the Heartlands and placed the subdued peoples under martial law to ensure absolute security.
But unfortunately for emperor Mathias, he was already quite old by the time Helios had completed the conquest of Bethel, then it took another ten months to bring down An'tia. In those ten months, Mathias contracted Justinian's Plague and later succumbed to his illness– marking a sudden transition of power to the brazen and bold Colton Heathcliff. Who would bankrupt the dynasty and ultimately bring forth its decline from imperial power.
But the most fascinating of the Heartlander peoples were the Ramians, a collection of various small tribes who were conquered by the great northern power, Izal'arconia. This was a true martial empire, a place ruled by the strong. Arcticus remains into modern day as a power commanding of great respect. Their far northern reaches retained the finest quality of iron, and their culture of martial fatalism was utterly stoic and bold in its portrayal of life. Thus their soldiers were often of the most taciturn and reliable nature. So reliable, in fact, that their numerous success in battle ironically outpaced the development of their legal and economic codes by which to supply the far and fearsome soldiers who dared step out of the bitter north.
Izal'arconia subjected the Ramians to their own culture of venerating pain and death, which made quite a shock and horror of the Ramian's spirits and built up a deep xenophobic grudge towards outlanders to their people. For Izal'arconia was not even the first empire to subdue their lands.
The eastern power of Aegytos had in years prior made colonies of their homes and took the fruits of their labors into the far eastern desert to starve the Ramians within their own fertile lands. And it was in the wake of these misfortunes that emperor Colton Heathcliff of Helios presented himself as liberator to the Ramians. But this was met with only scorn and spite. For how could the empire that conquered Bethel and Dire— their neighboring peoples, be a force of liberty?
The defiance of the Ramians was a thorn to emperor Colton, who sought to push north and enter Arcticus. Each time he attempted to drive back the Ramians, they would flee into the hills or retreat to the Rea Bluffs. But each time he diverted his armies back to the siege of the Iron Curtain, he found that the Ramians were nicking at his heels and striking his caravans.
After the fall of Heathcliff, these Ramians would not accept a leader endorsed by the empire, and as a message to the new dynasty of Titanus, sent back the delegated leader's head on a pike. This greatly strained relations between the two, which were only preserved thanks in part to emperor Solomon of Helios' great generosity and benevolence.
The Ramians eventually chose their own style of leadership, a merchant republic run by wealthy and powerful families. They called themselves the Confederacy of Ram and erected provincial districts based on ancient tribal borders predating the period of Aurum's first arrival in the Heartlands.
The Ramians became foremost lenders and bankers, adept in trade and the management of wealth. Their Ramian Tallies were each a stick of copper, nickel, silver, and gold denominations, and weightier than any other currency in the civilized world. These tallies were also tradeable as far as the Isles of Iseer, giving them as much cultural penetration as the lost thalassocracy had during its height.
Their staple diet was composed of rye, sheep and goat cheese, and they liked sour wines and savory meats. The wool from their sheep is sheared and sent south to An'tia for coloring and distribution east and west along Metaphor's Road.
The Ramians value mercantilism, and economic freedom. Laws and lords who would restrict the markets or tax the people are despised. Perhaps it is because of this that the Ramians were the only member of the Heartland Kingdom Alliance that managed to retain full liberty against the expansive Helios empire. While both Bethel and Dire agreed to pay tribute to the emperor annually, Ram alone was uncompromising with regards to the distribution of their wealth to foreign agencies.
Another factor lies in their unique national identity– for the Ramians are not bound together by blood ties or genealogy. They were originally several independent tribes after all, yet instead derive their nationalism from a shared ideology in free markets.
Because these markets are so free, the slave trade in Ram is among the largest and most lucrative markets found in the world. Many of the Ramians claim theirs surpasses the Kar'kashan slavers, and argue that the quality, treatment, and civility of their merchandise far outclass that of the southern "savages," as they put it.
It was after the careful and prolonged negotiations of emperor Solomon the first of Helios that at last there was reconciliation and peace within the Heartlands. Borders were agreed, factions were formalized, and eventually the Heartland Kingdom Alliance was formed to serve as the central powers of trade on Jania. They were charged by Solomon to keep the border between Helios and Sahava, and ensure such that neither shared a line on the maps to each other, as the two rising giants of the second age wished not to have border tensions. Under the condition that none of the Heartland Kingdoms could surpass a certain military scale, there was an accord shared to stabilize international borders.
Thus the three— Belissarians, Direfolk, and Ramians formed a treaty and so protected each other from harm and created the circumstances as observed by the time of emperor Jaeden Titanus V.