The Foundation War
The history that all Auxientians know, at least in part, is the story of the Foundation War (or the “War of Foundation”) that followed Auxientius’s conquest of the valley, in which Auxientius’s lieutenants vied against one another in a decade-long war for succession.
In the early days after the conquest, the Auxientians struggled to survive in the valley. Auxientius planned a new city among the ruins of Mutu, and formidable tradespeople among the exiles rose to become pioneers of industry in the new city. Masons built walls; weavers made cloth; farmers, fishermen, and herdsmen fed the city; smiths forged tools; potters made vessels, and so on. The pioneers among these tradespeople were the true founders of Auxientia, and they rose in power by the merits of their contributions to the foundation of the city, and each of these leaders came to speak for their fellows. Auxientius relied upon the advice of these leaders just as much as he had relied upon his left- and right-hand lieutenants during the exile and conquest of the valley. These organizations became the city’s guilds, and a political and social class rose among the guilds’ leadership, nicknamed the “Gilded” for the power, wealth, and influence they commanded. This time of early innovation was called the Gilded Age, and the stories that surround it are tales of heroism, adventure, and progress.
But all things pass. As the original pioneers began to fade and die, power struggles broke out within the guilds, splintering them one by one. Disagreements led to hostility, which led to violence, and eventually to factional skirmishes within the city walls.
Auxientius tried and failed to reestablish order among the factions; tired and careworn, he ceased to give orders or issue decrees and soon a true war for succession began between his two lieutenants, Dahura—a general who served under Auxientius in the old land; and “the Scourge.” The guilds fell in line on one side or the other of the conflict, and thus began ten years of internecine warfare and strife. It was in this war that the steel of present-day Auxientia was forged.
The Factions
It was during the Foundation War that those left destitute by the war or seeking to survive or profit from its chaos formed street gangs, pirate crews, smuggling rings, black markets, and the like, known collectively as the Irregulars.
As the war raged on, veteran soldiers weary of the conflict deserted their armies and formed the Parastin order, dedicated to the protection of the downtrodden and those that could not fend for themselves. In an age of mindless slaughter, these renegade warriors became a shining example of virtue, a memory of what Auxientia was, and what it might be.
The brassworkers guild, master gearwrights and inventors headed by the Luciole family, switched sides in the conflict before they eventually withdrew from the war and from Gilded society, forming a neutral private corporation. Disagreeing with the rest of the Gilded, the Luciole founded their faction on reason and experimental study.
Throughout the war, the Bāhira remained in their highland realms, where they participated as scouts, guides, beastmasters, and mercenaries, watching the war and tipping the scales of power in the direction of their choosing; they sacked and burned Auxientia, an act that effectively ended the Foundation War and caused the Auxientians to rely upon them for survival.
Aftermath
When the Foundation War ended, Dahura triumphed over the Scourge, and she established Auxientia as a meritocracy in which—just like the original pioneers among the guilds—the competent and worthy rule, and succession is determined by merit rather than by blood.
The sparks of innovation that rose with the smoke of the Foundation War caught and burned through the Steel Age that followed, as the city rebuilt a second time.
Auxientius’s flesh and blood did not survive the civil war, but a record was discovered in the ashes of the palace, recorded on lumenstone, which included his instructions to Dahura and his son for the safeguarding of the city.
The third city built by the lake was called “Auxientia.”
The Flow of Time
The settlers that came to the Valley of the Heart are often called “the exiles.” They carried little of their former history with them, though place names sometimes reveal hints of their old homeland (such as the Plaza of the Seven Heresies on Ink Street). The first era of Auxientian civilization when the exiles settled the valley was called the Bright Age, and sometimes “the Conquest.” The idyllic time that followed, in which the exiles built their first utopian city over the ruins of the Bāhira city of Mutu and which features the many adventures of Auxientius, Dahura, and the Scourge is known as the Bright Age. The decade of civil war that ended the Bright Age is called the Foundation War. It is followed by the Steel Age, often called the “First Age of Industry.” Many periods have passed since that time, and the current age of innovation is sometimes called the Steam Age.