There is not much known about the history our lands from the time of the Coastal Turnwise Migration settlers onwards, for what is close to a millenium. Indeed, it is almost as if time stopped or was stolen from Brindisi for over 800 years and it is not until the so call 'Cultural Invasion' that we are able to pick up the thread of our story.
Sometime between 200 and 300 UC visitors from ourside our borders started to arrive. By this time various people of the disc had developed distinct cultures, some of these, particularly those formed in partial isolation, were primitive by the standards of others and travellers from these more sophisticated areas seeking knowledge of new lands were not uncommon.
The 'Cradle of Society' which form the basis of civilisation for most of the disc is to be found in the lands around the circle sea and indeed it was from Ephebe that our first major outside influence arrived. The man in question was known Orohaeus, the son of a rich family of Ephebean goldsmiths it is unclear is this was his surname or given name but that's irrelevent in this scheme of things. Orohaeus was sent by his father to far lands in the hope of discovering trade routes, this was common practice at the time as a way of strengthening a family's position at home, as well as making money in the process. Orohaeus had heard of a land called Klatchistan in a mountainous region beyond the deserts, although nothing was known of these lands, rumours had reached the powers by the circle sea of Sultans and piles of gold and jewels of unimaginable size. Setting out early in the year, probably in 267 UC, Orohaeus followed the coast of the circle sea to the Istanzia river and then inland across the desert. Arriving at the mountains sometime in late summer, despite the loss of most of his equipment to the sands he managed to keep most of his trading goods and was welcomed by a Local Sultan as an honoured guest. Little is known of what Orohaeus managed to see while he was in those lands as he could never be pursuaded to tell the story, it is of interest to history students that at this time Klatchistan entered into the politics of the circle sea for the first time and managed to fight long and bloody wars with every other power simultaneously for the next 1500 years. Orohaeus, however, managed to escape all that and arrived half dead at our border with Muntab at the Guadalajor river three years later, irrevocably changing the direction of our country.
Although Orohaeus' impact on Brindisian society of the time is hard to ignore and impossible to deny, he was by no means the first 'outsider' to reach our shores. For a least half a century Brindisi had been receiving visitors from other countries, most noticably the emergent Genua with whom trade lines had been established, although Genua was then little more than an independant trading post it was already showing signs of self sufficence and the early promise of becoming a city state.
The reason Orohaeus has gone down in history is due to the ideas he bought with him, and the fact that he managed to become a merchant of some power in the then Capital of Brindisi, Mantanares, the fortified city guarding cape Finisterrae. By the time Orohaeus reached Brindisi, we had developed into a stable feudal society, roughly divided into four provinces, each of these Provinces under the dominion of a Barone. These were the basis for the autonomous regions we still have today, although then the boundaries were slightly different.
Finisterrae, the peninsular and most powerful of the provinces, held a border from the Pau's river delta to Napoles. Napoles at that time was the capital of the Costa Nuestra, the rimwards province and a constant rival to Finisterrae, although no actual hostility started until the collapse of the empire. Chicochulo and Sicilana evenly split the the land fence by the Tallo, Guardalajor and Pau rivers, and the other two provinces, Chicochulo being Hubwards and Sicilana being Rimwards. Sicilana at this time had no coast but did control the Tallo river mouth and most of what is now Puertobobo, Chicochulo was the least populated province and with little power although that was all to change with the decline of the ports and the coming of the empire, their capitals were Tallus on the mouth of the Tallo for Siciliana and Campolargo for Chicochulo.
Finding himself alone and stranded Orohaeus immediately looked for ways to get back to Ephebe, although the Brindisian people were interested in him and his tales of the outside world, he was not interested in Brinsidi. The idea of peasants working for a lord of the manor or 'Signores' as they were known, these in turn under the rule of the local Barone, appaled Orohaeus and his democratic sensibilities, he therefore saw Brindisi as being backwards. He set out along to Pau intent on finding a passage round cape terror and eventually back to the circle sea, although he had no way of knowing that, at the time, even if he'd managed to find a captain willing to attempt the voyage, there were no seamen nearer than Ephebe itself that could have managed the voyage without going over the edge. On arriving in Finisterrae province he decided to continue towards the cape itself along the coast, making a living on the charity of others by telling tales of the lands beyond Muntab, the news of a wandering foreign entertainer soon reached the ears of Barone Vernachii who summoned Orohaeus to the court in Mantanares to hear the stories for himself. Orohaeus, having little money and being unable to find passage home, was happy to go to the courts, when he arrived in Mantanares he was amazed at the difference between the villages and fishing ports he had already seen, confirming his belief that Brindisi was indeed a backwards country, and he determined to try to change the system and teach democracy to the locals.
It would be nice to add at this point that he was listened to with interest and that Brindisi took his views to heart, however, he was listened to with curiosity but without any political passion, indeed the only person who took any notice of his talks on governmental templates was Cabronus, the Barone's eldest son. Cabronus would have been in his early twenties when Orohaeus came to Mantanares and it appears that the only lesson he learned about governemnt is that people like to think that they are living in a democracy and that the democracy is run by them and for them. In the fullness of time, and possibly thanks to an assassin hired from Genua, Cabronus became the Barone of Finisterrae and immediately started putting his political leanings to work. On the day of his twenty fifth birthday he invited the other three Barones to Mantanares along with many of their most trusted Signores, history would suggest that the Barone then slaughtered them as they sat down to dinner, or had them all poisoned, however the young Barone had more intellegence than to start a war he could well lose, and besides, he had a better idea. Over the course of that week Cabronus set about convincing the Barones to set up a senate, on the model taken from Orohaeus' understanding of political procedure in Ephebe. This senate was to be responsable for the day to day running of the country and it's law courts, and although it would take some power away from the Barones themselves, they saw that it would make their own positions much more stable and secure. Cabronus obviously set himself as the head of the senate and by the time he was forty had managed to elevate himself to Emperor status, establish himself as a living god to be worshipped by the populus, who were, like the senate, absolutely under his sole power.
Although it's fair to say that Orohaeus then has at least some share of the blame for the establishment of the Brindisi empire, that lasted for thirteen hundered years and all the atrocities that it produced, he himself was given a small grant by Cabronus and by the time Carbonus became Barone had already set himself up as a goldsmith in one of the market towns in Finisterrae. He was so successful that in time he controlled most of the gold in the region and his name is immortalised in two ways. Firstly, Cabronus named the Orohai Penninsula after him on his death, possibly trying to shift some of the blame for the guilty feelings he must have been feeling by then, and secondly, 'Oro' became a common word in the Brindisian tongue, meaning 'Gold'.