The Rise and Fall of Soreni // The Raellians

This is the History post about the Raellians. Read the narrative which inspired it here.

Soreni was a country of riches. It was extremely prosperous and the most wealthy country in the world. It was also one of the most wicked.

The culture of Soreni was one of good living and social status. Times were good and tradition stood firm. However, as riches kept growing so did the greed of the people. Over many years the value of having money outweighed the value of anything at all, even the value of a family. As people got more and more money they began to cut back on things that were deemed "of no monetary value." All pets were banished from the island and owning one was considered dirty and a waste of money. Any objectors ran away from the island, through the fingers of the Sarban government, to surrounding islands. Anything that was not absolutely necessary was forbidden. People could only own but a few uniforms for their daily tasks. Children were overscheduled into as many activities as possible to give the parents a chance to work more hours and therefore make more money. If one was not successful enough to have a job after school then their only hope was to find a way to a desolate island surrounding Soreni and hope to learn how to live the poor man's way.

The population of Soreni was frightfully large. The island itself was not very big but the population was nearly overcrowding. The government stepped in and encouraged families to have one child. After several years the government went as far as to encourage people to forget having children at all and not even to marry because then they could focus more on working and making a lot of money. A majority of the population agreed and finally there was a time that the birthrate dropped below the deathrate. Nobody seemend to notice at first but ten years down the road there was mass chaos.

Before long, the class size for youth crashed from 3 million to 1 million. After a two year period it dropped to just 300,000. By the mid 1800's the national class size for year 1 was just 3500. People were too preoccupied with money to notice or care. The family was no longer present. People were sad and did not know why. They had all the money in the world, but they were unhappy. As protest and revolution was not allowed, many thousands of youth fled to the surrounding islands and learned to work together to survive. Those that remained were overscheduled to the point of breaking. Children mainly lived in boarding schools or, if they were lucky, with their grandparents.

There began to be signs that the higher powers were not pleased with how the Sarban were living. Everyone ignored those signs except those who truly wanted out. Finally, there was an enormous undercover operation that took an old cruise ship and carried about 60,000 people to a large island far away, where they could return to a simpler state of farming and hunting. It was so secret that the government didn't notice, as they were too busy dealing with job losses and nobody to replace them.

As the people grew more wicked and greedy, a curse began to fall upon the island. There was a massive outbreak of a deadly virus that was highly contagious and had no cure. Over half of the population of Soreni died and many who lived fled to the islands to the east. By now the cities of Soreni were very empty and nobody knew what to do. Out of their own wickedness, they just worked even harder and spread themselves out thin as paper to get all the jobs done so that they could still make money. They finally all consolidated in one coastal city, as there were only about 1 million people still living on the island. They frantically tried to make families and raise children again but it was too late. People quickly realized that the virus had made them sterile and those that could have children were either too old or had no idea what raising a family was like and didn't even try.

There was a great dream shared by many that one day Soreni would become nothing and disappear into history books. This just made everyone work even harder to make more money. They wanted their riches with them. They did not believe such a thing could happen. Then in the hot summer of the mid 1860's it happened. It suddenly grew very cold and dark and a major storm rolled through, worse than ever had been imagined. There were very strong winds and crashing thunder and lightning. People watched as their buildings began to crumble. Then, they looked up in terror at the giant tidal wave that was approaching. They were powerless against it. They were so focused on money that they forgot about safety of any kind. The wave hit them and many of their last memories upon death were grabbing their boxes of wealth and holding on tight.

It was over. In one dark and awful day the entire island of Soreni had been extinguished. As the water furiously ran over the lands, the island began to break and fall away. Then, as if the gods themselves were molding the world once more, the remains of the wicked, rich island of Soreni sank to the bottom of the ocean, now silenced by the depths of the canyons. The storm lifted and the island was no more.

There rose a wave, a bump of wind, that spread far and wide to all people of Sarban descent. As it hit them, they could feel a change. They did not notice what it was until the birth of their children. They had become a new race. Not only that, but everyone who got that bump was the last of their kind. They truly were the last of the Sarban. What they didn't notice was their language had changed. Since everyone changed it went undetected until they went to read and write. They realized that they could not and so as the children of this new race grew older they helped design a universal alphabet.

They had received vision of a great leader who would help organize them into a new and prosperous race. Not just the main island with many on it but all 6 of the islands that held the people of Soreni. This leader would be clad in dark clothing and wear metal in his skin. His hair would be like the horns of many animals and his face would appear aged and hardened. He spoke to them in this vision. They understood that he would help them and rule over them. They knew that he was from another part of the world but would find them someday. Find them he did.

One fine day, many years later, when most of the original race was gone and replaced with the new generation, there arrived a great ship, all in black, along the coast. There arose a cry and everyone of the islands gathered to meet this ship. They knew who it was. Their leader had come. Once it was safely docked, there arose a great man from the top. He looked exactly as he did in their visions. It was him.

This man began to speak to them in their own tongue! The first words out of his mouth were "I am Saaiill, your chosen leader. Fear me not!" The people were confused at first. Their language did not contain the letter "S" any longer. However, they realized what he would do quite quickly. He then yelled, "You will know me as Rael, the son of the Islands!" With that, the great population, even the children, began to shout "Rael! Rael! Rael!" It got louder and louder and faster and faster until everyone was cheering and screaming it. He then, with a group of men, stepped onto the soil and into the house that was made especially for him.

The first thing that Rael did was call order to his house. He elected the government from strong and trustworthy people. He then assigned everyone a job and gave them instruction on how to do it. Before the people left for the night, he declared the island as Raellia and by the next morning they had had visions of a new alphabet to use. They quickly learned it and began to write their history.

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Many years went by and Rael ruled as a just and fair man. He got things of every aspect put into place and eventually sent people out to help organize the other islands. Over time, the other islands became known as Lihana, Icenchinga Land, Breuislah, Ibraxni, and Aktoleezy and each had their distinct traditions and customs. Raellia was the biggest by far and was central to all of them, although they all eventually became their own countries and entities. Another alphabet emerged in Lihana, which spoke a dialect so far away from the normal Raellian that it had more sounds and therefore needed more letters. As time went on these 6 islands mixed with the country of Taigana to the southwest and spread to the Lost Islands of Kiillaana to the east. All but Lihana and Raellia became quite small and rural places while these two became heavily industrialized. Life was good on these islands. The new race was strong and not wicked. Where Soreni had failed, Raellia had taken over.

Even if Saaiill had to do it at Catarika's expense he did it. Due to the Creed of Jinjo, Catarika is not enemies with Raellia at all. They eventually understood what had happened and, being the people that they are, let it go as now it did not matter. Where Saaiill was bad in Catarika, he was very righteous in the country he ruled. And all was well.

Notes on the Raellian language and race:

The race of the Raellian people can be likened to the Korean people. Raellians stand at about 5'2''-5'10''. They have black, straight hair, slightly darker skin, and eyes that are very almond-shaped but rounder than those of the Catin race. Their noses are a little more broad than those of Catarika and their cheeks sit higher. Their faces are less oval and more round as well.

The language can also be likened to Korean or a similar Asian language. It is very tonal, much like Tellish, and is spoken quickly but with purpose.