The Dominion of Men

Home of the first Men - the Atamarans on Edorlund. All dates on this page are by Mannish Reckoning, unless suggested otherwise.

The Holds
The Holds of The Dominion of Men are, in decreasing order of population: Atamara, Cestranii, Þawgraan, Faalerlund, Winderfael (Winterfall), Vargahn. Their capitals are: Atamar, Aosraan, Þawhamur (Thawhammer), Sarelund, Kylinstraa, Darkwater.

Birth of The Dominion
During the construction of the city of Atamar, and the rise of Men, a solid border was laid out and agreed with the Elves. Men would have the west of Edorlund, including the two isles to the north. Their border in the east would be at the Deep Lakes. They would also have the forest on the Peninsula of Wolves. This means a great fence was built to the south where the border was not marked by any natural formation.

During the reign of Atama, Atamar was the only true city. However after his death, his successors built up various cities around the Dominion, as the capitals of their Holds.

History
The Dominion was divided up into 6 Holds by the line of Atama - first High Kings of The Dominion. First, Eorlaan Winterfall created a land for himself and his kin in the forested south - and he called this 'The Hold of Winterfall'. He also assigned the High King a hold - which housed the capital Atamar. This hold was called Atamara. All the other land which was not assigned to a hold was called 'Folclund' - 'People Land'. This division happened on 9/11/79.

In the year 85, 'The Sword of the King' is forged in the mountain of Skarii. It is the finest sword ever made, by both Elven and Mannish smiths. All was well and good in The Dominion.

However, in the year 98, a great dragon roars out of the ice to the south, and flies in a blaze of fire towards Atamar. Luckily, a strong warrior named Vorstaen is stationed at Kylinstraa - the capital of Winterfall. Vorstaen fires a perfectly aimed burning arrow through the eye of the dragon, killing it. Its corpse tumbled into the snowy forest outside the city walls. Ever after Vorstaen is called Dragonbane. Hearing of this magnificent feat, High King Eorlaan assigns Vorstaen the title of 'Dragon Knight of Winterfall'. This new title of Dragon Knight gives Vorstaen lordship over Winterfall, and may exercise a degree of autonomy over the realm. A magnificent palace is built at Kylinstraa, called 'The Hall of Ice'. There a crown of dragon talons, from the beast he just killed, is placed on Vorstaen's head. A glorious cloak is woven for the new Dragon Knight - it is blue in colour, with a depiction of a red dragon's face decorating the back.

At the same time as this, a cloak is forged for the High King too. It is pure white, with a black outline depiction of Atamar in the centre.

The next High King - Fargaan Cestranii wanted to immortalize his name by also creating a Hold. The Hold of Cestranii was established on 9/10/125, with its capital at Aosraan. By coincidence, 3 days later another dragon blew its way out of the southern sea and made its way towards Atamar. A skilled ranger in the woods managed to shoot the beast in a weak spot with two arrows. As soon as word reached Fargaan, he decided to follow what had gone before and proclaim the ranger Dragon Knight of Cestranii. He was given a pale cloak with a green pine in the centre. This meant there was now two Dragon Knights and a High King in The Dominion.

In 126, Vorstaen Dragonbane, Dragon Knight of Winterfall died. This raised the question... what should happen to the title after its incumbent dies? It was decided at a meeting of the 3 holds that, until another dragon should be slain, the hold would be ruled by a 'Chief Knight'. This Chief Knight would be chosen by the king, advised by nobles of the hold. When someone else came to slay a dragon, he named Dragon Knight of the Hold, and the Chief Knight would be removed from power. See Atamaran Constitution for more on this system.

Government
Main Article: 

At its peak, The Dominion of Men was governed by a slightly complicated system of Federal Government, which attempted to include all people in it. It was written down in a great leather book called 'Law of Atama' - Aeðar Atamar. This book was written in in the year 1000 by Geon Lawmaker, and it encompassed lots of elements from The Book of Man (Vokar Eading). Vokar Eading was written by Atama and outline the rules of how men should live.

Aeðar Atamar is the basis of Atamaran Constitution.

External History
The first written notes about the Dominion of Men started out in N:Menish Lore. Here it is said:  'He founded Atamara the first city of men, and over the centuries this grew into the capital of the Dominion of Men'. You can see that here Atamara is the name of the capital, not what it is now - ''Atamar. ''Atamara is now the hold in which Atamar is contained.

Before this however, I wrote down on a piece of paper this: ''Atama < Mennish Realm < Edorlund. This was to try and get straight in my head newly discovered geography of Edorlund, though I did spell the name of the capital as Atama'', as I had only heard it being said. You can also see now that what is now Mannish has been spelt in such varieties as Menish, Mennish and sometimes Manish. Until very recently I was still deliberating how to spell it.

In the early days of Edorlund, I swapped between names such as Mennish Realm, Realm of Men/Man, Mannish Domain etc, before it being secured as the Dominion of Men... sort of. The 'the' is now capitalised.

In N:Menish Lore the name of Galmar's Housecarl is Ackatar, not Akatar as it is now. I found the 'ck' to be invalid in Mannish. Also of note, Elvenking is separated into Elven King, and was more abstract - it could be alikened to Dwarven King.