History of the bogs community continued

The Recent Past

In the immediate aftermath of the return of the Vipara accompanied by the gnomes to the families sharing the bogs there was unease, but it settled as the gnomes were truly impressed by the Skinks’ building and writing and showed respect towards their way of life, the Skinks though gave no grace to the gnomes in return. To calm tensions, the Vipara and the gnomes built their lodgings away from the Skink’s fortress into the boggy surroundings, developing homes sitting on long wooden stilts and adapted the gnomic agricultural practices to work within the wet and swampy environment. The cultivating of Quiff swelled the insect population, the planting of Kozom trees in nurseries brought many birds and the east saw a half-century of prodigious growth in population from these efforts. This population boom was shared amongst the Skinks and the Vipara but as the Skinks in Xedocé struggled more as a result of it, as the now much more common prey threatened their hunting tradition and their fortress became crowded and living conditions deteriorated as the population swelled. And so, as discontent grew in the fortified city, the Skinks grew resentful of the Vipara who seemed to have no such issues.

The Skinks attacked at daybreak, and destroyed tens of stilted homes while Vipara and gnomes were still fast asleep. They held them to a violent ultimatum; submit to the rule of the Skinks or be exiled. The Vipara called for the gnomes, since with their long lives most of their elders remembered life under dragon’s rule. Their wisdom was that the Skinks could be reasoned with if given enough time so they accepted submission under the promise of no further bloodshed.
The Skinks extended the walls and defenses of Xedoc to encompass the villages built by the Vipara and the gnomes, and claimed the combined settlement as one city under their protection. And under the rule of the Skinks, the Vipara grew closer to the gnomes who got relegated to the outskirts, having developed new spells and cultural touchstones in their years together.

The ruling Skinks worried of revolution coming from their subjugated siblings so they tried to insert a wedge between the gnomes and the lizardfolk in order to disrupt the harmony existing among them. A decree was passed making all lizardfolk equal to each other, but also have a higher status than folks of other races in their now proclaimed Repitalian Republic. It is also during these tumultuous times that the Republic saw slitherskins arrive, as well as desperate lizardfolk who came to Thiusland by boat to the south and a retinue of salamander folk of green and black colorations. The immediate and open assimilation of these newcomers irked the gnomes who had been part of this society for generations now and were still treated as lesser, but the final straw was when the new salamanders were given land that had been passed down in a gnome family for over a hundred years. The gnomes rose up in protest, using illusion magic to scare back and intimidate the lizardfolk enforcers. The ruling Skink family was put on the backfoot and in this hour of unease a Salamander man by the name of Vivonox caught the ear of the Skinks and began drumming up support for a full raid on the gnomish people, with intent to kill. The night of the raid came and a mob of two hundred salamanders and Skinks went to the gnomish neighborhood to burn it down but found it empty, the gnomes gone, their crops harvested and their stores barren. In secret, those who still considered themselves Vipara earned the gnomes' trust and smuggled them out of the city to the north, beyond the bogs, hoping for them to find a better life there.

The salamanders and the newly arrived lizardfolk were sent out on duty of restarting the farming in the wake of losing the gnomes, but their knowledge and ways of doing was lost, or, more so, hidden by the Vipara who kept detailed records of all the techniques, technologies, stories and names of the gnomes during their time with them. The Skinks grew frustrated with the inability of their new allies and the newcomers grew angry at being pressured to provide for an ungrateful upper class. The Vipara pushed at the divide as much as they could and finally massive protests broke out all over Xedoc coming to the old fortress gates, to the home of Skinks. Faced with numbers they couldn't hope to withstand the Skinks parlayed and an agreement was made that all the people of the big city would vote for their government, that any and all would be welcome in the bogs, and that no group could hold de facto power over another. With this parley came a week of deliberations and talks which were recorded in writing for the coming generations. It set the stage for a new era of the bogs in which the people would rule.

To be continued...