Long Night

The Long Night was an event or series of events marking a trend in the population of the Ashlands away from a chieftain-centric tribalism and towards the Conspiracist model of independent bands or cells. Attributed to a single night in what would become Kumaq Commune according to national myth, later scholars would dispute this claim based on the gradual adoption and shifting of attitudes throughout the Ashlander Tribes.

National Myth
According to oral tradition, the Long Night was a single night and was centered on the caves beneath Mount Kumaq. Beginning with the recounting of a huntsman named Tenukse and his slaying of a chief that demanded his daughter Kanuq lay with him. The ensuing conflict resulted in a purging of much of the northern chieftains and priesthood, who were made to walk naked into a blizzard.

Debate
Kenuqse Giver-of-Letters, notably the grandson of the Kanuq that the events of the Long Night's events centered on, wrote several papers detailing his accounts of Ashlander history and viewed the idea that the Long Night was a single event rather dubious. Pointedly, he found that populations within the north didn't see the precipitous drop from the year prior to the year after the Long Night that one would come to expect. Similarly, while there were plenty of remains dating to the time period in question found throughout the Ashlands, they were found throughout the Ashlands rather than in the vicinity of Kumaq and most were clearly killed by weapons from the period rather than exposure.

Kenuqse's Long Long Night
Kenuqse Giver-of-Letters issued a paper detailing a long, disorganized trend towards Conspiracism that most likely began in Kumaq, likely from Kanuq herself, before spreading throughout the Ashlands realm. His theory includes the idea that his grandfather was actually a chief of Kumaq and that Kanuq's efforts to eradicate the chieftains of the northern marches most likely followed a marriage of convenience.