Convincia was settled, like so many Andorian countries, by refugees fleeing the destruction of their homeland in the last Chaos War. These particular refugees came from a country known as Avalun. The original Avaluni were known for their magical prowess. When their kingdom was destroyed, the greater part of the inhabitants fled to nearby Irament Island, and established a safe haven in the caves there. They intended to wait out the chaos-induced madness. In these years most of the Avaluni wizards, more susceptible to the "fallout" from the destruction strikes, sickened and died, but it seemed that most of the Avaluni were safe.
However, other survivors soon heard of the madness-free haven, and soon Irament Island was besieged by a fleet of refugees, pirates, and half-insane wanderers. Most of the remaining Avaluni ships were destroyed in the resulting battle. The desperate Avaluni were driven from Irament, and put to sea in what few ships survived the battle. Their few remaining wizards sacrificed their lives almost to a man during the sea journey to Alastari, in order to ensure that the ships carrying their fleeing countrymen would make safe to port. A third of the overcrowded, unseaworthy ships sank or were destroyed by storms; the remaining two-thirds were separated by a gale. A few Avaluni ships came to ground on the islands around Transel and Kaltos and eventually made it to the mainland near modern Ardivent. (This kinship accounts for the current good relations between Kaltos and Ardivent, unusual between Andorian and Delarquan cities.)
The larger part of the surviving ships were blown farther north and beached on the shores where today stand Krill and Amen-Tei. At that time the land was part of the Frafrejan Empire. After that hellish voyage, it is little wonder that the castaways regarded the Convincian coast as heaven and the Frafrejans who brought them ashore as nigh unto angels. ('Convincia' is an old Avaluni word meaning 'beautiful land.') Indeed, the Frafrejan Empire did give the Avaluni an extraordinary amount of help in the form of food, supplies, tools, advisors and healers; and granted them the protection of the Fratsfan army in exchange for the Avaluni's agreement to farm the Convincian peninsula and send one in every hundred of their children to serve the Frafrejan Empire.
The Convincians today are a people as "plain ol' human" as you can get. They remained pathetically grateful to and worshipful of the Frafrejans for centuries, believing their masters to be a nearly perfect culture and people--which attitude the Fratsfans certainly encouraged! The Avaluni quickly adopted Fratsfan culture, language and law, and today only traces of their original heritage remain. The main vestige of Avaluni thought is in their agrarian religion, Trent-fi-Gheal. (Gheal (also known as Gaild, Ruivan, and assorted other names) is the Alastarian earth goddess, and Trent is god of agriculture and cultivation. Merth, their daughter, is the goddess of fertility and running water.) The Convincians are the greatest farmers in Alastari, being blessed with the best farmland in Alastari, a great deal of horse sense, and a religion which is based on powerful agricultural magics.
Convincian troops were what turned the tide in the last great Andorian/Delarquan battle. Purely on population, they are the biggest power in the League at present, but the Convincian national character of peace-loving humility has kept anyone from realizing it. The Convincians started their few arenas "because the Fratsfans did it." They are modest, hardworking, honest and even-tempered. Because of their almost complete lack of magical talent, they are in awe of (and sometimes fearful of) their Aruaki neighbors (though the current clanlord of Aruak is in fact Convincian on his mother's side.) It is only recently that they have begun to think of themselves as an independent nation and not a Frafrejan protectorate.
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