Tales of the Reindeer
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Tales of the Reindeer is a collection of tales, stories, paintings and poems that
were written through the history of Finland and gathered in single covers.
First Contact
“Today I met another man, an ordinary lookin’ Finn, who claimed to have visited the land beyond the Baltic. Had he hit his head? This nonsense of the Western world is gettin’ ridiculous. Why would anyone be interested in a land that is most likely filled with heathens n’ other dangers?”
A typical Finn back in the early 800s didn’t know much about the mysterious place that was called ‘the Western World’. The only thing known about this place was that the people there praised different gods. Everything else was unclear.
Everything changed in the year of 884 though. The newly self-crowned King Juhani of Finland, the founder of the Sydänmetsä-dynasty and the Saviour of Finnish people, decided that it was time for the Finns to explore the Western world. He gathered a big raiding party and set sail for the mysterious waters of the West.
On their journey to the mystic lands, Juhani and his warriors decided to raid a small Norse castle of the Kingdom of Danmark. The attack was successful, and the Finnish raiders got their hands on some maps of the land beyond the Baltic Sea. It was the first step towards exploring the before unknown world..
The next decades Finns started to really explore this ‘new world’. Some more raids were organized and the bravest of the merchants started to travel as far as the big island of West, Britannia. The interest towards the Western ways become so huge that in the year of 903 the King Asikko of Finland converted to Catholicism. After that he also made small reforms to the government, eventually forming the council of counselors. The council was able to vote on declarations of war. Asikko also upgraded the little fortress of Käkisalmi to the level of Western castles. All these new reforms were a lot for the commoners of Finland, and so some even started revolts. All the rebellious attempts failed though. The Christianity and Western ideas were in Finland to stay!
Two Isles of the West
A land with couple of kings but numerous dukes. The Isles of West, Britannia and Eiré, are real melting pots of cultures. Many pagan invaders have conquered parts of these isles. And to be honest, who wouldn’t want a part of them? The land is rich for agriculture, the nature is beautiful and the people are submissive towards foreigners.
The only natives, that have been able to properly resist the outside invaders, are Scotts. They are known to be strong and independent people, who are able to defeat even a bigger enemy all alone. Sadly in the days of the Svitjod’s great expansion they lost some of their Northern land to the Norse Kingdom. But that has not stopped them. The Scotts still are the most powerful people of the isle!
Talking about the invaders, one cannot forget to tell about the Lithuanians.Some decades ago a mercenary band called the Lithuanian Band decided to try their luck in the Britannia. Their invasion came out of nowhere, and the slow ruler of the Wessex wasn’t able to react fast enough. The Lithuanian band quickly conquered the whole duchy, and to this day they still control the Southernmost part of the island. They force their citizen to believe in the pagan religion of Romuva and do things the Lithuanian way.
The rest of the Anglo-Saxon land is divided into three native duchies which all live in peace. For most of the time... The biggest of these duchies is Deira. It is rumored to be as strong as the Lithuanian Band. So if someone was to drive the Lithuanians away, it would be the King of Deira. Though it won’t probably ever happen.
Another powerful Kingdom of Britannia is Brythoniaid. Even though it is a Welsh Kingdom, it has a lot of land outside the Wales, mainly in South-East Ireland and Cornwall. As one can guess, it is a Catholic realm too. If even the Deira cannot stop the Lithuanians, Brythoniaid will be the last hope.
The most interesting event in Britannia’s recent history must be the Kingdom of Brittany though. As the name suggest, this Kingdom originates from the region of Brittany, in the Continental Western land. Some decades ago, a mistress called Clerui rose to power as her father passed away leaving behind no sons. Clerui was not the most popular ruler of the Brittany, but everyone still respected her. Then one day, something went wrong. She didn’t act like normally: She started to spend a lot of time alone. She laughed a lot more than ever before, and her voice wasn’t hers. It was like devil’s... Many feared that she had become possessed. And it seems like they were not wrong. In one ordinary council meeting, she announced that she has converted to mohammedanism, Sunni Islam! Nobody knows why she did that!
Anyone who tried to overthrow her ended in her dungeon, so she remained in power. After the internal problems were handled, she started to look for ways to expand her small Kingdom. And of course: The isle of Britannia seemed like the best place to attack. She gathered a big army of Bretons and invaded Wales. As we all know, in the end she lost most of the Wales to the King of Brythoniaid and other Welsh. Eventually she also lost control over her homeland, which made her Kingdom only two counties large. Her great ambitions will be remembered for generations though. Maybe one day one of her descendant will continue her dream: make the Kingdom of Brittany the most powerful Kingdom in the world...
