/who/ History - Events and Developments
Introduction
Hello! This is a repository of /who/'s past. Everything currently written about the Owl Republic that does not apply to /who/'s current state, as well as any "how things became what they are" can be found here. There are also anecdotes of individual events, such as the first Premature Hoosmoot and the build-up to the passing of the AFA.
A timeline may be in the works at some point in the future, though it is unlikely.
Please note that though the events are largely sorted by the age in which they took place, they are not strictly in chronological order.
Calendar
The Hooman calendar is split into three ages, intended to mirror the development of their nation. The ages are as follows: E.S. referring to the times of Early Settlement, O.R. denoting the Owl Republic, and N.S. being the current days of a New Start.
One curious aspect of this system is that E.S. progresses backward. To give an example: The first Hoomans settled in what would become the port city of Avisporte in E.S. 152, but the first recorded maritime contact between an Avisporte ship and a V-tail Orca took place in E.S. 36.
There is also no year 0 in any of the three ages. It goes directly from E.S. 1 to O.R. 1. There was some deliberation of whether to make the final year of O.R. also the zeroth year of N.S., but it was ultimately decided against to reduce possible confusion in bookkeeping.
Lastly, although the Hooman calendar uses the same system as a whole with most/all other Holo nations, one point where it differs is when each year begins in a given age. The end of E.S. and beginning of O.R. are with the signing of the Proclamation of Unification, generally seen as the beginning of the Owl Republic as a unified nation-state. N.S. 1 began with The Nameless One's apothnitosis. This resulted in O.R. starting in late summer and N.S. beginning mid-spring.
Early Settlement
Initial Hooman Travels (to be added)
The Taming of the Toehound (status uncertain)
Owl Republic
Inventions and Innovations
The Hoomans learned that imbuing the Nameless One's influence into objects amplified their ability to conduct sound by better maintaining vibrations that passed through them. This was eventually used to make wires that could send messages from city to city across the republic, though the only messages that could be sent were comprised of clicks and pauses. Although the Hoomans sought to be able to actually speak through these wires, their inability forced them to make do with what they had. This was what led to the Owl Republic codifying a system where specific combinations of clicks, short pauses, and long pauses denoted specific letters, allowing for near-instantaneous communication over long distances. This code, as well as the installation of a network of "ticker stations" across the Republic and utility poles connecting them via wire over these large distances, are believed to have greatly contributed to the nation's cohesion and functionality even in times of strife or famine.
A good amount of Hoomans still wanted words rather than clicks, so they conducted various forms of experimentation on sound recording. The nature of these experiments was all over the place; some were individual while others were coordinated, some mundane and some magical. The scattered nature of these experiments led to breakthroughs in other sound-based fields that saw civilian and official use. Horns that strongly intensified the voice of whoever spoke into them were carried by military units to better coordinate orders, while "music boxes" that could be engineered to play back recorded sounds were made to play hymns of the Nameless One. Some dolls started to have pull-cords that, when pulled, played back a spoken message. Yet despite these lone innovations, the ability to verbally communicate in real time from one city or town to another eluded Hoomanity.
Another invention sought out by Hoomans that they were unable to create was an alternative to balloon-based air travel. The Hooman populace has been deeply distrustful of balloons ever since the Hindenwawa Tragedy (a sentiment that continues to this day), and so many attempts were made and approved by Parliament to fund research of heavier-than-air flight. Sadly, none of the research provided favorable results, leaving non-balloon flight a pipe dream in the Owl Republic. In the flurry of legislation passed in the emergency session held after news of the Nameless One's impending apothnitosis, one was the approval of a last coordinated attempt to create a machine that could fly high without hot air. No sources have reported any success or failure on this front and salvage efforts have failed to recover any physical sign of such a machine existing, though some who claimed to have witnessed the cities raze themselves claimed that they saw shapes flying above and into the flames.
With the Nameless One's departure, Her magic faded from creations infused with it. This led to various inventions being rendered unusable for their intended purposes; the horn amplified the voice as much as a regular horn and the wires became inert. There were still some sound-based things that still worked fine though, like the music boxes and the talking dolls, and this led to hope of non-magical ways to bring the lost technology back in some way.
The Rise of the Morbs
The later days of the Owl Republic saw the nation in gradual decline. Though there were little if any nationwide problems with marriage rates or fertility, the native population was in a period of stasis rather than growth. Technological innovation as a whole stagnated. The Nameless One's influence upon the land and its people had been diminishing resulting in poor crop yields, and Her people slowly abandoned the temples built in reverence of Her.
