Unhur’ahn was founded two thousand years ago by the women who fought in the Night of Red Sands.  The name is from an ancient Yoremban word meaning freedom.  It is ironic that Hurahni society has become so much like the Yoremban society the women fought to escape.

Hurahni society is strictly matrilineal, governed by the Empress, currently Nehanda na Enamendu.  The Enamendu family has ruled for several hundred years

When founded, Unhur’ahn was governed in the old way, by a council of elder women.  Gradually, younger and younger women sat on the councils until the old women, who were patient enough to talk things through, were replaced by matriarchs in their prime.  These women naturally wanted to pass their power on to their own daughters, and the Great Families were born.  Approximately fifteen hundred years ago the first empress rose to power.  Ishani the Falcon took control of the nation’s warriors to fight back an incursion by the Duerfar.  By the time the war was over there were few who remembered what life was like without Ishani’s rule.  She named her third daughter her heir, the eldest two having died in the war.

Unhur’ahn was founded by strong, fierce women and the landscape has done little to soften that.  Composed primarily of rugged, broken hills, southern Unhur’ahn is nearly as dry as the Yoremban desert.  Only near the Velloren border does it become green and fertile.  The wild northern forests were cut down and the terraced farms carved into the hills.  The forests that exist now are carefully maintained to supply Unhur’ahn with timber and game.

Savage creatures still make their homes here, including desert Eidechse, trolls, and a large desert cat which preys on Eidechse, trolls, and humans alike.  Duerfar and goblins live in the western hills and mountains, and their ongoing conflict often spills into areas inhabited by the Hurahni.

The pressure from the Duerfar in the west has been compounded by recent Yoremban intrusions in the south, and internal unrest fueled by the increasingly oppressive regime.  In addition, Unhur’ahn and Velloren continually clash over their mutual border, especially the Velloren duchy of Eiderstat which includes a long stretch of coast and a good harbor.  Unhur’ahn has only a single small port, and has coveted the Eiderstat harbor for many decades.  To secure that port for her people, Empress Nehanda agreed to an armistice, sealing the new treaty with a marriage between the heiress of the duchy of Cambray, which borders Eiderstat, and Robert Bertram, the young Duke of Eiderstat.  King Olaf readily agreed, but he underestimated the patience and ambition of the Hurahni.  Alicia Hornesh, duchess of Cambray, has taken complete control of her husband’s land.  In fact, Robert Bertram has not been seen in public for several years now, leading to speculation that she has, in fact, assassinated him.  This was further fueled when she publicly set him aside, in the Hurahni way, and married a new, younger husband.

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This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.