In 610 CE, citizens of Eblana began mysteriously becoming inflicted with a unknown fatal disease. City officials quickly determined the cause of the epidemic - their water supply had been poisoned! Our engineers did what they could to cleanse the watershed, but sanitation procedures of the time were incredibly rudimentary, and the disease spread amongst the population. At the time of the breakout, Elbana was home to 232,000 Celts. If we flash forward 75 years, the city's population had dwindled to just 48,000 - nearly 200,000 and their descendants were denied their right to life.
Eblana Poisoned! Greeks Across the Loch to Blame?
Who could committed such an atrocity? Well, during that same year of 610 CE, Greece instituted a security tax aimed at strengthening their military and fortifications. While we'll never know for sure, our safe bet is on a Greek agent. The fighting may not be over, but I cannot attack again on simply a hunch. The Greek army is quite impressive at the moment as well, our government will begin placing a higher emphasis on our military defenses.
While Eblana spent the century suffering, the rest of the nation saw a glorious, culturally-driven golden age. Celtia saw culture spread through the increase in musical appreciation and religious fidelity, and increases in production and commerce a result of this greater unity of its people. This movement can largely be attributed to the writings and inspiration of
Yunus Emre, born in Durnovaria in 625 CE:
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For Yunus Emre, poetry was a way to express true sentiments and ideas, his poems were realistic and instructional. His interest was not art for art's sake, yet he addressed his audience, which involved every member of society from ordinary, illiterate individuals to highly educated people, with a high level of poetic excellence. He never composed poems for a specific group or for his own reputation.
His poetry gives no weight to the separations of religion, sect, race, color or status. He never discriminates among human beings, his embracing attitude welcomes all humanity without any sense of differences; he does not separate, he reconciles and unites people in his humanism. His poetry describes Sufism with a detailed simplicity which allows it to spread across and penetrate all areas of society.
Yunus Emre: Love & Peace
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During this 150 year golden age, our national system of libraries was more or less completed, extending centers of knowledge and writings to virtually all corners of our nation - from Ratae, Bibracte, Durnovaria, and the island of Calleva in the east, to Vandal, Eblana, and Verlamion in the west. National research collaboration quickened our pace of scientific development. In 730 CE, one of the great thinkers of the era, the female
Hypatia, founded our first major university,
Hypatia Academy, in Durnovaria. Its establishment officially cemented the city's status as the intellectual captial of not only our nation, but the entire known world.