In place of the temples rose the Morbs, enigmatic Hooman women who claimed to receive portents directly from the Nameless One Herself. Though first branded as heterodox or even heretical depending on the specific city's temple, the Morbs were greatly favored by the general population and over time became the ones the Hoomans consulted for tidings from the Nameless One.
There was some dispute in Parliament over whether to recognize Morbs as legitimate, but with the broad support of the people as a whole they were eventually accepted by the government. There were few clergy members to protest this, and most of them saw the writing on the wall and acquiesced much of their religious authority after Morb legalization and became scribes and lorekeepers, documenting the women's tales. They would also still make the "It's time!" declaration, though it would be referring to what the Morbs had to say most of the time.
C-tube History
In the following years, a renovation commonly made was the creation of amphitheaters in which the Morb(s) of a given town or city could speak of the Nameless One's words and exploits. These were typically built extending from the local temple, allowing it to be used as a backdrop. The format was never formally standardized, but the high yet narrow multi-tiered semicircle seating arrangements around the stage led to the public colloquially calling them "C-tubes". Here the Morbs would reveal their tidings before enthusiastic crowds, however rare or common that may be.
The Nameless One's apothnitosis and the Owl Republic's self-inflicted devastation left many a Hooman in a state of aimlessness. Yes, it was better that they kept the embers of their civilization hot so as to leave less land for schizos to call their own, but what hope did they have of their days getting better again? In these dark times, many went to what Morbs were left for guidance.
Though they had lost their connection to the Nameless One and had no quick means of communicating with each other, nearly every Morb had come to the same conclusion: to keep Her spirit alive among the Hooman population by retelling what She did in her divinity and providing shows of these deeds as best they could in the local C-tubes. Hoomans, remembering the days of C-tube tidings, flocked to the amphitheaters in great numbers to see and hear the Morbs retell the passages of yesteryear.
These oral retellings quickly proved to differ from the old tidings in the days of the late Republic. For one, as there were no more live tidings of the Nameless One, the tales or passages had to be hand-picked by the Morbs performing them. This resulted in greatly increased coordination and amicable communication between scribes and Morbs, with the former looking through the archives for suitable writings to be recounted. The fact that these were all retellings also meant that they could be performed with regularity and that non-Morb Hoomans could be called upon to aid a performance.
Owl Republic's Military
The Owl Republic's land military was quite the spectacle. Though not suited to engage in wars of conquest, the Republic's system was oriented around repelling any besieging force, whether that be Schizo raiders or an invader from a foreign land. Cannons and other siege engines were both plentiful and strategically placed, walls and other static defenses were strong and expansive, and armies consisted of well-trained conscripts.
Regardless of whatever any Hooman may tell you, /who/ never had a formal navy. Yes, the Republic had ships both armed with cannons and able to house several dozen passengers, but they were never in a situation where they could comprise a fleet. Most of the time these vessels were used as transportation to other nations.
M.E.S. (to be added)
Early Public Sentiment Regarding the Pink Angel (to be added)
New Start
The Troubled History of the AFA
Hoosmoot rarely lasts a single day. When discussion and/or deliberation goes on into the night, the event is paused after the current topic is settled to allow for eating, drinking, and sleeping. Foraging and hunting in a moot's night are not unheard of. A few bad-faith individuals quickly learned this could be weaponized by wearing other Ave's out by talking, and talking, and talking, until they decided their position wasn't worth the incessant yapping. This was ultimately what led to the Anti-Filibustering Act, which in an act never done before or since, was a vote passed with at least one Ave held at gunpoint. An attempt to censure the ones who held the guns was attempted, but as the Ave who raised the issue extensively filibustered against the AFA, the measure was dismissed immediately.
The First Premature Hoosmoot
The typical Hoosmoot is formal and scheduled well in advance. However, on rare occasion circumstances arise that mandate official action to the degree of a Hoosmoot. When this comes about, the event is referred to as a Premature Hoosmoot.
The first time this occurred, a town was propositioned by a foreign nation for a treaty with /who/. The town promptly sent its Ave and other trusted Hoomans to nearby locales, calling for a Premature Hoosmoot on the ground of establishing diplomatic ties with a foreign nation. The foreign diplomat was given room and board for two weeks while waiting for the Ave's of the other towns to arrive and provide feedback and either consent or dissent to the proposed treaty. To mimic a typical Hoosmoot, the local populace of that town vacated the town for the duration of the moot.
The first Premature Hoosmoot was conducted on-the-fly, as there were no agreed-upon guidelines at the time for how to conduct one. This issue was immediately raised and subsequently passed with unanimous approval at the next Hoosmoot.